Sharing Feelings

The week of school went by slower than Jian expected as she waited desperately for Saturday. She was so excited because all the research she had done gave her so much inspiration and knowledge. She felt so excited to work on such a big project. So she had prepped a lot of her things days in advance. She had needles, pins, thread, scissors, and fabric all packed. She also drew many different designs of the results with inspirations from the decades prior to her time when suits were normal attire.

She walked along the streets very happy with her day as she enter the building. She was able to find the location for her shoot from her schedule and went to the floor it required while texting John. Jian walked in happy and excited and walked out all feeling the same as she walked towards John who waited by the door. He offered to carry her bags with all the materials as they waited for the elevator. "So how are you feeling?" John asked as a conversation starter and Jian smiled walking into the elevator. She said with a squeal in her voice, "I am so excited, I have been waiting for days to tell you about all the research I did, and I have so many ideas I can't wait to tell you oh I am so excited." He listened to her with a smile on his face as she just continued to speak about her days.

"You didn't talk about Monday, did something happen?" He asked concerned as she walked out frowning. "Jian, come on you know you can tell me if something is bothering you, right?" He said matching her pace to the office. "It's not you, it just feels silly to be upset over this. I mean it wasn't even a big deal." Jian said surging and John replied with, "Jian, if it's something that's bothering you then talking about it will help." John said emphasizing the word talking to remind her of what she had said to him days ago.

She sighed as they walked inside, John placed the bag down on the table then sat down and asked her, "Now will you tell me what happened?" She nodded pacing slowly before speaking, "Remember when I was on the phone with you on Monday?"

He nodded and she continued, "Well I was walking down after waiting for the hallways to clear up and I saw a classmate walk up and as she did so she called me a try-hard. I mean it wouldn't have bothered me if it was just her but after my presentation, on Monday my classmates called me the teacher's pet and try hard while I sat back down. Ever since then I just feel like everyone is calling me that. I do try hard and work to do well but that's because I know that it's something that will benefit me, but I just do not feel comfortable with people calling me names especially to downgrade me for doing something good."

"Alright," John said taking it all in then he replied, "Has this happened before?" She thought for a few seconds before replying, "I was never called this way before, people just ignored it in the other states but here is so different." She sighed and smiled saying, "So yes that was what bothered me but it felt good to get it off my chest, thanks." He nodded getting up to help her unpack as he asked, "By the way, the phone call, who was Nick?"