"You're an eyesore," The bully sneered, her minions cackling behind her. "You stand out like a rotten apple in Huxley."
"Please stop," She cried. "What have I ever done to you to deserve this?"
"I don't know," Her tormentor hummed, checking her nails. "Maybe you deserve this for simply being alive?"
Before the poor girl could even respond, the bully's minion grabbed her by the limbs.
"What are you doing?!" She screamed, tussling at their firm grip but to no avail. "Let go!"
"Oh, we will let go." One of her cronies, her name insignificant at the moment, threatened as they forced her to stand up.
"Maybe you'll be better off dead!"
This was the last thing she heard, accompanied by wicked laughter, as her bullies pushed her inside the well.
She fell.
Fell.
Fell.
Fell.
***
It was another normal day.
"Azure! Get up! I already prepared breakfast!" Olivia Twyne shouted from the kitchen, flipping a sunny-side-up egg with a spatula.
The fried egg made a hissing sound and hissed even further when she pressed it on the pan to make it cook faster.
Azure Twyne yawned and stretched her arms up as she exited and entered the kitchen-dining room.
Azure, Olivia's sister who was younger by five years, pulled the dining chair and sat on it, grabbing the eating utensils and tapping them against the ceramic plate.
The two sisters looked quite alike, with their shiny black hair and chocolate brown eyes. Some would say they look like twins if it were not for their differences in height: Azure, even though she was younger, was a bit taller than Olivia.
"Hurry up and get ready," Olivia removed the pan from the stove and transferred the egg to her sister's plate. "The sausage is on the bowl in front of you, while the–"
"Ketchup is on my right, I know, Olive." Azure interrupted while Olivia was removing the apron wrapped around her body. "Have you eaten?"
Olivia shook her head, hanging the apron on the hook attached to the wall. "When have I ever had the time to eat breakfast, Azure?"
"You have time to cook." She pointed out.
"But no time to eat," Olivia said. "Just wash the dishes before you go, okay? I'll be going now."
"Did you bring your lunchbox?" Azure asked, just in case.
"I always do," Olivia smiled, ruffling her sister's hair before heading to the table near the doorsteps where her school bag and lunchbox were.
"Take care," Azure said with a pout, fixing her now messy short black hair.
"You too," Olivia said loudly so her sister could hear her from the other side of their tiny house.
Olivia took the hair tie on her wrist and tied her long black hair into a ponytail before grabbing her items on the table.
"Wait!" She heard Azure's footsteps tapping on the old wooden floor. She turned around to see Azure holding a pair of thick black-framed glasses, which Olivia had been wearing for years. "You forgot your glasses!"
Without even exchanging words, Azure slid the temples of Olivia's glasses to her ears and the nose pads snugly on her nose bridge.
"Thanks," Olivia grinned toothily at her sister before turning to the picture frame that hung on the wall beside the door. "Bye, Mom."
She opened the door and left their house, heading toward her high school, a bus stop from the slums.
Yes, just another normal day.
***
Since it was rush hour, the bus was filled with so many people. Almost every seat was taken when Olivia got inside the public vehicle. She made a fist pump in her mind as she sat down on the last seat, only to stand up again almost immediately when she saw an old Asian lady enter the bus soon after her.
The old lady's hair was completely white and was tied into a tight chignon bun. She wore a purple floral dress that reached past her shaking knees. In her hand was a wooden cane that was supporting her hunched back.
"Please sit here, Ma'am." Olivia gestured at the seat she formerly occupied to the granny.
She smiled at Olivia, taking the seat with a small bow.
"Thank you, young lady," She said, adjusting her sitting position for comfort, her voice soft and unsteady due to her advanced age. "This old woman very much noted your kindness."
Olivia chuckled, scratching the side of her face in embarrassment. "I wouldn't call it kindness. Shouldn't giving your seat to those who need it is common human decency?"
"Sadly, your gesture of 'human' decency isn't so common nowadays." The old woman sighed, shaking her head in disappointment. "So thank you, young lady. Thank you so much."
The woman gave her one last smile before dozing off on her bus seat, and their conversation ended.
The bus continued on its route, and the car's engine buzzed in its wake.
Her ride was longer than usual due to the Monday traffic, lasting for 30 minutes. The bus stopped in front of her school, Huxley Academy.
Olivia involuntarily let out a sigh, fearing that another normal day in Huxley High was going to greet her.
Just as she was about to leave the bus, she heard the old woman speak.
"You will have a good day today, young lady."
Olivia spun around, noticing that the old Madam used the word 'shall' instead of 'will' as if she was guaranteeing her.
"You, too, Ma'am." She waved goodbye to her, which the granny returned.
Weirdly, Olivia heard a soft ringing of chimes out of nowhere.
'Maybe it was the wind,' She thought as she finally hopped out of the vehicle.
It made Olivia feel at ease hearing the woman's words.
Maybe today would be a good day after all.
***
Huxley High was a posh private high school attended mainly by the country's rich and influential trust fund babies. Olivia always wondered why there was a bus stop near Huxley when almost all (her being the exception) students were chauffeured or driving their vehicles to school.
But oh well, having a bus stop at her school made her life easier than walking from the poor part of town to this prestigious place.
"Look, it's that Twyne b*tch."
Olivia heard the murmurs as soon as her black leather shoes, which were cracked and aged, landed on the hot concrete floor.
"Look at her! She goes to school riding a bus! How pathetic."
She didn't pay them attention even though their judgemental gaze and words pierced her. She entered Huxley's entrance and walked in the hallways with a composed demeanor, not showing the fact that she could, in fact, hear their badmouthing.
"Her poor a** doesn't deserve to go here…"
Olivia opened her school locker and placed her lunchbox inside.
She didn't want her classmates to complain later on in their air-conditioned classroom that the smell of cheap commoner food was wafting all over the room. She sighed as she took her books and was about to close her locker when she was shoved inside it.
"Wha–"
The last thing she saw was the school's notorious bully and the Huxley's women's basketball team captain, Alexandra Badd, laughing at her face before slamming the locker door shut. Olivia's sight became completely dark.
The granny was, in fact, wrong.
It was just another normal day.