Flashback

•Amethyst•

I sat down on the bleachers softly, not wanting to bring any attention to my small figure. It was gym class and my first grade class was very interested in a game of kickball. I, on the other hand, liked dancing instead and wished that kickball had never been invented.

"Amethyst! Amethyst!" A voice, that was much deeper than mine but still one of a child, screamed.

I groaned and turned to see Danny, who was running towards me with an evil grin. I frowned at his face and felt my back go unnaturally straight. I didn't like him, he made me sad and want to cry, so I chose to keep my mouth shut and not answer him, my head turned a different direction.

"I know you saw me! Coach Dimmings said for us to go down and get some bandaids for Jacob, Maximus scratched him really hard."

I sighed. Not wanting to disobey the teacher's orders, I hopped up and walked out of the gym with him, his head towering over mine. We walked out into the hallway, the sounds of the gym getting softer the farther we walked. I snarled as he kept on poking me, his annoying voice repeating my name.

"Amethyst! Amethyst! Amethyst! Amethyst! Amethyst! Amethyst! Amethyst! Amethyst! Ame-"

"What?!" I growled.

He chuckled. "Why don't you play with us?"

I shrugged. "Because I don't want to."

"Why? Is it because you're a girl and girls don't play sports?"

I scoffed. "Girls play sports! I do a sport!"

He rolled his eyes. "Is it football? Basketball? Soccer, hockey, swimming, baseball, or track?" He asked.

I shook my head. "I hate all of those things with a burning passion."

"I don't know what that means."

"Because you're stupid," I muttered.

"What did you say?"

"Nothing!" I answered quickly. "I don't do any of those sports. I'm a dancer."

He scoffed. "Dance isn't a sport. I guess gymnastics and cheerleading could be a sport, but dance?" He laughed condescendingly, "No way!"

I snarled. "It is too! Do you know the definition of a sport? If you do, than you'd know that dance fits perfectly in the definition!"

"I didn't understand half of what you said. Besides, it doesn't matter anyway. You're just a little diva who thinks she can do what she wants. You don't play with anyone and never get your clothes dirty. You're always answering all of the questions in class and never give anyone a chance. It's so annoying! Any sport that you play, isn't a sport because you're doing it!"

I gasped. "What?! I'm not a diva! I don't answer all of the questions! Besides, I thought we were talking about me playing a sport and not me being a diva."

He stomped his foot on the ground. "Shut up! I'll say what I want because you're a little baby who hides in the corner!"

I felt my lip quiver as tears started to build up in my eyes. "What did I even do? I was just told to get a simple band-aid!"

He scoffed and stormed into the principal's office, where the nurse's office was, and left me trudging behind him. When I got in, I saw Maximus sitting down in a chair with his head held down. I frowned at his slumped figure and kept walking to the nurse's office, when I heard Danny saying rude things about me from outside the door.

"She's so annoying! I hate her! I hate her so much! She thinks she's so important! I hate her!" He growled as he looked around for band-aids.

I felt a burning feeling in my heart and a bubbling feeling in my stomach, a feeling so great that I surprised myself with what my body was doing. I opened the door and stomped inside, my anger and many other feelings spiraling out of control.

I was always calm, collected, quiet. I never bothered anyone, always kept to myself, never spoke without reason. I didn't do anything to deserve such negative feelings towards me. I didn't deserve such negative things to be said about me. I didn't deserve to be treated like nothing. I felt like I wanted to cry and rip his head off at the same time. My temper was never one to mess with, not that it came out often, and I would go crazy when people messed with me too much.

I was shy, quiet, and calm, but not weak.

I grabbed a huge binder laying on a chair, stormed up to Harry, and started banging it on his back. He screamed and cried in pain, my hits getting harder and faster. He started to run but I kept up with him, holding the large binder over my head.

"WHO'S BABY NOW?!" I screamed as I chased him out the door, without even realizing that I had.

Harry screamed again and cried even more, my steps not faltering once as I chased him through the office. I was pissed and confused of my feelings, the burning and bubbling all too much for me to understand.

I then felt my feet leave the ground as I was being lifted into the air, two strong arms around my waist. I screamed and thrashed my body all over the place, trying to hit the person with the binder from behind me.

"Calm down! It's just me! Maximus!"

I froze. My limbs going limp, my breathing becoming shallow, my screams stopping. Everything that I had just been doing stopped, my mind and body at ease as he set me down on the ground. I dropped the binder and turned to look at him, seeing his face was slightly flushed.

"I want to go home," I whimpered.

He cocked his head to the side. "Why?"

I didn't answer and bawled my eyes out right in the middle of the office.

"TEACHER! OFFICE LADY! OLD MAN THAT GETS MAD AT ME! AMETHYST IS CRYING!" He hollered.

I chuckled at the thought. Max was so cute back then. He looked like he did now, except he didn't have large muscles or a five o'clock shadow when he forgot to shave. His eyes were just as bright, his lips were just as pink and plump, and his smile was just as swoon worthy.  Though I never really thought about it, I guess. Max had always been off limits for me, at least, in my eyes.

All the girls had always had their eyes on him. At first, from kindergarten to third grade, it was all of the girls in the class that liked him. No one ever went for him because it would cause some sort of drama. Then, in fourth grade, it was the whole grade that liked him. Talking to him then would cause a public uproar, so unless he came to you, you would observe and admire from the sidelines. These rules were never spoken, but they didn't have to be. In fifth grade, the highest grade our elementary school went up to, the whole school had a thing for Max. He was either that cute older boy, that cute guy in your class, or that really cute tall guy in your grade. Everyone wanted a piece of him; a wink, smile, wave. No one really got that though.

Not even me.

Not that I was special or anything. It's just, when we were in kindergarten through second grade, the only girl that Max talked to was me. I never really felt special with him talking to me, I never felt special ever in my life, actually, but I guess I kind of was. Well, back then anyway. When Max and I weren't in the same class together in third grade, we drifted. He stopped talking to me, which is reasonable, and I was always too shy to go up to him. The girls in his class would kill me at recess time.

Don't mess with the ones who go in the swings. They're vicious.

You'd think it be the monkey bar girls, ya know, with their strong muscles and shit. But no. It's the ones in pigtails on the swings, singing about flowers and rainbows as they tell their friends to push them higher.

Never judge a book by its fucking cover, I'll tell you that. I've got the damn mental scars to prove it.

Anyway, when we were in the same classes together in fourth grade and fifth grade, he kind of forgot about me. I mean, he would smile at me from time to time in class, but never anything other than that. Once we got to middle school, it was like I didn't exist.

I didn't really, so I guess that makes sense.

I was one of the smallest in the grade, and, well, school, so I wasn't very easy to spot. I wore nice clothes, yes, but not the clothes of all the other girls who had parents that don't care what they wore. I mean, seriously! Compare my cute blouse and skinny jeans to their crop-tops and mini skirts!

I thought we were twelve but I guess I was wrong!

I remember always feeling so insecure around those girls. Like, even though I looked absolutely fine in my outfit, I felt that I did something wrong. I know I didn't, I just felt like I was nothing compared to them. They had boyfriends, gossiped, and were always the center of attention. Not one day went by without someone talking about what they did. I guess I kind of felt like a useless background character. Like, if I vanished, no one would notice.

I still felt like that... more times than I liked to admit.

Max and I still had classes together, we never stopped actually, but he never talked to me. We always just kept a distance. He was the guy that every girl either liked, likes, or thinks is cute. He was kind of a rebel, never was a tame kid anyway, and always got into some type of trouble. He always had a crowd around him for something, while I always got lost in those crowds. I always had to find my way through everyday to get to class.

No one ever noticed me to even say hi while he got a whole crowd.

It made me want to cry a little just thinking about it. My unimportance to the world. The fact that I didn't even matter at my school. That if I died, right in the middle of class, no one would even care to notice. I always walked around with my head down, always tried to keep my profile unknown. Because if I was someone?...

I don't know, actually. I guess, I wanted to be noticed, just remembered a little bit, but not the center of attention.

Unless I was dancing. Being the center of attention then is the best thing in the world.

Anyway, Max and I were pulled in different directions, even if we were always in each other's reach. Even in high school, when I decided to be a little more daring and wear more cropped and revealing clothing, not for him, obviously, but just for the style of it, I was never noticed. Not that I was complaining, anyway. I had gotten used to it over the years. The feeling of emptiness was just replaced with familiarity, so it didn't even faze me. In fact, when Samantha complimented my outfit one day in class, I felt very uncomfortable.

I didn't know what to do! I was actually being talked to, by an actual person, with an actual face! She was one of the popular girls too, so that just made me even more uncomfortable. She was just as gorgeous, a little more childlike, yes, but still breathtaking. I even turned around to see if she was talking to somebody else, just to make sure that I wasn't being looked over...again. We started talking and got to know each other. We eventually found out that we had a lot in common.

We both liked fashion and reading books. From then on, we became friends, and have never been separated since. She made me feel important, like I wasn't someone in the background, like I wasn't just some window that you could look through. Like I mattered. But, I still never felt special.

Everyone had a best friend, I wasn't special if I had one.

I did that a lot. Always telling myself that my accomplishments meant nothing, because someone had done them before.

I wasn't the only one who go chosen for the partner part, I'm not special. I'm not the only one whose won all of the prestigious awards for my solo, I'm not special. I'm not the only one who's eaten a whole pizza by themselves, I'm not special. I'm not special. I'm not special. I'm not special.

Really wasn't that healthy of me, was it? Didn't think so. I never stopped that habit. I didn't have a reason to.

Until Maximus Magnum King asked me out. I hardly ever felt special, never felt special actually, so imagine me feeling like I'm unique for the first time.

Best feeling ever!