I was walking back home from school the next day. I had to fill in some application forms regarding my co-curricular activities so I ended school later than usual. The sky had already turned a light indigo colour, and some of the street lights had already been switched on. The people on the streets were scurrying around in all directions, probably rushing home to a nice warm meal with their family around the dining table.
"... Are you lost, little boy?"
I heard a guy's voice sound out from around the corner, I followed the sound of the voice and peered out from the corner of the shophouse. A familiar figure had knelt down with his back towards me, facing a young boy probably no more than the age of five. The young boy was bawling his eyes out, with tears streaming down his cute, chubby face.
"I... want my mummy!" The young boy raised his arms to wipe his tears on his sleeve, giving fast, short gasps between tears.
The older guy reached over and rubbed the young boy's back soothingly, "There, there. Don't cry. I'm sure your mummy will find you soon."
"Aloysius!" A high-pitched cry rang out from across the road. A middle-aged woman with disheveled hair ran across the road and wrapped her arms tightly around the young boy. "Oh thank goodness! Thank goodness you're alright!" The middle-aged woman, who was probably the boy's mother, cried into her son's shoulders with relief. "I thought you were gone... If anything had happened to you... I wouldn't be able to go on myself... Thank you, young man." The woman smiled up at the guy with tears in her eyes,
"I'm just glad everything's okay." The older boy patted the boy on the head one last time, then stood up and turned around to leave.
Wait... Skye?! I gasped in shock, but covered my mouth in time before being heard. The kind guy... was Skye?! I stared wide-eyed at the scene before me, not able to believe what I was seeing. I quickly hid around the corner before he was able to see me. No... that's not possible. I remembered the past two unpleasant incidents I had with him. The ice-cream incident... and then the incident in the hallway... No. I shook my head. That couldn't be Skye, who was I kidding? I laughed quietly to myself, then quickly made my way home.
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I shoved the pile of textbooks I was carrying into my locker and closed the door. I still couldn't get the image of Skye from yesterday out of my head. I couldn't even concentrate in class today. The resemblance was just too strong. Maybe...
"Seline!" A guy's voice sounded right next to my ear.
"Eek!" I stumbled backwards and fell to the ground on my butt.
A copper-coloured hair guy was holding his stomach and laughing uncontrollably in front of me.
"Oww what the hell Dylan!" I shouted at him from the ground, embarrassed.
"Okay, okay, sorry." Dylan held out his hand towards me, still trying very hard not to laugh.
I slapped his hand away and stood up quickly, smoothing my blouse down.
"Aww, someone's angry."
I ignored him and swept my bag up from the floor, strutting away from him. Dylan hurriedly ran after me, "Selineeeeee! I'm sorry, don't be mad at me."
I pretended not to hear him and walked even faster. Dylan scurried after me.
"Seline, I'm sorry! I'll make it up to you, okay?"
I stopped in my tracks and slowly turned to look at him. Dylan looked at me with pleading eyes.
"Please?"
I breathed out. "Fine." Then I started off again.
"Yay!" Dylan smiled and skipped off. I laughed at his childishness and shook my head.
"Oh look, isn't it giraffe girl!"
I froze, then slowly turned towards the direction of the voice. Skye was leaning against the wall on my right with his arms crossed. He slowly pushed himself off the wall and came towards me.
"I seriously wonder why the school allowed losers like you to enter." His friend was standing next to him, smirking. "I mean, they should at least have made a better choice. A person like you... I think that the person who took care of you, must have really sucked right? To bring up a person like yourself-"
I slapped Skye as hard as I could across the face. Everyone stopped what they were doing and turned towards us. His friend was staring at us wide-eyed, seeming not to believe what just happened.
"You-" Skye's eyes widened in shock.
"You think you are better than others, huh? You think that just because you are popular, you can do anything as you wish? You think that just because you are good looking, you can insult others whenever you want to? Then let me tell you this, you may be good looking on the outside, but you are downright ugly on the inside." I took a step closer and looked at him in the eye. "You don't even care about how others will feel, what right do you have to criticize others when you yourself are a million times worse off than the average person? What right do you have to judge others when you are not even worthy of that? Do you even know what love is? If you do, then you won't be saying that of other people's loved ones, because how would you feel if someone said the same thing to you? Or do they not mean anything to someone like you?" I shouted with tears in my eyes. Tears of anger. Everyone was looking at us, but I didn't care.
"Just... don't talk to me anymore. I don't want to be associated with someone like you." I heard the people around me gasp, but then again, I didn't give a damn. Who cares what other people thought? This guy had it coming. I took off and didn't look back even once till I was back home.
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The next day of school was just like how I'd imagined. Everyone was looking at me, whispering about me and what happened yesterday. Fingers pointing. Eyes scanning over me. I pretended not to notice and walked on as if nothing happened.
"Hey Seline!" A familiar boyish voice sounded amongst the numerous whispers along the hallway.
"Dylan." I smiled and greeted him. Dylan was the only one who didn't care about what had happened and still talked to me as per normal.
"What is it? You look happy today." He had his hands behind his back and a big grin on his face.
"Remember I said I'd make it up to you for yesterday?"
"Yeah, you did."
He pulled out a gigantic cupcake from behind his back. It was in the shape of a bear and had the words 'Forgive me?' sprawled out in messy handwriting in the middle of the cupcake.
"For you. I made it yesterday. I know it's not perfect but I really tried my best!" He held out the cupcake for me.
I looked at the cupcake in surprise. "It's so adorable!" I smiled at Dylan. "Thank you."
Dylan gave me a huge grin. "Does this mean I'm forgiven?"
"Yeah, I wasn't really mad at you anyway."
Dylan cheered happily. "Seline, let's meet up after school today, okay? I want to bring you somewhere."
"Bring me where?"
"You'll know. Meet me at the foyer at 2pm! I'll be waiting." Dylan shouted as he skipped down the hallway to his first class.
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RIIING!
Lunch bell rang, and all the students in my class broke out in a cheer, cutting my biology teacher, Ms Lee, off mid-sentence.
"Right, class dismissed. I'll continue on this next lesson." Ms Lee sighed and concluded the class. Students were already gathering in their cliques to go for lunch.
"I heard she slapped Skye yesterday." I heard a girl telling her friend at the back of the classroom.
"What? The nerve!" Her friend exclaimed loudly. I turned around and looked at them, and the two girls looked away immediately and shuffled out of the classroom.
I sat down on my seat in irritation. I shouldn't be bothered by this, I told myself. I wasn't used to being discussed and being in the centre of attention. In my previous schools, I was just a quiet, invisible girl whom others didn't notice. I didn't speak up, I didn't voice my opinions; I was a nerdy, hardworking girl who was there but didn't seem to be there... Till now. I looked down at what I was writing on my assignment paper. Crap. Why the hell was I drawing circles on my report? I fumbled inside my pencil case for my eraser. Where's my eraser?! I turned my pencil case upside down in annoyance. Pens and pencils came rolling out onto the table but... there still wasn't any sign of an eraser. Damn it! I slapped the empty case onto the table and stood up.
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I bought an eraser from the school bookshop and headed back to class. I didn't go to the cafeteria for lunch like the other students. I didn't like the lunch crowd so I'd normally just eat after school, even though I would be really hungry by then. I went back to the empty classroom - only ten minutes had passed since lunch break had started - I still had plenty of time.
Hmm? My stationery was not scattered all over the table the way I had left it just now. I was sure I didn't tidy it up before I left. All the stationery had been neatly put back into my pencil case. There was also a bread still in its plastic wrapping and a note placed below my pencil case. I slid out the note from under my pencil case and scanned over it. Written in small scrawny letters was one simple word: 'Sorry.' Sorry? Who would be sorry to me? I looked around me in confusion. The only person who should be sorry was... No. It couldn't be him. He'll say sorry, tidy my table and give me bread as an apology? My eyes stopped at the bread on the table and I picked it up. It gave off the sweet aroma of freshly baked bread just brought out from the oven. Never in a million years. But... I'm starved. Why waste a perfectly innocent bread? I tore the wrapper off and took a big bite. Yum.
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"Okay, and that was the last of the chapter. Since you guys were so cooperative today, I shall release you early today. Class dismissed!" All the students let out a cheer. Early dismissal, that's something new. I smiled to myself. Today was pretty tiring, so this was a good break once in a while. I stuffed all my belongings into my backpack and headed to my locker.
Due to our early dismissal, the hallway was empty for once. Plus the fact that my locker was at the end of an isolated classroom block, it was pretty silent. I could get used to this. I opened my locker and had started pulling my books out of my backpack when I heard a familiar voice from the other side of the locker door.
"How's the bread?"
I almost dropped my books in shock. That voice... I quickly collected myself and slammed the locker door shut. Skye was standing there casually with his arms crossed.
"What-" I started. He straightened himself and said almost inaudibly, "Sorry for yesterday." Then he turned and walked away. I just stared after him, dumbfounded. I was pretty sure I had heard him correctly... Did he just apologize? The person who gave me the bread... was him? The same person who had insulted me over and over again? I leaned against my locker. For the first time of my life, I didn't know what to do.
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"-line! Seline!" I came back to reality.
"W-What?" I turned towards the direction of the voice, and Dylan's face was there right in front of mine.
"Woah!" I stumbled three steps back. "D-Dylan! What the hell!"
"I think I only called you like... ten times. Till I had to scream right into your ear."
"You-You didn't have to do that!" I was still trying to overcome the shock of seeing Dylan's face right in front of mine.
"I thought I told you to meet in the foyer at 2! But it was 2:20 and I still didn't see you in the foyer so I thought that I'd go find you instead. And then I found you here staring into space with this dazed expression plastered onto your face."
"I wasn't dazed! I was... thinking of this question the teacher had posed to us today!" I replied obstinately.
"Yeah, yeah, Miss hardworking. Can we go now?" Dylan looked at me with a bored expression.
"Okay. You haven't told me where we are going."
Dylan pulled me along as he walked towards the carpark. "You'll know when we're there."
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