Inspirational quote: When I count blessings, I always remember to count you guys more than once.

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Kieran was annoyed.
In fact, way beyond annoyed.

Highly.
Freaking.
Irritated.

Why?

Because of Lauriel. She kept on lying to say stuff to Mrs Skinner against him, and when he told Mrs Skinner the truth, she wouldn't believe him.

Kieran hated it when someone was lying about something and they got away with it, yet there he was, telling the truth, and he got in trouble for it.

Was this even reasonable?
No, it really wasn't.

Worst of all, Justin was getting on his last nerves again. Obviously.

Mrs Skinner insisted that she had to leave the classroom to attend a meeting, so the class had to be on their "best behaviour" until she got back.

Kieran's best behaviour must have been way different from Justin's, because as he was working, that was when Justin decided that now was the perfect time to come and distract or disturb him.

He had also managed to miraculously escape going to the headteacher's office, which was at least half decent, although that never meant Kieran felt any better, because he didn't.

"Well, well, well, look who it is. Kieran. The Idiot. Harper."

Kieran's 'Highly Freaking Irritated' mood immediately became 'About to Kill Someone Today' as he kept on writing.

Justin snatched Kieran's pen away from him when Kieran wasn't looking, and broke it.

"Guess you won't be using anything to write anymore, will you?"

Kieran couldn't take this anymore.
He was internally livid.

He was about to stand up and leave the classroom, that was until the whole group of Justin's "friends", who he probably paid to be hostile to people as well, came up to Kieran, surrounding him.

There was no escape this time round.
One of them poured water on Kieran's hair.

And as if that wasn't tormenting enough, another one of them threw something fragile at Kieran's face, making him fall backwards on his chair and land on the floor, still miraculously alive, somehow.

Kieran got back up again, not feeling powerless, because that wasn't what he was.

He was about to throw something back at them, that was when someone beat Kieran to it, and Kieran couldn't feel his face anymore.

The person threw a dictionary at him, and soon after, they all found themselves laughing.

"You are so terrible at this," someone sneered at Kieran.

Kieran was a hundred percent sure that it was Justin, but when he looked up, he was almost clearly mistaken.

"I swear, Justin," Kieran told him. He had said this before he looked up though. And when he did, he felt like fainting.

"Clyde?"

Clyde whacked an apple at Kieran, and soon after, all of them started doing the same thing but with different fruits.

Then they all stopped unexpectedly.

"Clyde. What's gotten into you? And you weren't wearing those clothes when I last saw you."

Clyde didn't reply.

He looked dissimilar. He was wearing different clothes, all black like the rest of them (and also Lauriel) and it was like he had died and then resurrected again, half of his body still left in Hell, where he clearly belonged.

Plus he had dyed his hair blue.
Like, seriously?

"Clyde's one of us now, Kieran," Justin explained, then turned to him. "Isn't that right, Clyde?"

Clyde nodded, before taking out bubblegum from his mouth and putting it under Kieran's table.

He flipped over the table.

"Clyde, you've just joined the dark side."

"Yeah, and you've just joined the dead side, like everybody else."

Oohing went on then, as they all fist bumped each other.

Kieran almost couldn't take this anymore.

"Ooh, he's crying. Is he crying because of us, or at the death of his sister?" Clyde cackled, whispering to Justin.

Kieran fully lost it then, he physically wanted to scream at Clyde, and he did as well.

After all, there was nothing stopping him.
Many people in the class were currently watching this happen however no one had the guts to save or stand up for Kieran.

"Okay! That's it. I am tired of you guys physically torturing me! And how dare you-" Kieran pointed his finger at Clyde. "Refer to my dead sister."

Clyde rolled his eyes irreverently.
"Who cares? She's dead."

Cheering went on for some reason, and Kieran shook his head. What he said next made him cry for real, as in, tears were leaving his eyes and landing on the table.

"I thought you cared Clyde. You and Susannah were really close. You're acting like my sister lost something she could get back easily but she didn't, Clyde. No. She lost her life. That is the most precious thing anyone could ever lose, and here you are saying to me that we shouldn't care about her because she's dead? How would you feel if you were dead and nobody came to your funeral, which no one will anyway because we all hate you?"

People started oohing, and nudging an annoyed Clyde.

"Aha. You wouldn't like it would you?"

Clyde rolled his eyes irreverently again in return, as the others laughed at Kieran.

Kieran and Clyde shot each other dirty looks at the same time.

"Whatever Kieran. Your sister is dead. Get over it."

"You'll be dead in a minute if you don't shut up!" Kieran shrieked, making them all back away from each other and go back to their seats. "Do you have any idea what I've been through lately? So shut up. You guys know nothing about me. I'm not as stupid as you think I am by the way."

Kieran sat down as well, more angrily than before. That was when Mrs Skinner had entered the room, claiming that she had heard everything, claiming that they were all being disrespectful.

"Okay, okay, what just happened?" She asked to the class, then looked at Kieran spitefully. "And Kieran, why are you still here? I believe I told you to go to the headteacher's office?"

"I was," Kieran agreed, writing down notes. "But Justin and Clyde came up to me and started threatening me."

Not knowing who to believe or not, Mrs Skinner looked at Kieran, then at Justin, and she did this twice.

"Is this true, you guys?" She queried Justin, Clyde, and everyone else that seemed to surround them. But all they did back was to shake their heads, saying that "Kieran" started the trouble when it wasn't him.

Mrs Skinner told Kieran to get out of the classroom, and Kieran was almost doomed, that was until someone in their class stood up, explaining everything to the teacher.

"Actually miss," they blurted. "Clyde and Justin started the trouble. Not Kieran. Kieran did nothing of the sort."

All of the class was staring at this person intently, including Kieran. Maria Grace was currently standing up talking to Mrs Skinner about the Clyde-Kieran incident that had just happened, and when she had finished, she smiled and winked at Kieran.

Kieran smiled.

Maria Grace was a Chinese girl, same prettiness as Vanessa, along with black and pink hair, but Kieran didn't like her in that way.

Recently he had developed a teeny teeny teeny crush on Maria Grace, but it wasn't for her looks, it was mainly for her personality.

Vanessa didn't mean anything to Kieran anymore. He might as well have moved on, anyway.

When Maria Grace had finished her lecture, another person in the class named Adam stood up, completely disagreeing with everything that Maria Grace had just said.

"Actually, Maria," Adam bickered. "Kieran was being rude to Clyde and Justin as well."

"Yeah, I know. Kieran was being rude to them," Maria Grace agreed. "But that was only because Clyde and Justin were being rude to him first."

For some reason, an argument about this went on around the whole class, some people being against Kieran, some people being against Clyde and Justin.

Soon after, Kieran became so fed up that he literally had to walk out of the class, and surprisingly enough, Maria Grace chased after him.

"Miss I need some time to calm down," Kieran whispered to her through tears.

"And I'll come with him," Maria Grace added, placing her hands on Kieran's shoulders.

Kieran nodded.

Mrs Skinner looked at them blankly, before sighing and saying something.

"Fine. That's absolutely fine."

"Thanks."

This was coming from Kieran, as he escorted Maria Grace out of the classroom. They had just walked about one or two steps before the teacher popped her head round the door again , saying something out loud for the whole school to hear.

"Kieran?"

Kieran and Maria Grace turned around looking at Mrs Skinner.

"Were Clyde and Justin bothering you?"

"Yeah..." Kieran looked down at the ground. "Kind of."

Maria Grace looked at Kieran in disbelief and shook her head.

"No miss, not 'kind of'. They were really abusing Kieran. Clyde threw a dictionary at him."

Mrs Skinner didn't reply.
She just tapped her watch intermittently and her foot as well.

"Okay. But you guys have to be back by ten. That's twenty minutes time out. I can't have you guys disappearing for the whole of the double lesson. Understand me?"

Kieran and Maria Grace agreed that they understood.

And they knew that they were supposed to be back by ten.

But they didn't come back.

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Moral of chapter: As hard as it may seem, don't have flashbacks or retrospects of things that you don't want to remember.