Olivia: My Way of Saying 'Thank You'

Olivia's long lashes fluttered open.

The first thing she saw was a light bulb and a ceiling fan drilled into a dirty white ceiling. She slowly sat up from the bed ("Bed?"), trying to check her surroundings, when she felt a sharp pain in her head.

Olivia winced, running her fingers on her scalp and expecting to feel an open wound, but all she felt were bandages.

Now that she noticed it, she felt a tight pressure on her head. It was not because of the injury she sustained but because of the cloth wrapped around it.

She blinked, trying to process what was happening and why she had a head injury.

The last thing she remembered was Badd and her henchman dragging her on the ground by the ponytail. They paraded her in front of the Huxley campus like some sort of circus freak, and no one dared to help her during the whole ordeal.

'I can't really blame them...' Olivia thought, though it was obvious that she was gaslighting herself into believing this was true. 'I can't blame them for not intervening for my sake.

"I'm not doing anything to Badd, yet I was being treated like vermin! What would happen to them if they fought back against the Queen of Huxley?'

Olivia sighed deeply as she scanned her surroundings. There was nothing much to see because she was surrounded by what seemed like blue curtains.

But judging from the comfortable bed she was lying on and the curtains surrounding her, she easily concluded that she was inside a clinic.

'Anyway,' Olivia reran her fingers on the bandage wrapped around her head, slightly impressed. 'Whoever treated me was quite good at first aid... The nurse in Huxley should learn a thing or two from them--'

The curtains abruptly opened, and lo and behold, the nurse Olivia had in mind appeared.

"Nurse Des?" Olivia felt her eyes widen, genuinely surprised to see the woman in a white uniform. "Wait, am I at Huxley?"

"Nurse Glee." The nurse corrected before sitting on the edge of the clinic bed. "And to answer your question, yes, you are at Huxley."

Then, the sudden realization of what truly happened to her came crashing into her mind like a tsunami.

Olivia stared at the nurse, who had a very concerned look on her face. It was a look so foreign to the snotty nurse, who looked exactly like this nurse who claimed to be 'Nurse Glee,' that she knew in her universe.

"Okay, I have some very pressing questions, but first, I need to check how severe your concussion is."

Nurse Glee began asking questions to test her consciousness, and Olivia managed to answer them. The nurse gave a sigh of relief before proceeding to the 'pressing questions' she was referring to earlier.

"Are you a student of Huxley? I noticed you're wearing the school's uniform. But I haven't seen you before..."

Olivia opened her mouth to answer, but Nurse Glee continued.

"Can you tell me what happened to you? How did you get these injuries? Did that Twyne kid hurt you?" She spoke in a very careful manner. "Because if he did, I'd talk to the school admin about Twyne's bullying.

"He brought me too many patients already. Enough is enough!" She declared.

Olivia barely registered Nurse Glee's monologue, but she caught one thing from her rattling: Oliver Twyne was the bully in this universe.

The idea that in another universe, Olivia was a bully horrified her. Even though she was bullied in hers, she wasn't a person who inflicted pain on others just because the world was unfair to her.

"Where is..." Olivia paused. "What's his name again, Oliver?" 

Nurse Glee looked terrified at the mere mention of Oliver's name.

"Twyne," She corrected. "Don't call him by his first name."

Olivia narrowed her eyes; why were they acting like her alternate self was like some noseless wizard?

But then it occurred to her that they were doing the same thing to Badd.

Speaking of Badd, she wondered if she turned into the bullied in this universe...

"Do you want me to call him?" She asked in a tone as if Olivia was making the biggest mistake of her life.

Olivia nodded.

Nurse Glee did exactly that, and she went outside of the clinic. In seconds, Oliver scrambled to get to her bed. Along with him was a black-haired, bespectacled guy who was probably the same age as them. 

The guy looked oddly familiar... If only he had a loud blue hair color.

"JaNyx?!" Olivia gasped. "Ouch!" She grabbed her head, a pained expression on her face.

"Oh, wow." JaNyx mused. "She knows me. Also," He shifted his attention to Oliver. "And she calls me by my IGN. You should learn a thing or two from her, Olive."

But Oliver didn't pay him any mind. He scooted over, checking the dressing on Olivia's wound. A patch on the clean white cloth slowly turned red, her blood soaking it at high speed.

Oliver looked at Nurse Glee urgently.

"Well?!" He demanded. "We didn't pay you just to gawk there!"

Olivia looked startled at his tone and volume as Nurse Glee immediately attended to her. The other Twyne returned his gaze to her, pure concern written all over his face.

"Oh, I'm sorry. Didn't mean to--"

"You're saying 'sorry'?!" JaNyx scoffed in disbelief. "How is this possible?!"

Oliver rolled his eyes at him but continued. "Let's go to a hospital and get you checked. Clearly," He glared at Glee, who applied pressure on Olivia's wound to stop the bleeding. "The one here is useless." 

Olivia knitted her eyebrows together.

"That's not how you should talk to people."

JaNyx and Nurse Glee froze; they both gave her a warning glance, but Olivia continued. 

"That's very rude of you, Oliver."

Olivia didn't know where she got the courage to speak like this to him, a concept that was nonexistent to her when she was back in her universe. 

But something inside of her was telling her to speak up. To tell him off and not be a bystander like those who merely watched her throughout the school year get harassed and beaten up.

She didn't blame them for their instincts toward self-preservation.

But at the end of the day, they were humans, not animals. Every one of us had the gift of compassion. A gift they all disregarded. 

As expected, Oliver looked pissed at being reprimanded. He grabbed her by her collar, forcing her to look at him.

Both JaNyx and Nurse Glee gasped in horror. The former had a look of hesitation on his face about whether he should stop them, but it was evident that he was scared of getting caught in the conflict.

"Listen here, Olivia, or whatever your name is." He did, in fact, know her name but was just pressing her buttons. "I did you a favor by bringing you here to the clinic--"

"With the help of me!" JaNyx interjected.

"So you better be thankful--"

Oliver was stunned as he felt her hand smack him across the face, automatically removing his hands from her school uniform.

"This is my way of saying 'thank you'." She smiled mockingly before hopping off the bed and running to God knows where.