Serenity Falls

Chapter 3

Thanks everyone for your really nice comments on Chapter 1 and 2 :) Here's another one for you, and don't forget to tell your friends :) <3

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"Hey, babe!" Alyssa stood up from her seat to greet a tall, tanned guy that looked like he had just stepped out of an Abercrombie and Fitch catalogue. His blonde hair was spiked up messily and he grinned to reveal his perfect white teeth - most likely the work of an expensive dentist treatment - as he approached the excited girl, who had a big smile on her face. She threw her arms around him and pressed her glossed lips up against his, as he placed his lunch tray on the table and began heavily making out with her in the middle of the cafeteria, not caring who was watching or who was being put off their food.

Incidentally, this included Olivia, Chelsie and Fred – a slightly nerdy, sweet guy with thick framed glasses who happened to be Chelsie’s best friend – who were sitting at a nearby table, trying to eat their lunch.

"God, do they have to do that here?" Fred tried to look away from the love fest that was going on in the middle of the room and stared down at his slice of pizza. "Believe it or not, there are some people that don’t want to see them sticking their tongues down each other’s throats."

"I’m guessing that’s her boyfriend, who is probably lead jock and captain of the football team?" Olivia said.

"And the swim team," Chelsie corrected her. "Although they break up practically every other day."

"Those days," interrupted Fred, swallowing a bite of pizza. "are the ones that we are so fortunately spared of seeing that while we are trying to consume our lunch."

Chelsie grimaced at hers. "At least you got something edible – why did I bother getting this salad? It’s rabbit food. Something that Alyssa would eat on one of her crazy diets."

Olivia giggled as she turned round again to see Alyssa and the guy finally breaking apart and sitting down at their table, although Alyssa was sitting so close to him that she was practically on his lap.

"And right on cue, the other airheads," Chelsie announced, as another Abercrombie and Fitch looking guy with chocolate brown hair strode down the cafeteria in the direction of Alyssa’s table, closely followed by Alyssa’s clones, Kayla and Courtney, all with their lunch trays. The guy was just as tanned and muscled as Alyssa’s boyfriend, Carter, but seemed to have more of a friendly aura about him.

"Who’s that?" Olivia asked, intrigued. She stared at him as she found herself completely entranced by the way he looked and moved, the way he just was.

"Ethan Shaw," Chelsie said, matter-of-factly. "Gorgeous, isn’t he? But then, who of Alyssa’s crowd isn’t?"

Suddenly, he looked over in their direction and Olivia found herself being caught staring at him as Ethan’s eyes locked onto hers. She blushed slightly, out of embarrassment, but Ethan smiled shyly at her, his eyes still fixed on her for a few moments – an action that made her feel dizzy with excitement – before he looked away and continued eating his lunch.

Olivia was amazed by this but Chelsie and Fred didn’t seem to notice, continuing their conversation.

"Personally, I am not attracted him in the slightest," Fred said, causing Olivia to look at him uncertainly, but then burst out laughing as she realised that he was only joking around.

 A few moments later after the entire A-list crowd had taken their seats at their table, another girl came rushing towards it, looking eager. She had curly red hair that kind of frizzed uncontrollably around her head and an obviously fake tan that had definitely come out of a cheap bottle, probably in an attempt to create the look that Alyssa and her friends had nailed. Her skirt was rolled up so much that her underwear was almost fully on show, and she could barely walk in the knock-off heels that were too obviously similar to someone else’s. She approached the table and spoke to Alyssa, who looked up from being engrossed in Carter on her arrival. She spoke to her with a sickly sweet smile on her face, obviously spinning the girl some excuse at why she couldn’t sit at her table. The girl’s face fell slightly and she nodded before walking off to find another table, behind which Alyssa rolled her eyes towards Carter and carried on laughing with her friends.

"Brooke Martinez." Olivia was informed by Chelsie as the girl took a seat at another table nearby. "Completely desperate wannabe Alyssa. She’s sweet enough, sure - probably too sweet to realise that Alyssa doesn’t even like her. I think she’s thrown like four parties this year in an attempt to win them over…"

"None of which we have been invited to," Fred interrupted.

"But I think they all just came for the free alcohol and got wasted. I swear someone almost drowned in the lake nearby last time... or was that a different party? Anyway, since when do you care about partying with the popular crowd?" Chelsie looked at him. "You’d rather stay in studying Shakespeare or watching the Discovery channel."

"Hey! Don’t disrespect the Discovery channel," Fred said, mock offended. "There’s some interesting stuff on there. I mean, last night there was this really good programme about Hitler and-"

"Could you be any more of a nerd?" Chelsie laughed, giving Fred a playful punch on the arm.

"We’re all nerds. Sorry if you’re offended, Olivia, but it’s the truth."

Suddenly, a couple of teachers marched past their table like prison guards, a student in their grasp. Everyone they passed was staring and a few students were cheering. "They use brute force here or something?" Olivia raised her eyebrows.

"Nah, that’s just Dave. Resident troublemaker. He’ll probably have trashed the bathrooms with silly string or something. He must have an endless supply in his locker."

"Sounds mature."

"Oh, he is. But he certainly lightens up classes. Especially if it’s one that’s dragging on so slowly because Kayla Manning keeps asking stupid questions like “The South Pole’s in the south, right? So it’s warm?”’

Olivia began to laugh at her joke, but Chelsie raised her eyebrows. "No. Seriously. I’m not even kidding. She’s asked that before. Just you wait until Geography. I’m sure our teacher’s going to be close to suicide by the end of the year."

As they all finished up their lunches, they grabbed their school bags and made their way out of the canteen, out of the main building and into the school grounds, where the sun was shining and there was a pleasant breeze blowing that made the temperature pleasant. They found a warm patch of grass to spend the rest of their lunch hour and after about fifteen minutes of lazing around in the sun, watching other students milling about the grounds and talking about nothing in particular, the bell went once more to indicate the end of lunch and the start of afternoon lessons.

"Hope you like swimming," Chelsie rolled her eyes as she grabbed her school bag from the grass and got up. "We’ve got gym next."