Dear Lina,

Lina wakes up for school, she runs the sleep out of her tired chestnut eyes and sits in bed slowly turning her head to her shabby night stand, the alarm clock reads 10:28, she’s late. She curses to herself as she hurriedly gets dressed and does her daily morning routine, combing her short boyish hair and setting her glasses on the bridge of her nose. She usually wore the same type of clothes everyday, some old jeans and a jacket.
She wasn’t much of a fashionista like the other girls at school, in fact she didn’t even look like a girl, it was made very known by her bullies but she didn't mind not looking like everyone else.

It was a few weeks into school and she was already picking up problems, Julianna Bulgara and her little minions loved to pick on people, especially Lina.
She walks out of her bedroom and lazily treads through her kitchen to get to the front door, her mom, small in comparison to her daughter, stops her in her tracks.
“Lina, why did you wake up late? Your brother already left the house a while ago…”

She stares down blankly at the short woman, usually she’d catch a ride with him to school, made mandatory by her mom but she hated it, because the fact of the matter is that her step brother Ryan did not like her one bit, he hung out with the popular crowd and she was the school’s loner nerd, also adding the fact that Lina’s mother supposedly “took his moms place” did not help. Lina and her new step dad barely talked, he wasn’t an issue but it was irritating just to look at him, sometimes the house gets desolate when the only person you're willing to talk to is your overworked mother. She preferred this rather than talking to the foreigners.
“He is not my brother, mother… we already talked about this”

Her mom huffed and turned away to finish whatever task she was doing previously, most likely packing her lunch as she usually did for her long shifts at the hospital, turning back to her daughter with a sympathetic glint on her exhausted pale face.

“Look I know it’s hard for you to move on but… this is our family now, try to like it”

Is all she said, Lina only sighed at the repetitive statement made by her mother.

“It's your family, not mine.”
She didn't need a new family, she was perfectly good on her own with her mom, it made her blood boil that her mom could just replace dad like that. She hated the way she would catch her mother hugging the strangers that now plagued her household, the way she would smile while chatting with the jerk teen boy she mistakenly called her “son”, the way the cruel boy would shove her away after each and every hug.

She gripped her bag strap almost to the point of breaking it, glaring at her desperate mother before going over to the door to leave her empty house in an uncomfortable silence.

At school, it was the same old thing, except this time Julianna ended up being late to school at the same time, what an amazing coincidence. They pointed each other a sharp petty stare before walking into the worn down school gates.

While in school it was the same old thing again, everyday doing her work and getting picked on, on her lunch break she heard some girls chit chatting about Julianna talking smack about a girls family member, she scoffed and rolled her eyes, Julianna always did this type of thing, she loved to bring people down just because she thought she was better than everyone else, lina never understood why anybody would ever waste a breathe degrading people she barely knew. The people at her school didn't like her, sure, but she’d just leave it be instead of being vain, her thoughts swarmed as they usually did, until she heard a key word in the girls dumb rambling.

“-nd she said that lina’s dad took his own life, and that's the reason why she hates everyone. It’s honestly pretty messed up but i got to admit julianna does have a point…” the chubby girl trailed off.

Linas ears rang with rage, she was used to the bullying but nobody had talked about her dad in years, this was a whole new low.

Without thinking she stormed over to where the popular crowd was sitting, fists clenching angrily at her sides. She angrily shouted at Julianna about her harsh comments about her father. Ryan only looked at her with embarrassment and disgust, the guy never really cared about what she did at school as long as it didn't involve him, but now she was embarrassing him in front of his friends.

“You have no right to talk about my father like that” she barked out.

Julianna and her friends, including the hesitant Ryan, laughed in Lina’s face
The brunette stood up, proud and tall amongst the sea of people crowded around her table. Her emerald eyes shimmered with the hostile nature of a poisonous snake.
“I'm only telling the truth, maybe try seeing a shrink instead of being a pain in the butt about our project.” Julianna barked out.

Lina balled up her fist, trying to hold back the rage boiling inside her system, but Julianna kept laughing. Was the girl really this mad about a stupid project?!. Everyone around her was laughing and her ears still rang, and rang, and rang. Lina let out a heavy breath and turned to step away from the situation, trying to calm herself.

“By the way, can you do me a favor ” Julianna said in a condescending tone, her friends only snickered in anticipation, lina knew what she was about to say, it didn't make it any more painless. Julianna glared down at her back with a malicious scowl.
“Go tell your dad I said hi.”

At this everyone's laughs grew into cackles, she knew what the other meant. One last time she tried to just leave it be like all of the other times but she could only feel the fury contaminating her every inch. She turned around swiftly and threw a vicious punch at Julianna. A fight broke out and everyone gathered to watch.

Not long after the tussle, the principal broke up the crowd and dragged them to her office, they snuck glares at each other in anger and sat in the big purple colored office, a now simmering rage resting upon their scuffed up faces.

“I can’t believe you two would do something like this. I honestly expected better from the cheer captain and our top student.” she gives them a disapproving look, before putting a finger to her chin as if a sudden idea just thrusted itself upon her. The principal crosses her arms authoritatively before speaking in an almost disappointed tone

“Look… the two of you have been at eachothers throats since the start of your highschool careers. There is no doubt in my mind that you are talented and smart individuals but this behavior has gone on long enough. If this continues I have no choice but to fail you girls.”
Lina looks up at the woman in horror, this is the only thing she has going for her if she fails a grade not a single one of her dream colleges will accept her.

She tugs on the drawstrings of her indigo jacket in an anxious spiral, the principal speaks up once again.
“If you two can’t get along on your own, I have a great proposition for you… you will study together and do community service hours at the place of your choosing, Lina you will tutor Julianna with mathematics and julianna you will document every tutoring or community service session you have so i can you two followed my orders, there will be no fuss, ands, or buts. Of course if you want to fail the school year that's also an option”
They sat there in silence for a second in shock before the pair protested profusely.

“M-Ma’am you can't possibly be serious this is extremely illogica-”

“Miss Powell i don't need tutoring especially from he-”
The principle puts a hand up, silencing them and giving them a conclusive look to their conversation. She hands them each a packet of paper, seemingly a schedule to figure out what times would be good for mandatory tutoring and community service. It's empty for now.
“If i don't get these packets back filled by the end of the week, you two will be suspended.” the stern woman concluded.

They walk out of the principals offices and look at each other as they are about to part ways, an undeniable displeased tension in the air.
“This is all your fault…” the tanned skinned girl hissed.
“My fault?…” she scoffs “whatever” lina says while holding her strap, walking away without a word, earning an annoyed huff from julianna and the clacking of the girl’s heels getting smaller and smaller down the empty hallway…

Thursday during lunch Lina pondered on the bleachers, Julianna is not the type to comply especially in the situation they stood in. As long as she could remember she had always been the town’s little princess, and a stuck up brat in no one’s eyes but Lina.

In kindergarten the little weasel stole all her crayons and proceeded to smash them, she then got off scott free. In the 3rd grade Julianna pushed her into a mud puddle on the way home from school. In 7th grade julianna spread a rumor that lina made fanfiction about two teachers at their junior high. In 10th grade Julianna and her friends put wads of gum into her hair, she had to cut it off.

Lina sighed and combed through her short black hair at the memory, it wasn’t too long ago, it’s probably been only a few months by the way her hair is looking now. She shrugged, whipping out her thick book, accidentally letting a packet slip out of her bag.

Lina grimly studied the paper, now slightly disheveled on the floor in front of her. Empty for now, only for now, soon she'd have to deal with Julianna for more than a school day. How would Julianna even manage documenting these “hangouts” she wasn't really known for being a good writer or photographer like Lina.

She was the lone member of the photography club and helped the school news, it wasn't like julianna even owned a camera or anything so what was she going to do?.

A loud clanky foot step on the silver bleachers echoed out, snapping the muttering Lina out of her thoughts.

She looked up in shock, only to find Julianna staring back at her, she looked back down dismissively to read her chunky book. The other climbed a few rows before stopping in front of the girl with her hands now cupping her broad hips, clearly peeved.

“Are you seriously ignoring me right now?!” she narrowed her sharp jade eyes, the one usually filled with malice currently filled with something akin to… desperation?

The dark haired girl let out a sharp exasperated sigh before slamming the book closed, Slightly startling the tanned woman.

“What else would I be doing right now, it's not like I'm trying to read or anything ” she sarcastically rolled her eyes at the other.

Julianna stood tall, as she usually did, and looked angrier than before. “You can’t be real right now, we literally have to fill ou-”

Lina tuned her out.

Oftentimes Lina would tune things out and just observe, it was better than hearing the other yapping. The others glossy lips moved, nothing was heard as Lina got trapped in thought. She would be lying if she said Julianna wasn’t intoxicatingly good looking, because everyone knew that and so did she. Her caramel chocolate twisted hair was always perfectly done, her eyes were like the deepest of forests, and her skin shined like gold. Sometimes it would make lina get lost in thought as she did now.

It didn’t make Lina hate her any less but she understood why all the guys in school were obsessed, she was the perfect girl physically, they probably only knew the outside and wanted to know nothing else, just as shallow as her.

Her skirts and shirts were the sizes of a belt and somehow she never got dress-coded. Everyone at this dumb school was encapsulated by her beauty like a sailor to a siren. Pathetic.

The girl couldn’t hear nor did she want to hear a word Julianna was saying, her lips moved with intensity that only she could manage. Barely at that, she never really cared about what the other had to say until it got personal, like now. Lina let out a careless yawn.

“-RE YOU EVEN PAYING ATTENTION!” Julianna crossed her arms furiously. The sound surprised the other to the point of flinching.

“Oh uh.. my bad” she embarrassingly scratched the back of her neck.

“We have to turn this thing in tomorrow or we’re suspended, remember four eyes?” Julianna exasperatedly put her arms up.

“…What days are you free?” She reluctantly asked the other, now making direct eye contact.

“Well… principal Powell said that we have to do this four days out of each week.” She stoically stated.

Lina looked up at the girl with and undoubtedly stunned face, four days out of the week. Was this woman insane???

“I- … are you serious?” Lina nervously adjusted her glasses.

The other only sighed and handed her a little piece of paper. She backed up and went down the steps, lina heard the click of her heels for a few moments before it was gone completely. She opened the tiny paper up.

It read “my phone number xxx-xxx-xxxx don’t spread this crap around, dork” what the hell.

Lina sat on her bed, staring down at the piece of paper in her lap. Contemplating whether she should give the others phone a ring, even though they had to work together this just seemed weird, her phone number? Maybe this really is important to Julianna.

She flipped open her indigo phone and hesitantly pressed the corresponding numbers. The windows let in some of the salty warm sea air from the nearby sea, grazing some of Lina’s milky skin.

The phone rang, and rang, and rang, before a beep. Her hands started to shake and she broke out into a cold sweat, she had never called anyone on the phone but her mom.

“Hello?” A disinterested voice uttered on the other line. Sweat was everywhere. Sweaty. Sweat. Sweat.

“H-heh… sweat” she nervously said, wait, WHAT.

“W-what? Is this some kind of prank”

“S-SORRY, it’s me Lina” she squeakily replied. Embarrassing.

“Oh… hey dork, are we going to do the schedule thing now or what?”

Lina let out a pathetic whimper before clearing the cracks out of her voice.

“Um yeah sure we can do th-”

“Mondays and Wednesdays are good, maybe Tuesdays too.“

“Actually tuesdays are a no-go, I have club that day”

“With who, yourself?” A loud cackle could be heard on the other side of the phone, Lina sighed.

“Very funny” she muttered.

The laughs died down and she heard the shuffling of fabric in the background.
“How about thursdays”

“I need a day in between break from you, how about we do Monday, Wednesday, friday, and Sunday-“

“I ain’t wasting my weekend on a freak like you, out of the question.” lina could feel the snarl Julianna was pulling from the other side of the phone, unbelievable.

“If we don’t work together we’ll be expelled, this is the only way I’m agreeing.” She firmly stated.

There was a irritated groan “fine… but no more than an hour.”

“That’s perfectly fine by me” she adjusted in her bed, sitting at the edge “wouldn’t want to spend more than that with you anyway” she spitefully mumbled under her breath.

“What was that?” A serious voice asserted.

“Nothing. Bye” she nervously replied before closing her phone and throwing it to a nearby pillow on the floor.

She stood up from her rustic bed and walked over to the windowsill, sitting awfully close to the edge. The sea breeze grew lukewarm, Lina knew the slight chills of the autumn season would be on the horizon, yet it didn’t feel right. The whole situation made her feel off, like this was all a bad dream, but it wasn’t. She pinched herself for good measure. It wasn’t.

…