The Lying Serpent

Chapter Five: Oh Shit

Gif of Jacko (Dom Sherwood) above^ This chapter is dedicated to JustBookishThings because she's amazing and my last chapter was dedicated to rachellynne27 because she helped me in my decision to publish this story <3 :)

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Wednesday mornings were officially reserved for working on our 'Affordable Living Project'.

The only good thing about this, was that we could sign out at reception and go home to work on it, and sign back in two and a half hours later for period three.

This was why I was sitting at the largest table in our local café, with Nita, Ley, Summer, Ryan, Sabrina and Oliver.

"So...any ideas on where to start?" I broke the awkward silence.

Everyone was just stared, signalling that they, like me, had none.

"Ok, um, what are the different endangered animals around here?" I tried again.

This is why I hate group projects. I prefer working on my own, because if the project isn't done my way, it doesn't feel right, which sounds totally bitchy, but it's the truth. And, I'm always the one who ends up trying to start the project up. Nita is no help in this department, she usually jumps in once the ball is rolling. Ley is obviously no help in projects, and Summer is really quiet. If you think McArthur High's Royalty would help me, well you'd be dead wrong. Even Oliver wasn't going to help start the project.

That left me.

"I don't know," Ryan said monotonously.

Despite this, he seemed a lot less hostile than he was the other day.

I huffed in irritation at the daftness of everyone here.

"Well, I guess I'll search it up then," I sighed.

"Great idea Linda!" Nita chirruped.

Rolling my eyes, I switched my laptop on and opened up Google. Oliver, who was beside me, dragged his chair closer to mine and leaned in towards the screen.

"Click on that," he pointed to the first website in the results.

As I clicked on the link and waited for the page to load, Sabrina called out "Hey, Giraffe."

"What is it, Demon?" I replied, scanning the website for our much needed information.

"Stop sucking up to Ollie and show us the screen too. Or are you just trying to get into his pants?"

My cheeks burned at such an accusation, and I lifted my gaze to her's with a steely glare.

"Shut your mouth Sabrina. If you really wanna help, search up litter problems in our town or something."

"Looks like Giraffe got caught in her little game," she muttered tauntingly.

I huffed in exasperation as Nita dropped her cup of hot chocolate in rage.

"Sabrina, stop being a bitch and get on with it," Nita snapped.

Oliver whispered "Burn" under his breath, to which Sabrina glared at him.

Oliver, unfazed by this, turned to the rest of us and said "Ok, let's get started. Who's doing what?"

"Ok, Nita, Ley and Summer, you can do sustainable habitats, Ryan and Demon, you can do litter and Oliver and I can do endangered animals. Are we all ok with that?" I asked.

"Yep. One thing though, can you guys call me Ollie? Oliver sounds so formal."

"Ok..anyway, let's get into it. Nita, do you have your laptop?"

Nita opened her mouth to reply, but was cut off by a startled Ryan.

"Nita? I thought your name was Trinity."

Nita, Ley and I all looked at each other and sighed simultaneously. Trust the King of McArthur High to not realise we've been calling each other by nicknames since seventh grade.

"Well?" Ryan inquired impatiently.

"Nita is short for Trinity. It's like how Linda is short for Melinda and Ley is short for Riley," Nita explained.

"Wait...Linda isn't your full name?"

I scoffed at Ryan's ignorance and shook my head.

"No, Linda isn't my full name you dimwit."

"Geez, is it my fault for not knowing that?"

"Well...everyone kinda knew, Ry," Ollie joked.

"Ollie, now isn't the time."

"Ok, sorry dude. Geez."

Ley, fed up with our conversation snapped her fingers in Ryan's face and yelled, "Can we please focus here people?"

I smothered my giggles with my right hand, trying not to piss off Ryan by laughing at his incredulous facial expression. I obviously didn't do a good enough job, because he glared at me.

This however, didn't help, and I ended up in a fit of laughter, the image of his shocked expression ingrained in my head.

Nita gave a long, slow sigh, as if disappointed, but the slight upward tilt of her lips and the glint in her eyes said otherwise.

Ley tried to smother her own snickers, however she too failed and ended up laughing raucously with me, leaving everyone else on the table but Nita, completely clueless.

"Linda laughs at anything and laughing is contagious for Ley. If someone starts laughing, then Bam! She starts laughing too," Nita explained to the confused table.

As our chuckles died down, everyone got to work, taking notes and researching their topics. I heard Nita hiss at Sabrina from across the table. They weren't even in the same group and they were fighting!

"Hey, I'll be back," I informed Ollie. "I'm just a bit thirsty so I'm gonna order a cappuccino."

He nodded to show that he heard me, and I got up making my way to the counter. After five minutes of waiting for my order, I went back to the large table, the steaming cup of cappuccino in my hands.

As I sat down, the Demon made a sound of disgust, her eyes full of distaste.

"Trust an ugly Giraffe like you to actually like cappuccino," she spat.

With a roll of my eyes, I took a sip and ignored her.

I continued to drink my cappuccino as I skimmed over the notes Ollie had written so far. He had found a lot in five minutes, filling out a whole page.

I was about to help him find more information when Nita asked in a rush, "Linda, what time is it?"

I checked the time on my laptop and raised my eyes to her's in horror.

"It's 11am," I answered, panic laced in my voice.

It took half an hour to get to school from the cafe, and we had to be at school by 11:15. After a moment of shared panic, we all scrambled out of our seats, grabbing our bags, laptops and other belongings, and rushed out the door.

I jumped into my car, turned the key in the ignition and...

All I got was the sputtering of the engine.

As Taylor would say; Oh shit.

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Ooooh here comes trouble! Lol, double update because I missed weeks of updates. Tell me what you thought! xx