Weaving Destinies

The bell rang, dismissing me from my fifth hour English class.

“Finally!” I groaned as I grabbed my things and raced out the door. “Once again, I thought that class would never end!” I decided to go to my locker before heading to lunch.

As I got closer to my locker on the third floor, I saw my closest friend and locker partner, Kiyoshi Gardner, waiting for me. She grinned and pretended that she was going to close the locker before I could switch books. As I put my things into my locker and gave my hair a quick brush, she said, “So, how did you survive English? I just pretended to take notes while drawing.”

I grinned. Kiyoshi was a great artist and never went anywhere without her sketchbook. She had English third hour, and she hated it just as much as I did.

“The usual. Took a well deserved nap and worked on homework while the teacher blabbed,” I replied. I finished with my usual locker routine and closed the door. Kiyoshi had lunch with me next, so we walked together as I said, “Did you hear those girls going nuts over the new guy?”

The girls in the locker room this morning during PE had been gushing dirty fantasies about the senior who had just transferred to Hawkthorne High and betting on who would get to date him first. They said his name was Alec. I had sighed and rolled my eyes. A year ago, I would have jumped right in, but not anymore. I was still heartbroken over another guy, and shallow gossip no longer interested me. Besides, only Kiyoshi would talk to me.

Kiyoshi nodded. “Yep, who didn’t? I almost feel sorry for the poor guy! One step into the school and he gets smothered in desperate girls!”

“Don’t worry about him; he’ll be fine. The guys always adjust to the change well,” I pointed out. “You saw what happened to Jack and Andrew.”

“Yeah, two perfectly nice boys,” Kiyoshi agreed. “Unfortunately, the Barbies also thought so.” I continued talking to her and pushing my way through the crowd.

Suddenly, I saw him. I was certain he was the new guy since all of the popular girls were crowding around him. He was extremely good looking and fairly tall. His black hair was long enough to be pulled into a tiny ponytail at the nape of his neck. He had deep blue eyes and a sweet smile. He wore a dark gray shirt with the first few buttons undone and a pair of black pants. He looked like he could be a movie star.

His eyes scanned the crowd of girls, almost seeming like he was picking and choosing. His eyes met mine, and for a split second, I saw how they sparkled when the light caught them. There was also a dark part in his eye, like he was hiding something mysterious.

I quickly looked away from him, trying hard not to blush. I kept talking to Kiyoshi as if nothing had happened. We made it to the cafeteria, and I forgot all about him.

The rest of the school didn’t make that hard. They certainly didn’t ostracize me as much as they had at the beginning of the year, but some people still would notice me and frown, whispering to their friends.

“Let’s get pizza today!” Kiyoshi suddenly exclaimed, steering me out of the cafeteria.

“Was he in line?” I sighed. She nodded nervously, pursing her lips. I was thankful that she took such pains to protect me, but it didn’t matter much. Lucas Richardson lived in the house next to mine, so I usually saw him anyways. I still felt a little sick, especially when I saw his scorn and flat-out hatred. Who would have known that things between us would crash so quickly?

“Sophie is doing well,” Kiyoshi said gently as we sat in the courtyard eating our pizza slices. It was cold out here, being November, but that meant that we were the only ones eating outside, away from the judging glares of my classmates.

“Good. I’m glad to hear it,” I said, suddenly finding it hard to talk. I really was glad, but there was a lump in my throat that made it hard to swallow my pepperoni pizza. I was starting to feel a bit nauseous anyways.

I finally just threw my pizza away in the trashcan next to our bench. Kiyoshi frowned but didn’t say anything. I had only eaten a few bites. I knew that I was dangerously low in weight for being 5’5” and seventeen years old, but it was just so hard to eat. I had had to buy new clothes because I had lost so much weight. I looked pretty thin and sickly, my collarbone and ribs clearly showing and my skin stretched tight over my bones with no chest to speak of. I was too skinny to be attractive, but I just didn’t care.

The bell rang, and Kiyoshi and I went back inside and up the staircase, towards her French class and my Precalc classroom, which weren’t too far away from each other.

As we walked along the crowded hallway, I saw the new guy, Alec, again. This time he was surrounded by a bunch of guys. Lucas wasn’t there, but Liam and Aldo were. Alec saw me coming, and his face lit up.

“Surely he isn’t looking at me,” I thought miserably. “Everyone has probably already warned him about me.”

But Alec was looking at me.

“Faith!” he called out as I walked by with Kiyoshi.

“Well, my name's not Faith, so that confirms my assumptions. But why is he looking at me? Maybe there’s someone behind me,” I thought. He reached out and grabbed my arm. I spun around, confused.

“Faith, Faith, it is me!” he smiled strangely. Realizing that it was in a loving way, I struggled to pull away, but his grip was firm.

“Faith, my darling, do you not recognize me?” Alec looked at me with concern. He was really starting to scare me now.

“Get away from me, you freak!” I shouted, the fear and confusion working its way into my voice. “I don’t know what kind of sick joke you’re playing on me, but you’d better stop now! And my name isn’t Faith, anyways. It’s Olivia!” This had to be a prank. Maybe these guys had already told him about me, and he thought it would be funny to mess with me.

“No, but this cannot be. I know it is you. Come to me, my beautiful Faith,” he cooed gently, pulling me in for a kiss. I pushed him away, slamming him into the wall. He stared at me in shock as I yelled, “Get away from me, you bastard! Don’t you know when it’s not funny anymore?”

I turned on my heel and pulled Kiyoshi with me as I stomped away angrily. My face grew bright red with anger and embarrassment, tears filling my eyes as I finally made it to Precalc.

“That guy is a jerk. Don’t pay any attention to him,” Kiyoshi murmured, obviously having reached the same conclusion.

“Why won’t they just leave me alone?” I asked, a bit more shakily than I would’ve liked. I struggled to keep from crying.

“We can report him for bullying, if you want,” Kiyoshi offered, but we both knew this wouldn’t make any difference at all. Heck, the administration would probably take his side. If possible, they were less fond of me than my peers were.

During class, everyone kept turning around to stare at me and whispering amongst themselves. I wished that I could melt into my seat. I hadn’t felt this horrible since the beginning of the school year. The teacher, of course oblivious to anything that just happened, ordered everyone to turn around and be quiet as rumors spread over the school like a forest fire spreading over trees.