Good Lil Girl

Chapter 2

As soon as the bell rang I snatched my bag and launched out of the class room as quick as I could, not wanting to be in that horrid situation any longer. I was soon stopped in my tracks, though, by a bunch of giggly girls.

"Oh my gosh you were sitting with John!" One of them, a girl with dark brown hair in a high ponytail exclaimed with a broad smile.
"Shuddup Amy, everyone already knows that." Another girl with a short blonde bob interrupted. "I'm Kelly, by the way. We thought yer looked lost and well, you aint got any friends here have yer?"
"Don't you think John's eyes are dreamy?" Amy spoke again.
"Amy!" Three other girls snapped at her.
I laughed a little as I glanced down at my shoes. I wasn't that great at making friends, and in my old school people weren't so open to talking to me. "His name is John? He's awful."
Kelly smiled. "It's okay. If ya just don't go near him, he won't bother you."
"What do you mean? Does he usually bother people?"
Another girl with black hair in a small beehive, who I think was called Tina, sighed. "You have be careful with John."
"Why?"
"John aint the nicest guy, and he don't like many girls either. People are conscious of what they say to 'im cos they either fancy the pants off 'im or don't want to get beat up."
"Beat up?" I questioned, raising an eyebrow.
"Yeah, Lennon's pretty rough and if he doesn't like someone then he will probably punch 'em a few times." Tina explained.
I gulped. "Well... John doesn't scare me. All he could do was call my grotty..."

*****

Me, Amy, Kelly, Tina and a few other girls made our way down the corridor and towards the dinner hall. I had already brought some pre-packed sandwiches on the way to school and a carton of ribena.

"Ugh, maths is a drag. And Miss Smith wears hideous skirts." Kelly grumbled, picking at her chipped red nail polish.

"I'm glad you think so, I was beginning to think that's how you all dressed round here!" I exclaimed, laughing.

All of a sudden I felt someone's large hand pressed into my back. "Can you hurry up the bleedin' pace?"

I turned, aggravated, to see John walking behind us impatiently. Just the sight of his face made my heart race slightly.
"I said 'urry up!" He moaned even louder with an uncontrollable sigh of annoyance.
We all glanced at each other and sped quickly down the corridor. I still had John's words about not wanting to get on his bad side from our previous acquaintance lingering in my mind.

I felt the sudden warmth of an arm that had hooked around my shoulders. "Hey, pretty thing."
I turned abruptly to be met face to face with a boy, dressed in leather and his hair slicked back just like John's. "Um... hello?"
"I ain't seen yer around 'ere before, darling. What's ya name?"
"Elouise." I squeaked. He looked pretty cute, with blue eyes and plump lips, but I really didn't want any more trouble with a boy. His lingering body contact was making me nervous.
"I'm Danny, and I can sure give a girl like you a time to remember." He muttered into my ear, giving me a squeeze.
I shuddered. "Eurgh, just get off me!"
"And why would yer want me to do that then?" He growled, not allowing me to break from his grip.
"Dan! What the hell're you doing? Don't go for 'er! Give off!" I heard John's voice from behind as he nudged the boy in the back.
"What you on about John, have you seen this bird?" He replied, smirking at me as he still wouldn't let me prise away from his body. In an instant John slammed into the boy, Danny, causing him to fall back into the corridor wall and me flying forwards out of his grip. I turned and John was standing in front of Danny as he looked his 'friend' up and down. "I told you to give off."
John snapped his head towards me and squinted before snarling. I immediately gripped my bag and hurried after the other girls who had seemingly left, unknowing of the scene that had broken out behind them. My pulse was sky high.

****

After lunch me and Kelly (the other girls seemed to have disappeared) headed towards room ten, for English. We filed up with the rest of the class outside the door, and then as the teacher called us in we all trundled inside to sit down. I just quickly sat next to Kelly considering I didn't really know where else to sit.

"Okay so today we need to put you all in groups so we can work on an assignment for Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet." The teacher explained as a few grumbles were heard throughout the class. "Okay so Susan you will be working with Tina, Joe and Pattie. Kelly you can work with Sam, Paul and Jessica. Amy you will work with Jason, Tammy and Carl." Suddenly the woman's eyes scanned over my face. "Oh, are you new? Well you'll have to work with... Stuart, John and Micheal."

I sighed heavily. Not only did I have to work with John, but I also had to work with his two stupid and immature friends. All boys. And what was I supposed to do? Pretend that I wasn't just in some weird hostile occurrence with John twenty minutes ago?

I picked up my bag and flung it on the floor next to John, sitting in the empty chair.

"Well 'ello, freak." He greeted me with a smirk. His friends laughed as I looked away. "What, are ya not gonna speak now?"
"No." I mumbled, fiddling with the pencil I had grabbed from my bag.
"Aw, poor lil new girl's scared of me." He mimicked, laughing horridly with his friends. I just ignored them and sank down into the hard, plastic chair.

After ten minutes of realising we were not going to get any work done (mainly because John had used the poetry as paper balls he was aiming at Micheal), I decided to lie limply on the table, propping myself up with my elbow, and listen to their boring conversations.

"John have yer heard the new LP by Buddy Holly?" Stuart asked eagerly, smiling. At the mention of Buddy Holly I rolled my eyes.
"Yeah, it's brill ain't it? I could sit there all day listenin' to that good ol' music, if my aunt wasn't always on me case." John turned to me. "So what music're you into, rat?"
I ignored his insult and shrugged, still nervous to even talk with these harsh boys. "Well, I like Peggy Lee. And Frank Sinat-"
"Peggy bloody Lee? Sinatra? What are you on?" He exclaimed, looking at me in disbelief. "Well, doesn't surprise me tha' lil prissy pants likes that crap."
"It's not... crap," I replied, cringing at the mention of a bad word from my mouth, "It's good music."
John sniggered, and so did his friends. "Good music? Yer should listen to rock n roll."
"Oh no. My parents say that I can't listen to that. They say it's all noise and the words can corrupt you."
John couldn't even hold in the giggles and spurts of laughter. "Corrupt ya?"
I squirmed in my seat, embarrassed. "Yes, they say I should never listen to it, it's for bad kids."
John rolled his eyes. "Listen to what your mummy and daddy tell you then, lil girl? Yer missing out. Why dont ya be a lil bad and give it a listen?"
"I'll stick to Sinatra, thank you." I managed to say abruptly, not looking at John's face for too long before darting my eyes back to the table.
"You're jokin'. Whatever then, dumb rat. But rock n roll can change ya life."

Well that might be John, but I didn't want my life to change. I was fine how I was.