<The meanest people are the ones who don't realize just how mean they are>

|11|

WHAT ON earth was Katharina talking about? Stained behind? Hygienic? Oh my God, realization finally dawned on me making my lips form an O.

Had my period started and I wasn't aware of that? But how? I usually got the signs that it was coming and none of those had appeared yet.

I twisted my neck and looked at the back of the skirt I wore, straining my neck muscles. Sure enough, a red stain glared boldly at me. Why, oh why had I worn a yellow coloured clothe today of all days?

My body was an oddity; I mean during my periods I had gut-wrenching cramps that made me feel like I was dying, no lying but periods are real bitches and now there wasn't any pain. Not even a teeny tiny one. So strange.

Frowning down at myself, I recalled Katharina's words: You escaped then, not now. I also remembered Maude telling me to go sit on that other seat. Could this be another prank? With the way she had been talking, it seemed like one.

I traced the path back to where I had sat and just like my gut feeling, it was a prank. Aha!

Another one! in Dj Khalid's voice played in my head.

Of course, I knew there was no way my body system could change abruptly and my period become so forgiving.

The chair, where a person was meant to sit on, was stained with something red, like a dye. I was pretty sure it wasn't real blood, no freaking way. It had to be something fake just like the people who had smeared it on there.

I had a sniff, wrinkling my nose. The stuff smeared on the seat smelled like tomato paste. Could this be ketchup? Probably.

Just like before with my locker, a pink paper that I hadn't noticed a minute ago, was attached to the back of the seat. Written in bold red letters was,

Hi, I'm Jamila. Period.

Jeez. They even had a lovely time playing with words. The fury I had earlier came back, this time in full force but I tamped it down.

Now, I fully understood why Katharina and her followers laughed at me when I stood up to answer the question Mr. Thomas had asked. Not just Katharina and her friends, the whole class too. No wonder, I had been getting odd and weird looks from my classmates when the lesson ended. And I was oblivious then. Bummer.

I closed my eyes and leaned against the wall, chagrin and mortification flooding through me.

Katharina's silly pranks were getting out of hand. Like seriously, how did she derive joy in making her fellow girl to be humiliated? Like what did I ever do to her? Only because of my skin colour right? Very stupid excuse. Why all this shitty shits from her? Just why? Sadly, I would never know the answer to that. Some people were just mean. This was racism and bullying combined.

Rap rap. A knock on the door jolted me up from the wall and away from my depressing thoughts. Mr. Thomas stared at me, a questioning look as to why I was still here.

I stood up straighter and tried to smile convincingly, despite the conflicting thoughts and emotions running in my mind.

"Sorry sir, I forgot my books here and came back to pick them," I stuttered, fumbling with my words like a fool. Did he know about my fake period too?

He shook his head full of gray hairs dismissively. "Okay. Get on to your next lesson or you'll be late." I didn't think he knew.

Nodding frantically, I grabbed my backpack and hightailed it out of the room. Some other students were trickling in already.

"Wait!" Mr. Thomas called. He stood in the doorway, half blocking the passage, so a few students were still left out.

What again? I was 100 percent late to the other class I had right now and needed to take care of something red. It had better be a fast matter. I turned around and replied, "Yes sir?"

"I think you've got a situation behind you." He pointed at me, looking down and scratching his neck, probably abashed by what he had seen.

The few people who hadn't gotten inside yet were laughing and giggling loudly, especially the girls. Dumb! What happened to the girl code? I hate everyone here.

"Uhhm, yeah I know. I uhh. . . will be going now. Sorry." I stumbled away, face heating up in distress.

Mr. Thomas had seen too. And some dumb people were witness to that. Arrghhh! If there was any other word stronger than hate, recommend it because I more than hate Katharina, this school, everyone in it and infact the whole world!

Trying to hide that hideous stain with my backpack— it wasn't an easy task by the way— I rushed to the bathroom.

Going to the washbasin, I lathered some soap onto the place the horrible smear was on my skirt. Thank goodness the dress I wore today was made of cotton because the stain finally disappeared, after some frantic washing out.

Phew! I sighed and breathed in deeply, holding the sides of the enameled sink. It had become my pasttime; sighing.

Glancing at myself in the mirror, I saw that I looked horrible and disturbed, my cheeks very pale. Who wouldn't? I decided to splash some cold water on my face to cool off. The chilling sensation of the freezing water calmed me down a little bit.

When would all these end? I thought as I went out of the restroom and for my next lesson.

No time soon, good mind whispered sadly.

I guess so, I said back in a sad manner too. Awesome. I had turned over to conversing with my mind. Oh, the wonderful things bullying did to a person.

I made my way into the class. Physics. Some of my classmates from Geography class snickered. I took no notice of them.

"Where are you coming from? Don't you know you're like. . ." Mr. Hammond checked the clock to prove his point.

". . . 10 minutes late?" he asked condescendly, bushy eyebrows drawn together in a frown.

"So sorry sir, but I had a situation," I uttered, hoping he would take my explanation and not ask any other questions.

"I see." He stroked his beard. "Whatever that situation was, I don't care. Just sit down and bring out your books." Thank God. I had been let out of the hook easily because of how uncaring our teachers were. Bravo! Penfield High teachers. Your earnest work towards guiding us, young ones, is very much appreciated. Not.

Going to my seat, I cross-checked it extremely well before sitting down. As the saying goes, once bitten twice shy and I wasn't about to be bitten again.

My lessons continued uninterrupted by any other pranks, thanks be to God for that.

Regrettably, the sun decided to smile at us once more, so the wish I had made for sports to be canceled wasn't granted. Which in other words means we all had to go to the field.

Why can't anything actually go my way? I thought, irritated at everyone and everything as I put on my sports outfit. Ughhhhh!! I hate Mondays!

***

Finally, my worst moments were over. We had run on the tracks as a start-up exercise and I had to say, it was extremely tiring. Later we all went to gym class still in our P. E.

We did squats, lunges and bent-over rows. The gym instructor even made us girls do push ups. I know it was mindless but that was to be anticipated. Penfield High was a big joke.

Afterwards, we were all expected to take a shower and it was what I was doing at present.

Believe me, doing all those vigorous exercises wasn't fun at all. I was fatigued, sweaty, mad as a hornet and hungry. Having a shower was refreshing and of course, well deserved. I was also looking forward to break and thank goodness it was after gym.

I was famished and couldn't take it any longer, so I rushed my bath and came out from the bathroom stall, tying a towel.

I went over to the rail where we hung our clothes. Hanging your clothing over the stall door wasn't permitted or I would have done that.

My dress was missing and I wondered how because I had specifically kept it in a special position.

Grimacing, I scanned through the clothes placed next to where I had left mine. I saw ridiculous things that didn't make any sense at all such as garters and thongs. Who the heck wore a thong to school? Sheesh.

And also who the frack had instigated this stupid rule of putting people's clothes together? Didn't they know that it was unhygienic and not appealing in any way. Stupid school regulations. Why couldn't we just keep our clothes in our lockers? And that reminded me about my locker.

I rubbed my face with my palms, giving out an exasperated groan. Where could that fracking shirt and skirt of mine be now?

The most terrible thing was that I was totally naked under the towel. Suddenly I wished I had on my underwear. No way could I step out of here without any clothes on and I couldn't wear anyone's outfit. Please, I had standards.

My eyes widened on seeing a green tank top on the floor. It lay near the doorway and I knew it was mine because no one else had their name printed on their clothes and even if they did, it wasn't Olayinka.

Walking forward, I bent down and picked it up. It felt wet to touch. How had my clothes come to be here in the first place though?

Looking ahead, I saw another article of mine. This time around it was my bra lying a few distances away from the doorway. Huh? What was happening here?

I peeked to check whether anyone was around and tip-toed over, still in my tightly knotted towel to pick it up.

Holding the bra, I made out that it was cold and wet too. Something was off. This wasn't another prank was it? I had a vague awareness of trouble brewing once more.

Not far away again was another thing of mine. My spanx tights and same with the others, it stayed damp.

You see it wasn't a long walk from the shower room to the cafeteria, which was stupid. Penfield High had some serious bad room planning. Imagine having a bathroom that oozed disgusting things next to an eatery. So it wasn't a surprise when the doors to the cafeteria loomed ahead.

I possessed my tank top, bra and tights now, but I was yet to see the rest of my underwear and clothes.

The electronic bell rang indicating that there were five minutes remaining before break began. This meant that I had to be fast about this before people saw me in my condition.

Glancing at the doors of the cafeteria, I spied something that resembled my white shirt. It seemed to be trapped in between the doors. Weird? The biggest question plaguing me right now was how it had come to be there.

Confused, I kept my belongings aside and made a move to recover my shirt. It still stuck to the door, so I tugged with all my might, hoping my towel would stay in place and not slip an inch.

Finally the doors opened. Not to an empty room as I had predicted but one that was filled with students. Students who were staring at me now, mouth open.

And here I was standing in nothing but a towel which could tumble down any moment. I should have known. Stupid stupid stupid.

This towel had better not fail me!

A/N: Many thanks to ahanstasia and itsjennijay for giving me pranking ideas. Now I think we all know why Olay hates Mondays, lol. Btw I'm so happy I'm in chapter 11, it means a great deal that I am actually aiming to finish this book, sorry for my Olaedo readers I'm still stuck at chappie 8 :( and with all your supports I'll endeavor to finish this book. Thank you! Don't forget to vote and comment. Muah!!

P.s: The moment you've all been waiting for. Sit up 'cos a certain nerdy boy is about to step in; he's arriving in the next chapter and I'm so glad to meet him finally *winks* Are you?

Nita.