Chapter 4
The weekend passed way too quickly for my liking and Chase going back to LA had me a little upset as I couldn’t spend more time with him. Now it was Monday and I was on my way to Hell hole which was run by a demon… err, I mean Barbie.
After being pushed into lockers, I finally got to Calculus and took my seat. Jessie hadn’t arrived yet so I was randomly doodling. My paper was snatched from me and I looked up to see Nicole smirking at me. I sighed inwardly; just what I needed on a Monday morning. She scrutinised my doodle before ripping it into shreds and blowing it in my face. I clenched my hands as she strutted to her seat. I hastily brushed myself to get rid of any bits of paper that might be stuck on my sweater.
Just then Jessie arrived and I told her about what Nicole just did and she just thought it was immature, which it was.
Calculus passed quickly and now I was sat in English waiting for God to arrive-I mean Cole to arrive. After about 15 minutes, the man in question made his way to his seat, late. I was so going to fail this project. I mean my partner cannot be bothered to turn up on time for a normal lesson, how were we supposed to work together, let alone get any work done? Maybe I should ask Mrs. Anderson if she could grant Nicole her wish about switching seats.
‘’So how do you want to do this?’’ Cole interrupted my thoughts. I looked up at him, surprised he was actually asking about doing the work.
‘’Urm… we can work do both a report and a role play?’’ I suggested. He looked thoughtful. Maybe it was too much work for him? Maybe he didn’t have time to do both? Maybe he would rather spend his time sucking Barbie’s face than be with me, the freak as his girlfriend calls me, doing the work.
‘’Okay.’’
Once again the look of surprise crossed my face. I was expecting him to just order me to do it all by myself.
‘’As long as you do the report and I’ll help out on the role play.’’ Or maybe I was sort of right about him. Was he really not going to help on the report at all?
‘’Are you not even going to help me plan the report?’’
He sighed. ‘’Fine but don’t expect much.’’ I could work with that. I just nodded in response.
‘’Okay so I think we should do the report on mixed topics and talk about the two themes in the novel. Then in role play we can just do one topic. That way it will assure us top marks.’’
Cole just remained silent so I looked up at him to see him looking at me with a bored expression.
‘’What?’’ Was there something on my face?
‘’You don’t seriously expect me to help you do all that, do you?’’ I just looked at him incredulously. ‘’I mean just pick one topic to write about and we can then do a role play on it. We don’t need to complicate things.’’
‘’But we should do something different to the rest of the class.’’
‘’Look, I’m not a nerd like you so no, I will not help you.’’ I gaped at him. Oh my God. I could see that fail on my report already. Seeing my panicky look, he amended, ‘’I meant I will help with only one topic; you can do the rest.’’
I sighed in relief and the bell rang ending the lesson.
‘’Where do you want to meet up?’’
‘’Urm…’’ Crap. I couldn’t let him come to my house because then he would figure me out which I didn’t want. He sighed impatiently.
‘’Look, we’ll just meet at my house every Sunday if that’s okay with you?’’
‘’Okay.’’ He walked off without another word.I hurriedly made my way to my last lesson. I was running late somehow and speed walking was my only option right now. I didn’t want to run into anyone if I started running.
“Oomph.’’
Well so much for not running into anyone. ‘’Sorry,’’ I muttered before sidestepping them but I was pushed back. I staggered and looked up. I frowned. Luke? He is Barbie’s partner for the project. What did he want with me?
“Watch where you’re going, Freak.” Just then two of his friends rounded the corner. “Even with those Harry Potter glasses you can’t see where you’re going.” His friends snickered. I looked him dead in the eye and I think he was a little surprised to see a blank face. “Listen here loser. This isn’t Hogwarts so why don’t you go back to where you came from?”
Where I came from; that was a ‘no-no’ topic I didn’t like to think about, let alone mention it. My eyes flashed in anger and I think he noticed because he started to walk away with his asshole of friends behind him.
I finally reached class about 20 minutes late due to my encounter with Luke and I mumbled a sorry and an excuse to the teacher before taking my seat. However, I couldn’t concentrate. I hadn’t thought about back home for a long time now and Luke saying what he said just triggered it. Memories started to flash by and I worked hard to focus on what the teacher was droning on about. The bell couldn’t have rang any sooner.
Hurriedly making my way out, I bumped into Jessie and Marissa. There was something different and I peered at both of them to figure out what when it clicked. Jessie wasn’t her usual smiley self.
“What’s wrong Jess?” She looked up in surprise at my question but I could see pools of unshed tears in her eyes. I think I stood there staring at her for a minute or two because Jessie didn’t strike me as a person who cried easily. Seeing her not smiling and on the verge of tears made me concerned. “You can tell me Jess,” I said softly.
She sniffed. “Nothing. Just some asshole thought it was funny to make a joke about my Mom who ran away from my Dad.” I was shocked. I didn’t know this about Jessie and I certainly didn’t know it was a sore topic for her.
“Who?” I demanded.
She looked hesitant but replied anyway. “Luke.”
Now my temper flared. Not only had he hurt Jessie but he had made a comment on both our home lives which, intentional or not, was sort of a low blow to us. Both Jess and Marissa looked surprised at my anger which I toned down for them at their looks.
“Are you okay?” Marissa asked softly.
“Yeah, yeah I’m fine.” I muttered; the wheels in my head turning.
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