Sissy was laughing when Ulrich cut her off with some remark that had sent her fuming away and back to her own table. Odd was surprised by the answer that Mira had given, replaying it in his mind over and over again.
I know
He couldn't take it anymore. Getting up, he ran out of the cafeteria and off to find Mira.
She hadn't gotten very far, in fact Odd could see her as soon as he exited the cafeteria. She had tears in her eyes, remembering every negative thing said or done to her at her old schools. It was stupid to think that this place might be different. It was just that this time she didn't have a home that she could escape too.
Odd finally caught her out behind the gym and lunged for her wrist, the closest thing he could grab. She yelped in pain when pressure was applied to her cuts. It made her freeze and try not to cry, but her eyes betrayed her again.
"Why do you cringe in pain every time I touch your wrist? And why did you agree to what Sissy was saying!" He demanded. Mira was trying to come up with a plausible lie, but Odd had already rolled up her sleeves and pushed the bracelets away.
What he saw made him choke.
Her arms were cut, from her wrist up to her elbow. They were neat and orderly, some looked old while others looked more recent. It had obviously been done with a razor, and they were lined up perfectly.
"Who did this?" He asked, scared of the answer.
She told him what he didn't want to here. "I did." Odd didn't know how he felt. He was confused, angry, but most of all, sad. What could be so bad that she would cut herself?
"Why." He asked. Mira leaned against the brick wall for support, but it didn't help her from slumping to the ground, face buried into her legs. He body started shaking and Odd could tell she was crying. He sat down in front of her, waiting for an answer.
Behind the wall, Jeremy, Aelita, Ulrich, and Yumi were are listening to the conversation. All they new was that something was wrong and they wanted to find out. They had no idea that the two were talking about the cuts, and just hoped they would find out soon.
Mira placed her chin on her knee's, facing Odd. He was staring at her expectantly, waiting to listen. "I'll start from the beginning." She whispered.
"It all starts with my parents. I was to little to know what they were at the time, but if I had, then I wouldn't have stayed with them. They were drug dealers. One day when I was 7, they had decided they needed to change location. If it weren't for the fact that I could probably tell the police enough information for them to realize what my parents were up to, they wouldn't have brought me with them.
We were at the shed. I was waiting in the corner. It was small, but packed full of boxes. I didn't move as my parents moved each and every box out.
Then I heard barking and the sound of heavy feet. My parent's had suddenly started running for the shed from the truck they were loading. They got in and were closing the doors when a heavy boot stopped them. They pulled out their guns and were about to shoot the police men who were coming after them.
I heard a loud bang.
I watched as my parents body's jerked backwards. Blood splattered all over the wall, some even getting on me. It was my mom's. She landed only a foot away from me. I could still see her face. Full of anger and rage, like it was directed towards me.
Both my parents died that day. Right in front of me. I cried and cried until I was picked up by a policeman and brought to an ambulance.
From their everything is a bit blurry. I remember walking into the orphanage building, meeting the people there, and a few weeks after I was admitted I was adopted. The couple who adopted me wasn't that great though.
They saw me as a charity case. They didn't hear my history at all. I think they figured that if they took me in, they would get good karma or go to heaven or something. I doubt that'll happen though. They constantly ignored me, only giving me an education, food, a roof, and some cloths. Our relationship had no love. I had two step brothers, Sean and Mark who were there for me. Twins. They're a year older then me, but I'll always be their baby sister. Those two were the only positives in my life.
At school I was just a shadow in the crowd. Nobody really noticed me. That is, until I became an outlet for their anger. Everything was suddenly my fault. I was distracting them with my ugly face so they failed a test; they were sick because they had gotten to close to me. I would find letters in my locker telling me I was a waste of space. That I should commit suicide.
Luckily my parents had to move for business so we got out of there. A new school, new life right? No. The same thing happened again. One day I got home from school and I saw my razor in my bathroom right away. I'd heard about people online who had cut before saying it helped.
So I gave it a try. I pressed the blades on my skin and cut myself. Even though it hurt, I guess I liked it a bit. It reminded me that I was still a human being, gave me a sense of control. The physical pain took away the emotional pain.
I've been doing it ever since. When my parents saw my grades drop, their solution was to send me here to Kadic academy. It was hard to say goodbye to my brothers but I managed. A little after coming I met everyone." She finished.
Odd, for once in his life, was at a lost for words. He couldn't make the situation better with a joke, he knew an "I'm sorry" was useless at this point, and he couldn't possibly say that he understood how it felt when he didn't.
Instead, he pulled her into a hug, lettering cry a bit on his shirt. Her tears were silent as they rolled like a river down her face.
Behind the wall, Aelita her self was crying. Yumi had tears in her eyes and felt bad that she ever thought Mira could be a bad person. Ulrich didn't know what to do and was trying to comfort Yumi while Jeremy was frozen.
Aelita who could no longer sit there while her friend cried ran out from behind the wall and joined Odd in hugging the crying girl. "Mira! I heard everything. I just want you to know that you aren't gonna be alone anymore and we won't let anything like that happen to you ever again. I promise okay Mira?" The others who couldn't stand behind the wall a came out. "Really?" Mira asked. Odd nodded. "Of course. What are friends. for?"
Mira, for the first time in a while, gave a genuine smile. "I don't know" she answered. "Then we'll teach you" was Odd's brilliant response. "Only on one condition." Ulrich added. He turned over her wrists and pointed to one of her scars. "You've got to stop doing that. Deal?"
Mira laughed while rubbing the tears from her eyes. For the first time in a while, she would have friends. "Deal" She agreed. They helped her up from the ground. "Oh and one more thing" Yumi added.
"Don't let Sissy or anyone else get to you. Your perfect the way you are." She grinned. Mira gave gave her a small frown. "It's just, when multiple people all start telling you the same thing, you start to believe what their saying is true."
"Then all we have to do is keep complimenting you right! Soon your self esteem will be back to normal!" Odd cheered. The others agreed as they walked back to class, having completely missed first period with Mrs. Hertz.
For the rest of the day, they had stuck with Mira, trying to sit with her when they could. They ate lunch together, talked, and laughed. For once in her life, Mira felt normal. When Sissy came over to insult her again, the others had her running tail between her legs before she could even get close to Mira.
"So you guys" Jeremy started. "I think we should do some training with Mira on Lyoko tonight. We don't have any classes tomorrow. What do you say?" Everyone agreed but Yumi. "Sorry guys, I promised my mom I'd help her clean. See you later" she waved, heading back home.
The others discovered that Mira was actually really smart, so while Jeremy and Aelita went to go and work on programming, the guys begged her to help them study. "Come on please! If I fail one more test I'll get 4 hours of detention!" Odd begged. Ulrich agreed, pulling out the X.A.N.A card on her and saying it would be bad if he and Odd were in detention when there was an attack.
She eventually gave in and was currently sitting on the floor of Odd and Ulrich's room trying to teach them what they had missed in math.
"No Odd watch." She told him. "First you have to take the Y value here and Subtract it from this Y value. What do you get?" I asked. "Umm, 8" He answered. She smiled. "Ya. Okay and now you subtract this X from the X value here and you get..." "2" Odd finished. "Great. So now you divide 8 by 2 and you get"
"Four" he answered. "Which is the..." "Slope!" He smiled. Mira grinned back at him, happy he was learning.
Odd loved her smile, and for some reason, he got butterflies in his stomach when he saw it.
Ulrich's cellphone rang catching all 3 of the kids attention. "You're ready? Okay genius where on our way." He hung up. We all started packing our school work away, almost all of it complete.
"Ready for some training guys?"
