May Angels Lead You In

I was up and ready to leave for school the next day. All I had to do was to grab by bagpack and leave the house once the school bus was here.

Daniel seemed pretty surprised to see me up so early. He placed my breakfast on the table and looked up at me.

"You seem awfully cheerful this morning," he noted as I took a bite out of the omelette.

"I feel good," I replied with a huge smile but he kept looking at me like I had something caught in between my teeth. "Why?"

It was his turn to shrug with a small smirk. I glanced at my surrounding and noticed that Mom wasn't anywhere close. Taking another bite off a slice of bacon, I sighed heavily.

"Are you really a psychiatrist?" I joked but his face sort of fell for a moment.

"I beg your pardon?" his brows furrowed at me before turning to pour himself a glass of orange juice.

"I mean, Mom's still an alcoholic. I don't see a glimmer of hope for her to kick that addiction at all."

Daniel kept quiet for a few minutes. I realized that I must have hurt his feelings or something. I mean, I was questioning his profession after all.

"I'm joking, Daniel," I faked a giggle before taking a sip off my glass of milk. "You need to lighten up."

"Yes, of course. I knew that," he turned to me with a smile on his face. "Your bus is here."

As soon as the words slipped out his mouth, a loud honk could be heard from outside. I quickly stood up, grabbed my bag and ran. After greeting Mr Kimura, I tried to look for Jimmy to see that he wasn't in the bus.

I looked at the empty seat where he would always be at.

"Come here, pretty lady." I looked up to see the popular kids smirking down at me like I was some freak.

"Aww, she's lonely because Sullivan isn't here," Nicole, who was seated next to Gabriel, grinned.

My eyes glanced over at Gabriel and saw that for the first time, he wasn't smiling or making jokes at me. When my eyes shifted back at Nicole, she was looking back and forth over to me and Gabriel before resting it over at me with a deathly glare.

I watched as she grabbed hold of Gabriel's hand and pulled herself closer to him.

"Don't you have anything to say about her, baby?" Nicole pushed.

I thought he was going to deny her request, but when the quarterback looked up at me, he grinned along with the others.

"Poor freak all alone," Gabriel simply said and the others cheered.

I shook my head and took the empty seat, cuddling onto my bag for dear life.

+

"I need your help," someone asked and when I turned around, I saw Gabriel standing before me.

I looked around at the empty classroom to see if he was indeed talking to me. When I turned back at him, he was still standing there looking straight into my eyes.

"My help?" I pointed to myself with raised brows. When my eyes fall onto the book he had in hand, I realized what he needed my help in. "You want my help in Biology?"

He nodded his head and said nothing more. I scoffed in disbelief and started to walk away but he quickly ran in front of me causing me to stop curtly.

"Listen, I know I've been a jerk okay. But if I don't pass this, I don't get my scholarship," he started.

"Been a jerk? No," I shook in disagreement. "You're still a jerk. You don't go around calling people a freak and then ask for their help."

"I had to do it, okay!" he blurted, his face red. "You just don't understand these things that popular people have to do."

"Great," I faked a smile. "Go ask the other popular people for help then. Why come to me."

I turned around but once again, he was right in front of me. I sighed out in annoyance, feeling the need to punch the guy in the nose.

"Because you're the best in the subject," he looked around to see if anyone else was walking into the classroom. "Please."

Blame it on my righteous up-bringing or blame it on my soft-heartedness for people - I agreed to help him.

He clapped his hand once and did an air-punch with excitement.

"I'll see you after school - "

" - The rooftop," Gabriel quickly interrupted.

I was about to ask him why but when I do realize his reasons, I nodded with a heavy heart. "You want me to help you but not in front of your friends," I said as-a-matter-of-factly.

"You understand why right," he said and quickly went to the back of the class as soon as one student went into the class.

I spotted Jimmy walking in next. He smiled and gave me a quick hug before pulling me over towards the corner of the class. We both sat on the same desk as he took out his notepad and started scribbling things down.

"You weren't in the bus today," I tried to say and he nodded.

"Brian decided to drive to school today so he picked me and some of the boys up," he answered, his focus on the notepad.

"You take the bus to school everyday, right?"

He nodded his head again.

"Then how'd you get the car to go to Walmart yesterday?"

"Went to my place after the slushie attack. Used a friend's car," he answered before he dropped the pen onto the table and turned to me. "The guys are wondering if you might be free after school today to hang."

I turned my head to glance over at Gabriel who was busy looking at his cellphone before looking back at Jimmy.

"I can't," I sighed and the latter gave an are-you-kidding-me look. "I have to finish unpacking my stuff back at home. Maybe I'll meet you guys after?"

"Sure," Jimmy smiled and handed me a piece of paper with his cellphone number written on it.

I kept the piece of paper in my pocket and stared at the desk with regret.

I had no idea why I just lied to him about my after-school plans today.