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I sat in the passenger seat while Lydia drove. Laura and Stiles were sitting in the back both of them with black eyes and bruises. Both were quiet. Their backpacks were all piled in the back, courtesy of Lydia. She was the one who reminded me that we had to get to school so bringing them was a good idea.
The two in the back had mumbled ‘thank you's' to her, and said they “were fine” however I honestly didn’t believe them. I kept glancing at them in the rear view mirror.
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Finally, I was tired of the silence which rarely ever happened. I usually loved silence.
“So, who was that guy?” I asked, meeting Laura’s gaze when I glanced up at the rear view mirror once again.
“Um, just some jerk we ran into.” she mumbled, looking away. I caught a glimpse of the blush on her face before she did.
“Seemed like you knew him.” I commented.
“Jerk ex.” Stiles muttered, crossing his arms.
“Ah, that makes sense.” I stated, now looking at Stiles.
“Are you two sure you’re alright? I mean we seriously do not need this sort of thing going around at school. Seriously, think about the damage to our reputations.” Lydia huffed as she made a sharp turn. I saw Allison and Scott in the car behind us make a much smoother turn.
“Okay, Sydney, how’d you do that thing? You like karate chopped that guy.” Stiles said imitating the “karate chop.”
“Adrenaline rush.” I responded quickly.
“Lie.” Laura said softly.
I looked at her again in the rear view mirror. “I’ve learned how to defend myself. It isn’t out of the ordinary.” I told her.
“Thank you. For helping us. I um...I really appreciate it. So um-yeah.” Laura blurted, embarrassed.
I just shrugged. “Sure.”
The car ride was then just a lecture from Lydia. About not doing this and not doing that. Don’t get into fights...blah blah blah. I mostly tuned it out and just stared through the glass of the window. I watched as the scenery passed in a blur of colors.
“Sydney? Helloooo? Are you even listening to me?!” Lydia exclaimed, bringing me out of my thoughts.
“Yeah, yeah. I’m listening.” I muttered, rubbing my eyes. I hadn’t gotten much sleep and I honestly would just say whatever to avoid another Lydia lecture.
“Then what did I just say?” she inquired.
“Uhhhh.” I trailed off thinking. “Something about not getting into fights and reputations and some other nonsense.”
Lydia sighed. “I said that you don’t need to go around knocking people out.” she corrected.
I rolled my eyes and didn’t say anything else. An uneasy energy presented itself the remainder of the car ride.
“Does anyone know how to cover a black eye?” Laura asks, lightly touching the bruise on her face.
“Yeah, I do. Lydia, could I borrow a make-up kit or something?” I replied. I’d done it plenty of times to myself so might as well help someone else.
Lydia nodded as she parked in the school parking lot, Allison and Scott parking next to us. Lydia stayed behind, as Laura and make our way into the school, heading towards the women's restroom. Stiles awkwardly trailed behind us, already knowing his fate.
We walk inside the vacant restroom.
“Hey, where’d Stiles go?” I asked Laura, turning around. She immediately pushed the door the restroom and aggressively whisper-yelled,
“Stiles, it's okay. You’re going to be fine. There is no one else in here except for us.”
“You have no idea how sketchy that sounds.” He aggressively whispers back.
“Are you serious right now?” She responds, completely walking out of view. A few seconds later, she comes back into the restroom with an unhappy Stiles.
“I’ll help you first, Laura. Stiles feel free to observe how to hide a black eye.” I said with a bit of a joking tone. I only needed a few things from Lydia’s make-up kit and I already had them in my hand.
“Okay.” He responds, clearly uncomfortable that he was in a women's restroom.
“No one’s going to kill you, Stiles. Or be upset. Besides, the girls restroom is probably much nicer than the boys.” I told him as I began to put on make-up to hide Laura’s black eye. I didn’t even hesitate. Laura could tell I’d done this before.
“Don't sugar coat it.” Laura joked, “Every morning Moaning Myrtle comes into here. She lets all the teachers know if she finds a male student in here.” she shrugged.
“Oh, I totally forgot about that! She really does make such a fuss over that. The poor boys are usually humiliated because the whole school can hear her screeching.” I chimed in.
“You guys are joking right?” He asked, as we both just stared at him for a solid 30 seconds.
“You’ve never seen Harry Potter?” I asked.
“No…” He replied uneasy.
“YOU'VE NEVER SEEN HARRY POTTER?” Laura gasped. Stiles let out another uneasy laugh. She turned to me.
“What’s your favorite movie?” She asked.
“Uh Harry Potter obviously.” I replied.
“No.” she laughed, “Which Harry Potter movie is your favorite?”
“You expect me to be able to pick?” I asked laughing too.
“Well there is only one correct answer.” she responded.
“The fourth one. And only for the single reason that Cedric Diggory is hot.” she stated.
“Who's Cedric?” Stiles asked.
I gasped. “You can’t be friends with this guy anymore, Laura.”
“No it’s okay, later we can have a watch party so he can learn.”
“Yeah, tomorrow night would actually be great.” He answered, giving her a look.
I noticed it but didn’t give it much thought as I was still working on covering Laura’s bruised eye. After a minute I finished and it looked like she’d never even gotten a black eye.
“Alright, Stiles. Your turn.” I announced. He walked over, and sat on the sink. I looked over at Laura, and she was looking uncomfortably at the ground, playing with her fingers.
Ohhhh, I see what's going on here.
“Do you want to help?” I asked, looking down at her.
“No… I feel like I’m going to mess it up.” she responded. 530Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡBf62CHhCbN
"You won't." I assured her as she walked over, she observed as I put the products on his eye.
“Okay Stiles you need to close your eyes, but you can’t squint.” I told him. Apparently this was hard for him to do. Every time I touched his eye, he flinched.
“Can you squeeze her hand?” I asked, knowing fully well, what I was doing. They looked at each other. She slowly extended her hand, and he quickly took it. As I was about to finish, a girl walked into the restroom. The color drained from Stiles’ face.
“Oh my god its Moaning Myrtle.” He retorted. The girl stopped walking when she saw Stiles, comprehended the comment, and exited the restroom in disgust.
“Sorry!” He screamed.
“I- I- forgot that she’s a fictional character.” He yelled to her, probably thinking that she was still listening. But at this point I could hear her footsteps on the other side of the campus.
Stiles and Laura turned around to look in the mirrors at their eyes.
“Oh wow, how did you do that?” she asked, admiring her eye that now looked how it normally did again.
“This should last for about eight hours. Long enough for school, but not long enough to hide it from your parents.” I informed them, ignoring the question.
“No, no, that’s totally okay. Thank you for even helping us in the first place.” Laura said hurriedly.
“Yeah, also how’d you even know how to do that?” Stiles asked, now distracted by the fact that his black eye was gone.
I just shrugged in response.
“Yeah, that’s actually really cool.” Laura stated
The day went by as it usually did. I had English with Stiles, Laura, and Allison, and we all turned in our projects. That was probably the best part of the day, because things started to go downhill from there.
I had to deal with Jackson’s taunts and constant bullying. I also was trying to keep my distance from the rest of them, but they made it basically impossible. Especially Laura.
In each class I was just trying to focus, but between Jackson, Laura, and all her friends, I just couldn’t. I didn’t even understand some of the lessons because I hadn’t been listening so I would have to figure it out later. I was also exhausted from getting pretty much no sleep.
Now the question that kept resurfacing was why I knew how to cover a black eye.
I kept avoiding the question but these people were persistent. I was fidgeting really bad, as I waited for the final bell to ring. After an eternity it did and I clapped my hands over my ears a second before it rang.
I was out the door before anyone else had even gotten their backpacks over their shoulders. I was ready to go home and be by myself. I didn’t want to give Laura a chance to catch up so I speed walked out of the building. Soon enough I was on my route home, successfully avoiding everyone else.
Once I got home, more problems arose. My apartment was very small. It was one room basically. There was only a small curtain separating the tiny kitchen from my “bedroom.” I entered it and all it consisted of was a small bed and a wobbly nightstand.
I found a huge spider in the corner of the room and I freaked out before smashing it again and again with a shoe. I then got a paper towel and picked it up, trying not to look. I tried to flush it down the toilet but then the paper towel clogged it. It took me forever to fix that, then when I tried to open the window, the lock broke. I just wanted some fresh air because the AC was broken and the room was stuffy. Despite the lock breaking I opened the window.
Finally I went to sit on my twin bed to do my homework. As I was finally able to start working out some math equations, my one pencil broke. I didn’t have another one so I spent at least twenty minutes looking for my old beat up pencil sharpener. I’d found it on the bus a little while ago.
I stayed up late doing my homework and ended up passing out on my bed not eating any dinner. It wasn’t like I had one to eat anyway. I knew if I'd bothered, I would’ve just been greeted by empty cupboards and a tauntingly bare fridge. So, despite being very hungry, sleep overtook me.
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