Monday miseries.

Raven

Oooph, it's Monday again.

I think I have something against Monday mornings. Ever since I started schooling properly, Mondays just don't excite me anymore.

"The overly serious atmosphere can be nerve-wracking sometimes and it just has this gloomy feel to it, depression." I thought as I, Tia, and Grace walked toward the school area.

"Is it me or does it feel like we're being stared at?" Tia suddenly said.

Really? I replied, glancing around.

"Yeah, I know that look." Grace said, slightly squinting. It's news.

"More like gossip." Tia said in a slightly irritating tone.

"Don't be bothered, I will find out what's going on and fill you all in. Let's meet at Enchanté Bonbons after school." Grace said in a comforting tone.

"Sure, every little detail must be reviewed." Tia said excitedly.

"This is about the candies, isn't it?" I said stifling a laugh.

"No, no, it's more than that, candies just play a bigger role." Tia defended making me and Grace burst into laughter.

"Yeah sure, they do." I said, patting grumpy Tia's head.

We walked a little more in comfortable silence and bid ourselves goodbye as we separated to go to our various classes.

**l **l **l **l **l **l **l **l

I stepped into my class to meet an uncomfortable atmosphere.

It was like eyes were boring holes in my body.

How odd.

I ignored the eyes and went to my seat.

"The top of my desk space was messed with glue and filthy things and my locker was filled with letters with scary drawings on their envelopes. What on earth is this about?" I thought to myself as I packed the envelopes and binned them.

I'm not giving whoever these letters are from the pleasure of reading them.

As much as I wanted to let out my anger I couldn't as I didn't even know where and to whom to direct the anger.

"Hahaha, cowards." I chuckled and muttered to everyone's hearing as I took out wipes from my bag to clean my desk.

Someone suddenly gripped my hands before I could touch the table.

"Don't touch it, it's filthy." Adrian's voice sounded.

"Whoever had the nerve to mess with my desk should be ready for the consequence." Adrian said, facing the class.

"Awwn, he defended me." I thought, feeling a little happy that someone has my back…..perhaps something else I wasn't sure of.

"Let's go." he said, pulling me out of the class.

The warmth in my hands disappeared when he took his hands off mine.

We entered the administrator's office to request a new desk and left his office after being attended to.

Adrian suggested we take a stroll since it'll take a while to get a desk replacement.

"Thank you." I suddenly said to break the awkward silence.

"I did nothing, no need to thank me." He said slowly, stopping by my favorite oak tree.

"Hmm." I replied, not knowing what to say.

"I'll be traveling for a few days so don't worry about not seeing me in school this week." He slowly said, throwing me a glance.

"Oh, okay, is everything alright though?" I asked.

"Yeah, while I'm gone don't get bullied. Report anything that should be reported to our class teacher and be sure to defend yourself when needed." He lectured, standing up to leave.

"Let's go to class, the desks should have been replaced by now." he continued.

"Yeah." I muttered.

**l **l **l **l **l **l

We entered the class together and went to our seats.

Perhaps the episode from earlier ruined my mood because today just feels longer than usual.

I did pay attention to all the classes regardless…. Failure isn't an option in whatever I do.

"Oooph" I signed as I finished the last part of the classwork we were given.

I picked up a book from my bag to read just to pass time since everyone seemed to just be ignoring me, perhaps busy with their own stuff.

"Grinnnnnmmmmmmmm." the school alarm sounded.

Finally, it's break time.

I need to get away from the stifling atmosphere of this class.

I got to the cafeteria rather early so I got to order my food faster than usual.

I caught sight of Adrian and his friends whom I wasn't familiar with on a table.

I gave him a light wave which he reciprocated by giving me a small smile.

My eyes roamed around the cafeteria a bit in search of familiar faces.

Oh, that's Tia and Grace in our spot.

I walked towards them with my food and sat.

"Hellooooo." I said, giving them a knowing smile.

"Hiiii." They chorused as they looked at each other.

"Jinx." They chorused again and laughed.

"Okay, let's not do that, else we'd end up not saying anything throughout today." Tia said, chuckling.

"Truce it is." Grace said, digging into her food.

**l **l **l **l **l **l

More students poured into the cafeteria so it became a little rowdy.

It didn't take long for the little group to find out that people were staring at them. Some were giving them the stink eye and whispering while others just avoided their table.

**l **l **l **l **l **l **l **l

"Okay, something is going on, and I am itching to know." Grace said with one eyebrow raised.

"No, no, no, we shall have lunch and get the hell out of here." Tia chipped in.

As though we had a tacit agreement in silence we just faced our food and ate quietly.

"Gurggggggggggggggg." I heard and felt liquid on my hair.

My body shivered at the coldness of the chilled water as it streamed down my face.

"Hahaha, who do we have here?" I heard an all-too-familiar voice say as she giggled.

There's only one person with that annoying bird voice I know of, "Bianca".

"Huff" I puffed out a breath in irritation and blinked my eyes to adjust to the situation.

"What are you doing Bianca?" Tia asked in exasperation.

"Shut it, Tatiana." One of Bianca's underlings replied rudely.

"Yeah, stay out of this." Bianca snapped in support.

"What is this about?" I asked, reigning in my anger.

"What? Oh, it's a pretend game, isn't it? Playing the white lotus won't save you if you must know." Another one of Bianca's underlings said in a sickening tiny voice.

"I'd do well to remind you that Adrian is off-limits. I heard of your little schemes and I felt deep pity for you. I didn't expect anything less from a bumpkin like you, I mean, did look at yourself before making moves? Do you think of yourself as a proper girl? A girl that lacks a proper sense of fashion. Ugh, you should see yourself now,you look like a shocked ghost, hahaha, you think too highly of yourself." Bianca rambled nonstop with an undisguised resentment in her eyes.

"Do ghosts ever look shocked?"

I wondered as I bit my lips to stifle the laughter that was about to be let out of my lips.

"Bianca, can you stop it already? Why are you picking a fight out of nothing?" Grace asked but all she got was a glare.

Just how embarrassing is this? Judging from the reduced noise around I'm pretty sure half the cafeteria was watching.

I was going to fight back but then I stopped and decided she wasn't worth my time because, in all honesty, I was confused about what exactly was going on so I decided to walk away.

"Come back here and say something for yourself, ugly. Where do you think you are going, you fucking coward? How much more pathetic are you?" Bianca said, screaming at the top of her lungs.

"You need a break to take care of your mental health, the path to your inner peace begins with four words *NOT MY FUCKING PROBLEM* go find someone else to throw your childish rants at cos you won't get whatsoever you want from me." I calmly said in annoyance and walked off.

"You are the one with mental problems you bitch....." were the last bits of words I heard her screaming as she stomped her feet before I finally exited the cafeteria.

I went straight to the restroom.

I stared at my flushed face in the mirror as the tears I didn't realize I was holding back streamed down my face.

This is definitely the most embarrassing thing that has ever happened to me.

"Whatever was going on had something to do with Adrian and what did he do about it? He just sat down enjoying the whole drama? I thought our friendship was making progress?" I was annoyed at the choking feeling that was forming in my chest.

"Whatever I thought was going on between us was probably one-sided I guess." I thought, smiling bitterly.

And to think that evil roommate of mine will do that to me in public.

"Stay composed in every situation" I kept muttering my father's words till I was stable.

I cleaned my mess and sorted things out as fast as I could.

My heart warmed with comfort as I met Tia and Grace at the door.

"Are you okay?" Grace asked as they both looked at me in concern.

"Yeah, I'm good. Just annoyed at my red face." I replied, touching my nose comically.

"It's nothing to be annoyed at, you look cute." Tia said, pulling my cheeks.

"I love the comeback you gave Bianca, you really got her triggered." Grace suddenly squealed, gripping my hands.

"Oh, come on Grace. Not now" Tia said facepalming.

"You should have waited to see how Tia had another face-off with her. She gave Bianca and her clique the second bit of embarrassment today and oh, she was scary." Grace continued chattering, ignoring Tia.

We continued chatting as we left the restroom together.

My mood lightened considerably well before we separated and went to our various classes.

I guess I am really lucky to have them as my friends.

Rowan

"Phew." I signed as I stopped in front of my house.

I just finished jogging to and fro the street.

I've been enrolled in "Grey High School. It's the second branch in California presumably.

I love the atmosphere here.

Compared to the streets in London it's rather peaceful and calm.

I love my new school, so many new characters.

It wasn't hard to make friends, at least I have a few friends already.

The school setting is quite similar to the "Grey High School" branch in London. Quite standard but my previous school is still a notch higher in standard.

A whole lot of things are making me excited, the new environment, the new school, the new girls, the new training ground in my house, and the new missions Granny has for me.

Not to worry, the missions are the easiest I've ever been given and I still have a few days to prepare.

So while I have fewer things to do, navigating the crooks and crannies of the street is not a bad idea.

I live here with my mother's butler and trust me, the idea of living alone is not that bad.

It's a little lonely sometimes but then I'd rather enjoy this as my alone time than be in London.

Asides from that, it isn't too much of a bore to live alone when your butler is 25 years old.

I looked into the mirror restyling my hair for school.

One of the perks of "not being" a boarding student. Chill ain't it? Ho

I quickly got dressed, had breakfast, and drove off to school.

**l **l **l **l **l **l **l **l

Grey High School,

Enchante Bonbons.

**l **l **l

Raven

"Over here." Tia waved to call me over to a table.

"Hi." I waved as I made my way over to them and had a seat.

"Here, you're going to need this to enjoy my juicy exclusives." Grace said, brimming with excitement.

"So did you find out anything?" Tia asked, looking at me for answers.

"No." I replied, rubbing my nose awkwardly.

"Why? Don't you have friends you could have asked?" She continued, furrowing her eyebrows lightly.

"Of course, I do but I just couldn't ask any of them. After what happened everything that happened today, starting from the morning to this noon. I just wasn't in the mood to talk to anyone." I said face palming.

"What happened this morning?" Grace queried, holding unto my hands.

I explained the whole thing and they were both dumbfounded.

"And do you know the worst part of these all? None of the so-called new friends in the class had anything to say to me. They were all so distant as though we weren't even friends to start with. I'd have asked my other friends from self-defense class but we didn't have a class today and I didn't come across any of them either." I said, slipping a candy into my mouth in frustration.

"Wow, that's a whole lot to take in." Tia said with pity laced in her voice.

After a while of consolation and candy-eating, we continued the discussion.

"Tia, what did you find?" Grace asked, immediately her pen stopped moving.

"Tch, can you give writing every detail a break? This is serious." She replied, throwing Grace a glance.

"Well, I heard the news about you, and Adrian was on every blog on the weekend. Too bad none of us went to the cafe on Sunday." Tia said, moving her chair closer to the table.

"Speaking of that, what's going on between you and Adrian?" She asked.

"Nothing, I have no idea what you're talking about." I replied slowly.

"It was said that you both were alone in class and he gave you his takeout last week. There were quite several unsavory comments from people about the news." Grace said slowly as Tia nodded in affirmation.

"So news aside, tell us everything that happened." Tia said.

"It's nothing, I can't believe I am a victim of this level of misunderstanding. He only offered me his food because I forgot to eat during the break." I explained trying to clear the air.

"Ohhhhhh" Tia and Grace cooed.

"Ugh, don't be like that." I said, massaging my glabella.

"Oh, please. Not everyone gets to eat Adrian's takeout" Grace said, chuckling slightly.

"Tell her." Tia said, nodding dramatically, widening her eyes.

"Hmm, this chocolate tastes like baby ruth." Tia said, splitting and sharing the last chocolate bar.

"Yeah, it does. Reminds me of the last school camp we had." Grace said absentmindedly.

"Yeah, I think we'd have a school camp this term too." Tia said, looking at Grace for affirmation.

"Yeah, that's true. Eeeeeeeeink, I am excited." Grace squealed happily.

"What camp?" I asked curiously with a hint of excitement in my voice.

"Brriiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiingggggg, Enchanté Bonbons will be closing in 5 minutes beeeep." An automated alarm sounded.

"Aww, time to go." Tia said, feigning sadness.

"Yeah, time to go, get your butt off the chair, and let's go." Grace said to Tia, earning a chuckle from me.

"About the camp, tell me all about it." I said, hanging my hands on their shoulders as we left the shop.

The camp is so much funnnnn….