udia opened the door and sent a re at Michael. She faked a smile when she saw the elderly woman besides him.


    “ra? Why do you look this sick?” Mrs. Peniel asked worried.


    “It’s not ra, okay? She’s someone different” Michael answered instead.


    He then faced udia, “I was bored so I came. Do you need to go to the hospital? My car is here?”.


    udia exhaled and opened the front door wider for them toe in.


    “Aren’t you rted to ra dear?” Mrs. Peniel asked again.


    “She is just friends with her. Please stop asking. They can’t be sisters” Michael pleaded.


    udia rolled her eyes, “Yeah, we so can’t be. ra is a chicken, I’m not”.


    Mrs. Peniel was visibly confused but she waved off the feelings. She was really broken to know that the young girl in front of her had a deep knife cut.


    “You mean your childhood friend did that?” Michael was in shock.


    “Childhood friend? Did ra say we were that? Tsk. Fine then” udia shrugged.


    Michael thought something was off but he didn’t dwell on the thought, “I’m sorry for aggravating it”.


    “Aggravating it how?” Mrs. Peniel faced Michael.


    “Um…”


    “He identally made it bleed again. It wasn’t intentional” udia came in to say.


    “Oh, you should be careful. You know why” Mrs. Peniel advised.


    Michael gave udia a small smile but she acted like she didn’t see it.


    “So, I’ve had treatment. I don’t need any medical assistance anymore. Just I’d be having shaky hands for the next week” udia sighed.


    Michael nodded. After his attempted suicide as a kid, he had shaky hands. They were painful as the hand just vibrates continually.


    “By the way, for who gave me your phone number, it was Paul, your little brother” Michael announced.


    udia was surprised but she didn’t show it. “Next time, don’t pick up any kid from the road” was all she said.


    She could have hit him for the stress he put her through but she was too tired to say anything more.


    She had been standing for too long, her head was bing woozy. Michael noticed and rushed to ce her down on a couch. He sat close to her and looked at her pitifully.


    “We should leave now” Mrs. Peniel said to Michael, when it seemed he couldn’t stop looking at her. He rose his head slowly and nodded.This content ? N?v/elDr(a)m/a.Org.


    “Thanks for…” udia couldn’t finish as a pang of headache shut her up.


    “You’re wee” Michael answered, visibly excited to hear the “miss dangerous” thanking him.


    School was due the next day and udia felt better to attend. ra was consistently looking at her. udia wasn’t sure if she was worried or just ring.


    “I will drop you two at school first, but would pick you upst, is that okay?” their driver asked.


    udia smiled at him to give her consent while udia said “whatever”.


    The lessons of the day flew beyond udia’s head for the day. She stared at the teacher right in the eye to get a hang of what she was saying but everything just sounded like bad music.


    Worst still, the math teacher gave a sswork since, ording to her, may people sent submit their weekend’s assignment.


    The loud groans the whole ss made was painful to udia’s ears and head. She literally shielded her ears and rested on her desk.


    “Don’t me me. If more people had submitted their assignment, this won’t be happening” the math teacher shouted.


    Michael noticed udia hadn’t lifted her head up. His brain assumed it was the headache but he wasn’t sure. If only he had done the assignment, maybe they’d be no sswork now.


    “It is just easy, don’tin” the math teacher went ahead to write the questions on the board.


    udia didn’t bother look up. At worse, she would fail math, it’s not like she was bad at it anyway.


    The teacher sat at the table to watch them as they wrote. Michael hoped udia would raise her head up but she didn’t. The teacher overlooked her so many times.


    “Ma’am, ud…” Wright was about to call the teacher’s attention but she just looked the other way.


    Wright looked at udia, then took her math notes.


    “I’ll being around to take the books so better finish your work” the math teacher announced. Wright red at her. He hadn’t even finish the stupid shapes she asked them to draw.


    He scribbled some solutions to udia’s book and closed it knowing he wouldn’t have to time for the drawings.


    “Ten minutes and I’lle around” the teacher announced again.


    “We know. Shut the damn thing” ra yelled out as the teacher just kept on making everyone tensed.


    The teacher walked angrily to her and in the speed of a light second, Michael reached out for udia’s math book on Wright’s desk.


    “Just help her draw” Wright whispered to Michael as if he knew why he took her book. Michael nodded to him.


    “I hope you do well on this like you did in your assignment. I’m pretty sure it was udia doing those assignments for you, wasn’t it?” the teacher mmed her table.


    ra looked her in the eye, “You said we should do our assignment so I did mine. Why’d you care how I did it?”.


    The teacher slowly went back and shook her head, “udia had brain but no beauty. You have beauty but no brain. The thing you two have inmon is bad character” she made a spitting gesture then pointed at the ss rep. “Gather those books. Time’s over”.


    The ss rep. skipped Michael twice as he didn’t want to offend him by taking his books. Michael finished the drawing and shitted both his book and udia’s. At least, he was good at drawing.


    “Thanks. She said she had a headache” Wright said to Michael after the ss.


    “Oh really?” Michael acted like he wasn’t aware.


    “Maybe, she’d be nicer to you for helping her” Wright yfully patted Michael. Michael smiled, “I hope so”.