THE THIRD P3RSON

•Chapter 3•

I squinted at Ryan. "How do you know? I thought you said you've never noticed me?"

Ryan shrugged. "I've heard your name around the school."

To that, I simply laughed. Amy's stepdaughter? Having a bad reputation at school? Unheard of. "Yeah. That's a lie." I state. "Plus, going back to this project, Miles? The bell is going to ring any minute." I got up and picked up my messenger-bag.

"Fine." Grey smiled. He looked Ryan in the eye and turned towards me. "There is an odd number in your class. You guys have to all work on the presentation together."

"You mean Ryder and me?"

Ryan crossed his arms and stood up glaring. "We both know my name is Ryan but I can't expect you to remember that after all, you're too busy remembering which stores you're going to shoplift today anyway."

"Oh, you did not-"

"No. It's not just you and Jones, Ryan. Christina is in your group too."

"Great." Ryan steams. I see the Ryan that was exploding in Spanish Class.

"Yeah," I say holding the handle of the office door. "I'm not interested."

"It's a bunch of grades counted as one, Julianna. Plus, you need that scholarship opportunity."

That made me stop. Grey knows how much I need to have good grades enough to get a scholarship to a college far from here. I wanted to graduate and go to a college that was far away and not the one where dad teaches. I don't want to end up asking for my "parents" for paying for me to go off to college. If I fail...

"Ugh." I banged my head against the door in front of me.

Greyson Miles, the principal of our lovely High School, spoke from behind me. "Well then. I'll take that as a yes. You are the third person in the group, Julianna."

I picked up my stuff and walked into the hallway, away from Barry, with my face fuming and ears turning red. Students were coming out of their classes. Some were talking to their friends while others were swapping books in their lockers. A short girl with curly, blonde hair struggled to open her locker. Before I could offer to help her, a tall brunette stepped up and easily opened it. I ran into a kid, probably a freshman, on my way to my locker and hear him collapse onto the floor.

"Damn it," I mutter as I turn back to help the victim. "Look man. I'm sorry. I didn't mean-"

I stop when I see the kid- who's definitely not a kid- is, in fact, a senior in my music class. Jesus Maxwell, who also happens to be the guy I try to avoid every day.

Great, Julianna. How do you confuse a kid with a tall senior?

He towers over my small frame. I fell short compared to him. I feel short compared to anyone here. They're all trees.

"Sorry, Max. I didn't mean to knock anyone over." I looked at the end of the hallway, behind Maxwell, seeing Ryan talking to Miles and rolled my eyes. I look back at Maxwell. I pointed behind me and Maxwell seemed to follow my finger. "So, I'm gonna go. I have Art. "

"Then off you go, Jones. I'm not gonna be the reason for a lunch detention. Don't be a stranger, 'ight?" Max tells me. He throws his head back and shakes out his hair before he smiled and left.

I turned my back to leave but checked my bag for my phone to see just how much time it would take me to go all the way up to art. I couldn't find it. My eyebrows drew together. Where could I have left it?

"Oh, so a human interaction with me and you act like you own the school but with that wannabe rock star, you say sorry. You almost sounded somewhat human, Robot."

It took me a minute before I noticed Ryan standing next to me. He let out that sentence in a rush, it took me a second to realise what he said. I scowled.

"Don't call me that," I told him. "I told you I could be civilised towards people. At least now you know I wasn't kidding. It'll teach you not to listen to rumours. Not that it should matter to you, Ryder." I told him, crossing my arms.

His brown eyes met my own. "Actually, it does. We have to know everything about each other for this project, don't we?" Ryan tells me.

"Not everything." My walls automatically close up around me. Why did Miles have to do this to me? Ugh.

"You should stop flirting with Jesus. He has a girlfriend, you know."

"Good for him. You should take lessons on how to get one too." You're not the first one to tell me that, Ryan.

Ryan rubs a hand on his forehead, pushing his almost sun kissed blonde hair aside. He acts like this conversation is taking all the energy out of him. He hands me something before he turns sharply and leaves. I looked down at my hand. It was my phone and directions to Ryan's house on a sticky note. I looked back to where he was already disappearing. I shrugged, making my way to art. Figures.

When I walk into the art room, I feel all the tension leave my shoulders. Sanctuary. I'm pulling out my sketchbook out of my backpack as I head to the back. At my table, Michael and his girlfriend, Lizzy, are drawing the latest project given to us. They were people who were nice enough to let me team up with them when it came to group projects. Lizzy has tried to befriend me but I told her I'm not social enough to hang out after school. Her boyfriend is a big awkward guy. Unlike Ryan, Micheal does like sports.

As I start to sketch, I wonder how there is a story like Lizzy's. I only knew small things about her but she seemed not to have bad days. Usually most of the art period is me drawing quietly while Lizzy teases Michael. I listen while my heart burns. Ha. No one like me is gonna find someone. "Couch potato who draws and compains about life who is looking for a guy" doesn't sound like the best add.

As I'm thinking about what I could doodle that would be punny, the art teacher tells us we're going to "switch it up". We're going to switch styles with the one person at our table. I had to pick a drawing from their portfolio and draw it in the same style as they did and try to make it as similar as possible. To me, this promoted art theft but she said it was "practising styles" so I was going to follow the teacher. I'm starting to switch Lizzy when our teacher looks directly at me.

"Julianna?" The teacher calls out, and my head snaps up. "I was told an assignment in another class may need you somewhere else."

Okay. Scratch that. Grey has something different in mind. I sigh in frustration. I just sat down not too long ago. "Where do I go?"

"Christina says to meet her in the library." I guess Christina has summoned me. You can't keep Queen Bee waiting. Lizzy and Michael share a look of curiousness. Heck. I'm curious. I left the room hearing murmurs behind me.

It gets even louder as I leave but I chose to believe they are talking about the project.