Painful Smiles

She scoffed. The fool was still going on with his joke. But she wasn’t laughing with him.

“Want me to break another tooth for you? And make your younger brother eat it?” she walked angrily to him but he pushed her back.

“A simple “no” would do. Don’t you dare involve my brother, Claudia. I’ll forget our ten years friendship and leave a hole in you head.” he shouted back.

Claudia laughed manically while looking Mark over.

“Leave a hole? In my head? Duh, like you can! You can’t even protect your girlfriend and keep her from thugs” she glanced at Michael and back at Mark.Ccontent © exclusive by Nô/vel(D)ra/ma.Org.

“Stop embarrassing yourself. Leave now with those vegetables. If your girlfriend don’t want them give it to the other fools that crush on you. You are an embarrassment to your brother. I’m even embarrassed to have been friends with for ten years” she pointed out her ten fingers.

She began leaving, as well as the other students as some teachers were coming to the classes.

But then, Mark held her hand and a smirk grew on her lips.

“At this your rate, Claudia. You’ll lose more blood” he threw her hand away and left. Wright’s eyes widened while Claudia’s became smaller as she gave an eye smile. It took him this long to threaten her.

“Is he threatening to kill you?” Wright gasped.

“No, he’s threatening her to kill him” Michael answered instead, walking towards them.

“For real, Claudia has dangerous records. If not she’s smart. She would have been expelled for long” Wright informed Michael.

He nodded to him. He read her records. Made him wonder if the rumor was actually that she got impregnated by a Mafia or got trained by a Mafia.

He was still at loss on why she had so much hate for the world.

“I don’t know how your parents live with you” Wright grunted and pushed Claudia along with him as they went into the class. He now had to watch over her again.

The romantic school teen life he planned with her was turning to a bloody thriller action movie.

On the other hand, Michael was actually looking forward to she and Mark’s war with each other.

Slowly, Claudia was becoming a very interesting subject to monitor, and a dangerous one at that.

Though, nothing happened till the day came to an end, Michael noticed the unusual glances they gave each other.

It looked like Claudia was flirting or maybe it was her way of mocking Mark. Trying to push him to annoyance.

Michael spent his entire classes watching her.

Whenever she caught Mark glancing her way, she would begun counting her teeth with tongue. Obviously referring to the fact that she would soon lose some of his.

Her tactic of intimidation was hilarious. Mark looked like he regretted his threats cos now he had to act or would be seen as a fool.

“Wait, excuse me?” Michael’s body guard called after Claudia as she greeted her driver.

“Yes?” she answered.

“A word. With Michael” he said.

Claudia nodded to her driver, “I’ll check if I’ll see Clara. If I can’t, we will leave without her. I’ll be back” she left with his body guard.

“We started off badly, I regret. I’m truly sorry for the injury and promise it won’t happen again. Frenches are not dangerous, okay? We’ll leave the title to you” he stopped for breath.

“So, that and more are in that letter I handed over to you. I hope you read it when you’re in a good mood so…”.

“So it will spoil my mood?” she interrupted.

Michael swallowed his remaining words and frowned at her, “So you’d accept the apology. I didn’t come to U. S to make trouble with anyone”.

Claudia nodded and folded the letter into her pocket. “You’ll still get punished by Karma, you know”.

He nodded. She pointed at him before leaving, he wasn’t sure what it meant but at least the apology had been accepted.

Claudia sighed when she didn’t see Clara already in the car when she came back. She won’t look for her, she could go partying again if she liked.

Speaking of parties, Claudia remembered the birthday party that an ex senior had invited her to. It shocked her because seniors do not really interact with her.

The senior had visited their school to see the new school prefects and had also handed invitation to his nineteenth birthday party.

When he handed one to her, she gave him a confused look so he explained that he had always wanted to invite her but was stopped by his classmates.

Now they weren’t there he decided to invite her.

He had always wanted to invite her? With his wide smile and awkward body language, Claudia was sensing that he was the senior that was rumored to have a crush on her.

She was in her ninth grade then.

She accepted his invitation but wasn’t so sure if she should attend. It was a morning party and the next day was a Saturday, the day of the party. What would she even wear?

“Shouldn’t we leave for Paul’s school?” her driver broke her trail of thoughts.

She gasped and rushed inside the car. The driver put on some songs Claudia was sure she couldn’t understand. Maybe some C-pop or K-Pop specials.

There was a traffic because of some accident. Perhaps due to the joy of TGIF.

Along the way, Claudia dipped her hands on her pocket to bring her wallet so she could buy some snacks for Paul.

She could bet a twenty thousand dollar that the first thing he would say to her was that he was hungry.

Her hand touched a crumpled piece of paper and she rolled her eyes. It was Michael’s apology letter.

The words felt sweet but it couldn’t compare to the pain he caused her though it wouldn’t have been that bad if she didn’t have an injury there already.

They reached there and she purchased some snacks and headed into the school compound to bring Paul out.

She came out few minutes with confusion and fear mixed in her eyes.

“Sir, Paul’s teacher said he left”. Her lips quivered as the words left her lips.