Never Catching A Break

Jules' pov

I blinked at Taylor in shock and confusion after his outburst, while wondering if I had said something wrong.

"What?" I mumbled while staring at him in confusion. His lips thinned even more and he averted his gaze from mine for a moment.

"Jules…" He finally began to speak, worried eyes on me once again. "We don't report bullies here in this school."

"What?" I exclaimed in bewilderment and I almost lost my footing once again if Taylor's hold on me hadn't been firmly.

He had a sympathetic expression on his face and that made a weird feeling settle in my chest.

"I don't think you're aware of how this school works, Jules." Taylor breathed out along with a small sigh and I pursed my lips because, wasn't that quite obvious at this point?

"How does it work?" I questioned after huffing out a breath. Taylor let out another sigh and ran his fingers through his brown hair, matching brown eyes darting around for a few moments before locking with my eyes once again.

"It's a little complicated to explain." He admitted and I rolled my eyes in frustration. It was obvious that he was stalling.

"Just spit it out already." I urged.

Taylor let out one more sigh before draping my arm over his shoulders. He wasn't as tall as the predators in this school, but he was taller than I was.

"Let's get you to the infirmary first."

~~~

At the infirmary, I sat on the large, fancy looking bed in there with Taylor seated in the chair beside the bed, while a male nurse tended to my leg which had swelled a little.

The infirmary itself was so damn large, that I had wondered aloud if it was indeed an infirmary at first, but Taylor had only laughed before informing me that everything about this school was glamorous and extra extra.

"Didn't you just resume today?" The nurse asked while smiling warmly at me. I nodded my head slowly while screaming on the inside because of how the pain in my foot was only increasing.

If I still had my magic, I'd have easily numbed the area and wouldn't have felt any pain in that area. That was one of the magic spells my mother taught me. That made a bitter taste linger in my throat.

"You angered a student that fast? Usually, it takes a few weeks before something like this happens to new students." The nurse continued to speak as he scribbled something down.

I pursed my lips as I felt anger bloom inside of me. "I didn't anger any student, I didn't even do anything!"

The nurse arched a brow at me. "You didn't?"

I folded my arms in irritation. "Of course I didn't! I was bullied, from the moment a few of my classmates stepped into the class, before I could even get introduced to the entire class! Then, as soon as I exited the class, I encountered another student who is the cause of the sprain in my ankle." I explained in annoyance and from the side of my eyes, I noticed Taylor face palming himself.

The nurse let out a low hum as he set the large file he was scribbling into aside. "Are you sure you didn't do something? Those students must have had a valid reason for doing that though. Perhaps, you angered them or got in their way…?"

I found myself scoffing at once. "What? What kind of valid reasons could a student have for bullying another student? That's fucked up!"

The nurse pursed his lips and fell silent after that. He regarded my foot once again before speaking.

"This isn't a sprain, it's just a little swelling." As he spoke, he held his hand above the area of the swelling and after it glowed dimly, my ankle slowly began to heal, which made me realize that this nurse was a healer, and that made even more sense, because of course a healer would work in an infirmary. The pain in my foot gradually ebbed away in no time and I was finally able to move the foot around without wincing.

"The students can be rough sometimes. Be careful around them and be sure to not get on anyone's nerves. Be sure to apply the ointment at night and do have a nice day." The nurse murmured sweetly as we exited the infirmary.

"Do you feel better now?" Taylor asked in concern and I nodded my head slowly before giving him a grateful smile. "Yeah, thanks to you for taking me there."

He grinned at me happily. "Of course! Always happy to help. Let's go over to get your time table!"

As we rode the elevator– a freaking elevator, to the floor where the teachers and principals offices were situated– I was in deep thoughts. With the way things have been going on in this school, how the hell was I gonna survive? The nurse had asked me not to get on anyone's nerves, like I had done a thing to those freaking bullies in the first place.

On getting to the teacher's floor, I contemplated on reporting the bullies to the principal, and then I remembered what Taylor had said before, about how they never reported bullies here in this school, which had sounded very ridiculous to me.

Before I could bring it up again, we were right in front of the student's counselor's office and Taylor knocked at once.

In the counselor's office, after a few back and forths, I was presented with a time table, and one glance at it made me gape at Taylor in bewilderment.

"All of this needs to be done in a week and over again and again until the end of the semester?" I asked in shock. The time table had a lot of subjects which I'd never had to study in my life, and the extra curriculums on the time table was just ridiculous.

"Of course, Mr. McCarthy. Do you have any questions?" The man who had glasses on patiently asked. I spluttered for a moment.

"Can I skip the extra curriculums though?" I asked as I glanced through the time table again. A lot of the extra curriculums were downright ridiculous, and most of them consisted of sports, which I completely suck at! Back at home, we didn't have extra curricular activities in our schools. Everything about this damn school was so weird!

The man shook his head. "Unfortunately, you can't. It's as important as every class you have to attend during the school days. If the extra curriculums weren't compulsory, everyone would definitely be skipping it."

I almost pulled on my hair and screamed in frustration at that moment but I forced myself to remain under control as Taylor and I exited the office.

"Don't look so sad, it's not as bad as you're thinking, some of them are actually fun!" Taylor explained and I weakly nodded my head at him. He'd never understand, he was here on a normal cause after all, unlike me who's hiding for his life.

I'd rather start digging in on the people who could be behind my family's murders and every other thing related to it instead of wasting time engaging in some dumb extra curricula activities.

It's barely noon and I wished the day would come to an end at this point!

"We have the same time table, Jules, and my timer says we should definitely be in the next class." Taylor spoke and I rolled my eyes.

Great! Just great.

"What class is that?" I reluctantly mumbled as we stepped into the elevator. My head was starting to pound and I massaged my forehead with my fingers.

Taylor glanced through my time table before peeking up in what I'd term excitement.

"Oh, it's not a class, it's an extra curriculum."

My stomach tightened at his response and I wished I could disappear into thin air at once.

"Which one?" I forced myself to ask.

"Swimming!" Taylor squealed excitedly with his hands thrown up and dread engulfed me at once from the inside as I stared straight ahead without seeing anything.

I. Cannot. Swim.