Emily is pranked on

It was 1:03 pm. It was school lunch hour. I arrived at the classroom holding a bowl of French fries I bought at the school cafeteria. The classroom was quite noisy. Everyone was out of their seats. I spotted some used cans and some drops of snacks lying on the floor.

I was approaching my seat and a tall curvy girl from the classroom nudged my leg, I lose my balance and fell on the floor, the bowl of fries jumped from my hands and spilled on the floor and everyone cracked into laughter.

"Try to get up." Jade, that was her name.

I bowed holding my tongue.

"It seems she can't get up." Maddie, her seat mate added laughing hard.

"Well maybe she wants me to make her stand up." Jade angrily approached me, she grabbed my left hand and was almost pulling me up and she paused realizing that she can't reach my wrist and she got quite suspicious. She quickly pulled the hand of my jacket up before i could stop her and she gasped feeling awestruck seeing just my arm.

Everyone else was stunned. My heart started racing incessantly trying to speculate what was going on in their minds.

Jay, Jade's twin brother stepped into the classroom holding a cone of frosty icecream he purchased for Jade. He halted at the door on seeing everyone staring at me and he was confused wondering what was going on.

"So you have no hand? You are handicapped?"

I stood up and bowed. Tears immediately gushed from my eyes and were pouring down in streams.

"You are not a normal human being?" Jade folded her arms.

"I am a normal human being." I snapped.

"If that's so, I wanna see you carry a chair in this room."

I stared down at the floor.

"Go on! Do it!" She shouted and I trembled, "do it if you are a normal human being! Go ahead and do it! Lift up the chair!"

I felt a lump in my throat. I peeked under my lashes noticing Mark staring at me and I was almost panicking thinking, "will he feel disgusted with me like the rest of them? What if he's feeling disappointed with me?"

"Lift up a chair with your two hands I wanna see you do it!" Jade yelled louder.

I was hearing a few whispers like, "she isn't a complete person?", "she doesn't deserve to be in this class", "even a dog has two hands."

I felt choked with grief and ran off the room. They all erupt into laughter. I bumped on Jay and I nearly stumbled. He held my arm and looked into my eyes, and I moved from him and continued to run.

Jay walked to Jade and handed to her the ice cream cone, "here's your ice cream which you requested I get you."

"It's still full." Jade grinned from ear to ear and she noticed his brows were furrowed, "what's wrong? You look upset bro."

"That girl who just ran out of the class who is she?"

"Oh, that's Emily the new comer."

"So, why were you all being mean to her?"

"She doesn't deserve to be around us or anywhere near us. She is not only clumsy but also handicapped. I'm gonna make sure she's kicked out of this class. I couldn't stand the sight of her soon as I saw her arm." Jade said firmly.

"What you guys did to her is enough."

"Well this is my classroom. Whoever I want stays and whoever I do not want goes." She wore a cheeky smile.

"She also has a right to this classroom. This classroom not only belongs to you but to her as well. You've gotta accept she's now your classmate. Jese, you guys are unbelievable!" Jay walked out.

*********

Jay walked around the school hall glancing left and right wondering where I was. A few students were walking by and unhesitatingly approached them and asked, "have you seen a tall slim lady in a hoodie?"

Their replies were no.

Jay sighed and muttered, "oh, where could she be?" He glanced outside and he spotted me sitting on a bench at the school garden. I bowed my head thinking.

Few minutes after, I heard some footsteps approaching me. I glanced down and saw two slim legs covered in jeans and a pair of brown sneakers standing besides me and I wondered who it was.

"Is it them? Have they follow me all the way here?" I thought and my hands were starting to shiver. I felt my heart pounding in my chest.

"Hey!"

The voice sounded quite different, it did not sound like any of the voices I heard in class.

"Do I know this person?" I said to myself and raised my head gently and looked at him. His cat like eyes, his prominent nose, his rosy red lips and his spiky jet black hair looked familiar. An image of me bumping into him flashed through my mind and I sighed.

"What do you want? Have you come to mock me like the rest of them? I came here so I can have some fresh air." My brows furrowed.

"May I...may I sit with you?"

"I did not tell you I wanted company."

"I just feel bad for what my sister Jade did to you and I wanna know how I can apologize. Or make you feel better."

"No, I'm good. Just leave me alone. I want some space."

"Come on, don't be uptight. I wish I arrived sooner to stop them from calling you names."

"Are you offended by the harsh words they threw at me? Tell me, don't you feel disgust looking at me right now? I am handicapped, I'm sure you have a word to throw at me too. You don't like the way I look. Go ahead and tell me I'm an ugly human." Tears started streaming down my eyes.

"Don't be hard on yourself Emily. I'm not like the rest of them. Go ahead, show me your arm. You don't have to hide it from me. I promise I won't laugh nor judge you."

I sniffed and looked into his eyes wondering whether to trust him or not.

"I won't do or try anything funny. It's just the two of us here. No one's gonna see your arm except me."

I glanced around the garden and I only saw few people walking by and I looked at him again feeling quite anxious.

"Go ahead, show it to me."

I slowly pulled my left arm out of my hoodie and he glanced at it. I looked into his eyes scanning to see if he was terrified or disgusted.

Jay grinned from ear to ear, "wow! You look amazing."

"No I don't."

"Yes you do. You are not different from any person. You are just unique."

I gently rubbed my cheeks and put my arm back inside my hoodie, "you don't get it do you? No one, nobody is gonna accept me the way I look. So I'm better off concealing my arm. In that way, no one's gonna notice."

"Well you can't conceal it forever."

The school bell rang.

"Let's go to class?"

"Nah, I wanna stay here a bit longer. I just wanna go home."

"Since you are feeling jittery to return to class, I am gonna change my class to the science class, your classroom that way, you won't feel ganged on."

I felt quite relaxed and happy at the same time but I sighed feeling quite worried. I shook my head, "no don't. You like the class you're in already right? It won't be comfortable changing class."

"I don't care if it's comfortable for me or not. I did not like seeing you that uncomfortable. My name's Jay." He grinned.

"Emily."

"Nice meeting you Emily."

"Happy meeting you too Jay." My lips curved into a smile.