Hey...

Uh, you guys should hold your torches and pitch forks. I can explain my disappearance from the face of Wattpad.

So, I became an adult and life happened. That plus I'm teaching at a high school.
Gah! Those kids make me want to pull out my hair. *sighs*

Well, I can't say I have a steady update schedule but I'll try to drop a couple of chapters...

Lol.

Thank you for the over 700K reads!!! Wow. I'm super excited   😁
  

💭💭💭

Not everyone was glad that schools had reopened, but I kind of missed it all: the lab pranks, the teachers, the cat fights,  the most essential members of the ecosystem, the nerds and the invisibles, where me and my friends fall under.

I thought about Levi and what's going to happen now. It was kind of disappointing that he would repay my kindness with this.

Life is freaking unfair.

He and his friends are murderers. Victoria didn't have to die. If it weren't for him, she would still be alive. Somehow, she had been a bitch to me, but still...

After Todd drops me off, I mingled with the rest of the students jostling for entrance into the school building.

"Hello dear friend!" Gemma bumped into me somewhere close to the Administration Office where we had to collect our new class schedules. There's a long queue in front of the half cut window where a busty red-haired lady was handing out papers.

"I'm so glad to see you in this hell house." I messed with her hair and we laughed, joining the line.

Shortly, we got our schedules and we compared both of them.

GEMMA:
MONDAY
FIRST PERIOD: SPANISH
SECOND PERIOD: AP PHYSICS
THIRD PERIOD: ENGLISH
RECESS
FOURTH PERIOD: GYM
FIFTH PERIOD: CREATIVE ART
SIXTH PERIOD: -

HAZEL:
MONDAY:
FIRST PERIOD: CHEMISTRY
SECOND PERIOD: BIOLOGY
THIRD PERIOD: HOME MANAGEMENT.
RECESS
FOURTH PERIOD: HISTORY
FIFTH PERIOD: COMPUTER
SIXTH PERIOD: GYM

"Hey!" I protested. "How come you get sixth period free and I don't."

Gemma did her happy dance, fists pumped in the air and wriggling her waist this way and that, she blew a raspberry at me.

Scowling, I wiped her saliva with the back of my hand. "Nasty."

She tucked her schedule into her bag and I did too, then she seized my hand. "Let's locate our lockers."

We find that our lockers are side by side and Gemma squeals, throwing her hand around me. "We're locker partners! Finally!"

"Gemma. Come on." I pleaded, trying to ignore the stares aimed at us.

Mind your businesses.

The rest of our squad arrived and seized us in a group hug which I slid out off.

Charlie pouted. "Come on Hazel, hug."

"I'll like my internal organs to be fine, thank you." I ducked, avoiding Chad's hand reaching out to grab me.

Winston and Gemma talked about whatever and I engaged Chad. "How are you two?"

Chad sighed. "We're really good. No fights yet."

"And no sex-" Charlie got whacked on his head simultaneously. "-ow! You guys."

I smiled, patting Charlie's cheeks. "Are you expecting any fights?" My eyes went back to Chad.

The floor suddenly became interesting for him to look at."I-I mean... It's normal for those to happen right? I'm not saying they should, I just...Hey, stop smirking."

That made me smirk all the more. Charlie chuckled at the faint trace of red on Chad's cheeks.

The bell harshly interrupts our reunion, and we scampered like rats to our classes. Charlie slammed into me as I tried going in through the door.

I frowned. "What are you doing?"

"I'm in the same class as you are. Obviously."

"Why me? I should go in first then." He blocked me and the rest of my classmates from going inside.

"No, I'm going in first." But he didn't move.

"Hey! Step aside freaks!" Someone yelled and another person roughly shoved the both of us aside, then the others gave us the stink eye as they passed.

"Great, I just made enemies with my classmates on the first day, thanks to you." I flicked Charlie's forehead and entered the class.

He sat in front of me and I took the chair behind him by the window. The windows are the best spots around, they come in handy during the boring classes.

Our teacher, a tall smiling young lady, breezed in with a file. She faces the class.

"My name is Annabelle McKinney. You can call me Anna or Ann, I don't care." The entire class laughed. "Let's start with introductions. You there, what's your name?"

"Sally."

The next person stands. Robert."Oh, take your seat, save your energy for the rest of the day." Annabelle said.

Wow.

"Robert Frog."

Annabelle blinked, sniggering. "What the-"

Another session of laughter rises. Poor Robert.

"Charlie Churchill."

"Relative of Sir Churchill, huh?"

Charlie laughed. "Not really ma'am."

Annabelle sighed at the reference. "It's Anna or Ann."

I rose. "Hazel Ross."

"Get me an audience with your dad, would you?"

Grinning, I sat back. "Okay."

Everyone in my class kept talking about Annabelle, till the next teacher came in, a rude and drastic change.

"Becky Stiffhead. I'd like to set some rules straight. No tardiness, do my assignments or you'll fail." The woman, Becky StiffHead stood in front of Sally's desk. "And if any of you hard-headed American teenagers will be so kind to come late to my class on Wednesday, I'll show you what I'm made off."

"All bones and no flesh?" Johnny teased from the back, getting wild laughter.

"How about we test that theory."

They were laughing at Miss Stiffhead's skinny figure. God, where did they get her from?

Johnny shuddered. "That won't be necessary, madam."

Charlie scoffed, turning to me. "What an ass." He whispered.

I hushed him and frantically gestured at our English teacher. He rolled his eyes and turned again.

***

"That woman was a total witch."  Gemma ranted after school hours. Todd was driving us home. All of us except Shawn who said he had to catch up with his friends.

"Who's that?" Charlie asked, fixing the glasses on his face.

"Stiffhead. She's teaching Biology clasess. How come you've never heard of her?" Chad asked.

Charlie shrugged. "I don't know. But her name is kind of stupid."

"Tell me about it." Gemma sighed.

I just chuckled and continued watching a funny video on Winston's phone. Todd parked in front of Gemma's house. I could see her elder brother, Rashad, standing in front talking to a girl.

"What's he doing here?" Gemma wondered, climbing out of the car. After saying a loud 'thank you' to Todd, she skipped over and hugged her smilling brother.

"Do you think she's okay?" Winston asked, referring to Gemma. Her parents were going through a divorce and I could tell it affected her so much even though she effortlessly concealed her pain.

Todd started driving. And there was no response to that question.

Winston, Charlie, and Chad dropped at Winston's  house and Todd drove straight home.

***

Later that evening, after dinner, I found myself strolling to the bus stop. My head was quite packed with a lot and I needed a lot of fresh air to clear them off. I didn't tell my parents or friends about my destination and I knew they would be worried sick about me but my desperation for a release pulled me on.

The bus that stopped was almost empty. I could count about  ten adults, four males and six females. After dropping some coins in front, I picked a seat by the window and pulled my hoodie above my black hair which was seriously in need of a trim.

After twenty minutes, the driver halted in front of a bridge. My destination. I climbed out of the bus and my eyes followed it until the dark shadows engulfed it.

The bridge was just twelve feet high above the black water flowing underneath. The area was deserted, save a figure that was seated on the ledge, legs dangling carelessly in the air.

Leaning against the rough body of the bridge, I glanced away and unwrapped my thoughts, letting them flow steadily.

Levi. Victoria.

What was going to happen now? I didn't see him in school today. Did he know we listened to the tape recorder?

"Hazel. What are you doing here?"

My eyes flew upwards into Levi's face, hooded by a black baseball cap.

"What are you doing here?" I asked him, panicking a bit. He was the figure I had seen earlier.

Did he follow me here?

"I came to think. Come on, you want to sit?" He gestured at the ledge.

I nodded. Soon, we were sat side by side, legs suspended high above the water.

"I was just thinking about the Conjuring." Levi started. I decided to play it cool.

"Stop." I warned him. He knew I hated horror movies .

"Or Annabelle, ow!" He rubbed the area I hit on his right arm.

My friends and I had plans to watch the movie together before all this stuff happened.

"Shut up." I muttered, hearing him laugh. I no longer felt anything when he laughed because I knew who really was behind his laughter. A monster.

We remained in silence afterwards and mutually watched the dark September sky. Only a few stars twinkled at us and the moon was nowhere in sight.

"I remember when my sister was still alive. She had a friend, Sammy. They were inseperable just like you and Shawn. Even when she fell ill, Sammy would cuddle up beside her and sing songs to her."

I couldn't help but recall when I got stuck in a tree after I decided it was good to explore. My parents and brothers had urged me to jump that they would catch me, but it wasn't until Shawn came that I did jump. He barely caught me and we fell to the glass, laughing so hard at my foolishness.

"Their friendship split when the new neighbours moved in and their son Michael was jealous of my sister and Sammy, so one day, he pushed Sammy and Sammy hit his head on a brick. The doctors couldn't save him and he died."

Internally, I didn't know what to feel. Pity?

"My sister threatened to expose Michael and Michael's dad hearing it, started up the fire that burnt my family in that warehouse. Michael's father is the leader of a mafia and is a very bad man."

I remembered the place we found that medallion.

"Why are you telling me this?"

Levi gazed at me. I couldn't see his eyes but there was some intense emotion in them. "Be careful, Hazel. There are some people that don't like your dad and they'll come after you. I should take you home, it's not safe out here."

He swung his leg over to the safe side and jumped down, and I did the same.

"What are you saying Levi?"

His shoulders slacked. "If anything happens to you, I won't ever forgive myself."

And that was it. Silently, he walked me to the side of the road and put me on a bus that took me home.

What are your thoughts about Levi?