Haku felt herself freezing with fear. After all, this Luo girl would just join the rest of them in making her life horrible. It had happened to every new girl. They would, at first, look upon her with pity but would eventually start being fed all sorts of lies until she joined in. There was no reason for it to not happen to Luo.
Haku tried to put her head down and focus on the lesson, but it was difficult to concentrate because the classroom was alive with chatter about the new girl. Comments ranging from "OMG, we've never had a Chinese here before! I wonder if she can teach me Chinese!" (Miku, who liked to learn languages just so she can tell people to fuck off and not get in trouble because the teachers couldn't understand what she was saying) to "she is sooo hot, holy crap!" (Gumi, the lesbian of the bunch) filled the air. Luo jut sat there and listened to it all.
Haku sneaked a glance at her. Gumi was right, she was really pretty. Luo had long grey hair, green eyes and porcelain skin. She wore a blue and white dress with black stockings and blue arm warmers. Yes, she was pretty.
The bell rang and it was time to go to History. Haku tried to slink to her locker unnoticed, but Miku caught her.
"I'm not done with you yet, you bitch," Miku snarled before winding her hand around her victims long white ponytail and yanking hard. Haku winced as she was thrown to the floor and spat on. The other girls started clapping. Some were cheering.
Then the teacher marched out of the classroom. "Alright, break it up! Get to class!" She looked down at Haku, "Get off the floor! And clean yourself up! You know Girl's High doesn't tolerate that sort of mess." She turned onher heel and went back into the classroom.
Haku picked herself up. Through the dispersing crowd she could see Luo watching everything unfold, an expression of sympathy on her delicate features.
History was about the same as always: girls made cruel comments that cut deep, teacher remained (wilfully?) ignorant. But she noticed how Luo took the seat next to her, even though there were plenty of other seats available.
After History was clubs time. Unbelievably, Haku was in a club: book club. She loved reading and wanted to see what book club would be like; aside from all the bullying, of course. It was her one small rebellion against her aggressors.
She entered the library. The girls were already in there and they had grouped their chairs in a circle around the librarian. Haku then saw the lone chair, far away from the others. Her chair.
She obediently sat down and watched, with a racing heart, as Luo came in, stopped, saw the arrangement, then take out a chair and sit next to the white-haired girl.
What was she doing? Haku thought, was this some attempt at getting under her skin? She remembered the look of sympathy Luo had given her in the hallway, and started to have doubts.
The librarian noticed the new arrival. "Why, hello there. You must be Luo. Are you part of book club now?"
Luo shrugged. "I guess. I didn't really know what to do so I just followed everyone else."
"Very well then. Now back to the book. This week we'll be reading The Eyes of the Moon. And, you'll be doing a project on this."
This was met with several moans and complaints.
"Yes, yes, I know," the librarian sighed, "but the Open Day is coming up and all the clubs have to demonstrate what they've been doing. So, you'll get into pairs and you have four weeks to read the book and create either a wall chart or a poster giving a brief summary on what the book is about. You'll also need to talk about the symbolism in the book and how it applies to real life. Nothing too difficult."
There was still some complaining, mostly coming from Emma, the artsy one.
The librarian winked. "You can include pictures if you want."
That got Emma's approval.
"Alright. Organise yourself into peers."
"Miku! Come with me!"
"Aww, I was gonna ask her to up with me…"
Alright Gumi, it's you and me."
"Hey, I pity the poor girl who has to go with her." The girl motioned in Haku's direction. This caused the group to giggle.
Luo reached over and touched Haku's hand with her own. "I'll go with you." She gave a small smile.
Miku spun around. "Really? You're actually gonna go with her?"
"Well, why not?"
Miku sniffed. "Why not, she says. Why not indeed?" She said with as much sarcasm as she could muster.
Haku just smiled shyly at her new partner. Miku saw, and scowled.
The rest of book club seemed almost too good to be true. Sure, it only consisted of more explaining of how the project was going towards their English grades and how important it was, but Luo didn't say anything remotely bad towards or about her. This was a first for Haku.
Things went right back to normal when school ended and Haku shuffled over to her locker to grab a few things.
Miku and her right-hand woman, Luka, were already waiting for her.
"Think you can get all pally with Luo, do you?" Luka said, "well you can enjoy it while it lasts. She'll be one of us soon, and there's nothing you can do about it."
"Also, you should clean up this food stains on your shirt. Girl's High doesn't tolerate that sort of stuff." Miku said in a snarky imitation of the English teacher's voice.
"B-but you-" Haku stuttered.
Miku leaned closer to her face. "B-but I what? You shouldn't sit with us. You know the rules." She suddenly punched Haku in the face. She stumbled and fell back against the lockers.
"Weak. You need to learn to take a punch. You're such a pussy." Miku saw Haku's eyes begin to well up with tears. "Looks like you're a pussy and a baby." She lashed out with her foot and smiled at the 'oof' she received. "Let's go, Luka. I wanna practice my punching on someone who can actually take it." They sauntered off, Luka stifling laughter.
It hurt to breathe. Miku's kick had collided with her chest. She lay down and tried to regain her breath. Her eye was throbbing and her cheeks were wet with tears. I took a minute to realise someone was standing over her. Instinctively, she threw one arm up to cover her face.
Instead of another kick, she felt someone's fingers latch onto her own and pull. She stood up and realised it was Luo. She felt so overwhelmed that she started crying again.
Luo's fingers strikes her cheek. "Hey, don't cry. I'm here now. I won't let them hurt you."
Haku just continued to cry, partially out of relief that someone was caring about her. She felt herself being pulled into an embrace. She lay her head on her saviour's shoulder, who stroked her back.
After a minute, Luo pulled away and took Haku by the hand and began leading her down the hallway.
"Where are w-we going?" Haku asked, sniffling.
"Come on. I'm taking you home."