"Who's on duty today? The bin's filthy!" 

"It's Aelyn, Miss!" 

"Aelyn! I expected more initiative from you. If you'd seen the bin overflowing, you should've gone and clear it immediately! Go now!" 

Bethany. Typical Bethany. Bethany was a living example of a stereotypical, not to be crude but well, . Popular, pretty, cheer captain--perfect on the outside; Unfortunately, lacking in mental capacity and EQ-- nothing at the core. She could be nice, if you were in her good books, which Aelyn obviously wasn't. But it was perfectly fine, the feeling was mutual; neither was she in Aelyn's. 

Aelyn pursed her lips. For a thing, it wasn't Aelyn's duty to clear the bins. She was in charge of sweeping the floor. The previous period had been art class, and they had been learning Chinese paper cutting. She had efficiently swept the floor, clear of every small piece of cut-out that the class had conveniently brushed off their desks. She had made a point to finish sweeping before the next period, for it was Math class, and the teacher, Miss Lee, was a cleaniness-freak. Secondly, it was Bethany's duty to clear the bins. Aelyn caught a glimpse of Bethany's smug face at the corner of her eye. She wanted to protest, but Miss Lee had been glaring at her and tapping her whiteboard marker against her files impatiently. 

"Yes Miss Lee," Aelyn got up and grabbed the waste paper basket. 

She walked out of class, but could distinctly hear Bethany and her little posse sniggering away. 

"Everyone has something against me," Aelyn thought. Aelyn was a transfer student, she had joined the school on a scholarship. She lived in the school's boarding house. Aelyn was a quiet girl, her only objective was to excel in her studies; she was on a scholarship after all, she did have to prove her worth. When she first joined the school, she had planned to keep low-profile and just blend into the background and survive till graduation. Unfortunately, things got complicated.

It was the first day of school and Aelyn was asked to do a self-introduction.

"Hello, I'm Aelyn Ho, I've lived in Kore--"

"Oh my, she's so pretty!"

"Her skin's flawless!"

The cohort started buzzing. Aelyn stood there awkwardly.

"She probably had plastic surgery. She said she'd lived in Korea didn't she?" a distinctly nasal voice stood out from the crowd. Immediately, the entire student body was silenced. It was even more effective than the discipline master or principal trying to get everyone to pay attention. 

And that was the day Aelyn met the Queen Bee. The day Bethany took a disliking to her, and the start of Aelyn getting ostracized by everyone. Now, the teachers weren't of any help either. They were deluded. They were dumb. They only cared about teaching, only grades mattered, student welfare was nothing. Some assumed Aelyn sat alone because she was shy.  Others, like Miss Lee, assumed she was a problem child, and didn't like her. The word "bullying" was not in their dictionary. 

Aelyn was lonely. Aelyn was mistreated.