I believe that when you love someone and that person loves you in return, you are uniquely vulnerable. They have the power to hurt you like nothing else. -Elijah, Originals.

Chapter Twenty-Two: Fake

Charlotte's POV

“Char, can I have your pen?”

What student comes to school without a pen?

“As you can see Chase, I'm making use of it. I'm not just scribbling words.” I replied.

“No need to be harsh.” Chase Lincoln said, strolling back to his seat. 

You know how in every class, there's a clown? Yup, that was Chase.
You know how in every school, there's a prankster? Yes, that was also Chase.

I sat in the middle of the class, where I always sat. As you well know, only nerds sit at the front. I wasn't say I was dumb, I just didn't like sitting in front of the whole class. As I sat, I fought with the urge to look to my left. The disgusting sounds was enough to make me puke. I didn't want to live with the image all my life.

Not that it would matter, I'd already seen it a hundred times and every single time, I felt like dying.

That moment when you see him being happy with her.

I found it hard to concentrate with all the moaning and groaning and giggling sounds that filled my senses. They just didn't know when to quit, did they?

“Get a room, you two!” Chase bellowed, scrunching his nose.

“We're already in one, you idiot.” Abby replied, turning back to suck faces with Daniel, yet again.

“You guys are practically tearing each other’s clothes off. You should be ashamed of yourselves.” Chase shook his head. As much as he loved pissing people off, he wasn't a strong believer in the PDA practise.

“Dont be jealous, Chase. Nicki’s right in front of you.” Daniel cooed.
From the corner of my eye, I saw Nicki drop her head on her desk. No doubt in embarrassment. Daniel was never this mean.

I was pretty sure that if there were in my place, they'd puke their intestines out.

I mean, this couldn't get anymore disgusting.

Abby rose from her seat and landed on Daniel's lap.

Okay. I spoke too soon.

“Abby, kiss your boyfriend at your own time.” Mr Walford, our geography teacher walked in, dropping his suit case on his desk.

You know how in every school, there's a mean teacher who everyone hates and makes fun of? Yup, that was Mr Walford.

“Oh, I will.” Abby said, glaring at me, at the same time popping back into her seat.

Chase let out a low chuckle which wasn't too low because I heard it all the way from the back. It wasn't weird for him to laugh whenever Mr Walford was present. It usually meant bad for him and good for us. I hated him too.

“Now class, what is geography?” Mr Walford asked, walking around his table?

“A complete waste of our time?” Chase answered, wailing his hands in the air.

“A stupid method of forcing young people to learn about earth's physical structure?” Brian, another crazy student from the back answered?

“No and no.” he pointed to the both of them. “Detention.”

They both laughed. “That's what I live for. Easiest way to find lonely chicks.” Chase said, earning a glare from Nicki.

“Charlotte, would you like to come up and show the class where North America is on the map?” Mr Walford asked me.

“Sure.” I got up from my seat and walked to the front of the class, directly in front of the map. I had some knowledge about maps so I easily traced and pinpointed the location of North America on it.
“Here.”

“That's good.” he smiled at me then turned to face the class. “Now class, who founded North America?”

“Charlotte Winston.” the entire class chorused and I roared in laughter at the look on Mr Walford's face.

“What? No!” he rubbed his forehead with his index and middle fingers. “Charlotte, go take a seat.”

“Okay.” I chuckled and walked back to my seat.

“I'm going to get a migraine if I keep on going like this.” Mr Walford whispered and went to sit down. The minute his butt touched the chair, he let out a loud yelp.“Who did this?!” he bellowed, holding a rubber snake in one hand and clutching his butt with the other.

The whole class laughed. Including me. But Chase laughed the loudest.

“Chase Lincoln! You!” Mr Walford yelled. You see, the thing with mean teachers is that they spend most of their lives torturing and trying to make life hell for us students without knowing that one day, just one day, it’ll come back to bite them in the ass. And yes, pun totally intended.

“It wasn't me, I swear!” Chase let out through his laughter.

“Then why are you laughing?” Mr Walford asked softly, almost at the brink of tears now and I doubled over in laughter.

“Because whoever did it is a freaking legend!” Chase pumped his fist in the air and the entire class cheered.

“That's it! All of you... deten—”

The bell rang and we all scurried out of class before he could even  complete his statement.

Ignorance is bliss right?

             *************

“Hey, I have to go see Mr Henry, I'll catch up with you later.” Daniel said to me as we walked down to the cafeteria.

“Sure.” I replied, walking faster to catch up with Nicki.

We walked down to the cafeteria hand-in-hand, chatting and laughing all the way to the food stand. We stood at the back, waiting for the people in front to buy theirs. It was all good until we heard a girly scream from the door of the cafeteria.

“You idiot!” Abby screamed at the young freshman girl who'd spilled her yoghurt on her yellow shirt. “This was expensive!”

The girl was shaking by now but Abby didn't care as every neck  turned in their direction. “I'm..m s..o so..rry. I..I did..dn't se..e y..you  there.”

“I'm pretty sure your entire family put together can't buy this shirt. You'll pay for this.” Abby scowled, lunging for the girl.

I couldn't stand by and watch Abby torture the young girl when I knew that she could buy the shirt twenty times over.

“Solace, it was a mistake. Just let it go.” I ran to the girl's side and stood protectively in front of her. You know what they say, behind every dumb bitch is a pack of dumber bitches cheering that dumb ass bitch on to become an even dumber bitch. Her stupid pack of stupid bitches stood behind her glaring at me. I raised my chin up defiantly and looked them in the eye. I wasn't backing down this time..

Abby scowled at me and fisted her hands at her sides. I looked in her eyes, expecting to see some kind of emotion, maybe even anger but it was just empty. Cold.

“This doesn't concern you, loser. Step away.”

I tried, really, but I couldn't. Not a big fan of bullying. Never was. Never will.

“It does concern me because you're my best friend’s girlfriend and I can't let you act silly, right?”

She immediately calmed down and that led me to believe that Abby was scared of Daniel finding out about her cruel ways which was weird because Abby never feared anyone. Ever.

She walked passed me to buy her food, straightening her shoulders and flipping her hair like the mean girl that she was.

I turned to the freshman girl and instantly felt sorry for her. No doubt dreading the bad things that were to come because let's face it, Abby wasn't done with her yet and even she knew that.

“Thank you for stepping in but you really shouldn't have done that.”

“No problem. For now, just stay away from her. And by that I mean avoid her, always.”

“Definitely.”

As she turned to walk away, I heard the lunch lady growl.

“Oh, so you want to lose three Ibs for bikini season? I had to eat raw carrots for lunch just to squeeze into my fat jeans. Walk away. ” she growled again. I turned my head to see her scowling at Abby.

The entire cafeteria roared in laughter and I could see Abby's embarrassed face beneath her hair as she dropped her head. But Abby being Abby couldn't just accept defeat like every other normal person and decided to have the last word.

“If you ran your ass as much as you ran your mouth, you wouldn't be so fat.” she retorted.

Oh no. No one makes fun of THE lunch lady.

“Hey, don't talk to her like that.” I stepped in.

“Oh my God! Why do you always have to be such a bitch and meddle in things that don't concern you?” Abby yelled at me, wailing her hands in the air to demonstrate her frustration.

“I'm not really a bitch all the time. You just don't like it when I call you out on your bullshit. All The Time.”

Abby’s nose flared and she opened her mouth to reply when her eyes caught sight of something over my shoulder. At once her cold demeanor changed and tears sprung to her eyes.

“What did I ever do to you? You're just so mean to me!” she cried as she grabbed her tray but as she walked pass me, she leaned down and whispered, “Get your fat ass out of my way.”

What just happened?

“My ass might be fat but there's no song about your flat one!” I called after her as she walked but when I turned around, I came face to face with Daniel.

He looked at me and shook his head in disappointment.

“Not cool, Char. Not cool.” he said, giving me one last glance before walking away with Abby.

Isn't it freaking frustrating when you're the only person who can see how manipulative and evil someone is, when everyone else is  blind to it?