Love, Confusion & A Rather Large Amount Of Pizza

Chapter 4

Oh no. It's the worst day of the week. 

Monday. 

The day when I have to put my freedom on hold and go back to the place of judgemental, nosey and generally quite annoying imbociles. Where I'm forever wishing not to be there and be at home sleeping or eating or whatever instead. 

You can probably tell that school isn't my favourite place in the world. 

And it'll be even worse after what's happened over the weekend. 

I can already tell what's going to happen as I step through the school gates. Many weird looks are being shot my way, mainly by girls who are probably Eleanor's friends. Even some of the boys look a bit shifty in my presence. Honestly, judging by the way everyone's acting, you'd think I've murdered someone or something. It's eerie. 

Kebab's not bothered though. He grins when he sees me and bounds over, greeting me with the usual 'Ey up, la!'. We walk to our classroom as he chats away about this new game that's coming out in November. I'm not exactly bothered about it, to be honest. But I listen in all the same. 

"Yeah, but November's ages away. Shouldn't they start advertising it nearer the time?" 

"I dunno, do I? It's probably to get people excited to buy it and all that." 

"I suppose," I say as we sit down at our table. 

I watch as all the different characters that make up our class wander into the room, most looking half asleep.  

Gary and James and all that - the group of people that are like those 'jocks' or whatever they're called in High School Musical. Minus the singing.  

The nerdy boys that obsess over World of Warcraft and stuff and play weird card games at lunchtimes. I avoid them at all costs. 

Jenny and friends- the 'unpopular' group of girls who seem to have decent music tastes and are probably alright people but are just a little bit... weird. 

The 'popular' group of girls who wear skirts so short you can see their thongs (sick in mouth) and wear inches of make up on their faces. They're definitely not alright people. 

And then Eleanor's friends walk in. They all give me dirty looks even though they must know that Eleanor broke up with ME and not the other way round. They sit as far away from me as possible and turn away, occasionally turning to glare at me. 

Oh my, how hurtful. Just a minute whilst I go sit in a corner and cry. 

And then our group of friends walk in- Sam, Fred, Alice and Phoebe-, shouting and larking about even at this hour. They seat themselves at our table - Alice and Phoebe sat across from me and Kebab and Sam and Fred sitting on the extra table to our right.  

We don't really fit into any of the stereotypes stated above. We're quite a mix of people really. Alice and Phoebe are very musical and obsess over bands that not many people have heard of. The people who got me liking most of my current favourite bands. Sam is kind of a cross between a nerd and a 'jock' (that word sounds so weird but that's the only word I can think of to describe that group of boys) and Fred just does his own thing in a way. We all go round in our little six-some (is that even a word?), not really caring what anyone else thinks of us. 

"What's up with you, Moody Margaret?" Phoebe asks me. 

"Pheebs!" Alice hisses. She whispers something in her ear and I watch as Phoebe's expression clears.  

"Oh. Yeah. The Eleanor thing," she says quietly. She tossed her long, black hair over her shoulder, sneakily glancing at the group of girls staring at me menacingly before turning back to face me.  

"I never liked her anyway," Alice sniffs. "A bit up her own arse." 

"Alice!" Phoebe snorts, bursting out laughing.  

They're honestly like a comedy double act. It cracks me up. 

"Oh yeah," Fred chips in. "I heard about the break up." 

"It's all anyone's been talking about," Sam sighs.  

I just stare at them as they babble on about stuff that I can't be bothered listening to. They might be talking about me. I don't even know. I'm just gonna... chill here, I suppose... 

"Good morning class!" Booms Mr Cooper (and no, not Sheldon Cooper, unfortunately. Oh my god, how cool would it be to have Sheldon Cooper as a teacher though? Sorry. I'm going off topic. ANYWAY), making us all jump. We all turn to the front, conversations dying down as we prepare to listen to Mr Cooper's boring voice.  

To our surprise, he's not the only person standing at the front today.  

"Everyone, I'd like you to meet our new student- Emily. Say hello everyone!" 

Emily herself stands awkwardly, leaning on one leg and biting her lip. The first thing I notice about her is her hair- it's bright red. And I mean BRIGHT red. She's quite pretty, I suppose, and her eyes are a sort of hazelish colour. Everyone just gives a little grunt of acknowledgement before drifting off into daydreams or resuming their previous conversations. I watch as she scans the room, presumably looking for somewhere to sit. All seats are taken at every table, apart from the spare chair at the back of the classroom.

"Shall we ask her if she wants to come sit with us?" Alice asks. No one seems to want to answer so I reply with a "Yeah, why not?"

Alice turns to Emily, who is now nervously making her way towards the back of the room, not making eye contact with anyone.

"Hey, Emily," Alice hisses. Emily turns her head towards her quickly and stops walking. "Do you want to come sit with us?"

She smiles slightly and replies with a short 'sure!' before grabbing the chair and slowly placing it on the edge of Alice and Phoebe's table.

No one seems to want to talk for some reason. It's not as awkward as it sounds, though. I think everyone's suddenly become rather sleepy. Apart from Emily. She's looking around the room, taking in all aspects of it, her eyes wide and interested.

I don't know why, but I have a feeling I'm going to like this girl.