Rose POV
Chemistry was as boring as ever, Mrs. Pratt giving us her Oscar-worthy "welcome back to school" speech. However, instead of a standing ovation, she was met with awkward silence.
Needless to say that no student was happy to be back at New Oaks High School. Summer break had gone by in a flash and it was time to face the harsh reality.
"Psst!"
Insert crickets sound.
"Psstttt!" I poked Lissa, trying to get her attention.
The traitor had been ignoring me for 10 full minutes and I was going crazy. Talking to someone was the only way to survive this class.
"What do you want?" She hissed, annoyance cristal clear in her voice.
"To talk, obviously." I rolled my eyes.
"Can't we talk later? I need to pay attention and so do you."
I waved her off. Lissa was a straight-A student while me, well , I'm a straight-B with an ocasional C.
"She'll be giving this speech 'til class ends and she'll be listening carefully to the words coming out of her own mouth, so she won't notice." I stated, beaming.
I could see she was just about to crack, just one more push...
"Come on, put me out of my misery!" I whined, pouting.
And...
"Okay, fine! What do you want to talk about?"
BAM!!! Mission acomplished.
"I don't know, you decide."
Lissa grew pensative for a few moments and then she smirked with a devilish glint in those emerald-green eyes of hers. Oh, I'm so screwed... My best friend might have the face of an angel, but she had the mind of a devil.
You should see her playing 'Truth or Dare'. She could come up with some pretty crazy dares and if you picked truth, she would ask you something that would make you wish you'd choose dare.
"I would like to know what you and Dimitri talked about for hours."
Why didn't I see this coming?
My smile dropped and hers grew bigger.
"Start talking, missy. You said and I quote 'You decide'."
Thirty minutes later, her eyes were wide and her hand barely muffled the squeals coming out of her mouth.
"Oh my god!" She shook me while I tried to escape her grip and not attract our teacher's attention at the same time.
"Ease up on the 'FRIENDS' references, will you?"
"Never, that's my favourite TV show."
It's mine too. Sometimes, when I slept over at Lissa's house we would binge-watch FRIENDS and try to reenact some scenes. Our best ones yet were Joey's catch phrase 'How you doin'?', Janice's 'Oh My God', Chandler's and Joey's horrible dance moves and Phoebe's 'Smelly Cat' song.
"But seriously, don't get too excited."
"I'll try. No promises though."
"Urghhh!"
The bell rung at that precise moment and all of us left the room as fast as we could. It was a normal day, with some classes flying by while others seem to last for hours. There were actually a few subjects I enjoyed and payed attention like Biology, History and English. The torture showed its ugly face in other cruel and stupid classes like Physics, Chemistry and, like for the vast majority of the sane teens in the world, Math.
Fortunately, my schedule for today consisted of only three classes in the morning, Chemistry, English and Biology, and one more class in the afternoon, P.E.
Piece of cake.
My morning classes went by smoothly and soon it was lunch time. Following our routine, we met up with Ambrose near my locker and then proceeded to the cafeteria together. Just when we were entering, we walked by Christian, Mason and Eddie. They abruptly stopped talking when they saw me. Weird.
I averted my eyes from them, shifting my focus to my friends. They were discussing today's menu.
Yay, food!
"Pizza, I want pizza. And maybe a donut. Or brownies. Or all of the above." I sighted, dreaming of all my favourite treats.
"That would be Heaven." Ambrose commented.
"Yeah, it would. Hey, Rose? Why are you wearing your hair like that? I've been meaning to ask you all day. You usually just let it loose."
I froze.
She looked at me curiously, waiting for an answer and I mentally slapped myself. Of course she would notice...
Lissa was right. It was a rare event to ever see me with my hair in different hairstyles, I usually just let it loose or sometimes I would bind it in a ponytail.
Not today.
Today I was wearing my hair to the side, concealing the right side of my face and using bobby pins to push back the hair on my left side. Kinda of like that witch character, Penelope Park from Legacies.
"Hum, I don't know. Just felt like it, I guess."
Liar.
"Oh, it looks nice." She said.
"Thanks." I tried to smile but I guess I didn't fake it as well as I should have because she frowned.
I walked faster to the line in an attempt to avoid comments from both Ambrose and Lissa. I grabbed my food quickly without even registering what it was and headed to our usual table. When I sat down, I waited for them so we could start eating.
They finally arrived, chatting and laughing and I tried to do the same, but the comment Liss made never left my mind.
Was it that obvious?
Was it obvious that I was trying to conceal my face?
I took a bite of my food, which luckily was pizza, and I tried to calm down.
But no matter how much I tried, my mind wouldn't settle down. I hated lying to Liss and Ambrose. If they found out the real reason behind this, if they knew that the reason I was wearing my hair like this was because the slap my 'mother' had given me had also left a small, but very noticeable, bruise on my cheek, they would be worried and they would probably give me a matching bruise on my other cheek.
I think that maybe the main reason I didn't want them to know was that once they did, they would know how my life really was. I mean, they already knew my mother was a drunk. Hell, the whole neighborhood probably knew. But they didn't know that she also beat me sometimes. I had kept it from them.
I knew I had to tell them eventually.
Secrets don't stay secret for very long.
And no amount of makeup could completely cover the purplish mark. Believe me, I tried. It covered it a bit, but if you looked at me, you'd still see it, ence the hairstyle.
Speaking of makeup, I had to remember to re-apply it before P.E. I'll go as soon as we finnish eating. For the next hour and a half I tried to lift my own spirits by talking and joking around with Liss and Ambrose. Surprisingly, it worked and by the time the bell rung for my last class I was in a much better mood.
Talking nonsense with friends will do that to you.
The minute I stepped through the doors from our P.E. building I heard a male voice directed at me.
"Hathaway, you're late. Gear up and meet us outside in 5." Stan Alto, our teacher, demanded.
"Sir yes, sir." I did that whole salutation thingy which got an eye roll from Stan.
I guess you could say we had a love-hate-mostly-hate relationship going on. Luckily P.E. was one of my favourite classes or else I wouldn't be able to endure my dear teacher's so called sass.
Me and a bunch of other students spent half the class running around the school looking for little white and orange signs. It was a true miracle that I managed to keep the bruise hidden, because not only had I been running like a lunatic but I also forgotten to re-apply my makeup, making my already noticeable bruise even more noticeable.
When I finished the exercise (thank God), I went back to meet my classmates. I delivered my sheet to Stan and made a beeline for the water fountain 'cause goddamn, was I thirsty.
Pretty much inhaling water, I had the not-so-brilliant idea to freshen up my face seeing I was burning up. Straightening up, I turned to leave and almost bumped into Seline Underwood, one of my classmates who was also a bitch with a capital B. She opened her mouth, no doubt to say some mean remark, but her gaze fixated on my cheek.
Oh.
OH!
My eyes widened with the shock of my own stupidity. My hand flew in a futile attempt to cover the purple mark but it was already too late. Seline had seen it perfectly.
"So, Hathaway, did you get that bruise from that stupid fight classes or did your drunk whore of a mother snapped and hit your not so pretty little face?" She smirked and my blood froze in my veins. She had said that to make fun of me, but she didn't realize how right she was.
But maybe when my face turned as white as paper she got the hint.
Seline quickly covered her mouth, a laugh escaping through her lips.
"Oh, she did hit you didn't she? This is gold, I mean, your own mother got so tired of your face she tried to change it. Well, news flash honey, purple isn't your color."
"Shut. Up." I gritted my teeth.
"Why would I ? Am I hurting your feelings? It's not really my fault that your own mother doesn't love you." That damn smile was still on her face.
"I said shut up!" My whole body trembled in anger and embaressment.
A part of me wanted to wipe the smile off Seline's face, but he weaker part of me wanted to run off, away from her gaze.
When I felt and heard more people aproaching us, probably noticing the tension, the weaker part of me won and I ran off, ignoring Stan's booming voice and my classmates chuckles. I ran. I ran and I kept running until I reached my street. Then, I stopped and crouched down to calm my erratic breathing.
I felt so ashamed. Rumors I could deal with, it was easy. But it's a completely different thing when other people know what's going on in your life.
I was so into my own head, I didn't notice when I passed by Mark's house and a voice called my name.
"Hey, Rose!"
"Huh?" I spinned on the sidewalk, looking for the person calling my name.
Standing on his porch, Richard waved at me.
Richard, or Rick, was Mark's and Oksana's son. He didn't live with them anymore but he visited a lot. I liked him, he was always kind. Very much like his parents.
"Long time no see." I faked a smile.
"How are you holding up?"
"Fine. I'm like a diamond, nothing can cut me. And just as pretty as one too." I shrugged, earning a laugh from Richard.
"You haven't changed a bit. I'm glad. But I get the feeling that you're lying to me." He crossed his arms, waiting for a reply.
I sighted.
"It's nothing. Just a rich bitch at school annoying me. It's fine, I don't really care about what she, or anyone else for that matter, says about me." I don't know if I was trying to convince him or myself.
"That may be true, but you shouldn't forget one thing. Rich people love to judge and diminish people with less financial prosperity than them, it brings them joy and a sense of superiority and power. Don't let them get to you. Money doesn't make a person." He was right, I just wished more people thought like this.
"I know money isn't everything, but it sure would be great to have some. I could finally leave this place and find my own house, away from certain people."
"You'll get there someday. Just look at me." Richard pointed at himself, which made him look silly and funny.
I cracked a smile.
"I wish!" I was so tired of this little town, with its little people.
"You will, trust me. You'll have to work hard, hard than those who have money. Rich people don't value what they have. They take it for granted and act superior, while people like you and me work our asses off all our lives to have even just a fragment of that." His words were deep and true.
"What was your major again? You should be a politician. God knows we need more of those, a little bit like you." Deep conversations at this hour was too much for me to take, so I eased up the chat with a small joke.
"Maybe you're right. Well, I should get going. My turn to cook dinner for mom and dad. See you!" He messed up my hair and bolted for the door, afraid of my reaction.
I giggled.
"Good luck! See you, Rick."
He closed the door and I kept walking to my front door. I entered the house quietly, rushing to my bedroom and locking the door behind me. Fallind down on the bed, I put my headphones on and stared at the ceiling 'Lovely' by Billie Eilish and Khalid echoing in my head.
My mind kept going back to Seline and the shame I felt when she got a good look at my face.
Why?
Of all the people at school, why her?
Haven't I suffered enough? My father, my mother...
I've had enough. And Rick was right. What he said was playing on repeat between my thoughts.
'Rich people don't value what they have. They take it for granted and act superior, while people like you and me work our asses off all our lives to have even just a fragment of that.'
As the song progressed, an idea struck me harder and faster than lightning.
A/N: I'm back!! yayyy
Hope u like this chapter
Leave a review and tell me what you think of my story so far.
sorry if there's any errors, I corrected a few but I might have missed others
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