The Maze

"Inhale the Future, Exhale the Past" @beastdesire

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Bella's POV

The bell rang for the beginning of lunch finally allowing French class to end. I swiftly packed up my books and walked out of class, heading to my locker. The halls were buzzing with students. People were bumping into each other to get to where they wanted to go. Pushing past a group of jocks standing close to my locker, I put in my locker combination and switched up my books that I needed. I shut my locker and headed to the cafeteria, following a group of sophomores headed there too. It wasn't a far walk until I found myself walking into the huge cafeteria. The slightly slippery linoleum floors were a turquoise color with a slight gleam under the pale white light. The tables were black with matching plastic chairs. Only a few people were already seated and more were bustling in through the doors behind me. Seeing the lunch queue was getting longer by the second, I rushed forward to stand in line. The queue moved slowly as students picked out their lunch and paid for it. While I was idly moving with the student body, my mind wandered back to Ember and her group of friends that helped me this morning. I tried very hard not to think about him when my eyes caught movement by the main doors where I came from. Ember walked in with her friends. The girl from this morning was next to her. I didn't look at her closely before but she was just as gorgeous as Ember. She had dark red hair and if I remembered correctly from this morning, she had green eyes. They were in deep discussion as they walked to a table in the far corner of the cafeteria, away from most of the people. The boys followed close behind them. Sean was talking excitedly with the other guy from before and the golden eyed one followed behind them, not seeming to pay attention to their conversation. The line in front of me moved and I tore my gaze from them to pay attention to where I was going. I grabbed a plastic container filled with tomato salad and an apple with a water. As the line moved and it was my turn to pay, I showed the items of my tray to the middle-aged lady behind the cash register. "Will that be all?" She said in a bored voice. I nodded and she spoke again. "Then that will be 20 dollars." I pulled out a twenty from my bag and handed it to her. I turned away from her and started walking away. After I was out of the lunch line's way, I stopped and looked around for a place to sit.

"One salad isn't gonna help you, honey" a high pitched voice said from my right. I turned and came face to face with the girl that started this morning's bullying. She had blonde hair with brown highlights and she had a snide smile on her face with a devilish glint in her eyes. I kept my face neutral and tried not to think of all the names that she called me. I take a deep breathe and exhale slowly before I answer her. "I have to start somewhere don't I?" It sounded a lot snarkier then I intended but the snide smile that disappeared from her face was oddly satisfying, until it turned into anger. "Honey, someone as fat as you, is past the point of return to this." She gestured to her body with a manicured hand and looked me up and down in disgust. I sighed and and stared her dead in the eyes. "Look, I think we got off on the wrong foot. My name's Bella." I adjusted my tray and stuck out my hand. She slapped my hand away and a slither of pain shot through my wrist. My hand clenched into a fist and I jerked my wrist against my chest as the aching started again. "Well, Bella, you're soon gonna realize that this is my school and everything I say, go's. And you should go back to wherever you came from, 'cause you don't belong here." With every word she spoke she took a step closer to me and I took a step back as she advanced. "Do us all a favor and leave." she sneered and jabbed me on the shoulder with her finger.

My eyes started to burn as I whirled away from her and ran out of the cafeteria, throwing away my lunch on the way out. I kept running until I got outside at the back of the school. I slumped against the wall, panting from the short run. A big negative to being overweight. My cheeks were flushed, I could feel the heat but I ignored it and looked around me. Walls of green greeted me. Two rows of moss green hedge walls with an opening and more hedge walls in the center. A wooden sign was speared into the ground. The Maze Of Mist. The name suited as mist swarmed the ground. I pushed myself off the wall and walked into the opening, the mist swallowing my legs up to my calves. More hedge walls stretched around me as I turned left then right. I walked until a fork in the maze formed. I stopped and looked left seeing another opening that turned left, but if I was right then it would just lead me back to the beginning, so I turned right then right again. As I took the last turn I came face to face with a small beautiful garden. Irises, soft pink meadowsweet bushes, marigolds and the common red roses encircling grass. A garden set of wood and iron benches and a table stood in the middle of it all and a wooden medieval looking door was opposite me. I walked over to it and opened it. Seeing the trees from the forest a few yards away, I closed it again and walked back to the garden set. I sat down on the bench facing away from the entryway where I came from and gazed at the flowers and the treetops sticking out from behind the hedge walls. I sat there for a while, not keeping track of how much time was passing. the slight ache in my wrist was easy to ignore as I sat there. My tears forgotten, my bullies forgotten. It was just me and nature. But like a snake, a pair of golden brown eyes slithered into my mind. The eyes seemed to veil themselves over my eyesight, overshadowing the flowers and taking over all my attention. "Bella?" Startled, I jumped up and whirled around, coming face to face with the very eyes that was clouding my vision.