Love is Blind || c.h.

08 • Gossip

IMPORTANT AUTHORS NOTE AT THE END!!!!!!!!!!!

Alex's POV

"I hope you are all working hard on your projects," Ms. Castro said after finally getting the class to settle down. "We're going to start presenting in front of the class on Monday."

"Shit," Ava whispered. "Alex, I'm coming over today. We need to work on my drawing."

"I can't today I'm practicing with Calum."

"Calum can wait another hour for your jam session," Ava grumbled. "Please, Alex, I cannot get a bad grade on this. One more F and my parents just might slaughter me."

"Okay, fine, but only because I love you," I caved.

"You're the best Al-" Everyone stopped talking when the door to the classroom suddenly swung open. Standing there was a girl with milk chocolatey brown skin and long dreads that reached down to her waistline. Her eyes grew wide as she saw the whole class staring at her. She was a deer in headlights, completely unable to move.

"Hello!" Ms. Castro didn't seem to notice all the awkward tension in the room. "Come on in, you must be the new student. It's Pepper right?"

"Piper, actually," she corrected, hesitantly taking small steps into the room.

"Oh, my bad," Ms. Castro apologized.

"It's fine," Piper mumbled. Ms. Castro was finally starting to get the clue that Piper was extremely uncomfortable so she placed a comforting hand on her shoulder. Piper flinched a little at the sudden contact to her skin.

"Class this is Piper," Ms. Castro introduced her. "She just moved here so do her a favor and don't be your usual selves or else you'll end up scaring her half to death, got it?" A few kids chuckled at her joke. "Piper why don't you go take a seat by Alex, she's one of my best students." She pointed to the open seat next to mine. Piper mumbled an 'Okay' and quietly sat down beside me.

"Ms. Castro, I am personally offended!" Ava blurted. "Am I not one of your best students?" I saw Piper crack a smile at Ava's loud remark.

"Of course you are, Ava," she placed a hand on her heart.

"Yeah, yeah whatever," Ava blabbed before turning her attention to Piper. "Hi there! I'm Ava, this is Alex-" she pointed to me. "And I love your hair! Dreads are so sick. God, I hate being white. White people can't pull off anything, we're just a bunch of pasty worms."

"Uh, thank you?" Piper stroked her hair nervously.

"Ava this is exactly what Ms. Castro was talking about when she said to not be yourself," I laughed. "You've probably already scared her."

"No, it's fine," Piper interjected. "I just get bad anxiety sometimes, makes it hard to talk."

"Oh sorry," Ava said sheepishly. "So where'd you move from?"

"Canada."

"Canada?" I repeated. "Wow, that's a big move."

"It's not too bad," Piper shrugged. "But America doesn't smell as sweet as Canada."

"That's because we don't bleed maple syrup," Ava snorted.

Piper laughed. "I'm gonna ignore your blatant stereotyping because that was a good one!"

"Feel free to ignore anything else Ava says though," I warned her. "She can be a real ass sometimes."

"Wow some best friend you are!" Ava pretended like she was going to cry.

"You know I love you," I flicked her face.

"I know, I know, everyone does."

~*~*~