Beauty and The Beast

Chapter 4

"I am not afraid of storms, for I am learning how to sail my ship" – Louisa Alcott, Little Women

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"So you're paired with the Nicholas Briar. Wasn't he the one that got beaten up by Vance after you gave the pair of them a lift back home?" Katrina spoke in a hushed tone with the last sentence. "I guess that must suck for you. I bet that it's going to be really awkward having to work together."

"I know; I can't believe it. I must have the worst luck in the history of having luck." I sighed in exasperation while throwing my hands up in the air. "I can bet anything that he won't be doing any of the work which means that I will be stuck with it all and besides, I'm pretty sure that he hates me now. We've never even interacted before yesterday."

"Oh you are just being overdramatic Isobel. Suck it up and get that guy told straight. You never know, Vance might have punched some sense into him, after all he did have the common sense not to show up today." She giggled while leaning over and attempting to make a daisy chain from the flowers on the grass.

It was lunch break and the two of us were sitting outside on the grass in the courtyard where it was quiet. Most of the students preferred to eat inside in the cafeteria. Katrina was eating the sandwich she had bought from the café before she came to school, it was better than the food they served here.

However, on the other hand I was lying on my back on the grass looking up at the clouds above us, seeing what shapes I could make out. It was a distraction mostly, if I pretended to be preoccupied then Katrina would join in and then overall forget the most important thing that she normally does during lunch hour.

Check that I had lunch.

I didn't have time to make something this morning for my lunch today before I had left, I had barely enough time to grab an apple and munch on it in the two minutes that it takes for me to walk from where I was parked in the car park, to home room.

While my stomach started to make a loud grumbling noise I sighed loud enough to ensure that the sound was masked. I knew that the minute Katrina heard any sound of hunger coming from me she would rush off to the cafeteria and buy a three course meal and wouldn't let me leave until I ate it all.

She was a real sweetheart that way but it was such a waste of money, even if she did have more than what she knew what to do with. I could survive without lunch. It wasn't like I was wasting away.

"So how was calculus?" I asked Katrina, the best way to distract her from anything was to get her talking about herself.

"Boring as usual, the teacher gave us the usual lame homework pack to complete for tomorrow and on top of that we have to study today's lesson because he hinted quite strongly that there might be a pop quiz." She let out a sigh as she threw herself backwards onto the grass so that she was now beside me.

I let out a chuckle and shook my head as I looked at her. "Now it's your turn to have a life that sucks. I have zilch to do tonight so I will be binge watching some television for once, I deserve it. I rarely every get to do that anymore." I muttered the last part mostly to myself but Katrina heard it and laughed at me.

"Fine, be like that Miss High-And-Mighty, sit back and relax while the rest of us suffer from this this called homework. I hate you right now." She had finished her daisy chain and had made it into a crown and placed it onto my head. "There you go, a crown for the princess."

We became a giggling mess on the ground until a shadow blocked out the sun that we had been lying in. I looked up to have a look at who the intruder was. A mop of hair was covering the face but I knew who it was from the letter jacket that he wore.

"What do you want." Katrina spat at him.

Nicholas stood before us with his hair covering most of his face but since we were looking up from the floor at him we could see his whole face. He had two black eyes, I wondered how he could see from the swelling, his cheek was sporting a big cut across it and he had a cut lip.

I'm pretty sure that there was more damage done that we couldn't see as well.

"I came to apologise, I realise what I said was out of order and I know that you aren't like that and I am sorry." He didn't make eye contact with either of us and kept his voice low as he was speaking. "Now look can you get him off of my back now? I have been getting death glares from him the minute that I stepped on the grounds."

He must mean Vance and if he has been getting dirty looks since he stepped into school then where has he been all day?

"Fine I'll talk to him if I see him." I said noncommittally while waving him off but really I felt sick to my stomach.

As Nicholas walked off with his head down I turned to Katrina who shared the same look as me and I could tell that we were both thinking the same thing. Vance has a bit of an anger issue and can hold a grudge.

The bell sounded the end of our lunch hour and I picked myself up from the ground and then held my hands out to help Katrina up. We both started towards out next class which we had together: Biology. It was also a class we shared with Vance.

It was a prime opportunity to talk to him about Nicholas, that was if he showed up.

After everyone piled into the classroom and they all took their assigned seats I noticed that Vance hadn't showed up.

Well so much for talking to him I guess.