Three

NINA

You can say I’m not really that lucky. True, I may be lucky to have a kind-hearted mom who worked three or four jobs to support me and a great supportive best friend.

But I’m far from being fortunate, really.

Earlier at school, I was easily caught by my bullies and locked me up in the janitor’s closet room. I kept banging the door, calling for help so loud to interrupt nearby classrooms. Fed up with the noise, one of the teachers told the janitor to unlock the room and I was finally free!

It wasn’t being called brave or smart or anything. Nope, it was far from it.

I’m just really claustrophobic, that’s all.

Then when I came back to class, I had already missed four periods. Apparently, the teachers took this opportunity to give surprised pop quizzes during my confinement. They didn’t believe my excuses and just threw four consecutive Fs in my face.

Well, not that it matters. I mean, I would still get an F even if I showed up.

And in the afternoon, there was a dodgeball game during PE, the same bullies who locked me up, were on the opposite team!

With their eyes gleaming with mischief and their obvious sniggerings from behind, I knew that I was screwed.

“Have some balls, Caulfield!” My ever-supportive coach grinned as he patted my shoulder, real hard that it might break. “If you want to survive in this world, you gotta have the balls to fight them! Now get back to your position!”

As expected, my fate has been sealed and I hopelessly sighed before doing what he said.

Not long after, I was bruised all over from a visibly swollen black eye, arms and stomach, which they loved hitting there, seeing that I squirmed from the pain.

I knew I wouldn’t leave this gym unscratched.

“Better luck next time, Caulfield!” My coach bellowed as I limped myself out of the gymnasium.

And with that PE class is over.

You could say that I was a victim of abuse and no one really cared in this school. After all, in this small town known as Freedomville where everybody knows everybody, I am known by the given nickname as “No-good Nina.”

I am terrible in both academics and sports, I struggle to understand any lectures given by my teachers and well, the only time my PE teacher actually complimented me was my ability to run fast.

Yeah, if it weren’t for my years of being chased by bullies, that is.

So, I resigned my fate to being a failure in life from the get-go.

Besides, today’s events are nothing new to me as I’m already used to it. In fact, I wonder why my bullies would never get tired of the same old pattern over our time in school.

But right now, what worries me the most is my best friend, Gene Sullivan.

He is the only friend I have in this small town.

But since coming back to the classroom, I haven’t seen him all day. I was already worried when he didn't show up. So the moment when the bell rang, I immediately rushed outside the classroom, looking for him.

If only I didn’t lose my phone weeks ago, I could have called to check up on him. A gut feeling has been telling me that the bullies are responsible for it.

He’s going to be fine, right?

As I pass by the abandoned lockers on the fourth floor, I hear a loud bang at the end of the hall.

“Eek!”

Then it continues to keep banging and I walk slowly with each careful step. My imagination runs wild as I gulp, praying that it was all in my head and my injuries are just making me feel dizzy.

Speaking of which, I haven’t realized that my bruised eye has been acting up or even the bruises on my body. But I couldn’t care less as fear overtook me instead of pain.

“H-Hello?” I call out, now that I am facing the locker.

Then I can hear the muffling sound instead and I unconsciously squeak again. I hesitantly open it, seeing that the handle doesn’t need a code and all and my jaw instantly drops.

And there he is, tied with adhesive tape all over his body. His feet are pressed tight and his whole body is taped all over the toilet. His mouth is also covered with tape and his eyes show relief when he sees me.

Well, at least I know where he is.

His eyes look down on his taped mouth, nodding to tell me to remove it.

I did as I was told.

“Hey, Nina, happy birthday,” Gene says with a smile.

My jaw drops again, trying to process what he said.

“My birthday?” I mutter to myself. Oh right, I didn’t realize it since I only care about counting the days when high school is finally over that I didn’t know that it’s already October.

That means I’ve reached eighteen, just like that.

Still bullied and unsure what to do in life.

I shake my head, ignoring the negative thoughts as I start to take out the paper cutter. “Hold still, let me get you out of here.”

==========

We headed to the nurse’s office right after he was untied from the tape. The bullies tied him real tight so that I could see the marks all over his frail skin.

Fortunately, I don’t see any fresh wounds. I sigh in relief that he remains unscratched away from the daily beatings. What is present is the bandage on his right cheek that needs to be replaced by fresh ones and the band-aid that has been sticking out from his nose bridge.

Old wounds that need to be healed.

Wounds he already got from his foster family.

Without the present of the nurse since she’s rarely around here, we start tending our wounds.

We are both in total silence, busying ourselves with the basic knowledge of first aid. For years, we grow accustomed to knowing how fast the injury heals and what painkillers are most efficient for our bodies.

I take the ice pack and place it on my bruised eye. The sting hurts a lot and I hate my lack of pain tolerance.

“I’m sorry,” he starts speaking, looking at the dark bruise. “I wasn’t there for you.”

I just laugh nervously. “Don’t worry, they didn’t hit me too hard. Besides, it’s just part of dodgeball.”

“But your eye,” he continues, warily. “It will take two or more weeks to heal.”

“I’ll tell my mom that it was just an accident, no worries.” This time I lean to check on him. “How long have you been there, Gene?”

He shrugs. “Before the first period. They caught me by surprise and tied me in the lockers. They have forgotten me there and left me until you found me.”

“So you haven’t eaten anything, huh?”

He nods.

“Shall we grab a bite? It’s my treat since it’s my birthday,” I say with a sheepish grin.

“Ah, about that…” he takes out his phone.

Unlike most Gen Zs, Gene has the flipped phone which his older foster brother just handed it to him.

“Your mom messaged this morning. She said we should come to your house after school for your birthday.”

“Wow, this is new. I m-mean…” I pause for a while. “I thought she had work for the whole evening?”

“It’s because it’s your 18th birthday, Nina. It’s a special occasion, after all.”

But my mom has never been around during my birthday. So how is today any special?

Oh well, if it means she’s making a huge feast, then I think we need some of that.

After all, with everything that happened today, we deserve some good news .

But boy, I was wrong.