18. Regular Day at school or was it ?

It’s been a month sinds the call from Zaire. It left Gabriella bit worried still but she still felt refreshed abit. She was a tad bit happier and stopped cutting… for now. She no longer felt that Nicki was hiding something from her. She has now started attending an international private arts school. She follows drama, singing and literature. All of her regular classes are in Dutch. She’s being bullied at school by one girl by the name of Destiny. Why this girl is teasing her, because she looks so different from everyone else, her special shoes, her glasses which she wears to see far away, her height, her accent and most of all her back with her scoliosis. Gabriella never let it get to her, but it was slowly eating her inside. She has no friends but knows a lot of people in school. She mostly sits alone at lunch and talks to Zaire.

The relationship between Nicki and Safaree has been going well. They’ve decided to keep it out of the media, so basically not much people know about it. Also that Gabriella is their daughter. Not even the students at Gabby’s school know. All they know is that Gabby has wealthy parents’ sinds she’s in a private school, and not just any private school, the ‘Alfa Talented International Institution’ ( A.T.I.I.). Nothing more. Nicki had her driven to school by a chauffeur, so really no one had a clue. Gabriella is still able to do normal things without being bothered and most of all no paparazzi. She liked that. Most of the kids at her school had to deal with that every day.

Gabriella Richardson-Maraj 
A.T.I.I., Los Angeles, United States
11:00 A.M, Wednesday

______________________

The bell has just rung indicating that it was third period, in which, I had English literature class. I really enjoy this class. Mom doesn’t really get it, but then again I never write for her. I quickly gather my stuff and head to class. I had this assignment to do about a particular feeling. I chose loneliness. I saw Destiny bossing a freshman around up the hall. I rolled my eyes and continued walking. I swear this girl has no life and to make it worst she’s in almost all my art’s classes which were honestly my favorite classes. I hated that we both were juniors; I didn’t really like having to be around her. I just tried to kill her with kindness, hopefully one day she’ll stop. Hopefully.

Here’s a little info on what she looks like. She’s about 5’4. She’s from England. Her dad is a famous Lawyer. She has a pale complexion with pink lips which is always in a small pout. She has piercing blue eyes and long straight blond hair. We share the same birthday and she’s the bragging type. Always talking about daddy this and daddy that. I hated it.

“Well look who it is, little miss crooked shrimp.” She exclaimed in fake delight and the girls of her clique laughed. I never showed her any emotion. I just kept my cool.

“Hi Destiny, ready for class?”

“Haha, look you guys, the shrimp is talking to me.” She said to her girlfriends and laughed. She then turned to me. “Well actually no, I didn’t do my paper but I’m sure you did yours.” She said to me and made a baby face.

“Geek.” I heard one of her friends whisper and all of them giggled. I kept a small smile on my face.

“Well, see you in class.” I said and turned to walk to class. Destiny held my bag, which almost made me fall back. My glasses also nearly fell from my face.

“Hey, stop that.” I nearly yelled at her. She and her friends just laughed in my face.

“Aw, are you scared?”

“No, but stop it. Just leave me alone.”

“Okay I will, just give me your paper.”

“No.”

“Then, best believe your stuff is going into the toilet.” She replied and bit my lip. I always did two papers. Both on the same topic. I just felt that I could never tell which one was better. I sighed and gave her one of my papers. Her friends laughed in my face. She dropped my bag and all my books fell out. That just made all of them laugh harder. I felt small, but I couldn’t let her see that.

The tardy bell rang and I finally got myself together. I opened my compact mirror and checked my face. No tears. Good. Let’s continue.

I walked through the door and Mr. Maacentouch looked up at me and smiled. I smiled back and took a seat.

“So, I’m not going to write you up because I know you probably have a good reason why you’re late, am I right?” he asked me.

“Yeah.” I answered and gave him a small smile. Destiny rolled her eyes and whispered, “Kiss-up” at me.

I rolled my eyes and gave him my paper. I wrote my name on top.

“Okay class, I’m going to need you to write a paragraph about this picture.” He said and held up a picture a woman holding her baby and walking with no shoes across a dessert. My mind immediately began roaring with ideas. I loved doing that. Some of the class, including Destiny, groaned. She then got up and told the kid that was sitting next to me to get up. The kid, without hesitation, did and she sat down. She wrote down a note and passed it to me. I rolled my eyes and bit the inside of my cheeks before reading it.

“You better let me see your paper when you’re done. Am not failing this class.”

I rolled my eyes and got up. I threw the paper in the garbage and took out my notebook. I began right away.

She was searching for him. Where was he? Her baby cried for him every day and she felt lonely without him. His touch, his scent, his voice. She called out to him. He never replied but she never gave up. She believed he was still out there, calling out for her. She just had to keep looking. She no longer had sandals on her feet or her baby. They walked it completely blunt. She and her baby were tired and hungry. But she pushed on. She wasn’t going to stop. No, not until she found… him.

It was short but I liked it very much. I looked up to the teacher. His eyebrows were crinkled in confusion.

“Gabriella and Destiny please step to the front.”

We both got up and walked to the front of the class. I wasn’t worried but Destiny was.

“Okay now, I knew that Gabriella was going to talk about loneliness. I’m here looking at two papers on loneliness. Both from different perspectives but the writing technique is the same. Isn’t it weird?” he asked and looked at us hard, well mostly Destiny. “Destiny I thought I assigned you happiness?”

“Uh… you did… but I came up with nothing.” She explained.

“Oh, and did you and Gabriella work together?”

“Uh…. Yeah.” She replied and looked at me with a warning look. I sighed and looked at my feet.

“Is this true?” he asked me while looking me directly in the eyes.

“Uh…. I …. No.”

“I had a feeling. Destiny you have detention and now you have to write a double paper about happiness. You don’t write the same way as Gabriella, I don’t understand why you won’t put more effort into your writing.” He scolded her and she just rolled her eyes.

We went back into her seats but I felt as if something bad was going to happen. As I was reading over my work, I got another note from Destiny. It fell to the floor and the teacher saw.

“Hand it over Richardson.”

I slowly brought it to his desk. He opened it and read it.

“Destiny, you just earned yourself to the principal’s office.” He thundered and she immediately got her things and walked out of the class. I wave of relieve washed over me.

The kid that was originally sitting next to me came back and sat down. I looked him over from the corner of my eye. I bit my lip, I liked what I saw.

He has a caramel complexion. Dark brown orbs and jet black hair. He’s about 5’7 in height and from what I could tell, a chiseled body.

“Hi, I’m Maleek, but I go by Blake preferably.”

“Well.. I’m Gabriella but people who know me call me Gabby.” I replied and gave him a small smile.

“Kool….” He answered and we both stayed quiet and worked on our assignment. “So do you always have to walk with that?” He asked pointing at my pillow which I was sitting on.

“Yeah, it helps to lessen my back pain.”

“Cool, I like how you just carry it around and are not scared of what others have to say. It’s dope by the way.” I giggled before replying.

“Well, I need it so what does it matter what others say. I mean, they can’t help ease my pain, it can. And thanks.” I answered. I had a black and white cover on it to match my attire.

“Well… uhm… are you busy after school?”

“No.. “

“You wanna hang out or something.” He asked and rubbed the back of his neck un sure. It was mad cute. I never EVER made a boy blush so hard. And it scared me. Never had a boyfriend either but this might change all of that.

“S-sure, I’d like that.” I replied with a small smile. He returned the gesture.

We got back our grades from our homework and as always I got A+ on both of them. I beamed. I looked over at Maleek and he also had a big smile which turn to a frown when he saw his paper.

“What did you get?” I asked carefully.

“A-, I don’t understand, I put so much effort into this. How about you?”

“Uhm… A+ on both. But what did you do wrong then?”

“I don’t know, here take a look.” He said handing my his paper. I read it over, and I must say, it was really good. He writes about the emotion Anger as if it were something he faced every day. Something he wished he could do without but it was plastered all over him. I enjoyed reading it. Here and there I saw he had small mistakes.

“Nothing you can’t fix.” I said giving him back his paper.

“I always come second to you. It’s unfair.”

“Live is unfair, my friend.” I said with a british accent and we both laughed.

The rest of the day went by smoothly. I couldn’t wait for it to be over so that me and Blake could hang out. I was mentally squealing inside.

Nicki Minaj

Home, Los Angeles, United States

5:30 P.M., Wednesday

____________________________

I don’t understand why Gabriella isn’t home yet. School finished over an hour ago. What was taking her so long? I called her driver and he said she was over at a friend’s house, but Gabriella never mentioned making friends to me. I decided to call her phone. She picked up on the 3rd ring. She was laughing at something.

“…Hahaha… Hold on… It’s my mom….. Hello?”

“Where are you?”

“Over at my new friend’s house.”

“Who is she?”

“She? It’s a boy.”

“Oh and you decided you weren’t going to tell me?”

“Ma, we’re not doing anything. Just chilling and watching a movie.” She whined.

“Mmhhmm?”

“I’m serious. He’s dropping me home at 6 so I’ll see you then.”

“Mmmmm…. We’re going to have a talk then.”

“Fine.”

“Bye.”

“Yeah.” She replied and hung up. I decided to start making dinner. I was going to make Tilapia fillet with corn, rice and vegetables. Simple but delicious.

At around 6, I heard the front door open and close. I heard two voices.

“Maleek, you really didn’t need to do this.” I heard Gabby say.

“It’s nothing. I don’t want you getting in trouble.” A male voice answered.

“Okay.”

They both walked into the kitchen and Gabriella cleared her throat. I turned and looked at the two teenagers standing before me.

“Good evening miss, I came to bring Gabriella back home.” The boy said to me.

“Good, you must be the friend she was by.”

“Yes ma’am. My name is Maleek Martis. Are you Nicki Minaj?”

“mmhmm…. So what did you guys do.”

“Mostly get to know each other and she helped me out with my writing assignments and how I could improve them.”

“Okay, well it was nice meeting you. Are you staying for dinner?”

“Uhm, if that’s okay with you.”

“Sure, as long as your parents know.”

“Okay, I’ll call.” He replied and walked away. I then looked at Gabby. She was once again typing away on her phone.

“How was school today?”

“Was alright. Got two A+’s on my writing assignments and a 8,5 for my Dutch Reading Comprehension. “

“Oh okay, we both know it could be higher.”

“I’ll try harder.”

“Good, well your friend seems like quite the gentleman.” I said and nudged her. She giggled and turned bright pink.

“Y-yeah.” She stuttered.

“Is he your new crush?”

“What? N-no. I have Zaire. That’s enough.” She replied and looked down. I knew she liked the boy, but also knew that she and Zaire were a very rooted couple. Nothing could break them.

“Well, if you say so little lady.” I said with a british accent and she giggled. Right then Dad walked through the door.

“So I walk inside and find a stranger in the house. Someone explain to me what he’s doing here.” He said before placing a passionate kiss on mom’s lips.

“That’s my friend Maleek.”

“Oh, where’d you meet him?”

“At school.”

“Yall have classes together?”

“Well only English literature.”

“Who’s his parents?”

“I don’t know. Why don’t you ask him?” she replied irritated and walked off. He then turned to me and I turned to the pot. He snaked his hands around my waist and kissed the nape of my neck.

“Smells nice.”

“Thanks, we’re gonna eat soon.”

“Good, I’m starving.” He growled into my ear which made me giggle. Maleek walked in a moment after. Safaree immediately let go of me.

“My parents say it’s okay.” He said happily.

“Okay, well make yourself at home. We’re gonna eat in a few.” I replied.

At the table, Safaree questioned Maleek and of course at first Maleek was terrified but after me and Gabriella reassured him, he seemed to relax.

“I still can’t believe that your mom is Nicki Minaj Gabby.”

“Well better believe it boy.” She replied being cocky.

“Ah, it’s just you guys look nothing alike.”

“That’s because she’s not my biological mother.”

“Oh and him.”

“He’s not my biological father.”

“So your….”

“Adopted.”

“Oh wow.”

“Yeah.”

“Cool, but like how come no one at school knows?” he asked her.

“Because one they never asked. Two because I like things the way they are. I don’t get bothered.”

“That’s not true. Destiny bullies you.” He blurted and his and Gabby’s eyes grew wide. All of us stopped eating and watched Gabby, who now had her head down. “I’m so sorry Gabby, I didn-“

“Save it. You already said it.” She whispered at him while holding her palm up to his face. He kept his mouth shut. The rest of the meal was quiet. After Maleek left, Gabby ran upstairs and I heard her door slam shut. I guess, it was happening, and she didn’t even tell me. Made it seem as if every day was a good day. It hurt me to know that still she kept holding back.

Safaree Samuels 
Home, Los Angeles, United States
11:00 P.M, Wednesday

______________________

I went into Gabby’s room to kiss her good night. She was sleeping funny and from what I could tell, she cried herself to sleep. It broke my heart to see my babygirl like this, but she just keeps holding these things back. It’s not good. I want to help her grow and she knows I’d do anything to see that pretty smile of hers. As I was placing her sheets over her, I was her wrists for the first time. All the lines. I couldn’t believe it. Why? Just why her?

I stayed in her room for about 5 minutes before going to me and Nicki’s. She was up reading her bible. It was so cute how she mouthed the words. She stopped and looked at me. She was smiling but it slowly faded when she saw I wasn’t smiling back.

“What’s wrong?”

“My babygirl cuts herself.”

She sighed before replying. “I know…”

“Why?”

“Stress and I guess the bully.”

“I’m going to talk to her in the morning before she leaves. I can’t have her doing this.” I answered and got in bed with Nicki. I wrapped my arms around her and within minutes we fell asleep. All I could think about was my baby girl being sad. I was going to change that.