~ • ~
The school bell rang, indicating the lunch break has arrived.
Roxie went out of her classroom and decided to go to her locker first, carrying her books, notes, and stationaries. Her hands were full, for sure, but she would rather do this than filling her backpack with pointless things. She would bring back home her school assignments, along with the related books to it. Sometimes, though.
Along the way in the school's hallway, each individual was all hectic with their own interests.
As there were some people who liked to meet at some spots to gossip, some people gathered to chat about their kind of school or life-related conversations, some were just hanging out because they enjoyed the company of their friends, and some were just doing what regular students would do, like Roxie.
And the corridor was brimming with a lot of boisterous students every day, especially when it was time for lunch.
By avoiding them, she managed to walk ahead through people who halted her way. By fleeing from the gossippers, moving to the left, dodging things carried by other students, then moving to the right again, and so on until she arrived at her destination.
She twirled her fingers on the combination number as soon as she arrived at her locker. Then the locker door opened, and she began putting her books, notes, and stationaries inside. One at a time she inserted them in, with one hand secured on her belongings, while the other hand transferred them into the locker.
Once she had done putting everything in, she closed the locker again and then headed for the canteen.
Her stomach grumbled as she thought about variants of food along the way. She grasps her stomach, asking it to be patient. She doesn't want anyone in the hallway to hear her upset stomach, or she would be embarrassed by it.
Back again in the corridor, where other students glared at her while whispering to each other. She glanced at them from the side as she walked with her head held high. Roxie gave them a look, she was not someone to be messed with.
Eventually, they scattered away. But, kept murmuring about her. She managed to listen to some of them as she walked by.
"Omg, look, that's Roxie."
"Look at her face. How can there be such a beautiful face without plastic surgery? Surely she had surgery done to her face."
"No doubt."
"Look at her hair, it must be fake."
"Can't she at least greet other people? Geez, how arrogant she is."
A bunch of girls continued to whispering around her. Roxie was used to this, so she just dismissed them and kept going forward.
Usually, she answered all their whispers by intimidating smile or giving sarcastic responses. But today she had no interest in fighting all of them.
'They should be grateful for today,' she thought.
If she could cover their mouths with hamburgers, she would have done it a long time ago. By shoving those burgers, one by one into their filthy mouths. Sadly, though, she had no power or magic to get the burger out of her hands as she wants to. They should consider themselves lucky that she was still 'good' to them.
"Hey, hey, watch out for Roxie!"
"She's very beautiful, right?"
"An angel has passed."
"I hope I have the courage to confess my feelings to her."
This time, these remarks were made by the boys. She rolled her eyes as she was fed up by their stares and comments about her. So she planned to go another way to the canteen.
~ • ~
She took another path, where it was quieter and fewer students gathered there.
She then entered through the door on her left, which led her to another empty hallway, where it was meant for an emergency exit, in case of an earthquake, tornado, or several people appearing with guns occurring at school.
There was even an appeal not to go in there carelessly, but Roxie didn't care. She had been passing through this path all the time since she started school here, to get away from those people. Also, not only her, some other people like to go through here occasionally.
Once she stepped to the new hallway, she didn't hear or see a single soul appearing around the corridor. She kept walking, listened to the silence getting built as time goes by. Though she was happy, she was finally alone.
'It should've been like this more often,' she thought as she kept going to the canteen. She was halfway through it.
However, she felt that she was being followed. She perked her ears, as she listened to the sound of footsteps appearing behind her. It sounded very dim and quiet. Like a thief who sneaks into the house.
She felt a tingling sensation of jeopardy. It seems that Roxie was not alone. There was someone accompanying her in the empty corridor. But wasn't it only natural that other people went through here as well?
The corridor, after all, wasn't a secret to anyone. They can walk gracefully here if they want. Yet she heard a rumor that this corridor was haunted, and that was why there were not a lot of students who chose to go through here.
However, the reason why this corridor was empty, was quite obvious. It has already been explained by the school that the students should not enter here carelessly. In preventing us to come here, they started spreading a ghost rumor.
Emerging the fear of the students, even though some still dared to go through here. Including, Roxie. As it was the easy way for her to get to the classes quickly when the corridor was crowded.
She chuckled, 'What a fool.'
She was interrupted by the sound of another footstep again. She listened more to it, there was not only one individual anymore. Noticing this, her mind began to wander. She started sweating a bit.
'There are two people behind me. No, it was more,' she thought, swallowing hard.
Normally, people who walked around here were talkative, filling the silence in the empty corridor. But this …
'This is different,' she knew something was wrong.
Her walking pace also increased, she realized she needed to get out of here. She sensed danger coming after her. She jogged a little bit, as sweats formed on her forehead. Feeling anxious some people were chasing her.
And sure enough, she heard their footsteps gradually moving fast. They also had accelerated their pace.
"Hurry! She's getting away!" someone yelled from behind, as they began to run forward.
'What the hell!'
This time, no matter who might be there, Roxie had to run as fast as she could. She could not risk herself getting caught by them, whomever they were. They might have been thieves at school, or perhaps psychopaths for all she cared.
'Canteen door. Canteen door. Canteen door!' She concentrated on looking for the canteen door first since that was the only way out.
There were other doors as well, but they were all connected to the different classrooms. It would have been a dead-end for her. Then, the safest choice was to go to the canteen, where there were a lot of people who would saw this ridiculous pursuit.
~ • ~