When Kara's eyes adjusted, she found herself lying on her soft bed under her covers. The sun was lightly shining through her window, signaling for a fresh start to the day, but even now she knew it wouldn’t be so easy.
Letting herself sit upright, she sighed and let her hair drift loosely over her shoulders for a few minutes before trying to work out what the time was. She could hear her dad sleeping in the next room, so she figured she was awake reasonably early.
Suddenly filled with the urge to stand up, she kicked her duvet off her and swung her legs over the side. She had been completely worn out when she’d been injected, in pain too. Now though, she felt better then she had in days and traced a light smile on her lips that had appeared on her face just a few seconds before.
Standing up, she shivered slightly and changed quickly. Even though it was warm outside, it was still cold in her room and most of the house. Now, in her school uniform, she checked her appearance in the bathroom mirror.
Carefully, she peeled the padding on her nose and froze. Instead of the scab or blood that should have been there, only a small scar remained. Kara quickly bit her lip in thought and checked her leg where she’d jumped over the wall and found no trace of a cut being there whatsoever.
Now completely confused, she ran her fingers over her nose and only felt them and not the pain that she’d felt the day before. Before she could think on it anymore though, she heard her dad blowing his nose in her parents bedroom and ran into hers. It was now roughly the time she had to wake up, and she took the advantage to pack her bag quickly and for the first time in over a week not have her hair up.
Once she was practically ready, she went downstairs and started to make her lunch. Her dad still hadn’t come downstairs yet, and she doubted he would for the next hour or over because she could hear the water running in the bath.
When she looked at the time, she remembered her mum had already gone. She then realised she had time to spare and so put toast in the toaster to make herself a small breakfast.
It was then that she found her school uniform in the tumble dryer and realised what she had on wasn’t clean. Rolling her eyes, she quickly changed to the cleaner set and by the time she was dressed the toast had popped up.
Kara let her hair drift over her shoulders as she buttered the toast and took bites between getting a drink of water from the tap and checking the time on the clock above the kitchen door. Sighing, she realised that she’d have to explain how the cut on her nose had miraculously disappeared off her nose but could think of nothing.
When she’d finished the toast, she put the sandwich’s she’d made in her lunch box and put it in her bag and took the empty drink bottle out. As she quickly filled it up, she searched for a packet of crisps and saw some on the side along with the cat food.
Looking around slowly, she turned the tap off and put the bottle on the side to look for Matchmaker. She was nowhere to be seen, the house was an eerily quiet and Kara bit her lip in thought. There was only one place Kara could think of her kitten being, and that was on one of the dining room chairs, hers to be precise.
As she left her bag in the kitchen, she made a mental note what else to pack before she left;
‘Crisps, bottle, peaches and cereal bar.’ And walked into the dinning room looking in all directions so her kitten wouldn’t catch her out and jump out from nowhere.
Not seeing her straight away, she checked her chair around the dining room table and smiled. Curled up in a little ball was Matchmaker, who seemed to be asleep. Kara decided to leave her alone, when she checked the time on the clock she realised she’d have to leave in the next few minutes anyway, so left the dining room to finish packing her bag.
Silently, she turned her MP3 player on and checked she had everything she’d need. Just as she’d thought, her keys and phone were thrown loosely in her bag along side her pencil case and her purse was in her blazer pocket which was now on the kitchen door handle. She couldn’t remember bringing it down but shrugged and slid it over her thin arms, feeling the coldness of the silk for the inner lining as it covered them.
She then picked her bag and carried it to the front door, listening for signs of movement from upstairs she nodded slightly when she could hear water being sloshed about and put the headphones finally into her ears.
As soon as she slung her bag over her shoulder she found the need to think about everything that happened yesterday, almost to get it so clear in her mind she didn’t ever forget it. However, she knew that what happened with Elaine wasn’t going to be dropped, and it scared her to think of the worst outcome but nothing else entered her mind.
Sighing slightly, she opened the door and walked outside, feeling the air warmly slap her face as she did. This morning was a lot less chaotic then the day before, and she wanted to keep it that way.
She found herself walking across her garden without realising, and looked to Matt’s house as she did. Her mind told her to go straight to school, and see him there and for once she actually listened to what she was being told and continued walking down the hill.
***
Kara walked into school with her hands in her blazer pockets and her head hung, it was almost an automatic reaction when she passed through the school gates but only she realised it had happened. Everyone else thought it was how she usually walked in, she’d done it so often before.
Listening to her MP3, she bit her lip and let her heart fill with the words. She knew she was passing people that she hated, because she could fill their eyes on her as she walked deeper into school past the playground and into the small courtyard they used to line up in.
She then felt someone hugging her from behind and turned around to find Charlie,
“Hey you,” she smiled, Charlie looked up and grinned at her,
“Hey,” she said happily,
“What do we have first?” Kara asked as she tried to make conversation,
“I’m not sure,” Charlie shrugged, letting her light brown hair fall over her shoulders. “But what happened to you yesterday, I came around after school and your dad asked me what happened to your nose, but now I guess he was joking. He didn’t know where you were though, he let me upstairs but you weren’t in your room.”
“Yeah, I went out.” Kara laughed slightly and started walking through the playground with her friend beside her,
“More like snuck out,” Charlie grinned, “Where’d you go?”
“I met someone,”
“Ooh? Tell all!” Charlie laughed, making Kara blush and bit her lip. Not many things could make her blush, and Charlie had noticed, “Who is he?”
“The guy I was telling you about,” Kara twiddled her thumbs nervously and distractedly took the headphones out of her ears when she noticed a teacher watching them. It was time to pay full attention to her friends, and the school she hated going to.
“The guy you were talking to online?”
“Yeah,” Kara said shyly,
“You realise how dangerous that can be?” Charlie froze for a second before seeing the look in Kara’s eyes yet again,
“I know, it’s why he suggested Crawley train station.” Shaking off the doubt she’d felt, Charlie decided to continue the subject with a smile on her face,
“So? How is he?”
“He’s cool,” Kara smiled, “Like I pictured him,”
“Smart? Dumb? Fat? Thin? Give me something here,”
“Smart, thin and quiet. Though if what he’s told me is true, I’m not surprised he is quiet.”
“Bullying?” Charlie guessed,
“Yeah,” Kara said sadly, “but he doesn’t let it on that he is though, bullying I mean.”
“Wait, what did you say his name was?”
“Mito-” Kara began,
“Charlie, come over here and tuck your uniform in.” Mr.Requiem, Charlie’s English teacher moaned to them as they walked through the main entrance to the school building.
Just as Charlie had been called over by Mr.Requiem, Kara had been literally walked into by a boy around 12 years old.
“Careful,” Kara said annoyed that she’d been pushed into so hard she ended up banging into the wall, the boy rolled his eyes pretending to be bored then walked up to her.
“You know Mito?”
“Mito Angel? Black hair, rather shy, 16 and
‘emo’?” yeah I know him.” Kara replied,
“How?” the boy snapped,
“He’s my friend, has been for sometime.”
“Charlie! Why’d you run off?” a girl ran up beside the boy looking flustered,
“I just wanted to talk to someone,” he replied, letting his pure white hair bounce over his shoulder,
“Charlie, what are you doing harassing this girl?” An older boy, a year older then Kara was walking towards them, and she instantly knew who she was.
“What is it with me actually being popular today?” Charlie rolled his eyes and looked to the floor,
“You don’t think you are?” the girl asked,
“I never said that Christie,” Charlie said shaking his head slightly to rid himself of the thought,
“Carter! You’re blocking the way here you know?” Christie said realising that people were trying to get passed him but he was listening to music in his headphones and hadn’t realised. Stunned, Carter; the teenager a year above Kara, took a discrete step to the right towards his friends but students still gave him annoyed looks as they passed.
“Don’t say thanks then,” he grumbled under his breath, audible only for Charlie, Christie and Kara.
“You know they wont to you,” Charlie shrugged,
“True,” Carter took one of his headphones out of his ears and searched through his knee length black drench coat for something in the many pockets.
“What
are you looking for?” Charlie asked, emphasizing ‘are’ to make it sound longer then it should have. Kara this took the opportunity to check on her own friend and saw she was having to re-do her tie yet again, so she sighed and watched Carter.
It seemed he had more pockets then he’d first let on because he found more on the inside of his coat, let alone the ones hidden on his arms, on his pure black combat trousers and one on his jumper. Within the space of a few minutes he’d searched through at least 20 different pockets before returning to the ones he’d already searched.
Finally, he found his mobile phone in his jumper pocket and rolled his eyes. Clearly not expecting it to be there he shook his head, checked the time quickly and put it back in one of his many pockets.
“I’d write notes on where things are, on your arm or something so you don’t waste time searching for things next time,” Christie advised,
“Smart-” Carter began,
“Teacher,” Charlie warned, and within a second Carter had shut his mouth and stuffed his hands into two of his pockets.
“Come on you four, it’s nearly registration time.” Mrs.Bonny; a History teacher said whilst passing them,
“Come on then you two, you have somewhere more important to be then here.” Carter said rolling his eyes,
“If you’re going to walk us to our class again-”
“Two things, my tutor is over that way, and if you’d rather listen to the jerks that pick on you then what happened to me with a BB gun and my backside then fine. But don’t expect me to tell you later, it’s a one time offer exclusive today.”
“Fine,” Charlie said with a puzzled look on his face, “Walk with us, it’s a free country.” Christie was holding back a laugh but instead dragged Charlie outside the door they’d just walked through and waited,
“Catch you later?” Carter asked Kara,
“I guess,” she said shyly,
“But tell me one thing, is this Mito guy Charlie keeps going on about actually real?”
“Yeah, I saw him yesterday after school.” Kara replied,
“Cool, I’ll see you around Kara.” Carter smiled,
“Wait, how did you know my name?”
“I know quite a lot,” Carter shrugged, “Ok, I just heard people talking about you and thought I’d see what the fuss was about. Get to know you in person if you catch my drift,” he smiled,
“Glad at least not everyone’s so quick to judge,” Kara smiled,
“Bye,” Carter said as he passed her,
“Bye.” Kara said and watched him leave before leaning against the wall Charlie had pushed her against, her uniform had been ok so she didn’t get called over.
Still, she waited patiently for her friends uniform to be just right before they walked up to tutor together,
“What was your guy’s last name? I never caught it,” Charlie asked as they walked up to the second floor, stopping against their usual radiator.
“Angel, Mito Angel.” Kara replied smiling slightly at his last name,
“Appropriate,” Charlie nodded with a smile on her face,
“Ohh look who it is,” Elaine snarled as she saw them waiting on the second floor. The line was actually meant to line up on the third between the second and third floor but Kara and her friends knew better then to line up there.
They knew they’d get insults and things thrown at them before even reaching it, so instead they stopped on the second and waited for the teacher to let them in. They came in to the classroom last, but it was better this way.
“Ignore her,” Charlie muttered quietly to Kara,
“Midget and freak show,” Elaine continued, Kara bit her lip and tried to release the anger built inside her but she knew it wasn’t any good within the first few seconds. “Care to tell me how you escaped the cupboard? I’ve been trying to figure it out.”
“What’s she going on about?” Charlie whispered,
“I’ll tell you later,” Kara whispered back, Charlie knew better then to have a fight or discussion in front of Elaine so dropped the subject straight away. She knew Kara would explain herself eventually,
“I asked you a question,” Elaine said as she started to walk towards them,
“Kara,” Charlie warned, but before she could say anything else she was pinned against the wall by Elaine wincing as sharp fingernails dug deeper into her shoulders.
“What’d you say midget?” Elaine snapped,
“Get off her,” Kara said, shielding her face with her hair she looked the opposite way.
“Why’d you think I’m going to listen to you?” Elaine laughed,
“Because you should for once in your life,” Kara answered, “Now get off her,” she repeated,
“No,”
“I’ll ask you one last time,” Kara swung her hair over her shoulder so her face was in full view, “Get off her now.” She warned. Elaine looked to her and for a moment she froze, but after a few seconds she shook her head slightly and released her nails from Charlie’s shoulder.
“Come on now, in to the classroom.” Their form tutor Mrs.Lemming said as she ushered the form further up the stairs and into the room she’d opened.
“Lainey, leave them,” Stacy moaned from where Elaine had left her standing. Soon after this though, she followed the class inside and so did Elaine.
“Thanks,” Charlie whispered,
“No problem,” Kara sighed and quickly brushed her hair away from her eyes, but when she’d looked back to Charlie she was half way up the stairs and sighed starting to walk up alone.
From the top of the stairs, she saw Charlie walk into the class and immediately dropped her gaze to the floor, she saw it shine with a rainbow in the light from the window and bit her lip once more.
As she walked through the double doors that separated the stairs from the corridor, Elaine grabbed her arm and pushed her against a wall,
“After school, usual place. Be there or be worse off.” She warned, Kara’s blood immediately ran cold, “And no tricks, I don’t know what happened yesterday but I won’t be fooling for it again.” Elaine added as she let go of Kara’s shoulders and walked calmly into the classroom.
Forcing herself to calm down, Kara walked in a few seconds after with her hands clenched into balls so tight they soon made marks on her palms.
She could hear Elaine’s voice again as she walked into the classroom, telling people discreetly about hers and Kara’s arrangement after school and collapsed on her stool beside Charlie.
“Is it true?” she whispered to Kara,
“Is what true?” Kara sighed,
“After school,” Charlie said nervously,
“Yeah,” Kara sighed,
“Don’t go, please…”
“I don’t have a choice and you know that,” Kara sighed weakly and dropped her bag onto the floor,
“But-” Charlie began,
“Can we change the subject? This isn’t something I like talking about.”
“Do you know if it was because you stuck up for me just now?”
“No, but you know I wont let them hurt you or Marcos when I’m around. You two are the only people I can really trust here, I’m not about to lose you that easily.”
“Class, we have a new student starting here today, I want you all to make her feel welcome. Say hello Calie Taylor,” Mrs.Lemming said as she indicated the girl standing beside her. Kara looked up slowly, half knowing the new girl would be swallowed up by Elaine’s gang and half knowing she’d have to be placed on her table because there were no free places other then the teachers desk.
“What’d you think?” Charlie sighed,
“Plastic,” Kara shrugged taking a pen and paper out of her bag,
“Plastic?”
“Fake,” Kara shrugged again.
“How did you figure that out?” Charlie asked,
“Because Elaine’s already got her eyes on Calie for starters,” Kara pointed out, and right on cue Charlie could see Elaine nodding towards Calie with a smile on her face.
“Ahh,” she bit her lip in thought then turned to what Kara was drawing instead, “What’s that going to be?” she asked,
“Not sure yet,” Kara replied honestly, at the same time taking a pause from drawing the figure she was in the middle of drawing.
“You should see if you can draw Mito, so I can actually see roughly what he looks like,” Charlie grinned,
“Good idea,” Kara smiled, just then she found the pose for the arms and legs and outlined them along with drawing the guidelines on the face for the mouth, nose and eyes.
She heard Calie sit down next to her, but didn’t say anything until she saw a shadow forming over her paper.
“You do art?” Calie asked,
“Yeah,” Kara said slowly,
“I used to,” she smiled almost sadly, Kara looked to Charlie and shook her head slightly. Confusion showing on her face,
“Kara?” Mrs.Lemming called out as she was taking the register,
“Yes Miss,” Kara replied,
“Stuart?” Mrs.Lemming called out to the classroom, “Stuart?” she called again, “Put that mobile phone away or I’ll confiscate it for the rest of the day.” She warned,
“Sorry Miss,” One of the boys apologised and Mrs.Lemming went along with the rest of the register with no other distractions.
Biting her lip in thought, Kara worked on getting Mito’s hair just right and started working on the shadows on the face. By now she’d already drawn the features on the face and was wondering what to work on next,
“That’s really good,” Calie said over her shoulder,
“Thanks,” Kara said as she took another break from drawing and looked to Calie to see her smiling.
In the morning light she could tell her hair was once light blonde, but it was now slightly darker and hung a few inches past her shoulders. Her smile was welcoming, still there was something strange behind it that Kara couldn’t quite place and she didn’t trust it.
“You have really nice eyes,” Calie said, Kara shook her head even more confused but smiled at her all the same.
Just then, the bell rang and Kara’s form gathered their things together ready for their first lesson that day. Kara packed her things quicker then the others and walked to the front of the class and Mrs.Lemming passed her the register and a piece of paper on top,
“Would you mind looking after Calie today? Show her around and where to go,” She asked, Kara smiled slightly and Mrs.Lemming took it as a ‘Yes’. “Brilliant, thank you Kara,” She smiled, “Here is Calie’s timetable, I think you’re in most of her classes.”
Kara smiled nervously and walked with Charlie and Calie out of the classroom,
“Well, it looks like we have Science first,” Charlie said sighing,
“Sound enthusiastic about something please,” Kara rolled her eyes,
“I was earlier if you hadn’t noticed,” Charlie smirked in response,
“Right, I have to drop this off downstairs before class.” Kara said to Calie, sniggering slightly when she saw Charlie’s discretely annoyed expression.
“Sniggering now are we?” Charlie joked,
“Yeah,” Kara shrugged smiling, “You can follow Charlie or stay with me if you want,” she said turning back to Calie once more,
“I’ll stick with you,” Calie said whilst taking a look around at her surroundings.
“You’ll get used to the school pretty quickly, it’s big but easy to walk around and know where you’re going.” Charlie said smiling,
“Thanks,” Calie smiled,
“Now get going,” Kara laughed slightly at Charlie, “You’ll get in trouble,”
“And we wont?” Calie said whilst Charlie smiled and started walking away,
“No, Mrs.Smith knows I take the register down before class, and you’re in-” Kara paused to check Calie’s timetable, “-My class,” she continued,
“You got any spare seats beside you?” Calie asked as they walked down the stairs together,
“You could say that,” Kara sighed as they reached the 2nd floor,
“Not many people like you do they?” Calie asked,
“Not many people give me the chance to talk to them,” Kara said distractedly,
“Why? You seem so nice,”
“I don’t know, and I don’t really want to.” Kara said simply, putting her hands around her waist she sighed and held the register to her chest.
The rest of the way downstairs was passed in silence, but on the way up Kara decided to tell her the basic outline for the school.
“Ground floor’s where P.E, Art, I.C.T, Food technology, Graphics, Drama, Music, R.E, History, Geography, Design technology, the staff room and one of the old science rooms are. They’re spaced out really well though, you have to go outside for some of the other blocks.” Kara said as they were walking from the ground to the first floor.
“A lot then?” Calie laughed,
“Yup,” Kara replied, “First floor’s English, the library and canteen,” Calie nodded as they walked past the first onto the stairwell to the second floor, “Second floor’s I.C.T, French, German and Math.”
“And the third floor?” Calie asked as they reached it,
“Science and the occasional non-planned P.E lesson when the weathers too bad.” Kara replied,
“Think I can remember all of that eventually,” Calie smiled, “So, where’s our class?” she asked, Kara stopped walking next to an open door and pointed towards it,
“It says ‘caretakers cupboard’” Calie said confused,
“Not that one, the one next to it.” Kara giggled and walked into the classroom she was talking about.
As soon as Kara entered the classroom, she could pick out people talking about her straight away. It was nothing out of the ordinary to her though, in fact, she was used to it every single day. Still, it never got any easier.
“Miss, there’s a new girl starting in your class,” Kara said as she stood beside her teacher. Mrs.Smith looked up and noticed the Calie standing in the doorway and motioned for her to come forwards. She did this quietly, and stood beside Kara for a second before Kara walked slowly to her seat and sat down.
Whilst Mrs.Smith was asking Calie about her name so she could be put down on the register, Kara over heard a conversation from the next table.
“You still on for after school?” Kara regognised the voice as Charlotte’s, one of Elaine’s gang of friends and not one to get on the wrong side of.
“Of course,” William answered, “today should be fun,”
“So who will actually be there?” Stacy asked,
“All of us, he-”
“Hey,” Calie smiled whilst sitting down beside Kara, taking out her pencil case from her bag,
“Hey,” Kara said in response,
“Today class, you’ll be copying what’s on the board.” Mrs.Smith explained, “Then there’ll be a video towards the end, if you’re good I’ll let you out a little early.”
The class cheered, but grew silent after they realised they
had to be good to be let out early so instead started copying.
***
The rest of Science turned out to be boring, and Kara only just managed to stay awake even through the video she’d already seen a few days before. They were learning about photosynthesis, and in the video it showed school children wearing different coloured shirts showing how plants grew with sunlight. Shaking her head slightly from boredom, she rolled her eyes when she realised it was near the end of the lesson and packed her things away before anyone had even heard the bell.
Standing outside, she waited for Calie who was speaking to Mrs.Smith about what she’d learnt so far from her previous school. Slightly impatient, she twiddled her fingers around each other and looked outside the window that overlooked a small pond below. She focused an image of a rock splashing directly into the center of it, but decided against it and thought about something different instead.
She didn’t hear Calie walking out of the classroom, but felt her arm on her shoulder and spun around quickly.
“What lesson’s next?” she asked,
“I have Art, you must have History,” Kara replied, “I’ll show you where to go if I tell my teacher where I’m going.”
Calie smiled and together they managed to walk down to the ground floor without saying anything else to each other.
***
Once Kara had showed Calie where to go, she quickly walked to Art and walked into the classroom lightly supporting her bag that was resting on her right shoulder. It usually fell down, and this was the only way she’d grown used to for stopping it.
Luckily, she wasn’t too late. Her art teacher, Mr.Watson just gave her a nod and ticked her off on the already done register before explaining what the class was going to be doing that lesson. And in this time, Kara had managed to sit in her usual place and get her pencil case out of her bag.
The details of the lesson were easy enough for Kara to understand as the tables with the still life was placed once more in the middle of the classroom, but it didn’t stop Mr.Watson explaining himself all the same.
As soon as his explanation was completed, Kara stood up once more and retrieved her A1 folder she shared with another pupil in the class, Cathy Hunter. It was separated with cardboard and had their work either side of it and had a massive sticky label saying her name and Cathy’s.
Cathy herself was waiting beside Kara as she took out the piece of art work out of the folder,
“That’s really good,” she said smiling at Kara.
“Thanks,” Kara smiled weakly, taking the piece of art work out fully and letting Cathy have a better look.
“How long has that taken you?” she asked,
“Since last Thursday,” Kara replied handing the folder over so Cathy could take her work out whilst she walked back to her seat.
She then looked to the tables in front of her and made checks to see how far along she was with shading and finishing the picture. To her, she only had to do a little bit so the background but found tiny errors that screamed at her to correct before got to work on the biggest thing on the picture.
Debating what to use, she took out the graphite pencils from her pencil case that ranged all the way through to 9B. Most needed sharpening though, so she took her bright blue sharpener out as well as deciding what ones needed the most attention at the same time.
There were three ways she used the pencils, the first was to outline roughly what she was drawing. Most of the people in her class did bold thick outlines which ruined the picture before they’d even started as most made mistakes.
This technique she’d used all the way through completing the still life picture, going over several lines a tone darker if they became too light to see. Still, now you wouldn’t be able to tell if she’d outlined it or not. Kara’s picture was so detailed and nearly finished no one except Kara could tell where the outlines had actually been.
The second technique was from the graphite pencils after they’d got sharpened. The tiny filings left behind were used to create a softer tone to the picture, as Kara used them by rubbing them onto the page adding more to the parts that needed to be slightly darker.
The only downside was that fingers that were once clean to start with, now looked more like artistic fingers that were shiny with graphite. This didn’t bother Kara much though, as long as she didn’t accidentally wipe her nose with them to receive a smudge across it.
Finally, the third technique was used. It was favored more after the pencils had been sharpened though, as they gave a longer and thicker line. Using the side of the pencil, Kara was able to fill bigger areas in with a much shorter time, the amount of darkness that was applied depended on how much pressure to the pencil was used.
Using all these techniques every now and again, Kara was able to finish the picture right before the bell rang to signal the end of the lesson. She smiled inwardly at the end result and quickly washed her hands of the graphite on them before packing away her things and putting the picture back in the folder.
Once everyone had finished packing away, they were allowed to leave quietly but Kara took her time walking out. She found that if she was last leaving no one in the class could pick on her before because Mr.Watson was watching the class all the time.
When she’d finally left, she found Charlie waiting for her leaning against the radiator.
“Ok lesson?” She asked her, Kara nodded and walked over.
“What about you?” Kara asked,
“Fine I guess,” Charlie replied, “Oh, Marcos is coming in during next lesson.”
“How come he’s so late?” Kara slumped next to Charlie remembering her other best friend.
“Dentists I think, guess you can ask him when you see him,”
“Suppose,”
“Where’s Calie?” Charlie asked,
“She had History,”
“Let’s walk over and see where she is then.” Charlie smiled and linked arms with Kara leading her outside into the warm sunshine.
