Tasting 15

15-The Bullied One

Nora:

“You’ve come back!” the old warden growled as she observed me at the doorstep with my bags.

The girls behind her kept trying to peer through her shoulders and whispered to each other.

“Can I have my room if it’s still available?” I asked in a meek tone. I knew this place was the worst of

all, but it was the shelter many craved to have. That’s why when I left, I had figured that soon my

room would be rented out.

“Hm! It is available, but I’ve raised the rent for that particular room now,” the old lady shrugged,

knowing d**n well that I was in need. She was taking advantage of my state.

“It’s alright, Mrs. Finlay. Can I please come inside now?” I requested in a monotone. I usually stayed

bound to my room and would only come out when I felt absolutely hungry.

“Sure, come on in,” the lady with white curly hair let me in. Mrs. Finlay started this mansion for

orphans years ago with her husband when they couldn’t conceive. However, after the death of her

husband, she turned bitter as the responsibility of taking care of so many girls started to make her

regret her choices.

“Oh, and by the way,” as I was halfway up the staircase, her voice stopped me dead in my tracks,

“you have a roommate.”

I frowned at her, confused about why she raised the rent when I

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15 The Bubled One

208 Ivouchers

was getting a roommate now.

“But then why is the rent so high? I retorted.

“Well, that’s how it is. If you want to stay, stay, or else, I have others waiting for a room,” Mrs. Finlay

smirked, knowing how cleverly she was taking advantage of me.

It was raining cats and dogs outside, so the best option for me was to rent the room and then start

looking for a job. I had saved some money that I had used as rent previously.

It was time I stopped being lazy and got a job like every other she-wolf here. Avoiding annoying any

of the girls, who usually bully everyone around here, I ran back to my room on the top floor and

entered the bedroom to find two single beds.

The beds had a space left between them. There was a huge window behind the beds.

The girl on the left side of the room seemed to not have been around at the moment. She must

have been in the bathroom. I dropped my bags on the empty bed and had only sat down for a brief

moment when my phone started ringing. I didn’t expect Lord Atwood to call me again.

It raised my eyebrows, but before I could pick up his call, the door to the room opened, and in came

my roommate. A girl in glasses, probably 5 feet 6 inches tall, two inches shorter than I was and

petite. Her two pigtails of long black hair seemed to weigh her head down. She seemed afraid of

something, even of making eye contact with me.

“Hi, I am Nora, your new roommate,” I said, watching her walk past me to her bed and sit down.

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15-The Bed One

“Hello, I am Natalya,” she whispered under her breath, not even wanting to raise her eyes.

“Hi Natalya, you must be thinking what I am doing in here,” I tried to joke to ease her up, but in

response to my statement, she nodded and clamped her hands in her lap.

It was then that I recognized her face. She was Natalya Hughes, the most bullied girl in our school.

The last I heard of her was a week ago when April and her gang spread a rumor that Natalya was

into kinky stuff. No wonder she was not raising her head. She was embarrassed when she shouldn’t

have been.

“Finally recognized me?” her meek whisper shook me back to reality. I felt bad for staring at her for

too long.

“Of course, who doesn’t know you?” as soon as those words. escaped my lips, she raised her head

and stared at me with her teary eyes.

“The one and only Natalya who wins medals for our pack,” I finished, and a smile crept onto her

lips.

“Come on. Every teacher tells us to be like you. Look at Natalya, she is so good at studies. Why

can’t you all be like her?” I continued to remind her of what she was worth, and her smile kept

growing bigger. I never liked to remind someone of their bad times. Instead, I believed in pointing

out the good in them.

“You are very kind,” she uttered softly. My phone rang again, and this time, shockingly, it was Alpha

Cain.

My frown grew, but quickly put my phone aside and focused on Natalya.

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“You can attend this call if it’s important,” she uttered, but I waved my hand at her.

“It is not. So, why haven’t you been coming to school? Please tell me you are not preparing for the

next quiz, because no one else is. The teachers will once again talk about how perfect you are and

how s**d we are,” my compliments kept making her blush. But I wasn’t wrong though. She was a

gem. That’s what our school teachers said about her. And probably that’s what compelled April and

the others to bully her.

“I don’t think I am ever returning to the pack’s school. I will study privately,” however, her plans for

her future stunned me. But it wasn’t like I hadn’t foreseen it. That was the ultimate mission of the

bully gang. They would only bully until the student had stopped coming to school.

“Natalya–,” I slid closer to the edge when a loud thud and some screaming shook the entire building

into silence. My eyes. widened while Natalya froze in her spot. It was the moment of

acknowledgment of what was happening.

“Everyone run for the basement,” as we heard the calls for safety, Natalya and I got up in haste to

go hide from the monsters arriving. The scary part was that the hostel was standing on top of the

mountains, and the fog had already started to slide through the windows.

“Hold my hand,” I noticed Natalya struggling when reaching for the door, so I held her hand and

helped her out. Everyone was running downstairs in a way that there was no way we could pass

them. And that’s when I realized Natalya was standing too close to the window.

“Natalya! move away from the window,” as I yelled and

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attempted to hold her hand, I realized it was too late. The window shattered before I could Bull her

away, and someone else pulled her away from me