Chapter 17

It has been a week since the whole incident and I didn't step out of line once. I keep to myself and do what I'm told without talking back or being stubborn, I spoke only when spoken to and stayed out of everyones way. Axel and Snape must be thrilled, they don't have to deal with me as much anymore.

Speaking of Axel, he was forced to stay at my house since that day. He slept on the couch in the living room and I hadn't know he was assigned another task involving me so when I found out I nearly had a heart attack.

I had just woken up and when I looked at my phone it nearly blinded me. Lowering the brightness, I checked the time and gaped at my phone, it was 3:00 in the morning and I didn't feel tired at all, even though I cried my eyes out before I fell asleep.

I stayed up for about an hour just tossing and turning but it was clear I wasn't going to fall asleep so soon, and instead decided to stay up and read. I got my copy of "The Chamber Of Secrets," switched the lamp placed on my bedside table on and finished 5 chapters before finally putting it down and trying to sleep again.

My attempts were futile and I finally got tired of just rolling around on so I decided to just drink some water. I groaned when I realised I left my bottle in the freezer and got my lazy ass off the bed so I could get it.

I switched the lights in the living room on and squinted due to the brightness.

"Jeez, everything's trying to blind me today" I shield my eyes for a few minutes till they focus again and walk to the fridge. It had to be left in the living room since it was too big to fit through the narrow hallways that lead to the kitchen. It was perfect when you needed to get a snack but you didn't want to pause your movie or show, as long as the snack is in the fridge, that is.

"Why are the lights on?" I hear a husky voice ask with a slight croak to it. I jump and turn to the voice and let out a sigh of relief when I see Axel on the couch. He rubs his eyes and squints at me.

"Danielle?" He asks. I don't answer, still trying to calm myself down.

"What are you doing here?" He finally stops messing with his eyes and looks at me normally.

I look at him absolutely bewildered and ask in a shocked voice.

"What am I doing here? What are you doing here?!"

"Stop shouting" He groans while covering his ears. "I just woke up" He drags out.

"What are you doing here, Axel?" I ask normally. "And I wasn't shouting" I say while rolling my eyes.

"You were talking louder than the average person and two, I'm here to make sure I-. I mean you, don't do anything stupid. Sorry, I'm tired I don't know what I'm saying" He lays back down and covers his eyes with his arm.

"Axel, seriously. What are you doing here?" I ask again.

"I just told you"

"You weren't really clear. I mean first you said, I. Then you said, you. I mean, I'm confused," I knew what he meant, obviously. I just wanted him to explain because- Well I don't really know but part of it is because I hope it will annoy him.

"I meant to say you but I'm tired so I accidentally said, I. Do you get it?" I nod at him and start walking away but I stop.

"What do you mean you're here to stop me from doing anything stupid?" I ask him with narrowed eyes.

"Well-Um-I-Uh-"

"Axel!" I stop him. "Maybe try proper words this time?"

He glares at me but talks normally this time. "I'm supposed to make sure you don't try doing anything you'll regret"

"Axel, I would like a proper explanation, please?"

"I'm supposed to make sure you don't try running away or something like that!" He exclaims. "Sorry," He continues quietly.

"Leave, Axel" I say while turning away from him.

"I can't do that, Danielle"

"Yeah, you can. Just walk out the door and leave. I won't tell anyone"

"I'm not doing that, Elle"

I knew he wasn't allowed to leave and that's the only reason why he's still here. He refuses to go against what Professor Snape says so I gave up and start moving my head up and down slowly.

"I'll stay out of your way then"

"This is your house, Danielle. It won't be that easy," He laughs lightly.

"I'll stay in my room. I know you don't want to be here, Axel." I spin back around and look at him. "So I won't make any trouble and I'll sit in my room without making your job harder for you"

"This isn't a job," He sighs.

"Sure it isn't" I walk away before he says anything else and when I get to my room I completely forget about the water, absentmindedly putting it on my bedside table, before laying down and overthinking.

"So they think I would run away just because Professor Snape shouted at me? I'm not that weak, I didn't even care" I tell myself internally.

"Keep telling yourself that" Little Danielle tells me. Yeah, I named my subconscious little Danielle. "It's okay to feel, Danielle"

"I don't care, I really don't" I say back stubbornly. I imagined the little version of myself nodding then taking a seat. I'm honestly not crazy, it's actually quite therapeutic.

"They think I'm a reckless, irresponsible, disappointing, disrespectful kid" I state out loud. I don't even know why I said it, it wasn't making me feel any better. I did fall back asleep eventually but it took a while.

Okay, so technically I sort of used attitude with Axel once since that day but other than that I made sure I was the perfect teenager. I even started doing my homework!

Since it's been a week it's now Monday again. I walk in the school smiling lightly at the people I pass and when I see Axel and Alejandro I look down. I pass them without any interruptions but I stop when I hear someone shouting.

"You! What did you do to her?!" I turn around only to see Cole walking towards Axel with rage radiating off him. I'd never seen him this mad so I wondered what happened and who he was talking about.

He got to Axel and shoved him back with so much force that he fell. My eyes widened before rushing to the scene but I get there a second too late and Axel had already thrown the first punch.

"Hey! Hey! Stop it you two!" I shout at them.

I look at them alarmed and then at Alejandro. He's trying to get in between the two and when he separate's them enough that I know I won't get hit, I jump on Axels back.

"Axel" I shout at him. "Enough!"

"Stop shouting in my ear, you gremlin"

"Will you stop?"

"I didn't even start it"

I mean. He was right. I jump off his back and walk towards Cole making sure he was okay.

"Are you hurt?" I ask him.

"Excuse me?"

"I'm fine"

Axel and Cole say simultaneously.

"I'm the one who got attacked!"

"Shut up, scumbag" Cole tells Axel while holding his jaw which was starting to swell up.

"Axel, sit down" I say to him when he gets up and starts walking towards Cole.

"What the hell happened here?" I see Snape walking towards us. I redirect my attention to Cole so I wouldn't have to talk to Snape and when he gets to where we are I stop talking.

"What happened?"No one answered him so he started singling people out. "Alejandro? Axel? Danielle?" He says my name earnestly and I bite my lip before spinning around, still crouched.

"I don't really know what happened, Professor." I technically wasn't lying. I don't know what happened before this to make Cole lash out or to make Axel hit him.

No one told Professor Snape the reason and he fumed.

"Lets check the cameras then? Would y'all like that?" He grabbed Axel's arm and hauled him off the floor while I helped Cole up. He might as well have been running with the pace he was going, Axel was being dragged behind him like a roller bag and I struggled to keep up with him because I was fussing over Cole.

"I'm fine," He groans.

"You don't look fine," I glare at him and then see a cut next to his eyebrow. It's small but it's usually the smallest cuts that hurt.

That sounds so deep, I should write Instagram quotes.

"Why did you shove him, Cole? What did he do?"

"That's the thing. I don't know"

"What the hell do you mean you don't know?" I glare.

"You have to tell me. I honestly don't know what he did"

"What? What the hell?!" I exclaim but before I can continue berating him with questions we get to the office. Snape explains the situation to the lady in charge of the cameras and she clicks a few buttons before replaying the scene that had just outside on the screen.

"You. Cole, is it?" Cole honestly looks quite scared but he keeps a brave face when Snape talks to him.

"Why did you attack, Axel?"

"Because he's a complete scumbag. He did something to Danielle"

"Axel?" Snape asks him with a brow raised but he just shrugs.

"Cole, even I have no idea what you're talking about" I say, looking confused.

Before anyone else could say anything the principal, Sir Gunawardena, storms in and walks straight towards us.

"Professor!" He exclaims with a glare. "You are not allowed to reprimand my students, my normal students." He glares at me and I avert my eyes looking surprised. He never liked me because no matter how much trouble I cause in school he is not allowed to do anything about it. The most he can do is give me detention but even that has to go through Professor Snape first.

"Danielle and Axel are normal students" Snape glares and the principle's eyes snap back to Snape. He didn't like Snape either which was kind of funny since the only person he likes out of the three of us, "the not normal three of us," is Axel. It might be because he's one of the star players on the basketball team and the fact that he's as obedient as a sheep dog.

"Yeah, Yeah, I know. One of them is, at least" I see Snape glaring at him but he just looks at me with a scowl, I frown at him feeling incredibly annoyed and then Cole steps in.

"As much as I love the glaring contest going on here can I know what's going on?"

"He's not allowed to do jackshit to me or Axel" I tell him after having enough of him glaring at me.

"Danielle!" Snape exclaims at the same time the principle gasps.

"It's true!" I retort.

"If I could expel you from this school, I would"

"And I am not doubting you, not even for a second, but you can't so leave me alone. I'm not even involved in this" I shrug at the last part and look away while crossing my arms over my chest.

"If I'm not mistaken this boy here-"

"Cole" I interrupted.

"Yes, Cole, he said that Axel did something? To YOU" He stares at me while enunciating the 'you' and I scowl at him.

"How do you even know what he said? You weren't in the room!"

"I asked my assistant! If she hadn't alerted me of the situation I'm sure I wouldn't have known at all" I'm sure his eyes would stay in slits if he kept looking at me like that.

"Now, what happened? What did you do this time?"

"I don't know, honestly, I really don't. Ask Cole whatever if you want answers" I tell him annoyed.

"Cole?" Principle trash face asks him.

"Well... Danielle hasn't been herself for a while and she hasn't been talking to Axel much so I figured he might have done something to really put her down. I got mad at him cause Danielle was walking into school like it was so relaxing and it was weird"

"You're fucking with me, right?" I whisper to him while Snape fumes next to Axel and the scum who are mimicking his actions.

"What? I didn't know what happened and you hadn't told me either. I kind of just assumed it was something terrible"

"Oh my gosh" I groan while glaring at Cole, before I can say anything else Principle asshat starts talking.

"I don't know what school or what country you were in before you came to Sri Lanka and this school but this is not how things work here. We do not use violence to solve our problems, especially in schools"

I did have to agree with what he said technically the schools kids in Sri Lanka fought but we never really got teachers involved and we usually didn't cause as big a scene as Cole caused. Some did create a huge commotion though but I'm sure it was just a common thing to not bring adults into it. If he knew how many fights happened in schools here though...

In the end, Cole is my friend and I appreciate what he did, even if it was incredibly dumb.

"Don't say stuff like that, he was only trying to defend me, he didn't know what happened"

"I do not remember asking for your opinion, Danielle" I wanted to say something back but Snape gave me a stern look before stepping in front of me so I kept quiet.

"You are the principle here, Sir. You have a duty to all your students, elementals included. I would appreciate it if you could leave the kids in my care to me and deal with the students you are in charge of."

"Cole, follow me to my office immediately." With one last lingering look towards Snape he stormed out of the office with Cole and his annoying ass assistant in tow.

"Axel, Danielle, go for class" He tells us looking done with life and instead of arguing I leave.

Before I'm out the door Snape calls me back and I turn around.

"You and I are going out after school, meet me at my office when the bell rings," Axel and I both look at him confused and I slowly nod after a minute before leaving the office.