She blew him a kiss so delicate that the receiver ran up to snatch it before it could dissipate in the wind. The young woman smirked, her rose lips red with shine twisted into a bitter grimace as she turned her back on her enthusiastic spectators and sauntered away. Her lush inky black hair swung with each turn of her head making each step she took dynamic in a way that drew eyes as if she were intentionally putting on a show. In a way, she was. Even walking down the hallway at school she knew that people would be looking at her. After only a couple of months attending St. Vincent High Rina has resigned to her fate as the most interesting person in school. When she first arrived as a transfer student near the beginning of the year she introduced herself with a steady smooth tone gazing at each student with her strong eyes as she spoke. Her words like butter paired with her perfect smile left an impression on her classmates. The other students all understood that the new girl was both confident and beautiful. However, when the students approached her to actually get to know Rina, they were left only with questions and their own answers to fill in the blanks. Because Rina did not associate with many of the students, this led them to come up with their own fantastical ideas about who she was. She was class 2A's enigma.
"Rich for sure. Super rich."
"She definitely used to model, I saw her in a magazine."
"Her hair isn't even real. It's a wig, obviously a wig."
"She's such a flirt. She talks to us here but she has an older boyfriend. I heard he's a CEO."
Rina had overheard so many outrageous types of comments on so many different occasions. People felt comfortable talking about her within distance because she always pretended she couldn't hear. However, Rina actually was very acutely aware of her surroundings. Though many of the students accusations were not true, Rina has not once corrected them. Rina found it much much easier just to fall in line with their expectations. At first it was a bit difficult. Initially all she had to do was not correct them, and they would leave her alone as she disappeared in a mist at lunch to the library. However, people started testing Rina, and though she didn't care at all to entertain them she ended up becoming tangled up in the strings of their little puppet show, and eventually completely controlled by her peers imagination. Somehow Rina ended up playing the role of the confident, popular and mysterious beautiful heiress that was untouchable to her peers.
Rina made sure no one was following her as she quickly took to the stairs. She started running as soon as she saw the door to the roof. Rina burst outside panting with her fists clenched she screamed.
"AUGH!" she ruffled up her hair and rubbed her eyes viciously. "How much longer do I have to keep this up?" In all honesty the real bare bones fact of the truth is Rina just wants to blend in. She had participated in public speaking contests at her old school, and used those skills to make a 'normal' impression during intros at her new class so they wouldn't have anything to make fun of her for. Instead it backfired and everyone thought Rina was this confident spritely and mature girl that everyone wanted to talk to and befriend. Rina, suddenly overwhelmed with social anxiety and not knowing how to deal with her new found popularity cooly excused herself to study and has spent every lunchtime in the library 'studying' since. Rina regretted this and often wondered if she had just stayed and spoken with them that first day, their curiosity may have been fulfilled and they would have left her alone. Now she went a long with her destiny never rebuking even some of their most insane ideas of her. They thought she was this mature, smart, popular pseudo-celebrity when in reality she had definitely never had a boyfriend, was not used to being thought of as pretty, and spent all her time in the library reading romance novels and comedic comics! Even though she had her braces removed and had cultivated a false confidence she did not expect to get this much attention. She thought sincerely, she could just fly under the radar and make a couple of cute friends to talk to at lunch and share books and video games with... but no. Rina's incredible acting skills, fulfilling each belief everyone had of her in an attempt to get them to stop talking about her has worked against her. She was definitely destined to be a loner.
She slammed the door shut behind her, rested her back against it and slid to the ground dramatically.
"Darn my talent! Who knew I was such a good actor?" she mumbled to herself.
"Are you ok?" Rina's eyes met the gaze of a confused mahogany headed young man with very unimpressed eyes. She and him exchanged a long look as Rina realized the situation she was in. Rina got up without breaking eye contact, and tried to slowly back out the door. Only to bump into it was a thud. Rina suppressed the panic. 'Just say something to him! You can't just run away. Just, let him believe whatever he wants, except what he saw just now. You do not need new rumors, erase it from his mind!' The student let out a breath of smoke, waiting for her to speak. 'Oh, so he's an upperclassman that has come to the roof to smoke? How typical. Maybe if I...'
"If you would please excuse me. I'm not having the best day, if you could kindly act as if this didn't happen." She announced as she dusted off her skirt and flashed him a smile. Her heart started beating very quickly as soon as she realized there was someone else on the roof, however she realized she need to focus on sorting the situation out quickly so she could go back to attending her life in peace. "Also, I know smoking is against the rules but most importantly it's really very bad for your health." She winked at him as she opened the door, still facing him. She opened her mouth to say goodbye when he slammed the door shut an inch away from her face, catching a few strands of her shimmering black hair in the door.
"Is that a threat? Rina." she was sure her heart beat had stopped all together as she saw angry hazel eyes trying to burn hers out of her head. 'Oh my gosh! What is happening?' Rina imagined those few hairs being replaced with her fingers and her inner panic was released. Rina tried to focus on what was going on outside her head and dug her nails into her palms to bring her back to reality. She wasn't hurt, yet. She wanted to escape but she knew she must contain her cool. She has come all this way as the untouchable charming princess of 2A and if people were to find out now... she would never be able to escape them. What if she was bullied because they felt deceived? 'I didn't do anything! You all just decided who I was!' She didn't have much time to imagine the after math, so she must prevent it.
"No of course it's not, I just had to say something after seeing another student do something I know is only hurting them. I would feel bad going to a teacher, so I thought at least I should say something to you." He was so close to her she could smell the cigarette smoke, and roses? 'Why does it seem like there are flowers hidden somewhere on his person?'
"Heh, sure." He crossed his arms but kept the door shut with his left foot, leaning on his right. "So why is it you came here to the roof? To do something you shouldn't be doing?"
"I needed the fresh air. I've been studying so much I have a bit of headache. I was hoping that coming to the roof would lift my spirits." she replied cheerfully. "But I do not want to intrude on your time."
"Well you already have." He took another drag of his cigarette sizing her up. "So why are you here? Was it to hide that melt down you just had from your fan club?"
"Haha, I don't have a fan club." she lied. Rina new very well she had a fan club. "I came her to see the sun." She smiled at him. She was not going to lose.
"So that's how it is." He paused and walked away from her. Rina's hands itched to get to the doorknob but fought the sensation as she did not want to be perceived as running away.
"Uhuh."
"So, you won't tell anyone that I come to the roof to smoke and I won't tell anyone you're secretly a psychopath."
"Excuse me? I think you've made a mistake-" Rina was cut off by him as he crushed his cigarette under foot.
"Yeah, right. Whatever." he walked over to her and stopped leaving no more than an inch of space between them. His hazel eyes bore into her brown ones once again as he bent over her. Rina didn't blink as he raised one of his big hands behind to her open the door. When she realized that's all he was doing she was instantly relieved. 'He did that on purpose.' She thought to herself angrily but maintained a straight face.
"Later. You can have the roof for now." He left her without looking back as the door shut with a light 'chk' behind him.
Rina slowly surveyed the roof making sure she was indeed alone this time, before she once against let out an aggrivated scream.