BOTH OF HER shoes somehow had magically turned up cleaner and whiter than before. No more suspicious colouring or uninviting odor that she thought came from a various mixture of pets' excrement and cat's vomit.
All-day, she had been staring at her shoes, her mind wandering to her little sister's back who had taken up her defiled shoe and get it cleaned. That night she had been acting nonchalant but she saw Lily crept up the hall and secretly took her shoes away and cleaned it. Though she got busted after finishing it, it was an act that brought a meaningful moment to her dull emotionless life.
Then she felt the presence of three familiar persons that never cease to understand the meaning of boredom because any other kids in this school who had bullied her had somehow stop bullying her at some point but these three never failed to visit her every day to either mock her or push her or whatever they think could bring satisfaction to their humor self.
"Well, well, it's sparkly clean!" said one of the boys. He was short, a lot shorter than Stella, and definitely not cute by the standard.
"Everyone can see that dork," said the only girl of the group. She wore the expression of a bored kid who stuck with either doing house chore or grate the dried leaves which Stella remembered that both tasks made her little sister left much desirable sighed for their mother to hear.
"Clean shoes mean more dipping. Where did we leave our special concoction?" said the leader of the group. He was big and burly for a nine-year-old kid. His eyes were fierce and many kids did not even dare to fight back whenever he involved.
Stella raised from her seat. Her desk mate was gone nowhere to be found as soon as class ends. Well, she did not have any wish for someone to save her from these childish fights and she knew no one would step up to help her.
She was the anti-social freak, the emotionless-human-doll; Stella Ghotham. Associating with her meant they were acknowledging her flaws as something common and curable.
"Not today," she said. After what Lily had done for her, she cannot let these kids ruin them simply for their satisfaction.
The three of them exchanged glances and snickered. "We don't care stick."
"I don't care either," Stella replied.
"Look, how about we do it like this. You run..." the leader, Kai said with a grin so wide that he might tear his cheek of he continued to smile like that for the next minute. "...we catch. And if you lose..." His eyes wandered to Stella's shoes. The gleam in his eyes made Stella instinctively backed away step by step, her face still unchanged.
She had her priorities. She saw her little sister effort in scrubbing the dirt off until her hand wrinkled and her back sored. She cannot waste Lily's effort simply these three bullies want her shoes. It would simply be meant how ungrateful she was and this was the way she could show to her little sister, her effort in becoming more human than she was yesterday.
"Neither of you would get these shoes from me," she said calmly and ran as fast as her feet could carry her. Deep down at that time she had thought that by some miracle she suddenly had a surge of magic just enough to use wind magic and sore to the sky. Like that magician, she had seen once with Gitto some days ago.
HE FLED FROM the classroom right after the school bell rang thunderously. For the whole day, he had a serious throbbing on his head that he was barely able to withstand. He cannot face his deskmate and say 'hello' as he had intended the night before after he realized that he needed to help Stella from getting bully today as well but in his current condition, he did not think that he can even properly incant simple defense magic.
Last night was the weirdest dream he ever had that resulted in his wobbly condition staggering to go to the infirmary. He just hoped that Stella stays far away from Kai and his gang for the moment considering his observation these few days of her reaction to basically anything related to interaction was at snail pace.
"Gitto!" a voice called for him from behind. It was his homeroom teacher, Miss Ariel. She was running to him with her hand full of her teaching material.
Not only that, there were a few teachers getting in and out from a threshold nearby that he later realized that he was standing in front of the teachers' office.
"Good evening miss," he greeted her.
"Good evening, did Stella tell you—what, are you okay?" Miss Ariel asked frantically when she saw his pale face.
Gitto nodded. "I'm fine just lack of sleep. What's about Stella?" he dodged and at the same time hoped that the teacher could not smell his lie that he uttered so effortlessly yet he may need to improve his acting as Miss Ariel did not take his answer lightly.
"Really?" she asked skeptically.
He sighed. "Fine. I'm on my way to the infirmary. What's about Stella?"
Miss Ariel's eyes gotten smaller as she scrutinizing his answer. "I'll walk with you then," she decided.
He looked up to the ceiling and grumbled. "Miss, you said something about Stella?"
The teacher giggled. "For someone who said only 'hey, you, bye' to his deskmate, you seem pretty attached to her, aren't you?"
For some reason, he could feel his cheek burned. "Stella told you?"
They walked at slow-paced or rather Miss Ariel matched her steps with him and even when they climbed down the stairs, she climbed down it as slow as she can while acting that she cannot see her way clearly with her teaching materials obstructing her view of the stair steps.
"I asked her yesterday," Miss Ariel said. "I was worried about you... and her especially. You saw right, how people behaved around her."
Gitto nodded. "Hm."
"I was really glad that you chose to sit beside her that day. All the other kids have been avoiding her since she was very small and in this city where most of the kids are each other neighbors, she can't run away from getting tangled on nasty rumors though some of it is true to straight-up discriminating her weakness without even giving her any chances... that's why I assigned her to you.
Because you don't have any presumptions or prejudice against her. You know her as you learn about her. She is a sweet kid though she could make you be in an awkward situation. And she has a very keen eye. Even with those fringes," Miss Ariel chuckled.
"So, I was hoping that you would be her friend; talked to her, teach her, guide her, joke with her, cry—if can—with her and do many things. As a teacher, I can do as much but you, you're her peer. Someone she can relate too. Can I ask you this much?"
'Be with her,' a voice rang inside his already hurting head. 'Protect her!'
Gitto looked at the expectant face of Miss Ariel. Though his vision was double-ling by the second and that his headache had become worse, he held his ground and smiled. This time the teacher did not see through his acting. "Consider it done," he promised.
Miss Ariel left when she had made sure that he had entered the infirmary and talked with the nurse of his ailment.
As he laid down on the thin cot, his mind went wandering to the voice he had been hearing just now.
It was the same voice and word that had haunted his dream last night and what more absurd was that it was not the first time he had dreamt of it. Though he could not remember it when he had such a dream, he knew instinctively. That that woman was no stranger to him.
Yet last night's dream was a lot more vivid than the others. He saw her; her face, her eyes. They were like stars on a night with no moon. So mesmerizing, so enchanting that he woke up feeling heavy and light-headed.
A loud commotion outside of the infirmary startled him and when the nurse who was busy with record keeping just now, ran to the windows with her mouth gaping made him climbed off the cot and he stopped midway. His eyes went wide with horror.
At the far off the field, he saw four figures walking toward the middle of the field though it looked like one of two boys was dragging one of two girls.
While the other two were carrying a pail filled with some ominous concoction and another was holding a pair of shoes strapped across her shoulder.
The girl who was dragged, looked haggard with her hair shagged, her clothes torn and her feet bared. The arrival of the four figures had risen a lot of attention and on the school corridors, many onlookers started to fill the line.
His heart turned to lead as soon he realized who was the girl. The person who he had been entrusted to befriend was dragged forcefully across the field. Stella Ghotham was bullied and he was not there to protect her when he had sworn to do so yesterday.
"Someone needs to stop this!" said the nurse and she ran out of the infirmary and missed the next scene unfolding in front of Gitto's eyes and everybody else's eyes.
Stella who did not attempt to fight back her assailant, was flung to the dirt and she rolled on the ground, her face grazed the hard-rough field.
Gitto's heart leaped out of his body and his breathing ragged. A few series of forgotten dreams played in his head mercilessly. It throbbed like it wanted to explode his brain to bit and that woman's voice kept on replaying her words that he thought that she was there beside him, whispering her sweet-sweet demand. He thought that might went crazy at that point.
He did not notice when Stella picked herself up but when he heard that loud slap slapped on her pale skin, it felt like he was the one who was getting a slap across his face. Waking him from his stupor, his mind suddenly cleared and no more crazy whisper. He who had been asleep was wide awake and that he had a debt to pay.
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