Bubble Gum Kisses

**Kapittel 40** ***Vanessa***

**"Vanessa and Friso**, you two will be weeding and watering the entire garden," Ms. Caswell announced. Her voice sounded still prim and proper yet there was a tinge of excitement.

I understood why though. The entire place was a mess. The grass had overgrown so much that they were tall enough to reach my knees and concealed almost the entirety of the stone pathway. It was jam-packed with a variety of flowers and shrubs that had grown, some of their stems were entwined with either the older or dead plants. The bushes had overgrown that they were out of shape, and the weeds looked like they were approaching their prime.

I looked around and noticed that there were patches in the garden that didn't have grasses, and they were dry in particular. There were several fruit-bearing trees, and their overripe fruits dropped on the ground, immediately getting surrounded by hungry fruit flies. The rotten fruits weren't the only junk present, there were also burned cigarette butts, beverage cartons, plastics, and the like. There was even an open trashcan that had different species of flies in them. Though, the most eye-catching in this chaotic scenery was the marble-like fountain that had smears of earth and soot. Its head no longer says water, and the moss-filled water had gone greener than Ms. Caswell's office. With the unruliness of the scene in question, it was no longer a surprise to me to catch sight of a pair of frogs doing an amplexus on it.

In summary, it was obvious this area hadn't been taken care of for a long, long time. It appeared more like an old, abandoned backyard than an untouched garden. This was surprising to me, seeing how meticulous the janitors who clean Trinity Knight were. The floors were always polished and squeaky clean, no marks or even the tiniest speck of dust could be seen or touched on the windows, tables, and chairs, the greenery in the school was conspicuously given the best care, heck, even the parking lot had the cars arranged neatly by size and color!

But of course, there's always a flaw in every supposed perfection. If I were someone who had an office with a garden behind it, I'd probably get depressed if the garden were like this. It was supposed to be a glance at nature amid modernity and faux. It should be likened to a living painting.

"Looks like this garden hasn't been touched for a century." I may have managed to keep my thoughts to myself, but Friso hadn't.

"Oh, darling." Ms. Caswell laughed. Dang, even her laughter sounded green. "It's only been unattended for a week." A week?!

"This was supposed to be under the care of the biology club. However, the club is busy for a national biology olympiad so no one has been able to take care of this place for a while," she explained, making small steps forward into the weeded pathway. "There's a spot where the tools are hidden, come along this way."

"Are there no other students present for the community service, ma'am?" I asked, noticing that there was only Friso and I following behind her. If it was, it'd be a real piece of work, especially with the grass. Seeing that they were already starting to bug my legs when I was just walking, tickling my skin.

"Fortunately, there isn't anyone who went against the rules today." She paused, and I saw her eyes glance at Friso before looking at me. "And most of all, you two, are a special case."

"Wait, I don't understand." I stopped in my tracks. "What does it mean to be a special case?"

"Well..." it took her a while to answer, "This is the only case so far that I received in Trinity High that involves physical violence." I heard the guy behind me snicker when she mentioned the term "physical violence," and I couldn't help but feel flustered again.

She turned around and lead us to a corner near another building beside ours. It didn't take me long to realize that there was a small wooden storage box awaiting our arrival. Ms. Caswell opened it and fished out a rake, sheers, a broom, and a long hose. "These will be the tools that you will use for clearing the garden. Please take care of them and wash them clean after use. You put them back in the box the way you got them. Am I clear?" "Yes, miss."

She closed the box and walked over to the center, just right beside the eye-catching fountain.

"Now, as I said before, you two will be weeding and watering this garden. It's okay if the garden doesn't get spotless overall. I only want the weeds out and the flowers watered, the dead plants gone, and the trash out. Clean the fountain if you can too. Just... just do whatever you can to make this place look presentable," she instructed without wasting a single breath, pointing at every spot that she wanted to be cleared.

"But don't touch the grass even if they're taller than you are though. The biology club won't allow it since they said it's more eco-friendly and saves water. Understood?" she turned her head to look at us with the same stern look she gave us earlier.

Friso and I found ourselves shaking our heads in unison.

"Good." She smiled. "You may later after your classes end. You may go back to your respective classrooms now," she said and finally left.

When the clicking sound of her heels became less and less audible as she was getting farther, someone's familiar, wide frame cast its shadow upon my petite figure. I turned on my feet and found Friso approaching me with a large grin on his face like he just hit a jackpot.

"I guess it's just you and me later today," he said with his casual, arrogant smirk back on his face. God, please deliver me from temptation. Please.

"Whatever," I mugged at him and turned away, walking back to my class. Ms. Caswell was already lenient enough not to put me on the record, and I shouldn't spoil it away.

**I went back to the classroom to continue** with my classes and found my desk trashed. My bag was fine, but several of my things were all over the table and there was trash like crumpled papers, a carton of spoilt milk, and inked marks written all over the desk's surface.

I looked at it nonchalantly, knowing it was someone's form of bullying. It made me wonder how they had done much in a short period, and during the instructor's presence too.

"Miss Hathern, please take your seat," the instructor told me without looking away from the whiteboard.

"Yes, sir," I complied and pulled out my chair, finding it wet with milk. It was probably from the carton. Good thing I brought a handkerchief with me or I'd be fucked.

I sat on my desk quietly after wiping down the viscous milk and heard a faint giggle. I turned my head to where the sound came from and the same girl who talked behind my back when I was walking out earlier. Her eyes were ribbing at me like I was some sort of toy destined to be her newest victim of torture.

The girl beside her smacked her arm and whispered something while looking at me with a heated glare.

I could only shake my head and focused on listening to the class. Thankfully, there weren't any more taunts that happened the entire time, and my classmates in my other classes were generous enough to only gossip behind my back, and not actually harass me. It was enough to tell me that they were the cowardly kind. Funny.

The entire afternoon passed like a minute and I found myself walking down the crowded halls with a legion staring at me painstakingly like a security camera. I'd be lying if I said that I was comfortable, but I had no choice but to act like I was or they'd pounce on me at any time. I clasped my books tightly around my arms. I only need to put these in my locker, grab some of my stuff and leave for community service.

I thought I was gonna arrive at my locker safe and still sane. But boy oh boy, I was wrong.

In front of my locker was a busy clique. I could tell they were the "popular" group since they stand out too much from this blending crowd. They were laughing and making fun of each other with their voices so loud that it made me think they were doing it on purpose. One guy was leaning exactly on my locker and was rubbing his shoulder on it like a cat marking his territory. I just hope he wasn't rubbing anything unusual on it though.

I took a deep breath and mustered the courage to talk to them, kicking the growing social anxiety in my chest. All I need to do was to talk to them, if ever they react negatively to me since they were like everyone else then I'd just bark back. I know people like them, they were afraid of embarrassing themselves, especially in public.

Taking one more deep breath, I took my first step forward toward them.

**

Thank you for reading Bubble Gum Kisses! To keep up with my work, future works, and endless frustrations on Twitter:

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