Marni Ashgrove

Chapter Three

Plato's cave, shadows, forms? All these metaphors are messing with my head.

I look up at the clock, desperately wishing for the lesson to to by faster, before glancing at the almost asleep Gemma who was sat next to me.

"The interesting thing about Plato is that he was a dualist," the teacher glances around the room before settling his dark, beady eyes on Gemma. "Which meant what, Miss Bright?" Gemma bounced her head off the desk, plastering the most sarcastic smile I have ever seen onto her face before saying,

"It means he believed that there were two world's - or realms, in his words - called the noumemal (reality) and the phenomenal (appearances)." I gape at her as her smile gets - almost - creepy, and the teacher nods flustered.

"Yes, right, anyway..." I zone out again, glaring at the clock which said we still had 20 minutes left.

I hate school.

❤❤❤

Bring.

After those agonisingly long 20 minutes, the bell finally rang and we all packed up our stuff, ignoring the teacher who was trying to tell us that his class wasn't over until he said it was over.

Bitch, the bell is the leader of this class.

Gemma taps my shoulder, flashing me an inviting smile and literally dragging me to where her and her friends sit in the cafeteria by the sleeve of Jayden's jumper.

"So this is the caff!" She says, grandly swinging her arms as though it were a grand hall rather than the crappy café that it actually was. I grin at her enthusiasm as she drags me towards the centre table.

Most of the people there were ones Jayden had already introduced me to that morning, but there were a few new faces, and I needed a refreshing because of how bad my memory was, so being the good friend that she is, Gemma did a quite introduction to everyone.

"So sat opposite us is the lovely, sexy and domineering Duncan," She says quietly, blowing a kiss at her boyfriend. "Then sat next to him is the alright looking, book mad Jayden!" I grin and do a little wave at him, smiling more when he does a wink. "Then next to him is the slut Chloe," Chloe glares at me, rubbing her hand on Jayden's arm. She went on with the rest of the group and I met Richard - he's a dick but can be fairly amusing, Tom - annoying but pretty chill and Michelle - very quiet but an absolute bitch.

The one thing I noticed about them all was that they were sporty - very, very sporty. And although I could run that was it, so I felt a teeny bit left out on the sport side of things, but overall this was the most friends I'd ever made on a first day - and let me tell you, I've had quite a few of them.

I think I'm going to like it here. Too bad I'll have to leave soon.

❤❤❤

"Marni!" I grin at the sound of Jayden's voice, spinning around and laughing as he barrels into me.

"Hey weirdo!" I say, reaching up to ruffle his hair. Now, I wouldn't call myself short - in fact I'm pretty average at 5'7", but he towered over me, probably around 6'2".

"Oi!" He exclaims, pushing my hands away and putting a childish (yet still sexy) pout on his face. "Don't touch the hair, mate!" I frown slightly at the friend zoning word. Although I'm not really sure why, I've only been in England for a couple of days and I already want more than friendship? High maintenance much, Marni? I scold myself. I look back at Jayden to see him furrowing his brow. Before I can think too much on it, he shakes his head slightly, pasting a grin onto his face and squishing my cheeks together, staring into my eyes (which got me a little bit flustered - these English folk get quite touchy feely quickly).

"Are you free tonight?" He asks, linking his arm through mine and leading me towards our bus stop.

"Um... as far as I know?" I say, smiling at his over enthusiastic expression - there's something weird about this guy, but I think I like it.

"Great! Come with me to Jack and Michael's 'Welcome Back' party?" I look at him a bit perplexed. "Come on!!! There'll be free crappy beer!" I still feel a bit weary about a party, they're breeding grounds for the supernatural. "Ugh Marni please!? I'll be theerrree!" I finally give in and nod, weirded out by just how happy he is that I said yes - we're hardly even friends yet, so liking me is out of the question....

"I'll come - on one condition! No ditching me! You have to be basically glued to my side the whole night!" I playfully shove my hip on his, acting as though they were glued. He laughs at my antics, shoving me away before closing his eyes for a bit. I watch him confused, before realising the bus arrived. "Jayden! The bus is here!" I shove his shoulder and he opens his eyes, blinking a few times before grabbing his bus pass out of his pocket and flashing it to the driver. As we walk down the isle of the bus, it starts driving away, causing us both to fall on to one of the seats. The same seat, in fact.

I blush slightly at my sprawled out form lying on top of him, and try my hardest to get back up.

He laughs, covering up the slightly awkward situation and grasping my hips to help me sit up (although in my imagination he was a bit reluctant).

"Buses, huh?" He states, ruffling his hair. I nod along, grabbing my phone out of my pocket to ensure I didn't have any texts from Uncle or the Agency. Upon seeing I was free for now, I turn my undivided attention back to Jayden as he makes me laugh all the way back.

"So where abouts do you live? Since you were at my stop this morning?" Jayden asks, not sounding stalkerish, just curious.

"Um... Olive Gardens? I'm number 58." I say, impressed that I actually managed to remember this address. "We only just moved in..." His expression shifts from curious to ecstatic as he nods his head.

"That's the road opposite mine!" He cries, grabbing my shoulders and shaking me with excitement. I laugh at how his sculpted-by-the-gods face morphs into one of a 7 year old boy - goddamn adorable.

"Yay!?" I say, not quite as excited but struggling to not reach forwards to squish his cheeks.

I don't know what it is about him, but I trust him and I get a slightly drunk feeling when I'm around him.

And as much as I don't want to admit it, it's way too soon, but as I observe him throwing his head back in laughter, I realise that I'm possibly starting to get feelings for him.

(A/N - So I think this is slightly crap but I wanted to get another one up, so I'll probably come back to it and change it a bit, but this will do for now I guess! Written on my phone so point out any typos! Also - a side note - #500 in Paranormal! Woop! Thanks guys! x)