Kind words are short and easy to say but their echoes are truly endless

Daryl was shocked. Speechless. She thought Isy, her friend, of all people, wouldn’t care how she looked. ‘Charlotte wouldn’t do that,’ she thought ‘Charlotte was nice. She was my best friend. She IS my best friend’ Daryl and Charlotte had been best friends since they met three years earlier. Daryl thought back to when they first met, in year seven, the first day of high school.

Nervously, I walked into my new school, careful not to look at anyone in particular, keeping my head down.
As I walked through the playground to the school entrance, I bumped into someone. Looking up, I saw that this person was very tall, had obviously been there for a few years already. It was the sort of person that you couldn’t tell weather they were male or female. I was about to apologize to them, but didn’t quite get the words out in time.

‘Oi! Watch where you’re going, KID!’ It was a male voice. A scary, male voice.

‘I-I’m sorry,’ I stuttered

‘Sorry? Sorry! Sorry doesn’t mean anything! You’re just a kid who doesn’t look where they’re going, sorry won’t make a difference.’

I looked at him closer. His face had gone red. He had gotten very angry now. The first step into my new school and I had already made someone angry, gotten on the bad side of them.
Oh god! I thought. His fist was raised, aiming for me, aiming for my face, it was coming closer, closer, and I thought he was going to kill me. He’d already killed me emotionally, but now he was going to kill me physically too. I just felt like running away and crying, but I couldn’t. He had cornered me and I hadn’t the guts to try and get past him. I backed up against the wall, trying to make myself invisible, but it obviously didn’t work. He hit me. The sound of fist against jaw was deafening. I fell, my head bouncing as it hit the concrete.
I slightly opened my eyes, and saw that he wasn’t giving up; he actually was going to kill me. I took a sharp intake of breath, ready for the next blow.
I kept waiting and waiting, but it never happened.
Instead, I heard a voice. It wasn’t his voice, it was- a female voice.

‘What the hell are you doing Cam?’ I looked up. The girl was standing next to the guy, talking to him. I couldn’t make her out very clearly, just that she had blonde hair.
I scrambled to my feet. My knees were grazed and there was blood on my hands.
I looked at the girl.
She was the most beautiful person I had ever seen.
She had a kind, heart-shaped face, with pink rosebud lips, a delicate doll-like nose, and big, brown eyes that were so brown they were almost black. Her hair was a golden sandy colour, and slightly wavy, with a full fringe that just passed her eyebrows. She looked like a really friendly person.

The guy just ignored her and walked away, as if nothing had happened.
The girl turned and looked at me. She put her head on the side and gave me a small, sympathetic smile.
‘I’m sorry about Cameron. He really annoys me sometimes. God knows why I ended up with a brother like him. He suffers from bad anger problems, as i guess you’ve just seen.’
I nodded; we had started walking to the bathroom, which was just inside the door.
‘Are you okay? That bruise looks quite nasty.’ She was looking at my cheek, where Cameron had punched me.
I shrugged. ‘I’ll live, I guess.’ We were now in the bathroom, where I washed my hands and cleaned up my knees.
‘Here,’ she said, digging in her bag, and pulling out a tub of foundation. ‘Let’s try and cover it up.’ She gently rubbed the foundation into my skin, being careful not to hurt my bruise. Five minutes later she was done, and I looked into the mirror.
‘Wow,’ I said. ‘You can’t tell it was ever there. Thanks.’
‘No problem.’ She replied. ‘ I’m Charlotte, by the way.’
‘Daryl,’ I told her. ‘I just started here.’
She smiled. ‘Same. Well, we best go, Daryl, we don’t want to be late on our first day, do we?’ I shook my head ‘So, I’ll see you at break?’
I nodded. ‘Of course. Goodbye, Charlotte.’
‘Bye.’ She said, then turned and walked out of the toilets.
I looked in the mirror and smiled, before following her out to the corridor. Maybe it’s going to be okay after all.

‘Well?’ Isy brought me back to the present, waiting for an answer.
I looked at her, and smiled.
‘Okay.’ I said. ‘I’ll have a makeover.’