Autumn-
“There’s the cripple!” yawns the boy named Aaron Jasper.
My cheeks heat up and I pull my hood back up. The material makes a stretching sound. Kelsey grips it tightly and rips the hood clean off. I stare at the ruined piece of fabric in her hands.
VANDALISM! I want to scream. But, for obvious reasons, I don’t.
“She’s not crippled!” Adam snaps. Honestly, he seems really bothered by this, which sort of surprises me. I mean, why is he being so nice to me? I’m just that dork who is in a wheelchair. Who’d wanna hang out with me?
“What do you want?” Mia askes boredly, but there’s ice in her eyes. I decide to quietly eat my salad.
“Just want to meet the mysterious new girl,” Jasper says innocently.
“And the new boy,” adds Kelsey, sliding into the seat between Adam and me and throwing my ripped hood on the floor.
“Well, meet Autumn and Adam,” Mia waves towards us. “Now, good day.”
“So,” Jasper ignores her and rests on the arms of my wheelchair. “Why you in a wheelchair, darlin’?”
I stare miserably at my lap, avoiding everyone’s gaze. Can’t they just leave me alone?
“Ever heard of a car accident?” Mia snaps, crossing her arms. The tension in the air grows. I don’t look up. I can feel everyone’s eyes on me like lasers boring into me, slowly disintegrating me into a pile of ashes. More than anything I wish I was safely locked in my room with my paints or my guitar. The melancholy sound of my music plays in my head. But nope. I’m here, sitting with three people who don’t even know me.
“Why are you guys even over here?” Mia demands.
Jasper doesn’t answer her, but her pulls my wheelchair out from the table and swings it around to face him.
“Hey!” I protest, gripping the edge of the table tightly.
“So she speaks!” Kelsey laughs. “I was starting to think she was mute and crippled!”
The way she talks about me is almost as if I’m not even there. I glare up at her and she laughs again.
“Let go of her chair,” Adam orders, standing up. I grip the table even tighter.
Side-eyeing Adam, Jasper asks, “Or what?”
But Adam doesn’t get a chance to answer. Kelsey grabs my hands and pulls me forward while Jasper pulls my wheelchair back. It slides out from under me.
“AUTUMN!” Mia and Adam both yell.
I land on my leg–the injured one. I didn’t think I would ever feel pain that could compare to the car wreck. But the pressure on my leg, it hurts. Really bad. I tremble on the cafeteria floor with four faces staring down at me.
“What’re you hiding from us, darlin’?” Jasper asks.
“No,” I croak, sliding away. “Adam! Mia!”
Adam throws himself at Jasper. “You leave her alone! Don’t touch her!”
Mia grabs a handful of Adam’s ketchup-covered french fries and hurls them at Kelsey.
“FOOD FIGHT!” screams some kid from a nearby table.
Utter chaos erupts in the lunchroom, and people rush over to us. Soon, the only people that I consider my allies are gone from my view. I see feet and I squirm to avoid being stepped on. But everytime I try to sit up, I just get knocked over again.
I manage to crawl under one of the tables and safely watch the fight. Most of what I can see are food-splattered food and legs. I try to remember exactly how I got into this situation. Something about my wheelchair.
My wheelchair, my wheelchair. What happened to it? Where did it go?
After a few more solitary seconds, I decide to come out of my hiding spot. As I crawl out, I hear a chilly voice say, “There you are.”
Startled, I glance up and meet the green eyes of Kelsey Knotts. Those eyes are narrowed and she looks angry, but I guess she senses my fear, because like a predator hunting for its prey, she gives me a snarl that can only be described as deadly. It is a little hard to take her seriously, though, if I am being honest. Mainly because she has a french fry in her hair and ketchup smearing the right side of her forehead, looking a little like blood.
“What do you want?” I demand. “I don’t even know you!”
Kelsey doesn’t respond, but her actions say enough.
A tight grasp on my wrist says she’s furious.
Her bending over me tells me that she isn’t afraid to threaten me.
And when she grasps the ankle-hem of my jeans, I know she means to humiliate me. She wants to show my injury off to the school so that they can turn away from me in horror. She just doesn’t know how bad it is yet. I try to stop her, but I still don’t have full movement over my leg yet. She grabs my other arm and pins it back behind me before pulling my pant leg up to my knee.
I watch as her eyes bulge in horror. Scrambling back like I’m some kind of disease, she pulls away and clamps a hand over her mouth before she utters a scream.
The whole cafeteria falls silent and everybody stops what they’re doing. I meet Adam’s eyes. His face bears a giant bruise and I look up and see Jasper holding him in a choke-hold.
“Kelsey!” he releases Adam who staggers back, coughing and rubbing his throat. Jasper sprints over to Kelsey and reaches for her hand. “What happened?”
Kelsey points a shaking finger to me. Jasper narrows his eyes into cat-like slits and they slide down to my leg. For a split second, his jaw drops, but he quickly regains his angry composure.
“That,” he snarls, “is disgusting.”
Shame and embarrassment heat up my face and tears poke uncomfortably at my eyes. I stare at my hands, the olive tone blurring with my tears.
“Autumn!” Mia rushes to my side with Adam right behind her. He sees my damaged leg and chokes.
“Look at this monster!” Jasper contines, yanking me away from Adam and Mia.
A chorus of gasps echo through the lunchroom. Jasper bends down and scoops me up. I writhe and try to squirm out of his grasp, but he holds on tight and I am too tired to fight. More shrieks pierce the cafeteria.
“Is it diseased?”
“What did she do?”
“That makes me sick!”
I twist, hoping somebody will notice my distress and hoping they will help me. But everyone is frozen with shock. And to be honest, I don’t blame them. I probably would be too.
“Put. Me. Down.” I say, not bothering to hold the sob in.
Jasper literally drops me and I huddle to the ground, clutching my leg and crying and crying. My whimpers ring through the cafeteria and I hear people trying to get away as quickly as they can. I don’t even care that crying isn’t cool in high school, these people have hurt me and I don’t know what else to do.
“Go get Ms. Diavla,” Adam’s voice tells someone. “I’ve got her.”
I’m picked up again, but this time gently. Held carefully. So much different than before. Through my tears I look up and see a pair of hazel eyes that are filled with emotion. The beautiful array of green and brown seems understanding almost. Like they want nothing more than to keep me safe.
But that doesn’t make sense to me.
I’m not worth saving.
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