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New Adrenaline

Chapter 1

- Bruised -

I rushed down the hallway, not even looking where I was going. Why should I look when I didn't even care? I just wanted to leave that feeling behind, that mixture of hurt, defeat, humiliation … and most importantly the broken heart. I'd once read that people really could die from a broken heart, and I wondered how these people must feel. How bad their pain must be. Because, honestly, I didn't think it could get much worse.

"Hey, Berry."

It was only at the sound of Azimio's arrogant sneer that it occurred to me that maybe I should have paid attention to where I was going and what was around me. Or, to put it more precisely, whowas around me. I took a deep breath, straightened my spine and, carefully considering any other options I might have – which included running away, running away and running away as fast as I possibly could – turned around to face them. There were three of them, Azimio and two other clichéd jocks whose names I didn't remember. But I knew their faces, of course. It was hard to forget a face once it had given you the distinct superior expression only a bully has when he's just entirely covered you in ice-cold, sticky slushie.

"What are you doing here Berry? All alone, left even by your loser friends?" Azimio said while he walked towards me, carefully emphasizing every syllable. It was then that I realized I didn't have the strength to stand up to them, not now, not after the debacle this day had turned out to be. I had already changed out of slushie-stained clothes once today, this morning, when I'd still been foolish enough to think that our win at Sectionals had made any difference at this school. Well, reality had certainly caught up with me. Actually, it was standing right in front of me, in the form of three muscular bullies, and grinned foolishly at me.

"I heard Hudson dumped you?" Azimio whispered maliciously, standing so close to me that I could feel his breath on the skin of my face. I bit back the tears. No, I wouldn't give him that. I would not cry like a hurt little girl in front of him. I still had my dignity, or at least some of it, left. "Seems to me he finally did something right. Maybe he'll leave your stupid little children's choir and finally be a man again." In that very moment, I wished I'd just run away, although I knew they probably would've caught up with me anyway.

I knew what kind of situation I was in. The school was practically empty. If there were still any teachers in this building, they'd surely head to their cars straight away. The chances that any members of the cleaning staff or the janitor showed up right here right now were unbelievably low. I was all alone with three jocks who would do goodness-knew-what to me. I was terrified.

"Are you scared, Berry?" Azimio hissed into my ear as if he'd somehow sensed my thoughts, causing me to involuntarily take a small step back. That was when he grabbed my wrist. "Oh no, you won't escape us, Berry." The two guys behind him nodded approvingly, apparently looking forward for what was to come. "You surely don't want to miss out on all the fun we've planned for you?"

"Of course I don't." I wanted to sound strong, like I could actually be a danger to them, but my words were barely a whimper.

"Of course you don't!" Azimio repeated the words I'd just said in a loud scream and shoved me against the wall. I felt the pain instantly. In my right arm that had hit the wall the hardest, in my back and in my left wrist, which he'd refused to let go of.

"Guys." Azimio commanded calmly, half-turning to face his buddies. I didn't even manage to squeeze my eyes shut before they threw the slushies at me and gasped when I felt the cold all over my body. The ice-cold drink was seeping through my clothes, my bra, my panties until it seemed to cover all of my skin and I was all of a tremble. I only noticed that Azimio had let gone of my wrist when I collapsed, still trembling and finally unable to hold the tears back any longer.

"Have a nice day, Berry." I heard him cry out and thanked god that he was moving away from me. Apparently he'd had his fun. I got up slowly, desperately trying to collect myself and stop crying. I didn't have any clothes I could have changed into left in my locker; I usually didn't get slushied more often than once a day. So, unless I got home before my dads did, they'd notice the sticky mess my clothes had turned into and know for sure something was seriously wrong.

Of course they didn't know about the bullying. In their minds, I was a star. I was a gifted singer, a trained dancer, after all. I had learned everything I needed to be on top. They didn't know that glee club was considered to be the lamest thing ever. They thought I was strong. Confident. They most certainly didn't think I was a scared, fragile little girl.

My feet started moving towards the exit automatically. I only needed to get to the parking lot, to my car, to home. Once I was home I could warm up, take a long, warm shower and wash the slushie out of my hair.

My dads wouldn't notice anything, I knew that. I had been hiding the bullying for quite some time after all. I'd go home, shower, do the laundry and put my usual smile on. It always worked.

I didn't notice the bruises until I was standing in front of my bathroom mirror. I'd already put my clothes into the washing machine and taken a long, warm shower. My hair was now slushie-free and smelled of pineapple and papaya – my favorite shampoo – and I should be feeling all happy and warm. Usually, once I had washed the slushie off and wasn't cold anymore, it was over. It would still be there in my mind, of course, and remind me of the fact that I rather shouldn't go to a certain place at a certain time; but there wouldn't be any visible signs of the attack.

None of the bullies had ever been that brutal. Neither Azimio nor anyone else had everbeen that violent.

I felt a shiver running down my spine as the possibility that this would become a new routine crossed my mind. "Let's hope he just had a bad day." I mumbled to myself as I examined the large bluish green bruise on my upper back carefully. I would have to make sure Mr. Shue wouldn't plan on any backless dresses for any of our new numbers, but that shouldn't be a problem. I'd always been a responsible captain. He knew my advice was valuable. I'd just have to say something about the fact that the quality of our music shouldn't be tainted by showing too much skin and he'd listen to me.

The back wasn't what was most worrying, though. It surely hurt, but I could easily push that pain to the back of my mind. The arm, however, was a different matter. There weren't any visible signs – neither on the wrist Azimio had been holding so tightly nor on the right arm that had hit the wall first and therefore the hardest – but it really, really hurt. I carefully moved my left hand and my right arm and noticed that there was a massive stabbing pain in both my wrist and my elbow. I grimaced as I thought about the dance routines I would have to do; the ballet training I would have to attend. I couldn't, under any circumstances, show any signs of what had happened to me.

My dads would surely get suspicious if I missed a glee rehearsal or ballet training or basically just anything. I never rested, never became sick. So I took a deep breath and got dressed again, only a simple shirt and leggings. I certainly wasn't planning on leaving the house again today.

I had only just flung myself on my bed – which caused my arm to hurt like hell – when it occurred to me that I hadn't even started thinking about what I was going to do for this week's glee task. I reached out for the notebook on my bedside table, quickly navigated to my favorite online sheet music site and typed "hello" in the search engine. But, honestly, I didn't find one song I felt like singing. I wanted to do something that would show Finn how I felt – and that he had been an idiot when he dumped me. Granted, I knew I shouldn't be that furious. But I was. I mean – inner rock star? Come on. Even for Finn, that sounded pretty dumb.

I wanted to make him feel like he was in hell. I wanted, for the three, maybe four minutes the song would last, make his life a living hell. I felt a grin on my face – a real, honest grin, even if it was caused by my anger at Finn - and I tell you, after all this day had brought me, it felt great. Just great. I removed the –o and searched for "Hell" instead. Okay, I'll admit it, I expected a lot of death metal to come up and I can't really see me singing that. But to my surprise, I found the perfect song on the first page.

I even managed to temporarily forget about the pain in my arm as I started to rehearse.

So, that's it for now. If you enjoyed the first chapter and want to read more, please press the story alert button. If you don't have an account on this site, you can also follow me on twitter ( teebs_teebs) or add me on facebook (Teebs SingerWriter) where I will post a tweet/status update whenever I add a new chapter.

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