Stella's POV

"Stella, time for school!"

The four words I've been dreading to be uttered. A wave of nausea hits me but it's not because I'm ill. I'm scared. Even more scared than when I first started at Minehead Academy. In September, I didn't know anyone at the school and nobody knew me. It was the only strength I had before I looked away for just a second and it got ripped from me; it landed in the wrong hands. I will never forgive myself for foolishly trying to see the good in everyone when unfortunately, sometimes, there's no good in someone.

Now, that I know how ruthless people at this school are, it's too late. A very common question for people to ask is if you could have one superpower, what would it be? My answer would be time travel so that I could have the ability to fix those mistakes I made in the past and change how my situation is now and how it's going to be like in the future. However, whether I like it or not, I don't have any superpowers, especially not time travel, so I can't change the past, present or future.

Despite Kate's call me for to get ready for school, I still haven't got out of bed, which is my only protection from the outside world. I hope she forgets about me.

"Stella, come on! Your breakfast's going to be cold!" Kate calls out.

The sound of footsteps gets louder as they approach my bedroom door before there's a knock.

"Are you ok, Stella?" Kate's voice comes from behind the door.

Why can't she just leave me alone?

"I don't feel well."

Technically, I'm not necessarily lying: I'm just not telling the whole truth.

Immediately, Kate opens the door and is by my side.

"What do you feel?" she asks.

"I feel nauseous."

Checking my temperature, Kate places the back of her hand on my forehead.

"Your temperature seems fine."

"But I still could have a tummy bug."

"But it seems suspicious that all of a sudden you're feeling sick on a school morning when for most of the weekend you've been at home and you were completely fine!"

I've been caught!

Kate sighs heavily before perching on the end of my bed, careful as to not sit on my legs.

"Stella, I won't let you jeopardise your education over the horrible doing of an even more horrible girl, who I'm going to make sure she gets what she deserves by reporting her to your headteacher!"

"What? No! Please, Kate, don't do that!" I plead.

"But she's going to win!"

"She's already won!"

There's silence while Kate thinks of another argument.

"Please, Stella. If you won't go to school for yourself, can you please do it for me," she begs, her eyes with an emotion I've never seen before: desperation.

This woman sitting on the end of my bed has been the best foster care parent I could ask for. She took me in when she knew nothing about me, looked after me like how a mother does with a daughter and has never left my side even in extremely tough situations. I'm still recovering from the shock that she's not angry at me when Frida called her yesterday after I had ran out of her house. Of course, when Kate and Harry arrived, there was a lot of explaining to do which included why I had secretly gone to see my social worker. Any person, even if they were the most ignorant person on this planet, could recognise how much I owe her.

I nod and Kate smiles, relieved. If only she could see how on the inside, I'm shaking my head.

I think this is a bad idea...

The car is parked outside the school. I gulp. If I was scared before, I'm petrified now.

"You ok?" Harry asks from the driver's seat.

Does he want the truth or a lie? I choose the second option and nod; my fear has made me lose the ability to speak.

"Have a good day, Stella!"

I weakly smile at my foster care parent before opening the car door and shutting it behind me.

There are many students entering the school gates, which is exactly what I need to blend in. After I enter the school gates, I start to head to my tutor room straightaway. Usually, I would talk to Storm, Sophie...and Emma and we all would head to tutor time together but I can definitely tell you that they don't want anything to do with me now.

On my way, I pass many friendship groups and neither of them take a second glance at me. However, it's not the same for when I pass Storm and her minions.

"Oh, Storm, is that your ex-friend who is the murderer?" a girl I don't recognise tries to whisper but she didn't try hard enough because I could hear her word for word.

Ignore them, Stella!

"Excuse me but if you have something to say about me, then, don't try to be discreet about it!" the words come out of my mouth before I can even think them through.

Great job at ignoring them!

"Says the person who kept her family past hidden!" the girl spits back at me.

"You don't know anything about me so stop trying to pretend you do!"

The girl opens her mouth to say something but Storm jumps in before she has a chance.

"She's right, Georgia! You're not involved in this," Storm says.

If Georgia was angry before, she's fuming after what Storm has told her.

"But Georgia does have a point about you telling her off for being discreet while the whole time you've been at Minehead Academy you've been keeping everything about you hidden!" Storm says while turning to face me.

Georgia now is smirking evilly.

You won't be smirking for long!

"By calling me a hypocrite, you are being one, Storm!" I argue.

Again, Georgia is about to jump in but Storm holds her hand up as a signal not to.

"What are you accusing me of, Stella?"

"You know exactly what I'm accusing you of, Storm, so stop pretending you don't!"

"Wow, Stella, have you stooped so low to be making false accusations!"

A few giggles come out of the mouths of the girls behind Storm. Nothing funny has been said so stop laughing like a bunch of hyenas before I make you stop!

"I'm not perfect, Storm. No human being on this Earth is. That's why I hate people, who go round, thinking that they're perfect. That's why I hate you! You make me sick!"

She flinches. It's barely visible so it's able to miss but it happened. Only after I walk away do I allow the tears to flow. With the amount of crying I've been doing these last few days, I'm used to the trails of salty water on my face. It's not something I'm proud of. Consumed in my misery, I don't recognise Liam, Jonah, Noah and Oliver hanging around in the corridors.

On the other hand, it seems like the boys would have spotted me from a mile away.

"Look at that! The criminal is crying!" Liam remarks snidely.

"Don't fall for it, guys! She's inherited her parents' knack for trying to look like the victim," Jonah joins in the jeering.

"What a saddo!" Oliver agrees.

Noah doesn't say anything. I turn to stare at him but he's giving the recently mopped floor all of his eye contact. That time Storm, Sophie, Emma and I bumped into the boys at McDonald's(which resulted in us girls eating our meal with them)seems like a century ago.

"Come on, guys! We should start going! If I'm late to tutor time again, I'll get a detention," Liam says as he starts to go in the opposite direction with Jonah and Oliver following.

"Noah, come on!" Oliver calls out when he turns around to realise that Noah has stayed fixed in the same place they had been in before.

"Go on without me! I'll catch up!" Noah speaks for the first time since I have arrived. Hearing that, the three other boys leave; Noah and I are the only people left in the corridor. I glance at the watch on my wrist and realise I need to hurry if I don't want to listen to Mrs Riley's grumbling about my late arrival. Just as I'm about to speed walk away, Noah's voice stops me:

"Stella, wait!"

Why did you stop? You should have just ignored him and continued walking away!

"I'm going to be late to tutor time," I state.

"It won't take long," Noah persuades me.

His persuasion works and I discover myself approaching him. What do you think you're doing, Stella?

"What do you want?" my tone comes out harsher than I want it to be.

"They're not mean people. Liam, Jonah and Oliver, I mean. They have good hearts deep down," Noah explains.

"People with good hearts don't act like they did. They don't say the stuff they said. So, I don't know why you're defending them," I contradict his words.

"They're my friends."

"Do you agree with their behaviour?"

Noah's blank expression twists into a confused one.

"No," he whispers.

"Then, why didn't you challenge them? Why did you let them ridicule me? Friends openly disagree with each other when they don't agree. You just kept quiet and watched," I ask.

"It's complicated, Stella!"

"Complicated? 'It's complicated' is a coward's way of saying that they don't have a valid excuse!"

The confusion in his eyes has been replaced with fury.

"If you're so brave, then, tell me: why didn't you tell anyone about your past?" Noah exclaims.

"I'm not brave! But at least I can say what's on my mind unlike you and Storm! I thought I could talk to you two but I was wrong! Very wrong!" I shout at the top of my lungs and I completely ignore the rule of no running in the corridors by sprinting to my tutor room.

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My first lesson of the day was Geography, where I didn't pay attention to any of the information about whichever country we're studying. Then, I had Maths, where I doodled miniscule flowers instead of drawing out the shapes my teacher had instructed us to draw. Now, the bell has just rang for the start of break and my Maths teacher has dismissed us. Straightaway, I rush to the toilets because at the end of the lesson, my pen exploded, which has resulted in my hand covered in black ink.

I turn one of the taps on and start to scrub away at the places on my hand where the ink had covered. Once satisfied, I place my hands under the electric hand dryer and stare at my reflection in one of the bathroom mirrors while I wait for my hands to dry.

My dark hair is not its neatest and my glasses are hiding the eyebags that have formed under my eyes due to the lack of sleep I've had recently...wait, hold on a second! What's that?

The mirror isn't only reflecting my exhausted face. I turn to inspect the wall and I feel like fainting at what I see. Someone has written on it in large lettering:

STELLA JOHNSON IS A MURDERER

"I'M NOT A MURDERER!" I howl in pain, my voice cracking because I'm sobbing. I bang my fist onto the wall. I don't care about the pain that shoots through my hand. Before I could process it, I start punching the wall where the sentence I hate most in the world is written.

Someone enters the toilets. A second later, she runs out and is shouting as loud as she can. What is she shouting? The mystery girl runs back in and tries to stop me from punching the wall. Leave me alone!

"Stella, please, stop! It won't help!"

How does she know my name? Who is she?

Another pair of footsteps rush into the toilets. She's much stronger than mystery girl and is able to make me stop attacking the wall.

"It's ok, I can manage her!" this new person's voice sounds older.

She leads me out of the toilets.

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There's an aura of awkwardness in the head teacher's office.

Come on, hurry up!

As if in answer, the door opens and Kate comes in. She stares at me as if trying to figure out what has happened from mine and the head teacher's facial expressions. Mrs Barry, the head teacher, invites her to take the empty seat beside me and Kate accepts the offer.

"Nice to see you again, Mrs Harlow," Mrs Barry greets politely.

Kate smiles weakly at Mrs Barry and I can tell that my foster parent just wants to get this over and done with.

You're not alone there, Kate!

"You must be wondering the reason the school has called you to come," Mrs Barry finally starts the meeting," Unfortunately, it's not something I'm happy about."

"You can't be saying that Stella's in trouble," Kate speaks up.

Although the head teacher didn't respond, the grave look on her face was a sufficient reply.

"An incident occurred at break. From what I've gathered from Stella, she had gone to the toilets to wash her hands after her pen had exploded at the end of her previous lesson which was Maths. There was graffiti on the bathroom wall," Mrs Barry began her explanation.

Kate frowned.

"What does graffiti have to do with Stella?" she questions, unsatisfied.

"Mrs Harlow, the culprit, who we are currently looking for, had written that Stella Johnson is a murderer."

Kate took a sharp intake of breath.

"After discovering the graffiti, Stella started punching the wall. One of our students found Stella in that state and called for help. A teacher got involved and managed to stop Stella and took her here," Mrs Barry finishes talking.

The office remains silent for a few seconds before Kate interrupts.

"Mrs Barry, who do you think is at fault in this situation?"

The question shocks me and by glancing at the head teacher, I can guess it has the same effect.

"Mrs Harlow, I didn't call you here to discuss who gets the blame for what happened today. This meeting is about the welfare of one of my pupils, who is in your care."

"You didn't answer the question," Kate states abruptly.

Where has this attitude come from? I've never seen her like this!

Mrs Barry looks like she's losing her patience.

"What the culprit has done is an example of shocking and disgusting behaviour but Stella reacted in a violent way," she answers.

"Violent? Punching a wall? Irresponsible, yes! Violent, no!" Kate spits.

"Mrs Harlow, Stella could have hurt someone-"

"But she didn't and she didn't commit an act of vandalism!"

"We will punish the person responsible for the graffiti."

"Will you punish Stella?"

Kate's question catches my attention and I watch Mrs Barry's facial expressions for any clues on what's she about to say.

"Stella will be suspended for three days," the head teacher states.

"Suspension? This is a one-off!" Kate argues.

"Which I can't allow from her again!"

When the meeting finishes, I leave the office with Kate, who I follow to the car that's parked outside the school grounds.

"I'm sorry," I apologise while Kate's driving.

"I'm the one sorry. I should have realised I was sending you into the fire," her answer surprises me.

Nothing else is said for the rest of the drive.

Author's Note

Happy Easter! Hope you had a great day!

Next chapter will be from Storm's POV.