Stepbrother

Chapter 16

I chewed my lip nervously. I had no fucking idea where this class was. I scanned around at the letters and numbers on doors.

Finally, I looked ahead and saw a familiar face. Thank freaking God! Neil was cramming books into his locker. "Neil," I said, talking loudly over the crowd.

"Wha..?" He looked up. "Oh.. Lendzie. Umm, hi," he said, looking back to his locker.

"Hi... do you know where this class is?" I asked, pointing to my English class.

"Yeah, Mrs. Cade. Jeremy and Josh had her last year.. I hear she's nice but she can be a real pain in the butt sometimes. Um.. She's over here," he said, pointing over at a classroom with a blonde woman standing out front. "I have her for English right now too."

"Hi kids," Mrs. Cade smiled. Neil waved slightly and I just looked away. Neil walked to the back of the class, and I followed him.

He took a seat at the back table, farthest from her desk, which was in one corner, and the front board, which was on a different wall.

"Not to be mean or anything, but um, why are you hanging out around me?" Neil asked.

"You're the only person I know," I said.

"You might not wanna be near me," he said, looking down at his binder.

"Why?" I asked.

"I'm not the most popular kid around," he said.

"I don't care," I shrugged.

Neil shrugged, "Suit yourself... Actually, no,
I don't want them to harass you. I'm not telling you to stay away from me, but it's probably a good idea to stay away from me," he said.

"I'll hang out with who I want to hang out with. Screw anyone who says otherwise," I said, opening my binder and getting out a pencil.

"I knew there was a reason I liked you!" he said quietly. I smiled to myself as the tardy bell rang loudly.

"I hope you love where you're sitting, because I made a seating chart!" Mrs. Cade smiled. Everyone groaned. I just mentally pleaded I got put next to Neil.

I noticed that someone had drug a chair from our table to another one. Mrs. Cade noticed too, and she shook her head. "Move the chair back, you're not allowed to do that."

"I don't wanna sit there," a little ginger boy said.

"Why?" Mrs. Cade asked. Neil groaned.

"Because, who wants to sit with Neil Westfall? That weird 'punk' kid with the holes in his ears!" he said. The whole class erupted into laughter, except Neil and I. Neil just sat there and took it, straight faced.

"Hey!" Mrs Cade said loudly, silencing the whole class. "Do any of you even know Neil personally?"

"No! Why would you want to him personally?" the ginger said.

"Maybe he can teach us how to pierce our ears!" another kid called out. Mrs Cade sighed.

"Everyone be quiet!" she said loudly. Everyone took their laughs to a soft giggle. Neil sat with his chin in his hand, visibly unfazed by it. "I'm going to take role, then I need to speak to you two," she said, pointing at the ginger, then at Neil. Neil sighed.

She called out a list of people. She finally got to me. "Collahan." I raised my hand slightly and murmured a 'here' even though the only people that could hear it was Neil and the ginger kid that had been forced back to our table.

Ginger stared at Neil. Neil stared down at a blank piece of paper, then Neil slammed his binder shut. "Westfall," Mrs. Cade said, but before he could answer, she said, "Yeah, you're here."