18th July

Hahahahahahahahahahahhahahahhahahahahahaha.

"---! Are you awake yet?"

"You're gonna be late for school!"

"Today's a Monday, you've got school!"

"You know you can't miss another day of school!"

"C'mon! Wake up!"

"Don't be late!"

"There's so much to do!"

"You have something you need to do!"

"You have something you need to accomplish!"

"Wake up!"

"---!"

"Wake up!"

"We need to finish this off!"

"Hahaha!"

"Who cares about her?"

"No, listen to me!"

"I'm gonna need to step outside!"

"Monday!"

"Wake up!"

"You'll die if you don't wake up!"

"Would be nice if we never woke up."

"You, I mean you."

"Do you want to die?"

"Wake up!"

"There isn't much time to waste!"

"Hurry up!"

"WAKE UP!"

I slammed my bed. My eyes were opened and I was staring at the ceiling of my room. I was breathing hard for some reason. I took a shaky breath, closing my eyes as I tried to slow down my heart rate.

After a couple of seconds, I got off my bed and headed directly to the washroom. I've always liked having a bathroom directly connected to my bedroom. It's really convenient, don't you think?

Hm~

I stared myself dead in the eyes. Pitch black. I swept my hair back, wondering if the roots of my black hair could already be seen. I guess just a little, but it wasn't anything obvious. I washed my face.

After finishing my routine, I walked out of my room.

My Mom was in the midst of preparing breakfast while dad was once again reading the news. I walked by him, asking with a smile, "Anything interesting in the news?"

"More info was published about the two kids that committed suicide earlier this year," He replied.

"The one from the next town over?" I asked to confirm.

"Yeah," He nodded. "Turns out they were murderers given a chance to study but failed to follow the rules."

"Murderers? In school? What the hell?"

"Yeah, it's a thing that happened," He let out a long sigh.

"None of our business, I guess?" I shrugged and approached my Mom.

I very unsuccessfully snuck up on her to ask, "So… Whatcha making for breakfast today? Please don't let it be bacon."

My Mom smiled. "You're up earlier than usual today."

"My alarm went off early."

She knocked my head with a knuckle. "I know you don't set alarms, silly. C'mon, you can tell me what happened. Had a bad dream?"

"Yeah, something like that," I rubbed my head.

I looked down at what she was making, as well as the ingredients that were prepared and waiting to be cooked.

"Making English hashbrowns," My Mom told me. "Saw it in a recipe book, so I'm trying it out."

"Can't wait."

I kissed my Mom on the cheek before sitting down at the dining table. I pulled my phone out and started to perform my best Fable impression. By that, I mean that I sent Catherine a funny text just for fun.

What?

What else was I supposed to do?

Surf through Instagram?

"I never understand how Fable can look through his phone for so long," I wondered out loud. "I mean, what's there to do?"

"I don't know, Social Media?" Dad replied.

"I get it, but for hours? Really?"

He shrugged while still reading the paper. "I mean, I'm not the one who spends most of his day scrolling through his phone."

"True, true."

My Mom placed a plate in front of me. I got up and got a fork for myself to use. My Mom asked me after I sat down, "Are you gonna leave early today?"

"Maybe," I replied, not yet eating.

"I need a clear answer," She insisted.

"Yes, I am."

"Try not to get into any trouble today, okay?"

"Can't promise anything," I replied jokingly.

I haven't seen Candace in school recently, who's to say I would see her today? Although there is that problem with her friends that can't be helped. Huh, school sounds a lot more boring than I had anticipated.

Oh well, whatever.

On my way out of the house, I saw Fable walk out looking like absolute shit. I announced my exit. "I'm off!"

Well well well.

Today's gonna be a great day if a certain someone decides to show up and humour me. I was just chilling on the bus when I noticed something slightly different about the boring bus trip to school.

Maybe it's because I left the house earlier today.

Huh.

So there was someone looking really fidgety just standing behind a woman. I just watched him look around. His hand inched toward the woman's bag but stopped when he made eye contact with me. I waved at him just for the fun of it. He dropped his hand and got off at the closest bus stop.

No idea what that was about, but it was mildly entertaining while it lasted.

Looking out of the window of the bus, I noticed the dark clouds rolling into sight. Yeah, I noticed the dark clouds even though it was still pretty dark. Dang, I'm not sure if I brought my umbrella today.

I'm at school now!

Oh, school, dear school, how I've missed you!

So, so so so. I walked into the school like a boss, not many other students around. Hell, the sun was just starting to rise when I entered. Walking along the hallway, I hummed a little song to myself.

A couple of students were seen walking around, minding their own business.

Right, my Homeroom teacher did mention something about how the school was planning to allow coloured hair. Really? After everything I've done, that's what they came up with? Really? Fuck whoever's running the school, eh?

I noticed something interesting happening off to the side.

Mr Popular was already in school. However, his fangirls weren't.

He made eye contact with me, a look of shock showing on his face. He rubbed his eyes before looking back at me. I laughed, the two of us walking toward each other. I immediately joked with him, "I'm real, okay?"

He rubbed the back of his head. "Yeah, I just didn't expect to see you at school this early."

"Speaking of, whatcha doing at school this early?" I asked.

"Well, my parents go to work early, so they drop me off really early," He explained. "What are you doing here at this time then?"

"Well, you see, I really wanted to come to school," I told him.

He scoffed. "That's a lie."

"I never lie."

We started walking by each other's side. Mr Popular asked me, "Which way is your classroom?"

"Uh, third floor?" I raised an eyebrow. "Why the curiosity?"

"Was just thinking about which class to avoid, seeing as Candace is also in that class," He said jokingly.

"Just follow me then," I suggested.

"Sure thing," He showed me an 'Ok' hand sign.

There was a moment of silence before I told him, "Dear Candace hasn't been in school recently, any idea what might have happened to her?"

"She hasn't been in school? Thank god!" He let out a nervous laugh.

He stopped when he noticed I wasn't laughing. He let out a sigh, telling me, "I don't know. But what do you care? Isn't she, like, your biggest bully?"

"It's exactly because she's my bully that she needs to be here," I explained to him. "Oh, and if Candace does show up today, trust me when I say that she'll approach you."

"Shit."

"Shit indeed."

I hopped up a couple of steps with Mr Popular. He said to me, "Oh, and the thing about the fangirls…"

"Yeah?" I responded.

"I thought of a possible way to get rid of them," He continued.

"Oh? What's that?"

He looked away. "Don't mind it. It probably wouldn't work anyway. But all I'm saying is that if you don't want to deal with my problem, you don't have to."

I puffed up my cheeks before letting out the air. "Well, I did make a deal. I don't have a clue on what to do, but I might come up with a plan at some point in time."

"Great. Thanks a bunch."

I jabbed him with an elbow. "Haha. Anything for an accomplice, right? We're both aiming for very similar things."

"Accomplice," He repeated.

"Yeah," I confirmed. "I wanna break a certain someone, and you also want to break the hearts of several sweethearts. We're the same, yeah?"

"I'm guessing you don't have many friends."

"Shut up, neither do you."

He smirked. I gave him a look, but he kept the annoying smirk on his face. "I got a bunch of friends, not just fangirls."

"Okay, no one likes a showoff."

We reached my classroom. Inside, there was only one girl. I was about to wave Mr Popular off when he said to me, "Let's chat next time, okay?"

"Oh, when?"

"Is tomorrow a bad time?"

I tapped my chin. "Hm… who knows? You mind if we exchange contact information? Maybe we can talk things through over the phone, yeah?"

"That's a good idea."

We quickly exchanged phone numbers. I initiated a fistbump with him. He did look rather hesitant as he returned the fistbump. I walked away laughing, waving him off. He waved at me and walked off.

"Good morning America!" I announced when I walked into the class.

The one girl looked up.

Hey, I think I remember her. Vaguely, very vaguely. Like, so vaguely that I don't exactly remember her name. I pointed at her and got closer. "Hey… you're the one with the weird name, right?"

"Me?" She asked, slightly shocked.

Is it really shocking when I try to talk to people? I mean, I'm a pretty sociable person, aren't I?

"Key-something, right?" I tried to guess.

She was the same girl who had given me another classmate's name. I think she also introduced me to someone else's girlfriend? The details are rather blurry right now, so I'm just gonna focus on what's in front of me.

"Quiara," She reminded me.

"Right! Right, that's your name!" I joked around, standing beside her and patting her shoulder. "Whatcha doing here so early today?"

"Uh… avoiding people?" She replied.

"Avoiding people? Really?"

"Yeah…" She lowered her head. "I get kinda claustrophobic, so I leave early to avoid any crowds."

"That's nice to hear," I told her.

I pulled a chair over from another desk and sat beside her. She was trying her hardest to not make eye contact with me. She even adjusted her glasses nervously while I stared at her with what I hoped was intensity and not sexual tension.

"Yes?" She asked, turning towards me.

"You're part of the infamous Otto fangirls, aren't you?" I asked her.

Her face reddened. She looked back at the worksheets she was working on, but it was far too late for something like that.

"C'mon, you can tell me," I insisted.

"I… uh… d-don't know what you're talking about," She insisted right back.

"Mate, I literally saw you stalking him the other day," I stated. "No worries though, your little obsession will stay between us, yeah?"

"It was my first time there…"

"A new one, eh? Well, why though?"

"Huh?"

I rolled my hand in front of me as if explaining something really obvious. "Well, I've been trying to figure out what y'all thought is so good about Mr Popular that you guys would stalk him in school to such an extent."

"I don't think you should be asking me…"

I slapped her shoulder gently and in a friendly manner. "C'mon, you can tell me."

There was some hesitation, but she eventually cracked. She let out a sigh before muttering, "I wanted to distract myself from someone else. But it didn't work."

"Oh. That's interesting."

She put a hand in front of my face, saying to me, "Please, I would rather not talk about this. Could you please leave me alone for now?"

"For now?"

She turned away and refused to speak any further. I chuckled, placing the chair back in place. I shot a finger gun at her. "Don't be shy to approach me for anything you need to be done, okay?"

She didn't give a reply.

First of all, rude. Second of all, she's not into Mr Popular?

Okay, let me get the facts straight. Glasses girl here isn't into Mr Popular, but is instead interested in someone else and hoped that Mr Popular can help distract her from that person she actually likes?

Too confusing. Not much for it.

Fast forward a little, and my Homeroom teacher walked in. It was much too early. Not much of the class was present, so he wouldn't be here to preach anything. He took a step into the room, scanning the classroom.

His eyes locked with mine and I knew what I was getting into.

"---, we need to speak," He called me.

"Can't we do it here?" I asked politely.

He glanced around the classroom before sighing. He pointed outside of the classroom, telling me, "Then let us speak outside the classroom."

I stepped out with him.

"I'm gonna keep it short," He warned me.

"Appreciate it."

"The school will announce that students are allowed to have any colour hair they want from today," He told me. "So I'll stop nagging you about your hair."

"Really?" I asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Yes," He confirmed. "Also, we have received news about Candace-"

I put a hand up, stopping him from continuing. "Wait, hold on. Why are you telling me something about Candace? We got a restraining order, remember?"

"I'm telling you this as a warning," He warned me. "We have contacted her parents and Candace will be attending school today. She has been having some trouble of her own, and from what I've heard, some unwanted attention as well. I am begging you not to do anything to Candace, not even the slightest gesture, do you understand?"

"No promises," I answered.

Understandably, that answer was not to his satisfaction. I let out a long sigh before shrugging. "Fine, fine. Not to mess with her for today? Yeah, I can do that. No problem at all!"

"This is serious."

"I'm serious."

I laughed before stepping away, waving him off. "Well, unless you got something to tell me, I'm just gonna go back to class, yeah?"

He nodded and gestured to the classroom, so I re-entered it.

While just lounging around, I pulled my phone out. Some unwanted attention, eh? I found the contact info of Candace's walking red flag she calls a boyfriend. Or, at least, he calls her boyfriend.

I sent him a quick text 'Have you been hanging around Candace's house?'

I put the phone away to look around the class. Let's see… Curly hair… round specs… does he have abs? Wait, that's that girl's boyfriend! Hold on… what's his name again?

"Good morning," He greeted the classmates individually.

When he reached Glasses Girl near the front, she jerked upwards to greet him back. "Oh, Jonathan! Good morning, you scared me there."

He chuckled good-heartedly. "Sorry about that."

Jonathan! Right, that was his name!

Honestly, I feel like names are easier to remember if you can see them. I mean, I sure as hell would have an easier time, but no one around me wears nametags or even have one of those name straps strapped to their bag.

"Good morning," He greeted.

"Morning," I greeted back. "How's your girlfriend doing?"

"Huh?"

"I mean, how's your girlfriend doing?" I repeated before adding some elaboration of my own. "Haven't seen her much, but she's really cute. Hey, how did the two of you hook up?"

"Have you been… hitting on my girlfriend?" He questioned me.

"No, why do you ask?"

"Yeah, okay…"

He walked back to his seat.

This is great! I mean, if he thinks I'm hitting on his girlfriend while his girlfriend thinks I'm hitting on her boyfriend, that would create an absolutely hilarious love triangle. Should I send his girlfriend a text?

Ding ding ding!

Hey, Yo!

Guess who's back? Back again? Tell a friend!

My god… Candace, in all her shrivelled-up glory, has entered the classroom surrounded by her usual gang of girls. The friends shot me death glares, but Candace herself seemed a little… deflated.

I can't have you like that~

Candace simply sat down without saying a word.

Some chattering happened, even after her gang shot them looks. I waved at the girl who I assumed to be the second in command. She's been a real help, passing on that piece of information about Mr Popular to Candace.

Dear Candace. How much I've missed you~

The second girl in command approached me, slamming her hand on my desk and scowling, "Don't you dare try anything funny."

"No promises," I replied cheekily.

She looked ready to hit me, but she stopped in her tracks to glance back at Candace, who was not giving her the time of day. I grinned, asking her, "So… do you need permission to hit me? Or are you waiting for attention?"

She kicked my legs.

"Ow," I said monotonously.

The teacher walked in soon after. The girl shot me a look, saying to me softly, "When the break comes, you're dead."

"Looking forward to it," I replied.

She walked away, leaving me just staring at the teacher, who thought he was funny when he tried to joke about Candace's attendance. Let's be honest, it's a lazy joke and not funny to me.

Tick tock.

Ding dong.

Break's here.

I remained in my seat, fully expecting Candace and her gang to roll out and start beating the shit out of me, but it didn't happen. Instead, Candace got up and walked out of the classroom, the other girls following her and asking her a couple of questions. The second girl in command glanced at me momentarily as she continued to argue.

"Well shucks," I muttered to myself, leaning deeper into the seat.

Okay. Okay, no problem. Hm, yup! Candace isn't feeling well today, I guess. Let's just give her a little bit of time by herself and her annoying friends, then we can continue with my plans, yeah?

…

I kinda just sat in my seat and stared into space the entire break. At the end of the break, everyone returned.

Except. Candace.

Her friends are back, they didn't look too happy either. Candace was nowhere to be seen, not a slight trace of her thick makeup or dyed hair.

Mr Dohl walked into class for homeroom. He glanced around once before asking the universal question; "Where's Candace?"

"She isn't feeling well," One of her pals answered in her place.

Who the fuck asked you?

"Oh, any idea where she might be? Maybe in the sickbay?" Mr Dohl asked. "We can't have students disappearing from class."

"Lay off her, would ya?" The second in command girl said rather rudely. "We said she isn't feeling well, so she isn't feeling well."

"Is she having her period right now?" I asked out loud.

There were a couple of scoffs, but otherwise no noise. Mr Dohl gave me a look, so I put my hands in the air and shrugged my shoulders. I apologised, "Sorry, slipped my tongue. But honestly though, where has she been?"

"None of your fucking business, bitch," The girl cursed.

"Mind your language," Mr Dohl warned.

"Fuck you," She said, pointing the middle finger at him.

She stood up and faced the entire class. Her line of sight eventually rested on me. She pointed at every single one of them. "Not a single fucking one of you cares about her. Not you-"

She was pointing at me. She then pointed at Mr Dohl.

"Or you-"

She pointed at her two pals. "Or you, or you."

"You guys didn't want to get bullied, that's all," She continued ranting. "I bet all of you are on cloud fucking nine right now!"

"Vivian-" Mr Dohl warned strictly.

"Fuck you, pig," She snapped at Mr Dohl, who looked rather pissed at the moment.

She locked eyes with me. I threw up the peace sign, wondering if that would pacify her in any way. She scowled and started making her way across the classroom to me. She pointed at me, saying loudly, "This is all your fault!"

"Little old me?"

"I'm gonna do what I should have done a long time ago," She threatened, her eyes wide. "Way before you became a freak."

She reached into her pocket and dished out a pair of scissors. I tilted my head, asking her for comedic reasons, "Do you want to give me a haircut, or is this serious?"

She shoved a couple of people aside and lunged at me. I didn't move at all, I just kinda let it happen. I mean, it was quite interesting, whatever was going on. Now, I'm wondering what Candace said to her.

"Ouch," I said monotonously.

I felt a searing pain in my left eye. I had my left eye closed, but my right eye was very much open. I gave her a forced smile, telling her, "That really hurt, you know?"

A couple of classmates were helping hold her back. They may be fine with me getting bullied, but anyone could tell that she was going too far. I could feel something warm flow down my face, what I could only assume to be blood.

"You were so close," I encouraged her.

"Fuck off!" She yelled, swinging her arms wildly.

One of the guys managed to wrestle the scissors out of her hand. I felt some of my blood drip onto my hand, and just as I expected, blood. Quite a bit of it too.

Mr Dohl rushed to me. He asked me, "Are you okay?"

"Do I look okay?" I countered.

I chuckled, shaking my head. "Nah, this really hurts though. You mind telling me if my eye got cut out? Oh, would be really cool if I could wear an eyepatch for the rest of my life, yeah?"

"We need to get you to the infirmary," He told me. "Get it checked up. Someone will go with you."

He turned to face the rest of the class. "I need someone to accompany — to the infirmary. I'll be contacting the disciplinary sector regarding Vivian."

Her name was Vivian? Guess she really was a lively woman, eh?

Okay, so basically, two people accompanied me to the infirmary. One was that Jontenant or whatever and the other was the glasses girl with that name I can't spell based on verbal signals. Glasses girl acted as my support in case I felt weak.

Tonatent or whatever the hell his name was acted as a bodyguard in case anyone else wanted a piece of me.

"Crazy," Quiara commented.

"Yeah, what did you even do to offend someone that badly?" Hocus-pocus, or whatever his name was.

"I dunno," I shrugged. "Can't remember anything specific. Oh, by the way, do you think that girl has the hots for Candace?"

There was some awkward silence.

"Hello? Answer?" I repeated.

"Uh…" Pollen, or whatever his name was, said, rubbing the back of his head. "I mean, there were a couple of rumours…"

How in the actual hell did I not catch wind of those rumours? How in the literal fuck does Coneyman or whatever his name was, know more rumours than me?

At the infirmary, I was greeted by a really nice nurse who was kind of only there to do her job. She did look slightly unsettled when she saw me walk through the door. Geez, I have no idea how much blood I lost, but considering how I'm still conscious, I'm guessing not too much.

My trusty classmates helped explained the situation while I was being patched up.

"You got cut right above the eye. It's not too deep of a cut," The nurse explained to me. "If you're lucky, it might not leave a scar. Any lower and you might have lost your eye for good. Bleeding's been stopped, make sure to cover it for the next few days, okay?"

"A scar would be pretty bad," I agreed.

"I'll call your parents. Tell them what happened," She told me.

"I can call them myself," I insisted.

I glanced back at my two classmates. I waved them off, telling them, "You guys better get back to lessons, yeah? I'll be just fine."

"A-" Glasses girl tried to argue.

"I'll be peachy, so get out," I insisted very nicely.

What? It's actually pretty nice for my standard.

I called my Mom. I didn't want her to worry or anything, but I really wanted to know what her reaction would be like. Turns out, not as entertaining as I thought.

"What kind of shit did you get yourself into this time?" My Mom picked up the phone sounding about as fed up as a McDonald's employee in the middle of the night.

"I got cut by a crazy person," I answered honestly.

"You. What?"

I slung one leg over the other. I leaned against the armrest of the chair as I talked. "Well, you see, one of my classmates went a little cuckoo. There was a really intense and hashtag-inspiring speech. Yeah, a classmate tried to kill me in school today. This has to be a record, yeah?"

"You got cut? Why didn't you dodge?" She demanded.

"Why would you assume I didn't dodge?" I countered.

"Well, did you?"

"Frankly, no."

"Then?"

I chuckled, saying to her, "Yeah, no worries for now. It isn't anything serious. Besides, I think chilling at the school infirmary is pretty good."

"Yeah, until you find out what kind of things people do on infirmary beds," My Mom pointed out a very valid point.

"Pick me up, please," I begged her.

"I need to hear the magic words," She played around with me.

"I already said 'please', what more do you want?" I asked. "I can't possibly get on my knees and pray to you at the moment."

"I'll get there as quickly as I can," She decided. "Drink water. If you aren't feeling well, tell your nurse, okay? You better stay exactly where you are until I get there."

"I understand."

"Seriously though, don't sleep on the mattresses there."

I laughed lightly, saying, "Love you."

I hung up the phone and faced the nurse. I informed her, "My Mom's gonna be here to pick me up anytime from the next thirty minutes to tomorrow."

"Huh?"

"Nevermind then," I sighed for fun. "By the way, do people actually use the beds here for things other than rest?"

"Not that I know of, why?"

I shook my head. "Nothing."

Today's been one hell of a ride, eh? At the very least, I get to skip the rest of the school day with no repercussions. Other than my obviously failing grades. And my presence in the classroom. And also when Candace will return.

Psycho girl, what a great job you did. Fuck you too.

My Mom drove all the way from work to the school to pick me up. It was a pretty weird atmosphere partially cause I was just chilling in the background while the nurse explained my condition to my Mom. She then had to talk with Mr Dohl, who had spoken with Psycho girl just now.

"The student that attacked your daughter will be reprimanded," Mr Dohl promised my Mom. "We are trying to contact her parents, and we'll update your family in the future."

On the way out, my Mom didn't seem particularly happy.

"Why did you even choose to enrol into this school?" My Mom grumbled.

"My results were shit, remember?" I reminded her. "Didn't do too well in Middle school, and this is where I ended up. Besides, this shitty school has lower school fees compared to other schools."

I tapped my chin. "Oh, and also the fact that this is the literal only Highschool in town other than the private ones."

"You know what?" She sighed. "Just graduate, get out of there as quickly as you can. Go anywhere except that school. It's not a safe place for you."

"Meh."

"You got hurt, and that's all you have to say?" She scolded me. "Christ, it's a Monday, I even warned you not to get into trouble!"

"Okay, this one really wasn't directly on me," I defended myself. "She just kinda snapped for no reason."

"Whatever," She sighed. "We'll get your cut properly treated, then you better get some rest."

"Got it."

And so it was. I just lazed around for the rest of the day. I read some books, wrote some stuff down in that diary of mine and also had dinner.

Today has been… Rather unexpected, actually.

Huh… Whatever. Bye, for now.