"You should've seen her face… her eyes were bulging out, all the blood drained from her face… she looked like a ghost"
I turned around.
"She's looking at us." Alice whispered.
"I'm sure she thought she'd look cooler after solving that question. Too bad, Jaeson stole the spot light."
I looked at Karina. Their words leaving a bitter taste in my mouth.
"Whoa… look at her staring… Are you angry? You wanna say something… Spit it out girl… oh, I forgot you don't know how to speak right? Do you even understand what we are saying?"
She looked so proud spewing out all that nonsense.
I wanted to wipe out that smirk from her face.
"Actually I don't understand. I don't understand why you are picking on me or why you are so happy with Jaeson solving the question…I…"
"I just feel happy when I see you suffering"
Karina's reply sent chills down my body. I could see it in her eyes that she was not bluffing, she hated me. I don't know for what.
The cafeteria was calm
Anna and Rachel looked at me with worried eyes.
"I'm fine." I told them.
A white lie…
I wanted to be fine. I thought saying it out loud, that I was fine, would make it so. I mean, what else can I do?
I can't blame Jaeson for grabbing the opportunity to show his skills, I would've done the same. Jaeson knew what he was doing. The way he solved that problem, I know I wouldn't be able to come up with a new approach like that, at least not that fast.
I wanted to appreciate his knowledge.
But my classmates were not making it easy.
Can't they appreciate him without making me feel bad? Or are they hyping him up so as to make me feel bad. Whatever it is, I'm getting dragged into this shit deep
And the way Karina made me feel at the corridor…
I sipped on my coffee.
"He shouldn't have done that, you know… that question was directed to you." Anna sighed. "If it wasn't for him, this wouldn't have happened"
"This?" I looked at Anna.
"Confronting Karina… I don't feel good about it."
"I should've just avoided her right?"
"No… that's not what I meant. They will go on even if you are silent. So it's better to fight against them. It's just that…"
"I know Anna… I don't want to be part of any drama but it seems like I'm already part of one. And I don't want to hate on Jaeson. He's good at chemistry, I was able to look at the problem in a different way thanks to him and I think his decision to show his solution to the class was beneficial to all… it's just… I'm sad that I didn't think that way. I'm scared that I'm not good enough."
"Slow down girl…you are going too fast." Anna was laughing.
"And what is this thing about not being good enough?"
"You know genius problems…. I'm sure we won't be feeling like this any time sooner…." Rachel chimed in.
"Maybe we're just used to it… you know " Anna added in
"Hey, I didn't…"
"I know you didn't mean that. I was just trying to tease you. Can't you just go with the flow at times" Anna was sulking by now.
She looked cute.
"I'm sure others won't be able to solve that question like you did either. So stop thinking that way…hmm" Rachel was trying to cheer me up.
I smiled.
I was happy. Anna and Rachel was with me. It's been only two days and people may change in the future. But in this moment I was happy to be with them. They were my safe haven.