In Fate's Hands

Most people would label Elizabeth as a “loner”; she mostly just kept to herself in school. Even though it was hard, she couldn’t let herself become friends with anyone because she knew that they would start to ask too many questions. She was too afraid of what would happen if anyone found out about her life at home. Even her own mother did not know what was happening; she went on too many business trips to even notice. Elizabeth was lucky if she even saw her mother one week out of the month. It was the only week where she ever had any peace.

One thing people did know about Elizabeth, however, was that she was probably the smartest girl in the twelfth grade. She didn’t have anything else to do after school because she was not allowed to go out or stay after, so she just studied and did her work. When she didn’t have any homework, she read books or wrote poems. She got A’s on most of her tests, but she never could do anything social except maybe tutor some kids sometimes during her lunch hour.

Elizabeth stepped off the bus. As soon as she walked into school, she saw a whole group of jocks standing in the middle of the hallway.. One of them had shaggy blonde hair and bright green eyes and most of the others had brown eyes and dark brown hair.

“Hey, Elizabeth, don’t you have anything else in your closet?” the blonde-haired boy asked. “You wear that sweatshirt practically every day. Where do you shop? Salvation Army?” All of the other guys started laughing

Elizabeth started to walk faster, but they followed her.

“Hey, I’m talking to you,” the blonde one spoke again. “I see that you came here on the bus. I guess your parents must be too poor to buy you a car. Obviously, they’re too poor to buy you decent clothes too.”

When she reached her locker, the blonde boy came up behind her and whispered in her ear, “You know, if you dressed better, your ass could look really fine.” As he said this, his hand traveled up the back of her leg.

A tall, blonde-haired, blue-eyed girl came up and pushed him off of Elizabeth.

“Stop it, Jesse,” she said. “What did this girl ever do to you?”

“Well, look what the cat dragged in! Jayden to the rescue! You don’t talk to me for months and now, all of a sudden, here you are. Perfect timing,” he said sarcastically.

“I needed some time away from you.”

“Why?”

“Because you treated me like complete crap throughout our whole relationship and I got sick of it, so I left you. It was the best decision I’ve made in a awhile.”

“Good because it’s better for me too; now I don’t have to be tied down with a girlfriend. I can get with whomever I want whenever I want.”

“You’re a real jerk, you know that?”

“Thanks.”

Jayden turned to Elizabeth, who was just finishing up at her locker. “Come on. Let’s go,” she said. Elizabeth walked with her and away from the guys.

“Hey, Elizabeth, call me when you decide to get a makeover,” Jesse yelled after them.

“Just ignore him. He gets really insecure sometimes and decides to take it out on other people,” said Jayden.

“Yeah I figured that. Listen, thanks for sticking up for me back there.”

“No problem. I’m Jayden, by the way. I don’t think we ever properly got introduced.”

“It’s nice to meet you. I’m Elizabeth.”

“Have you been going here for all four years? I don’t remember ever seeing you before.”

“For the most part, I try to stay invisible.”

“Why?”

“Because of people like him. Plus, I’m not really a big fan of high school drama.”

“I don’t think any of us are; it just comes with the territory.”

“True.”

“So why don’t you come sit by me during lunch today? I sit at the table all the way in the back closest to the window.”

“Oh I don’t know…”

“Come on! How bad can it be? I’ll start off easy. What’s one lunch period? If you don’t like me, then you can just lie tomorrow and say you have to go to the library or something.”

“I’m not worried about not liking you, I’m worried about liking you a lot. It’s very hard for me to trust people.”

“I can understand that. You don’t have to start telling me your whole life story.”

“Ok, fine.”

“Great. I’ll see you at twelve o’clock.” Then she walked away as Elizabeth entered her homeroom.

Four hours later, Elizabeth went to the cafeteria and walked to the back table where she saw Jayden sitting.

“Hey,” Jayden said as Elizabeth sat down and took out her food from her backpack. “How has your day been so far?”

“Pretty good. I got a lot of homework in my Chemistry AP class though, which sucks. What about you?”

“That does suck. Mine was pretty good so far. My teachers have actually been going pretty light on homework lately, which is highly unusual. Have you finished your college applications yet?”

“I’m not sure if I’ll be going to college yet or not.”

“But, you’re in like all AP classes, so aren’t you really smart?”

“I don’t know. I guess so.”

“So then why don’t you want to go?”

“It’s not that I don’t want to go because I do, but there’s no way my parents will ever let me live away from home and I don’t think they would ever pay for my classes.”

“So get a job and pay for it yourself.”

“It’s not quite that simple. I don’t mean to be rude or anything, but can we just leave it at that?”

“Ok, sure,” responded Jayden. She could tell that something was definitely off about this girl, but she couldn’t quite put her finger on it.

“Thanks. I’m not sure what I want to do with my life yet.”

“I know the feeling. My dad always pressures me to figure out what I want to do with my life and decide on my major before I go to college, but I just don’t know yet. Does your dad ever do that to you?”

“My dad died when I was six years old.”

“Oh my God! I’m so sorry! I had no idea.”

“That’s ok. I still miss him sometimes and it gets hard to remember him because I was so young when he died, but I know that he really loved me.”

“I’m sure he did. Can I ask you a question?”

“Shoot.”

“Aren’t you hot in that outfit? It’s like 85 degrees out and you’re in sweats.”

“I get cold really easily.”

“Oh, ok.” She didn’t really believe that, but she decided not to press it any further.

RRRRRRRIIIIIIINNNNNGGGGG!! The bell sounded, signaling that the lunch period was over. Elizabeth and Jayden gathered their books and started walking.

“Thanks for letting me have lunch with you,” said Elizabeth.

“No problem. All my other friends had lab today anyway; I would have been lonely if you hadn’t ate with me, so thank you. I’ll see you tomorrow?”

“Yeah sure. Sounds like a deal.”

Elizabeth and Jayden parted ways and started walking toward their next period classes.

Despite her fears about becoming too close to someone, Elizabeth really wanted to get to know Jayden and she had to admit that it felt pretty darn good to have someone in her corner. She no longer had to be invisible, but she had to be very careful about covering her tracks. The consequences would be too horrible to bear if anyone found out about the abuse.