Chapter two

The dry-erase marker squeaked as Mrs. Johnson wrote on the whiteboard. I copied down everything in my Health notebook. All my thoughts were on the lesson. I didn't even notice who my two friends were talking about until I heard my name. My fingers slipped and my pencil fell to the floor. I swallowed. It's fine. Everything's fine. Just focus on writing down Health notes.

I bent over and picked up my pencil. I probably just heard wrong. If they were gonna talk about me, they'd do it behind my back. Not so close to me. They just misspoke or are talking about the other Alexandra in the next class. If they had been referring to me, they would have used the nickname they had given me.

I sighed. I seriously need to calm down. No one's talking about me. They have no reason to. I'm always quiet, and never pick fights with anyone. In middle school I had been a loner, but that was because I had no need for friends. It wasn't like nobody liked me. There was even a boy who had a crush on me. Everyone in my class had made sure to tell me.

Not sure why, though. I'm only fourteen years old. That means I'm a minor, and my focus should be on school. Not romance. Telling me is pointless. Also, it's unfair to the boy. It should have been his choice if he wanted to confess or stay peers.

Ah, shoot. I got distracted. Glancing up at the board to see where I was at, my throat tightened when I saw Mrs. Johnson erasing everything and moving on. I tried to breathe, but I couldn't. I didn't even have half of the lesson written down. I'd get in trouble with the teacher for not writing it down, and it's all because of my stupid paranoia and thinking about romance.

Oh, wait. Let's not freak out. I can just copy off of one of my friends after class. With that in mind, I focused on the rest of the lesson. When the bell rang, I joined up with the group. "Hey, can I copy someone's notes from health class? I started daydreaming in the middle of class, and-"

"Oh, I couldn't find my pencil, so I couldn't write any of it down. Tiana, could I copy off you?" I nodded in agreement. What on earth had I been so worried about? I felt relieved that I hadn't been the only one to make that mistake. But still, daydreaming at school wasn't something I should repeat. And this was technically cheating.

"Sure, but only Haley." Tiana said as she handed Haley the notebook. I blinked. What...? I stared at her. "Me too, though, right? After Haley's done with your notebook." I smiled nervously. She and Haley looked at each other then me. "I said only Haley. Are you deaf or something?" They laughed. I kept staring at the same spot, even after they walked away talking about how annoying the art teacher is.

I was so naive. Naive and stupid. Maybe it had been paranoia at first, but I couldn't even find the words to try to deny it. I was a little hurt. A little angry. But mostly, I was just confused. Why would they pretend to be my friends and then do something like this? I mean, bullies are either psychopaths or people trying to make themselves feel better by hurting others.

If they were trying to make themselves feel better, why not go all the way with the bullying? They treated a couple of the girls in our class horribly, and they weren't even trying to hide it. So why would they only go half-way for me?

I wished they had at least gone all the way. That way I would have a better reason for getting revenge, or be able to feel sorry for myself.

I stood in the hallway for a few more seconds until the bell rang and I realized I'd be late for class. As I put away my Health book and got out my Math textbook and binder, I thought about it. Was it even worth getting revenge over? In historical romance manwha, the main character got revenge on the person responsible for their death or making their family suffer, but that wasn't the case here.

All it was was some simple teenage drama. No reason to even get upset about it. I sighed. It was annoying though. If they started bullying me... Other people wanting to fit in and people who like bullying would join in and that would be bad. But it doesn't matter. It's not like this will hurt me more than it already has.

I was so wrong. So, so wrong. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn't ignore the whispers or the snickers or being called names. It hurt. So much. Even though I had never cared what people thought of me, it hurt so much.

I didn't tell anyone though. I kept it to myself. It was just some teenage drama. Nothing more. Nothing to worry my family over. If I just ignored it, I'd get through highschool and go to college. I'd be more careful about making friends. I'd gain more confidence and would go back to not caring.

When summer finally came, I locked myself in my room and read romance manwha all day. I only left my room when I had to use the bathroom or eat. I stopped talking. I liked the silence of my room, and reading about fictional characters' problems. It got lonely at times, but with anime, food and romance manwha, I was happy. For the whole summer, this was all I did. (Except for one camping trip.)

But then summer ended.