The Shy One

Chapter 1: Prologue

De'Asia 'Dee' Sage

I sat in the middle of my chemistry class, almost asleep until someone threw a paper ball at me. It landed directly on my face, on my nose to be exact.

I quickly sat up and looked around to see who threw it, only to find out that Mr. Sanders, my teacher, was the one who threw it.

I heard everyone laughing as he scolded me about falling asleep and instantly felt humiliated and embarrassed. I knew I shouldn't have fell asleep, especially since I'm already failing this class.

After I apologized, he proceeded with teaching us about stoichiometry.

As I was writing down the notes, a paper ball flew past my face and hit Mr. Sanders right in the back of the head as he was writing notes on the whiteboard.

Immediately, he turned and looked at me.

"Principal's office now!" He yelled harshly. I sat completely still as people around me started to snicker at his inaccurate accusation.

I looked back and saw Anthony, the dude who always picked on me for no reason, quietly laughing. He was the one who'd thrown it.

I turned back around to see an angry Mr. Sanders, standing with his hand on his hip and the other pointing towards the door.

"I didn't do that, that was him," I tried to clear his thoughts of me actually being bold enough to throw a piece of paper at the back of his head.

"Out of my class now!" He repeated. His face was getting redder and redder by the second.

Not wanting to get suspended, I gathered my things and headed towards the door.

"Don't let the door hit you on the way out," he added before I even got to the door. He earned a few laughs while he laughed at himself.

I stopped for a moment and thought about whether I should say something to him about the remark but I decided against it.

I looked back at him and was about to turn back around until my eyes landed on Jay, who was currently staring me down.

Quickly, I turned back around.

I cleared my throat lowly and proceeded out the door while tried my hardest not to let my tears fall as I walked out.

On my way to the office, I stopped by the restroom and locked myself in a stall, quietly sobbing to myself.

I thought back to what my mother told me about letting this get to me and sat up, wiping my tears with a tissue.

I sighed, realizing crying wasn't gonna make anything better. I sniffed a couple times before finally standing up and leaving the bathroom stall.

Heading to the office, I saw Lucas.

Lucas was cute, but just came on a little too strong for my liking.

He could hold a conversation though, he just cursed too much but that's a typical what they call, 'hood nigga.'

Plus, he was in streets and didn't care who knew or what they thought about it. My Moma wouldn't approve of me with someone like him anyway so overall I knew I didn't have I chance with him even if I wanted one.

I looked away and continued to walk to the office but paused when-

"Hey shorty, you can't speak?" He called down the hallway. I once again, tucked my hair behind my ear and waved with a faint smile.

I was really hoping it didn't look like I was balling my eyes out just a couple minutes ago.

I stood in place once I seen that he was jogging up to me. Once he'd gotten close enough to approach me, he pulled me into a hug which was unusual so I didn't hug him back.

"Wassup witchu? Why you headed to the office?" He asked with his eyebrows furrowed in confusion.

I silently sighed of relief once I realized he didn't say anything about my face which meant I looked okay in the face. I was still sad on the inside though.

"Uh, wrongly accused." I said shrugging as if it weren't a big deal.

"Oh damn, you? You a good girl, why they accusing you of shit?"

I eyed him. He knew to never curse around me since the last time he did I stayed away from him months until he apologized for it. Cursing just never felt necessary unless you're mad or really frustrated.

He just cursed to curse and I was once told by my grandmother that if you curse too much, you'd shorten your life a day each day you did curse. Even though I knew old people were really superstitious, I didn't really know if it was true or not, so I tried my best to keep from doing so.

"My bad, why are they accusing you of stuff?" He smiled innocently.

I chuckled a little and sighed. "I think it's because he doesn't like me, but I mean, I can't do anything about that,"

"He?"

"Mr. Sanders," he nodded as if he understood.

"Yeah, it's more of a personal problem. Can't make nobody like you, and fuck that old ass mothafucka' anyways,"

I eyed him once again, but this time he didn't fix his sentence. He just shrugged.

"I meant that, ain't no need in changing it," he said blandly.

I started to respond but was cut off by the intercom.

"De'Asia Sage, please report to the principal's office,"

I rolled my eyes and sighed. "That's my cue, see you around Lucas,"

I walked away and stepped into the office. I rolled my eyes at all the glares I got as I walked in.

Slowly, but surely my patience with everybody was wearing thin and I wasn't fixing to tolerate anything from anybody anymore.