Aces

FOUR

Axel

"And that, golden boy, is how the attractive young man I am today came to be." I finished as we reached our classroom: a place I knew I definitely didn't want to be.
"Oh you have got to be kidding..." Aiden began.
"What are you complaining about now? I swear there's always something with you."
"That's her! That's Emily!" Aiden exclaimed.
"No way... Emily as in the Emily?"
"Yes! Emily. Freaking. Duncan."
"Dude, she's coming this way!" I pushed Aiden, causing him to enter the safety of the maths classroom. "Oh my God, Aiden!" I snickered. "That's the girl you spent summer with?"
"Shut up, Avery's right there."
"Hold on, what? Avery doesn't know? Bro! Your sister doesn't know that you had a girl in your bedroom several times over summer? Holy cow, Aiden!"
"Shut up, okay? You've never even had a girlfriend. You're probably gay."
I raised an eyebrow. "No, I'm not gay. I just don't go sleeping around because I respect women, clearly unlike you."
"What are you two talking about?" Avery's voice was sweet and bright.
"Nothing. Go away." Aiden snapped. Maybe it's all of the girl talk, but something had gotten into Aiden in the past minute. If I've learnt anything from being his friend for the past 10 years, it's that it's better to just ignore him when he's like this. Avery looked at him, confused.
"Uhh, okay. Well, Axel, are you free after school?" Before I could even nod my head, she was continuing. "Cool. You two, meet me in our room after school, we're friends with the new girl now."
"But you haven't even met her y-"
"And? What could be so bad about her?" Avery turned to Aiden who was leaning back on his chair, arms crossed and brows furrowed.
"Sorry Aves, I agree with Axel on this one." he interrupted. "What if she turns out to be some sort of criminal mastermind? We can't trust her until we know her."
"That's my point. We're going to get to know her. Could you two please trust me for once? I have a good feeling about this one. Just be there, okay? This is important to me." I glanced at Aiden, who was clearly not on board with this whole situation. "We'll be there. Promise." I held out my pinky for Avery to grab as Aiden whined under his breath. "Suck it up, Aiden. It's five minutes of your seemingly oh-so-precious time. Stop being a baby." I told him after Avery had left our table. Mrs Winson strutted into the classroom, her wispy, grey hair tied into a bun and her glasses resting on the edge of her nose. "Take your seats! We're continuing today with trigonometry! Isn't that exciting? Oh, and as I'm sure many of you know, there's a new student in your class. Everyone, this is Amaya Rowe. I hope you can all be as kind to her as you are eachother." Mrs Winson shot Vincent a look that screamed 'especially you'.
"Thank you, Miss." Amaya replied quietly.

You know what, maybe Avery has a point. This girl is gorgeous, for one, and from what I've heard, she's pretty smart too. However, what I'd like to know is this: what makes her special? What makes her different from the rest of us? Or is it something that we have in common that makes her so extraordinary?