B e l l a  ♣  A l b y

A stinging feeling on my cheek woke me up from my sleep. My hand slowly reached to touch my cheek. Before I could, my hand was harshly being pressed against a soft material which I assumed was my pillow. When I fully opened my eyes I was met with a pair of grey eyes. I saw that it was none other than my stepmother.

"Darling, you have school to attend today. Get ready, so that I could drop you and my son to school. Your dad has gone to work. Don't anger me and get out of the bed, you bitch!" I nodded my head.

"Hurry up, I'll give you fifteen minutes to get ready." With that, she got out of the room. I stood up from my sitting position and made my way to the bathroom.

I saw that all my things were set up and unpacked properly, who might have done this? Lewis?

I ignored the question that formed in my mind and finished my daily morning duties. I saw that new clothes were kept for me to wear as I came out of the bathroom. The bathroom has been recently made. I knew that this was a storage room by its size. Even the closet has also been created recently. It smelled new.

I wore a long-sleeved red t-shirt that covered up all my bruises and black jeggings. I didn't put makeup on my face as I didn't have anything and didn't like wearing it. I had seen Angelo wearing it whenever she got invited to parties.

A knock on my door interrupted my thoughts. "It's fucking getting late come fast before my mom would get angry." I heard Lewis whisper yelling to me.

I looked at the glass window to glance at my reflection. I covered pretty much all the bruises.

I opened the door to see Lewis leaning against the wall opposite my room door. When he saw me, he straightened himself up.

I put my one hand on the other but then cried out in pain as I felt one of my hand pain. I glanced down at my left hand and saw there was no bruise being formed. Then why was it hurting?

"It's because my mom used all of her powers to kill you. Well, She more like tried to kill you. So when her eleme- uhh her occult energy entered in your body, it would have had entered from the tip of your ring finger because of which your skin in that part is sensitive," Lewis explained with a glare.

"Why did you explain--"

"Stop asking me questions. You're wasting my time."

Hmm, I was just wanting to ask if you're going to continue being nice to me or not but I got the answer I guess. 

So instead of asking any further questions, I nodded my head. Now that I've learned that they weren't humans, I should be more careful. Who knows they may use their 'occult' energy on me.

As we made our way to the living room, I saw Angelo coating her nails with pink coloured polish.

"Mom, we're ready."

"Hello to you, my son," she said as she got up from the red couch and used the hairdryer that she kept beside her to dry her nails.

She grabbed her car keys before motioning her hand to follow her.

I got in the back seat of the car. Lewis sat at the front seat of the car, whereas Angelo started the engine.

The car ride was in silence. But I had so many thoughts about my new school. I started biting my nails. It was my habit whenever I got nervous.

Will they bully me? Will they judge me? Will I make new friends? Will I also get invited to High school parties? Will--

"Stop fucking biting your nails, it's irritating me," Lewis said gruffly.

I glimpsed down at my fingers they were all at the verge of bleeding. I quickly wiped it clean with my hanky. I whimpered as it stung.

After what felt like hours which was only ten minutes we finally reached school. Lewis and I got out of the car.

"Lewis, don't get in any trouble and always have a smile on your face," Angelo said to Lewis with a gentle yet firm voice. He leaned down and gave his mom a kiss on her cheek.

"No promises," he said as he stood back to his full height.

I felt sad looking at them.

How I wish my mom was still alive.

I looked at my new school. It was bigger than my last school.

As I and Lewis entered the school ground, all turned around with curious expressions. As I passed by I noticed all the girls were dressed neatly. I turned around to look at Lewis but he wasn't there by my side. I saw him walking a foot ahead of me. I believed that he wanted a good reputation instead of being with an ugly looking step sister.

It was fine with me but it did hurt me that I wasn't worth to be on his side.

I followed him to the school's main office room and walked straight to the lady sitting. But a hand stopped me from moving further. I looked up at the hand's owner and saw Lewis glaring at me.

"I know you would embarrass yourself." He whispered.

I slightly shook my head in mental distress and bowed down. The amount of confidence I had as a child was no longer in me.

He went to collect his and my schedule before walking towards me and handing me my schedule. After giving me mine, he walked past me as if I was just a shadow which wasn't visible for him.

I looked at my schedule, my first period was calculus. I let out a sigh at the thought of finding all my classes by myself. Before that, I had to search for my locker.

I began following the signs back to the hall. I glanced at my locker number which read 268th.

I saw that it was the second last from the left side. I reached my now new locker and pulled. Nonetheless, it didn't open. I tried again and again, yet it didn't.

What was wrong with it?

I heard someone chuckle from behind me. I spun around to see that it was a girl with brown eyes and brown hair. She looked really pretty with her brown eyes sparkling with joy.

"Do you need any help with opening your locker?" She asked gently.

I nodded my head.

She took my schedule and showed me the locker's password.

Oh, so it was machinery. My face heated because of embarrassment.

She clicked the numbers in a small machine that was on the right side of the locker. It made a click sound as it opened. She turned around and stared at me in amusement.

"Are you new here?" She asked me giving an amused smile.

"Yeah! Umm...thank you." I started being my awkward self.

Well, it was a universal truth that socially awkward people have to go through embarrassment at least once a day.

She let out a chuckle."For what?" She further interrogated.

I knew she found out that I was awkward.

"Um...for...you know to help me to open my locker?" My reply came out more like a question.

She again found my nervousness and awkwardness to be funny.

"My bad! I forgot to introduce myself. I'm Natasha Norwood." She brought out her hand for me to shake it.

"Bella Alby." I returned her handshake.

"What's your first course?"

"Calculus."

"Me too. So you can come with me." She smiled.

I controlled my whimper that tried to escape from my lips as my shoulders started to throb.

I can't let anyone be suspicious about me. I thought with a frown but should I tell someone that I'm getting abused? I should right? but who's that trustworthy? I can't bring myself to trust anyone. What if they join my family and get happiness out of this?

I shook my head. Yes, I shouldn't trust anyone to the extent of sharing my life they might use that against me.

We walked to the calculus room. When we reached the door, Natasha opened it gently and assured me in before closing it.

I saw all the students suddenly lifting up their noses and sniffing the air before all of them peered in my direction. My face heated because of being the centre of attention in the class. Natasha, who didn't notice it, took me to a seat which was in the middle of the class.

"Why did they sniff the air?" I asked startling her.

"They sniffed because you're--"

"Good Morning everyone." I looked around to find a bald-headed man standing in front of the class.

"Good morning Mr.Collis." Everyone wished him jointly. He looked around the room until his eyes landed on me.

"Oh! We have a new student. Can you please introduce yourself." I looked down at Natasha who just shrugged her shoulders.

I stood up and glimpsed at everyone in the room.

My heart rate picked up, anxiety kicked in. However, I introduced myself.

"Hello all, my name is Bella Alby and I'm from East side of the country. Uh... it's nice to meet you all."

My face heated up because of being the centre of attention. 

"Please take your seat, Miss. Alby." He requested me. "So, For doing calculus..." He continued to speak about strategies to be applied in order to pass in calculus.

I gazed out of the window and wondered if I can get close with Natasha.