1 Jamie

(Year 11)

CAMBIAMENTO DI FEDE

Jamie flurried into her classroom panting laboriously.

"What's in the backpack, little cunt?" Jennie implored, blatantly barring Jamie's route. She grabbed Jamie's bag and unfurled the contents of the carrier. Jamie chewed at her lip incessantly, and after a brief, distressed pause, replied: "An apology letter." She trudged onwards, clutching her bruised upper limb.

Jennie couldn't suppress her triumphant smile. "You deserve to write an apology every day for disgracing the power of beauty, right, Chunli?" Jennie remarked while staggering perilously close to Jamie.

Chunli nodded sympathetically, approving Jennie's corrupt course of actions like an obedient dog. She used to be Jamie's friend once, but I'm grateful that she chose to show her spiteful personality.

"Where's the letter, witch?" Jennie asked after tossing the contents of Jamie's bag to the ground.

For many suppressed and dubious reasons, Jamie let out a repentant snicker: "Do you want to know?" She asked, staring intensely at the predator that stood in front of her. Jennie professed; "Stop playing games witch, get to the point."

Without further due, Jamie's fist thrashed like a bulldozer, knocking off the preceding bully while she started jerking her hands due to the impact.

"Ah..." Jamie murmured under her breath.

"You crazy lunatic?!" Chunli yelled gushing to assist Jennie, who now lay brazen on the ground. A few hushed whispers spread among the class, as children gaped at Jamie. Avoiding all the staring contests, Jamie rushed to her seat and took out a page from her jammed pocket. She hurriedly opened her pencil case and scribbled something onto a sheet. She immediately put it on the teacher's desk, and ran out of her class, jumping over Jennie's motionless body. Some students watched her run through the corridor, and some with curiosity gained enough courage to see the message she had left for the teacher to see.

"I'm sorry I punched Jennie."

-Jamie

Jamie continued scurrying across the school corridor in undeviating nervousness and agitation. 'Class 9A, Class 9B, Class 9C, Class 10A, Class 10B, Class 10C, Class 11A, Class 11B, Class 11C...' Her head loomed around a frightening prospect. She wrapped her forehead to erase all perspiration that moistened her face. Jamies' eyes surveyed the senior section cloister. She raised her head to inspect the atypical faces of children scooping out of classrooms. There was no one she recognized to her consolation. Jamie patted herself gently and let out a sigh of relief.

"He doesn't attend the same school as me? Good riddance."

She pranced away from the senior compartment rather briskly before the coordinator appeared. Her face was flushed as she mistakenly left the school premises. Someone was certainly keeping Jamie under their surveillance. It was once; she saw someone stalking her from behind the bushes at her school's entrance. Astonishingly, she managed to see the face of this despicable person and reported him. On Jamie's lookout today, she couldn't recognize anyone from the senior section. This disclosure made her contented since no student was ever a truant on school picture day. At least, it was imparted in her consciousness, that the stalker didn't attend the same school she did.

Formerly, Jamie had made an incomprehensible discovery; something she was too petrified to disclose. Ever since she heard the news announcement, her heart scruples in torment and affliction. What happened to her esteemed mentor? Why is she still missing?

Who could she pervade her notions and assumptions to anyways? Who was trustable enough to handle her secret? Not the police. She couldn't report a word to the police. No letters or parchments could Jamie ever depend upon. Not since the police deliberately arrested an innocent man. Or is he? Jamie doesn't know.

She feels as if her suspicions are right. Someone has been following her. Maybe, somebody related to her discovery?

But...Since when?

She patrolled the outdoor conservatories, as they were the prominent and most-distinguished school quarters on Campus. 'Why would a stalker hide in the infamous conservatory? To blend in?' Jamie kept muddling her consciousness.

'Do I want to know?'

Jamie peeked into the crowded nursery; her palpating heart felt like an overwhelming breeze; suffocating her. It gnawed at her soul and pestered her troublesome psyche. Her head spun and whirled like a roller-coaster, and she whimpered in excruciating pain, as tiny, electrifying pangs afflicted her internally. Jamie looked inside, and saw-

"Oh, JAMIE! It's really you! Hi! How are YOUUU?" A female voice screamed from behind, discerning Jamie's morose mood. "I'm good, I guess..." Jamie mumbled, a small smile augmenting her lips. It was Young-Mi, her confidante, and her best friend. "Your head must be hurting, so I bought an ice pack! Jennie makes my head hurt, too." She commented, depositing the ice pack on her face. Jamie rolled her eyes blatantly, desperately trying to hold her chortle. She gave Young-Mi a friendly pat, took hold of the cold pack, and slapped it on her face. "Did I ever tell you that I love you, Young-Mi?" Jamie spoke lightly, masking the intense pain she was feeling inside.

"Because, I prefer to give the cold pack to you, instead of Jennie?" She nudged Jamie, suggesting she say yes. "Well, I shouldn't have assaulted her in the first place, but I bet, everyone is assisting her right now." Jamie enunciated, offering the pack to Young-Mi, which she refused. Jamie continued; "however, I would especially like to treat you to dinner. It's like a 'Thank You gift' I owe you my life these days."

Young-Mi smiled whole-heartedly and shook her hands with Jamie as if she were instigating a deal with her; "You owe your life to more foremost commitments. Anyways, I have several family dinners and a few personal commitments to tend to, today. Maybe, we'll catch up on the... Hmm, Weekend?"

Jamie understood Young-Mi's prepossessing intention, at once. These were her little lies, but with a boundless impact. Jamie loved her more and more. Family dinners? When her family shifted abroad to a smaller community; with no relatives...? I brushed her hair and hugged her immediately. "I will invite you to dinner, I'll try my best to make a generous meal," Jamie spoke, affectionately. Young-Mi's warmth made Jamie reminiscence a memory; instantaneously, she let go of her, feeling for- bidding again.

"See you at the School Photoshoot." Rejoindered Young-Mi.

As soon as Young Mi left, Jamie hustled inside the old conservatory, brimming with students, rather than plants. She pushed her way through the throng of people; loud music blasting from a Senior's speakers, hurdles of student batches emerging from their seats to join an incidental dance competition that had erupted. Yet, this occurrence didn't faze Jamie. This was a customary a habitual doing of Seniors every year.

"Trampling nurseries is traditional." Once the Environmental Club President had described with a fiery speech, ridiculing the Seniors before him. Even though, he was the same.

Jamie scrutinized the crowd of students when her phone buzzed, eerily.

"We need to talk, ASAP."

"-Jackson"

Jamie treaded outside the conservatory, shakily. "Send me the Location." She replied, hastily. Jamie glared at her screen, infuriatingly. She shifted her gaze and caught a glimpse of a queer circumstance transpiring in front of her. "What in the..." She plopped her phone back into her pocket and plodded towards the rabble.