Different World

Chapter 2

"Look who is finally here. If it's not Kristen the unwanted worm. Or should I call you Kris, like the male you look like? Are you sure you aren't secretly male? At seventeen you sure do look like one."

Kristen's back stiffened at the voice. She couldn't meet the girl's stare. Sonya was the head girl and the teachers' favourite. Although Sonya was as dumb as anyone could be, the teachers argued that they saw something in her hence the promotion. The teachers were right, for Sonya used any means necessary to get what she wanted, even if it meant punishing innocent students. Sonya hated Kristen with passion, and never failed to show it through cruelty of all sorts, from doing laundry for Sonya, giving Sonya any cash she had for snacks to doing Sonya's homework. Kristen had washed floors for a month, for stepping accidentally on Sonya's green scarf. Now what kind of punishment would arriving at school an hour late without parents get her? A month of slicing woods maybe, or a month of washing the dirty toilets.

"You didn't grow a back, did you? I wonder what it will take to break you, but then I remember I already did that in form one." Sonya turned to one of her friends, a junior prefect. "Mercy, please get Lola for me. She will punish Kris. Hurry along. Will you?"

It couldn't get any worse. Kristen wondered to herself, looking at the tall trees surrounding the school. She had missed the calm and silence she got in school. For some reason she hated cold things and noisy places. The school provided her with some serenity she never got anywhere else. Looking at the trees reminded her that she could sneak at break time to sit down and be alone.

A few minutes later Lola walked to the group, accompanied by Michael, her boy toy head boy and the prefect who had gone to fetch her. Michael walked up to Kristen and hugged her. Kristen didn't return the hug, afraid of what Lola and Sonya would do.

"Come on weirdo, I missed you. Unfortunately you were never online. That didn't stop me from missing your divine voice." Michael was running his hands through her kinky curly hair, while smiling down at her. He treated her like the younger sister he never got to have. "Why do you have bruises?" Kristen breathed in abruptly. The concealer did not work out as she anticipated. Lola smiled coldly at Kristen, daring her to say the truth.

"Huh. I got adolescent pimples. I think. Yes that's it. Adolescent pimples. You know hormonal imbalance and all that. And acne. Too much acne." She mumbled, not sure they heard her. Unfortunately, Sonya heard everything.

"Please. What adolescent? Anyway men get pimples too. You are not off the radar for being male after all." Sonya turned to Lola. "Lola, have you ever checked if your sister was female? We need to know the truth. After all, what is the purpose of an expensive education if you cannot tell the male from female?" Sonya turned to Kristen and laughed mockingly. "Don't answer that. I have my answers." Smiling, she turned to Lola. "What would you like your sister to do for being late?" Lola beamed at Sonya's question.

"What would I like my imposter sister to do?" Lola's index finger touched her chin as she pretended to think. "How does washing the latrines for a week sound? I mean, she refused to wake up early, slept until I left. She wanted the driver to bring her to school alone. This is her fault. Let her rot in the latrines." Kristen studied her feet silently, waiting for her sentence to be passed. What Lola didn't see was her boyfriend's stare, and his hand on Kristen's shoulders. "Let's go, love." Lola turned to look at Michael, only to find him smirking.

"You want her to wash latrines? For what? Didn't you get here thirty minutes ago?" Michael studied the whole group and smiled at Sonya. "Why do you hate her?" Sonya raised an eyebrow and turned to Lola. Michael scoffed and turned to Lola. "If you dare punish Kristen I'll punish you too for being late, even if it was thirty minutes late." Michael's hand on Kristen's back tightened. "Let's go." Kristen remained rooted at her spot.