Toxic •Jason McCann•

Chapter 23

•Bella•
'Enemies and Allies'

I stood by my locker, piling my very heavy text books in a neat organised pile- organisation was everything.

It had been 3 days since my last encounter with Jason and ever since then, I hadn't communicated with him at all, not even once. Every time I saw him, it was more of just us passing each other in a really crammed hallway where he would literally turn his gaze towards me for a split second just to give me a deathly look of literal hatred. I wondered what I had done that was so bad for him to actually look at me as if I was his enemy.

Every time I entered the cafeteria he'd be at the same table with his friends, it was surprising to me that he was even here, he had no problem with missing days of school.

He would turn to look at me, and so would his friends, before simply turning around and acting as if I did not exist.

As if he hadn't fought a group of guys just for me.

Checking my phone for the time I was reminded that I had to stop by the main office to find out where my new social studies class was. I was now changing my social studies class because I was accidentally put in the class with the er... let's just refer to them as being the lower achievers. But my teacher told me they were known as the 'Failures' which of course is harsh but I guess true.

Anyway, I closed and locked my locker before turning and making my way through the hallways. I kept my eyes to the ground as i carried my English folder close to my chest and my phone in my other hand.

Whenever I wasn't with my friends, my confidence literally dropped for some reason.

Finally, I made it to the main office.

I literally had to tip toe to look over the counter and speak to the woman. "Hello Isabella" She was very kind and probably the sassiest woman I had ever met.

After I had told her what I needed she told me to wait whilst she loaded my timetable. "Well hello little Miss Shorty"

I turned my attention to the tall blonde cutie also known as Austin who walked towards me, the same playful smirk playing amongst his lips.

"Hey, I'm not short, everyone else is just a little overgrown" I argued jokingly knowing full well that I was short and everyone else was average height.

He laughed shaking his head "What are you doing here? Shouldn't you be in class?" He asked raising his eyebrows.

"Remember how I told you I've been literally going to the wrong social studies class for the past like month," I paused allowing him to remember "Yeah well I was told to come here and find out where my new class is so-" just as I finished, she had pulled up my social studies class.

"Ah, very lucky. Mr Johnson is probably the best social studies teacher ever, totally down to earth guy" He commented once hearing my new class.

"That's good to hear, now I'm just hoping everyone in there is nice..." I answered making him nod "Who wouldn't be nice to you? I mean you're just so little and innocent, everyone would be afraid to not be nice to you just in case you don't... break" He joked making me laugh as we left the office.

As we continued walking, it slowly fell in to a almost silence as we got to the second floor where my class supposedly was.

"Well, this is my class so..." I trailed off not really knowing what else to say.

"Yeah so I've been meaning to ask you," he paused scratching the back of his head "If you're free Saturday, we could hang out? And call it a date" He added making me smile at how he could make any situation a little less awkward.

"Yeah, I'd like that" I smiled nodding my head, instantly he smiled.

"Great," he paused, looking behind me his smile sort of faded in to an awkward one as if he was making eye contact with someone else and smiling just because he had to.

I turned around to see Jason, Ryan and Khalil all walking in our direction.

I felt so angered when thinking about Jason, but when I saw him, my heart literally dropped and I felt completely powerless, but somehow in a good way.

"See you later" Ryan muttered to Jason and Khalil as he stopped in front of the class I was supposedly starting making me realise he was in my class, I prayed Jason didn't walk in too.

Thankfully, Jason walked right past with Khalil, he made eye contact with me as he walked past but his gaze soon switched to Austin and suddenly a look of amusement appeared as him and Khalil shared a gaze before laughing.

"Dickheads" Austin muttered shaking his head "Um... I should get going now, I'll see you later" I told him and he nodded giving me a small smile which I returned and with that, I turned around and opened the door.

The class fell silent as I walked in. The teacher nodded over to me as if to tell me to come over to his desk which I complied to and walked over, ignoring the stares. I knew a lot of the people in here but I just never spoke to them, apart from Sandy and Sandra, Roxys best friends, who sat in the far corner chewing gum and twirling their hair whilst giving me the fakest smile ever.

"Hi, I'm Bella... I was supposed to be in the class but-" He was quick to cut me "Ah! I heard about this, truly sorry for your troubles with that... class, but I guarantee you'll fit in well here" he smiled.

Thank god he was nice.

He took a look around the class before smiling "You can take a seat next to Ryan, I promise he doesn't bite, I hope" He joked, instantly I had the worse gut feeling but I hoped he was talking about another Ryan but once I turned around and Ryan was now staring right at me, I knew this was going to be the most awkward thing ever.

Especially because the desks in this class were not singular, it was two people per table and so he was literally one of the only people who sat alone.

I slowly made my way past the rows before stopping at my new desk.

I looked at him, smiling, and to my surprise, he smiled back as I sat down "Hey" he said.

Was I dreaming? Ryan was actually being nice to me? I mean none of Jason's friends were mean to me, they all were really nice, Za and Khalil were in my English class so I knew they were nice people and I had spoken to his friend Kyle and Brandon before in the library as they asked me about a certain book for history. So therefore, I didn't really expect Ryan to be mean to me but now since Jason has suddenly developed this hatred for me for literally no reason, because before it was understandable as he thought I would expose him for who he really was to my dad, but now that that's cleared, he seems to dislike me even more. That's why I just expected Ryan to be a little distant with me too, not that we were ever close but still, you get what I mean.

"Hi" I answered back in my quiet voice.

"So am I supposed to call you Isabella or Bella because I'm hearing different people call you both of them, Za literally calls you Izzy for some odd reason and for some reason Jason calls you Isabella so which one is it?" He asked chuckling along.

Okay hold up, Jason called me Isabella? I mean of course that's my name BUT, I didn't know I was spoken about in their group, not enough for Ryan to be so adamant that Jason called me a specific name. Za I knew about as he always would embarrass me in front of everyone by calling me Izzy but Jason was different, he acted so mean and that he didn't like me but then is speaking about me? Ughh

"You can call me Bella" I told him making him nod.

"Bella it is"