My boldness at Mrs. Mila the other day didn't go unpunished. I had to help clean the cafeteria after school hours, and soon other magic users found out because they went to bother me purposely (boredom surely makes you crueler). Spilling their drinks on the floor, making snarky comments at me and leaving a mess on the tables.
Even a few humans joined to their 'fun', treating me like sh*t. Why everyone had the need to do that, when there's an 'entertaining room' just working fine? I'll never know. At least in my old school people just ignored me.
Anyone at this point would've reacted in some way, maybe crying in frustration or punching their annoying faces, but I didn't care. I felt no willingness to do anything, a permanent tiredness still following me.
The days passed and I still felt the same, tired. A false sense of calmness also, but I knew it was because of my pills: they were the real magic in this sh*tty world I tell you, and I couldn't understand why politicians, or the mafia, or whoever runs the government won't give them for free.
After my punishment, I didn't care about spending my free time outside my room. Dereck had to practically drag me out, taking advantage of his permission to enter the girl's dormitory, and didn't listen to the curses I threw at him.
"You're nothing to me, leave me alone!"
"No way, you already look so pale and sick".
"Not your business, don't touch me!"
I wasn't proud I tried to literally kick him in the face. Neither for the hurtful words I said to him. The way he looked at me after that finally made me relent.
There was an intense silence between us the whole time we were out, him still probably hurt from some of those words. I felt bad for it, especially when he took me to a really familiar tree to see a certain little creature.
"See? It came back" He told me, reassuringly "It likes us".
More than the pretty squirrel, I was too busy feeling warm at Dereck's words. And his smile. I was growing too comfortable with him, and that scared me a little.
He gave me all of his attention during these difficult days. Diligently went almost every day to my room to take me out and 'breathe fresh air' or to remind me I have to study for the upcoming exams. If it wasn't for him, maybe I would've dared to skip studying altogether.
But this gave us trouble with one of my roommates, Nicole, who grew irritated at seeing Dereck visiting our room constantly.
"Aren't you tired of coming here every day like a f*cking obsessed weirdo!?" She yelled at him "You don't have any friends, or a life, right?".
"Says the psycho that almost let someone die. Something's really wrong with your head, or anything at all is on your head at best".
"Who do you think you are, you wimpy loser!?".
And we ended up in the Principal's office, Nicole fiercely stating Dereck was stalking and perving on us (what?). I was very observant during his visits, and he never even turned his sight towards Nicole or her stuff, merely giving her a disdainful glance once in a while.
"That's bullsh*t" I blurted out at Nicole's ridiculous lies.
"Watch your mouth, Bianca Hersey!" Principal Thomas reprimanded me.
Dereck grew irked. He wasn't afraid at all, because he didn't do anything wrong. But he wasn't stupid either, he defended himself and reminded the principal this witch was the same one that almost let me die.
Principal let us go a while later, but also took a 'preventive' measure by forbidding Dereck to stay in our room for more than 5 minutes unless there was an emergency. I can't believe Nicole got away with her bullsh*t, and she even smirked at us when the principal wasn't looking anymore.
I hate witches. They were the worst creatures over the earth.
After that, some annoying things started happening. For example, we had to put our dirty clothes in a basket and then take it to the laundry room every week, but now someone (clearly Nicole) was taking out my clothes from the basket so it wouldn't be washed. That forced me to check constantly if my clothes were still there, and to be the one always taking the basket to the laundry room.
She also stole more of my space in the closet and the bathroom, leaving my stuff piled up in a small corner while hers occupied most of the space. I knew it was her because she always gave me this look, like expecting me to react and give her an excuse to defend herself by attacking me, but I wasn´t going to fall for her tricks.
I didn´t have a chance of defeating her, unfortunately. I could just swallow my frustration in silence.
"Do something, girl! Don´t just let her stomp you down!" Peyton told me passionately.
Sometimes Dereck brought Peyton along during our walks outside, and when I told them what was going on with my roommates they didn´t seem happy at all: especially Peyton. She didn´t understand why I haven´t ripped Nicole´s teeth out by now.
Dereck sighed tiredly and suggested I talked to principal to ask for a room change, but I didn´t want to risk ending up with worse roommates, or making Nicole more hostile than she already was.