Silence (Silence #1)(2)

“Sorry, I didn’t quite hear you.” The room erupted with laughter, and I rolled my eyes. Original, Luke.

“Ignore them,” Hannah whispered, squeezing my arm sympathetically.

I smiled at her, and then sighed in relief as Mrs Yates walked into the room. With a quick greeting, she flipped the register open and pulled the lid off her pen. Like with everyone else, she called my name but looked up at the same time, knowing she wasn’t getting an answer. There was never any pressure from the teachers on me to talk: they made sure everything was as normal as possible wherever it could be.

After the register was called everyone chatted, waiting for the bell to ring for the first lesson. “Ready for maths?” Hannah groaned the question as the bell chimed. Nope. My expression mirrored hers. Maths wasn’t my favourite subject, and today was a double lesson. “Do you think we’ll ever use anything we’ve learnt in maths in the real world?” she mused.

Most definitely. Although probably not ‘Jimmy left the station at nine in the morning, Jenny left at nine-thirty their stations were fifty miles apart, what time do they pass each other?’ questions.

I had most lessons with Hannah. We sat together through them all, but she spoke to her two other friends more, unsurprisingly since they actually answered her. That was okay with me though. I preferred to do work to pass the time.

“Good morning,” Mr Spice greeted. “Pass these around and get started.” He handed Georgie, who was sitting at the front, the stack of papers and went to sit down.

The class seemed to drag on forever. For the whole two hours, we all worked from the sheets. It was almost like doing a test. Boredom is actually going to kill me. I flipped the worksheet over only to find another one.

Finally, the bell rang, and it was time for the first break of the day. Stuffing my pencil case into my bag, I mentally planned my route to the next class. Helen, Laura, and Tina peered over their shoulders as they walked towards the door, snickering. My heart dropped a little, but I tried not to let them get to me. It wouldn’t be long before we would leave school and I wouldn’t have to see them again.

Heading straight to my third lesson, I kept my head down, hoping to go unnoticed. I took the longer route to my next lesson because there was usually less people around.

The sun was even brighter than when I left home this morning, and as it shone in my face I cradled my hand over my eyes to create little shade. Suddenly I slammed into someone that was walking around the corner. Gasping, I stumbled back.

“Sorry,” a deep voice said. I looked up and stepped back again. I felt sick as Julian grinned back at me. His smile wasn’t a friendly one, more like one from a predator that had just caught its prey. “Oakley,” he said, in what he probably thought was a playful tone. Not now.

I gulped and straightened my back to try to look more confident than I was. Look him in the eye, I ordered myself.

“Miss me over the weekend?” Julian took a step towards me, and I wanted to run. Running wouldn’t help me at all though. I needed to be strong. Raising my head, I continued to stare him right in the eye. I wasn’t sure where this was going.

“Miss Farrell, Mr Howard, get to class. Now!” the head teacher, Mr Simmons bellowed. I sagged in relief and scurried off to biology, refusing to look back at Julian. I just wanted to make it through one day without anything bad happening.



At lunchtime, I walked to the exit to eat outside of the school grounds. Just as I was about to reach the front door, an arm shot out, stopping me from going further.

“Oakley,” Laura said with a fake smile. “I’m having a party on Saturday to celebrate the end of the year. You should come. What do ya say?” Laura and her friend burst out laughing. How could they still find that funny? Did they ever get bored of their own stupid, pathetic jokes?

I pushed past her, almost running towards the door. The laughing stopped as soon I was outside. I’d had enough of today already and needed to leave. Blinking the tears back, I walked quickly through the car park. How could people hate me so much for doing absolutely nothing? I swallowed the lump in my throat and willed myself not to cry.

“Oakley?” Cole’s voice called out, making me instantly brighten up. I turned around to see him jogging towards me, his messy hair blowing across his forehead.

I took a shaky breath and smiled. I was not going to let them make me cry again, and I really didn’t want Cole to see me cry either. He strode across the car park and stopped right in front of me.

“Hey. Are you okay?” he asked, scanning my face. I nodded my head in confirmation. Cole raised his right eyebrow. “No, you’re not. Hold on a minute, I’ll come with you and we can talk.”

I grabbed his arm as he went to turn away and shook my head. I didn’t want him to come with me. He didn’t need to be the boy that hung out with the weird girl that didn’t talk. I nudged him in the direction of his waiting friends, telling him to go with them. He looked to his friends for a second before returning to me.

“It’s fine. I’d rather come with you,” he said, reading my actions.

Great, I’m the loser charity case that needs babysitting. I shook my head more fiercely and clenched my jaw in frustration. Of all the people in the world, I did not want him feeling sorry for me. Cole gave a mock-exasperated sigh, his eyes tightening a little.

“Either I’m coming with you, or you’re sitting with us. It’s up to you.” He folded his arms over his chest challengingly.