"KEEP YOUR HEAD UP" was the last thing Jade saw before her face collided with her door, she fell backward with a heavy thud, and guess what she landed on. ..
Right! her butt.
"Christ! Not again...." Her butt was getting sore by too much of falling on it. Jade blamed it all on the stupid four words that got her whole life in a twist within just a few hours.
First, she had gone home from school and refused to look down at anything or anybody at all, not even the O Scary green ghost with the hat in SpongeBob.
Secondly, she looked her dad in the eye and said "am not hungry Dad"
As childish and common as it sounds she had never said no to anyone, not at home and not in school thankfully the people at school didn't so much ask her for favors except for her big secret with April.
She snuck her assignments to her all the time
She'd tried her best to look up without feeling the need to look down every minute cause she was afraid someone would look up too and their eyes would meet, yeah she was shy and okay with it.
She was feeling a boast of energy and excitement she didn't know was there, it sprang from nowhere, and she found herself wanting to test the waters outside her house too.
Everything was going fine until she hit her head for the seventh time on her jerk of a door that couldn't give way for a lady and who had a paper pinned on it with the inscription
"Keep your head up" She huffed and crawled her way to her bed not bothering with the door.
She lay there thinking of a few tests, with thoughts of Pretty Boy, constantly intruding. She didn't, mind moreover he was just a hard test.
Difficult, exciting, and confusing. She wondered if she could just pass him like her previous test, but then he was different and impossibly hard, seeing he didn't have a definition or a formula somewhere on how to solve him.
She was still in deep thought when Jan came bursting into her room, like a cop. "What is going on?"
She demanded not liking the invasion of privacy especially when nursing such thoughts she was having a while ago.
"Well," Jan said. "I was thinking I would borrow one of your clothes for tonight?" It sounded like a question but Jade ignored her biting her lips from protesting.
It always happens Jan runs into her room acting super late and snatches one of her best clothes not that she minded or needed them she never wore them.
But the mere fact that Jan thought it a waste for her to own the fine clothes her mum bought for her constantly vexed her beyond comprehension.
Yes on her own she would never buy or wear any of them but then at least a person's gotta have a few valuables for goodness sake.
Jade just sat and watched her pick whatever she wanted without uttering a word.
The next day flew so fast that Jade had to constantly check her time and the sky, to see if the morning arriving earlier was due to some effect in the solar system or something, anything to keep her away from school, because school meant trouble for her.
She pushed herself out of her dreamy bed and took her bath. She had thought of wearing something other than baggy pants and a big shirt but then she tossed the idea away, thinking how much damage it would cause her in one day considering what she was about to do.
So she just wore a big T-shirt with medium-sized pants. Better!!
Fifteen square minutes, Jade stood staring at the school building not knowing whether to run away or just faint.
Her palms were sweaty due to nervousness, she stood like a statue as other students passed her not bothering to notice her.
"Yup, they only notice me when the bullying is going on". She muttered under her breath.
Five more minutes later she was so sure she wouldn't be able to pull the 'KEEP YOUR HEAD UP' stunt. Her insecurities had kicked in full force.
Maybe she didn't have the right to look people in the eye after all, she felt so ashamed of herself, and to think she was best with books, why couldn't she do best with socializing too?
How different was she? She had her mind set she wasn't going to keep Looking Up Anymore
But then her phone dinged in her pocket beating her out of her daze. She unlocked her phone and saw an unknown number on her screen with a message box close to it, where had it come from? She clicked on the box and the message appeared in a second.
"Be confident, act like u ain't seeing nobody. You can do it! :-)"
A.B
The few words gave her the little courage she needed spiked with the confusing will to show Pretty Boy, that she was stronger than she looked.
A few minutes later Jade stormed through the school halls, head held high and expressionless face, walking so confident that it shocked her.
She ignored the surprised stares as a few people made way for her to pass.
She must have looked stupid, for people to have such expressions on their faces and she desperately wanted to run but she reminded herself that, she simply didn't see non of them! And so she did for the whole week without any sign of Adrian (Pretty boy).
She held her head up throughout the lesson answering questions throughout. She did it till her head hurt and she badly wanted to run home and sleep.
It was lunchtime and she hadn't seen him yet, she felt stupid all of a sudden. Could it be he was just playing another game with her? It had been two complete weeks now with no sign of him.
"No way". She shook her head, willing the thought to go away. Even if he didn't appear again she felt like she would still keep looking up, that way a few people were a little bit afraid to pull stupid stunts on her.
Like Paul Paint, the rat-like kid who was known for dropping lizards into people's bags and seats, and who happened to be very fond of Jade.
She got so used to his pranks but not used to his hideous lizards. He had not dropped a single lizard on her seat since last Tuesday when she'd caught him red-handed
Instead of acting like she hadn't seen him, she stared him right in the eyes with a static face not blinking till he'd scrambled away furiously and stayed away since. Good.
Halfway through her packed lunch of toast and apples, she heard the door of her hideout open she didn't look up she just kept eating. The seat in front of her was scrapped then they fell into silence, Jade feeling too stupid to look up. He came back
He slid a piece of paper on the table towards her and she took it with a shaky hand and flipped it over. Her heart did a flip when she saw her scores.
Step 1. Passed
70%
She wanted to groan. Why not eighty, ninety, or a hundred percent?
She groaned inwardly again.
"Stop that," He said, and Jade wanted to look at his face and see his expression but then if she looked up, she would be looking him in the eyes.
A shiver ran through her at the thought of staring into his blues but then she didn't know what he was talking about. "S-stop w-, what?" She asked.
"Stop hiding your thoughts, your views about something, anything, you need to say it out. You just groaned twice without knowing it"
he paused as if he wanted her to say something but she couldn't. She sat there internally spanking herself for getting into this and for blushing red.
He continued. "Have you ever used the word NO or Dont, to someone before?" He asked her, all this while her eyes were stuck on the old patterned rug. She thought of it.
All the times she'd wanted to say NO to the constant assignments that were thrown on her desk by a lazy bunch of tarts who couldn't do it themselves and forced her to do them, with mean threats
All those times she'd wanted to scream 'STOP' at April, Rowena, Paulina, and all her bullies but couldn't find the courage to. She never said it. Never.
She shook her head no and confirmed it with her mouth. "Never, I have never said any of those" As she said it, she felt her shame dripping as tears threatened to spill. "Hey look up" Adrian ordered
She crooked her head up causing a few drops to flee their prison and run down her cheeks. In a second Adrian was hugging her small frame and rubbing her back comfortingly as she cried. "Don't cry little princess hush"
With his sorting voice and his scent that smelt so much like hospitals she didn't know when she blacked out all she knew was, that it seemed peaceful.