So nearly one year after I posted my first story, I'm now starting my second one.
I'm really looking forward to writing it, because it is a lot different to the last one in my opinion. I don't want to spoil anything so I will shut up now and let you read it yourself.
Please tell me what you think and if you want to read more of it :)
"Hey loser, you missed one!' Piper didn't need to look up to know who's boots it were, that kicked one of the books she was collecting from the floor, to the other end of the school hall. She jerked when the corner of the book hit hard against one of the lockers on the opposite side of the room.
Well, it seemed like she couldn't return that one to the library anymore now, and her brain was already counting the money she would had to pay for this book, as if it would matter.
'"Hey, jackass, move your fat ass! … Yeah, I know you heard me."
Piper knew this girl and she knew it was probably for the best to keep her head down and just do what the bully said. So she jumped up, hurrying to her damaged book and grabbed it from the floor. On her way she lost some of her notes, that slipped out of her sweaty hands, causing the group that had gathered around her to break into deafening laughter.
„Come on guys, waste of time!"
When they finally strolled down the hallways, chatting like nothing had happened, leaving Piper alone with her mess, she hurried to collect her notes, stuffing everything back into her locker, from where she had dropped everything earlier.
„Here" she turned around to look who had spoken to her, just to see an arm shooting past her face towards her locker to keep the messy stacked books from falling out again, after she had nearly dropped everything once more. Her heart nearly dropped to her knee pit.
„Thanks. I'm just a glumpsy mess today" she mumbled, and then she recognized the shy smile of this boy, who, she knew, was one class above her.
They stood there, the boy's arm still next to Piper's face, pressed against the lockerdoor and Piper staring at his cute smile. They kept staring at each other for a moment before the boy wagged one of her notes in his free hand in front of her face. „You missed them!" he smiled like the hero, that had just saved Gotham City.
Piper, still holding a few books in her arms tried to take the note without losing anymore of them, the shy boy tried everything to help her, but he had no spare hand, since he still tried to keep the lockerdoor closed. They danced around each other for an embarassing amount of time but finally managed to get everything back in Piper's locker and hit the door shut.
„You should better never open that door again!" the boy grinned.
Now they were standing in front of each other, not sure what to say. Piper averted her gaze, staring at the floor. She was ashamed that he had seen her being bullied and she wished he would just disappear somehow, but he stood there without any attempt to leave. A few more awkward seconds passed before he finally opened his mouth again.
„I'm Larry, by the way." his voice sounded so soft and nice that Piper just had to look at him again. He was smiling like he had no idea how embarassing the situation was.
„Piper" she answered selfconciously, but the boy, Larry, kept smiling like he already knew. He was cute and that made Piper nervous. She shifted from one foot to another, not sure of what to do or to say for the matter. The silence felt uncomfortable.
„Well, we maybe should be heading to class right now." Larry said, still smiling like there was no bad in the world. Just then Piper realized how long they must have been standing there and that the long school floors with the dirty yellow floor tiles and the ugly green lockers were nearly empty by now. A fact that made her feel even more uncomfortable.
She hated being late. Being late meant everybody else was already sitting at their tables. Being late meant having to explain oneself in front of the whole class. Being late meant everybody would watch her walking to her seat and Nichols or some girl of her gang would say something mean and everbody would laugh because Nichols' gang ruled the halls of this school and nobody wanted to get in their way. Being late meant no possibility of being invisible.
Now Piper got really nervous, feeling the urge to run. Not run to class but just run, as far away as possible, but she had to go to class, if she had been a little bit braver she would have skipped it but that wasn't her, Piper Chapman never skipped class, she had no idea how to do that.
So she mumbled a last thank you to the nice guy and hurried towards class, while Larry watched her walking away with a warm smile. 'Piper' he whispered, tasting her name on his tongue.
Piper hurried down the halls, her personal hell ever since she had started high school. Middle school hadn't been much better, but at least she had had a friend back then, but then Polly's dad got a new job and they moved out of town. Not so far that they couldn't see each other anymore but far enough for Polly to visit another high school. Now Piper was alone and even if she wasn't the fat little Piper from middle school anymore, her ordeal hadn't ended. She now spent her days trying to hide from the bullies of this world. This gruelsome world named high school.
She had now reached the classroomdoor, taking in a deep breath she tried to gather her bravery, brushed with her hands through her hair before making the decision to go in, even if it was no choice. She failed with the bravery part but knew she had to go in. She pulled her clothes in place, double checking that no skin of her belly were to be seen, her belly was still a big insecurity to her, although there really was no reason for it.
Opening the door, Piper felt her cheeks already blushing and felt all eyes on her.
Mr Healy, the old grey haired psychologyteacher, stopped with his lesson and stared at her, in his eyes layed disappointment and a layer of betrayal. His favourite student in the whole wide world just broke his first and most important rule. He hated latecomers even more than during class talkers, he considered it disrespectful and a personal insult against him.
He stared at her and waited for an explanation, even though no explanation in the world would have satisfied him, while Piper felt truly uncomfortable in front of the class, that had started whispering and giggleing. Piper damned herself in her head, she should have thought of an excuse before walking into class, but the whole morning had made her nervous and insecure. Now she had no idea how to explain her being late. She could hardly tell the whole class about what had happened. About this guy named Larry.
Mr Healy looked more furious about her remaining silent from second to second and her classmates were not trying to hide their amusement anymore. They were now openly laughing into her face while one of Nichols followers, the blonde one with the neck tattoo and the cornrows that followed Nichols every single step like a shadow, turned around to her shining example „Looks like fatty lost her voice now'"
It was one of the rather harmless insultings but it caused Piper to wince internally nevertheless. Tricia only earned a bored smile from her boss for that lame attempt and turned around again with a disappointed look.
Piper knew Tricia since middle school, well, knowing was too big of a word, they had never talked but Piper knew that she had been a victim of bullies herself, with her old clothes, that smelled like poverty from a three miles distance, and her junkie mother, who appeared on the schoolyard more than once, screaming, yelling, sometimes even begging for money. A fact that made it only worse and harder to understand how Tricia could have been able to change sides and join the bully faction so easily.
„Thank you, Miss Miller for this contribution of high quality." Mr Healy was unnerved by the interruption and the fact that it was Piper who was the cause of this didn't make it any better. "Sit down Miss Chapman." he grunted, an order that Piper followed as fast as possible, sliding onto her chair, trying to become invisible. The looks of the others still burnt on her skin like branding marks, hot and itching and uncomfortable.
Uncomfortable. If Piper had to discribe herself or her life with only one word, she wouldn't have to think about it for more than a second, the word would be uncomfortable. While her heartbeat calmed down very slowly, the blonde realized that her psychology book, which she had wanted to use to hide herself behind, was still lying on top of the bookstack behind her green lockerdoor, where she had placed it after collecting her stuff from the floor. This promised to be a long day.
When the lesson was finally over, Piper felt a kind of relieve for the first time that day. Healy had called her up a dozen times during lesson to punish her for being late, he had made it impossible for the shy girl to hide herself and all she wanted now was to grab her things and disappear into the prop room of the theatre club.
She loved the prop room. The couch between the rows of dusty costumes from middle age to batman costume and the extravagant props was her shelter ever since she had discovered it in her first month of high school. It was her save place, noone ever came there between the lessons and Piper needed this safety, at least for those minutes and right now she craved for the calm atmosphere and the familiar smell of mothballs and dust and the dull light that shined through the little round window under the roof.
„Miss Chapman'"
Piper whinced internally, hoping Mr. Healy would forget about her if she just carried her head low enough. A plan that was predestinated to fail.
„Miss Chapman, please come to my desk. You too." Healy nodded towards the back of the classroom where one of Nicky's gangmembers still sat with her feet on the table, the chair tilted backwards, chewing on her gum and rising her high eyebrows scornfully before she moved herself towards the front of the classroom as slowly and bored as possible.
Horror was rising in Piper's eyes. She didn't want to be alone in a room with one of the Nichols, she had made this mistake once and spent three hours locked in her sports locker afterwards.
'Miss Chapman!' Healy barked at her impatiently when Piper hadn't moved a bit yet. She slowly walked through the now empty classroom towards the front desk, followed by the eyes of the unnerved teacher and the smirking black haired student in boots and leather jacket. Standing next to this tall girl made her incredibly nervous and every fibre in her body was set on alarm, giving her the urge to run away.
Mr. Healy turned his gaze towards Piper, waiting before he started to speak, as if he wanted to intesify the tension on dramatic purpose.
„Miss Chapman, I've been told you've been taking part in the highly recommended tutoring programm in our local middle school." it was no question and Piper was too uncomfortable to say anything.
Her mother had forced her into this group back then because of how wonderful that volunteer work would look on her college applications.
„You're one of my best students" Healy went on with his hymn of praise, causing Piper to blush and the other girl to roll with her eyes, showing off how little she cared about Piper's achievements or about this situation in general.
„And since your grades are always remarkable and you are experienced in tutoring and Miss Vause here is struggling right now not to fail class'"
The raven haired girl took her glasses off her nose. Those were the kind of sexy librarian black rimmed glasses that could only been worn by this kind of I don't care about what people say-people beacuse they knew they were trendsetter. She cleaned her classes with her worn out white shirt that was a tiny little bit see-through, showing off her black bra, before putting it on top of her head and crossing her arms in front of her chest, looking like she could not care less. Her badass attitude irritated Piper and so she needed a few moments to realize what Healy had just said while she had watched the girl beside her.
„Wait. What? No." Piper hurried to answer, causing Mr. Healy to blaze lividly at his favorite student who had disappointed him for the second time in one day. „Miss Chapman. Your attitude leaves a lot to be desired right now and I really don't think your behaviour is appropropriate for a future Harvard student. At Harvard they expect more from their students than good grades, I guess you are aware of that fact.'"
Blushing, partly because of her feeling ashamed about Healy's true words, but mostly because she hated being lectured like a dumb little child, Piper averted her gaze, she stared at her own feet, her jeansblue Chuck Taylors, waiting for the heat on her face to disappear. Healy looked at his student for a few seconds, considering her silence as a consent.
When noone said anything for a few more moments and the silence was starting to get awkwardly thick, Healy clapped in his hands and in this deafening tranquility it sounded like an explosion ripping apart every molecule floating through the air.
„Ladies" he barked right after it, when Piper's ears were still ringing „May I consider this problem as solved now? Miss Vause?" he gazed at her over the edge of his glasses, pressing his lips together like he always did. The girl just smirked at him, continuing her not having said anything for the whole conversation but it was enough for Healy to take that as a yes.
So he turned his attention towards Piper again. „Miss Chapman?" Piper didn't like how he said her name, it was too fatherly, too familiar, nearly intimidatingly so. But it was no use to fight this any longer, he had made it more than clear that he won't accept a no.
„Yes, Mr. Healy." She mumbled inferiorly, the words tasted like gall, then Healy finally sent them outside with only a wave of his hand.
Piper stumbled out, feeling the urge to run, hide herself, turn back time. It was hard to keep herself steady while feeling like her stomach turned upside down. She felt the presence of the other girl next to her like a black hole that was ready to suck her in and destroy her for good.
„So it's you and me, I guess." the other girl, that everbody referred to as Vause, said and Piper was sure it was the first time she ever heard her talking, because that voice she would have remembered for sure. It was a dark, raspy voice that promised mystery and misery. It would have been sexy if it didn't belonged to the best friend of her worst bully.
Piper felt more sick every second and hurried through the door to her right, kicking it open and disappearing in one of the bathroom stalls. "I'm Alex, by the way" she heard the raspy voice calling after her right before she started cramping and vomiting until her stomach was empty.
