Chapter 1: My Hell-hole life

If you’re reading this then you must really have a lot of spare time on your hands. Ok let’s skip the crap about who I am, this story isn’t about who I am this story is about why I am telling you. Let me start with when everything suddenly changed, and no I’m not talking about me periods.

 “Ericka the virgin!” called Rita the school slut as she twirled her dark brown hair around her index finger.

“Yeah, no boy would want to kiss that hole you call a mouth,” shouted Sophie a new Rita recruit. She was a red head; her red hair was in a tight bun on the top of her head, strange fashion, looks more like a muffin exploded on the top of her head.

I rolled my eyes before walking out of the classroom, then I continuously heard their whispers behind my back, the annoying shushing and mumbling finally got to me when I turned around in a fit of anger and looked them both down. The looked of Slutty-Little-Bitches on my face I folded my arms and cocked my left eye brow “Rita slut number one you got an apprentice how nice, is she slut number two then?”

Both girls froze in their designer shoes and glared at me, their eyes boring into my skin. Without a care in the world I turned around and walked away.

The hallway was crowded of girls and boys some hand in hand some snogging in the corners till the teachers gave them detention.

I watched the floor because I couldn’t stand watching all those love birds having it, sometimes I felt pervy for watching them kiss so passionately while no boy would so that with me. My hands stuffed in my pockets. My hoodie over my head, I let my fringe fall over my right eye, it was my normal outfit something I felt more comfortable in.

Then I felt a poke in my left arm. “Is she even alive?” I heard someone ask, I wanted to let it slide past, act like I didn’t care but then another pulled at my hoodie from behind slightly pulling my hoodie off my head. Ducking down I pulled the hood over my head again. I stopped for a second taking everything in, then I turned around at the students stood behind me with devil like grins on their faces and gave them one of the death glares.

With that I turned on my converse sneakers and walked out of the main entrance. I was thankful that school had ended but home was no fun either. Mum would be at work all day and she would be working night shifts as well so I was going to be home alone like always but I was used to it.

I took the long way home; it wasn’t like someone would be at home to yell at me for coming home late.

The soft breeze was nice. Warm and refreshing, something that a long day at school could kill within five seconds.

I was just thinking about how I was going to complete my math homework because I hadn’t been listening in the lesson and the teacher refused to explain it to me. Till suddenly, I tripped over my own shoe lace and flopped in the middle of the road.

I closed my eyes for a split second and the next I found myself sitting in the middle of the road. Rubbing my hands together from the pain I heard someone from across the street calling at me. I looked up to see the owner of the bookshop shouting at me for some odd reason. Then I heard it.

A car was coming and I was sitting in the middle of the road like road kill. “Get off the road!” he shouted again. But I couldn’t move at all, all I did was stare at the car, coming towards me. I could see the danger, I felt the danger and I knew I was in danger but I couldn’t do anything at all. It felt like my body was in some kind of trance.

Then I felt a surge of energy and before I could blink again I jumped onto the pavement just in time. As the car past me I heard the driver say “stupid bitch.”

I stared down at my hands; I had never felt that energy before. And for a good ten seconds I thought I was good as dead. “What were you thinking Ericka?” asked Stan, the bookshop owner as he crossed the road looking both sides then walking beside me.

“Nothing,” I said bluntly.

“Well you should be more careful,” he said indicating to the rips on my blank skinny jeans. There was something else about him that made me feel uneasy, it felt like he was getting under my skin and crawling around it, I didn’t know if it was the reason because I knew he was dating my mother behind my back or was it the way his appearance was. Tall, dark and rather disgusting looking with a hair beard growing near his chin and upper face. I cringed just imagining my mother kissing a man like him, his prickly skin against hers. Gross!

I nodded my head just turning to trying leave before he could start a conversation because if I knew Stan, the I knew he loved to talk, once he start all he would do was talk and talk about things I couldn’t be asked to care about. “Ericka wait, how’s your mother?” he asked making me stop in my steps.  I wanted to slap him for some odd reason, I don’t know if it was because I had nearly been hit by a car an all he could think about was my mother who he was dating behind my back and he couldn’t make it any clearer.

“She’s fine,” I replied trying to end the conversation and move on but he continued talking, not taking in consideration of his babbling I continued walking watching the ground.

“Your mother is an amazing woman,” he said his voice becoming more and more muffled as I continued walking. I held my breath and watched the ground even more closely. I should be dead, but how? Why? My life was always boring as hell, but for a change something different happened but I couldn’t pin point whether I was overreacting or did that really mean something. As I walked I felt my body walking at a faster pace than I had started off, an uneasy lurking, I could feel like something was wrong but I didn’t know why. It almost felt like I was being watched.

As I came to the normal curve that crossed over and then on the other side was my house I saw a boy. It was an odd place for a boy to be sitting on a brown cemented wall his hoodie stooped low over his face, he was looking down at his mobile screen probably texting his girlfriend. That’s all I came across, girls and guys either hand in hand and lip on lip. If not that then it was one texting the other. Don’t get me wrong, yeah you could find the odd gay couple but they had some shame for the single people, they would only hold hands in public which was rather sweet. But some boys and girls went the whole way in the public eye, it was passionate and disgusting all at the same time, that’s all because I had no one to share it with.

Finally, making it home I opened the door with the key mum had given me and went to the kitchen. The rooms were gloomy, the only lit source was the hallway lit that they had lit when I walked through the door, my hand automatically reached for it when I walked in. I saw the note on the fridge that said shepherd’s pie in fridge ~love mum.

I went opened the fridge and got the plate with shepherd’s pie and put in the microwave pressing a few buttons and let it cook. This was my typical Monday night, just me. I only wish it wasn’t as lonely, sharing a typical Monday with someone else for once might have changed a lot of things. And that’s when things did really change.

Chapter 2: Naughty Note book = New boy

Like normal I had come to school and left mum a note that I had gone to school and I had made her breakfast because I knew she would wake up late and then forget to have breakfast. But as I walked through the school entrance doors I felt something was different. For a change Rita wasn’t with her red airhead friend to make me feel like shit, instead everyone was gathered on the bottom of the corridor. If I cared I would have gone to check what was going on but I couldn’t give a crap about what everyone was so interested in, they might just have found their new victim for the day to pick on instead of me.

Everyone wasn’t whispering about me to my surprise, in fact they were whispering about some boy. It made me think that everyone had found a new victim. I know I should have been sympathetic or something like that but instead I was happy because everyone had taken their eyes off me and now they were watching someone else.

I went to my math class knowing that I hadn’t done my math homework even though last night I had tried so hard. As soon as I walked in everyone ran to their desks and hushed each other, it made me feel uneasy, like they had done something to catch me out. I tried to ignore everyone but for some reason I couldn’t get them out of my head.

Then our math teacher walked in Ms Bash she glared at everyone but then her stare just stopped at me. “Ericka, did you do your homework?” I felt my hands become sweatier.

“Ms Bash, I didn’t understand it but I did try to attem-“ I struggled to say but she cut me short.

“Shut up and out of my class right now!” she said pointing towards the door.

I began to pick my things up and walked to the doorway only to be stopped by the principal. “Ericka, where are you going?” he asked as he stood in the doorway.

“Ms Bash told me to…”

“Ericka, stop lying can you get to your desk quickly then we can start our lesson,” Ms Bash quickly said in her angelic tone. My eyes widened then I made my normal face and went back to my desk. I could literally feel the kindness emanating from Ms Bash because the Principal was in the room. I couldn’t help but laugh it off.

The principal looked at everyone in the classroom before leaving. I saw the way Ms Bash stared at him her eyes all googaga over him. As soon as he had gone out of view she faced me with disgust.

“You got lucky,” she said before picking the chalk up to write on the board.

Suddenly, everyone’s attention was diverted towards the door. I was still trying to pull my note book out of my bag to even notice the boy walking in all I could hear was the tapping of shoes then they suddenly stopped.

“Who are you?” I heard Ms Bash ask the boy but I was still too busy to look up.

“Darren Samuels, I’m a new student in your class,” I heard his voice my eyes slightly lifting from the bag to the front but Rita’s redhead friend was in the way I couldn’t see the boy’s face.

“Find an empty seat and sit in it,” Ms Bash replied in her harsh tone before turning back to the board, I could almost feel the disgust and hate she had for us students, I always wonder why she became a teacher if she hated teaching so much. Then suddenly comprehending what she said I looked beside me and saw the empty chair.

Trying to yank the notebook from my bag quicker than I could place my bag beside me on the chair I tugged it so hard it hurdled from my hand and wacked someone in the face. I gasped and looked around only to find the new boy holding my note book in his hand and rubbing his face where a small red mark was begging to appear.

“Shit, I’m so sorry,” I said before snatching my book off him and sitting back on my seat. Ms Bash just made a snort like sound and carried on writing the date on the board. Unlike her I could feel my life cripple into nothing, not because of the stares I was getting from the class but because I had just wacked Darren in the face with my notebook.

One look at Darren and I knew why I was getting the cold stares, he had an angel like face, so perfectly shaped with dark brown eyes that looked endlessly warm with a hint of something sinister. His small crooked smile   made my heart rate speed up. His light brown hair flopped on his face but it didn’t matter because they looked just as perfect.

Calling myself to snap out of my stupid love trance then I wouldn’t look like Ms Bash, I tried to write the date in my notebook but my hands were too shaky then I heard a screeching of a chair being pulled from under a table and looked beside me just to see Darren rubbing his face and taking a seat beside me.

That’s when everything changed, the day I met Darren.

 

Chapter 3: I have an imagination...i think...

 

Math had finally finished. After a long terrorizing hour of Ms Bash going through the math homework we were freed and let lose so we could go to our next lesson, si still don’t know how I managed to live through the lesson with Ms Bash screeching in my left ear and Darren’s stare holding on my right hand side. But I lived.

I was on my way to Social science when someone pushed right into me. “Hey virgin,” I heard Rita cackle her evil laugh then I so Sophie behind her sniggering. I tossed my hoodie off and let of a bold smile making their smiles disappear into nothing.

“Don’t smile you repel all the boys away,” Rita threw back at me trying to break me but all I did was fold my arms over my chest and roll my eyes.

“Oh Rita, how many times do I have to tell you, I couldn’t give two shits about what you say, so in other words let your imagination run wild cause it isn’t bothering me, your just wasting your own time.” The words came out of my mouth so confident and posed like I really didn’t care, but from inside I was a sweating pig waiting for the conversation to be over.

I acted like I didn’t care but to be honest the push she had really hurt my rib cage. I turned on my converse shoes and I kept walking till she grabbed me from my shoulder and turned me around again “I saw you looking at Darren, let me inform you little virgin no boy is ever going to fall for someone like you, so do yourself a favour and stay away from him.” She said before giving me another push into the lockers.

My back hit the metal and I felt the pain again but I pulled my hoodie and walked on. My head stooped even lower than normal, maybe she was right maybe I wasn’t worth anything. It felt like I had something stuck in my throat like I couldn’t talk for some odd reason.

My hands felt sticky so I rubbed them against my hoodie and stuffed them into my pockets even further, my body felt that if I tried to hide myself so much, that one day maybe just maybe I would disappear.

When I reached my Social Science class I opened the door and found that Darren was also in my class, it felt almost like I was in a teen comedy bullshit movie. My gut groaned.

Walking to my desk I saw him turning around, I didn’t know if he was looking at me or if something else had caught his attention. I was two seats behind him. He looked around the room taking in the atmosphere then he looked at me and smiled, I almost thought that was a genuine smile but then that thought drifted away when he saw a blonde haired girl called Ruby and smiled her, his eyes lighting up at her beauty. It was a pain in maths because all he did was talk but not to me, everyone else in the classroom had had a conversation with him except me.

Then every time Ms Bash heard something she would glare at me or say “Ericka, if you want to talk get out of my class!” But I was the only one that didn’t say anything, it was him who made all the noise and I had to pay the price.

My aim in Social Sciences was to make sure he had been nowhere near me and he couldn’t talk to me. Slowly students started to pour into the class. A few fair girls had a bit of a cat fight on who should be allowed to sit with Darren he just smirked to himself, but it all came to an end when Brock the school jock walked in and took the seat next to Darren like they had been mates from preschool.

I carefully, remembering the notebook insisted before, took my books out and began to look through the work we did last week. I curiously took some glances towards the two so-called mates –Brock and Darren- they both talked and laughed about something. Brock must have really said something funny because it had Darren in a fit of laughter. I had to be honest his laugh was super cute, but it would never say that out loud that would be stupid.

Mr Render was our Social Science teacher, out of the entire teacher population he was my favourite. He went to his desk, taking in the fact he had a new student present in his class and began to recap everything from last week.

Mr Render continued to explain the work when suddenly, there was a knock at the door and the school receptionist came take Mr Render out to have a word with him. As soon as Mr Render stepped out of the classroom everyone erupted into conversation about or to Darren. I slouched lower in my chair trying to become invisible, slowly forgetting reality I fell into a day dream picking my pen up and starting to scribble something down on my notebook.

When I stopped and looked at the whole picture I had drawn it was of an angel. It felt like I had seen it before, maybe in a dream or a movie I couldn’t remember reading about it. It was beautiful yet it looked so sinister. I slapped my notebook shut as soon as the sound of the door came about to everyone, most of the students scurrying back to their desks.

Mr Render walked back into the classroom his face looked bright red like he was embarrassed or something but I let it slide. He carried on explaining till he told us that next week he would be pairing everyone up to do our end of term investigation, it was 70% of final grade. I instantly, began to pray that I was paired with Gretel like last year; she was really nice a shy girl like me but her speciality was that she was super clever and she had the biggest brain anyone could ask for. Also she did all the work and didn’t even ask for help once and put both our names on it making us both pass.

I was too distracted to hear the whispering ahead of me. All lesson Darren had been laughing but suddenly, his laughter had stopped. He was shaking his head and taking not so secret glances towards me. When I had zipped my bag up I looked up to lock eyes with Darren who only instantly looked away.

Mr Render was still giving us some last pointer on how we could revise for some of the questions on the exam paper to come when he picked a pile of papers from the deck and began to hand them out when Darren put his hand in the air.

“Yes, Darren.” Mr Render asked looking sceptical about whether he should let this new student talk. “Can I hand the papers out if you want?” his shoulders slightly shrugged showing a chilled out posture. Mr Render’s eye brown raised a little then he handed the papers to Darren before he carried on talking.

Darren squeezed the papers; he placed a sheet on every desk purposely missing out mine, till the end. It made me feel even more invisible. He was still holding on to a few sheets when before he reached my desk all of a sudden he was on the floor –all I remember seeing was all the sheets on the floor. I leaned down to take one sheet then he didn’t have to get so close to me in case he felt I would poison him just by looking at him like medusa.

“I knew I couldn’t trust him,” I heard Mr Render’s voice and everyone in the class began to laugh in amusement. When Darren pulled my sleeve and whispered something in my ear “stay in the classroom.”

Before I could question what he meant he quickly picked the sheets up and threw one on my desk straightening, himself up and laughing along with everyone else. Everyone had been so busy laughing that they didn’t even see him whisper in my ear. The thought of him so close to my face almost made me feel like I had just imagined it.

 

But what happened after that lesson was what told me that it was no imagination.

 

Chapter 4: Protected yet so broken

 

I was still sat in my chair when everyone else had left the classroom, I kept my head down pretending I was reading the sheets Darren had handed out but really the image of Darren pulling me so close to him was flashing through my head again and again. Stay in the classroom. But what did he mean by that?

 “Ericka? Are you okay?” Asked Mt Render as he walked closer to my desk I nodded my head and smiled. “Yes, sir I was just going through the worksheet you gave us,” I told him picking the sheet up to show him. “Oh I see do you understand what I mean by question three?” he asked walking closer to the seat next to my desk.

 I instantly looked down trying to figure out what he meant but he was already sitting next to me expecting me to say something and I didn’t even read the first few points to understand the next ones. “Ericka?” I heard his voice, soft and calm. “Yes sir?” I asked looking up from the sheet of paper. “If you have any problems, let it be school or home you know you can come to me.” His eyes were locked with mine I felt nervous so I just looked away. “Yes sir.” I whispered.

 “Now let me explain the sheet then you can understand the exam questions for the upcoming exam,” he said taking the sheet from my desk and picking it up to his face. “Look part one you have to describe, that’s important if you don’t describe the-“ Mr Render was cut short when all of a sudden there was a scream outside. His eyes shot up and he scoffed putting the sheet on my desk before leaving to see what the scream was.

 For some odd reason I felt that same feeling I had when I jumped up from the middle of the road, then a flash of Darren’s face came back into view. I had to blink a few times before his face blurred away. “What was that?” I asked myself before getting up from my chair and walking to the corridor. I was met by a massive crow of people all staring at the same thing, my eyes met Mr Render with a blonde haired girl wearing a pink top way to high you could practically see her belly and boobs. She was crying and Mr Render was trying to comfort her. I couldn’t recognise her; she looked like she was in the year below us.

 “What happened?” I asked a short girl stood next to me. She didn’t take her eyes of the situation to look at me and said “Some boys tried to take Zoe to the corner for fun.” I shot her a look with confusion then she continued “One of the boys I think it was the new boy in your year he tried pulling her top off.” I suddenly, froze on the spot. Darren tried to pull Zoe’s top off. Maybe he was like the rest of them, stuck up and perverted. Then again a flash of his face came into my head where he whispered to me not to go out of the classroom. Then it occurred to me, was he trying to protect me. But then why do that to some random girl in the lower year. 

“Hey, do you know why they did that to her?” I asked the short girl next to me. She simple shrugged her shoulders before disappearing with the crowd. I took a step back and watched the students disappear. Then other teachers came taking Zoe away, Mr Render returned and apologized to me and told me if I didn’t understand anything I could email him. I reassured him and told him I understood the work and took my belongings and left for my next lesson, praying Darren wasn’t in the same class as me.

 I opened the door and walked into my English class to find that Darren was nowhere to be seen. I smiled inwardly. I felt a strange feeling towards him, I didn’t know if I was mad at him or thankful for him for protecting me. Or was it all just a set up then he could do something worse later to me. I couldn’t understand what was going on; my head was telling me something else while my heart told me something completely different. Then I made a promise to myself, I would avoid Darren for as long as I needed then I could think through what I really thought about him, I wouldn’t let him get in the way of my studies. And I would let him get me into more shit than I already was in.

 

But then he did protect me? Did he?

 

Chapter 5: Screw him!

“Finally.” I whispered to myself as I walked down the corridor. School was finally over; I had managed to avoid Darren all day. I had seen him a couple of time in the day where he was lurking behind a locker with a couple of boys whispering and once in the canteen but besides those and the time in the morning in first period I hadn’t seen him for the rest of the day where he was close to me which was a relive for me.

I opened the door and stepped out walking to the main lawn. Children were still talking about the morning incident, but most didn’t know who had done the little deed. I kept telling myself that for that fact it couldn’t have been Darren, maybe that girl just mistaken him for it. I kept my head down and my hoodie up when all of a sudden I felt a push on my back and fell splat on my face. I sat on my bum rubbing my wrists where it took most of the force when I tried to break my fall.

“What the hell?” I whispered looking up. Everyone around me was giggling and laughing then I looked at the person who had just pushed me and saw Rita and Sophie. Suddenly, a smile crawled onto my lips. Getting back to my feet I cleared my clothes of any dust and looked at them but from the side of my eyes I could see Mr Render from his classroom shaking his head and he was about to come outside when I shook my head at him.

“Look who we have here, Slut one and slut to.” I replied to both of them their giggles immediately stopped. “Shut up virgin!” shouted Rita trying to sound louder and more dominate. “But what did I say?” I asked making a confused puppy face and putting my hands out in surrender. “Hey Rita did you hear?” asked Sophie eyeing me. “Oh, here what Sophie?” Rita asked in her high voice acting all innocent. “Brock is having a party and were you invited?” She piped out. “Dah, anyone that has a life is invited to that party.” Rita answered then they both roared with laughter. I rolled my eyes and walked away.

As I walked I shot back over my shoulder “then it must be really fun for you guys because I bet you’re going to get paid a lot for having sex with every boy there.” With that they both shut up and looked at themselves before getting awkward glances from other people. They replied back to my insult but I was laughing so hard to myself I didn’t even understand what they said.

As I walked home I played everything that had happened in school over and over again in my head when suddenly, my phone began to beep. I pulled it out of my skinny black jeans and checked why it was beeping. There was a text for mum saying she wanted me to get some bread and milky before I went home because we had ran out. Letting out a sigh and began to change course and walked towards the corner shop instead. I stood at the edge of the road, looking both ways, before crossing remembering what had happened before. When I made to the corner shop I picked up two bread packets and a milk bottle placing it on the counter ready to pay for it when I looked at the shopkeeper who was to distracted looking outside the window to see me handing him the cash.

“Hey dude?” I said before banging the cash on the desk and picking my things up and walking out. Walking to the front of the shop I saw a couple of boys on motorbikes with drinks in hand, and then I understood why the shopkeeper was so distracted. As I walked past the boy one of the tried to pinch my bum but I sped walked and made sure I only looked over my shoulder when I was way on the other side of the road.

I kept my head down and kept walking, I was about to walk past a bush when out of nowhere someone’s hand was put over my mouth and I was dragged behind the bush. I dropped the bread and milky and tried to kick and punch when I opened my eyes I saw Darren. “Shush man!” He whispered as he peered over the bush.

“What the fuck was that all about?” I spat out trying to pull away from him and closer to the tree behind me. He turned back to face me and looked around then smacked his forehead “Sorry, the names Darren.” He replied before lying on the ground beside me like it was obvious. “Are you mentally disturbed Darren?” I asked pressing harder against the tree. He got back and made a face at me. “What? Mentally disturbed? Why would you say that?” he asked scratching his leg. “Firstly you just grabbed me from the street and then just acted like it was something normal.” I retorted “and secondly you tried to rip a girl’s top off in school, I think…well I heard.” I tried to correct myself but pushed myself further away from him.

Darren looked at me with a completely blank look on his face, suddenly a smile started to stretch from both ends of his lips. “Wait a second, your Ericka, right?” He asked still oblivious to what I had just said. “Eh? Yeah I’m Ericka, wait you know my name? Oh forget that, but what the hell are you doing?” I tried one more time. He only laughed and lay back on his back. “Okay, then if that’s that then I’m going.” I said before trying to snatch for the bread and milky and jump to my feet. “Wait, you’re going?” He asked still lying on the floor. “Well dah!” I responded before walking around him and trying to climb over the bush.

“I wouldn’t do that if I was you.” He said calmly, like he knew something I was missing out on. “Shut up, and I really think you need…-“ I didn’t manage to say anymore and my leg slipped while I was trying to move the bush low so I could jump over it and gravity did it’s biting to help me slap me face against the concrete floor. “Ouch…” I groaned then I heard a small chuckle behind me and saw Darren smiling. Getting back on my feet and cleared the dirt off me and looked at him with narrow eyes. “Screw you, dip shit!” I shot back at him before flipping him off with my right hand and walking away.

 

And I actually thought he saved me, screw him!

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Publication Date: 12-08-2014

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