The Beginning

Mary Davies

I was excited when mum broke the news to me. I got the scholarship to Beverly Dale high school. I was changing school, I breathed a sigh of relief.

"You should be excited," my mum, a tall woman with a blonde hair, who is in her late thirties said to me.

"How are we going to cope mum?" I whispered softly, nibbling at my lower lips.

We are not rich, we hardly have enough. I was lucky to even get a scholarship. My mum won't have to bother to pay my tuition fees again.

"We will find a way, I will get a job in Beverly Dale. Don't worry too much honey." She whispered back, cupping my chin.

I nodded my head in response, trying to think about the positive side of this scholarship.

At least I get to start afresh, from the beginning. This is going to be a new chapter of my life and whatever I do now is going to write my story.

"Look at me honey," my mum whispered, raising my chin up.

"We have got this and we are going to survive the storms."

****

Few days later

I gulped the spit that was forming in my mouth. Fear settled in the pit of my stomach as I stepped into the hallways of Beverly Dale high. I began to hear whispers as I stepped in. I brushed my black hair with my palm, inhaling a deep breath.

"Who the fuck is that?"

"She looks strange and may I add ugly to it."

"For crying out loud, what is she wearing? Are those rags or what?"

I hugged myself tightly as I walked, maybe it was a wrong idea of wearing this dungaree. But mum said it looked nice on me though. I stared down at my old Nike sneakers, the white was already fading off but it was still looking nice.

The whispers didn't stop, it followed me everywhere I went, I was glad I came to get my locker keys on Friday, it wasn't hard to locate mine. I immediately opened it and pushed my things inside.

I noticed the owner of the locker beside mine was staring at me. I turned my head to her.

"Hello." I said, waving slightly. She was cute, dusts of freckles were splattered on her chubby cheek. She wasn't tall, and her auburn hair was packed in a ponytail.

"Don't talk to me," she whispered, trying to avoid looking at me.

"Why?" I asked, in fear that she might find me strange too.

"You will be ostracized into a loner, an outcast." She whispered.

"But I want to be friends with you." I replied, smiling widely.

"What is your name?" I asked.

"Taylor. I am Taylor McGregor." She replied.

"Do you mind showing me around?" I asked, hoping for a positive response.

She locked her hands with mine and we began to move around.

She showed me the library, the music room, the staff room, all classes and the janitors closet where all kinds of shenanigans were performed. She picked the cafeteria as the last place to show me.

"This is the cafeteria." She said as we both stepped into a huge noisy room with lots of chairs and tables. The atmosphere made my heart beat. The room smelt of food, mostly cheese and fried chicken.

I looked around, everyone here seems happy. I could see the jocks tables, their jerseys gave them away, the tech savvies had laptops and tabs on their table. The emos, queen bees, the nerds and geeks. Every category were here, I smiled. This was actually cool.

"Don't look," Taylor suddenly said, her hold on my hands tightened, I shifted my gaze to her, her skin was already looking pale.

I looked around trying to find what this was all about. Her gaze was fixed on a guy with ginger hair. The look of fear on her face was kind of scaring me.

"Who is that?" I asked.

"That is Jeremy Dallas, one of the famous two." She whispered.

He was talking to someone I couldn't really see, he was obviously a tall boy with long legs and broad shoulders. Little wiry hair was on his upper lips. His ginger hair was in a Mohawk style which gave him a bad boy look.

Suddenly my eyes met with that of the person sitting close to him, dark eyes bore into mine, I began to take note of his chiseled features, his fleek eyebrows that were full and well shaped. He looked well groomed and neat, the aura of confidence exuded from him. He was good-looking and super hot. The varsity jacket he was wearing looked like it was made to be worn by him alone. I almost swooned.

His eyes were still on me, that piercing stare sent a shiver down my spine. Suddenly he got up and began to walk towards us, Jeremy followed.

The cafeteria became quite and everyone focused their attention on us, my palms began to get sweaty. This wasn't going to end well.

"Oh my goodness," Taylor cried out and began to fidget. I wanted to move but I was still transfixed by his gaze, I felt as if my legs were glued to the floor.

"Well, well, look what we have here." Jeremy said, smirking at Taylor. "The plus size girl, or should I say the fat ass bitch." Everyone in the cafeteria laughed at his silly joke.

"Fat Taylor, you really need to shed some weight before you blow up." He added, snapping his fingers.

Taylor was sobbing, I could hear her cry. Is this what they treat her like, a loner, a nobody. Bullying, I could clearly understand how she felt as I was a subject of bully in my previous school.

This is Beverly Dale high, I thought it was going to be different. To be honest I was scared of trying to intervene, I looked back to the other guy, he was still staring at me. I expected him to do something, but he didn't. I was exasperated beyond measures.

"Please, leave her alone." I said softly.

"Did you guys hear that?" Jeremy shouted, laughing out loud and slapping his knees.

"Please leave her alone," he mimicked me.

"What are you?" He asked, scrunching up his face in disgust. "Super woman, you look like a plumber."

I bowed my head in shame, as everyone laughed.

"She is so ugly!" Someone shouted.

"Taylor got herself a partner," he cooed, moving closer to Taylor.

"Fat Taylor, maybe you should really be dieting like your partner here." He added, trailing his fingers on her cheeks.

Taylor ran out of the cafeteria, leaving me alone in the midst of it all. All eyes turned to me, focusing on only me.

"What have we got here," a deep voice asked, I looked up and immediately looked down back. His voice was calm and deep.

"She is the scholarship student," a tiny voice shouted, murmurings filled the hall. It dawned on me slowly, I'm going to be having problems because I am a scholarship student.

"She is not in our league, she belongs to the lower class." someone said behind me.

"Hope she doesn't have a disease or something," another voice said.

My hands began to tremble and my lips quivered.

"Scholarship student, Hawk your parents are the ones funding the scholarship board right?" Jeremy asked, chuckling.

"Of course," Mr Piercing gaze replied, he began to move closer to me, hovering over me. I stepped back as he moved closer. I rested on the wall behind me, not having space to move back again.

His hands rested on the walls behind me.

"Leave my school." He said.

"I want you to leave and never come back again. If you don't, I am going to ruin you."

"I am going to mess up your life till it won't be fixable. I am going to make you regret ever coming here sweet thing." He growled out, then he walked away.

Jeremy followed behind, a drop of tears dropped from my eyes and rolled down my cheeks.

I could feel eyes on me. I could hear footsteps and it was coming closer to me.

"Eyes up," a feminine voice shouted, with a clap.

I raised my head up to find three girls standing in front of me. The one who spoke was a red head with make-up, she would have looked more beautiful without the caked makeup on her face. The other two seemed to be her minions and they both have auburn hair with make up on their faces too.

"I am Queen, the queen bee of Beverly Dale."

"And this is Ashley and Tailey" she added pointing to the other two.

"We are here to tell you to decline the scholarship and go back to the crappy old school you came from, and as you can see, we belong to the higher class. Losers like you shouldn't be here, you are only going to pollute the rich air here." Queen said, flipping her hair.

"We give you two days, we don't want to see your ugly face here and we are already tired of seeing it." She added, rubbing a pink lipstick to her lips.

"Two days, that is all." She smashed her lips together, blowing me a kiss.

She walked away, flipping her hair again.

I gasped, holding my chest. This was too much.

Her minions followed after, but not without saying hurtful words to me.

"My advice, burn that sneakers. It doesn't deserve to be thrown away but burned." Tailey said, spitting on my face.

"Staying here will only make your life miserable." Ashley said, her voice was kind of calm and soft.

This is not what I bargained for, this is really going to break mum's heart. We both hoped Beverly Dale was going to bring some good luck to us. We can't go back to Manhittan. I became confused, I walked blindly out of the cafeteria.

****