Daring The Delinquents

Chapter 4 ~Masks~

I kicked at the ground as I slowly walked into school, my head down and my hair falling around my face, shielding me like a curtain.
Sadly, the cold weather had caused it to poof up into a curly mess and I knew that it was impossible to maintain if I left it out all day.

Sighing, I got to my locker, opening it cautiously and gasping when I saw nothing but a note inside. There was nothing dead, no animal poop, no people hiding in my locker ready to shoot me with a paintball gun at close range- Instead there was just a tiny bit of paper that was lying sullenly on the shelf.

I plucked it down, reading it as I did so.

"Did anyone tell you that your worthless? Your mum probably killed herself because she couldn't deal with such a failure anymore. Go die fat ass. No one will miss you."
-The one who never lies

Oh- well, wasn't that a lovely letter? Maybe it was from a secret admirer... Ok, no. It wasn't a lovely letter. Instead I stared at it for about 10 seconds, simply blinking at it in silence before I realised that it wasn't going to change and that this person really wrote that to me.

The words hurt more than I would care to express but instead I just nodded thoughtfully and tossed it carelessly back in my locker. Everyone could see that I didn't care about one little note but on the inside- well, I was sobbing. The day she had been diagnosed with cancer was still etched into her brain.

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7 months earlier:

"Mum, you've been in hospital for ages. You said you would come home soon and it's been a week. I'm sick of living with your friends because your new husband won't come home and look after me."

She sighed, and the hospital bed creaked as she shifted herself to sit upright, taking my warm hand in her ice cold ones. "Baby girl, I need you to listen. I won't be coming home."

"What? You have to! You have to! Please!" My voice cracked and tears ran down both of our cheeks as she took a deep breath and said the worst thing anyone has ever told me. "Baby girl, I'm dying..."

I shook my head, her words not quite sinking in yet. "No- No! You can't leave me! I need you! I'm still young I need you! Please don't leave me..." My voice got choked up and sobs shook my body as I hugged my sides with shaking arms. Mum reached out to hug me but I flinched back from her. "
Please don't" I whispered before running out of the room.

It had taken me a week for the words 'cancer' and 'not going to survive' to make their way into my brain. But when they did, they overstayed their welcome... And they still haven't left. Leaving me to break.

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I threw the note into my locker, staying cool as a cucumber on the outside while rage ran rampant in my veins. I hated that the kids here knew about my mum's death, I hated even more that they used it against me.
But what I hated most of all was that they were disrespecting her memory and changing the memories I had with her from good to bad. And I couldn't live with that. There was a certain line and using my mum against me was crossing it.

When I saw Whitney smirking at me with her friends, I tried to ignore her and I was doing a damn good job until I heard her high pitched voice call, "been and visited Mummy's grave yet, Poison Ivy?"

At that moment something snapped inside of me- and one moment I was walking away from Whitney, the next I had her in a headlock while making sure to detach every last one of her hair extensions.

Girls up and down the corridors had their phones out, filming every moment of this in fear they might miss something. This made me scoff in disgust as Whitney struggled beneath my hold.

I knew this was shocking to almost everyone. Barely anyone remembers the days when I saw happy, a total party animal and the most sarcastic bitch you'll ever find- but none of them remembered that because that wasn't who I was now.
Now I was the school nerd (minus the glasses and braces). I always had the highest grades with the most notes, best attendance and shy ways. This was my mask.

And I hadn't just let it slip- I had Whitney by the throat in the middle of my school. Nope, my mask had fallen to the ground and was now burning in the pits of hell. Because nothing good and helpful can not be bad.

I could hear the sound of heels clacking and Mr. Balliol's boots hitting the floor and I realised exactly what I was doing. Oh. My. God. Oops.

Releasing Whitney quickly, I raced down the corridor in the opposite direction to the way the teachers are coming from. I found the fire exit and in one fluid motion I pushed it and kept running, further and further from the only school I had ever known.

I could hear the fire alarm screaming because I had opened the fire door but I didn't care. I just kept running further and further, faster and faster... Yes, I was unfit. But I couldn't be near there anymore. I wouldn't be going back. Not today. Not tomorrow. Not ever.
I would find somewhere different. Somewhere where I can still have a complete family.

Because a life based off lies, stories and rumors, isn't real or worth it.

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A/N: Sorry for the super short chapter but my brain doesn't want to co-operate and I just wanted to write in a filler chapter that gets Ivy out of that hell hole she called school and maybe she'll find somewhere better... *Wink, wink*

Ok no. That was just creepy.

Cats or dogs?

Lots of love,
Katnip 💖