A story how there is always someone out there who would look out for you, even if you don’t notice it at all.
“Alix! 100% on the final unit test! Congratulations (again)!” The teacher’s voice boomed across the classroom, directed to a certain tiny girl. Everybody eyes seemed to turn to the emotionless girl in the back of the room. Her straight raven locks fell down to mid-waist, her bangs delicately framing her porcelain face. There, on top of her nose, nestled a pair of enormous Coke bottle glasses.
“Thank you,” She replied blandly, ignoring the whispers that had spread around the classroom. ‘She’s such a nerd.’ Alix glanced slightly at the girl who spoke up, but after contemplating mentally in her head, she remained doing nothing as more of the test scores were announced, no one’s as perfect as Alix’. ‘Look at those ugly glasses!’ She heard another kid whisper. What did they mean by glasses? Just because she wore huge glasses did not mean that she was a nerd. However, unlike most students in this rich academy, she had gotten to this school on a scholarship instead of paying the rather large sum of money that her “commoner” family was unable to produce. She refused to trouble her hard-working parents in paying for the school tuition fees. All she had to do was remain at the top in class and the school would pay everything for her, not including lunch, which she packed herself of course. People would introduce her to be an extremely responsible person, as she never seemed to mess up. She was what people called perfect (minus the extra big glasses), and that’s what made them detest her more. Too bad there was no such things as a perfect person.
~Chapter 1~
Don't let your emotions bottle up; because once you do, you’re going to eventually have to let it all out. –Amira Chou
Alix stared at her belongings that were strewn across the floor, the binders messily ripped apart from the papers. She stared at the wretched bag on the ground before slowly reaching down to get her wallet and walked away. This had become a daily thing, so Alix knew that the belongings had to stay at home. This is everyday of my life… Alix thought, mentally depressed. On the outside, however, her facial expression didn’t even twitch. She knew that once you don’t show reactions, bullies would leave you alone once they got bored. Sighing, she slung the bag over her back before making her way to her house.
“Sister! Sister! Look what I made!” For the first time throughout the entire day, Alix let a smile grace her features as she stared down at her younger brother. He was the joy in her life. He was the only thing she looked forward to when she got home. Alix set her wallet down on the bench before bending down to hug her 9-year-old baby brother. He had drawn a messy drawing of her and him holding hands together with the word ‘family’ messily scrawled on top and presented it proudly with a grin. A frown adorned Alix’ delicate features when she noticed something missing.
“Oh, Adrian. Where are mother and father?” She spoke softly, placing a pale hand on Adrian’s head. His smile wavered slightly.
“Mother and Father don’t take care of me. It’s always Nana and you! You’re my only family!” He retorted. Alix felt her heart tug in pain from how he thought of his own birth parent, and swell at the same time to think that she was so important to him. That feeling left when she felt the words settle down in her.
“Adrian!” She scolded, tapping his head hard.
“Mother and Father have to work, and you know it!” The boy shrugged, looking away, tears welling up in his eyes.
“But none of them show up for any of sister’s important events! Only for Adrian’s!” He cried, hugging Alix’ waist tightly. Alix froze, remembering all those years for her past 13 years of her life where her parents never once came back on time to wish her a happy birthday. Only for Aiden, but she felt it was a need for the boy to celebrate his birthday with his parents, so she had begged every year with all her strength for them to come home. They even forgot what day her birthday was after that! Alix’ lips trembled slightly, but she held strong for her little brother. She couldn’t let her brother know that the wall he leant on for support actually needed more support itself. She couldn’t. That would be unfair for her brother, who was only nine. He was too young and innocent to understand the world around him.
Finally, after returning the hug to her brother a little longer, she let him go and smiled fully at him, one of her special smiles that made her eyes twinkle brightly.
“Let’s go see what Nana’s cooking!” She ushered her now excited brother into the kitchen before telling him that she needed to do homework, leaving her brother to watch their maid cook for the two of them. Nana had been their maid since Alix was 4, when her parents started to become too involved with work and no longer had time to take care of the girl. Honestly, Alix felt that she was closer to Nana than her own mother, which immediately made her feel guilty for thinking that. She stared at the lone picture in her simple room that consisted of a bed, a desk (with a chair), a bookshelf and a door that led to a bathroom. It was a family picture taken when Aiden was just born. That moment seemed to be one of the only moments where her parents looked like normal parents. In the worn-out picture, stood a four-years-old girl holding tightly onto her baby brother, smiling widely. There, her beautiful mother was smiling tiredly, and her father, dressed as a businessman even then, stood professionally next to his wife, letting a small smile slip through his cold demeanor.
Unknowingly, Alix could feel tears slide down her face as she remembered how her family used to be. Faint memories of her when she was 2 and first learned how to read flashed through her head. All her life, she had studied hard to show her parents how smart she was. She aced every test and even skipped grades! All she wanted to do was show to her parents that she was special and yearn for the feeling of being congratulated, but all her parents would do (if they were there,) would stare at her, then walk away as if she had disappointed them somehow. She was indeed a genius, but she never knew being a genius could be so lonely.
~Chapter 2~
Different shouldn’t be used in a bad term. Everybody’s different. Some are just more different than others, and that’s whom we neglect. –Amira Chou
Alix stared ahead as their homeroom teacher made his way into the classroom. As everyone settled down, the seat next to Alix stayed empty. At least I have a window to look at and talk to. She thought sarcastically as she turned her head back to the teacher who was addressing to everyone in the class that there would be a new student. Another one? Alix thought as she stared at the door that she knew the student would come in from. Automatically, this new student would most likely find a group to join, and classmates would welcome him/her, and they would automatically fit in. Unlike herself, who would most likely be taunted again if she spoke. Alix could feel something churning where her heart was, as if it was twisting in knots tighter and tighter, and her stomach seemed to burn. Was this… jealousy? Alix brushed that thought off. She was raised through discipline, not emotions. Of course it couldn’t be jealously. Why would she be jealous anyway? The new kid would probably just join a group and then have someone to hang out with during break, or eat with during lu- Alix cut off her trail of thoughts. What was she doing again? The door suddenly creaked open, and the class quieted down, waiting in anticipation to see who it was. A black shoe made it’s way into sight, before a tall boy entered the classroom. His black hair swept over his onyx eyes as he scanned the room, ignoring the gawking and drooling girls.
“My name is Hayato. I come from Japan. Nice to meet you.” He spoke coolly before the teacher could utter a word, stuffing his hands in his pocket as he observed each and every person, as if deeming them worthy of his presence or not. There was a long silence before the teacher spoke up.
“Why don’t we all stand up and introduce ourselves and say something they like? Then ask a question to Hayato here?” The teacher asked nervously, seeing all the sudden fangirls.
“Hi! I’m Hana! I like-“ She twirled her hair flirtatiously. “-Cute things! And are you single?” Alix rolled her eyes. It was typical for the girl to try to act cute and flirt. How was he so popular anyway? There was nothing cool about him anyway. He was only from Japan. Hayato rolled his eyes, too.
“You’re disgusting, trying to flirt with me without even getting to know me. People like you shouldn’t be here. But to answer your question, I am, in fact, single.” He sighed.
“He responded to me~” She whispered to herself, her face tinted a shade of bright red, completely oblivious to what Hayato said. Hayato growled lowly to himself, that was only picked up by Alix’ sensitive ears. She mentally chuckled to herself. Too bad for this guy! Looks like he’s going to have to deal with the rest of the dense female population for the school year, and the next after! More people stood up to introduce themselves one by one, each failing to try and impress the boy, until finally, everyone except for Alix. Everybody’s eyes seemed to burn holes into her body as she slowly stood up. Staring emotionlessly at the boy, she started with her introduction.
“I am Alix. Don’t call me anything besides that. I like very little things. For my question…” She paused. “… Do you get good grades? If not, then I do not have any interest in you.” She said in a dead tone, neatly seating herself before Hayato could answer. The room quieted, before someone shouted out,
“Nerd! Say something cooler, or no one’s going to like you! Wait- never mind! Everybody already dislikes you!” Alix did not even flinch as the class started to laugh. The whole entire class started to turn into an uproar, but all Alix did was stare ahead at the teacher as the teacher tried to settle the class down from that outburst. Suddenly, Hayato spoke up, silencing everybody in the classroom,
“Alix? Is that you?”
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