WE GOT EACH OTHER

In class, we all waited for the next teacher who was taking longer than usual. Lily motioned towards Mr rude with her index finger. She did it in a barely noticeable way. I turned to see him staring at me with an unusual expression and I quickly looked away. Why the heck is he looking at me?

After few minutes, I asked Lily subtly, "Is he still staring?"

"Nope but he is coming over," she replied.

I froze. I was damn tired of his pranks. He should leave me alone.

Mr rude walked up to me and crouched forward. His two hands pressed onto my desk, holding up his weight.

"You must be happy you will be free from me after tomorrow, S.B," he said, making sure to draw the last word.

"S.B? What is that?" I asked a little bit confused.

The last time I checked, my name is Sydney Raymond not Sydney whatever-that-begins-with-B. So what the heck was S.B?

"It means stubborn brat. You literally gave me an outrageous nickname so why can't I."

"I'm not a stubborn brat so I won't answer that," I said, folding my hands across my chest.

"You will answer whatever name I give to you," he said, smirking. "I came over just to tell you to get ready for tomorrow." His face became impassive again.

I wanted to say something but decided against it. I wanted the conversation to end as soon as possible.

"One more thing, don't carry your stubborn attitude to class tomorrow, S.B," he adviced.

I didn't say anything more and he left. Thereafter, the teacher walked into the class. She apologize for being late and then the class commenced. After the long and boring class, she left and I saw Mr rude walking out of the class through the corner of my eyes.

Lily moved closer to me. "I heard everything Rex said earlier. Tomorrow should be the last 'hellish day'. Please, try not to fight back. I know you can get all angry and do something just as a payback. Fact: after tomorrow you are finally free from every prank and bullying."

"Lily, I'm too afraid to do anything to him now. I promise not to do anything drastic. I can't believe I actually survived those unending pranks and bullying," I said with a smile on my face.

"I told you, didn't I? You can and you did," she happily said.

While still relishing the happiness, two male students began causing a raucous in class by throwing paper at themselves. I shook my head at their rambunctiousness. Just then, a crumpled piece of paper hit me.

I turned angrily at them. "Hey! Watch were you throw those!"

They gave me a cheeky smile and continued, totally ignoring my warning. This suddenly turned into a fun activity in class as everyone began throwing pieces of paper at me.

I buried my head into my desk hoping for it to stop but the papers kept on coming. Lily was shouting at them to stop but no one listened to her and they kept on throwing and laughing.

"Lord, please make them stop," I prayed.

Immediately, the papers stopped raining down on me. I raised my head to see Mr rude standing right in front of me, shielding me from the assault. He flashed a smile at me and my eyes widened in surprise. I felt my face slowly turning red but thankfully he turned around at that moment and didn't see my bashful behavior.

"You guys should stop it. The next teacher may walk in at any moment and you all will be caught bullying her. You don't want to get in trouble, do you?" He questioned.

Everyone shook their head as they mumbled a 'no'.

"Good," he nodded. "Get the class cleaned and once the classes end, you can continue with your little game."

Wait! What? I thought he was helping me but it turns out he didn't want the others to get into trouble. I gritted my teeth as I glared at him. Everyone in class immediately got to work.

"S.B, you can show your gratitude to me later," he said before walking away.

"Are you alright?" Lily asked. "I'm sorry I couldn't stop them."

I groaned. "Lily... I think you should stop apologizing for things that are not your fault."

She scratched her nose. "Alright."

I gave her a sweet smile before turning to look at Mr rude who was already seated. What was that smile earlier and why did I get affected by it?

Once the buzzer went off, signalling that school was over, I quickly dragged Lily and we ran out of the classroom.

When we finally stopped, Lily asked, "why did we run?"

"I don't want them to continue their earlier game again," I answered while catching my breath.

Lily let out a sigh. "For a moment I thought we were running away from ferocious beasts."

I burst out laughing and Lily joined in. The ringing laughs commingling together.

Before mum picked me up, I dismissed every thought concerning Mr rude from my mind. I didn't want to get her worried by donning a sad face.

Later at home, while I was helping Isabel with her unfinished drawing, I said, "guess who visited, Diamond."

With the excitement on my face she immediately knew.

"Grandpa Sam," she said cheerfully. "But how did you know?" She asked with a puzzled expression.

"I finally talked to Diamond and Lisa, yesterday. They told me about his visit," I explained.

"Wow! How I wish I can talk to him?" She mused.

"I plan to call Diamond today and I haven't spoken to him yet so we can do that together," I told her.

"Yippee!" She yelled in excitement.

I laughed. "Let's quickly finish your drawing."

After we finished decorating her drawing, we went down for dinner. Mum had ordered pizza. We loved pizza and we quickly gobbled it up. Thereafter, we ran to my room and made a call to Diamond. We had a long conversation with Grandpa Sam.

At the end of the call, Isabel said, "I wish Grandpa Sam was my grandfather."

I hugged her. We didn't have grandparents since mum was an orphan and we weren't close to our late dad's family. So each time we speak to grandpa Sam, Isabel would always feel happy but at the same time a little bit sad.

I said to her in a calm soothing voice, "we got each other, Isa."