[Thursday]In the morning of the following day, Sean woke up earlier than usual. He dashed out of bed and ran as quickly as he could to school just to make sure he wasn"t late.
He waited by where he saw the girl from before, hoping that she will be there.
After a few minutes of waiting, Lily approached the receptionist"s desk. Sean watched for a while admiring her from a distance. She was wearing the same bubblegum pink hoodie under her school blazer that she always wore. Her black hair gently rested on her shoulders as she looked up, listening to the teacher talking to her.
"I think that"s the Geography teacher? Mrs something. I can"t remember her name." Sean whispered to himself.
She stared back at the teacher with a confused but patient look, as she hid her hands in her sleeves. The teacher smiled at Lily telling her something before running off to cla.s.s.
"H-hey." Sean approached and attempted to talk.
Lily stared back unsure if she was the one being spoken to.
"M-me?"
"Y-yh-yes."
Sean looked at Lily who quickly moved her head away avoiding eye contact.
"Sorry… I have to go."
Lily quickly ran off holding her bag close to her chest as she put her hood up to hide her expression.
Back inside the cla.s.sroom Sean walked in slowly and sat down next to Ethan without saying anything.
"What"s wrong with you? You seem different."
"I attempted to speak to that Lily girl. But she just left."
Sean planted his face on the table and squished his head with his bag.
"Hmm… well. You can always try again tomorrow. We were just saying how she has a mock exam she has to do first lesson."
"Perfect!" Sean jumped up. "I shall try again tomorrow."
# # #
[Friday]
The following morning Sean waited patiently in the same spot for Lily to arrive. He listened to the conversations of the students who walked pa.s.sed and overheard people talking about the girl that wears the pink hoodie.
"Ah. She"s here." Sean said to himself.
Sean watched Lily as she spoke to the same teacher with the same expression.
As soon as the teacher left Lily turned around and noticed Sean in the corner of her eye. Quickly avoiding him and running away.
"AH! Please wait!" Sean followed running.
"W-what is it?"
"Errr… I just want to talk."
Lily turned around to face Sean but didn"t look at him.
"What is it?" She asked quietly.
"Oh… err… I just wanted to get to know you. I"m Sean. Nice to meet ya!"
Lily looked at the energetic boy stood in front of her. Only seeing the parts of him she hates.
"I"m Lily."
Sean stood facing Lily who kept checking to see if Sean was staring at her.
"I"m sorry. I have to go."
Lily ran off into the direction of the teacher"s offices, hiding from Sean. Inside the office, she sat with her head covered and her face resting against the table.
# # #
[Monday]
As Monday approached and the school week began Sean sat in bed thinking about the wasted weekend that he spent sitting inside asking Ethan and Owen for advice.
He quickly ran to school through the pouring rain and headed straight up to the same spot outside the reception office, where Lily stood talking to the teacher.
"H-h.e.l.lo." Sean said
"Ah. S-sean?"
Sean attempted to reply but was too infatuated with the fact that she remembered his name.
"Y-yes. Lily, right?" Sean said acting like he only just remembered her name.
"Y-yeah."
The two stood awkwardly, admiring the ground in silence.
"Hey look, it"s the pink hoodie girl." A pa.s.sing student said.
"I"ve heard rumours about her from the other schools."
"Yeah. She went to my sister"s school before coming here. She told me not to get involved with the pink hoodie girl."
Lily looked over but quickly retreated to the safety of her hood and hid her hands up her sleeves.
Sean turned to look at the student that called out to her and turned back to see Lily"s reaction.
"I"ve got to go. Please stay away from me."
"W-wait!" Sean attempted to chase after her but it was already too late. She ran out of the school gates into the rain and charged into a car that was waiting for her by the entrance.
Sean left and returned to his cla.s.sroom. He dropped into his chair and pulled out his notebook from his bag.
"What are you doing?" Owen asked.
"I"m annoyed so I"m trying to vent my feelings."
"R-right. Are you going to tell us what happened."
Sean pulled out a pencil from his pocket and started to draw a doodle on the paper in front of him.
"So I saw Lily again. She spoke to me this time. But I found out why she doesn"t want to come to school."
"Why is that?" Ethan asked.
"Because she"s being bullied!" Sean Screamed.
"Alright, alright. Calm down." Owen attempted to control the storm. "Look, I knew something was strange about her situation and this must be it. I"m going to tell you something important so listen up, and stop drawing flowers! I thought we told you to give up on drawing!"
"Alright. Sorry."
"She is being bullied and she doesn"t want to come to school because of it. She hands in all her work and only comes to school for exams then she leaves as soon as they are done. What she needs right now, more than anything, is someone she trusts. Someone that will make her want to go to school. Ruby said she transferred in during Year 9, something must have happened in the past to make her lose her trust. You need to be that person. If you can be that person she will want to come back."
"Wow." Sean thought about Owen"s words and knew that they were true. Sean slumped his head on the desk thinking about what to do. He had gone his whole life without being bullied and had no experience of dealing with this.
"I... I don"t know what to do."
Ethan and Owen watched as Sean fell further. They looked at him as if they saw nothing but a failure.
"Are you serious?!" Owen exclaimed. "What the h.e.l.l is sitting her crying going to do! This girl needs someone! This girl needs you! If you want her to come to school. If you want to talk to her. Then you need to stop this s.h.i.t you are currently on and step up! Punch every bully that comes near her! Punch Everyone!"
"He"s right, Sean." Ethan said. "Lily needs someone who will never betray her, she needs someone who will punch those bullies in the face, metaphorically of course. Someone who will look at her as the person she is and not some victim of bullying! So basically, punch the bullies."
"Punch the bullies." Owen repeated
Sean sat up from his desk "You"re right! I need to be there for her."
"Well, I"m glad we managed to explain it to you. I honestly thought our explanation was rubbish, but if you understood that"s all that matters."
"No, it was perfect. Thanks, guys. But how do you know so much about this stuff? This doesn"t seem like you."
Ethan and Owen looked at each other and drooped down.
"Eh? Don"t worry about that, Sean. Just focus on yourself."
Throughout the day various rumours started to emerge around the school regarding Lily. Sean listened to all the rumours he could to find out what had happened to Lily in the past. Each rumour was worse than the last. By the end of the day, everyone throughout the year had heard of Lily. Those that had spoken to her in the past insulted her, and those that had never seen or met her spoke as if they were Lily"s friends, and that she betrayed all of them.
# # #
[Tuesday]
Tuesday arrived and Sean ran out of his house earlier than he has ever left before. He ran without a care splashing through several puddles from the night before, arriving at school before it even opened.
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He waited in the usual spot as soon as the gates opened. He wanted to make sure that they would see each other. He wasn"t going to shy away and let her leave without hearing what he has to say.
Several minutes later, Lily arrived with her face covered. She approached the teacher that waited for her and handed the pieces of paper in her hands before quickly retreating. Sean watched the encounter from afar and quickly followed as she walked down the stairs.
"Wait! Lily!" Sean called out.
Lily stopped but didn"t turn around. Sean"s call alerted the students around them who had stopped and looked at the two of them. They all recognised her from the rumours. They spoke about her as if she couldn"t hear. Although Sean was able to ignore them, Lily could not and tried to cover her tears, choking herself with her own hood.
"Ah… my bad." Sean said. "Come here" Sean ran up to Lily and grabbed her hand out of her sleeve, pulling her along as they ran to the empty school field.
"Sorry about that. I wanted to talk to you."
Lily stood in silence and rested her body against a wall, trying to hide from Sean who stood confidently in front of her.
"When I first approached you last week. It was because I was interested in you. I saw you talking to a teacher, a girl who looked shy but held a brave face. Someone who looked as if they wanted to be invisible in a place where they stood out. I saw you and wanted to know more about you."
"N-no… you heard them all. I"m weird. You know, right? W-why they hate me. I"m not brave like you think. I"m an awful person. Everyone I hang out with ends up hating me. I don"t blame them though. I also hate me."
Sean watched Lily crumble in front of him. Lily rested her head against the cold bricks of the school.
"I don"t know what happened." Sean began to speak. "I don"t know what you"ve been through.
But what"s wrong with being weird? If you think you are weird you should see my friends, one of them is similar to you. He hates crowds, people and life in general but he powers through. The other one gets upset whenever he messes up slightly when talking to the girl he likes. People used to look at them and say the things they said to you, but to me, I watched them as was jealous of them. On the first day, they magnetized to each other, it seemed like they were having so much fun and whilst everyone insulted them and hit them, I was jealous. They think I don"t know about it all but I just keep quiet because it"s embarra.s.sing for all of us. I think you"d like them. They would never hate you."
"They seem nice… your friends…"
"Yeah. I always considered myself to be lucky. Although I don"t get along with my parents very well I have great friends and a brother who would do anything for me. My whole life has been easy. I"ve never been bullied and I seem to be popular according to those around me, even if I do get overwhelmed from time to time. I know that I have people who will always treat me properly. People who will defend me even if I don"t ask for it.
Ah. I forgot. this isn"t meant to be about me. What I meant to say was."
Sean struggled to get his words out. He planned several speeches the night before with the help of Owen and Ethan but threw them all away last minute.
"I want to be that person for you! I want to be someone you can trust! Someone you can turn to! Someone you can always count on! I want to be your friend! I WANT TO BE THE PERSON TO MAKE YOU FORGET ABOUT EVERYTHING THAT HAPPENED!" Sean projected at the top of his lungs alerting people in the cla.s.srooms who were looking out their windows to see what was happening.
"I-i… I-i don"t know. I"ve heard this all before… How do I… How do I know that it won"t end up like it always does."
Lily said fighting through the tears that crawled down her face, hidden by the hood she pulled down on.
"Let me show you! Spend the day with me tomorrow and I"ll show you!"
Lily spent her whole life being outcast by those around her. Every time she would go to a new school she would attempt to make new friends, but they always ended up the same. Her past mistakes would never leave her. Even her parents gave up trying to help. They thought that going to a new school would change things, but they were wrong. It always made things worse.
Lily didn"t want hope. To her hope was something that she thought she wasn"t allowed, but as she stood crying into her hood, she hoped. As wrong as she thought it was. As words of her past rushed through her mind telling her to give up, she hoped. Hoped that the person in front of her was telling the truth.