Bad Boy Burn

2 || Maniac

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Olivia POV

I walked into school sometime later, making sure to glare at anyone who looked at me. I didn't want to fit in with these people. These crazy delinquents were not my people and I did not belong in this school. A perfectly normal, sane teenage girl who's only done the average number of bad things for a normal, sane teenager.

I was so mad at my parents for sending me here, away from all of my friends and everything I loved. England had been a fun place to grow up but I knew that the States would always be my home. Not to mention my baby brother was there.

My first class was maths. I was in the accelerated class which did Maths A-level in the first year and Further Maths A-level in the second year. That was one upside of this situation. The education at Cheverly Manor was renowned for being outstanding. I was sure I would be intellectually stimulated in the least.

A tall boy with spiky brown hair approached me, despite the furious glare I shot at him. "Yo, you're new right?" He fell into step beside me.

If I was truly going to get into this good girl thing then I figured I should probably try to be nice and say sugary crap to make people love me. I resisted rolling my eyes at this newcomer and instead managed to wrestle my lips into a smile. "That's right," I said, really emphasising my Southern twang.

"Oh you're American?" He looked a little taken aback by this piece of information.

"Yeah but I grew up in London," I said a little defensively. I was no stranger to anti-Americanism and I knew how prominent it was in England.

"Woah chill," he laughed easily. "My mum was American," he said it so offhandedly that I almost missed the past tense.

"That's nice..." Seriously Livy, that's nice!? You just found out this stranger's mum is dead and you told him it was nice!

"Haha yeah," he surprised me by agreeing. "Where are you going now?"

"Math," I replied shortly. I figured that if I pretended to know where I was going in this maze of a school I would eventually get there. Eventually.

He stopped in his tracks. "Um, Maths is that way," he pointed back the way we had come.

I laughed uneasily, "I knew that, I was just...looking for the bathroom."

He gave me a weird, slightly suspicious look before deciding to accept my word. He grinned widely, "Well that's also back this way so I think I will show you the way." His brown eyes glinted with laughter. At me.

Before I could say something rude or sarcastic I forced myself to smile. "Thanks that would be really helpful." My tone still sounded sarcastic to my own ears but then, I was always sarcastic so...

I followed him down the hall, smiling awkwardly when he pulled up next to a W.C. sign. "Thanks," I whispered, ducking quickly inside before I could die of embarrassment.

After a minute or so I emerged, ready to make my way to class. I had about five minutes before I would be late. I hummed quietly as I walked out the door, turning the corner and walking straight into someone.

I shrieked quietly in surprise. The spiky haired stranger was still standing there and I had walked right into him!

I tooked a wobbly step back, "Erm sorry," I apologised, still confused as to why he was still here.

"C'mon then," he smiled happily and extended his arm for me to take.

Firstly he was entirely too happy for this early in the morning. Secondly how was he being so friendly to me, was it not obvious that I didn't want any friends? And thirdly how did he expect me to link arms with him; he was practically a stranger!

He must have understood my appalled expression because he shrugged easily and said, "Just being friendly, chill."

With that he grabbed my arm and practically skipped down the corridor, pulling me behind him. "You're really pretty," he commented offhandedly.

I blushed but said nothing in response. That was very forward.

"I'm Nathan by the way," he introduced himself, "What's your name?"

"Olivia," I managed to say. The extreme degree of his happiness was starting to scare me a bit. "Have you got a class this way too?" It was the only explanation for him still walking in the same direction as me.

"Yeah didn't I say?" His eyes darted around as he spoke. "I'm in maths with you." He pulled me into a classroom on the right and I found myself feeling relieved that we were around other people again. There were two boys sitting at the back, one girl on her own off to the side and one girl sitting at the front. It wasn't very surprising that this class was small but I still found the numbers a little surprising, back home my smallest class had been 23.

"Nate you maniac, get over here!" One of the boys at the back lounged with his feet on the table as he waved.

"Sod off!" Nate shouted in return. "Maniac my arse, you're just jealous 'cause you'll never be as happy as me," he placed both his hands on a desk and leap frogged over it towards the other boy, laughing as he did.

My mind raced as I thought about the choice of words. 'Maniac'. I'd heard that there were a lot of messed up people at this school. They were talking about 'mania', as in the high of bipolar disorder. Ice settled in my stomach. I knew there was something off about that boy.

I hesitantly chose a seat next to the girl at the front. She had purple highlights and a lip piercing. All in all, she didn't really look like she wanted to talk.

I started getting out my books, trying to look busy. My pencil case was emptier than normal. School rules said that you weren't allowed to carry scissors or a compass and especially not a lighter.

Purple highlights glanced sideways at me. "I like your hair," she said, staring at my light brown waves. It was shot through with blonde streaks, an echo of beautiful Georgian weather.

I smiled awkwardly, "Thanks".

"I see you've met Nate," she motioned towards the back of the classroom with her head. She must have understood my cringe-y, uncomfortable expression because she laughed loudly. "Don't worry, he's definitely one of the craziest here," her lip ring glinted as she smiled.

One of the craziest. That phrase did not make me feel reassured at all. That meant that there were other psychotic weirdos galloping around the halls of this prison-like school. I was so out of my depth here.

"I'm Jenny," she said. "I used to do drugs so my parents stuck me in here."

I stared at her blankly in shock.

"Well you might as well know the worst before you form opinions," She quipped smirking but I could see that she was judging my reaction.

I found myself liking her attitude. "I'm Olivia, yes I'm American before you ask," Jenny smiled and nodded, "and I burnt down my old school so my parents dumped me here," I finished.

Jenny burst into laughter, "I love you already!"

"It was an accident actually, before you go thinking I'm all badass or whatever," I found myself laughing with her.

The teacher entered then and we all settled down.

Surprisingly, everyone in this class was quite respectful of the teacher and the class ran pretty smoothly. There was still a fair amount of bantering and a lot of the boys took the piss out of the teacher any time they were given the chance but that happened in all classes.

I packed up quickly, chatting easily with Jenny as I did so. She was actually very easy to talk to and I found myself liking her honest personality and no nonsense attitude. We made our way down the corridor towards the Art and Design corridor where my locker supposedly was.

My locker was number 21 so I prepared myself to search for it as we entered the corridor. However before I had a chance to look closely at the numbers I was pulled up short. There, rummaging around in locker number 20, was Thomas Walker.