"Does anyone want to crash this party tonight with me?" Drew asks, taking a sip of his water bottle.
"I can't. I'm babysitting," Michael tells him, making him frown.
"I'm hanging out with Ryan tonight," Brady admits, and Drew frowns even more.
"Is anyone open tonight?" Drew asks, and we all shake our heads. Suddenly, Mrs. Martin walks in the room with a girl trailing behind her with her nose in a book. She has long brown hair that is pulled back into a high ponytail. She's wearing a t shirt with black leggings. Her brown eyes scan over the page she's on before she turns to the next page.
"Hi boys. How have your mornings been?" Mrs. Martin asks, taking off her coat and placing it on her chair.
"Good until I found out that the rest of the guys are busy tonight," Drew huffs, making Mrs. Martin laugh.
"Then do something by yourself. It's good to have some free time," she tells him.
"Why is there a girl, a pretty one at that," I blurt, making her look up from her book. Mrs. Martin laughs.
"Boys, this is Bella, my daughter who transferred over from the neighboring school thanks to bullying," Mrs. Martin announces, making Bella's eyes widen.
"Mom!" she scolds, making her mom laugh.
"These boys don't care, trust me. Now, you guys can each introduce yourselves," Mrs. Martin sets us up. Bella sighs, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear before starting nervously.
"I'm Bella. I'm a junior this year, and I love literature," she tells us before looking back down at her book.
"I'm Jon, and I'm a senior," he greets with a smile, and she nods.
"I'm Drew, and I'm also a senior," he smiles at her.
"I'm Camry, but my friends call me Cam, and I'm a senior as well," he admits.
"I'm Andrew, and I'm a junior," he introduces himself.
"Hi, I'm Michael, and I'm a junior," he says.
"I'm Jaden, and I'm a sophomore," he informs her.
"My name is Brady, and I'm a sophomore," he announces.
"I'm Dorian, and I'm a sophomore," I tell her. It seems as if she wasn't really paying attention, focusing on her book.
"Bella here is going to be joining the academic league family," Mrs. Martin smiles proudly, looking at her own daughter. She quickly snatches the book out of her hand to make Bella pay attention.
"Don't worry, we're all nice here," Jon smiles, but Bella doesn't seem to be paying attention to him, but more to someone else who is conversing with their friend.
"Especially Brady. He's the baby," Drew smiles, looking over at Brady.
"You nine should just get to know each other better while I type up the schedule for this year," she tells us, walking over to her computer and starting to type on it.
"What book where you reading?" Cam brings up casually to her, and she shrugs.
"It was a collection of poems," she shrugs, looking down at her hands.
"What were the poems about?" Andrew asks, but she just shrugs.
"None of your business," she says calmly, and some of the boys make "ooohhh" sounds.
"So, did you meet anyone new here so far?" Jaden asks, making her sigh.
"Some guys walked up to me and told me my life would be hell because she's my mom, and they hate her," she tells us, making all of us frown.
"By any chance did one of them have a red banana on?" Michael asks, and she nods.
"Yeah, and he was with a guy with pampered hair and a kid who resembled a little bunny," she announces, making Michael frown.
"That was just Miles. Don't worry," Michael tells her.
"I knew it reeked of Perez," Andrew plugs his nose, confusing Bella.
"Who's Perez?" she asks, and I know it's time to let Drew take over.
"He goes by the name of Chance, but his whole group of friends have decided to make all of our lives more difficult since the worst day of my life," he frowns.
"I remember how shocked I was when I heard it," Michael admits, and Drew nods.
"I couldn't believe that one of my best friends at the time had gotten my girlfriend, who I had loved, pregnant," he frowns, shocking Bella.
"Wait, so your best friend got your girlfriend pregnant, so you two now hate each other," Bella attempts to unscramble in her mind, and Drew nods.
"They are 'popular' so they have the whole school following them," Michael huffs, putting air quotes around popular, making Bella laugh.
"People misuse the word popular all the time. Thinking you are better than everyone else and having lots of people like you are two different things," Bella states, making all of us nod.
"So it's pretty much the whole school against the eight of us," I chirp in.
"Don't you mean the nine of us?" she smiles, making the rest of us smile.
"Fine, the nine of us," I correct myself.
"Just avoid contact with any of them, and you'll be fine," Cam gives some advice with a big thumbs up.
"Who are all of them?" she asks.
"Bunny kid AKA JHype AKA Jay Gilbert, Cameron Armstrong, bandana boy AKA Miles Wesley, Andrew Bloom, Sergio the soccer troll, Marcus Pendleton, Chance's minion AKA Devin Hayes, pampered hair boy AKA Mikey Jimenez, Gavin Becker, and the king himself Chance Perez," Drew tells her, throwing in some random nicknames we've given them.
"Oh, I've heard of some of them. My mom hates them," she smiles.
"Don't we all," Andrew responds. Mrs. Martin starts coughing and Bella runs up to get her some water.
"Are you okay?" Michael asks her as she drinks some of her water.
"I'm fine. I just got something caught in my throat," she smiles at us.
"Are you sure, mom? I can go get you something if you like," Bella asks, but she shakes her head no, smiling.
"I'm good. It makes me better just to see my nine favorite kids hanging out together," she grins before she starts typing once again.
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RIP team Chance after this chapter. I'm so so so sorry I couldn't update on Thursday, and I'll try to make it up sometime.
Thank you so much for reading this. Remember to comment, vote, and share this story. DONT BE A SILENT READER.
