"Where were you?" asked mom in an oddly calm tone.

Nope.

No.

Just no.

Not now.

"Mom, please can we talk about this tomorrow," I said letting out an exhausted sigh. I was tired, my back ached and my head throbbed. I was so not in the mood to go through interrogation 101.

"Jul-oh my goodness gracious you are bleeding!" said mom shouting before walking over to me and inspecting my head.

"It's nothing," I said closing my eyes.

"Like hell it is," she muttered before gently laying my head down on the sofa and going off to get the first aid kit.

I felt the couch dip as she returned and laid my head back down on her lap.

"What happened?" she asked in a soothing voice whilst tending my wound.

"I fell,"

"Julie," she said in her don't-mess-with-me-right-now-tone.

So I took a deep breath and launched into detail about what happened. By the end of it, mom said nothing. I waited and waited but still, she was quiet.

I turned my head around a bit to catch her face. She was staring at me- well more like my head, deep in concentration. Finally, she moved and looked at me, straight in the eye.

Here we go.

"Julie Roberts Emerson what the hell were you thinking?!"

"I wasn't thinking," I replied dully.

"Don't use that tone with me! What if he was armored-"

"With a celestial sword? A silver dagger? Go on mommy I'm listening," I said snorting at her ridiculous assumptions.

"Why don't you take my words seriously? What if he-"

"So what? You expected me to leave that girl in that dark smelly haunted alley and let her get groped by the scum of the earth? What do you take me for?" I said heatedly and sat up.

"That's not what I-"

"What if that girl was me? How would you feel if Joe called in the middle of the night and said 'I'm sorry but your daughter-"

"Don't you finish that sentence!" she snapped furiously. "I am your mother and you will talk to me with respect and not interrupt me," she said glaring whilst holding a hand up when I opened my mouth before closing it again, defeated.

"I am looking out for my child and if something happened to you-I don't-no I can't, go through that ever again Julie," she said softly, her voice trembling. I looked away from her in shame, remembering the unpleasant memory that brought us all pain.

"So all I'm asking you is just please be careful and use that brain of yours for the love of god...."

"Okay," I said with a tight smile.

"You are incredibly stupid but brave Julie and that's a rare trait to find but I'm scared that your boldness is what's going to get you in harm's way. So please keep the jumping on his bones part as your last resort."

"Okay mom I get it, I'm really tired. Can I go please go sleep now?" I said biting my cheek to keep my anger at bay.

She sighed, motioning me to go but not before pulling me towards her and giving me a warm embrace, pressing her lips to my head.

"Night mom,"

"Night sweetheart,"

I nearly had skipped having a shower but then I remembered the dirty claws that were on me. I tossed and turned unable sleep. All is could think was why?

Why didn't she tell the police?

Did she know him?

...

From the very second I opened my eyes, I felt it.

I felt it from the pits of my stomach that today was not going to be a normal day.

I was going to have a terrible, horrible, very bad, no good day.

It started off with my hyperactive five-year-old brother, bouncing on my bed and then 'accidentally' falling on top of me.

His elbow hit my nose.

His knees fell on my stomach.

His head knocked on my boob.

Then to make things better, my southern region was pinned by Mother Nature, my head felt like an egg that was refused to crack, so it kept getting hit by on the stove, there was a drummer boy at the back of my eyes hitting my eyeballs.

So by the time I reached school, I was feeling ect-fucking-static.

...

"Good morning," said Ms. Jane, my homeroom teacher with a happy-go-lucky smile pasted on her face. It wasn't an I-rather-stay-home-drinking-wine-than-teach-you-dipshits smile. It was a real genuine one.

One she wore every day for as long as I've been here.

And it made me really curious as to...how? How the hell did she smile when the first thing she had to do was teach a bunch of hormonal teenagers in the morning?

How?

This woman deserves an award.

"Take a paper," she said holding out a basket with tiny folded papers. I picked one and opened mine to see 'number forty-eight' printed. I furrowed my eyebrows in confusion and looked around to see everyone mirroring the same expression.

"Your partner is the one who'll be having the same number as you do," she said taking a look at the questioning faces and immediately the chattering began as everyone started looking for their match.

Grunting I kept my head on the table. I was physically not ready to socialize with another human apart from my family.

My partner can go to hell.

A small nudge on my shoulder made me sit up and glare at the disturbance. To my horror, it was Ms. Jane. Instantly I cast my eyes down but the scowl on my face was prominent.

"Julie, have you found your partner?" she asked softly.

I shook my head. Without another word, she left my side giving a small pat on my shoulder. Immediately I dropped my head back where it belonged and was about to sleep when the sound of a chair scraping on the floor was made.

I felt my eye twitch in annoyance. The noise kept getting louder and louder. Not being able to take it anymore I looked up to see striking blue staring at me in amusement. My eyes moved from his face and down...

And then I saw it.

He was holding it.

That bloody chair.

The nail-scraping-chalkboard chair that nearly made my ears bleed.

I looked at him in annoyance as he continued to drag the bloody thing up to my table and then sit across me.

"Hi I'm a Jason," he said flashing a megawatt smile, holding out his hand. Slowly I scanned his features to see what type of creature I was dealing with. Blue eyes that reminded me of a marble I swallowed when I was five, soft nose, high cheekbones, dark blond hair-

"Anybody home?" he said snapping his fingers in front of my face interrupting Sherlock moment.

"Why are you here?" I snapped annoyed.

"Forty-eight, ring a bell?"

"How did you know? I never showed anyone my-"

"We were the only ones unpaired so I put two and two together," he said with a lopsided grin.

"Whatever," I said rolling my eyes.

"Aren't you just a ray of sunshine," he said dragging the 'ray' part, longer than necessary.

"Got a problem princess?" I hissed angrily.

"Whoa whoa calm your-"

"Listen up class! You must present your projects by the sixth of May. It's your duty along with your partner to come up with something creative for the judges. So don't mess it up because this will affect your final grade, now any questions?"

I took a peek at the idiot who was staring elsewhere.

Four months with him?

No. Freaking. Way.