Salvia High School

Chapter 4: Scared and Alone

As the trio were making their way to home economics, Kaila had been falling behind Lain and Mallix as she got caught up thinking about something. "Kaila hurry up please. Keep up with us." Lain stopped calling out for her.

Shooting her head up Kaila noticed the gap she had created, shaking her thoughts away she quickly caught back up with them. "You alright?" Mallix asked seeing there was something still lingering on her mind.

Still not being comfortable around him yet she kept to herself. It didn't help that he looked like he could crush her if he even hugged her too tight. Making their way through the crowded halls Kaila noticed many lingering eyes all landing their direction. She didn't like the attention. Not one bit. After a closer examination of everyone staring she noticed that it wasn't her they were looking at—but the couple walking slightly in front of her.

She didn't want to be around everyone's focus, so deciding this time to create a gap on purpose she drifted away from them. Leaving just enough distance to be back in the shadows but still keeping them in sight. Following them through the halls she happily avoided everyone's curious glares at the couple.

"Here we ar-" Lain went to announce as they arrived at the class entrance. But when she turned around and noticed Kaila wasn't there she felt her heart pick up. "Where'd Kaila go?!"

"I thought she was right behind us. You go get our seats, I'll go find her." Mallix answered letting go of Lain's hand and wandered back down the hall. As he searched down the crowded halls he acted as if he were oblivious to the many eyes all stuck on him.

After building up their population in sports the attention had become a norm for both him and Lain. For the first few weeks the attention was amusing, but after years and years of trying to keep up their reputation they grew tired of the effort. Not caring anymore about it, the couple made a deal with themselves not to care about anyone other than each another. They were free to be themselves. Well to some extent...after all some secrets are best kept behind closed doors.

A few moments later he could see the top of Kaila's head from behind a group of people. Walking up to her he assuringly put his hand on her shoulder, scaring her in the process. She jumped and went to hit whoever had touched her but froze seeing Mallix staring at her with a smile. "Woah there," he held his hands up, "I'm no threat. It's just me." He joked and laughed seeing a worried look wash over Kaila. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to scare you." He tried to ease her mind but that didn't seem to work. "I thought Lain told you to keep up with us?"

"I...I got lost." She stuttered trying to calm her rushing heart. But everywhere she turned there seemed to be even more eyes all staring their direction. Her heart ached as memories flooded in. All the horrible memories of people watching her every move as if they were just waiting for her to break.

Mallix could see that she was shaking. Looking around at everyone he gave them a threatening glare. He could tell they weren't helping the small girls condition.

Almost as if he could control their mind, he didn't even have to say anything before everyone just looked away. Turning back to Kaila he grabbed her wrist gently bringing her in close to his side.

"It's alright. I've got you. Class isn't too far from here." He guided her to class making sure anyone who dared to look at them knew to back off.

Finally arriving they met back up with Lain who had saved two seats beside her. "There you guys are. I was starting to worry that you were going to be late for class." Lain happily welcomed back the two.

"We weren't even gone that long." Mallix took his normal seat besides Lain throwing his bag on the floor. Figuring it wasn't his place to say what happened, he just kept the incident in the halls to himself.

At first Kaila was going to walk to another seat at the very back of the class, but when Lain grabbed her wrist and pulled her down besides them she felt her legs freeze. She didn't want to move away or argue.

"I didn't just save this seat for a ghost." She joked and Kaila couldn't help but giggle. She didn't know why she was allowing herself to be comfortable around this girl. This wasn't her typical avoid everyone at school attitude that she had adapted to. Accepting her place Kaila just opened her notebook getting ready for class to begin.

As their teacher Mr. Gilmore walked in he wasted absolutely no time before diving head first into the lesson. Going over the basic premises of the class he began to babble on and on. Kaila wrote down some of the more important details but once he started rambling about his own life she just began zoning out once again. Going back to her thought from earlier she just sat with her head down on the desk staring off into space.

Lain and Mallix had been to busy talking with one another to notice the girl drifting out of reality. By the time class ended the trio sadly had to part ways. As Lain and Mallix went one way, Kaila went the other. Thankfully they had given her all the directions she needed.

Following their instructions she continued with her day trying to forget the way the couple were beginning to make her feel. 'You can't do this.' She repeated over in her head until she felt it was fact. While they were nice and kind to her, she brushed them off to the back of her mind. She knew it was only a matter of time before they'd turn out like everyone else. Focusing back on class, time went by quicker than she could've imagined.

School would have ended fine if it wasn't for her final class of the day. Just when things started to look up, of course Lauren and her group had to be there to spoil it.

They sat in one of the back corners of class as usual. Kaila took the only available seat open, which just so happened to be in the front of class. She hated every moment of it. The feeling of everyone behind her staring her way made all her worries come back from earlier. She always preferred the back, not because she would do something bad but because of the peace of mind it provided her.

Kaila kept her head down for the entire hour trying not to give anyone a reason for needing to look her way. Class went on as she had anticipated. Another slow start and barely anything interesting to pay attention to. The small girl had been so caught up in her own world once again that class flew by in a matter of minutes.

She sped out of the classroom when the final bell rang, trying to make her way to her bus before Lauren would have a chance to intervene. She didn't like it home, but she knew for a fact she didn't want to stay here and see what Lauren really was capable of.

Making her way out of the school building Kaila had managed to get herself lost in the sea of people going in all different directions. In the midst of trying to find her way to her bus she had managed to follow the wrong crowd of people and found herself on the opposite side of school.

It was only a matter of time now before the bus home left without her. Trying desperately to run to the other side in time, she nearly felt like crying when she arrived seeing the last bus leaving the school grounds. 'Great!' She kicked the floor throwing her hands onto her head.

Not having any other choice Kaila pulled up the directions on her phone and began a humiliating walk of shame home.
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Let me know what you think. Thanks Lexx signing off