The campus madonna told my childhood friend that she loved Jackie Chan movies. He tied my arms and legs to four gigantic drones.

Monday came by. Right in front of the whole school, the drones hauled me up three hundred feet into the air.

The students' laughter was so thunderous, the skies shook. The videos they took went viral. I remained in the air until the drones ran out of battery and flew back down.

My childhood friend untied me, grinning like he'd just pulled a harmless prank. "Wendy loves Jackie Chan, so I thought you should give her a little Police Story show. We've been friends our whole lives. You don't mind, do you?"

I crumpled to the ground. Wendy Wood was leaning against my childhood friend's chest, and she was laughing so much, tears rolled down her cheeks. "You call that Jackie Chan? She just wet herself!" And she cackled further.

I walked off and never came back.

That drove my childhood friend mad.

"We've been friends forever! You're overreacting!"

A Pet

I went back home and locked myself in the bathroom. Then, I turned the shower's heat up as high as possible. The steam fogged up the mirror and my eyes. I took off my drenched pants and tossed them into the bin, along with my panties.

It was my desperate attempt at washing off the stench of humiliation and the looks everyone threw at me. Again and again, I scrubbed my body. I scrubbed my skin hard enough until it peeled off and turned red.

No matter how hard I washed myself, I could not shake off the sense of vertigo and the howls of the winds ringing in my ears.

I could never forget their grins.

Joseph Pinscher and Wendy Wood.

My mother was knocking on the door. "Jess, your father has an appointment tonight, and I'm going to Helen's for game night. You handle dinner yourself."

"Yeah," I answered, my voice hoarse and drowned out by the running water. Might as well. I didn't want my parents to see me like this.

I stayed in the bathroom for what felt like an eternity. The steaming water eventually became colder than ice. I came out, shivering like a chick. My phone was buzzing wildly on my desk. It was the class' group chat. There were already more than ninety-nine messages tagging me.

I opened the chat, and the first thing I saw was a bolded headline.

'Movie of the year! Police Story in real life! Watch her fly!'

I was hanging in midair like a puppet with strings holding up its limbs in the video. When the camera drew close to my face, it showed nothing but a twisted expression of horror.

The comments all laughed at me.

"Holy shit, I think I can meme her!"

"Honestly, Joseph, I can't believe you went so far just to make Wendy happy!"

"I can't believe Jessica wet her pants! I made sure to get a close-up! Anyone want it?"

"Come on, show us already! Shut up and take my money!"

"Hah, that's what she gets for trying to take Joseph. She should look in a mirror sometimes!"

I left the group chat. The socials were worse. Joseph posted a status with a photo of me struggling in the air. He tagged Wendy. 'Another day, another happy moment for my princess.'

Wendy replied immediately, 'Oh, you're the best, Joseph. But are you sure Jess won't get mad?'

The comments mocked me even further.

'You're so kind, Wendy. You shouldn't care about her.'

'Her? Mad? She has no right to get mad! She should be on her knees and thank Joseph for letting her tag along with him.'

'Yeah. She's just an annoying bum.'

I turned my phone off. My heart had frozen up. An ice-cold hand had it wrapped around its palm. The agony was cutting off the air from my lungs.

Ten years. For ten years I knew Joseph. I'd been his lackey since the day my father worked as his father's driver. I did everything he told me to and never said no.

When he got hungry, I would jump over the house's walls and sneak out just to get his favorite shrimp burger. When he told me he hated tests, I would burn the midnight oil just to highlight all the important parts and make notes for him.

If he were playing any kind of sport, I was his gofer. If he got into any fights, I would be the one to apologize on his behalf. Everyone called me his loyal pup.

I thought he had affection for me. Now, I saw what I was. I was nothing but a plaything.

…

I went to school the next day. No, I wasn't degrading myself. I had some things I had to take back.

The moment I stepped inside, everyone had their eyes on me. I could see the mockery, disdain, and amusement in their gaze.

When I walked down the corridor, some of the students mimicked how I struggled in the air. Everyone around them laughed.

Disorders

I walked into the classroom without looking any other way. Joseph was sitting with Wendy. That girl took my spot.

She was leaning on the desk, staring at Joseph with a sickly sweet smile on her lips. Joseph was staring down at her, curling a lock of her hair around his finger. I'd never seen him acting so sweet.

He raised his head and offered me an indifferent look. "Hey." He was calm, as if he hadn't nearly killed me the day before.

Wendy sat up and gave me an apologetic look. "I'm sorry, Jess. I had no idea they would go so far. I just said I thought Jackie Chan's movies were cool, and then…"

She started tearing up. I gave her no response. Joseph frowned and pulled me aside. "Hey, she already said she's sorry. What more do you want?" Impatience laced his voice. "It was just a prank. Stop looking at us like we owe you something. Fine, I know you sprained something because the drones' batteries died. I'll pay for the meds."

He took out hundreds of dollars from his pockets and tried to stuff them into my hands. I moved away, and the bills fluttered down to the ground. His face fell.

"Don't push it, Jessica. I'm only saying sorry because we're childhood friends. It's not like I can't live without you."

The class was staring at us, engaged in whispered discussion.

"I can't believe she's pushing away money."

"Yeah, if it were me, I'd do the same thing a hundred times."

I bent down, picked up the money, and approached Wendy. Then I slammed the cash into her face right in front of the whole class. "I don't give a flying fuck about your apology or money. And woman, this is my spot. Get your ass off."

Silence choked the classroom. Everyone was staring at me in shock, including Joseph. He never thought the usually gentle me would do something so outrageous.

Wendy's face turned into a sickly shade of greenish-white. Tears were swirling in her eyes, and she looked at Joseph like a hurt kitten. "Joseph…"

Joseph snapped out of it and shoved me off. "Are you out of your goddamn mind, Jessica?"

That threw me off balance, and my back slammed into the corner of a desk. The pain nearly took me out, but I kept my eyes locked on Wendy. Slowly, I repeated, "I'll say this one last time. Get. Your. Ass. Off. My. Seat."

The look in my eyes scared her, and she stood up without thinking. Then I started packing my stuff. I did not care what everyone else was doing. I put my books, my notebooks, and a pen into my bag. All my stuff, I took all of them.

Joseph was still standing, but his chest was heaving. "What are you doing? Trying to fuck off now?" He was still mad.

I ignored him.

Then he grabbed my hand with enough force to crush my bones. "I'm talking to you, Jessica! I've known you for ten years! You're overreacting!"

This again. Finally, I looked into his eyes. His eyes used to be as bright as stars. Now they were only filled with fury and confusion.

"Have you ever wondered what it felt like to be hung three hundred feet in the sky, Joseph? Ever wondered what it felt like to be watched like a chimpanzee doing unnatural tricks in a circus? Ever wondered what it felt like when the girl you like laughed at you for wetting your pants?"

Every question drained more color out of his face. "I…"

Not a sentence came out of his mouth.

"You think I'm overreacting. I call this an appropriate response." I flung his hand away, zipped my backpack, and stormed off. What followed me was the classroom's silence.

Instead of going home, I went to the hospital. My aunt was a department head here. She noticed the bruise on my hand and the deathly pale look on my face, but she said nothing.

She put me through a series of tests and checkups. When the report came to her and she went through it, her face fell.

"Acute stress disorder, severe anxiety, and depression tendency." She slammed the report down on her desk with enough force to crush a boulder. The fury in her eyes threatened to burn everything around her.

"That son of a whore! I'm going to drag his ass for this!"

"Auntie!" I pulled her back. "I don't want to make this mess bigger than it already is."

Transfer

"It's not big enough!" My aunt was shivering in rage. "Not when he nearly got you killed! What about your parents? They're just going to watch while these crotch goblins bully you?"

I hung my head low. My father was the Pinschers' chauffeur, while my mother was one of their servants. They would never demand an answer from their employer's son. Whatever Joseph did was right, at least to them. They thought I deserved to suffer a little. After all, we needed the Pinschers to survive.

Quietly, I said, "I want to go to a new school."

This was why I came to my father's sister. My aunt was stunned, but then she realized what I was trying to say. "Yes, of course. You're leaving that hellhole this instant! So where do you want to go? I'll handle everything! How about Clementia? I can help you out if you attend a college there."

Clementia was a big city and took four hours to arrive by car. It was far enough to stay away from all the things and people I refused to see again.

My aunt did things fast. She tapped into her connections and contacted someone from Clementia's best high school. The admin took one look at my grades and the report that said I had ASD, and they agreed to give me a spot.

"It'll be done next week if everything goes well," my aunt said.

"Thank you, Auntie."

"Don't mention it, my girl." She patted my head. I could see the worry in her eyes. "Just stay with me for now, okay?"

I changed my SIM card that very night and tossed my old one into a trash bin at the hospital. As I lay on the bed in my aunt's house, my eyes set on the moon outside.

For the first time in ten years, I did not say good night to Joseph. No longer will I get any messages from him again. No longer would he order me around like I was some sort of servant.

I had a hole in my heart, but I also felt relief. Then my phone buzzed. My aunt.

'That Pinscher kid nearly made my phone explode. He wants to know where you are. I ignored him. You did well, Jess. Some people aren't worth it.'

Tears rolled down my cheeks as I read that message. Yes, he wasn't worth it. I spent ten years giving all my love to him, and all I gained in return was humiliation. A premeditated crime. What a joke. I was at the center of it, too.

…

The transfer process was done a week later. My parents had no idea at all. I told them my school organized a training camp for an upcoming competition. That training camp would run for two weeks.

They bought that story, and they were pleased. To them, I was making them proud. My mother gave me 150 before I left.

"Don't try to scrimp out there. Get yourself whatever you want. And don't spend all your time buried in books. Go out with your friends sometimes."

My father said, "Take care of yourself. Don't cause any trouble for Mr. Pinscher."

My blood ran cold. So he thought Joseph was the reason I went to that camp. But I said nothing. Instead, I took the money and nodded.

My aunt picked me up. As she drove me away from the city that raised me, I did not turn back even once.

…

Clementia High was better than I thought. The campus was huge, and trees covered nearly every inch. The air was thick with academia.

My new homeroom was a soft-spoken, middle-aged woman. She went through my file and patted my shoulder, but she said nothing about it. "Welcome, Jessica. This will be your new home."

My seat was in the fourth row near the window. A girl called Kaylee Simpson sat on my right. She was a lively one, that girl. "Hi, I'm Kaylee. Kaylee Simpson! My friends call me Kaylee!" She smiled, and she had dimples.

"Jessica Chase."

"Nice name. I don't hear a lot of Chases in my life."

The girl was overly friendly, and she told me all about the school and my new classroom, like which teacher was the stricter one and which days sold the better food.

"Howard Saffron's the de facto leader of this gang. He's super great with his studies, and he's really nice. You can go to him if you have any questions about this subject."

She pointed at the boy in the first row. He was quietly going through his book. The boy was slender, and he had a clean look. Then he turned his head around. Our stares caught his attention.