Different (1)

Chapter 3

The rest of the classes passed pretty smoothly. Other than Mr. Heath, no one had asked me for an introduction. And then it was lunch.
I already knew where the cafeteria was. It was right next to the school’s gym. Gym’s the class I have always hated. There is no point in playing dodge-balls, is there? The more I get hit, the more darker my patterns turn and more powerful I become.
I opened the cafeteria door and found myself lost in a colorful crowd of humans. I searched for Diana but found people I was seeing for the first time.
Accept it, my subconscious said, she ditched you.
She wouldn’t, would she? As if for an answer to my question I heard Diana’s voice carry across the cafeteria, ‘Hey, Willow. Here.’
She had noticed me. And she had made the others notice me as well. I quickly made my way to the table she sat, without making  any kind of eye contact with anyone. I knew that if I did, I’d run away screaming. I was that scared.
‘Hi,’ I said on reaching the table. There were two guys and three more girls already sitting there. I didn’t recognize any one of them but they seemed my age.
‘Come on, Evan.’ said Diana, addressing the guy with specs, ‘Move aside, will you?’
Evan looked at me. I smiled at him which, for some reason, made him blush. I sat down on the place I had been offered.
That’s when I noticed that none of these persons sitting on my table was like Diana. No one was alike. Not even one of them was like the other.
‘I’d like all of you to introduce yourselves.’ Diana told them.
‘Isabella Wood.’ introduced the olive-skinned girl, without any feeling.
‘Alice and Alicia Brown.’ Introduced Alice, pointing first at herself and then at her twin. Both of them smiled warmly at me.
‘ I am Ansel.’ said the blue-eyed blonde guy who should probably have been a jock, ‘At your service always, pretty lady.’
I should have blushed, as it was what a normal human would do but it made me feel uncomfortable. And Isabella’s glare was not helping me.
‘Aren’t you going to have lunch?’ asked Evan. God, that guy noticed things.
‘Um…no.’ I answered , ‘I had a pretty heavy breakfast this morning so…’ I shrugged. I hoped they bought it. They did.
I have always hated lying . But in order to protect myself I need to lie. Sometimes it feels as if my whole life is a big, fat lie. But mom says that by protecting myself, I am protecting people who love me. I hope she’s right. I know she’s right.
Plus, it’d also feel weird to admit that my mom would not let me eat cafeteria’s food as she suspected that the Searchers would use it as a medium to drug me and abduct me.
Suddenly, the cafeteria door opened and a hush fell over everyone as the pale guy I had met that morning walked in. He was followed by the blonde and the brunette and then the three giants.
‘Oh. My. God.’, said the twins together.
‘They have got him.’ Ansel declared.
‘Got whom?’ I asked, dumbly.
Just then the hugest of the giants shoved a painfully thin guy down on the floor.  Everyone gasped and the guy on the floor whimpered. I had no idea what the heck was going on.
Diana hissed between her teeth. She looked……crazy. Totally crazy. And it scared me.
‘What’s going on?’, I asked to myself. This was not supposed to be happening in a school. It felt wrong.
‘That guy on the floor is Tyler Hardwell.’ explained Evan, ‘He wrote an article on the bullying that goes on in our school, last week. He thought that mentioning the names of bullies would make them feel guilty or something. It did the opposite. They have been searching for him since the last week. Especially Theodore.’
When I looked at him, confused, he rolled his eyes.
‘The black-head!’ Evan explained, ‘The pale one. The one at front. It was about him that Tyler wrote the worst about. I don’t think some of the stuff was even true. Anyway, it was Diana who suggested  to Tyler a place to hide but, obviously, they found him .’
I looked at Theodore who stood there, glaring at Tyler. Compared to him Tyler looked like a sloth in front of a lion. There was no way Tyler was going to make it.
Unless someone intervened.