This chapter is dedicated to purplelove_55 for your lovely votes and comments.
Love you (times a hundred)💕

*

I kept on adjusting my school uniform.

Yes! School uniform!

I was resuming school lessons in the JDC today and it felt so weird.

First of all...

We didn't even wear uniforms back in Ashton High.

And secondly...

I wasn't used to dressing in a confined place with no mirror at all.

Roxie seemed comfortable with it, her green shirt tucked perfectly and effortlessly into her black skirt.

I wonder how she manages to look this good with an extremely flat tummy when she clearly eats like an animal. I mean she literally ate all the food I brought back to the cell a few days ago and I didn't even take a spoon out of it.

Okay...maybe I took one...or two...or maybe three, or four...or more...

But that wasn't the case here.

I had to go on an extremely strict diet and a little cardio to maintain my shape and it's not fair for someone to still look that intact without even trying.

"You look good...just stop it already," she complained, staring at me.

"Stop what?"

"You know what I'm talking about, you're behaving like you're going on a run way or something...it's just school...and not even a normal standard school, just a normal lesson period in a JDC."

"I know...but I don't just feel comfortable and to be honest, I feel kinda nervous, after everything that had happened, school as a while kinda scares me...I don't know how to feel about it plus everyone here is kinda really mean, trust me, y'all scare the crap out of me," I genuinely replied.

And yes...I've told Roxie all about what happened and what actually got me here in the first place.

"I know, right?" She said before giving out a small laughter.

"You can't blame us for being mean and harsh, most of us learned things the hard way and many of us are still having a hard time," she replied.

"O...k...a...y," I slurred, drying my sweaty hands on my skirt.

School!

Does school have to be everywhere?

I know this is so not me, school had never been a problem to me, rather, I was the one making it a problem for others.

I needed to stop panicking.

Or maybe it was just the fear of having everything I had done in the past back fire against me.

That fear of not being feared.

"Stella! Just stop it! You'll be fine, okay?" Roxie assured, dragging me out of the cell.

I will, will I?

We moved to the cafeteria where we would have our breakfast and I noticed quite a number of children, all dressed in their uniforms.

Girls and boys included with noise and chattering everywhere.

So this amount of children have been detained for one crime or the other, even some as young as twelve.

I was dazzled.

What the heck is the world turning into?

We walked in, Roxie walking boldly in front, greeting others at regular intervals, high-fiving some and stopping a few times for a little chit chat and dry jokes along thr way.

While i just followed timidly at the back.

It suddenly felt like she knew every damn person here.

I suddenly had the urge to be like her.

I know exactly who I used to be but I didn't have this kind of random relationship with people. I know I ran Ashton High but I was picky with who I talked with or related to.

It was clear that Roxie was well known, she was feared, respected but still flowed with anybody if not everybody.

"Isn't that Stella?" One girl with a braided red hair asked Roxie.

Trust me, she was huge and if I were to decide, she looks way older than eighteen.

But it wasn't in my place to say though, age can be really decieving these days.

"Yeah...the one and only," she replied with a smirk.

The girl moved past Roxie and started walking towards me with an evil glare, staring straight at me.

I gulped.

She walked towards me until her face was inches away from mine.

She had a firm expression on and I could tell she doesn't like me.

She had an advantage over me with her towering height so I had to tilt my head a little higher to meet her gaze.

I yelped and took a step backwards.

She laughed....yes laughed!

"Little scaredy cat," she said before fist bumping on my arm playfully but it was darn darn painful.

I tried so hard not to wince in pain when her hard fists hit against my delicate skin.

"You're lucky you've got Roxie with you, if not, you would have been dead meat....this place isn't a place for a cute, hot girl like you. You should be in a hotel satisfying a horny guy's need or something, right now," she said.

Oh...so I look like a whore now.

But ofcourse I didn't say that out loud.

"I wonder what crime you even commited....or wait...let me guess, You snatched your teacher's boyfriend?" She said before bursting into laughter with others joining her.

Roxie was laughing too!

I wonder how that was funny...It is fuckin' humiliating.

"I'm Camille by the way...but you can call me Camie though because that's what the whole world calls me."

Is this girl being serious, she just humiliated me in front of every darn person present in the freaking cafeteria and now she's introducing herself?!

She stretched her hand for a handshake and ofcourse, I had no option but to accept it.

Damn, those palms were hard and it just left me wondering the amount of damage it could do to someone's skin.

Or worse, what the heck has she already done with these hands?!

Is this how friends are made around here or...what? It's literally freaking me out.

Camie. Such a cute name for a not so cute girl. Perfect contrast.

"See ya later barbie," she said before walking away but not without yanking two slices of bread from someone's plate.

How the heck was I supposed to survive for five damn months and this was just the beginning.

*

"Deflation involves blowing away of loose rock wastes while abrasion involves hauling rocks against rock surfaces," the Geography teacher, whom which I do not know the name of yet, said.

Seriously? Does that really distinguishes deflation from abrasion? Why does Geography have to be so hard?

Scrap that.

Why does education as a whole have to be so hard?

It was funny though, the fact that only barely twenty five percent of the class population was even paying attention. The rest of the class were either talking, laughing, playing, sleeping, eating...literally anything that isn't 'concentrating'.

To be precise, I was part of the twenty five percent listening.

A very brilliant example was Roxie who was sitting on the chair beside me.

The class contains 'two-seaters' funitures.

Roxie had always been sitting alone, claiming that, she needed enough space to breathe and the other space beside her were for her legs.

It was even a bit funny seeing quite a number of students being three on their seats while there had been a vacant seat beside her all along.

Roxie had been shooting out papers as bullets with a catapult of rubber bands almost since the beginning of the lesson period.

It was causing serious chaos but I doubt any of them knew it was Roxie and even those that knew couldn't even say anything about it.

Roxie laughed out loud at her achievements while the teacher shot her a glare.

"What?! Isn't there freedom of speech around here?" She spat.

Wow.

"That isn't a speech, it's noise," the teacher retorted.

"If that's noise then what should we call the one you've been making for the past one hour...Music?"

Ouch.

I seriously felt that one and a round of laughter filled the class.

"Nice one B!" That red head girl...yeah...Camie complimented from her seat.

"Keep quiet!" The teacher screamed, it seems like he would lose his voice very soon and after the fourth attempt, the laughter died down but a few snickers could still be heard from here and there.

I guess that's what you get for handling a number of juveniles.

"Detention miss!" The man yelled.

"Yeah...whatever," Roxie muttered.

The man turned back to the board.

Detention? How the hell is that a good enough punishment for her when she's already detained in here for months.

"Hey, Stells," Roxie called me like she wasn't the one just being scolded a few seconds ago.

Stells? Okay...seriously, where did that come from?

"Wassup?" I replied.

"Guess what."

"Eeeeh...what?"

"You're supposed to guess, dummy," She said, hitting my arm.

"Ouch!" I whisper-yelled, feigning pain.

"What was that for? I don't have any possible guesses," I retorted.

"Fine...whatever, I called Rielle last night and she told me she was gonna come visit me on Saturday," she happily informed.

Rielle is her older sister.

"Wow...that's cool, but I really wish, I'll be able to see her," I replied.

"Me too..." She replied, a little hurt flashing through her eyes.

Something clicked in my dumb head.

"Did you say Saturday? What date is Saturday?" I asked.

"November twenty-first," we both echoed the answer.

"Fuck it! That's my birthday," I excaimed.

Loud enough for only the both of us (and a few others eavesdropping) to hear ofcourse.

"Are you for real?"

"Yeah...damn, I can't believe I almost forgot about it, I know how much I've looked foward to my eighteenth birthday," I muttered.

It suddenly felt so sad, realising how everything turned out to be and the fact that I would be celebrating it in a cell.

Damn it!

"Wow...that's cooler, you'll be able to meet my sister and I might be able to meet your family too when they come over to visit, besides, your mom's food tastes so good," Roxie said, the joy she felt, so evident in her voice as she spoke.

I'm glad for the fact that she really does value our friendship and wants to push it further. But I'm still a bit uncomfortable with having close friends right now given what had happened with the ones I had plus all my dreams of a grand eighteen years old birthday celebration had been burnt to the ground.

"Yeah," I faintly replied.

"What's up with the sad eyes? I'm so sorry, I would have reasoned that you wouldn't want to celebrate such a big thing in here," she apologized.

"It's fine," I replied, shrugging it off and forcing a smile on.

Was it? I doubt.

~~~~~~~~