Chapter 9

**Mr Peters**

She runs a hand through her brown locks and wipes her tear-streaked face, then sits back in her seat with her back to me and looks through her bag frantically.

"Are you ok?" I ask her

"Yeah," she automatically says. She pulls out a mirror and a makeup bag and then starts putting on makeup mostly eyeliner and foundation. When she finishes she puts it all away and turns to look at me, obviously happy to look at me now she doesn't have eyeliner streaking down her face.

"Are you sure you're okay?" I ask.

"Given I've just broken up with my boyfriend and he just threatened to do something he knows would possibly make me want to kill him or myself I am ok" she says looking me in the eyes. I frown slightly wondering what to say

"Um okay" is all I say and I turn back to my book.

~*~

I watch Megan intently as she sits with her right leg over her left and her gaze still out the window. She has started the work I had set and I’m not sure if she has finished or

has just stopped working. All I have asked them to do is write a short paragraph about themselves or anything just so I know what their writing is like and so I can focus on what they need help with.

"Megan, are you finished?" I finally ask her. She turns her head towards me in a very robotic fashion then nods and picks up her piece of paper. She walks over to me and hands it to me standing over me while I read what she put.

*There is nothing to know about me and I don't want to write about anything in particular so this is all I am writing down, don't tell me that this isn't a paragraph because one sentence can equal a paragraph as I know full well that one sentence that is shown as a paragraph can have a lot of impact.*

I look up at her. Is she taking the piss out of me or something? She isn't even looking at me. She is looking out the window again. What does she find so interesting out that window? I suddenly feel angry really angry. She’s irritating me now. Her head slowly turns and she looks at me and steps back a little and it almost looks as if she stepped back in fear. My anger fades and turns to confusion. Have I scared her by looking at her?

"OK" is all I say and look down at the paper "You can go sit down" I watch her slowly walk.

~*~

I watch as all my students leave to go to their next lesson, the girls smile at me as they leave. God I had to pick a high school to work at I should have just picked a nursery or something but puking children no thanks. I could hear a little whispering still in the classroom. I look to see it’s Melanie and Megan.

"I don't want to go" I heard Megan say

"Well you have to face him sometime," Melanie says looking at her best friend with a bit too much sympathy for someone who has broken up with their boyfriend "And well you have double art tomorrow with him"

"I won't go I'll skip it" My eyes widened a little she was planning on skipping my class I suddenly felt a little hurt.

"Yeah say that in front of the teacher that teaches you art" Melanie says rolling her eyes a little. They both look at me and I just sigh a little.

"What do you have now?" I ask.

"I.T," Megan says glumly

"And why don't you want to go?" I ask

"Because her boyfriend is going to be there"

"Ex-boyfriend" Megan corrects Melanie

"Fine ex-boyfriend" she then turns her attention to me, "she's avoiding him" I rub my temples a little and look at them both.

"OK if you can get a note from your IT teacher saying you can stay here then you can stay here and do some work for me if you’d both like" Melanie smiles a little.

"Ok," Melanie says and stands up, dragging Megan up with her.

"No, you go I'll wait here," Megan says and sits back in her seat. Melanie groans and starts to walk out. She stops at the door and turns on her heels.

"I cannot be held responsible if Tyler follows me back here" she states with a small smile.

"You dare Melanie and I cannot be held responsible for my actions when you get back" Megan snaps. She looks cute, threatening people or even annoyed, it seems her friends were irritating her today either that or she has something on her mind. Melanie smirks and walks out of the classroom shutting the door behind her. I turn to look at Megan to see her walking up to me.

"Urm..." she gives me an apologetic look, "I'm sorry about earlier in class I should have just done what you asked," she pauses and runs a hand through her long hair moving it to one side. I stand up and look at her "So I'm sorry" She’s looking down at my desk and I look her up and down.

"How did you get that bite?" I ask out of the blue. I noticed the bite just before her shoulder. She moves her hand to it and I swear she’s about to cry.

"I...I" Is she trying to think of an excuse?" I" she stops and it’s because I move her hand so I can look at the bite more. It looks vicious like an animal bite but I can tell by the lining of the bite it’s done by a person. I walk around my desk and look at it.

"You might need this cleaning" I state "It looks deep and it's still bleeding"

"I know," she says. I look at her to see she’s nearly in tears.

"How did you get this?" I ask. She doesn't say anything but she didn't have to I could tell it happened in a way that upset her. A tear rolls down her cheek and she slowly moves away from me "C'mon I think you should go to the nurse" Her eyes widen a little and then she looks at me.

"Ok," she says quietly.

A part of me wants to ask what’s wrong with her. If I ask I doubt she’d tell me, I’m a new teacher, and she doesn’t trust me enough to tell me. My intuition tells me that this is to do with her ex-boyfriend but I can’t jump to conclusions. All I can do is report what I’ve seen, but if she doesn’t tell me what is going on then I can’t do anything.