6 Why Is The New Girl So Cool? (03)

In the afternoon, Beth and Julianna were greeted with the gorgeous dress Simone and her friends were already making.

"What the heck?!"

How can these people manage to finish this large of a portion with that much of homework each day?

Julianna walked towards the dress and felt the texture. "This texture and quality seem fishy. It seems that they may have, in fact, asked someone else to help them do it..."

"Wait. What? Really?"

"That's just what I think. Anyways, if that is true, I don't think it's a good idea to attend this runway competition anymore."

"But how can you see that?" Beth hesitated, "I mean, it's still some days till the competition, and we may just suddenly make progress during these days...come on, let's just work on our project for a bit more time today."

"To be fair, it would be a waste of time if we compete with them bare-handedly. If Simone and her crew can cheat through this competition and get a top prize, it may foreshadow that the competition is not as authoritative as they had claimed to be."

"But we have already started this project for so long, and I feel like our process had already gone to waste if we just call it quits!"

Julianna seemed unfazed. "I will think about that later."

"Besides, I really enjoy collaborating with you, and you said that attending art competitions is important for a young art student. Maybe we should just try it out and see what happens!"

"I think this isn't gonna end well, and we should maybe sometimes look at other things that we can do well in the end together."

"What are the things that we can do well? Gosh, you have a research project already while I currently still have nothing!" Beth started getting impatient and raising her voice. Yet Julianna didn't say anything. She just stood up and checked over her phone instead.

"To be honest, I agreed to do this project with you because I could fit it into my schedule. I have a lot of things to handle as well. Here, I need to prepare for a club meeting for the innovation club tomorrow." As she finished her speech, she started heading out, "I am sorry, but I need to go now."

"Wait, you can't just walk out abruptly like that!"

Jeez, that's such a rude move to make!

Now Beth was on her own. She sighed and looked around the empty room. There was nothing that she could do besides finishing up the project herself. After school time for her was supposed to be relaxing. The sun was already setting, and the hallway became quieter and quieter as people left the campus building. Yet there was a dejected look on her face. Simone's friends mocked her as an inside joke. Julianna decided to quit. Does anyone care about me at this point? She was about to cry. This is stupid. Why am I even staying here at this anymore?

She sat down and rested her head and arms on the table.

Maybe I am inconsiderate towards Jules. This project is already taking her a lot of time. Jules...She is so smart. She goes to museums with all sorts of interesting shows, and she has already done independent research.

Simone...why can't I just be neat and pretty like her, and attract friends naturally like her? I envy all those cute clothes she has.

And Bianca. She draws so well and is a first-year at my dream program.

But I...

I...

There's no place for me. It was lucky that I got accepted here. Laurel Prep was the only school that gave me acceptance. No one else wanted me.

When I was younger, I rarely got an academic award. That made me very afraid when I received an exam back or being called out in class every time. I tried making friends, but people shunned me behind and talked within themselves without me. Every time I suggested "Let's all walk home together", all I found was people leaving me behind and not turning back.

Art was something that made me feel less alone. I doodled throughout school time and daydreamed by the window. However, when I first declared that I wanted to be a fashion designer, nobody believed in me, and my parents worried if I could even make a living with that.

Maybe they are right. No one has any hope in me.

Will there eventually be a place for me? When Laurel Prep accepted me, I thought so. How naive of me to even think of that now.

How naive...

✨

Beth suddenly woke up and found out that it was already very dark outside. She realized at once that she had been sleeping on the table.

"Oh, no! What time is it now?" She picked up her phone and saw many phone calls from her host parents popping up by the screen. "Gosh, it is already 8 PM? How did I manage to stay until this late?"

She tapped on one message. It read: Beth, where are you? We are so worried about you!

"They must be so worried now! What did I even do today to make myself into this situation? I am so bad, and my semester just started with all those messes!"

Let me try to get out of the building first and call them.

Beth picked up her backpack, run out of the art room, and headed to the building entrance. However, the door didn't open up, and there was a lock on the door. Oh no! the school is locked! Am I supposed to stay in the corridor for a night?! What will all the people say tomorrow about me because I got stuck in this place...Thinking about that, she felt herself dropping down on the ground and losing all her strength to climb up again. She leaned against the door and melted into a corner by the side. I am so clumsy.

A voice whispered by her ears.

"You are worth nothing, Beth."

"What? Who said that? Who?" On hearing of the voice, Beth became alert.

"Breakfast is ready! Hurry up! You don't want to miss your ticket to fix your LIFEEEEEEEE!" Another voice surrounded her just after the first voice.

Beth looked up and saw a giant distorted alarm clock flashing with small pieces of neon reflections. The alarm clock looked twisted and floated in the air, with weird color blobs by its side.

"What even is this? Am I seeing things?!" Being scared, Beth closed her eyes and opened them again, hoping everything would disappear after she opened her eyes. But the alarm clock didn't go away. It was still there, just with more added noise and colors.

"What is happening?" She tried to run away, but the color blobs were chasing her. There, she was greeted by two human-shaped color blobs. One of them had blue hair and pastel blue, pink, and yellow stuck on her body. The other of them wore a pair of high heels and had her eyes popped out like giant hearts. It drank glitter from a bottle on her hands.

"Jules? Simone?"

"You think it's so easy to make friends at Laurel? My time is precious, and you are being unreasonable for wasting my time here! I have published a research paper while you did nothing productive during the holiday. It's a burden even to hang around you." The blue-haired blob said.

"Look at you, your ugly little duckling. Do you know why I don't speak to you? That's because you are NOT worth my time!" The other blob followed up.

"Hahaha, look at her...so clumsy, a lackluster for Laurel Prep. Why is she even here? Hahaha..."

More chatters and murmurs of distorted color blobs resembling other Laurel freshman came up to her.

"she locked herself on campus and have no way to get out!!"

DON'T COME TO ME!!! What should I do now? No, what should I even do??

"Oh, no!"

"Oh, NO!"

"NOOOOO!!!"

Time seemed to have stopped at this moment for Beth. Her mind went blank. Everything about her memory was drowning. The smell of fresh grass at her quiet little town, the excitement and tears when she first received the acceptance from Laurel Prep, the anticipation when she immersed herself in the city lights of Laurel...everything seemed to be disappearing for her.

Mom and dad, I am sorry. Nora and Owen...I can't come back. I don't know where I am...

I am really nothing and I don't deserve to be at Laurel Prep.

Jules, Simone, and Bianca...I hope you guys will be all well.

Goodbye.

✨

Suddenly, Beth heard a voice that sounded like Bianca's. "I was once depressed, then this power came to me. I envisioned myself as my idealized self but unexpectedly became that person".

Her life was not over. However, she didn't feel herself and couldn't distinguish where she was.

Was that what you said, Bianca?

She picked up Bianca's words and reflected upon them.

If life would restart, what would I want? If I could become a better self, what would I wish for?

When I was five, I thought I wanted to be a princess that helps people with her pals, a circus performer who can speak with animal languages or a dancer that builds a home underwater.

Maybe all I really wanted now is to become a more capable and creative person who can put all those possibilities into reality like Jules, Simone, and Bianca.

I want to create a way to get out, to have a better future!

As Beth grasped onto her thoughts, she started feeling herself once again. Her smell, her vision, her senses...they have all came back. She opened her eyes and found out that golden rays greeted her. The color blobs have stopped attacking her. She looked down herself and found out that she was wearing a beautiful white dress with ribbons, flower decorations, and diamonds. She also had a pair of short boots with golden glitter.

She stood up and looked at herself in awe. Then, she touched her dress, and it felt so real.

What is this, what is this? WHAT IS THIS?? Wait...this looks similar to a magical girl drawing I produced years ago.

Does that mean...

"I have become magical as one of those girls Bianca wrote in her portfolio?!!!!"