I've got this friend [Calum Hood]

[1]

[the gif tho 😍]

Her converse-clad feet squeaked against the tile flooring of the school, making her flinch to herself silently. Finally ending up at her locker, she ducks her head into it, grabbing whatever appropriate necessities she needed for her next class. Chemistry.

Slamming her locker shut, she comes face to face with her friend who seemed to have been standing there the whole time. Briella lets out an abnormally high-pitched sound, placing her hand over her heart as she closes her eyes momentarily. "Dre you can't just do that!"

Andrea snorts, laughing at Briella's moment of shock, "not my fault you didn't see me." Andrea shrugs her shoulders without a care as they start to walk away from Briella's locker.

No further than 5 minutes, Luke had managed to sneak up on Brielle, scaring her from behind; again making her want to scream at her best friends. "What the fuck Luke?!", she watches as he and Andrea share a high-five with each other, audacious grins placed upon their faces.

Rolling her eyes, she begins to saunter away from the two, having enough of their vexatious banter. "See you at break!", Briella responds by flipping a not so subtle finger towards their direction. And of course the pair acknowledge her by snickering with each other till their hearts content.

My friends are such losers. She shakes her head to herself, easily pushing open the lab door. Briella quickly finds a random seat at one of the tables near the back of the room, already knowing that that wasn't going to be her permanent table due to Mr Flood's rule of having the students work in pairs according to their last names.

Briella watches as the last of the students pile into the room just before the bell rings, making the teacher shake his head in disappointment. Shouldn't he be used to it by now? She questions to herself while staring at all the unfamiliar faces scrambling around to find a seat.

It was a new term, meaning new seating assignments and occasionally new people.

Honestly? She was kind of hoping for a new person to be her partner. For the past two years she had to sit with some girl called Lucy Hopkins. And those two years were basically a nightmare to Briella. To put it simply, Lucy fucking sucked, she was messy and completely flammable. All she did was mess around with the chemicals, actually burning off her eyebrows with the Bunsen burner, once somehow burning through the counter and almost onto Briella's thigh.

Shuddering at the memory, she patiently waited for the class to finally settle down before Mr Flood took out a sheet of paper from his satchel, skimming through the words. Placing her head into the palm of her hand, she listened to the teacher introducing himself, growing bored by the minute as a yawn involuntarily escapes her lips.

"As most of you know how this works, you should be prepared to move around. But for those of you who do not, I am Mr Flood–" he stops for a second to turn around and point at the chalkboard behind him, "–and I will be assigning who your partners are, whoever you are selected with you will have to work with them for the year, even if you don't enjoy it, I don't care."

Briella rolled her eyes at the old man but listened anyway, waiting for him to continue.

"Again, you'll only move to your partner after I'm done calling out all the names. First up we have Diana Adams and Ruby Alkins, Anthony Attwood and Olivia Beaumont....."

Another yawn seems to leave Briella as her eyes start to shut, already getting bored of the class. Curse me for sleeping so late.

".....Briella Holland and Calum Hood."

Her eyes immediately widened upon apprehending the teacher saying her name. Instantly, she felt her lips curve upwards unconsciously when she realised she wasn't paired with Lucy Hopkins and she mentally thanked whoever it was that decided to go to this school and just so happen to have their surname after her own.

With eyes searching around the room for her new partner, Briella felt like a lost puppy. She had no idea who this 'Calum Hood' was and she never heard of him before. He could even be a she for all she knew!

Her eyes narrowed, creating a vertical wrinkle between her eyebrows with her lips pursed slightly. Not one of the students seemed to be looking for her and she was starting to give up.

And that's when their eyes met. In the corner of the room sat a boy, dark solemn eyes were staring at Briella intensely and she started shifting uncomfortably in her seat, breaking off the eye contact and looking back at Mr Flood.

The whole remaining time before Mr Flood read off the last name, she could feel his gaze burning into the side of her head. Strange.

"Okay that's all of you, you may now sit with your partner." Briella listened to the words rolling off Mr Flood's tongue, actually happy that it was now over and she could work on whatever they were doing.

Briella was practically pushed away from her own table when her temporary seatmate had called his own partner, basically elbowing Briella to move away. Okay rude much? Rolling her eyes, she was about to make her way over to Calum's table, only to realise the same thing had happened to him too.

The pair stood a distance apart, both searching around the class for an empty table. A groan manages to escape Briella's lips once she realises the only vacant table left is near the front. Why must I have such bad luck? Cursing to herself, she unwillingly trudges towards the table, situating herself onto one of the stools.

Not long after, Briella feels a presence beside her. Calum places his bag onto the floor before turning over to look at the teacher.

Once everyone was just about settled, Mr Flood speaks up again, "Alright class because I'm kind, I'll give all of you 5 minutes to get to know your partner, but only 5 minutes."

"I'm Calum," he began, facing Briella, "and you're Brielle if I'm not mistaken?" He raises an arm towards her, waiting for her to shake his hand.

She gives a blank stare at his hand before eventually placing her own into his, giving it a hard shake, "Briella actually,"

A smile immediately forms on Calums lips as he repeats her name, mostly to himself, "Briella." Dropping his hand, she notices a hint of an Australian accent.

Briella starts to grab the essentials from her bag, placing them on the desk, "Australian?"

"Kiwi and Scottish too, but besides that yeah born and raised!" Briella shakes her head, letting a laugh escape her lips listening to his way too enthusiastic reply.

"And you Brie?"

Stopping halfway with whatever she was doing, Briella looks up at Calum, her eyes squinting slightly. "Did you just call me Brie? Isn't that a type of cheese?!"

Calum stares at her momentarily as if he were thinking about something, before coming back to his senses, the corner of his lips rising, the muscles moving along the apples of his cheek.

"Yes I did, and yes; I think it is."

Briella glances at the boy sitting beside her, taking a moment to look at him. He suited a red flannel shirt which had a couple of purposeful holes in it, his hair and eyes were the colour of dark roasted beans but his skin was all latte and he had slight crinkles around his eyes from smiling at her.

And in that moment, Briella just knew that they were going to be friends for a very long time.

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Sorry for the short-ish chapter! Just excited to get it started x

[31-10-18]