Behind the Mask [Inactive]

Emmie's classes were pure hell. She was the only one in most of her classes without a mask, and she could swear by the stares that she got that the lesson was about her bare face, not what was on the board.


She tried her best ignoring the stares, but she couldn't help throwing a few dirty looks to those who stared too long. God, is was like eyes were on her twenty-four seven.


Emmie sighed heavily as the bell rang, and she pushed the other kids away from the door so that she could leave first.


"Watch where you're going, freak!" She heard someone yell, and laughs erupted.


"She's like those other maskless freaks"


"How could anyone leave their house like that?"


Emmie bit back tears.
 
Conoll bit his lip as he tweaked the wires inside the device with a small pair of tweezers. Just... One... Last... Move... THERE! He threw his hand up into the air in achievement. Finally! He pressed the button on it, and threw it into the air, allowing it to deploy. It floated in the air for an entire minute before being blown off course, and into the dirt beside him. Amazing, just amazing. He had finally perfected the tech he had been working on for months now. Screwing off the top, he jammed a piece of paper inside of it. Standing, he ran off for the bus stop, grabbing his bag as he stumbled out from under the bridge.
 
Quinn grinned when she saw that Edgar had seen her and waved enthusiastically. Adela's masked face stayed positioned so that it was obvious she was staring at Quinn. When Quinn noticed she looked back at her, brows raised. "What?"


"Nothing I guess." Adela said evasively.


Quinn sighed. "You're going to tell me sooner or later.... why not just now?"


"Well... if you want me to make a fool of you..." Adela said. Quinn had a feeling she had on an evil expression as she grabbed Quinn's arm and began pulling her towards Edgar and another boy.


"Hey! What are you doing?! Stop it... I don't think Edgar and I are like... well... close enough to like bug each other in the halls!" Quinn argued.


"Too bad. I want to meet him. After hearing so much about these so called members of your new club I want to get to know some of them. And I remember he's the one that came up with the name, right?"


"It's not concrete, yet."


"Still. You said he's really supportive so let's go talk to him!"


"We're going to make him late for class! Worse, we're going to be late for class! Look... we can see about finding him at lunch! That way you have a better chance to talk to him! And we can find the others too like Connel and Emmie and Contessa."


Adela heaved a sigh but, after checking her watch, realized Quinn was right. She gave up, giving Edgar a wave as well before turning to head to class.


Quinn's classes went by relatively slowly. There were still people who would throw wadded up pieces of paper at her when the teacher wasn't looking but it wasn't as often. She had learned not to respond- if you don't respond they don't get quite as much pleasure out of it and the want to do it died down until it was non-existent.
 
Edgar had shaky hands as he reached forward to grab Chris' shoulders. He considered himself tall but not as tall as his friend, his shoulders a bit higher than his own.


"My boys all grown up," Edgar sighed pushing him away, when they where such opposites you wouldn't imagine them to be friends. All he knew about Quinn was her name, they weren't close and he wanted to explain that but saw it was now useless.


And looked back over at Quinn to see the girl she had be talking to half dragging her a crossed the halls floor. Edgar raised his eyebrows in shock as his fingers clenched his old journal even tighter when it seemed they where bickering while they moved towards them. His shoulders tensed when it seemed they where coming towards him, the other girls mask though hiding her face Edgar could see a mischievous grin on the girls face. But it seemed Quinn had told her something which stopped her and when she waved, he cracked a small smile and waved back before Chris slung his arm over his shoulders.


"Come on Casanova." His masked friend joked, this taking Edgar back a bit and causing him to take a mental note to ask what a...Casanova was later. But knew it was something so he mumbled just as they entered their first period,


"Irriterende(annoying)" The bell ringing just as they took their seats.


His day going by slowly, all he could think about was sitting down and truly digging deep into his Norwegian to English book during lunch. Edgar's eyes always seemed to fall on his bag where it was, throughout his whole morning. It being the only thing that kept his mind off of the idiotic boy behind him who continuously flicked him in the back of the head.
 
Lunch had never been Emmie's favorite part of the day, even when she had worn her mask. She had a group of girls that she used to sit with, but now that table was empty and they had moved somewhere else.


She contemplated finding Quinn and Contessa and the rest of the group, but she hated looking lost while searching for people who may not even be in the same lunch as her.


Emmie moved toward the lunch line, and then she was attacked.


The punch that connected with her jaw wasn't a hard one, but she was so utterly shocked that she just stood there, looking pretty stupid, mouth ajar.


It was the second punch that woke Emmie up. She grabbed the girl by her blond hair (cat fight eh?) and punched her square in the nose with a WACK. But the now bloodied girl was not weak in the least, and soon Emmie found herself on the ground.


And then she saw a mask on the floor.
 
Chris dragged Edgar through the zoo like halls once the bell rang for lunch, Chris explaining what they had learned in the period sprinkling a 'it was boring' and a 'wait that doesn't matter I think' throughout his backtracking sentences. But soon he gave up when he noticed Edgar still didn't quite understand what his friend was saying,


"Anyways, you're coming with me to lunch." Chris informed orderly to Edgar, who was about to groan truthfully knowing that if he came to lunch with him he wouldn't get any reading done. But stopped himself when they entered the lunchroom and Edgar halted seeing Emmie on the ground with a bleeding girl standing above her. Chris followed his gaze and sighed,


"That's what I worry about, you getting hurt man." But he was already jogging a crossed the lunchroom to Emmie, only seeing his step sister on the ground in his mind. Edgar's face full of worry as he shoved pass a forming crowd and slid to a stop and grabbed the blonde girlis shoulder to stop her from doing anything. Though he didn't quite know Emmie, he wouldn't allow anyone that he knows is a good person to get hurt.
 
As per usual some classes were fascinating and other classes were rather difficult not to fall asleep in for Quinn. Thankfully Band had never been a boring class and she loved that it was right before lunch because it got her pumped full of energy from the good songs played. She always thought it was kind of lame how people who had full masks that didn't have holes for mouths actually couldn't participate in wind instruments and they were automatically sorted to percussion. Quinn had been one of those students but the band teacher had been a fairly cool guy and after school he would stay after and teach her trumpet when she didn't have practice- and on days that he could he would stay after practice to help her work though it... so that when she finally did take off her mask she could join int he section she had always wanted to be in- the Trumpet section.


Today Quinn stayed a little longer than usual to speak to the professor so it was a rather flustered Adela who stood impatiently outside the band room (Adela just wasn't a instrument person. Or a sport person... it was kind of lame for Quinn not to have her best friend at her side in activities that she loved but...well she could cope). They headed to lunch together and both paused at the crowd that had formed, making it impossible to see what was going on.


Adela, being the go getter of the two friends, grabbed Quinn's arm and soon the two of them were weaving/shoving through the crowd to see what was at the center. Once the seen was assessed Adela went to work attempting to get the crowd to disperse. Quite honestly it didn't work very well since so many masks wanted to see the maskless people get beat up but that didn't stop Adela from beginning to shout her endless string of creative threats at them. Quinn was shoved by Adela to Edgar and Emmie's sides but not close enough to truly be in range to help or get caught in the situation. She was kind of just standing there awkwardly... unsure what to really do.
 
The crowd gave a somewhat collective gasp at the mask that toppled to the floor- and cracked. It belonged to the girl Emmie had punched.


Emmie stared at the bloody girl who now had her hands over her face, her own lip swelling at she did so.


"My mask!" she said through her fingers, and what sounded like tears.


Emmie slowly stood up.
 
Edgar looked down at the mask and back up at the blonde, removing his hand from her shoulder and looked back at Emmie. Seeing her stand it reassured him that she wasn't to hurt and he looked back to the bully. And brought his hands up and timidly toke her wrists and lowered her hands smiling at the sight of her face. Hoping to show her that it was okay to not wear a mask, but was ready for rejection or to be shouted in the face. Maybe this is what they needed to do though, sure they'd be beaten up for what they do but maybe they just needed to show how it was fine to not wear a mask.
 
Quinn hadn't even noticed that the girl wasn't wearing a mask. She noticed the mask a few moments later with spider-web cracks running through it- chips in the edges where it had clattered to the floor as well. She moved to pick it up, seeing as Emmie was standing and Quinn was curious as to the damage done to the mask. It made her sad to here the girl... why were these masks so important? What had happened to make society want to hide their faces. She lifted the mask carefully, wondering whether to bring it over to the girl or not... she was still confused as to what had even taken place. She noticed Edgar pulling the girls hands away from her own face and Quinn waited to see how the girl would react, eyes flicking to Emmie every now and then to see how she was fairing.
 
The girl's face was bloated and red now as she yanked her hands from Edgar's grip.


"You freaks did this to me!" She cried, picking up the cracked mask and waving it between Edgar and Emmie, as if trying to emphasize the damage. The crowd shifted and whispered.


Suddenly, Emmie had an idea. She took her phone from her pocket, activated the reverse camera, and turned the screen of the phone to the girl, so that she could see her own face. "Look at yourself!" She cried out, as the girl gasped, pushing away the phone.


"Look at how beautiful you are! You are crying over a mask!"





Emmie snatched the mask from her grip, some screams and gasps erupted from the crowd as she threw it to the ground so that it now sprinkled the floor in millions of tiny shattered pieces.


The girls face showcased such horror, and fear, with blood staining her nose and cheek, and her hair knotted and messy.


Emmie shoved the phone back into the girls hands.


"Look at how beautiful you are," she whispered.
 
Contessa sighed pushing her hair out of her face and looked up atBenny. He was a tally burly football player who was built like a brick wall. She was walking into the lunch room and he went straight to her. "Come on. You have to see this!" he said pulling her to the crowd. "Benny I just want to eat lunch." She said with a sigh and clung to him as he pulled her onto his shoulders so that she could see over the crowd. "Don't drop me!" She whispered her hands clinging to his head. Her eyes widened to see Emmie throwing a mask to a floor and shoving a phone into the the hands of a girl with a bloody nose. "No way! You go girl!" She said excitedly only loud enough for Benny to hear her as she cheered on Emmie. Benny laughed and looked up at Contessa her face lit up with excitement. "Looks like your little club is really making a difference." He said patting her thigh. "Good Job, Hippie." He said with a laugh and waited to see what would happen next.
 
Edgar stepped back from the girl when she began to throw a tantrum much like a child, and stood beside Emmie proudly. He was glad he had met such people, them all having good intentions in the end. Even if they only knew one another by their names and their club was only a day old they still where determined. He loved it, and hoped none of them would get hurt due to it.


Edgar found himself smiling as Emmie shoved the phone into the girls face, feeling over joyed. But was suddenly grabbed by the forearm, wincing at the contact before turning to see a worried Chris.


"This might turn into something, and I don't want you in there when it does." He tugged Edgar out of the center of the crowd and through the circle though his silent protests. If something may happen he didn't want anyone to be alone. But Chris though his lower intelligence out matched Edgar in strength and easily dragged him out of the lunch room. Peoples glares burning into them.
 
Quinn watched in amazement as Emmie threw the mask down, shattering it. It kind of made her flinch at the sound of the mask shattering. Even in all her rebellion Quinn had never injured or mistreated her mask and felt like a part of her would break if she did... so she felt for the blonde girl. However, when she listened to Emmie's insistence that the girl look at how beautiful she was she felt respect for Emmie flood through her. The blonde girl really was beautiful... but so were all the people who didn't wear masks.


Adela nudged Quinn's arm, making her flinch again. "Romeo is leaving without you guys." She said, pointing out that Edgar was being pulled away. "It might be best if we leave too... that girl that broke the mask is going to have hell to pay for that." Adela added, tugging insistently on Quinn's arm as well.


Quinn didn't want to leave Emmie but...she had to think about the club. If she got caught in this situation with Emmie she could get into a lot of trouble and they could lose the club... In the end Quinn allowed herself to be pulled away as well, disappearing back into the crowd. It wasn't like she could do anything to help anyway. Once they were free from the group of people Adela stopped, wanting to see how this all turned out. Quinn, however, kept moving... deciding to follow Edgar and his friend to see if he was alright as well... and it didn't hurt that Adela had told her to get out of the lunch room completely because she could still be called out since she wasn't wearing a mask.
 
Chris continued to walk down the hall even when they had turned a corner, finally slowing down once they entered the library. It confused Edgar when Chris did things like this, cared about him. He'd always think of Edgar more then he did himself, like an older brother.


Once they finally stopped Chris collapsed into a plastic seat at one of the tables,


"Why did you just run into that man? I'm the crazy one in this duo, your the..." He paused a moment, "uh...silent voice of reason." Edgar snorted at his statement before sitting down himself as he placed his book bag on the table. Out of the corner of his eye he noticed the familiar girl that seemed to be everywhere he seemed to look now. Quinn. Edgar didn't see it as a problem waving her over a small smile on his face. Chris noticed this and looked over at Quinn, nodding a greeting to her. He was all for those without masks, and would do it himself if it weren't for his Track scholarship. Sports was all he had going for himself so this was his only way to get into College. And though he hasn't really talked to Quinn he still noticed her when she performed in sports.
 
Contessa slowly started to see the backs of people instead of over their heads. They were growing smaller too. She didn't understand at first until she was firmly set on the ground. "Benny I wanted to see the rest." She said with a frown and looked up at him. He simply shook his head. His mask was simple and showed the emotion of pain. She didn't understand his mask since Benny had always been jovial around her and there seemed to be happiness in his voice when they spoke. "No. Were going to the library, Where's the library?" He asked. Contessa sighed and face palmed leading him to the library. She looked around and saw Quinn and the silent boy. She bit her lip and went to sit with them. "May we?"She asked taking a seat and Benny pulled up a chair sitting next to her. He looked around the table and nodded to the other masked faces. "So were just going to hide out in the library?"Contessa asked "How much trouble will she be in?" She asked her eyes going to Quinn first and then the silent boy.
 
Quinn would have smiled and waved at Contessa if the guilt of leaving Emmie wasn't so actively eating at her. She had been glad to be invited to sit down but had remained quiet, trying to think of something she could do. Pretty much everything led to putting her mask back on and even then she wouldn't be able to help out much. She hoped that Adela would see about helping Emmie... if there was any way for her to.


"We're not hiding." Quinn snapped immediately before regretting it. She put her face in her hands. Hiding was exactly what they were doing. "We can't do anything to help her... we don't have masks so that makes anything we believe invalid. We just don't matter without masks." Quinn said dejectedly. It was tearing at her that she couldn't do anything. Her wanting to check on Edgar had quickly gone into anything she could think of that might be able to help but everything had led to a dead end and she was beginning to become flustered.


"I have a feeling she might be expelled if she's not just suspended." Quinn added softly. "Breaking someone else's mask... there's pretty much nothing worse that you can do..." Quinn rubbed at her eyes, trying to remove the burning that had started up there. "She's going to get into a lot of trouble and there's nothing we can do..."
 
Edgar bit his lower lip knowing they had been beat, he ran a hand through his bangs disappointed in himself for leaving Emmie. And stood up out of his chair about to go back and try to help her in any way he could but Chris grabbed him wrist making him wince.


"Your probably just going to get in trouble also so sit." Chris ordered and tugged him back into his seat, before nudging with his chin over to Quinn. Edgar understood and opened his bag and slipped his hand in to grab his notebook before walking over to Quinn. And slowly begn to write,


'Everyone who believed in something started with nothing, everything started out with nothing but knowledge. And one person always holds more then others that one person having some sort've of idea that could change the world. You where that one person, but now you have us as well. We hold more courage then anyone else, and we have better intentions then society. But due to our differences, and due to our rebellion it will seem as though we are not seen as equals, or people. But if we continue with determination, others may join. And when others join, us. You. The people that started this whole revolution of the mask less will matter to everyone. But first we have to endure all of this...' He finished writing and set his pencil in the middle of the notebook, slightly embarrassed of writing so much. But he didn't want anyone to give up just because at the moment they didn't seem to matter.
 
The crowd had begun to disperse, mumbling and spreading the word of that days events at lunch.


"She broke her mask!"


"What the hell?"


"Who started it?"


"She broke her mask?"


The girl's hand quivered around the phone. She peered into her own brown eyes, and gazed at the fullness of her lips, her cheekbones, her nose that slightly curved up. She gasped when she smiled, she had never really seen herself smile! And then she laughed!


Everyone has heard laughter, of course, but there is no sight like seeing someone laugh. She had laughed!


Tears still trailed down her face, and Emmie felt tears trailing down her cheek, dripping off her chin. Her eyes met with the girl's momentarily.


She handed the phone back like it was something she shouldn't be touching, and took a very deep, measured breath.


"I'm Kimberly." The girl said.
 
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Quinn read through what Edgar wrote and tears began to fall, making it difficult to read everything he had wrote. Reacting on impulse (and just to say, yes, I personally have done this before so yes I could see Quinn doing this) after finishing with what Edgar wrote she stood and hugged him, fighting not to just cry into his shoulder. "You're right. I'm sorry... I just... " Quinn said, pulling away almost immediately. Tears had begun to fall faster thanks to the absolute frustration that Quinn felt on the whole situation and that she had to be reminded to be strong. She was glad she wasn't alone anymore... it meant so much to her that she couldn't express it in words. Feeling embarrassed at her show of emotion Quinn attempted to wipe the tears away, hoping they would stop. "You're right and... and I know but.... I needed the reminder so I really appreciate it."
 
When Emmie ended up in the principal's office, there was only one word to describe her emotions:


Furious.


She didn't pay attention to the man explaining her suspension, and how such conduct is absolutely unacceptable, and that her actions were quite "radical". Radical! She huffed in her mind, as if she were some terrorist!





What Emmie's mind roared with were thoughts and questions as to why her club members didn't support her in that instance, and how they could have just walked away? Emmie bit her lip as the principal called her mother.


It was true, Emmie was lucky not to have been expelled, but her record was very clean, with no past offenses and pretty good reviews from teachers each year. After all, "this is just a period of teenage angst. Oh, they all go through something of the sort. It will pass in no time at all!"


Emmie felt like screaming, and it was even worse knowing that the news would spread like wildfire. It would either project positive reactions, (which was 80% unlikely), or it could provoke an outlash that Emmie didn't know if she could handle.


As she thought about it, she stared at the principal with his masked, stoic expression that conveyed nothing more than a straight line for a mouth, and what looked like cursive written all over it in tiny, illegible print.


Emmie straightened her back in her seat, and nodded as the principal told her her mother would be there shortly.
 
Edgar found himself smiling as he held up a finger and quickly turned around and set his notebook on the tables wooden surface. Before rummaging through the contents of his bag to find what he was searching for, about to give up he then finds a small pack of tissues he always carried around. He took them out and as he stepped in a half circle until he was facing Quinn once again, he snuck his index and thumb inside the package and dragged out one of the white soft tissues before holding it out to her.


"Oh Romeo oh Romeo, where art though barf bag for I might throwith uppith." Chris spoke behind them in a groan, causing Edgar's cheeks to once more feel as though they where on fire as he turned round and threw the tissue bag at him embarrassed. It hitting Chris in the chest who once touched by the fluffy package pretended to fall backwards in his chair holding where he was hit.


"Oh my god someone! Someone call a doctor I think one of the tissues might have one of his boogers on it. I fear I'm dying!" Chris cried out though they where in a library. This statement making Edgar's cheeks grow even redder, feeling like a complete idiot. Count on Chris to do that to you.


"Oh my godhet Jeg kommer til å drepe deg, du pinlig drittsekk!(oh my goodness I'm going to kill you, you embarrassing bastard!)" He spoke with his hands tugging his hair, though he knew they didn't understand him.
 
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Quinn accepted the tissue gratefully, her face heating rapidly at the other boy's comments. She recognized him from the Track team at least but couldn't remember his name. She had quite honestly stopped thinking about the people who were around and suddenly felt bad for putting Edgar in an embarrassing situation. She couldn't help but laugh at him though, as he reacted dramatically. When Edgar started speaking rapidly in another language Quinn felt her eyes widen.


"Your friend is a goofball, Edgar." Quinn replied, patting his shoulder awkwardly. It didn't take knowing what he said to know the emotion he was feeling (though some languages kind of just sound like the person is angry all the time). She had wiped away the tears by now and they had stopped falling. "I appreciate that he's foolish." Quinn added, her smile a bit watery but otherwise genuine.


Quinn waved at him. "I'm Quinn by the way, if you didn't know." She said to Edgar's friend. Feeling a hand on her shoulder she nearly jumped out of her skin before realizing it was Adela. "And this is my friend Adela." Quinn added, gesturing an introduction between Adela and Edgar and Edgar's friend, as well as Contessa and Contessa's friend.


"They took Emmie to the principal's office... but that girl, she kind of looked grateful after she got a good look at her face." Adela informed.
 
Edgar pinched the bridge of his nose sighing like a stressed parent, but soon chuckled foolishly before flicking Chris in the middle of his forehead and crouching down to pick up his packet of tissues to set them back inside his bag. As Chris rubbed his forehead pretending to look hurt before turning to Quinn and introducing himself,


"Chris, Milady." He pretended to bow without standing before leaning back into his chair, and waving his hand in a small greeting to Adela.


While Edgar rubbed his index finger and thumb together at his side, it being an old habit he would often do when nervous. He for a moment became lost in his thought but snapped out of his daze when Adela's friend brought up the blonde girl. What she informed them of bringing a grateful grin to his face, though he still worried for Emmie.
 
Emmie stared at her mother in disdain as she held her hand out in front of her, "You're grounded. Phone."


Her mother's attempt at scolding was almost funny. Emmie had never been a bad kid, so her mom was kind of new in this aspect. But Emmie found herself frustrated as she tried to explain herself.


"It was the right thing to do, I swear. It's a mask, it's so stupid. How can you accept hiding your face, hiding who you are, from the world." She searched her mother's face, well, mask, and sighed when there was no response. Emmie just trudged to her room, ignoring her request for her phone.


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


When Kim walked the halls after that day at lunch, it was like someone had died. Everyone greeted her with words like "I'm sorry that happened," "Are you okay?"


When she was in the bathroom, cleaning the blood from her face, she took the time to really look at herself in the mirror. She ran her fingers through her hair, and made a mustache out of a few strands. Then she furrowed her eyebrows, puffed her cheeks, amazed at all the things her face could so.


It was hard for her to admit, but without her mask, she felt kind of... Free. Kimberly bit her lip, feeling guilty for this thought, as her two closest friends came in.


"Oh my god," Gwen said


"She is SO totally a bitch. That club is, like, friggin insane." added Heather.


Kim stared at their masks, probably the prettiest in the school, and sighed.


"I'm glad she did it," Kim said, and smirked as their expressions dropped. "I might even join them"
 
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