Chapter 3: BulliedI Quit Their Game

It was seven the next morning when I went back to school to collect my final file. Right after I went into the main building, someone behind me laughed.

"Look, that's one of the top scorers."

"I heard she was going to stay in Imperia with Ronald. Then, all her friends applied for Queencity, while she was the only one heading to Westborder."

"Sent? She wanted to cling to them but failed, so she scurried away."

Some girls were blocking the stairs. The one in the lead was Melissa's new friend. Her gaze swept over me before landing on the camera around my neck.

"That's the stuff you won't lend Melissa?"

I held her hand. "Let go."

"What's with the attitude?" She raised her voice. "Melissa's right. You think you're a princess because you grew up with four childhood friends!"

Her friend continued, "A shame they chose Melissa, but some people confessed despite that and got ditched after a day. What a joke."

A crowd was forming.

I looked at the other end of the corridor. Ronald and the others were there. Yves was holding Melissa's file, Xavier was verifying things, while Christian was holding her breakfast.

Ronald saw me too, but he only frowned and did not approach me. A long time ago, someone in school said I relied on those four to back me up, and Ronald stopped him from leaving the broadcasting room until he apologized before the whole school.

Now these people surrounded me, holding my camera, but he pretended not to see me. Melissa rushed over. "Don't do that. She's just in a bad mood."

The girl holding my camera snickered. "You're just too kind. She's jealous you have someone with you and won't even give you her childhood videos, but you're still defending her?"

Melissa's eyes went red quickly. Ronald finally came over, but he pulled Melissa behind him. "Come at us if you're angry. Don't give Melissa attitude."

Before I could say anything, the girl behind me tore the camera strap away, and the camera smashed against the ground.

Another 'accidentally' toppled the water bucket, and dirty water splashed all over me. Laughter boomed. "Oops, my hand slipped."

I wiped the water off my face and bent over to pick my camera up.

Ronald looked at me and said impatiently, "Go change your clothes. Don't make a scene at school."

They humiliated me, and everyone else could chalk it up as their hand slipping, but when I demanded justice, they called it starting a scene.

I did not look at them. I held my file and left school.

…

Half an hour later, I had just changed into clean clothes when the front door was shoved open. The boys led Melissa into my house.

"Where's the charm?" Yves cut to the chase. "Melissa was still wearing it, but it was gone when she realized it."

I leaned on the door. "So?"

Christian looked cold. "You're the only one who had skin contact with her at school. You took it." He went into my bedroom and pulled the drawers open.

Everyone else rummaged through my wardrobe and desk. They never knocked when they came into my room, and it had been that way our whole lives.

I used to think that was us being close. It was at that moment that I realized these people only did it because they were sure they had power over everything I had.

Yves opened the wardrobe and noticed the scant number of clothes inside. "What are you doing, packing up?"

My chest squeezed.

Xavier looked at my suitcase and answered for me, "She's trying to scare us."

Christian snickered. "Running away from home at your age?"

They were laughing it off as a joke, and none even thought I was really leaving.

Ronald found the early admission agreement, but he only scanned the cover quickly and stuffed it under a leg of the table. "Term starts in September for college. You think you can disappear today?"

Melissa pulled out a charm from the crack between the desk and the wall. "Found it!"

She was the one who dropped it.

She looked at me, blushing. "Sorry, Helena. I didn't mean to."

Ronald patted her head. "Glad you found it. Don't cry."

No one thought she should apologize to me. Melissa noticed the videos on my computer. That was a time capsule we buried when we were ten, the video where we went to the beach at fifteen, and every video for my past birthday. "So, that's where the full version is."

Her eyes lit up. "Can I use these to make my video?"

"No." I turned the computer off, and her eyes dimmed.

Yves stood before me. "She just wants to take a look. You promised you'd edit."

"And I'm taking that promise back."

Melissa's tears fell. "Do you think I can never be your friend?"

Ronald's face fell, and he took the mouse. "She wants the videos. You don't want to appear in them, so delete yourself."

"Don't touch it, Ronald."

He ignored me and selected all the files with my name on them. I tried to stop him, but Christian grabbed my arm. "They're just some videos. It won't kill you."

Ronald pressed delete, and the progress bar filled up immediately.

The videos of me learning how to ride a bicycle for the first time, the time when I won my first competition, and the time when I was sixteen, where Ronald told the camera he would marry me. One by one, they disappeared into the Recycle Bin.

"That works out perfectly." He let go of the mouse and said coldly, "You'll never appear in any commemorative videos."

He wanted to get to me, but he should really be careful what he wished for.

…

The research institute's professor texted me, "The car will arrive in two hours."

I closed my laptop and pulled my suitcase. Eighteen years of my life and somehow, everything I was taking with me fit inside a single twenty-eight-inch suitcase.