Player Next Door

Chapter 4

Had he actually just said that?

Had he actually just said that?!

Anger rose up in me. Without even thinking first, I turned round and gave him a swift whack across the face.

“Woo go Acacia!” I heard people screaming and clapping and whooping.

I could feel my face turning its favourite shade of bright red. I normally would've ignored comments like that or had a witty comeback. Why on earth did I decide to slap him?! I turned around to face my teacher, not believing I had done that on my first day (never mind at all), not even five whole minutes had passed yet! I certainly didn't want to already have a teacher hate me already! Not a very good first impression, is it?

Surprisingly enough, there was a smile playing on Miss Luria’s lips.

“Oh my god, I am so sorry Miss, I don’t know what came over me! I know I shouldn’t of slapped him and I should have ignored it and I am ever so sorry, I’m not usually like thi-“ but Miss Luria cut me off, holding her hands up to stop me.

“You think I was going to let that boy get away with what he did? Drew, you deserved that. Stand outside and I will come and speak to you in a minute.” She said.

I breathed a sigh of relief. She really was the best teacher ever!

I heard the door slam shut behind Drew, however I hadn’t turned around to look at his face and see his reaction. Oh no, what if he told Kathryn and then she hated me forever and never talked to my family ever again?!

Wait a minute, this is high school. He’s not going to tell his mum off of me.

“Acacia, why don’t you introduce yourself properly to the class? You can tell them your name, where you’re from and five facts about yourself. Not just boring facts like your favourite colour. Make them interesting!” she smiled.

I stood to face the class. I looked at Kelsey and she gave me a thumbs up.

“Oh, erm well, hello, everyone. My name’s Acacia Jenkins. I’ve just moved here from England.”

Easy enough. Now, five interesting facts about me? Oh dear,

“Well erm, the first fact is that erm, I’m – a vegetarian.” OK that was fine so far.

“Number two, I love Gossip Girl” I saw some people nodding with approval and smiling. OK, they were Gossip Girl fans too, good.

“Number three, I’d love to work in Disney Land.” some people laughed, but not in a mean way, in a nice way. This was getting easier!

“Number four, back in England I went to a theatre school.” some of people even looked very impressed when I said that one.

“Number five...” I couldn’t think of a fifth one. I looked at Kelsey, she mouthed the word ‘Drew’ and smiled cheekily.

“Oh, yes, how could I forget?!” I said sarcastically. “You know Drew?”

The class nodded. Of course they knew Drew.

“I’m his new next door neighbour. He absolutely loves chocolate chip cookies. He wolfed them down like there was no tomorrow the other day! And Kathryn - that's his mum - calls him ‘the cookie monster'. Cute or what?”

The class was in stitches. Kelsey was practically screaming. OK, so I felt a little bit bad but he had been annoying me to no end. Two could play that game. 

Miss Luria had gone out to speak to Drew about the incident but before she left she told the class to introduce themselves with one fact about them. There were only about 12 people altogether in the class, so it would be easy to memorise them all. I already knew Kelsey and Drew. Ten more people wasn't too hard.