Hearts and High Scores (Academic Rivals)

Chapter One - New York City, A City Of Dreams. Or Should I Say, Assholes?

SERENA
"I just landed, don't worry ma." I smiled, walking over to the baggage pick up area. "I'm just about to get my luggage. I'll call you when I'm at the dorms, okay? Love you." I hung up the phone.

Summer was over, and it was finally time for another exchange student year. I missed my family, but New York City was different, there were so many big buildings. But I love big cities, and to think I was going to one of the best highschools in the world this exchange year IN NYC, made my eyes spark in a way I can't begin to describe.

I looked around to find my suitcase, but I couldn't find it. Even after a few minutes passed and there were no suitcases left, there was no sign of mine. I sighed, and looked around the airport. There were hundreds of other students who were probably coming back from their summer break, so maybe one of them took mine, right?

I saw a boy with dark brown hair and brown eyes, he was around six feet tall, definitely handsome, and he had a backpack on one shoulder while he dragged a black suitcase with a square pattern just like mine beside him. He had a pair of black headphones on while he was holding his phone in his left free hand, scrolling to see what song he was probably going to choose next.

I ran up to him, "Excuse me!" I tapped his shoulder, a smile on my face, so I seemed sweet.
He lowered his headphones down to his neck, and just stared at me. "Can I help you?"
"I think you might have my suitcase." I pointed.

"No I don't." He shook his head.
"Could you check? I mean— I'm not trying to be a bother, I just really need my suitcase and I can't find it."

He scoffed, "You know people can have the same suitcases as other people, right? Your black suitcase isn't the only one on the planet."
"And you're the only one I see with the same square pattern. No need to speak with attitude, just put yourself in my shoes. You'd be looking for it too." I rolled my eyes, what an asshole.

He bent down to his knees and opened up his suitcase, and embarrassment hit me like a bullet. It was his, full of his own clothes. "Would you look at that, it's mine." He shut the suitcase, and stood back up straight. "That good for you?"

I clenched my fists, scoffing. "Thanks a lot asshole." I sighed, stuffing my hands in my pockets. I walked over to the information desk, "Excuse me, I lost my suitcase. It's black, square patterned. Uh, one of the wheels is broken, if that makes more of a difference." I learned over the desk to see.

The woman nodded, "Sure let me see." She picked up a phone which was most likely an intercom, "Can anyone with a black suitcase, square patterned with a broken wheel come to information desk number 5? Thank you."

"Thank you." I smiled, and then sat down at a chair nearby. After about an hour, a woman walked over with my suitcase. "Hi! I'm so sorry, I must've taken this by accident. It took me a while to find where to give this to you." Yeah, a while. I had waited an HOUR.

I jumped up from my seat, "Thank you so much, it's okay. Thank you for bringing it back." I took the suitcase handle from her, and bowed my head a bit.
She gave me a weird look before she left.
I guess bowing was a little weird, but I was super grateful.

Sure it was now 5am, I was exhausted, and I had spent 3 hours at the airport, but I had school starting in exactly two hours. I could NOT be late. I ran outside of the airport and snatched a taxi to take me to the school. "Shelby High, please."

It was around an hour drive, which was exactly how much time I needed to properly take a nap, because when the driver woke me up, I was ready to go.

I smiled, "Thank you!" I handed him some cash, and once I got out of the car, my jaw dropped.
The school, was MASSIVE. There were multiple buildings attached to it, with a huge fountain at the main entrance where I had been dropped off. I took out my phone, which I had just bought before the trip with my own money. It had pretty good camera quality, and I started snapping thousands of photos.

I took a deep breath, and walked inside. I walked up to the desk at the front of the school, "Hi. I'm looking for-"
"Name?" The lady interrupted as she looked up from her computer with tired eyes. Clearly she had been up all night helping students who were just coming in.

"Serena Everhart.." I muttered, and waited as she clacked her keyboard keys.
"Room 405 is your dorm room, here's the key." She slammed a key up on the desk. "This is your class schedule with every class you'll be needing to go to. Have fun, and welcome to Shelby High." She placed the paper up on the desk.

It took me a minute to find where the dorms were, since they were in a whole new building. But I had picked up a map which showed me where to go.

"405.." I wandered around until I finally found it. I used my key and opened the door.
It was, awesome. The kitchen was fully functional, and pretty huge. There was a nice living room, and two rooms inside of the dorm, with one bathroom. So I had a roommate, I can deal with that. Hopefully she was sweet.

I smiled, and opened my bedroom door. Thankfully I was the first one to the dorm, so I guess I could choose my own room.
I set down my suitcase and took out everything. It took me only 30 minutes to get all of my clothes on racks, bathroom necessities in the bathroom, and to put my uniform on. It felt awesome to be relaxed.
The uniform was also pretty cool, it was a blazer with a skirt and a tie. It looked good on me.
I heard the front door of the dorm open, and I rushed out.

"Hi! I'm Serena Everh-" and to my absolute horror, there stood the six foot tall, handsome asshole from the airport. My jaw hung open.

He shut the door and looked at me, he slowly lowered his headphones down to his neck. "No fucking way." His jaw clenched.
"Why are YOU here?"

"I can ask the same question. How are you even at this dorm? This is the GIRLS, dorm." I walked over, my hands by my hips.

"Oh, right. You must be new." He spoke with a disgusted tone. "Maybe if you read some information about the dorms, you would know they aren't assigned by gender. The roommate you get can be a girl or boy. Doesn't matter." He brushed past me and opened the other bedroom door.

I scoffed. "Excuse you. Okay, well yeah. I'm new here. Who are you exactly?"

"Vincenzo Shelby." He put his bags on the bed.

Hold on, that sounded familiar.
Shelby?
My jaw dropped, again.
SHELBY? AS IN SHELBY HIGH?
There was no way.
Standing in front of me..was the son of the Chairman. The so called, "King of the School." It was Vincenzo Shelby.
And he was my stupid fucking roommate.