HURDLES

Chapter Nine

Do fairy tales exist?

This question if thrown out would get a lot of opinions. To some especially teenagers, it exist. To others, it doesn't exist. To the minorities, it exist but only in movies.

Claire couldn't care less of others opinion. To her, everyone has their own fairy tale story. She believed that a fairy tale was a storyline where the protagonist has a happy ending and everyone wanted that. One could create or ruin his/her fairy tale.

She has always wanted a fairy tale for herself. In the picture she painted, she wanted to graduate school, get a regular job that wouldn't have her feeding from hand to mouth like her family was about to become.

She was about to ruin that picture perfect story with her recent decision and she knew that but something had to be done and as fast as possible. After considering the pros and cons of what she was about to venture into, she had come to a decision. Though the cons were greater than the pros, she needed the pros now more than ever.

As she made her way to class from the assembly hall, she continued to twirl her decision around in her mind. What if she was caught at the first attempt, then the purpose of the risk would be terminated before it even started.

"Yo" Henry shouted startling her out of her thoughts as he appeared abruptly in front of her. "Have you submitted your result to the school?"

"No" she replied without missing a step and bypassed him.

"Are you okay?" He asked going after her. "Are you okay? What's the problem?"

Claire didn't answer his questions. She kept walking. She simply wanted to be left alone with her problems. She didn't like to burden others with her problems. She hated to be indepted to anyone and what other way to achieve that but to ignore Henry and hope he goes away.

"Come on Claire. I know you are doing that your 'ignore the problem till it goes away' tactics but that ain't gonna work with me. You always make sure people around you are okay so don't expect us to be different towards you."

Claire hissed and turned around causing Henry to almost smack into her. "You can't solve my problem okay. It's beyond you. Now leave me alone. You have a class to monitor right" she snapped. "Stop following me" she stressed every word before walking away.

Henry was taken aback by the outburst. Though Claire wasn't known to be cool-headed, she would never get upset at anyone without a tangible reason. He didn't listen to her, he followed instead.

Claire walked past the SS2 block and headed for the the laboratory building. There was only one place she could think properly without distraction and she was going to do anything in her power to get permission into the place even if she wasn't a science student.

"Good morning Sir" she greeted the SS2 chemistry teacher at the laboratory entrance.

"Claire. This is new. How can I help you?" Mr. Andrew asked after he dismissed senior Josh.

On a good day, Claire would be blushing just at the sight of him. She would hide her flushed face and pretend to be inspecting her fingernails while trying to put her flipping stomach and beating heart under control.

But not today. She had bigger things to think about, things that had her romantic feelings towards Josh looking inferior. She just barely returned his greeting with a wave of the hand before focusing on the issue at hand.

"I need a place to stay while ditching classes today and I figured your office was a good hideout spot sir" she spoke as formal as possible.

"My office?" the bewildered teacher asked with narrowed eyes.