She wakes up early in the morning. She sits in her bed for a few minutes, then lifts her arm. Yes, she can still see her bruises, she realizes, and her whole body still aches. Unfortunately, none of the night before was 'just a dream'.
She slowly gets out of her bed and gets dressed. She puts on a jacket that's about four sizes too big. She doesn't care about looking good, or sexy today. She wants to look normal. Average. She doesn't want anyone to notice her existence at all. She would skip school today. Not go at all, and maybe just stay home, helping her mother with whatever she might need, but she can't. She's already skipped too many days of school to go to concerts, or parties. If she skips anymore, she'll be retained, and have to redo the school year. She doesn't want that to happen. She puts on jeans. Regular, plain jeans. When she's dressed, she goes into the kitchen and pours herself a bowl of cereal. She ends up just sitting at the table, staring into the bowl. She's not hungry, she realizes. She gets up and walks into her mother's room. "Mom?" she asks in a quiet whisper, "Mom, are you hungry? There's some cereal on the table if you want some."
Her mother mumbles back a reply before falling back asleep.
Then Bianca heads off to school.
The walk to school is not a very fun one. She sees strange men just hanging out in alleys. One man stops her and whispers, "I've got fresh marijuana right here, and it's cheap."
First, she walks away from him, becoming slightly fearful that he'll hurt her, because he appears to be on drugs right now, but he's persistent. She digs in her pocket and hands him the money, and he gives her the small bag.
"Get lost." she tells him.
And he does.
She stares down at the drugs in her hands. She'll save them, she thinks, in case she ever needs to sell them. She stuffs them in her handbag and keeps walking to school.
When she gets to school, she walks straight past the police officers. They don't ask to search her bag today. Which she's grateful for.
She sits down against the wall near her locker.
Someone asks her "Are you okay?"
She looks up and sees another girl. She knows this girl, or she knows of her.
It's Fiona Coyne. Her locker is near Bianca's, because of their last names.
"That's a pretty bad bruise you've got." Fiona says.
"Yeah? So?"
"I wanted to make sure you were okay."
"I'm fine." Bianca says coldly.
"Okay," Fiona says, putting her bag in her locker and closing the door. "I just wanted to be sure."
Bianca watched Fiona walk away and join another girl.
Fiona had looked at her with such consideration. Bianca wondered why.
She continues sitting by her locker. She stares at people as they walk by. They don't seem to notice her though, and if they do, they just stare back at her with a disgusted look. Can they see how dirty she feels right now? Or are they looking at something else with that gross look on their face?
Suddenly, she sees someone standing right in front of her.
"Bianca! You looked so sick yesterday. I didn't know if you'd be here today."
She looks up to see Drew staring down at her.
"How are you feeling?" he asks.
"I'm fine." she says in the same worn out, quiet voice she's been using all day.
"Are you sure?" Drew asks, "You sound sick, maybe you should go home and rest."
"I can't." Bianca says.
"Why not?"
"I've already missed too many days." Bianca says. And then she thinks 'and I don't want to be home alone'
"That sucks, B." Drew says, holding out his hand to help her up.
She stares at it for a few seconds.
"Bianca, what's wrong with you lately?" Drew asks, seeing her hesitate to take his hand, "You seem completely out of it."
"I'm not." Bianca says, taking his hand "I'm fine."
He pulls her up.
"Are you absolutely sure?"
"Yes."
He looks at her closely, "Bianca…" he begins, "You have a black eye… what happened?"
"I don't have a black eye. It must be a shadow." she says. She runs off to the girl's bathroom and stares at herself in the mirror. Some of her black eye is visible… but it isn't as dark as it would be if she wasn't wearing her makeup. She reapplies some of her makeup, making the black eye hardly visible at all, and then, she gets ready for the rest of the day.