Miss Ugly-3

Chapter 2|Dells High school 

I was fast asleep when I felt something nudge my chest. The thing kept nudging me continually until I opened my eyes. It was very early in the morning but I couldn’t tell the exact time, probably 5.30am or 6.00am by estimation. School starts at 8.00am so I wasn’t running late.

I looked down at the thing that had been nudging me and my eyes came in contact with the most beautiful pair of green eyes I had ever seen. Was it my imagination or were those eyes sparkling?

When I blinked again, the eyes were just normal ordinary green eyes. Then I remembered the monster rabbit I had gone to bed with last night. The silly creature was trying to entrance me. It failed to remember that I was also a mind reader and somehow all the five monster animals I have come in contact with in my whole life have never been able to entrance me. Including the tiger I met in the woods when I was 12, when it saw that I wasn’t being entranced, it started to charge at me.

It was on that day that I learnt that somehow I had a kind of mind control that was more like a suggestive one. I told the tiger that I wasn’t good meat and that I was its friend. It came closer then and allowed me to rub its back. Boy was I amazed !

I opened my mind and read the rabbit’s mind, it wanted meat but unfortunately it couldn’t eat my delicious flesh because I had saved its life yesterday. Who knew animals could be grateful? I certainly didn’t.

The rabbit knew I was in its mind and it kept forming thoughts like, ‘Come help me hunt meat? Come on…’

I just shook my head at the waves of hunger coming off it. I agreed to help it find raw meat and checked its hind leg which had been caught in the silver bear trap. It looked like as though it had healed now but when I touched it, the rabbit whimpered.

‘It still hurts,’ It said in my mind.

I nodded and carried it up in my arms. Where its hind leg had been on my bed, there was a small stain of silver and blood. I took it to the small kitchen and searched for the rabbits I had given grandma the night before. I found them all skinned and salted.

I cut three pieces for the monster rabbit and a large piece for myself. Trust me to tell you that when you are as poor as grandma and I are in Dells city, you must learn to eat even raw meat. Fortunately for me, I happen to have a liking for raw meat. Grandma on the other hand doesn’t, she always makes sure to at least roast it to a half-cooked state.

I left the rabbit with the three pieces of meat and went to my room to take the clothes that I would be wearing to school today.

Thankfully Dells High School had its own uniform which is given to the students free of charge.

If not I don’t know how I would survive at school wearing my wool and linen clothes which possessed different sizes of holes. These holes are mostly caused by the fact that I had always been wearing them and that I went to hunt in the deep woods where there were lots of thorny plants which tear clothes.

The clothes I happen to be wearing today are actually the best clothes I have. I brought out a red blouse which has a hole at the hem and my black hoodie which has faded to grey from my box of clothes. They would have to go together because the hoodie will conceal my torn blouse.

These weird combination of top wear will have to go with the black trouser that was given to me through a charity event at school. It was very loose and looked more like a long baggy trouser.

I have never worn it before because I’m always at home and all students from the sixth grade at Dells elementary school have to wear uniforms compulsorily.

And that baggy trouser is so not appropriate for going to the woods to pick herbs and for hunting. This is because firstly, It will keep getting snagged and torn in those thorny bushes in the woods and secondly, The sound of it rustling while I’m running will alert any animal within hearing range that I’m there.

I put all those clothes under my armpit and brought my shoes out from under the bed. The shoe is a very old pair whose leather has peeled off. It was one of the things Adrianne and her crew used to ridicule me when someone suggested me for class president in the seventh grade.

I walked out of my room and picked a bucket from the kitchen and went through the back door to the pond which is I and my grandma’s main source of water.

It was just a mile from the wood house and our bathroom and makeshift toilet were near it.

When I got there, I dropped my clothes on a wooden trunk near the stall-like bathroom made from bamboo wood.

I took a bucket of water from the pond and had a quick bath after which I washed my former underwear and wore my school clothes.

By the time I got back to the wood house, the sun was already shining brightly. To ensure that I wouldn’t be too late, I went to check the time with the very small and ancient bedside clock that we owned.

It was the only clock in the entire house and it was always in the small living room with the mats on the floor and tree trunks as chairs.

The clock read 7.10am. The journey to Dells High School should be twenty minutes but being a curious person as I am, it will take me thirty minutes to get to school so I quickly went into my grandma’s room to wake her up. I then picked up the very old and much faded hello kitty backpack that I have owned since I was six years old which is before my parents death.

I had patched it up a lot of times with the only needle and thread my grandma owned. I kissed grandma who was sitting at the backyard goodbye and went to school via the small path between the mountains that led to Dells city education section which was downtown and a bit far from the main city.

On the way to school, I saw some really awesome sights and some automobiles. Just as I had stepped into the school gate, an expensive automobile drove past me and splashed the muddy water by the roadside on my new clothes.

I didn’t say a word as I watched the owner of the automobile come out of it. It was no other person but the cocky and beautiful Adrianne, daughter of the minister of education of Dells.

She waited for me to get closer to her before saying, “Oopsy…sorry about the mud, Miss Ugly face” in a very callous tone. Then she flipped her raven black hair and walked away.

I did nothing except to put the scarf on my head in order. After all, I am used to Adrianne’s antics. I always wondered that if I happened to have not been in that fire with my parents, maybe I would be like Adrianne and her friends now. The thought makes me shudder.

I walked into the school hallway and sat down on the seats in the hallway meant for the freshmen. The person seated beside me had no idea that I was facially disfigured and when he turned to talk to me, he grimaced and turned away from me immediately. I didn’t mind that at all since I was already used to it.The principal came into the hallway as soon the bell rang signaling that it was already 8.00am and so classes should commence.

“All freshmen should follow me to the assembly hall where you will be given your uniforms and some words of advise concerning this school,” The principal said.

As we stood up to follow the principal, my green eyes came in contact with Abby’s blue ones. She smiled sadly at me and made no indication to come closer to me and I knew even before mouthed it to me that her mother had banned her from speaking to me at school. At least her mother hadn’t banned her from coming to my house yet so I still had a friend.

We followed the principal in the narrow hallway but I could see the way everyone withdrew from me. I almost laughed at the way they looked at me. They looked at me like as though I was a carrier of a very communicable disease that could be contacted by just breathing the same air with me. I disliked that look a lot but I didn’t even behave like as though it affected me.

When we got to the assembly hall which was slightly larger than the large mass of freshmen students,the principal told us to take a seat. I sat at the last row and everyone avoided it except Abby who sat four seats away for me on that same row.

The principal started a little speech welcoming us to Dells High School and warning us to adhere to the school rules and regulations or get punished with manual labours like cleaning the classes and cleaning the toilets and these were worse than detention.

I dreaded breaking any of the rules and though I promised myself not to break any, I knew without being told that that would be an impossible task with someone like Adrianne in the same school with me.

The principal started to call our names so that we would come to the podium to take our three uniforms, school schedule, school rules and regulation sheet and some stationeries.

When my name was called, I walked to the front with my eyes glued to the principals shoes so I wouldn’t see the disgusted looks on my fellow students’ faces.

Unfortunately that was my undoing because someone stuck out their feet so I could fall. I was right in front of the small staircase when I fell. My eyes swam with tears from the pain in my wrist from breaking the fall. I hoped that I hadn’t sprained it though. The principal stood in front of me with her hands stretched forward to help me up but when I looked up, She quickly withdrew her hand with a grimace.

I stood up without her help and collected my uniforms, school schedule, school rules and regulations sheet and the stationeries.

As I went up the stairs to my seat this time, I was very cautious and when I saw a leg stuck out from the seat, I stepped on it with as much force as I could manage while cradling my hurting wrist.

Well, school has officially begun, I thought to myself as I sat down in my seat and watched the others take their own school things.