Dancing In Your Footsteps

3: James

"You were with the girls again today?" West emphasises when I met him and the boys out by parkour alley. We were the first ones here because it was still early, being only five o'clock.

Usually on the first day of term we'd be allowed to have the one night to socialise and party despite curfew being at 10. I have a feeling we'll probably break that rule this year again though.

"I was just taking a look around," I shrug as I propped myself up on my elbows where we all sat on the grass.

"More like scoping out fresh meat," Hunter scoffs. "See anything you liked the look of?"

"Not entirely," I mutter. There was a huddle of guys helping to set things up, bringing over glasses of alcohol and cans of drinks. But they don't come anywhere near us. The boys and I were our own clan, and that was that.

"He's stuck on Beth, that's why," Eldon smirks.

I shrivel my nose up in response, detesting just the mere sound of her name. That girl was the most infuriating out of all of them. It didn't exactly help that I'd known her pretty much all my life. She's been obsessed with me ever since we were kids.

"Trust me, I don't even have my eyes set on Beth, let alone am I stuck on her."

West chuckles before all their heads swivel around at the sight of two girls heading over, and for once, I was able to recognise them both quite easily.

Hunter smirks, about to stand up when he sees the blonde, but I instantly pull him back down to the ground. I knew for a fact the brunette was new. She didn't need to be swarmed by Hunter's irrational comments. If she was going to talk to any boy today, I was not going to allow Hunter to be the first - otherwise she'll want an out from this place in seconds.

"Sit back down, dude," Eldon tells him, chucking him a can of cola. "I'm pretty sure they're coming over this way anyway."

He wasn't wrong. The minute Michelle's eyes land on ours, she breathes in before dragging her new friend in our direction. As awkward as it was between Michelle and Hunter, she was still good friends with the rest of us.

They must have gone and done some shopping or something, because the brunette didn't look anywhere near as dorky as she did this morning. She looked quite hot.

"Well, damn. Hey, hot stuff," Hunter snarls, smirking as he looked over her which causes her to frown, taking a small step back. I roll my eyes at the same time as Michelle does.

"Really?" Mich questions. "You see one pretty new girl and suddenly you're over me when I've been trying to get your eyes off of me for the whole of last year?" she scoffs.

She crosses her arms over her chest as she stares Hunter down but I didn't take my eyes off the newbie. She looked shy and self-conscious and worried, like there were a thousand thoughts swimming through her mind. And I wanted to hear all of them.

Michelle was the complete opposite when she first started here.

"You've only been here for a year?" the girl speaks up, somewhat fazed by that fact.

Michelle nods. "This is my second year. When I was put in the same dorm as Beth last year instead of one of the triplets, that's when she began to hate me."

"You had me thinking you'd been here a lifetime," she mumbles, to which Hunter smirks.

"She's a fast learner. Not a lot of people find it easy to adapt to the way things are here," he says, which was fair, but the brunette looked down at her feet, as if she was overwhelmed. I couldn't blame her if she did feel that way.

"But anyway..." Michelle drifts off, clearly trying to get Hunter off their backs. "Boys, this is Riley. Riley, this is Hunter, Eldon, West and James."

The brunette's gaze settles on me for a second longer than the others, a lot like it had done earlier when I saw her stood in the foyer this afternoon. I offer her a smile which she reciprocates.

"Wait, so if you're head boy then who's head girl?" she asks me, having put two and two together.

"That would be me," a voice cuts in sharply, one where I didn't even need to look up to know who it belonged to. She makes her way over before standing opposite the girls, looking down at them as she stood in her heels, making her appear somewhat taller.

"Cute outfit," Beth gasps. "Did you get it from my wardrobe?" Her loud comment causes a couple of people to look in our direction. I hadn't even noticed how many people had shown up until now. Riley bites her lip, playing with the hem of her skirt.

"Because you didn't have anywhere near as much luggage as me when you arrived, did you? Oh, and I didn't see your mommy or daddy with you either. Who was it that I saw with you again? The former head girl? Is that why you're here? Because you think you're good enough to take over from her?"

"I never said anything about that-" Riley tries to cut in, but it was no use.

Beth just smirks, shaking her head. "You're a nobody, Riley. And you'll never be somebody. That means you can't just dress yourself up so that you look like me-"

"I didn't-"

"Hush," she says loudly, drawing her to a halt while quite a few people had gathered around. "Now are we done here? Could I maybe be left alone with my boyfriend without the presence of the rest of you?"

Riley looks at me before shaking her head. Michelle scoffs and grabs Riley's arm, dragging her away.

"Beth," I warn, giving her a look as if to say she shouldn't have done that. But like usual, she couldn't have cared less.

"What?" she huffs. "Are you going to let me sit down or not?" She motions to the jacket I was wearing so I roll my eyes and shrug it off my arms, placing it down on the grass for her to sit down beside me.

But without noticing, Michelle soon hurried back over, this time with a can of beer in her hands, and she takes no time in turning it upside down, spilling it right over the top of Beth's head.

"Michelle!" Beth shrieks as I scooched away from her, suppressing the smirk on my lips.

"Oops. My hand must have slipped. But hey, at least you've got more than enough spare space in your luggage to go and do some shopping, right?" Michelle pouts sarcastically while Riley stood slightly behind her, biting her lip to cover her smirk.

"Come on, Ri. We have better places to be," she grins, taking hold of Riley's hand.

Hunter wolf whistles when he watches them walk away while West, Eldon and I stared over at Beth, watching the droplets of alcohol slither down her face.

"James! Are you just going to let them say and do that to me? I need a towel!" she pouts, to which I roll my eyes.

"Don't worry. I'm sure Steph and Amanda have got it from here," I say, catching the eyes of the other two girls as they stood slightly away from the scenery.

I motion them over to come and sort their friend out so I wouldn't have to.

If anything, I was just glad Riley had been put in the same dorm as Michelle. She needed someone fiery to stand beside her and something tells me this is only the first of many encounters with Beth.