𝙡𝙚𝙖𝙣 𝙤𝙣 【discontinued】

Chapter 7: Backstories and a Boyfriend

"Ugh." Amber flopped into her seat in Science class and glared at her partner. Why did I ever pick him? Ian Hudgens just smiled at her. I can't believe I ever liked this idiot.

"How's it going Amber?" Ian smiled his big smile.

"Ugh." Amber silently pulled her phone from her pocket and pretended not to notice Ian's question. He was one of the few people she didn't like.

"Fine. Don't wanna talk?"

"Yes." Amber didn't even look up from her phone but glared down at her hands.

"Cool." Ian turned around and started talking to his friend, ignoring Amber completely.

Seriously, Amber thought. What is wrong with me? I can't believe I ever thought I might like him.

--

"What's up Clara?"

Clara looked up from the book she was reading and glared. Really? Him again. Why can't he just leave me alone?

"Clara?" The boy from earlier at lunch was smiling down at her.

"Goodbye." Clara said without looking up from her book.

"Okay." He turned around again. "I'm not falling for that this time. I'm going to get you to go out with me." He tried to be confident but basically just failed.

"Fine. I'll go out with you. Now leave." Clara turned and looked at him with a big glare.

"Okay." He smiled before turning around and smiling to his friends. They started laughing as he ran back to them with a stupid grin on his face.

"What did I just do?" Clara got up and moved to another seat where that annoying boy couldn't see her. I'm going out with a guy who's name I don't know.

"Sit down. We've already been in school for a week, you should know when to sit and shut up." One of the worst Math teachers in the world stepped into the class room. It's not that he was mean or strict (actually he was a little bit of both), it's just he didn't teach. He expected the students to know everything and so he'd slap a new lesson on them and say 'You should know this, you're in high school.'

"Okay guys, we're going to relearn exponents today." Mr. Ford said as he listened to the students whine about how they knew that since seventh grade. "Some of you failed the first test of the year as so you need the review."

"Yeah right. We totally need the review." The annoying boy sighed sarcastically, earning a little chuckle from his friends, even though it wasn't funny.

Clara sighed and focused on the task ahead of her. She had failed the previous test because she had no experience. She didn't know much of this stuff because she hadn't been in school since she was ten.

After her parents left her, Clara had to drop out of school. She had no money and at the time, was homeless.

*Flashback*

"We're going to run to the grocery store, can you wait at home for a while?" Mom smiled down at young Clara.

"I've never been home alone before." Clara's voice quivered a little as she talked.

"It'll just be for an hour." Mom promised, smiling still.

"Okay." Clara sat down on the couch and turned on the tv.

"Bye Clara."

"See you later." Clara waved at her mom and dad as they walked out the door.

--

"I'm so bored!" Clara lay upside down on the couch, braiding her new strip of purple hair. "What time is it?" She sat up and looked at the clock. It read 10:30 PM. "They said they were going to be here in an hour. It's way past an hour." Clara grabbed the phone off of the counter and tried to call her parent's phones. No answer. "I'm going to bed. Maybe they'll be back in the morning."

Little Clara couldn't shake the feeling that she was alone. Totally alone. She lay awake in bed, shivering and thinking. "Where are they?"

--

It has been two weeks. Clara hadn't left home. The house was out of food and phone wouldn't stop ringing. Clara would never answer but the phone would just keep ringing. Day and night, morning and evening, it wouldn't stop.

One day there was a knock on the door. Clara shut off the tv and ran down the stairs to the basement. No sooner had the front door to her house been knocked down. Clara spun around when she heard someone call her name but she didn't stop running.

"Yes." Clara opened the door to the basement silently and snuck inside. She ran through the dark room, finding her way to the back door rather quickly. She could get out from there.

The back door creaked open and Clara shot out. She sprinted across her backyard and into the woods. She knew from that moment on that her parents weren't coming back, and if they were, they wouldn't find her.

*End of Flashback*

"Oh." Clara frowned at the worksheet that was laying on her desk. It was full of jumbled numbers and words that confused her.

"Need some help?"

"Nope. Not from you, annoying boy." Clara glared at him and sighed.

"Does my girlfriend even know my name?" The boy frowned a little.

"I don't care to." Clara continued examining the worksheet.

"That first one is four." The boy smiled down at Clara and pointed at the question.

"Goodbye now." Clara glared as she wrote in the answer and stared up at him, trying to get him to go away.

"And that one's 36." The boy grinned.

"How do you know this stuff?" Clara said as she turned to him and wrote in the answer on her sheet.

"You multiply the number times itself however many times is here." He pointed to things on the sheet and explained to Clara the way to figure out exponents.

"Thanks." Clara figured out the rest of the problems easily.

"Yeah. No problem." The boy finished explaining and stood up from where he was kneeling on the floor.

"I never got your name." Clara said as he started to walk away.

"Ian. It's Ian Hudgens."

A/n: This chapter was originally going to be about the three girls and their relationships with Ian but it ended up being mostly about Clara's backstory and her relationship with Ian.