The school wasn't that big. It was easy to navigate, and everything was going great.
Till lunch.
I sat alone at a small table with some pizza and an apple juice. I was starving, therefore eating the pizza rather quickly. Some kids (probably popular, but I didn't know for sure) were walking by. They didn't even spare me a glance until they realized that 1. I was new; 2. I was super skinny; and 3. I looked like a dude with boobs. Then they started attacking me with insults. I didn't care and ignored them pretty well until one of them hit my cheek.
"Hey! I was talkin' to you!" he said. He was tall with black hair cut close to his school. Just by looking at him (ignoring the jeers and hits), I could tell he was trouble.
I got angry then.
"I'm not a friggin' punching bag!" I yelled, standing up. "What, do I look like one?"
The dude who hit me laughed.
"Yeah. You do. You gotta black eye and cuts everywhere; obviously you're a punching bag."
I sat back down; did I really look that bad? I thought I'd seen myself in the mirror. I didn't think I looked that bad... but did I? 475Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ6e95Rwa1uM
The group laughed and walked away. I stared after them. With tears welling up in my eyes, I ran out of the lunchroom and into the bathrooms. They were empty. Good. I stared at myself in the mirror, realizing that yes, I did look that bad. My left eye was bruised. My lip was busted. There was a long scratch on my cheek. I was also much skinnier than I used to be.
In the course of weeks, I'd gone from happy and healthy to fragile and cut up. How could I let this happen to myself?
But how could I stop it? I was scared that I couldn't, that now that it had started, it would never end. But maybe...
I couldn't, though. The only possible way was to run away, and I couldn't do that. If I did, I wouldn't be able to take care of Lukas. If he died...
No. He wouldn't die. I wouldn't let him. So what if I had a few cuts and bruises? What did it matter if it saved my brother's life? To me, my brother was the world.
I splashed water on my face and sighed, then left to find my next class. I wanted to head out early, just in case I got lost.
No, who am I kidding? There was no way you could get lost in this school. I just wanted to avoid people. That seemed like a good enough excuse, anyway.
***
The rest of the day went by pretty quickly (and uneventfully). When school was over, though, I left gratefully. So yeah, school wasn't as bad as I expected it to be. It actually might be much worse, if people got away with hitting others.
I stepped outside, breathing in the cool, fresh air. Then I checked the time on my watch and realized if I didn't get going I would be late both to the daycare and home. That wouldn't be good.
So I ran on the sidewalk 15 minutes to the daycare, where I picked up Lukas. I saw another girl (maybe my age) picking up another boy (maybe Lukas's age) as well. I smiled and nodded at her, then left quickly so I wouldn't be late home.
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