Chapter 9 Bobby Brown

Seven years ago;

It was Freya's first day in Beacon High School. This was the fifth high school she was in. It was never easy being the new student. She always had to memorise the names of her new classmates everytime. Why exactly? What was the point of memorising these names when she would have to forget them all over again. Moving from one city to another frequently was not something she was proud of, especially the fact that she had to change schools often, it really affected her fervor for learning. She just wanted to be successful and rich, make enough money and do something really fulfilling with her life. Atleast this was not too much ambition for a 15 year old girl.

Freya was introduced to the class as a new student. It had happened several times so she was not so excited about it. Now, all eyes were on her, She was never a fan of being the centre of attention had always been. Her appearance drew so much attention to her. She had always tried to be reticent and quiet but that never worked. Something about her always screamed trouble. She had to always get into trouble for something she did or didn't do. As a child, she was a victim of bully but Jeremy, her brother had always stood up to her rescue. The food chain turned around when she was 13. She still always got into trouble, but the gods were always behind her.

Academics too wasn't something she was really good at, but one could say she was extremely smart.

Every step she took to her seat seemed slow and heavy. It seemed as if she would never get to the chair before the ground opened up and swallowed her in. Self consciousness really had a way of stripping one's confidence. Murmurs had filled the air already and she knew it was about her. Finally she got to her seat. She removed her school bag from her back and sat on the chair. Things were not looking so good.

Soon enough, the bell rang and almost everyone stood up. It was time for a break. Freya was still on her seat packing her books into her bag when a boy approached her. He looked obese for his age and freckles filled his face. He had two other boys behind him and they looked like they knew what they were doing, obviously they didn't. For a start, Freya knew that. She recognized bullies when she saw them, her instincts had never failed her and they didn't this time around.

"Hi Ginger! I'm Bobby..." He said. Freya paused, looked up at him and continued what she was doing. Bobby smiled " I see you're new here. Anyways, I'm here to let you know how it's done here. My friends here are Tyler and Francis."... The boys behind him nodded In satisfaction. Freya seemed uninterested in the conversation.

"What do you want?" She asked.

"There's a tradition for every class and over here it's almost the same. For the class to accept a new student, he or she has to voluntarily give out his or her lunch to us. If it's tasty, we'll accept it, if it isn't, you'll have to keep giving us your lunch until we are satisfied." He said.

"Oh!" Freya said as she watched their faces gleam with excitement. The other students kept mute. They only watched from a distance. ".. you're hungry." She continued. The excitement in their faces disappeared.

"Hungry?" Bobby questioned

"Sorry, I didn't bring extra lunch. Didn't know you all were depending on my lunch for survival. I'm so sorry. You poor little things" she retorted. She was sure she had just punctured their ego because there was no smile on their faces anymore.

Bobby hit her table quite hard and everywhere became silent.

"Look here, Freya. Don't you think you should be frightened a little? You sure don't need us to teach you some manners. Do you?" He said.

Things were going out of hand already. Something had to happen, the way it always did. She stood up, trying to leave the scene but Bobby moved closer to her to block her path. She stared at him with all the energy she had hoping that she'd appear scary to them and they'd back off. That should work, atleast it worked in movies.

"You should teach yourself some manners, Bobby Brown," she said to him and his countenance changed immediately. She watched his pupils dilate.

"I should teach myself some manners" he said, fixing his gaze nowhere in particular. Without warning, he began to slap himself. Everyone was startled. What was happening? He didn't stop. His friends held him tight, trying to stop him from doing so but he wouldn't.

"What did you do to him?" Francis demanded. Freya herself was confused. She didn't know what to say, but whatever was happening to him was highly deserved by him. She thought. She had escaped giving out her lunch somehow, someway.

* * * ".

Back to reality, Freya woke up to the sound of her alarm. It was five am in the morning. This was not one of the times she wished to sleep longer. Her heart was still pounding and the bed was wet with her sweat. She quickly sat up, looked around her and it dawned on her senses that she was still in her room.

Goodness God, that was a dream, She sighed in relief as her hands found its way to her bed stool and she put off the alarm. Something was still not right, she thought as she switched on the lights. The room looked better now. She leaned back, trying to remember every bit of what she had seen earlier and she was grateful it was just a dream. The dream was enough to freak any human out. What the hell was Vermia? She thought, Creepy dreams just found a way of seeping into her sleep these days. She quickly searched around for the book she was trying to read the night before, it might just have crawled into her subconscious. She flipped through the pages and closed it when she saw nothing she was hoping to see. It was romance, not thriller, fantasy or horror, so it definitely was not the book. She had to be sure she had picked the right book the previous night. She was wandering in her thoughts again, if she continued that way, she might be late to work again. Oh right, it's the weekend already, On weekends, she worked as a delivery person for a bakery. She was grateful she didn't have to get there by 7.30 am as she did at Mr Barry's.

Freya was all dressed up for work already. She stood in front of her wall mirror, admiring her body features. She was often called a ginger because of her hair color and skin. She was a red head with natural red hair that curled into waves and She had light blue eyes which people naturally got attracted to. Her skin seemed a little pale but she had no freckles which she believed was quite unusual. She was extremely pretty, her brother, Jeremy had always reminded her.

"Freya!" She heard her name from the Living room. That was Vera's voice calling, she knew. She could always pick apart her mother's high pitched voice anytime and anywhere. She left her room and quickly answered her.

Vera was as usual in the living room, brewing her cup of coffee. There was a big coffee machine in the house because of her. Maybe Vera was extremely obsessed with early morning coffee because she found no justification as to how someone would be so consistent in drinking coffee every morning.

"Breakfast is ready" vera said, slowly sipping her cup of coffee.

"That doesn't burn your throat?.... Ever?" Jeremy said to Vera. He walked past her, sliding the dining chair across his feet and sat down.

"Oooooh, bacon." He salivated, rubbing his palms against each other in excitement.

"Good morning Mum, how are you doing today?" Freya said walking up to Vera and giving her a tight hug.

"Good morning Freya, I'm good, now quickly eat up. I don't want us having left overs cus you are late" Vera responsed as Freya removed herself and they both sat down to eat. There was silence in the atmosphere for a while.

"So, Freya, how's work?" Jeremy decided to break the silence taking down heavy scoops.

"Well, you know, crazy but fine." She responded impassively. The silence continued.

Vera cleared her throat as Jeremy gulped a cup of water down his throat.

"So how's college been?" Freya asked.

" Uhhmm... Crazy, you know, but I'm good". Jeremy replied

"I never asked how you were doing Jeremy, why haven't you been around for 2 weeks now?"

" Well, crazy stuffs, life,..... been busy, you know how college can be!" He stuttered.

Freya dropped her cutlery. "No Jeremy, I don't know how college can be. I have never been to college."

"C'mon, I was just joking, you still have that fiery temper" he said

"And you're still very annoying." She said faking a smile.

Vera cleared her throat again. "Guys! You both haven't seen each other for a while now, can we all stop being so serious?". There was silence in atmosphere again.

"I missed you Jeremy" Freya admitted.

"Awww, that's so sweet Freya. I see you're growing up" he seemed so delighted. "I missed you too " he said as he placed a palm on his chest and the other on her hand. freya rolled her eyes "I see you're not" she said as she quickly removed her hand from his. She continued eating and then it struck her. The words she heard in the dream came to her rememberance.

"Vermia!" she blurted out loud as if she had been trying to remember it all along. on Hearing the word, Vera began to gag nervously. Jeremy and Freya became perturbed.

"Are you okay, mum?" Freya asked , stretching her hands over her.

"Do you need some water?" Jeremy asked, rushing to her rescue as she began to cough. Her face had become redder and the hives had increased.

"I'm fine" she managed to say, grabbing the cup of water from Jeremiah and pouring it down her throat.

" You sure?" Freya asked leaning towards her with extreme concern in her voice.

"Yeah..." Vera composed herself and they both sat. There was silence again.

" So, Vermia, where did you hear that From? Sounds like the city Ariel the mermaid was from" Jeremy taunted. Vera was extremely quiet now.

"I.. .." Freya was interrupted by the reminder buzz she had set on her phone. Her countenance changed to a frown suddenly. "... certainly am running late right now." She stood up hastily and pecked Vera.

"I have to go now" she said picking up her bag and running out of the house.

"Bring me some bread on your way back" jeremy yelled waving her goodbye.

* * * *

Freya rode down the street. She pulled the brakes and took off her helmet when she saw a signboard.

"3rd avenue, Crimson street" she read out loud and searched her pockets for the delivery note that was handed over to her by the bakery Manager. She found it and was glad to see the same description on the note. She smiled, assuring herself that she was on the right street. She wore her helmet and rode down until she had seen the house in the description. She stepped down from the bike, removed her helmet and placed it on her bike. She unstrapped the box of pancakes from her bicycle, moved closer to the door. It had a front door bell. It was surprising to her that people still used doorbells. That wasn't her business anyways, it wasn't what she was there for. She pressed the doorbell button and waited for a response but she got none. The owner of the house could be busy, she thought so she tried again and waited a bit longer but no one answered. She was getting impatient already, her hands were aching. Just as she was about to press the doorbell button the third time the door opened. She certainly didn't like the face she saw in front of her.