Between Love And Hate

Chapter Eighteen

First time at the playground.

"will you give him back? I found him first." The other girl strongly pulled at the other leg of the small teddy bear. If he could talk, he'd probably be screaming loudly.

The legs of the teddy ripped apart. Left with only the leg, she looked on angrily at the other kid. "I hate you."

Those were the only words she said before walking off to meet her dad. She was moving to London for a whole year to live with her grandparents, so she'd forget about Mr Potson being ripped apart.

But it never happened, she never forgot. In fact, it became a nightmare.

It'd been a whole year. The memory was still fresh in the seven year old girl's head. It was her second year in grade school.

She'd done the first year in London, when she was with her grandparents.

"Mummy? Will you come get me right after school?" Her mum smiled, kissed her forehead and engulfed her in a warm hug.

"I will, honey. And then we can go get your favorite ice cream too. Now common, let's get you to class."

Her mum stopped her at the door to the classroom, she said a few things to the teacher and then waved at the little girl before leaving.

"Hi, you must be Raven Grey. It's nice to finally meet you. I've heard alot about you."

Raven said nothing to the teacher, maybe she was nervous. She followed the slightly short lady into the class.

"Hello everyone. We have a new member of the class. I'd like you all to be nice to her and you can introduce yourselves to her right after class. Now," she turned to face Raven. "I'd like you to introduce yourself to the whole class."

Raven swallowed hard, "Hi, my name's Raven. I'm seven years old and I love to paint, alot. I love eating too. Just, I never get fat at all."

The teacher smiled warmly at her, and pointed out a sit to her. The moment she sat down, a girl, almost as skinny as her and the same age as her stretched her hands out to her.

"Hi, I'm Katherine. But don't call me Katherine, call me Kat or Kattie."

The whole school didn't have to know they were cousins. And I think, they never did.

"Don't you get tired?" Raven asked Kattie as she pulled another cupcake out of the small box.

"and mum says I eat alot. They never see you when you're doing the deed."

Kattie shrugged. She'd been excited when she found out Raven was her cousin a little over five years ago and she had to wait an extra year before meeting her. They'd been bestfriends ever since and they both stuck like glue.

"So, I heard we're getting a new class mate. Said it's a girl and she used to live in the neighborhood before." Kattie said, changing the topic.

"I don't care. As far as she won't bother me, I won't bother her."

By monday, Raven was eager to know who the new student was. She felt off, like something was awfully wrong.

The class went quiet when Mr Givens entered the classroom. Next to him was the most beautiful girl Raven had ever seen in her life. But she looked awfully familiar.

"Good morning, everyone. I hope you had a fun filled weekend."

He paused to scan the whole class before resuming his speech.

"Well, you've seen the new student beside me. She's a new member of the class and she just moved back to the neighborhood with her family. I hope you don't mind introducing yourself to the class?"

The smiley girl shook her head no. She turned to face the class, her eyes falling on the dark haired girl at the far end of the class.

"Uh, hello... Uhm, my name's Janelle. Janelle Blue Ontario. I moved back here from North Carolina..." she paused, "I think that's all I want to say."

If anything, Raven knew that voice from years ago, from the playground. And if anything, she could feel the same hate that was there long ago, reawaken.

-I hate you.

The sound of footsteps running down the hall could be heard from the school gym if one would listen closely.

Raven paused to catch her breath. But unfortunately, Janelle had caught up to her.

"Are you okay? I've been trying to get you to stop for minutes now. But you just kept running." Janelle said, gasping for air.

The girl had good running legs for someone who was short.

"I'm fine. I don't need your help? What is it that you want exactly?" Raven asked, her face squeezed in anger.

Janelle was taken aback. "I'm sorry if I did something wrong. I just wanted to talk to you. Get to be friends if you don't mind. I've been trying to talk to you for the past couple of years, but everytime you ignore me or something. Did I do something wrong?"

Raven had a confused look on. "Friends with me? Huh? Are you okay? I could never be friends with you."

The harshness in Raven's voice was obvious. But Janelle wanted to try still.

Gym class was something Janelle didn't like. But today was different.

She'd sprained her ankle. And while she held an ice pack against the hurting ankle, she couldn't help but think of the person responsible for her fall.

"You're taking her to the nurse. You're responsible for her fall."

"No, I won't, Mrs Anna. No offense, but I don't get how I'm responsible, I wasn't the douche bag that let her slip off his hands."

Raven pinched the bridge of her nose like she always did when someone was beginning to irritate her.

It took minutes of threatening Raven with two weeks of detention, (which would spoil her clean record) before she'd agreed to take Janelle to the nurse.

"Don't lean on me too hard!" Raven was complaining for the umpteenth time.

"Ha! Very funny. You're the reason why I'm in this condition." Janelle retorted.

"No, I'm not. I never asked Josh to let you down, now did I?"

"No, you didn't. But you effing pushed him!"

"I didn't. Okay? And stop cussing. You've been doing it since we started our forever walk to the nurse."

They kept arguing. It didn't matter. As far as they were having an actual conversation, it didn't matter.

-You're weird, and crazy, and just out of this world. But, I hate you.

Raven squeezed her eyes shut, cringing as if she was in Janelle's place, as if she had the sprained ankle. She really didn't push Josh.

And she'd have to deal with the douche bag later. He had no right to hurt Janelle that way... And deal with him, she did.