Switching Sides | A Jamie Johnson FanFiction

• Part 2

After the assembly, we had to go to our form tutor for the first lesson, so I followed Callum and Ruby to our classroom; it was strange that everyone seemed to know where they were going except for me, even though I knew there were some people in the exact same position.

Once I was at the top of the fourth flight of stairs I'd climbed that day, I stopped for a breath, only to nearly fall down all the steps that I'd just walked up when a boy knocked into the back of me. Luckily, I kept my balance however. I wasn't usually one to speak up, but that nearly-falling-down-the-stairs incident had made me more confident.

"Do you mind?" I said, picking up my books that I'd dropped, and it took me a second to realize that it was the blond boy from the assembly: Jethro. Then I just stared at him, slightly embarrassed, but he barely acknowledged me and walked straight past with a brown-haired girl. It looked like Ruby and Callum hadn't seen, so I just caught up with them and pretended like nothing had happened.

"How big is this school?" I asked as we walked up the fifth flight of stairs.

"Pretty big. You get used to it though." Callum responded. "Where did you say you were from again?"

"I didn't." I said, but didn't have time to elaborate as we reached our classroom.

_____________________

At lunch, I saw Callum and Ruby sat on a bench on the main school field with some other people and went and sat down with them.

"Hey, it's you!" Callum exclaimed as I took a seat and put down my bag next to Callum's, which I noticed was the same as mine, before Ruby hit him on the arm.

"She has a name, y'know." She said.

"I'm only joking...Bella." He said with a smirk, over exaggerating my name for effect. "How are you liking Thornlake then?"

"It's...strange." I said nervously with a forced laugh, and Ruby raised one eyebrow, just as a group of students walked straight past our table, one of which I remembered from that morning : Jethro. It was like he was stalking me, even though I knew that definitely wasn't true.

"No. That's strange." Callum said, eyeing the group.

"What is?" I asked.

"Demi isn't with them." He responded, still looking at them, and I hoped he would stop soon before they realized.

"Who's Demi?" I asked.

"Jethro's girlfriend." He spat, still glaring.

For some reason, my heart sank, even though I was convincing myself I didn't like him, especially after he knocked me over that morning.

"What's she like?" I asked, thinking back to the stairs incident and the girl I'd seen with Jethro.

"Um, brown hair, brown eyes, freckles, I think she does hockey club..." Callum started, but Ruby interrupted.

"Callum's trying to make it seem like he doesn't follow her every move." She said with a laugh.

"I do not! I don't-" he started, but I sensed an argument coming on, so tried to change the topic.

"Who's that?" I asked, pointing at one of the boys on the other side of Jethro.

"That's Alex Leroy. Jethro's best mate and literally just as evil as him. Or worse." He said, his face set as he glared straight at him.

"And him?" I asked, pointing at the other boy.

"That's Elijah Jones. Best footballer in the school by far. Obeys Jethro's every word though." He said.

"Football? Is that a big thing here?"

"Uh huh. In this school, if Jethro's doing it, it's a big thing." He responded.

That night, as one of my three clubs that I had to join at Thornlake, I ended up taking Football.