I counted down the seconds as my dad pulled the car into my school's parking lot. After I swung open the car door and rushed to my new school, I knew that my junior school life had begun. A girl happened to enter the school with me. I didn’t know her, but there was an odd familiarity in her face, like someone I should’ve recognised but chose not to.
I walked past the teacher with that girl, unnoticed. Just as we sat down, the teacher transformed —greeting another girl with exaggerated warmth and a fake but dazzling smile.
“Hi, my name is Sophie, what’s yours?” The girl and I turned back simultaneously towards the sound that came out from behind, “I’m Heaven,” The girl introduced herself, “Nice to meet you!”, “You too, where are you from?”... I slowly turned away from them as they continued their conversation. Looking around, I saw the whole class were asking questions about each other, some were surprised that they live in the same neighborhood, some laughed at others experiences, some even hugged each other after learning that they’re from the same Elementary school. “What stupid school is that? I never heard of it at all.” Sophie’s high voice screamed in my ears, pulling me back to focus on their conversation. “Oh, it’s in a rural area, maybe that’s why.” I could see Heaven was a bit embarrassed, she turned around and ended the conversation. I stared at her for a moment feeling kind of sorry but then acted like an echo after a sound, “You’re the only one that is from the rural area.” I glanced back at Sophie, she’s already chatting with someone else—as if making friends is as easy as throwing away old things and getting a new one.
Heaven took a seat across from Sophie during lunch. I automatically took the seat facing directly from Heaven. “Auture, Windy, over here!” Sophie called out and waved, the two girls sat next to Sophie and asked: “Do you know her name?” “Ask her yourself.” Sophie said without glancing away from her food. “Oh, I’m Heaven.” Heaven answered. “Mmm, this Chicken fillet tastes good.” “Can I see what it looks like?” Heaven asked politely. “Wait, you don’t even know what a Chicken Fillet looks like?” Auture said in surprise, “What kind of person are you anyway. Are your family farmers? I mean you speak a farmer's dialect which it’s hard for me to understand and you don’t even know what Chicken Fillet is?” Heaven stared at her plate in silence. “I think she probably is,” chanted Windy, “Evidence is clear. At least her family provides food for the country and her family must have passed the insistence to her. She must be hard-working, you know.” “Probably…”
The girls began to gather their remains, and Heaven looked up at me:“Nevaeh, why don’t you say something.” “Why should I say anything, they’re all telling the truth.”I stared at her a bit angrily, and then I felt surprised: “How do you know my name?” “I just do,” Heaven looked sad and disappointed. “You just do? I don’t know what you are talking about.” I left her behind and marched after the girls.
The weeks went by fast and it was going well for me, except for the weekly math test. Throughout the weeks, Heaven was making attempts to be friends with Sophie, and apparently, it was no use and really annoying. “I really like your pillow,” Heaven said to Sophie after one afternoon nap, “it feels so soft.” “Take your hand off my pillow!” Sophie yelled at her in anger, “My mom just washed it!” I saw that the pillow was nice too. “True,” I distinguished the fire in her mind that is about to explode, “that’s her pillow and she didn’t give you permission to touch it so you can’t do that.” “Are you ok?” Windy came rushing towards her, “You were yelling so loud.” Windy then stared up and seemed to know the cause: “Do you know how much she got for the math test? The highest in our class! Twice that of your grade, why would you do this to her?”. Heaven tried to explain but Auture didn’t give her the chance, “You idiot.” she muttered and walked past her.
In the next few weeks, Heaven seemed to have put down the thought of making friends with Sophie and the two. Instead she found her math teacher and said she would love to be the math course representative for her. The math teacher seemed very nice and gave this position to her, she even encouraged Heaven by saying: “ You’re not bad at math and you’re responsible. I’m very glad to give this position to you.”
“Look at our new math representative,” Sophie said when Heaven walked into the classroom with our math exercise books. The whole class began to say things about Heaven. I guessed this is the reason why I always believe in what Sophie said, because no matter what she said, the whole class seemed to agree, and of course it’s true or someone would have said it’s wrong. “Why did the teacher let you be the math representative, you’re not even good at it.” Windy asked Heaven and she didn't sound satisfied. “Guys, being a math representative is nothing, don’t you see what job she does, it’s more like a running dog.” Auture said seriously. “Both of you two didn't get it right,” Sophie said in a bossy tone, “no one ever said she is the math re-present-ative, what I believe is she’s a math re-peasant-ative.” Heaven went back to her seat next beside me, trying hard to ignore the laughter in the classroom. “Why would you do this?” I was very confused, “Just like they were saying, you are terrible at math and this position is supposed to be Sophie’s or Windy’s, anyone but you.” Heaven remained quiet in her seat and shook her head.
Time flew by and it’s already half of the term. We were having a mid-term test in our school. Although I saw Heaven’s effort and progress, I’m pretty sure that Sophie is the number one, she was always the one and will be one still. She’s just the perfect queen of our class.
After the grades were out, the classroom was filled with discussions. “Wow, Heaven, how did you do that? You’re the first in Math!” The whole class was looking at Heaven with smiles, the same faces that made fun of her earlier. Although the smiles were all warm, it just seemed so fake. Sophie stepped in front of Heaven and said things without bothering to look at her eyes: “You know what, you got first place only because Windy made a small mistake.” I nodded in agreement, “You should be more careful not to lose next time.”
As time went on, the final exam was getting closer and closer. We did lots of practice tests, and to my surprise, Heaven kept getting better and better, and Sophie was falling. Heaven no longer got first because of Windy’s mistake.
After the long summer break, I went back to school. Walking with Heaven, I can see that she looked worried: “Can I still get good grades?” “Of course you can, you deserve that”.
As we stepped in the classroom and took our seats. Sophie began to come here to collect our assignment during the summer. “Can I please have your homework?” “Sure.” Heaven said nicely as if they never did those bad things to her before.
“Why don’t you do the same things to them as they did to you.”I just can’t believe she was not going to pay back.
“Neveah, I’m not that kind of person and neither are you.” “You don’t even know me.” “I do, I know you by heart.”
“What do you mean?”
Suddenly, Sophie was standing in front of me with a smile, “Hey, Heaven,”
“Oh, hi.” I answered, smiling as I finally lifted the mirror away from my name tag, leaving only the word “Heaven”
“I love your pencil case, where did you get that?”
Who says only preys hide, predators will camouflage too when they realize their prey outgrew them.