"Thank you...."

"Thank you..." you say in a meek matter. Valerie heard this reaction and backed away, her face was now bright red. "No problem.." she says weirded out by your response. "It just gosh, you know I was teasing you right?" she says.

"Yeah, but still thank you. For the compliment," you say a bit shy. You can still feel your heart beating but it dying down slowly. You see Valerie give out a bright smile. "You know I kind of like the new you," she says looking at you.

"What are you on about?" you say with a nervous smile. You know what she is talking about. How the clothes make you feel, how it affects who you are as a person. But you don't want to admit it.

"Well, usually you always have a clever comeback. And, you never accepted compliments before. You always refuse to accept them." she says in honest disbelief.

"Well...." You say, but you then trail off. She was right... You had a snake-like tongue. You could've come up with comebacks left and right. That is how you and Jason became enemies. Usually, when Jason bullies someone, he doesn't expect them to fight back. Then after that Jason moves on when he gets bored.

When it came time for you to get bullied. You put up a fight, with clever comments and quick comebacks. You made yourself enemy number one. But right now, look at you. You couldn't even respond cleverly to a compliment.

Then Valerie snaps a finger in front of you. "Earth to Ash, I repeat earth to ash," she waiting for your response.

"Let's just say it for one day..." you say as an excuse. Valerie just shrugged her shoulder. "Whatever you say, boss," she says sarcastically. She knows that you are making an excuse, but she doesn't want to push her luck.

But then the bell rings, and you get up and prepare to head into your next class. But before you can walk out of the classroom, Valerie stops you by grabbing your hand. "Well if it's for one day then... Just know that I'm grateful to be your friend," she says while looking away.

You can also tell that she was blushing but you can also see a small smile. It was cute, noticing this makes you blush too, "It's no problem..." you say as you pull your hand back and walk out of the classroom.