Chapter 36

A stutterer.
Charlotte glanced at her crisp white shirt and gave a small, crooked smile. “Come on, get up.”
“Oh, th-thank you.” The girl scrambled to her feet, stealing shy, curious glances at Charlotte.
She’s so gentle… and so pretty. Honestly, she’s the most beautiful girl I’ve seen at Vanguard.
Charlotte eyed her up and down. Dirt streaked the girl’s cheeks, and there were scrapes on her legs. No doubt about it, she’d been bullied.
“I’ll take you to the school nurse first. After that, I’ll call the police.”
“N-no.” The girl grabbed Charlotte’s hand, shaking her head hard. “I’m fine, really. You… you should go. Don’t let anyone see you with me. I… I don’t want to get you in trouble.”
“Why not?”
“I… I just don’t want to drag you into this.” She wiped her tears away and forced out a big, shaky smile. “Thank you for helping me.”
She doesn’t want to drag me down? Guess she’s already become everyone’s target, Charlotte thought.
A hint of sarcasm flickered across Charlotte’s eyes. This kind of bullying was everywhere, wasn’t it? School might shape some amazing people, but it also turned out its fair share of jerks.
Charlotte didn’t argue. Instead, she led the girl toward the bathroom.
“Let’s clean you up. I’ll help with your cuts.”
Just as they stepped inside, a couple of other girls walked in. The moment they spotted the stutterer, they huddled together, whispered something, then scurried off.
No one else came in after that.
It was like the girl was carrying something contagious.
The stutterer peeked nervously toward the door, her watery eyes trembling. She was about to cry again. “They saw you. Now you’ll… you’ll get in trouble because of me. I’m sorry.”
“No, I won’t.”
Charlotte felt a sharp pang in her chest. She dug two small bottles from her bag and waved the girl over. “Come here,” she said, her voice soft.
The girl wiped her eyes and shuffled over obediently. She was tiny, barely reaching Charlotte’s chin she
hugged herself tightly, shivering like a scared little kitten.
Charlotte grabbed a tissue, dampened it, and gently wiped the ink marks off the girl’s face. Luckily, the marks came off easily.
No one had ever been this gentle with her before. The stutterer’s eyes went red, tears threatening to spill over again.
“Hold it in. No crying,” Charlotte said quietly.
The girl looked up, startled. Charlotte’s cool gaze was enough for her to swallow down her tears.
“Why do they pick on you?” Charlotte asked, finishing up with the tissue and starting to treat the scrapes on her legs.
The girl lowered her head. “Because I I st-stutter. They always make me sing, or… or they pick fights with me on purpose.”
“If I don’t do what they want, they just find new ways to bully me.”
Charlotte’s eyes grew serious. “Why haven’t you told your family or the teachers?”
The girl gave a helpless little smile. “It wouldn’t help.”
“I can’t… can’t explain things right, so nobody believes me. My family… we don’t have money or connections, and I don’t want my grandma to worry.”
No money, no one to help her.
would
Charlotte would find out later that the girl’s parents were gone, and she lived with her elderly grandma. The only reason she got into Vanguard was because she’d won first place in a national physios competition. They made an exception for her
Her stutter, plus her special admission, probably made her a magnet for jealousy.
“How long has this been happening?” Charlotte asked, meeting her eyes as she finished tending the wounds.
The girl put her hands neatly on her
knees, her big eyes shining.
“Th-three years thought if just stayed out of their way, maybe
they’d leave me alone
But she’d been wrong.
Things had only gotten worse. Now, they were even threatening to force her out
before graduation.