C10 The Nightmare Begins

Claire at that moment noticed Phidelia’s confusion and failure in remembering her. She chuckled, slightly shaking her head. “Hey–it’s me. The girl you helped at the canteen the other time. Have you forgotten me already?”

Phidelia instinctively gasped at this revelation, feeling quiet bad. “I’m so sorry.” she mumbled hastily, “Everything happened so fast so I didn't really pay attention to your face.” she gave a sheepish grin which was obvious enough to expose her embarrassment.

Claire giggled, “Hey–no need to be so embarrassed. Come on, hop in. I can see you're waiting for a cab.”

“Yeah, thanks so much.” she exuded, pulling the back seat door opened. “You’ve really saved me. Thought I was gonna miss my first lesson.” she settled in, dropping her bag beside her and the cab sped off.

“No need to thank me girl–. You once saved my ass too you know.” she chuckled. “By the way, I’m Claire Jason but you can call me Claire for short. You?”

“Oh, it's Phidelia Hoods but you can call me Delia.” she smiled.

“So you're the new transfered student. I heard a new student got transfered into the school but I never thought it was you. Anyway, nice to meet you.”

“Nice to meet you too Claire.”

“By the way, I heard you're Isla’s cousin. How come you're heading to school alone without her?” she queried, quiet confused.

“Oh that,” she sighed sharply, slightly pouting her mouth. “She joined the bus but because of my health issues I can't. I don't like being a burden to others.”

“Oh, I see.” she mumbled thoughtfully, “How about we become friends? Does it sound good to you? We can go to school together everyday if you like. What do you say?”

“Sure.” she uttered wittily, feeling glad to at least have a girlfriend whom would like to do things together with her despite her health issues. The rest of the journey continued with Claire and Phidelia knowing each other more. She told Claire almost everything she needed to know about her except that part of her being a twin.

She usually forgoes that details whenever it comes to talking about herself. Perhaps it lessens the pain of being apart from her and saves her from answering unnecessary questions from curious minds.

****

After about 30mins, the cab pulled up in front of the school gates. Students trolling into the school's premises from every direction in groups or individually. “Thank you.” They both mumbled to the driver as they glided out of the car and he sped off.

“So tell me, what did you do to Tina to have her treat you like that?” she questioned as they walked towards the gate. Claire scoffed, “You don't need to do anything to Tina to have her bully you. She just does as her instincts pushes her to do. She is actually the daughter of the richest man in this country.” They walked passed the gates to the corridors with Phidelia listening attentively to Claire. “Have you heard about the Blanksons?”

“Oh...” Phidelia gasped inaudibly, slightly tilting her head. “I get it now.” she muttered, literally understanding everything.

“Currently, her Dad is financing this school and so none of the teachers dare say anything when she does something, not even the Principal.”

Phidelia’s eyes instinctively flew wide opened. Quite surprised at such authority and power Tina had in the school. “Really?”

“Mm...” Claire mumbled sharply, nodding her head. When they got to the hallway where they had to separate for each of them to head their various ways, they halted. “Have to go now Delia. We’ll see each other during lunch.”

“Sure.” she answered with a smile and Claire hurried off, waving at her. She waved back and headed to her locker. She thought to herself to not meddle in Tina’s business again but little did she know that the harm has already been done.

Just as she rounded he corner to where the lockers where, she tripped over something hard and fell.

“Ouch–” she groaned, wincing in pain as she lifted her eyes to the culprit to see Tina and her gang. Cold breeze of panic instantly flashed through her skin as her eyes widen with horror. “T–Tina?” she stuttered.

“Of course it's me you stupid weakling.” she stalked towards her in slow paces together with her friends as Phidelia dragged herself backwards. “I wasn't actually going to pay attention to you, you know? But then you meddled with my business and I have lately been thinking on what to do to you.” She stepped on Phidelia’s right foot and she let out a cry out of pain.

“You're hurting me, please.” Phidelia managed to say but Tina and her friends giggled at her. “You should have thought about that before starting this, you know? Bet no one told you.” she crouched before her. “I–never– let–go–off–my–pry– get that into your thick skull.” She stared at Phidelia with a wicked smirk before getting up on her feet. “Let’s go girls.” she announced and took the lead, both Bella and Roxy kicked her foot before following after Tina.

Phidelia stared at their backs with pain struck look as they took the corridors to the classroom. She gathered herself to get up from the floor but then the pain impacted on her foot was so severe. She held the walls to support herself, wincing from every effort she made. “Ah!” she let out a painful cry as she finally got on her foot.

She sent her eyes lurking around for help but it seemed like the locker room suddenly got banned from students entry. “What a luck I have.” she grumbled mentally to herself. She glanced around once again and seeing no help coming, decided to manage her way to her locker. She held the wall and limped on her left foot, wincing at every step she took.

A beautiful and fun day she thought of but never had she imagined that today was actually going to be the beginning of her greatest nightmare. Somewhere somehow, she managed to get herself to her locker and took whatever she might need for all the classes she had for the day. Checking her condition as it stand, there was no way she could be moving to and fro as easily as she used to.

Being sure that she had everything she needed, she wore her bag and managed her way to the corridors with slow steps. Seeing the usually busy corridors so quiet with no students, there was no doubt she was late for class.

Wincing and groaning from every step she took, she finally got to her class. Luckily enough for her, their teacher was not yet in. Rowan was busy with his textbook so didn't notice her. Tina and her friends nudged each other as they saw her approaching and they giggled silently to themselves. She swiftly glanced at them and turned, concentrating on getting to her desk.

“Hey, what's wrong with you?” Lilly, the girl sitting in the desk in front of Rowan and hers queried which drew Rowan's attention. He looked up and saw Phidelia limping. “Phidelia?” He stared at her with a slack-jaw, shocked.

“It’s nothing.” she giggled, “Just tripped over the stairs in front of the school.” she passed by Lilly’s seat and slammed herself into hers with a sigh of relief.

“Tripped?” Rowan mumbled sceptically, not convinced with what she said.

“Mm..” Phidelia muttered sharply, with a slight nod without looking at him as she hanged her bag over her chair.