AMBER EYES (rewrite)

08 | ten for a season

If anyone thought that the first week at Redville had been hectic, the second week would really be the death of them. Not only were all the club activities beginning from Monday, but also a heated tension was sparking between the dance students of Redville.

On Saturday morning, Valeria divides us into two groups of ten and appoints a choreographer in each. From our group, it's Emma Lane, a petite but elegant girl who insists that we call her Line. The nickname seems dumb but I'd be lying if I say that it didn't suit her. The chit she drew had a single word written on it.

Spring.

This is the starting point of everything that went down, though, because after we made the group chat, Line went offline after telling us that she'll be 'brainstorming' for ideas for a while and she needs to be in a quiet environment if all of us want a good result. Then, on Sunday, Rhea tripped from the stairs somehow, twisting her ankle and being benched by Valeria for the entire week. She's out of our group now.

The current members of our group are from all the houses. Leo and I are from Serpens, Zia and Freva are from Cepheus, Zed and Remi are from Lacerta, and Line, Akira and Sam are from Delphinus. With Rhea out on the bench and excluded from the entire evaluation, we are short on one person. I heard that Remi freaked out on her for it but it's not exactly her fault, I guess. She apologised about it a million times anyways.

Aside from it all, rumours started to surface about Sam—whose full name is apparently Samuel Andrews. He's Nate's brother and according to the posts on RedRow, he really did have a delinquent reputation in his previous school. I haven't met him yet and I don't know what it's going to be like to have a troublemaker on our team. Last I saw him, he had a black eye and a swollen cheek. Looks like his delinquent reputation was quick to catch on here. 

It's Monday today and by now, Remi's throwing a fit on all the group members, asking us all to come up with something before he loses his mind. There's nothing we can do except just listen to him because it seems like he has some severe anger issues and if we do anything that pisses him off, it's probably going to turn into a full blown fight.

I'm sitting on my seat next to Elliot at the back of the class again. Kal will be here in five minutes max and all the students are here, talking to each other when a collective chime makes them all take their phones out of their pocket. A few gasps and their eyes on me is all it takes to me to understand just what's up. I look to my side. Elliot's looking at me. He doesn't have his phone out yet.

I close my eyes, not ready for this. Running a hand through my hair, I look back at him as he opens RedRow and an unreadable smile flashes across his face. 

"You really are going to be the talk of the town, Harley," Elliot says. It's the first thing he's ever said to me directly. He turns his phone to me, somehow knowing that I'm not going to open mine. It's a picture of me and Asher. A laugh escapes my lips as I shake my head in disbelief. You can't expect me to not open my phone for this. 

I login my RedRow account and see the top post, one that's gotten two hundred likes in a matter of minutes. In the picture, Asher has me backed against the railing, his hand at my cheek. No one will be able to see our faces completely but it's enough to guess who it is. Plus, the person who posted didn't spare the chance to mention both our names. There's no caption on the post, it's just one single picture that's enough to catch everyone's attention.

I click on the comments, skimming through them. I catch on a few words, all of them full of hate. They get imprinted in my head, dancing around in multiple unknown voices, growing louder moment by moment. It's not affecting me, no—it's just settling down.

They're dating??? Who the fuck would date that ugly ass bitch istg... She needs to get a life... Asher OBVIOUSLY knows better than that, he's probably playing... I just know he's playing... Imagine the amount of drama we'd get if the two were actually dating... You think they've kissed or fucked yet? Harley looks like a freakin' virgin honestly...