The Cruel Classroom Queen

Faye Diamond is shorter than most, with pale skin that elegantly courted her waist-long curly golden hair that framed her gem-like hazel eyes. The Diamond name was known for their successful casino empire throughout the country of Merian. Her standing as the heiress made her a prime target for families trying to marry into power, so when Faye turned ten, her father sent her to attend school in Ishata so she could attempt a normal childhood. Fate began middle school doing everything she could to hide her family standing. For the first few weeks, it worked by only introducing herself as Faye, though making friends was more difficult. One day during lunch, a loud commotion broke out when the teachers weren’t watching. A group of kids had surrounded a girl, accusing her of being a mean rich girl just because she was wearing a pretty bracelet. She noticed the girl leading the charge was beginning to raise her hand against her. At that moment, Faye slammed her right foot onto the cafeteria table’s attached bench, giving off an obnoxiously fake laugh. It was the worst phony laugh she had ever heard, but it seemed to have worked. The stage was hers.

The bullies had stopped to see what the noise was about. With a deep but silent exhale, she began. “What’s all this noise about? And just when I was about to try and shovel down this slop for the day.” It was a painful lie; she loved the food here. She had chatted with the lunch lady and knew the effort she put into every meal, filled with more love than most meals she had ever had in the mansion. The bully pointed towards the girl still on the ground. “This girl here is from a rich family and dressing up like she was better than us. I was putting her in her place.” Faye put on a wicked grin of arrogant confusion with a cocked eyebrow. “Looking down on you? From the looks of it, you all are looking down on her. Looking around this room, I seem to be the only one worthy of looking down on anyone here.” The bully’s arm and jaw simultaneously dropped in shock. Murmurs and whispers filled the room; only after many agonizingly long seconds had passed was she able to eke out a response, “Wait, are you one of them?” Instantly, Faye climbed onto the table, crossing her arms and looking out towards her classmates, “As far as you all should be concerned, I am the only one here worth remembering or paying attention to. My name is Faye Diamond; cross me, and you’ll regret it!”

Her bluff worked. In the back were two siblings with cat-like ears; both must have been Morians, the race with animal-like traits. The sister of this pair had messy black hair just as long as her own and a hand placed on her messy white-haired brother's shoulder. If she was correct, their parents were famous Gatherers, a type of Bounty Hunter recognized by the government. He looked angrier than anyone else, but something was odd. The sister of the two almost had a look of concern, not confusion. She needed to leave. With a stomp of her leg and a twirl, she stepped down from her stage and elegantly left the cafeteria.

 She hoped to drag the attention and bullying away from everyone else and towards herself. All she had to do was survive until the end of the semester and then have her father transfer her to a new school. She made it home after that dreadfully long day filled with piercing glares and not-so-well-hidden gossip that followed her. As her shoes hit the floor of her apartment, she noticed her tears following behind. Why am I crying? She thought I knew what I was getting into when I did it. She attempted to whip her eyes away but to no avail. Gloria rounded the corner but ran to her and held her in her arms before she could offer a greeting. Brutally and without control, Faye began to let out a wail of sorrowful tones and grasped onto the sides of Gloria’s dress. “I want to leave this school, Gloria! It’s worse than back home!” Gloria’s eyes winced at the comment. Her throat prevented words from escaping, but she could finally pry out something, “Faye, you should never have to hide who you are from others. Your true self should always shine through, and you should always be able to walk a path you carve for yourself bravely.” Gloria held Faye tighter and gently ran her fingers through her hair, “Out there, I promise there will be those who don’t judge you based on your family name but accept you for who you are, not just as a Diamond… but Faye. If you don’t think those kinds of people exist at this school, I will discuss transferring with your father tomorrow. In the meantime, get some rest, my little gemstone.” Gloria slowly pulled away and gently kissed Faye on the forehead before leading her to and tucking her into bed. With a clouded mind but more so an exhausted body, Faye fell asleep.

The following day, Gloria called Faye’s father to discuss the situation. According to him, due to the concerns that it could tarnish the family image if Faye left a new school so soon, she would not be allowed to transfer until her first year of high school. In shambles, Faye forced a smile on her face and prepared herself for what would end up being multiple years of the false persona known as the Ice Queen.

Fast forward to the age of Thirteen, where Faye’s title is infamous throughout the school. Every day was soul-crushingly lonely, and her kind heart had never wavered, leaving her stuck in this self-sacrificing loop. Only one more year before I can escape this place and leave this dreaded Ice Queen nonsense behind me, she thought. Due to a science fair that day, the school had a later release, and the eighth-grade class played outside while waiting to be picked up. Most of the class was having fun on the playground and relieving some of their stress from the sleepless nights spent on their projects, except for Faye. At this point, she had remained at the school far longer than she would ever want on a given day; the sun was beginning to go down. She was sitting on a bench when she noticed one of her classmates jumping off the swing from too high. It could have been due to exhaustion from working on her project the night before or maybe because deep down, she was still that same nice girl at heart; she was the first to act. She dashed over to the girl and squatted down to her. “Are you okay? Let me help you.” The girl thanked her and took Faye’s hand. After patting off the dirt, the girl realized who had just helped her. With this realization happening, Faye had one of her own. Not only had she accidentally forgotten about her act, but she was now the center of attention.

“Oh no.” the girl began to ramble, “ I’ve heard the rumors. You wait for people to need help so you can force them to owe you.” At this point, the girl was screaming this, and a crowd began to surround them. In shock at the weight of these accusations, she still could not gather her act back together, “Owe me one? No, I was just trying to-,” she was cut off by the shove of two hands against her back, causing her to hit the ground. After gathering her breath and looking up at her assailant, noticing it was the boyfriend of the girl she just helped who stood above her. “Are you trying to bully my girlfriend now, too? We all know the rumors; you spend every day looking down on us, but it still wasn’t enough, was it?” She pleaded back, “Look down on? I was just trying to help! Please, I’ll just leave.” As she began to get up, his foot kicked her shoulder, shoving her back to the ground. “Oh no you don’t.” He said with a wicked smirk, “I feel like it’s about time someone puts you in your place.” He looked at the crowd to see their reactions, then looked back and began to thrust his foot forward. With a flinch, Faye closed her eyes and braced, but the kick never landed. She slowly opened her eyes to notice his leg shimmering light blue; someone was using their talent on him. In this case, talent wasn’t a word for someone’s aptitude for something, but instead, a type of power that every person was born with. Hers was the ability to shout out a command and force those it is directed at to carry it out; it was perfect for the Ice Queen but not for Faye, she always thought. Before she could look around, she saw the silhouette of a Morian flying through the air, landing a drop kick directly into the bully’s chest. This Morian also glowed a dark blue hue, meaning two people were helping her. His dropkick connected, sending the bully flying a distance away. In shock, she could not utter a single word. Snapping her out of this was another Morian who reached Faye’s side, asking without hesitation, “Are you hurt?” The girl asking if she was okay and was helping her up was one of the class twins, Iris Gesund, meaning the one who landed the dropkick must be her brother, Callum Gesund. “Y-yes, I’m alright,” Faye finally responded, “but what are you doing? They’re going to go after you now!”

“But you’re good? Great to hear. Let’s book it.” Grabbing onto Faye’s wrist, Iris began to lead the two of them away.

The two hid in the trees away from the commotion when Callum began to yell. “Why do you do this? You spend every day gathering around and spreading rumors, picking on someone who has never done anything other than have an attitude, and for what, to feel better about yourselves? When did she start acting like this? It wasn’t right off the bat. It was when one of you started to pick on someone else just because they had a nice bracelet! She pretended to be the bad guy so the real bad guys would have fewer targets. Didn’t you just see how she came to her rescue when that girl fell off the swing?” When Iris looked over to Faye, she noticed that she was crying. “I thought you said you were okay?” Iris said in a panic, looking back to see that the bully from before had gotten back up, grabbing Callum by the collar and hoisting Callum closer to him. “She has always been an Ice Queen. Don’t tell me you have a crush on her and want to play prince?”

The bully put his hand into a fist and punched Callum across the face, but Callum’s face snapped straight back, and then grabbed onto the bully's arm that still grappled his collar. The bully winced in pain, and Callum let out an eardrum-rattling shout, “She isn’t an Ice Queen. She’s just a normal girl! And that normal girl’s name is Faye!!” Callum’s eyes widened, and he threw a punch back. The punch connected against the bully’s cheek and sent him straight into the dirt. Other kids began to dash toward him to back up the bully. Faye began to come out from behind the tree, but Iris tightened her grip, “We can discuss things later, but it isn’t safe for you here. We need to go now.”

Faye pleaded, “Callum’s getting surrounded. We need to help him!” Almost as if she knew that statement was coming, Iris instantly responded, “Don’t worry, right now, none of them stand a chance. This isn’t his first brawl.” Not allowed to push further, Faye followed Iris’s lead as they went deeper into the woods.

After quite a bit of jogging, the two reached a spot where a pipe was resting on the side of a small hill that had long since caved in. Iris leaped into the horizontal drainage pipe and promptly helped Faye up. They sat on the ledge, catching their breath and looking toward a nearby stream. After a few minutes of silence, Faye inhaled as if remembering something, “Your brother! We need to go back for him. He’s probably being beaten senseless right now. That guy’s friends all pick fights a lot. We need to.” Still, before she could finish, Iris put her hand on her shoulder and looked her in the eyes with a shockingly casual look, “Faye, it’s okay. I promise he’s fine. He gets hit harder in his daily training. He should be coming back any moment now.”

“Well, why did you help me there? I thought you two were the madest at me that first day in the cafeteria.”

“We were the maddest, but at the others. We realized what you were doing but didn’t know how to intervene. We used that day as a goal for our training. I’m sorry it took so long for us to help you. Nobody should have to go through that kind of thing.” Before she could respond, the two heard the rustling of leaves above them, followed by footsteps on top of the metal they sat within. From the top of the opening they sat in, Callum popped his head down to see the two of them, his face lightly bruised. Callum positioned himself to Faye’s left, with Iris sitting to Faye’s right, sandwiching her between them. The cramped nature caused them to both slightly squish against her. Tears began streaming down her cheeks as she let her guard back down. Callum noticing this caused him to panic, “Did they hurt you? I’m sorry I didn’t jump in sooner-” Faye’s arms suddenly wrapped around both him and his sister, bringing them towards her as she began to cry harder. “No, that’s not it,” she started smiling, “These are happy tears. I think this is the first time anyone has stood up for me. Thank you both. 

Iris looked to Faye, “This is just the beginning.”

Callum put his arm around Faye’s shoulder and brought her closer, “Yeah, we don’t want to be onlookers anymore; we are friends now, right?” 

Friends? The thought caused her tears to flood as she leaned into Callum’s chest, hugging him tightly, “Yeah, we’ll be the best of friends! Thank you. Thank you!” Iris hugged Faye from behind.

Faye and Iris continued to enjoy the hug, but Callum was more focused on not vocalizing the pain of his bruised body being hugged by two people. Eventually, Iris noticed Callum wincing in pain, only to hug tighter. “Ow, ow, ow. Ow. Ow!” He broke his stoic silence, Iris broke into laughter, and without realizing it, Faye began to giggle, too. The twins, seeing this rare sight, smiled at one another. Callum looked back to Faye, “Faye, I meant what I said back there. No more of that Ice Queen business. We want to see the real you, and if anyone tries to give you any crap, I’ll deal with them.” He flexed his arm and slapped the muscle, accidentally giving off a wince of pain. Faye looked at him and smiled sheepishly, feeling the weight behind the words. 

Suddenly, Iris pulled out her phone to see that their mom had pulled up to pick them up hours ago. The three of them looked at each other and then began to run back to the school. As they grew closer, they noticed that the two of their guardians were talking with one another. Faye noticed Gloria talking to Morian, who must be their mother. The two ladies turned to face the set of three. Gloria locked eyes with Faye, and her eyes widened when she saw that her eyes had reddened from tears, but her fears vanished when she was given the first genuine smile that she had been able to provide Gloria with in years. “Hi there, Faye, was it? My name is Grace Gesund; I am the mother of these two. A pleasure to meet you.” 

“The pleasure is mine.” Faye returned. Grace walked up to Callum and looked him up and down. All the while, Callum looked her dead in the eyes, anticipating. With a sigh, Grace raised her hand and chopped towards the top of his head. Callum reacted swiftly by clapping his hands together to catch her hand before her chop hit him, but he mistimed it, and she landed the hit. “These are more bruises than I’m used to seeing on you, Callum. Did something happen?” Rubbing his head, Faye interjected, “He saved me from bullies. They both did.” Iris gave a grin to this comment. “A knight in shining armor, huh?” Grace said snarkily. Miss Gloria, how would you feel about joining us for dinner tonight? It would be lovely to hear what happened tonight together.” Grace said. Almost as scripted, Gloria responded right after, “But of course, we’re friends now, Miss Grace; it would be a shame not to commemorate the occasion by straightening out some stories.”

After dinner, Gloria would report to Faye’s father, telling him what had happened and explaining that she no longer needed to swap schools. That night, Iris and Faye snuggled in a large bed as they fell asleep in Iris’s room, with Callum asleep on the floor next to them, only with a pillow and a single blanket. It was clear that she had made her first real friends in years, if ever. She snuggled closer to Iris with this thought and, for the first time in years, could not wait to see what tomorrow would bring.