~2 weeks later~

I haven't talked to Harry for two weeks, not since he had seen the bruise on my cheek, which has faded since then. He had tried to talk to me many times. Many, many times, but I never even looked at him. After about a week of failed attempts, he finally gave up which I was thankful for. I was on the verge of breaking and talking back to him, but on the same day I had decided that, he didn't even look at me nor attempt to talk to me, so I didn't either.

Today was Friday, December 21, which meant today was the last day of school before Christmas break started. Groaning at the realization, I angrily scribbled down my answer on my math assignment. The numbers were sloppy and the graphs were tilted, but I didn't give two shits right now.

My mind was a jumbled mess, my mood was shit and the fact that not only Christmas, but my birthday, was so close made my already crap mood ever crappier. As if it wasn't enough to have one holiday I hated in a month, but two? Come on. If that didn't show how unlucky I was, I have no idea what will.

I didn't always hate my birthday or Christmas, but when I was just a few minutes shy of my eighth birthday, my dad had decided he didn't want to have the responsibility of a family so he left us. He packed all of his bags, took all the credit cards and left with everything my mom had, including her sanity. He left us with a broken mom, thousands of dollars of debt and a bad memory of Christmas. Since then, we really don't celebrate either of the days. To us, they are just another day, and I was beyond thankful for that.

The sound of the bell brought me out of my little daze. I shook my head and refocused on my paper, squeaking quietly when I seen I had only answered three of the questions and two of the answers were wrong. I glanced around the room, making sure no one was watching me, before I quickly shoved the paper into my back and ran out of the classroom.

What the hell was wrong with me?

I felt tears pricking my eyes as I walked down the hallway. I kept my head down and my hood pulled up, my blurry eyes focusing on the floor as I walked. I turned when was necessary and quickened my pace when I was around people, but I didn't glance up the entire time I walked towards Mrs. Black's room.

I wanted nothing more than for the classroom to be empty when I walked in, but it wasn't. Jen, as well as three other students-- none of them being Harry-- were sitting in her room, all of them laughing about something ridiculous, or so I imagine. I was tempted to turn around and walk out of the classroom because I honestly didn't know if I would be able to handle all the laughing and shit going on. But with one more glance at them, I decided why the hell not and walked over to my now permanent seat.

I placed my backpack on the table and instead of sitting in my seat, I jumped-- yes jumped, up onto the brown table top. The table squeaked under my weight and swayed a little, a few bolts being loose, but after a few seconds it stopped moving and the room was once again filled with nothing but Jen's loud voice as she talked to the student's that were sitting around her desk.

I rolled my eyes and placed my palms behind me, making it so I could lean back on them. I kicked my legs back and forth, my feet hanging about a foot off of the ground. I tried focusing on anything in the room that would take my mind off Christmas. Tears still burned my eyes, but if someone were to notice, I'd just tell them I used saline solution to wet my contacts.

My bottom lip slipped between my teeth as I stared at a poster on the wall of a turtle racing a rabbit. I found it funny, but I also knew the meaning behind it. Even though they were moving at different paces, they were giving the race their all and eventually both of them would cross the finish line, even if they were at different times. Jen was trying to show her students that even if they were a little slower at doing their work, if they gave their work their all, they would cross the finish line with all the other students.

The poster was a good thing to have in a room constantly full of troubled student's. I'm sure that only a few of them understood what it meant, but it was best if at least a few did. Shaking my head, I turned to look at Jen who was standing up from her chair with her keys to the backroom in hand.

Quickly jumping down from the table, I pushed in all the chairs that were pulled out and gave her a clear walkway. She smiled softly at me and unlocked the brown door before she walked in and was disappeared in the darkness. I leaned against the table and watched as there was a loud crashing noise, followed by a string of curse words and the light flicking on.

I covered my mouth with my hand to stifle my giggle, my bad mood lifting a little. I heard her curse a few more times before she emerged from the room with a bunch of different decorations in her arms. I leaned my head to the side, trying to get a better view of all the things in her arms, but she made it so her back was facing me as she walked back over to her desk, having to squeeze past all the students, and set all the decorations under her desk.

I ignored my bubble of curiosity and glanced around the room, my mood once again plummeting when I, for the second time this period, realized Harry wasn't here. He was probably too busy beating the shit out of another kid, or enjoying his freedom that he had just got back today, which had shocked me considering how much trouble he has gotten in since then. Speaking of which, Seth wouldn't be returning to school until Christmas break was over on January 3.

Sighing, I sat down in my actual seat and pulled out my homework, deciding I need to fix the problems I had missed and finish it. By the time the bell rang, signaling lunch was over, I was completely done with the three paged assignment that we were supposed to be doing over the break, but I didn't bothering waiting.

I put everything into my bag and walked out of the classroom, following after the three other students. My head was bowed as I took a step over the threshold, but the moment I did, I was being hauled backwards by a hand on my arm. I dropped my backpack from my arms and turned around, ripping my arm out of the person's grasp.

Jen stared down at me with a smirk, her arms crossing over her chest and covering the reindeer that was on the middle of her red sweater. "I need you to come to my class after you finish your work in english." She said, a twinkle of excitement running through her eyes, but just as quickly as it had shown up, it was gone.

I didn't ask her why, I just nodded my head and picked up my bad, my left hand flattening over my chest for a moment, right above my heart. I felt my heartbeating rapidly, each thump hitting against the palm of my hand and making it tingle slightly. I took deep breathes as I walked to class, ignoring a few of the snide comments some of the student's were yelling at me.

English class, to my utter disappointment, passed by slow and I wasn't even in there for ten minutes. I had finished the quiz the teacher had gave us on the book we were assigned two weeks ago, in less than five minutes, but I just sat at my desk and chewed on my fingernails for the next five minutes. I didn't want to draw too much attention to me when I stood up, so I had waited for one of the other students to get up and sharpen their pencil or something before I stood up too.

I grabbed my book bag from the desk beside me and picked up my quiz. I checked over it as I walked back to her desk, making sure there wasn't any wrong answers like there had been in math, which there wasn't. I handed the paper to her and was just about to tell her that I needed to leave when there was a knock on the door. Mrs. Anderson was about to stand up but I told her I got it.

Pulling the sleeves to my hoodie down further, I walked over to the door and opened it a little, revealing Harry. He was wearing a black button up shirt, black skinny jeans and brown boots. I slipped my bottom lip between my teeth and glanced up at him, his curls that were usually framing his face now in a tight bun on top of his head. His face was bright red and sweat trickled down his face, meaning he had either ran here or he had been doing something that required a lot of exercise.

He was probably fucking someone in the bathroom.

My stomach churning at the thought, I ripped my gaze away from his and took a step to the side, allowing him to walk into the room. I waved at Mrs. Anderson, who smiled at me and nodded, before I walked through the door. I had expected Harry to walk into the classroom to talk to the teacher, but he followed me instead.

"I'm so fucking sweety." He groaned, using the sleeve of his shirt to wipe off his forehead. He was breathing heavily through his nose when he finally caught up to me, his long legs matching my pace easily.

I chose not to answer him and continued walking to Jen's class, but when we were a few feet from it, Harry grabbed my wrist and began to pull me towards the direction of the library. "What are you doing?" I asked, trying to pull my arm out of his grasp but his finger's just curled even tighter around it.

I finally gave up and followed him towards the library, my heart doing flips in my chest the entire time we walked. Harry was holding my hand. Well, he wasn't holding my hand exactly, but he was holding my wrist. It was almost the same thing, right? This small touch, while may seem simple to other people, meant the world to me. Not many people touched me, and not many people who were mad at me touched me, unless it was to cause me pain. But that wasn't Harry's intention.

"I'm sorry." I mumbled, apologizing for the two weeks that I have gave him the cold shoulder. I chanced a glance up at him, my throat going dry when I seen he was staring at me as we walked, and probably had been the entire time.

Sighing deeply, like he was regretting what he was about to say, Harry turned his head and stared at the hallway ahead of us. "It was pretty shitty of you to ignore me." I would've apologized again, but the smile was evident in his voice. I giggled softly and bit my lip, my shitty mood suddenly not being so shitty.

"I-I'm just not used to talking to people or having people be concerned about me." I whispered and hugged my backpack tighter to my chest. I have never really said that out loud to anyone. I mean, i've told Lottie who would smack me and tell me she cares about me, but nobody else. I felt like it made me sound like I was whining, like I /wanted/ to have someone be there for me, but I didn't. I was perfectly fine sitting by myself and enjoying my own company.

I stared up at the side of his face and seen how the skin around his jaw stretched tightly as he clenched his jaw. I felt the urge to ask him what was wrong, but before I got the chance, we were walking into the door right next to the Library's door, the door that belonged to the teacher's faculty room.

I began to tug on Harry's hand, knowing we weren't supposed to be in here without teacher approval. "Harry, stop. We can't be in her..." My voice died down as I took in the sight infront of me. There was balloons floating all over the room and streamers were hung everywhere. A banner, that had "Happy Birthday" written on it was hanging above the door behind me and Harry.

Harry let go of my hand and I walked further into the room, my chest growing tighter and my eyes watering. When I passed the wall that was blocking the rest of the room, a few people jumped out from their random hiding positions and yelled "Happy Birthday." My bottom lip wobbled as I looked at all of them. There was a few of my teachers, a few students I helped tutor and Jen.

I felt a tear finally slip past my eye and slide down my cheek, burning my skin. The room was covered in decorations, sure, but that wasn't what had me so emotional. Sitting on the table in the middle of the room was a white cake with blue frosting around it. Taking a cautious step forward, I seen my name was scrolled across the top in the same blue frosting, and there was a small heart next to the 'n' in my last name.

Before I could stop it, ugly tears began to roll down my face and land on my black hoodie, but they were tears of happiness. I looked around at all of them, who were smiling widely at me. Finally, my eyes landed on Harry who was leaning against the wall, his arms folded tightly over his chest. When he seen me looking at me, he smiled softly and mouthed "Happy Birthday Bubble Butt."

A watery smile stretched my lips, and I soon found myself laughing. Jen had taken the time out of her very busy day to decorate a room for me, and get me a birthday gift. Then realization dawned on me. These decorations were in the bag that she was hiding from me earlier in her classroom. I turned around to thank her, but just as I did, they all began to sing happy birthday to me.

I awkwardly stood in front of them all, my fingers playing nervously with one another. When they had finished, I mumbled a hoarse thank you and walked over to Jen, pulling the taller teacher into a hug. "Happy early birthday, kiddo." She whispered in my ear, giving me one finally squeeze before she pulled back and looked down at me.

"Thank you." I said, really not knowing how to reply. "For everything." I added, and gestured around the room. This was all too much. I wasn't used to having a party. The closest I had gotten to one since my dad had left was the year after and Lottie had baked me a birthday cake. I wasn't complaining though, I didn't like my birthday, like I had said before.

"You should be thanking Harry. This was his idea. He was the one who got the cake during lunch and decorated the room." The world stopped. The clock on the wall stopped ticking, the people stopped talking, and my heart stopped beating.

I gasped in a deep breath and looked over at Harry, who was talking to a girl. I felt a bubble of jealousy, but the happiness I was feeling right now completely squashed it. The guy that half the school fears now because he beat up not only Seth, but five other of the school's students, had taken time out of his day to decorate a room... For me. He had missed class today just to make sure that I had a good birthday, and in my happy, emotional state, I didn't question how Harry knew when my birthday was. That all seemed unimportant right now as I watched in slow motion as he turned to me and winked, his shoulders uplifting a little in a small shrug.

The school badass isn't as bad as he let's on.