36 Talented Me! 06

The group of new friends talked away and their laughter echoed in the stairways. Everyone slowly knew each other's talents and fears. Daisy was a taekwondo prodigy, but she was scared of spiders. Gina liked to sing, but she had stage fright. Eli was the serious studious type, but he had a habit of staying up late gaming. Ben could bake, but he couldn't cook a simple egg dish. And Wilona? She didn't know any of her talents, but she had a whole list of weaknesses.

Wilona slowly escaped from the depths of her sadness enjoying the wonderful happiness right in front of her. At least, now, she has friends. Friends whom she thinks will stay by her side forever.

"Are you better now?" Gina looked over at the grinning Wilona. Her expression was more relaxed and carefree. It looks like she forgot about all her sadness for now; that's good. "Let's go back to class?"

Everyone peered over at Wilona. They all knew that it was hard to feel better after such an event, but they all wished Wilona to feel better. Everyone watched Wilona's micro-expression carefully scanning every part of her face from her eyes to the smiling lines near her mouth.

"Yeah, let's go," Wilona looked at her worried friends, and her grin slowly opened into a bright smile. Her eyes curved into crescents and her perfect rows of teeth shined brightly. She was happy. It's okay to feel sad as long as she has her friends by her side.

Daisy watched as Wilona smiled brightly and felt relieved. She knew how it felt to be sad and not have a friend by your side. If being Wilona's friend can help her, then Daisy was willing to be friends. Plus, Wilona was kind and sweet.

The short little friendship circle allowed Daisy to know everything about Wilona. Wilona was someone who was weak but kind, meek but sweet, and self-conscious but supportive. She hid behind the backs of others but was willing to devote her all to help. Daisy knew even if today didn't happen, they would have been great friends regardless; it just happened a whole lot faster.

Sending Wilona off to her classroom, the band of friends broke off. They promised to meet up at a nearby cafe outside the school afterward. Daisy, Gina, Eli, and Ben each gave Wilona their last comforting words. Daisy peeked into the classroom pointing two fingers at them before pointing at her eyes and back. Her little serious face was cute, but everyone in the class did not dare to laugh. Daisy wasn't someone to trifle with when she was a taekwondo prodigy.

Wilona took a deep breath and turned around. She nervously peeked inside the room flinching once she met everyone's stares. She backed away but bumped into the hard chest of someone. Wilona rotated her head and met the questioning stare of her teacher. Her eyes opened up in shock, before nervously ducking down.

"What are you doing out here? Go in," the teacher pushed Wilona into the class and pointed her to her desk, waiting for her to walk towards it. He walked to the blackboard and wrote today's lesson before talking to the class.

Avina walked to her desk setting everything down and sitting down. She took out her notebooks and pens before starting to pay attention to class. In a state of focus, she ignored her classmate's curious stares. Her handwriting flew on her pages as she highlighted and drew diagrams everywhere. She remembered these topics and it felt like she went back to the past. It was strange and weird but fun.

Avina remembered essay writing and comprehensions, remembering when she had to develop claims and counterclaims against different writings and wrote theses. It was all old information, but it felt new. It was a weird nostalgic lemony sensation that she couldn't exactly put her finger on. It was a fog of memories against an ocean of new.

When she was done with her assignment, she could finally breathe in a fresh breath of air. Luckily, when they had that support circle, it was during study hall. It didn't matter if she was absent for that, but it was important to attend the classes. She was aiming for the position of top scorer in the next exam!

Her classes flew by like nothing, and she soon got better at ignoring all the eyes. At first, it was nerve-wracking to focus on work while imagining all the thoughts behind their gazes, but fortunately, no one talked to her.

Finally, it was lunchtime. Gathering her food and finding a corner to sit, Avina ate her meal. It didn't taste as good as her meals in her world or Ariel's, but it filled her stomach. The soup had floating pieces of vegetables with a piece of fish at the bottom. The entree was a nice cut of baked chicken on rice. Pairing with the small meal was a cup of apple juice. It was simple but comforting, like home.

Avina was sipping the last remnants of her juice when she heard a plate being placed in front of her. She looked up and met the annoyed stare of the girl from the morning. The girl sat down and crossed her hands on her chest and looked Wilona up and down scowling probably at her "poorness."

Avina placed her juice down before grabbing her tray and rushing to leave. As she was about to leave, the girl called out.

"Wait."

Avina breathed a deep breath before turning around. She quickly placed on a nervous and scared expression leaving her head down avoiding the girl's eyes.

"You beggar. Lucky you got your little knights to save you," the girl looked at Wilona's terrified face and smiled contentedly. This poor fool shouldn't have messed with Adi. Look at what happens to her if she makes the Queen mad. "Or I would have slapped your disgusting face."

The girl picked up her spoon and hit the edge of her tray. A sharp cling ran to Wilona's ears making her flinch.

"So why did those guys try to save you? You got nothing."

The girl hit her tray again; this time the noise was sharper. Wilona buried her head deeper into her chest like an ostrich.

"Poor. Ugly. Nothing. You got nothing, beggar," the girl slowly said each word while hitting her tray. Each word and clank pierced Wilona's mind circling inside not dispersing.

The sound of the busy cafeteria was already muted inside her head the moment the girl spoke. Each of her words struck her heart deeply piercing it and inviting unpleasant memories.

A deep throbbing hit her head making her unable to think. The girl's words no longer reached her ears as she struggled against the onslaught of negative thoughts. It appeared out of nowhere and attacked her mentality. She was weak against it molded into tears like clay.

The girl watched Wilona tearing up and felt her job was done. She pitied Wilona a bit but what was the use of her pity. It wouldn't stop the Queen's attack so she could only continue to attack Wilona at every turn. Didn't matter what would happen to her later, all that mattered was Wilona was sad right now. She picked up her tray and placed it onto Wilona's.

"Throw it away, trash," with that last sentence, the girl left. Wilona stood there empty and dazed with tears swimming in her eyes. She looked at the full meal in front of her untouched and remembered her empty tray beneath. She was poor. How could she deny it?

Staggering, she threw away the food and placed the tray onto the conveyor belt. She didn't know how she walked out of the cafeteria, but she soon found herself in the garden.

Looking around, there were plants of vegetables and flowers lining both sides. It was created to allow students to contribute to their meals and school appearance; everything gathered in the garden was made as food or placed in classrooms. The garden was managed by the Gardening Club.

Avina found a bench and sat down. She sighed at Adi's scheme but she currently couldn't do anything to her. Adi was rich and popular; she could ruin her life outside and inside of school. It was better to counterattack later.

She looked around at the garden and felt at peace. Maybe those days spent wandering around those beautiful gardens before became a habit. She could only relax inside a garden now.

5025 peeked around the circumference of the greenhouse before appearing out as a white cat. It stepped around with its paws sniffing the tomatoes and calendulas.

"Look, Host! It's calendulas!" 5025 looked over at Avina before continuing to smell the flower. "It smells really good."

Avina looked at the white cat surrounded by bright orange flowers and smiled. Recalling some information about calendulas, she looked around. Peeking to make sure no one was there, she whispered, "Eat one. Calendulas are edible."

5025 looked at the bright orange flower in front of it and curiously nibbled a petal. It had a sweet, and mild flavor to it. It sort of tasted really good so 5025 continued nibbling on it.

Avina laughed at the little cat eating the flower. It seems that 5025 liked it. She read somewhere that calendulas tasted like bell peppers; guess 5025 likes bell peppers.

Avina and 5025 had fun in the garden smelling and tasting each flower. They left the vegetables alone and only focused on the flowers. Some flowers were edible and 5025 had fun tasting different flavors. Others were not and 5025 puckered at their tastes. Avina laughed at the little cat whose button nose was squished in disgust.

The laughter of joy echoed in the small greenhouse, and it was a fun time. When it was time to go back to class, Avina picked up 5025 and walked off. As the door closed, a man standing behind a set of large decorative trees walked out.

He looked curiously at the figure of Wilona's before looking at the calendula flowers. He picked a petal off, placing it in his mouth, and chewed. Bell pepper, it tasted like bell peppers.

"Interesting." The man looked out once more, but Wilona had already disappeared. A small grin spread across his face before he took the garden hose from the ground and watered the plants.