The Genetic Code

Chapter 2

I rush down the empty halls, grateful for the fact that everyone is still in the cafeteria eating — or rather, buzzing in excitement over the spectacle they just witnessed. I don't want anyone to see me like this now: pieces of meat stuck in my hair, tomato soup soaking my uniform and dripping down my face along with a few tears that managed to escape in spite of my painful efforts to keep them at bay.

The gourmet tomato soup that I'm currently donning like a fashion statement isn't what concerns me the most, since everyone already managed to get a good look, and some pictures, I'm sure, but I don't want them to see me cry, no matter what.

Kera can make me look like a fool, but she won't make me look weak in front of everyone else, even though when it's just the two of us, I'm basically her personal floor mat. She's the only one that I'll let step all over me, due to... dire circumstances. I don't want anyone else to think that Juliette Aldaine can be easily trifled with without getting bitten in the ass in retaliation. Although I'm sure Kera would be glad to invite anyone and everyone to do so.

The hot tears are blurring my vision, and I angrily rub them away with my wrist, only to get some tomato particles in my eye, which stings it even more than the tears already have. Great going, Juliette.

I make a sharp turn into the girls' bathroom and head for the sink. After washing the tomato juice and tears out of my red eyeballs, I raise my head and look at my dripping face in the mirror.

Wow, I look fantastic. My hair appears like an animal took a dump in it, I look like I've sweat blood that's completely stained my uniform and my mascara's running a marathon down my face. I think I'm ready for the Miss Universe pageant. I'm a shoe-in for the 'deranged hot mess' category.

I close my eyes and exhale a shaky breath, gripping onto the bathroom counter until my knuckles have probably turned white. I take deep breaths to try to calm myself down and reduce the thumping of blood surging in my head. It's a good thing I've seen my dad rehearsing his anger-suppressing techniques on more than one occasion, otherwise Kera may leave school today with half her hair torn out of her scalp, my dad would be out of a job by the evening, and by the next day I'd be school-less and probably behind bars for life for assault of royalty. I don't want to go to the slammer, I heard they don't have clean toilets, and I'm a neat-hygiene freak.

That's why this particular dose of Kera's regular humiliation is especially painful for me. I may be able to pick up my fallen dignity after Kera's trampled on it and dust it off so that it leaves relatively unscathed, but my white uniform is definitely going to stain! I only have two sets, and unlike Miss Pretty Pants who sits on a diamond-encrusted throne, money doesn't grow on trees for me, and I can't just go out and buy a new uniform without it putting a hole in my wallet. I can't ask my parents for the money either... I already have an idea of how much my school fees are taking a toll on them, which is why this new post is so important to my dad, and I can't let Kera snatch it away with a little squeal to her mother.

I sigh exasperatedly. I'm just going to have to continue letting Kera torture me like this until she decides that she's had enough of her fun, which will probably be graduation day. Two more years isn't that long of a time, right? If I think about it in the big picture, that's only one-ninth of my life up till now. I'll work my ass off to get a scholarship to go to a university far, far away from here in some remote corner of the world, like, Timor Leste, then eventually die in some tragic accident falling off a cliff or something. I'd never have to see Kera's stupid face ever again and I'd be out of everyone's hair. I could even cross 'bungee-jumping' off my bucket list!