A/N: Just realised that on my last chapter for some reason I put A/U, still do not know how the fuck that happened or why, meh. So sorry for the waiting, life's so hectic right now (being swamped with exams! :,O ) probably wasn't the right time to start a fanfic but I will carry on.
Thank you Baldurdash, yes Sky hasn't dealt with what has happened to her; as she sleeps with a knife under her pillow, bites, talks, and kicks in her sleep etc. I don't see her as the kind of person who would admit to needing or accepting help (it's a very hard thing to do), and probably views it as weakness. I don't want let slip too much but I will go into everything that has happened to her as a child in a lot more detail later on, especially as she and Reno start to get closer the cracks will begin to show.
So please bear with me. Patience is a virtue! Thank you all for your kind reviews please keep them up, I appreciate each one and take everything you say into consideration.
"Right class, put down you pens and wait for me to collect your papers." Mr Elder gets up from behind his desk and walks over to each pupil taking their booklets whether they have finished or not, occasionally leaving a small trail of drool on the desks where the sheets once were. For the last five minutes of the test the majority of the class has been furiously scribbling desperately trying to complete their papers, while I on the other hand have been slouching in my chair downloading music onto my PHS with a set of earphones I found earlier in Reno's car discretely hidden underneath my shirt. I suddenly feel a presence come up behind me as a hand comes from out of nowhere and snatches my paper, my natural jumpiness gets the better of me, that and I've currently got Lets Hang the Landlord by King Blues my favourite band from the slums blaring into my ears. I pull out the earphones the see Mr Elder jumping back from a pretty strong electric shock he caught off of my bracelet, probably because of the crappy material from the shitty uniform; this may be a top school with high charging tuition but they definitely cheaped out on the fabric.
As Mr Elder walks back to his desk I can feel the familiar feeling of being watched intensely I've felt it from the moment I stepped into the class, yes pretty much everyone has had a good look at the slums freak but eventually they've grown bored except for this one. The girl staring at me is sitting two chairs to the side of me; I take a sneaky peak at her noticing for the first time that she's the girl that was leaning against the wall looking at Reno this morning. I hear giggling and hushed whispers coming from her table and from the two other girls in front and behind her, I notice that Mr Elder doesn't comment on all of the noise they're making but I'm sure that if it was me I would have been chucked out of the class by now. I've got a good guess at what they're chatting about; I discreetly steal another glance at them. They're making no attempt of hiding what they're doing; glancing at me then turning to each other a bursting into laughter, maybe they're baiting me. I catch her looking again, this time I let her know that I know exactly what she's been doing; I hold her gaze in response to this she narrows her eyes in a terrible attempt to look intimidating. Throughout the rest of the lesson both of us are stuck staring out each other both of us unwilling to be the one to break it, the school bell rings signalling the end of the first lesson of the day making me r ealise that there's more of this torture to come.
We break eye contact as everyone's leaving the room in a single filed line; I'm so close to the door but I'm yanked back by a hand pulling on my left arm. I instinctively raise my right arm with my hand fisted ready to defend myself against the girl with the badly bleached hair; instead I'm face to face with Mr Elder. "I looked through your mock exam papers Miss Levine." Gods his breath smells like shit, he has something green between his two front teeth. "You're a cheat Miss Levine; I've gone through all of your answers you answered every question correctly you're a cheat. I don't want to see you in my class ever again and I'll be filing a report to the headmistress, I just shrug my shoulders and leave. I don't give a shit, thinking about it when do you use advanced algebra in real life anyway?
I walk out of the class and head for the exit, this place is huge so I figure that there must be a smoking area somewhere even if it's for the teachers; I'm hoping I can bum a smoke from someone. I don't usually smoke cigarettes I'm really only a social smoker, but my usually very short and explosive temper has lately become worse with all of the stress and current upheaval I've experienced and until I find out where Reno stashes his alcohol that'll have to do.
As I enter the main hall I'm greeted with the girls from the classroom blocking my way, all three girls have their arms crossed and are glaring daggers at me. I've just become aware that there is a crowd of students of all ages forming a ring around us, I feel trapped and can sense the anticipation in the air radiating in waves from the newly formed crowd. I refuse to let them see how uncomfortable they are making me feel, so I square my shoulders, straighten my back so I'm at my full height (or lack of), and stare straight foreword as I walk towards the door. I'm so close to them, but I make sure that my pace does not quicken or slow, and that my posture doesn't show that I tensing up, sizing them up; getting ready to fight if I have to. I figure that my best bet is to take the blonde ringleader, though she's the biggest of the bunch (far taller and well-built than me) if I knock her down the others might not want try anything. I'm only hoping that her parents haven't thought or cared enough to get her into self-defence classes, and though I haven't had any professional training I know how to hold my own in a fight using my small size to my advantage. That and the slums teach you one thing no black belt in the whole of Gaia will no matter how much gil you chuck at them; fighting dirty, yes I'm not above scratching, hair pulling, biting or nipple crippling. I try to walk passed them but the girl in the middle squares her shoulders so it would be very hard to get passed her, I step back and try to keep my cool looking her right in the eye. She walks up to me, arms still crossed, her expression hasn't changed much. She's right in front of me practically leaning over me, "Who was that guy you were with this morning?"
"Who Reno? He's just some guy I know." I'm feeling quite smug and surprised with myself by how steady my voice came out just then.
"You're from the slums right; he's probably your pimp." As she says the last part she turns to the crowd for effect. I can hear a few giggles and chuckles, and not the muffled or hidden laughter like earlier in the class room, they made no attempt to mask themselves. Stay calm, don't rise to it.
"Well since you've had such a sheltered life I doubt you'd know what a real pimp actually looks like, so I'm gonna let that one slide." Okay, good nice and calm, for once be the bigger person. "So why don't you and your little bitches over there piss off and sort your roots out coz I wanna fag." Oh, shit! Her eyes blaze and her face hardens she grabs me by the shoulders pushes me slightly, seriously was that it? I can't help but snigger.
"You find something funny? You won't be laughing when I scratch your eyes out, you slut. I'm the only one who can have blonde hair here." I look around and sure enough all I could see was a sea of black and browns was that what her problem was? How pathetic. I shrug my shoulders and attempt to walk passed her again. This time I'm met with her raised open palm quickly descending towards my face, luckily I spotted this just in time and managed to dodge it. As she was recovering from her missed attack I took this as my opportunity and punch her in the right shoulder; it's a good warning shot, not in a place that could cause any major damage, just hard enough to shock her and to prove I'm not a push over, and on her slapping arm. The hallway's silent for a moment, the girl curled her lip and let out a growl of shock and anger. The two other girls go to her side, with their eyes on me never leaving. The smaller one, about the same height as me with Wutai features and her poker straight ebony hair in a very short bob borderline pixie cut launches herself at me with her hands open and ready to grab whatever hair she can get hold of. It takes me a moment to react and to begin to think straight again, I stop trying to pull away from her which was my natural reaction and also causing me more pain and bring both my hands in between her arms which are firmly planted onto my scalp, and shove two fingers into each of her eyes. She screeches in horror and pain, and immediately removes her hands from me and moves away from me rubbing her eyes. The two other girls both go for me, one coming from my front and the other behind. I kick the one in front in her gut and watched her fall no longer caring whether I cause any serious harm, that move left me exposed and the blonde girl behind me pounced on top of me making me land pretty much all of my body weight on my face. I can taste the metallic tang of blood, I quickly run my tongue around my mouth, all teeth are there and accounted for I must have just split my lip. The crowd cheers, I hit the girl above off of me square in the face with my left elbow and turn over so I'm on my back and able to see what's going on. My face feels bruised and my knees are stinging; I can feel a wetness trickling above my left brow where it's especially tender. The redhead that I kicked isn't getting up from her foetal position on the cold tiled floor, the Wutai girl's slowly making her way to me again rubbing her eyes and the blondes left cheek's starting to swell and bruise. My head is starting to swirl and my vision's dancing, I guess I hit my head harder than I had originally thought. Almost from out of nowhere I'm aware that I'm being held up by my hair, did I pass out for a moment? Looking up it's the blonde looking at me straight into my eyes, all I can see is madness; pure spoilt madness fogging her gaze. I feel so weak, so small, like when I was a child and Leanne used to lay into me. She soon stopped when I grew big enough to fight back, but since then I swore to never let myself feel that pathetic ever again. I let out a growl in frustration and summon the last of my strength to discretely get my knife out from my sock, stand and raise my blade to her face, but before it gets remotely close to her smug grin a ball of fire grows from one of the little glowing orbs from my bracelet and flies towards her narrowly missing her but I notice that a good size chunk of her hair and the collar of her shirt are singed. What the fuck? "What the fuck was that you slums scum, did you bring materia?" She lets go of my hair and backs away, the Wutai probably didn't see what had just happened because I ended back onto the floor with her clawing at my face. A large amount of lightning pours from another ball on the jewellery; I can hear screams form all of the students. I feel so drained both physically and mentally drained, my vision is fogging I can just about make out the headmistress storming over to me screaming my name, and then I just let myself fall into a black oblivion.
Bullying is wrong, whether it's at school, at home, in the street, over the phone by text or email. It's cowardly, pathetic and can be mentally scarring or it can drive the victim to take their own life as they see no other way to escape it. If you are a bully please stop, if you are a victim or was talk to someone anyone trust me although it hurts a lot at first but it helps.
I do not own the King Blues (unfortunately ) they are an amazing London based protest band whom the singer Jonny "Itch" Fox was once homeless in London, Lets Hang the Landlord is a song about his experiences and the people he befriended and lost while he was squatting – I strongly recommend looking them up on YouTube or something. Itch for prime minister! Ok that's my rant about how much I'm in love with King Blues is out of the way, for today anyway. ;) Again I'm so sorry for the wait!