The monster was quiet the rest of the day compared to how she was in the morning. So it really wasn’t too quiet, actually.
After PE, the three had beginning guitar. The current star pupil of the class was Mario Gutierrez whom the music teacher, Mr. Chilcott, was quite fond of.
But even they bowed down to the wretched girl as she seemed to be a guitar prodigy. She claims to have never picked up an instrument in her life, which Jeraud highly and so irritably doubted. But, she overheard a Carlos Santana classic played from an irrelevant student, and was able to pick up the chords effortlessly.
Now Mr. Chilcott had a new favorit, not that Mario seemed to mind from the way he ogled at her backside.
Jeraud turned to Romeo, who Mario partnered up with in duets, hoping he would be just as annoyed of the little freak. He was sitting in a corner away from the mess around the ogre, strumming to some songs with an icy scowl.
Jeraud couldn’t help but beam at the sight, assuming his friend was exasperated with the circus freak, too. Maybe he thought wrong, as Romeo was extremely tart to Mario for the rest of the period.
Beginning French seventh period no different. Offering to help the ape catch up with the lesson, and hopefully digging up some alone time with that ‘hot orphan chick,’ Tim offered to tutor her. His loss. The troll spoke perfect French and ended up helping him with all of the assignments.
Jeraud learned nothing else geometry class but the fact that forty minutes of grinding your teeth would leave your jaw cramped until dinner time. He tried to drone out her cheery voice as that insignificant witch taught everyone about sine, cosine, and tangent while simultaneously doing the class work.
He faced Romeo beside him, hoping he’d be just as annoyed. He simply glowered at his paper, scribbling a hot mess all over his desk. He was so bipolar today, and Jeraud muttered something about PMS under his breath.
The walk back home in the freezing sunlight was longer than usual as about a dozen boys attempted to follow the troll home. Actually, it was longer than usual because the pair had to take the long way around to lose track of the stalkers. And this was just that monster’s first day of school!
Jeraud grouched as he made sure to stay three steps ahead of her. He was torn between feeling bad for the girl and completely loathing her for what she unintentionally did to him. He knows she never purposely meant to do this much harm, but he hated her all the much because she not only bruised his ego, but crushed it until it was almost nonexistent.
But that didn’t matter. He was still going to make everyone hate her eventually, and he would start with his family. The family she was never supposed to intrude.
‘She said that she’d rather spend time with her new family after school than making new friends…’ An echo of the boy’s response reawakened in Jeraud’s memory. It continued to haunt him throughout the day. Why would she want to spend time with a family that didn’t even look like her?
Except for Jeraud, considering they both had black hair and chalky white skin.
“Hey, loser?” He called out to her, his curiosity getting the best of him as he continued walking ahead.
She hummed in response. He can still hear her smile in her sing-song voice, and he honestly had enough of her cheery attitude.
“Why don’t you get mad when I call you names?” He grumbled sourly.
“I try not to get angry.” She answered without her cheeriness. It didn’t suit her girly, singly voice too well, his favorite part.
“But you were angry on the basketball court today!” He stomped with an enraged snarl. “You can try to lie about that, but I know you were!”
“And do you see where that got me?!” she spat out as she stopped in her tracks. “I made an impossible swish from across the court! You and I both know that that isn’t doable for someone in our grade! I didn’t want to do that, I would have just let you win! But you had to go and make that deal! I had no choice but to win the game! I’m trying to be normal, Jer! Why are you trying to make it so impossible for me?!” she rambled, her voice starting to tremble.
He turned on his heels, some smart comeback already planted on his lips, but his mind blanked at the rolling tears gushing down her perfect ruby red cheeks.
He wanted to punch himself from the guilt now. He made a girl—despite it being one he hated—cry.
Suddenly realizing she was crying, she mopped the tears from her face with her collar only for them to be replaced with fresher ones. “Look,” her voice wavered, blunt and annoyed, “I know that we had a rough start, but I promised to try and be normal. Aren’t I being normal? Why are you so mean to me, Jeraud? I just…wanted you to like me and I thought that…telling people that you do care and that you aren’t selfish would get you to like me… I lied to people I hardly knew on the first day of school just to get you to like me!” her voice raised as her tears went full force, her cheeks reddening like ripened tomatoes. “What can I do to make you like me? Even the littlest bit…?” she begged, her pleads tugging at my cold heart.
Jeraud turned away from her sniveling appearance so it wouldn’t provoke him into tearing up. He was in disbelief of what was happening. Was she actually crying in public! It was such a childish thing to do, and she pulled it from her sleeve out of nowhere! He couldn’t have seen this coming, much less prepare for it.
But she did have a point. She was acting normal, or as normal as freaks come, at least. She had left a little white lie to strangers to brighten up his reputation. And she had been very tolerant of his borderline-emotional-abuse. What was he supposed to do now? His pride was too heavy to even attempt a thank you, but he needed to stop her pathetic sniveling before his frozen heart melted through. What would he say?
“I’m sorry.” The words that escaped his lips stunned them both.
“W-what?” she croaked in surprise. “Wow, Jer… I didn’t think you were even capable of saying that out loud…”
“Neither did I…” He confessed under his breath, hoping she didn’t hear.
They stood there as the wind rolled by, staring at each other with nothing left to say. She wiped at her face with her shirt collar again, and this time there were no fresh tears to replace the older ones. He shuffled on his feet, biting the inside of his lip before averting his gaze toward the sky.
“When we get home…” His tone broke the air of its momentous silence, “will you…help me with my guitar playing?” He rushed, feeling really embarrassed for even asking. She was trying really hard to be normal and he silently admitted to not helping her at all. So he figured they could do something together at that wouldn’t humiliate him to death at the same time.
Her head perked at the chance to have some time together. Her smile was back into play, but it unfortunately wasn’t enough to disguise her red, tear-worn eyes. “Sure!” she sang as she took the last few steps to his side. “You know, you’re a really good musician, but you do have one flaw!”
Jeraud sighed with an eye roll as she pointed out his one ‘fault’ in triumph, beginning to walk back home with her trotting alongside him.
“You don’t feel the music, Jer! Aud!” Her palm slammed into her forehead with an audible bang. “Darn, I’m never going to get your name down right, am I?” her tone rose with a slight chuckle.
Jeraud began to hum in an attempt to sound like he wasn’t even paying attention, until it hit him. “What do you mean I don’t ‘feel the music?!’ That has got to be the stupidest thing I have ever heard, moron! You know what, forget it. My playing is just fine! I don’t need your help.” He huffed, nose in the air, as he picked up his pace.
“No! Wait Jer!” she rushed after him. “Aud!” she added with a breathtaking smile that, so far, she only let him set eyes on.
He smiled back. He couldn’t help it. Once you’re caught in that trap, your lips just pull up uncontrollably.
But no matter what, Jeraud promised himself devotedly, no matter what: the pretty girl with the deep, green blue eyes and the stunning smile still is, and always will be, his number one enemy.
ns 15.158.61.6da2
