I stood in front of the calendar on the side of the wall by the office, my eyes going side to side, down one week to the next as I counted. 25 more days of school. I took in a deep breath and closed my eyes, exhaling. The amount seemed so small yet I knew the days would carry on for as long as they could. 25 more days and then I'm free, no longer having to get dropped off by my father on his way to work and no longer having to stay up late for one subject worth of homework. My body aches every morning when I wake up knowing that I have to be back in the same colored walls and walking down the same hallways to the same small classes with the same damn faces all the time. I don't even know what I'm gonna do after high school. What are your plans after high school? What college are you going to apply for? I didn't know if I wanted to go to college, waste more time doing something I hated; the thought of learning all day every day can only go so far until you stop doing it completely. I looked down the hallway, seeing students at their lockers, talking to friends and their lovers. I wonder if they know what they're gonna do; they probably won't do anything, get small jobs or travel, maybe stay at their parent's houses until they turn thirty and get kicked out by their sixty-something-year-old mother.
"Hey," Emily said, putting her hand on my shoulder, pulling me out of my thoughts.
I jumped a bit, causing her to smile.
"I didn't mean to scare you," she said, moving her hand from my shoulder, "You okay?"
I shook my head and gave a small smile. Emily doesn't know about how bad I dislike school; she sees the bright side of everything and will tell me things like it will get better and how I should focus on the positive side. She tells me thinking this way has brought her to enjoy school. I looked back at the calendar one last time before we walked down the hall to our lockers.
"How was your night?" she asked
"Pretty good," I said.
Emily just smiled and looked at me for a second before looking in front of us."Did you do anything fun?"
"It was pizza night," I said as we made it to our lockers. Emily grabbed the lock in her hand and started to turn it with the other, putting in her combination. I walked a few more lockers down and grabbed my lanyard off from around my neck before grabbing a silver key, putting it into my lock.
"What was your pizza shape this time?" she asked looking at me
I smiled as I opened my locker, taking out my math and language arts books, "A pentagram,"
"My god, Rydel," she said with a small laugh, getting her locker door open, getting out her Social studies and science books. We had different classes, most days I was okay with that, others I felt like I wasn't really tough enough to go to class alone, even though I knew I was.
Emily opened her mouth like she was about to tell me how exciting her night was, probably playing the newest video game on her Xbox or her PC, but her eyes wandered down the hallway, her happy facial expression slowly fading away as her mouth closed, her eyebrows narrow. My head turned to the hallway she was looking down as saw her bully: Luke Hemmings with his friends. Even though Emily focused on the bright side of things, she hated getting bullied, I mean, who doesn't? But it was different to Emily. She would hate herself for his actions and wonder what she did wrong to get bullied. She was so happy on other things but when it came to bullying, she would shut down, get into a depressed mood for a few days. My happiness left too, I hated seeing her sad, it was like I didn't know who she was when she was brought down.
The bullying isn't as severe as it sounds, yea it was still a big deal because it was bullying, you don't know what would happen between them and even what limits Emily would be pushed too, but nothing would be done about it. We've told teachers and other staff and they won't do anything. They say they've talked to Luke about it but the outcome would never change: Luke was gonna continue bullying. Emily normally tries to dodge him, for he always stops at her locker, but today Emily showed up late around the time that Luke and his friends walk down the hallway to go outside and smoke, what they smoke, I'm not sure. Luke was the blonde out of the group, his friends having black, brown and colorful hair. They all had their individual style, but they each all stood out.
Luke smirked and stepped by Emily, her looking down at her shoes, "What's up Em?" he asked
My eyes ran over him and then his friends, two of them laughing at each other while the other watched Luke's actions like he was studying Luke.
"Nothing," Emily whispered, still looking at her shoes.
Luke put his hand on her chin, lifting her head up and getting a few inches away from her face, Emily's facial expression turning to be scared as he looked at her lips before looking in her eyes.
"Can't hear you, Em," he said
I stared at them before Luke's eyes met mine. I wasn't as scared as Emily when it came to Luke, I could face him, I could stand him, I could even look at him. It took a second before Luke let go of Emily, facing me as he looked down and smirked, looking back at me.
"Emily, go," I said
Normally when it came to people, Emily was the one to stand up, however when it came to Luke, she wanted her distance. Emily slammed her locker as her hands shook and went around them, going down the hallway across from us. Luke's eyes never left mine as his friends watched Emily run down the hallway.
"Now I have to get her back," Luke said
"Can't you just leave her alone?" I said "What do you get from it?"
"He gets off on it," one of his friends laughed, Luke, giving me aside smile.
"You're disgusting," I said as his friends laughed to each other.
"Jealous?" Luke asked
"Of what? You being dick?" I asked
"That you're not the reason I'm touching my dick," Luke said
"Luke,"
We all turned our heads to look at my social studies teacher, Mr. Lermen, his arms crossed over his chest as his face was full of disgust and anger mixed together.
"Not called for," Mr. Lermen, "You shouldn't be talking to other students like that,"
"He's only stating facts, sir," one of Luke's friends asked
"Mr. Hood," Mr. Lermen said as he looked at the black-haired boy, "We shouldn't be talking about masturbating to anyone, let alone a girl who doesn't want to hear it,"
The boy swallowed hard as Luke rolled his eyes
"Now go off, all of you," he said, even looking at me.
I looked back at my locker and closed the door, putting my lock back through the two metal pieces and closed it. I turned back around to see Luke's friends walking down the hallway Emily went down. She was probably already in class, drowning herself in her drawlings or her music through her white wireless earphones. Luke came a bit closer as he whispered to me.
"Admit it, you could be the one I think of next time,"
He pulled back and winked at me before turning around and walking down the hallway towards his friends. Even though Luke was being a jerk, I didn't let it get to me. I knew that if I did, I would become another one of his targets.
