Miss Harper's Class

ELENA'S POV;

"No, I haven't. Why are you asking me that?" I asked, clearly annoyed.

"It's because I haven't seen her today, not only today, but since Monday." She said.

"And how does that concern me?"

I didn't miss the stunned look on her face. "Jessie, you really don't care?"

I shrugged. "Why would I, she not my friend anyway."

She blinked twice. "Jessie, why do you hate her so much?" I shrugged. Anne said nothing more and left. I suddenly felt guilty. I pissed her off, and she wasn't one who easily get angered, like me.

"Class, we have a new transfer student, who is going to be joining us today." Miss Harper stated and turned to the door. "Come in." The class focused their attention on the door as a female worked in. My jaw almost dropped.

Adrian?

My eyes moved to Aiden, who already had a smirk plastered to his face. Ugh, this can't be happening. If she's here, then Aiden won't even look at me anymore. I could see her blue oceanic eyes, staring at Aiden and Dave only.

"Hello, I'm Adriana, it's nice to meet y'all." I controlled the urge to roll my eyes, but instead, I raked my hand through my hair.

"Okay, Adriana, you can have your seat with Jonathan, he's the black-haired guy behind Aiden."

I watched as she sat beside Jonathan, who moved a little to give her some space. Aiden's eyes were locked on hers at first, but he tore his gaze away, his eyes instantly becoming empty, and his face went blank.

"And Jonathan, you can give your partner a tour around the school, and then to her locker, after the class."

"Yes, Miss Harper."

"OK let's move on to today's subject shall we?"

I opened my locker to get my literature textbook. Literature and English are my favourite subjects, and I had the test on Monday. After grabbing the book out of my locker, I spotted Anne at a distance, she was with Jonathan. Was there something up between those two? She's always been with him, even when we were....close.

Her eyes met mine, but she tore it immediately, as though she had not seen me. I closed my locker, my gaze not leaving Anne. She laughed at something Jo said, they both were. I needed to apologize for the way I acted towards her the other day, I really was sorry. I hated seeing her this way, avoiding me, pretending not to see me, walking past me even without a glance at me.

Jonathan left. It was only Anne, and she was heading towards me. Although she wasn't coming to me, or was she? Probably not, and I was sure about that because she was about to walk without even giving me a glance again. But before she could, I stopped her.

"Hey, Brianne." She stopped in her tracks but looked straight instead. Her face was blank. "I shouldn't have reacted the way I did the other day. I'm sorry. Do you forgive me?" She stared at me for a while and then rolled her eyes with a small smile.

"Of course, I forgive you, Jessie." She said, It was my turn to smile.

"So what are you doing?"

"Ah, nothing."

"Are you sure, cause the way you and Jo were flirting didn't seem like nothing to me."

"I wasn't flirting."

I pretend to gasp. "Wait, don't tell me you have a crush on Jonathan."

I sighted a shade of pink on her cheeks. "No, of course not."

I controlled the urge to roll my eyes. "Anne, I know when you're lying, you blush. So spill out the beans already."

She sighed. "He asked me out."

"I see my bestie is going on a date with her Prince Charming tonight." I teased.

"Let's get to class already shall we?"

"But the break isn't over yet. Are you still bothered about Purity?"

She sighed. "Yes, this is Tuesday, and still no sign of her."

I inhaled deeply. "Okay, we'll see what we can do to find her, first of all we are gonna ask her parents."

"Point of correction, it's a parent. Her mum disappeared like twelve years ago. And her step-parent, which is her dad, does nothing but maltreat his daughter every day. And if we go there he might accuse us of taking Purity."

I cocked a brow before folding my arms. "For how long have you been keeping this away from me?"

"Hey, you're the one who dislikes Purity."

I blinked. "Yeah, whatever." My thoughts drifted to Purity. "If Purity's father..

"Stepfather." She corrected me.

"..... stepfather maltreats her like you say he does...I paced, and then stopped...couldn't she have tried to get away from him?" I asked.

"You're right, but where could she have gone? Maybe we should inform the police about this."

"No, let's not yet."

"Why not?"

"Because she still might be somewhere....perhaps someone took her with them."

"Or perhaps they kidnapped her."

"What day did she go missing?"

"A week before last week, on Thursday. You're beginning to talk like a detective."

"Yeah, a person's life's on the line." The bell rang. "Shit."

"We'll do this after school, let's get to class," Anne said.

We both strolled down the aisle when my gaze unintentionally sighted something. Two lips were smashed against each other, and two eyes were closed. The lip of the first person was Adrian, and then the second was... Aiden? I felt a hand turn me away from them, it was Anne's, and she was gazing at me with concern."

"Jessie, are you alright?" She asked as I turned away. I was too dumbfounded to even speak, my eyes grew wide, and my brain stopped working as I felt my heart break into a thousand pieces because I thought about nothing at that moment, just how those two... I hurried away, I heard Anne call my name, but I never looked back.

In class, I knew the teacher was talking, but I didn't listen to a word she said. My gaze was fixed on my note momentarily. I thought he had feelings for me, how was I so blind not to see it? My eyes trekked to Aiden, his gaze was on the blushing Adrian. I felt like ripping her pretty face.

But wait....recalling what he said yesterday 'Just for tonight, she's not my type.' Now I see why he said so, what a jerk! He was trying to cover up his lies. He is a cheater, a womanizer, I should say that to his face someday. Perhaps it would eliminate how I felt right now, like a mixture of rage, humiliation, and gloom.

You were an idiot Jessie. Time to get rid of him

The question is, how possible would that be? I fell in love, there is no doubt about that, I just pondered about the probability at which my feelings for him would fade. It had to stop. Who was I kidding? It was impossible. My eyes spotted Anne, she noticed my inconvenience, and mouthed; "Are you okay?" I nodded in response and inhaled deeply before I swallowed the lump in my throat. The tears were fighting to get out, they stung my eyes, but I ignored them.

I just sighted the unexpected, it was hurtful, I was hurting, and they were happy, as I noticed. With a devastated sigh, my eyes fixed on the lines of my note, my mind wandered into the realm of sadness.”

*******

So Leo and Jessie had known each other since high school? And Purity's story resembled mine. And even when she said it...I sighed. Many wouldn't speak up when they knew they were in an abusive situation. They'd never speak up, out of fright. I had to talk to myself more often than not to remind myself that everything was okay, all because I always had nightmares about when I was younger.

The amount of times I'd been abused the the pain I had to suffer from sexual abuse. A child not being able to speak up for herself might not realize how traumatic that kind of experience could get as they grow older.

The thought of it keeps repeating and repeating itself. A traumatic past was the worst part anyone could have because it triggered one's emotions, even fear and that's what was happening to me. I couldn't handle fear, I couldn't handle blood, I couldn't handle torture because I had a phobia for it, due to what I'd seen growing up.

Wherever that Purity girl was, I hoped dearly that she was safe because a life like that wasn't easy to get over at all. The wounds heal, but the scars always remain.