Truth of Dark Pasts by Serena Wood (free children's online books .TXT) 📖

get these cold death glares from the “Bitch Table” as I’ve come to know it as. I find the oddly silent glares strange and clearly threatening. Nothing good can come from this new change.

I wait in the line and get my food, making it through that whole endeavor without any interruptions. But now I have to endure one more tough part, getting past the “Bitch Table” in order to enter the halls and escape. I walk cautiously by, staring at my feet in an effort to not be seen as a potential target. But my efforts always seem to go unrewarded. “Hey, Freak.” again that same blonde girl stops me in my tracks. I stop and glance up at her timidly. “Yes, I’m talking to you. Get over here, dumbass.”

Despite my better judgements, I follow her order like I always do. Follow orders. “My boyfriend wants to talk to you.” she states, sitting back in her seat properly so that the boy can talk around her. Against my own will, I move closer to make the conversation easier. I soon recognize her boyfriend as Ryan. “You’re that lil freak from the beach, aren’t you?” he moves around his girlfriend to get a better look, she snickers as she eats her food; reaching out to hold his hand. I don’t offer a reply, he doesn’t give me the chance to anyway. “I knew you looked familiar.” he pauses to chuckle, “I told you River pitied you last year. Funny how things turned out, isn’t it?” he chuckles again and a few of the others at the table join in. for once I don’t see River there and I’m kind of thankful, seeing her join in on the taunting always made it hurt at least ten times more.

The blonde stops eating her food, looking back up to me at Ryan’s words. “I honestly don’t know how River stayed friends with you for so long. I mean, I couldn’t stand being in such an awkward friendship.” she snickers and I honestly don’t know why I stayed here this long. I should have walked away instead of stopping, but now that I’m here I know I’ll have to speak up eventually. “It wasn’t awkward, she use to be nice before…” I don’t know what I was going to say. “Before she joined the bitch posse.”? it was probably something along those lines, it would just come out of my mouth stammered and awkward. But it doesn’t matter what I was going to say because the blonde finishes my sentence with this evil smile on her face.

“Before you tried to make out with her?” her words stun me and for a moment I stand there, dumbfounded. “W-what are you talking about?” I try to act like I don’t know what she’s talking about, try to act like it never happened. How did she know? Had River told her? Did our friendship mean that little to her that she would just tell these fake friends something she knew they would taunt me with? Tears start to well up in my eyes again and I blink quickly in an effort to push them back. “She’s my best friend, so of course I would ask.” hearing the blonde say those words only make the hurt increase. “She never gave me a clear answer but that’s what we all assumed and your expression just confirmed it.” She, along with the rest of the table, start to laugh at me, mocking me. I mentally curse myself for being so easy to read.

Defeated, I shuffle back, preparing to leave but something stops me. My back bumps into a warm body, halting our movements with startled ‘umphs’ pulled from both of us. I don’t have to see her to know it’s River. That little known fact along with the force of bumping into her, makes my knees feel like they’re going to give out on me. On instinct her hands reach out, steadying me with two soft hands on either side of my waist. I don’t know what to do, I just want to run away like I always do, but I can’t now with her blocking me from escape. I’m surrounded.

I try to calm myself, trying to remain level headed so escape will still be possible. I find my mind on River’s hands, it’s the first thing to come to mind and the thought instantly calms me. My old reflexes come back, thinking her to be no threat, thinking she’s still my friend and she’ll protect me. But my old memories of her are wrong and all in the quick moment it takes for the ‘bump’ to happen, the blonde makes quick work to continue her taunting; like it’s her job to do so. “Careful, River. The freak probably still has the hots for you.” for whatever reason, that’s the last straw.

I know now I have no chance. Escape is now all but gone. I forget I’m still holding my lunch tray in shaking hands. my lims lose control and the tray slips, falling to the ground. The food that was carefully organised on top of it flies in all directions, most of it going on the blonde’s shoes and skinny jeans. If I wasn’t in such a state, I would have laughed at the bitch, getting what she deserved. Involuntarily, a giggle does slip out of me and she stands up, actually angry at me. All of the taunting in her leaves and it’s replaced with actually anger, maybe even hate.

“You got your food on me, you chubby little bitch.” she growls, picking up a napkin to wipe some of it off. River walks around me, staring at the both of us quizzically. Something in me snaps at the blonde girl in front of me. Even though I never stand up to them, a come back slips out of me. “I may be chubby but at least I’m not an anorexic bitch.” the girl freezes at the muttered response.

“What did you just say to me, Freak?” she throws the towel down on the table and glares at me, taking a step forward. But still, for some idiotic reason I don’t back down. River seems to sense the stupidity seeping from my actions and she reaches out to grab the other girl’s arm. “Let it go, Chloe. Before…” her sentence goes unfinished because I had already started to spill out my stupid comment.“You heard me, skank.” Chloe’s eyes widen at that. It looked as if two bombs had just exploded inside her pupils.

River tries to pull her away, but despite the darker girl’s efforts, Chloe pulls free and before I know it, I’m being punched. The force knocks me off balance but I regain my footing and in a lame attempt I try to fight back by pushing her away. It does little to nothing and she quickly hits me again, this time knocking me off my feet. “Chloe stop.” I hear River’s voice but it’s quickly drowned out by the sound of ringing and my face’s sudden contact with the floor. The cheek that isn’t pressed against the filthy floor burns with what I can only guess was a result of a kick to the face.

Lesson learned: never call one of the Bitch Trolls a skank. the thought sings out quietly before another sharp pain shoots through my abdomen. She’s still kicking me? I look up cautiously to find that the rest of the Bitch Posse has circled me. “Let’s show this freak a lesson.” before I can even think more pain starts to shoot through me in all different parts of my body. They’re all kicking me now.

I don’t know what to do, I just lie there, scrunched up in the fetal position. I hear all kinds of noise buzzing around me. One voice in particular stands out in the crowd. “Chloe that’s enough, stop. You guys are hurting her.” is that… River? No, no, I must be imagining it. “Good.” is the last thing I hear that I can manage to translate. Everything else just becomes noise. And pain. And panic.

Something stops the kicking, the crowd disintegrates. I knew in the back of my mind that the teachers would hear all of the noise eventually, but it felt like an eternity before they had finally stopped the other students.

I lay there for a few minutes, motionless, scared to move or even open my eyes. As if their rescue was just a dream and showing any signs that I’m awake or alive would ruin my dream and I would be instantly swarmed with more pain and noise.

“Ellie?” I recognize Robin’s voice almost instantly and I struggle to open my eyes. She must have been one of the teachers to break up the crowd. “Ellie?” the sound reaches my ears again, only this time sounding more concerned. A strangled sound of pain crawls up my throat when I try to respond in anyway, by speaking or moving. “Sit up, sweetie.” a hand grabs my arm, it stings at the contact but regardless I still follow orders. With her help I manage to sit up and eventually stand. I stumble just standing in place and Robin holds a hand on either shoulder to keep me steady.

“Oh my god, Ellie... You’re bleeding…” she doesn’t finish the thought, she reaches out to touch my cheek. I open my eyes, not realizing they hadn’t even been open up until this point. Robin is a mass of blurs infront of me as I try to open my swollen eyes. “Oh sweetheart… Come on, I need to take you to the nurse.” she guides me out of the lunch room and down the hall, with the help of another teacher who I barely know is there and remains silent the whole way. When we get to the nurse she cheeks over my injuries, bandaging me the best she can before calling my mother saying “She needs to take you to the hospital incase you have internal bleeding.” The statement barely registers in my mind, I just sit there and wait for something to happen. After the call, I’m being dragged off to what I guess is the office. I’m guided into a chair and I stumble, falling off my feet to land in the chair.

I wait there for a while, Robin talking to me about something

as I  wait; keeping me company I guess. I don’t offer replies, it wouldn’t be much use since I don’t know what it is she’s rambling about anyway. I just sit there, staring at the blurs around me, some things come into focus every now and then when they’re close enough. A teacher comes into focus and murmurs something.

The soft humming of Robin’s voice stops. “I’ll be right back, Ellie. I have to go take care of something.” she rubs my shoulder gently before they both disappear again. I wait in the silence, sitting back in my chair too rest my eyes.My head aches, along with the rest of my body, but my head is the only injury I’m bothered with at the moment. I didn’t know that this could happen. They all seemed so… nonviolent. I knew they were capable of relentless bullying, but I hadn’t expected them to be capable of relentless beatings as well. You would think they would have some kind of reputation to uphold.

But as I sit here for a minute in silence, I realize they’re anything but nonviolent; they’d crush anyone they thought necessary. “I didn’t do anything, you can’t do this to me!” I snap back to attention as the voice slices through the silence I had been hearing. I listen more carefully but all I hear is the murmuring of teachers or maybe the principal. “Just wait til my dad gets here, you can’t suspend me for something I didn’t do!” I shrink back in my seat as I realize the voices belongs to none other than Chloe. I refuse to open my