Chapter 2: Experiences

Jasmine always waited to be the last person to leave the bus, prolonging the amount of time she had to spend inside the walls of West Lakeshore High. Ethan walked past her seat first, followed closely by Paige.

As Paige turned to exit the bus, the smile that she had held earlier was now nowhere to be seen, replaced with an irritated scowl as she looked towards the blonde still seated next to the window. Jasmine simply looked down. By now you would think she would be used to seeing that expression, but that was far from the case.

She stared out of the bus window, unprepared to face the crowd of strangers who all looked at her with the same eyes. Disgust, pity, loathing. She felt trapped when she was in those walls, and she already knew what she was in for that day.

The door to her locker was wide open as she reached it. Books scattered over the concrete floor. Despite Jasmine's best efforts she felt tears begin to pool in her eyes again as she bent down to begin gathering her items.

As she reached for her Physics book, a heeled boot came down, trapping it on the ground.

"What's up jaz- wavie?" Paige taunted as she ground Jasmine's book into the floor. Jasmine raised her gaze to look at Paige's chin, not daring to meet her eyes, "Dropped your stalking notes?".

Addison; Paige's best friend and captain of the soccer team, gave a throaty laugh as she began kicking at the notebooks that covered the floor, sending them flying up in a whirlwind of pages.

Jasmine remained silent and began to pick up her other books, carefully avoiding Paige and Addison's feet. A heel quickly came down on her knuckles and a small screech of pain erupted past her lips. She looked up at Paige and saw that her expression had twisted into a scowl.

"Are you ignoring me, bitch?" She growled, putting all of her weight onto her toes. Jasmine winced, trying not to let her bully get what she wanted - tears and begging.

A tear threatened to fall just as Addison said, "Paige, the bell's going to ring" nudging the brunette's elbow.

Paige huffed, "See you later, slut". The click of their heels filled the halls as the duo quickly retreated, the sound of the first bell filling the halls after them.

The small crowd that had gathered around the scene slowly began to disperse. Jasmine always wondered why nobody ever tried to step in. Was she really that worthless of an existence that nobody felt the need to help her? A sob escaped her lips as she let the books that she had collected slip back onto the concrete floor, her hands lifting to cover her face as she cried.

She had already regretted all of the missed opportunities to stay home. She wasn't ready to face this again after a week of playing sick. It was too much. The small glimmer of hope that maybe things would be different fizzled out like a flame reduced to embers. A week away from this nightmare had changed nothing.

The look on Miss Edal's face as Jasmine slunk into religion five minutes after the bell had rung was one of disappointment and exhaustion. Jasmine was ready for her to say something but the teacher simply sighed and continued on with her lesson.

"Can someone please tell me whether the archangel Michael plays a role in the process of passing from this world to the next?" She asked as Jasmine took a seat at an empty desk towards the front of the class. "Anyone?" The teacher loudly asserts, leaning against her desk with an inquisitive expression.

"No", she answers, "The bible says nothing about his involvement with this kind of 'Grim Reaper' role. However..." she begins, strolling across the front of the classroom, "Other religions such as Judaism suggests that there is a specific entity that plays this role. The 'Angel of Death' - Azrael. Although, this name cannot be found in the bible, and there is no mention of any other entity with a similar role".

This information isn't received with much interest from the class. Regardless, Miss Edal continues on her rant about the various roles that Michael was written to have been apart of, including the names of numerous spiritual battles and commandments of God.

Jasmine was never really one to believe in God, angels or anything else spiritual. If God really existed she wondered why he would put her through this pain, why he wouldn't stop it. She would believe then.

When the bell sounded two hours later, Jasmine was ready to follow her usual lunch time routine - hiding in some crevice of the school hoping that she can at least eat in peace. "Jasmine" Miss Edal called as class ended. She already knew what this would be about.

The assignment she had turned in before she went on her week-long hiatus was subpar at best. Miss Edal gave Jasmine a concerned look as the blonde approached her desk, dropping a sloppily stapled together assignment with the disappointing result of 38/100 in front of her. Jasmine's eyes dropped to the floor and she muttered a half-hearted apology.

"I know that you have been away due to illness for the past week but is there any particular reason that your work has been at this level?" She inquired, tilting her head in an attempt to glance at Jasmine's eyes. Jasmine had no answer for her.

"I am very concerned about this. On the quiz I handed out at the start of the year you scored the highest in class - I was expecting great things from you" She stated.

With a guilty twist of her hands Jasmine gave a small nod. She was always at the top of her class in freshman and sophomore, she did well in a majority of subjects and would often earn praise from her teachers. Ms Edal's small boney fingers rose to gently twist around Jasmine's wrist, a pleading look in her expression.

"You know you can tell me anything right, Jasmine?".

Jasmine could do nothing but give another small nod, refusing to meet the teacher's eyes.

She didn't feel like she could talk to anybody about her issues with bullying. Not because she didn't think that it would stop, no, but because she didn't want to cause her mother trouble.

It had been a stressful few months post-move. While her work paid well, her mum put in long stressful hours to provide for her daughters as their only guardian. It was the first time in a few years that her family had financial stability. She didn't want to complain, especially when her mum was going through so much more than she was.

"I'm sorry Miss, It's just been...a difficult adjustment here" A half lie that Jasmine knew wouldn't be questioned.

With a frown Miss Edal removed her hand, catching Jasmine's gaze for just a moment, "Well then, you know where to find me".

There were two places Jasmine would never visit during lunch time. The first was the cafeteria.

On top of having to deal with the glares and looks from not only Paige and her posse, Jasmine had long learnt that she wasn't invited to any of the tables. That kind of rejection brought with it a feeling she no longer wanted to experience if she could help.

The second were the toilets. The toilets were a lawless territory. No teacher ever entered the student toilets and so they were the perfect place for illegal activity and rule breaking. Jasmine knew this first hand, and had vowed to only enter the toilets during class time when she absolutely had to.

Her go to spot was the grassy area near the basketball court and sports oval. There was always a teacher patrolling there, so even if she was harassed it would never be that bad. She sat down, pulling out a small sketchbook she kept in her bag. She hadn't brought any food, making lunch was the last thing on her mind this morning. Though, it wasn't like she hadn't gone all day without eating before.

She flicked through the first few pages of her book. Faces and scenes; that's what she liked to draw, and she often found reference in the people around her.

Not so surprisingly, a recurring face sketched in messy pencil was Ethan Wilson. She smiled at the image, pausing a moment before flipping to a fresh page and looking up to decide what she wanted to sketch.

She scanned the school grounds before her eyes settled on a peculiar looking guy that she had never seen before. She could only just make him out, leaning against the wall of one of the buildings across the field. Her first thought was how strange he looked in a high-school setting.

He was tall and had a head of messy black curls. He wore a plain black shirt and a pair of dark jeans that seemed to cling to his body before vanishing into his boots.

She noted the dark tattoos that curled up from his wrists and disappeared beneath the sleeves of his tight shirt. She wondered what kind of family he must have to have that many tattoos at this age, what kind of person he would be.

As she stared at him he slowly glanced up, his eyes settling on her. Jasmine's body clenched as his hands slipped into his pockets. For a moment she had forgotten to breathe and let out a long slow breath as the pair locked eyes. Quickly she looked away, reaching to brush a loose strand of hair behind her ear as she calmed her breathing.

What was that feeling?

It felt like a pressure had formed in her stomach. Like a feeling of both panic and intimidation mixed together. A few moments passed and Jasmine looked back but was surprised to find that he had disappeared.

For the rest of the day she couldn't get the image of him out of her head. She hadn't seen anyone like that in school for the couple of months that she had been there. She would have noticed if he had passed her in the halls, it would have been impossible for her not to.

It wasn't until the end of lunch that she realised that she had scribbled his face into her sketchbook, leaning against the wall with messy curls covering his eyes.