9 pm on a Saturday

the heartless freak

I cringe while walking to the seat right next to Caleb's. "well well well, look who decided to join me." Caleb says. I roll my eyes, clearly annoyed by his presence. "I didn't decide to join you, I was forced to," I point out. "now may you please shut it because I'm getting very disturbed by just hearing your voice and looking at you." I finish, sitting down and taking out my notebook.

Caleb scoffs, "you didn't seem disturbed this morning when you were looking at me." I freeze for a second then continue my action. "I wasn't looking at you. I was glaring." I correct. It was true. I was glaring at him. "yeah, okay you were glaring." he says sarcastically.

This snitch.

"I was glaring!" I say, placing my hand to the desk to prove me right. "Ms Mendes! Mr Rhodes! Keep it down before I'm going to have to send you to the principal's office." Mrs Wilson scolds both me and Caleb. My eyes glare into Caleb's  emotionless ones and I scoff at him.

The lesson was over before I knew it and I scurried off to the cafeteria. Suddenly a hand touches my shoulder so I abruptly turn back to see who the person was. Aaliyah.

I smile at her the same smile she gives me and we stay in the corner of the hallway, waiting until the crowd leaves. "soo, what are you planning for your birthday?" Aaliyah asks. I shrug. "I mean, mom and dad have work and they aren't coming back until tomorrow and Shawn is leaving for some concert in Sydney tonight. We basically have the whole house to ourselves." I cheer, jumping up and down slightly.

"maybe we could–" Aaliyah gets cut off by a girl bumping into her. I gasp, helping Aaliyah up while the other girl starts picking up her papers. Aaliyah and I soon join to help her pick up her thousands of papers for what feels like just five seconds until we all stand up.

"sorry." Aaliyah mutters to the girl but she doesn't say anything, her eyes wide with... fright? Why would someone be scared of me and Aaliyah. "you're... Aaliyah Mendes. And you're Louise Mendes." the girl says unbelievably. Aaliyah and I nod in sync, amused by the girl's uneasiness. "yeah." I say, chuckling.

"oh sorry, I just realised how much inconvenience I caused for you two. I'll just leave now, bye." and with that, the girl leaves. "wait, we didn't catch your name." Aaliyah says to the girl. She turns around walking to us again.

"um, Bailey." she says, giving us a warm genuine smile. Aaliyah nods, giving her a similar smile, "do you want to join us at our table for lunch?" she asks. Bailey nods cautiously, thinking that Aaliyah was just kidding. Well she surprisingly wasn't.

As we walk into the lunch room, almost all eyes were on us.

"oh my god it's the Mendes sisters."

"isn't it one of the girl's birthday?"

"oh yeah it's Louise's birthday."

"oh who's that girl with them?"

I roll my eyes inwardly at the gossip so I shut them out before we arrive at our table. Everyone knows that this is our table. Well we didn't really mark this as our table but everyone noticed us sitting here everyday so no one dared to sit at this table. Of course, if we find someone sitting at our table, I wouldn't mind because there are tons of other empty tables we can sit at.

Aaliyah, Bailey and I started talking about just random things. At times we'd laugh, which was a very good feeling. As we talk more, Bailey started talking more and getting out of her shell. Bailey was a very fun girl to be with once you get to know her more.

"so. How's you and Caleb?" Bailey asks. My mouth which was once full of water chokes it out, leaving me with a fit of coughing. "Caleb?!" I ask amusingly. "what do you mean Caleb?" I ask once again. Bailey shrugs, "well there are some rumours of you and Caleb being partners for a project, so I figured that you two might be making up?"

I scoff, shaking my head. "no no, Mrs Wilson forced us to be partners. I totally despise him. And he despises me. We will never ever, in my life, be making up. He's annoying, stupid, selfish, narcissistic, egotistical and doesn't love anyone in his life. He's heartless." I say. It was true. Caleb was nothing but an annoying, stupid, selfish, narcissistic, egotistical, and a heartless freak.

"a heartless freak?" a familiar voice says from behind me. Aaliyah, Bailey and I turn around quickly to see who suddenly interrupted our conversation. And standing before me is Caleb freaking Rhodes.

"a heartless freak, eh?" Caleb asks amusingly. I roll my eyes, turning around to face his tall figure. "mhm," I hum, nodding my head. Caleb, however, shows no emotion and then walks back a few steps, "if I was heartless, why would I despise you?" and those were his last words before he turned around and walked to his table where his two friends are waiting for him.

Aaliyah told me that Shawn used to sit there and would always ask Aaliyah to sit with them but she refused, since literally everyone there were the fakest people you would ever meet.

"oh, hi Louise." a pitchy voice says from behind me once I turn back around. "hey... Myra," I turn to her, giving her the fakest smile I could, but to her it seems 100% real. "I was thinking that maybe you should join the cheer team? It would be such a good sport for you to get your mind off... you know, your parents."

Myra gives me a beautiful smile. Now if you have just met her, you would think that Myra is the prettiest, nicest, most warm girl you will ever meet. But that's not it. She's a boyfriend-stealing freak who would fuck anyone for anything.

Now Myra was different from Rose. Sure, Rose let Liam cheat on me with her but Myra is way worse. She would literally rub it all on your face that I'm a reject and Liam never loved me. Honestly, I'm quite relieved that Liam cheated on me with Rose instead.

"no," I say, in the happiest way possible. "no?" she asks. Her face was contorted into a frown. I shake my head, giving her a sympathic smile. "no, I don't want to join. Sor–" just before I can finish my sentence, Myra interrupts me. "oh, is it because of football? It's fine, cheer is only on Mondays and Saturdays." Myra says in an understanding tone.

I'm in the football team. Yes, I play American football and no, I don't just run on the field, tackling people for fun. I play it as an actual sport and it is also quite fun. I usually have football practice on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. It's quite tiring, actually.

"no, thank you." I say one more time, before Myra flashes me a smile and going back to her seat. I sigh, "wow, she needs to learn that you don't want to join the cheer team. She's been asking you to join for the past year." Aaliyah says, chuckling. Bailey raises her eyebrows at this.

"she's been asking you to join? Wow, lots of girls have been dreaming to join the team but no one really got in." Bailey says. I raise my eyebrows, shrugging again. "yeah, I wonder why though." I wonder aloud. However, Aaliyah seemed to know the answer to my question. "it's obviously because you're the Shawn Mendes' sister. If you join the cheer team, they will be more relevant than they already are. Maybe internationally too."

I let out an amused laugh, tilting my head back slightly.

"like anyone would notice me."