Bullied by the Devil

Chapter 3

Lunch break had me skipping lunch to attend my court summons. To be fair, I didn't have any appetite knowing that doom and gloom loomed over me. Heading behind the abandoned building, I hung my head down, feeling like a thousand weights had pressed down on me. The girls were already there, a mixed group of Grade 11’s and junior high girls. I felt some of that weight off my shoulder. Thank God the vicious seniors weren't among them.

"Please take a seat over here," a short junior high girl with round spectacles said, gesturing towards the rickety chair in front of them.

I winced. Not the chair.

"Do you know why you are being summoned?"

"Yes but—."

"Did you or did you not act outside the fangirl motto of "You can look but you can't touch and talk to them?"

"They talked to me first. It would be rude not to—."

"Do you plead guilty to stealing a march on the rest of us by taking their attention?"

"You have to know it was all an accident," I quickly said. "No one, not even the desperate, would try to get ahead by doing a face plant on the ground."

This got them to shut up immediately. They all glanced at each other, unsure how to proceed.

"I really apologize for my transgressions but it wasn't intentional. I would never do anything to betray our club."

“Were you not using Autumn to get to them then?”

“God, no. That’s like Icarus flying close to the sun. I don’t have a death wish.”

“So you really didn’t do that to get Nicholas’s and Roan’s attention?” one ventured to repeat.

I wanted to tear my hair out. “I just told you it was an accident!”

“You know what’ll happen if you try to get close to them."

“I’ll get kicked out of the chatroom and get demoted to the back, I know. Please don’t," I pleaded. "I just made it to the second line this semester.”

Did I mention that our little fangirling group every morning has a hierarchy? Everyone had a spot where they should stand so there would be no infighting within the fan club.

"Alright, we'll drop this for now because lunch break is almost over," the tallest girl of the group grudgingly said. "But if this happens again, we'll have no choice but to kick you out of the club."

I immediately nodded. Thank God they weren't suspending my club privileges.

"And also, make sure you don't let Autumn find you. Rumors are she's looking for you."

When they said those words, I closed my eyes and thought I blacked out for a second.

“Why?” I wailed, knifing up the chair.

They looked at each other and shrugged.

"You don't know why sunshine girl wants to find me?” I squeaked in disbelief. They always made it a point to know everything they could about Nicholas, Roan and, because they had no choice, Autumn.

They all shrugged again.

“But how did you know she’s looking for me?”

“She came to our building asking about you,” the spectacled junior high answered. “She probably thought you were in junior high.”

They all looked at me up and down. They were obviously thinking how I did look like I was still in junior high. So what if I hadn’t had my growth spurt yet? At least I graduated from an A cup.

“You didn’t kindly redirect her to the senior high building right?” I asked in a hopeful tone.

“Well, I actually did but I wasn’t kind about it.” She looked at the other girls. “I swear.”

“We believe you. We know you have a strong sense of loyalty to the club unlike other people.”

Having said that, they gave me pointed looks. Then they all left me alone before I could protest or justify myself.

Admittedly, this fan club of ours might have one mind and one vision when it comes to the boys but we weren’t exactly close or friends with each other. Some might be. But unfortunately, I wasn’t. I was just another girl enamored by the godlike visuals of Nicholas and Roan.

I couldn’t fathom what Autumn would want with me. But there was no way I was going to try and find out so for the rest of the day, I kept my guard.

Someone tapped my shoulder while I was getting a drink from the vending machine after I belatedly ate my lunch box during afternoon recess. I almost jumped out of my skin.

Whirling around, I instinctively lifted my hands up in a boxing position.

The girl in front of me blinked. “Why are you putting your hands up like that?”

“Oh,” I giggled. It was the class president. “I’m… I’m exercising.” I pumped my arms up and down. “Yeah. Exercising.”

She frowned. “If you say so. I just want to remind you about the assignment due next period. I will be collecting them when I return to the classroom after meeting with the teacher first.”

“Noted, Miss President.”

Her frown deepened when she looked at me up and down. “What happened to your knees?"

Why wouldn’t she just leave? My arms were getting tired.

"It's nothing," I said, chuckling awkwardly. "Weren't you leaving?

She clearly wasn't planning on leaving anytime soon when she leaned into me to say, "Why do you look like you've been through a tumble in the dryer?"

"Um..."

"You look like a street urchin in one of those Charles Dickens novels."

"I think the teacher's calling for you—."

"You look like you wrestled with a pig and the pig won."

"Angela, please," I sighed exasperatedly, dropping my arms. "I get it. I look like a mess. Why make a big deal out of this?"

Angela grinned. “It's just that you've always been neat, clean and tidy for as long as I can remember. Did something happen?”

“Don’t mind me. I’ll go back to being completely normal tomorrow.”

She gave me a doubtful look. “I’ll ask Joy then.”

“Don’t. You know she’ll embellish.” I narrowed my eyes her way. “Where were you this morning anyway?”

“Did you forget that I’m our grade’s representative too and we had this big meeting today with the student council? And no, I did not get any pictures of Roan,” she added, used to me begging for pictures since Roan was not only the ABM representative but part of the student council as Vice-President for Student Activities.

I wasn’t even thinking of asking her anyway. I had bigger problems to worry about, I thought grimly as I fished some change from my pocket for the vending machine.

“Then I’ll leave you to your exercise,” Angela finally said, turning to leave when she suddenly stopped and twisted around. “Oh, yeah. I forgot to tell you but a girl named Autumn was looking for you earlier.”

My jaw dropped.

Oh, dear God.

She actually found me?

“Autumn found my classroom?” I whimpered.

Angela's brows knitted in concern again. “Are you okay?”

“Peachy,” I squeaked.

But how did Autumn find me? She didn’t know my name, did she? Was she the flag that would result in me being thrown out of my precious fan club?

“Your face has turned green,” Angela observed.

“Wait. Did she ask for me specifically?” I clarified.

“Well, technically, she asked if there was a girl around five feet tall with short hair and the cutest bangs, her words, not mine, in our class.”

Wait... There were three girls in class with short hair like mine.

“Then how did you know it was me she was referring to?” I asked.

“She also added the blue backpack with lots of cartoony keychains.”

Dang it.

I sighed in defeat. I guess my Fruits Basket keychain have got to go.

“I told her to stop by later if it's really you she wanted to see.”

Dang it.

“And don’t you dare skip. I still need that assignment and we're working on that group project together for last period.”

I gritted my teeth. "Fine."

With Angela finally leaving me alone, I stared at the vending machine, fingers clenched tightly around the coins in my hand, resisting the urge to let out a frustrated scream.

"If you're not buying, then get out of the way."

I glanced over my shoulder then quickly took several steps sideways. Nicholas was standing there, with an unfathomable expression on his face. But in my rush, my legs got entangled with one another and I tripped. The coins slipped from my fingers, clinking and bouncing all over the floor before they landed. Pain exploded on the hip that I landed on. My cheeks went flaming hot as my heart felt like it was going to burst.

Oh, God. Not again.

Hearing me, Nicholas turned his head towards her direction. As his fangirl, as much as I wished for him to look my way, this was not the way I wanted him to. To have this interaction might have been a heavenly blessing if I hadn't just embarrassed myself in front of him.

Twice.

This day was fast becoming the unluckiest day of my life. Why did I have to run into him again?

One of the best ways to describe Nicholas was that he sends chills down people's spines. He was handsome, yes. He does make hearts flutter like crazy. Still, he was the Devil Prince. His fangirls, me, included, knew that we should stay away.

Scrambling up to a stoop, grimacing at the sharp pain radiating from my knees, I quickly picked up the coins scattered all over the floor.

The action that a mob character like me should take was pull back and disappear. And that was what I was about to do when he spoke.

"You should have been more careful."

My hand stiffened over the last coin.

"Didn't something like this happen this morning?"

Trembling, my gaze slowly rose.

Dropping some money into the coin slot, Nicholas selected a drink and pressed the selection button until the bottle popped down the vent. He bent to pick it up and when he straightened, he locked eyes with me. His gaze was unnerving. Taking in everything and giving away nothing. And instead of leaving, he lingered in front of the vending machine and continued watching me.

"If you keep that up, I wonder if the remaining days of your high school life will pass by peacefully."

A chill crept through me. Although I wanted to run, I couldn't move my legs. And though I tried, I couldn't remove my eyes off his devastatingly handsome but cold face.

Then he turned, walking away, freeing me from the spell he'd put me under.

One thing was on my mind as I stood, watching him go.

Did he also know Autumn was looking for me too?