Choices - Demi Lovato

3

For the past week or so the English class had been preparing for an oral presentation on the holocaust. She had been working really hard on this project and had produced over two sides of detailed text on the subject.

Faye had been terrified in the run up to this was truly dreading standing up in front of the whole class to present. She had tried to prepare herself by reading it aloud for her parents but she just ended up laughing. 

Three people had already presented and the small girl was nervously tapping her leg. She was fidgeting with her hands and looking down at the desk. 

A hand grabbed her leg and stopped it moving, "stop, you're giving me a migraine. You'll be fine, stop stressing." Kat attempted to calm her down.

Faye smiled in return to the kind words but they didn't help, she was terrified of speaking out loud in class. She was trying to breathe deeply and calm down but she was only getting more anxious. What if she forgot what her project was on or if she tripped on the way up. Everyone would laugh at her and she would fail the class. 

She covered her face in her hands and began counting backwards from ten, a method meant to calm her down, but it wasn't making much difference.

"Ouch." She was disrupted from her thoughts by Kat elbowing her.

"Faye, come on, I don't have all day." Miss Pugh said as she summoned her to the front of the class to present.

Faye slowly walked towards the doomed front of the class to begin her presentation. She could feel her palms getting sweaty and her legs shaking slightly.

When she reached the front she turned to face the class, seeing the faces of her class mates all staring at her made her stomach churn. She fumbled with her papers in her hand and found the first word on the page.

Her mouth went dry as she stood trying to start her presentation, she was shaking and becoming short of breath. She looked up to see Kat willing her to begin but she couldn't. She felt her chest tightening and her breathing rate increased. Tears welled in her eyes as she threw her papers down on the teachers desk and stormed out of the classroom.

She ran through the hallways until she reached the restroom where she locked herself in a stall. She tried to steady her breathing but her sobbing was restricting her from doing so.

"Faye?" She heard a friendly voice call. "Faye, open the door."

It was Kat. She reached her hand up to unlock the door, not moving from her position. The door opened and her new friend embrace her in a tight hug. Fayes' hands gripped onto her friends shirt as she sobbed into her, Kat soothed her as she tried to subside her cries.

"Hey, its okay. You're okay, don't worry about it." Faye comforted her smaller friend.

"I messed up." Faye cried.

"Hey, look at me." Kat grabbed the brunettes face in her hands, "no you didn't. It's okay to be scared, you'll get it next time." She consoled her.

They waited the remaining twenty minutes of the class in the toilet before returning to collect their things. Faye was thankful that Kat had suggested this, the thought of having to face the rest of her class again after her storming out in a frenzy scared her to death.

The taller girl grabbed Fayes' hand as they walked back to the classroom. Kat opened the door first as Faye followed her into the classroom.

Miss Pugh looked up from her desk as she heard the door, "come here." She told Faye.

Kat squeezed her hand encouragingly as she pushed the small girl towards her teacher.

"Why did you run out?" She questioned her student.