A Different Life

Bad Boys, Queen B? Oh How Cliché

As Holly and I were walking to our lockers, which were fortunately near each other, to get our books for periods 5 and 6, I noticed a group of boys standing near my locker. Well to be more precise - in front of my locker! They must be the schools bad boys, I mean every school has a group of bad boys, the cheerleader/ Queen Bs, football players, nerds and last of all- no-bodies. These boys fall right into the 'Bad Boy' category, with their messed up hair, dark coloured clothing, and let's just say, they weren't short of muscle. As I approach my locker one of them looks up, probably the leader, he was the most good looking one there. Wait did I just think that? I think all the teen fiction I read is getting to my head. Well, seeing as I have no social life, I spend my time at home eating my feelings and watching movies or reading teen fiction. "Um excuse me. I have to get to my locker. And in case you haven't noticed- you're kind of in the way." I say to the boy who was leaning on my locker. "Ooh the good girl's got an attitude, does she? You must be the new girl- Lea, right?" The boy says, straightening up to his full height. He must be at least 6ft. "Yes that is I, the one and only Lea Woods." I reply. "Now would you be so kind as to move away from my locker?" "Whatever you say, sweetheart." He says as he walks past me and purposely bumps into my shoulder, making me fall. His little group all snicker at this as Holly helps me up. "Who was that?" I ask curiously. "That, my friend, is Alex Ryder. Schools' lead bad boy, and known heartbreaker." Holly replies. "Well his new name is Jerk-face." I say as I stand up and brush myself off. He was tall, tan, had green-grey eyes that held a sense of mystery and mischief. His dark brown-black hair was perfectly tousled, giving him the just-got-out-of-bed kind of style. His black shirt hugged his well muscled chest- I should probably stop reading all the teen fiction I do. It's seriously unhealthy. Nearly as unhealthy as my diet, but that's a different story.

We quickly opened our lockers and grabbed our books then headed to class. As we walked into our history room, I quickly scanned the room. I was shocked to see none other than Mr. Bad Boy, Alex Ryder, himself. "We meet again sweetheart." Oh dear god. I turn around to see him looking at me with that stupid, yet cute, smirk that all bad boys seem to have. I quickly turn around, hoping he didn't see me blush, and find a seat. The classroom is now filling up with students. They are all struggling to find a seat. "Okay class, today we will be doing a group project. I will choose your pairs-" Holly and I look at each other hopefully. "- But-" there was always a but. "Each pair must consist of one boy and one girl." The teacher read through the list creating pairs. "Alex Ryder.. Let's see. You can go with-" please not with me. Please not with me. I repeated in my head, hoping I wouldn't be paired with him. "- you can go with Miss Lea Woods, the new student." Why me? I grab my stuff and move to the empty seat next to him. "Well hello sweetheart." The rest of the lesson goes by quickly. The shrill ring of the bell signals the end of class. The class is dismissed and we make our way to period 6.

Last period goes by in a blur and soon it's time to go home. I grab my bag and walk to the gates. I start walking down the street when a strong arm grabs my arm. I turn around to find myself looking into green-grey eyes. It only takes a fraction of a second to work out who it is. It was jerk-face. "what?" I let out an exasperated sigh. "Let me drive you home." He says. "Why?" I want good reasons before I get in the car with someone I don't know to well. "Because these streets aren't safe." I agree and follow him to his car. I get in and give him my address. He suddenly stops the car. "What?" I ask worriedly. He turns to me, looks me dead in the eye and says: "we're neighbours." "No we're not. You're joking. We- we can't be." I argue- denying the fact that we are neighbours. We drive in silence for the next few minutes until we arrive at my house. And sure enough he walks into the house next door.

I open the door to my own house and walk in. My mum is sitting at the table, head in her hands. I walk over to her. Her eyes are red and puffy- she's been crying. "Wha-" I was cutoff by her handing me her phone. On the screen was a message from...dad. Wait what?! Dad. God I hate how it sounds. Dad. "I thought you got a new number and deleted his contacts." I stare at the phone in shock and horror. There was a text on the screen. It read:
Dave: clever lady. Moving house and country. Getting a new phone AND new number. You thought you could hide from me. How pathetic. I will find you and the consequences of running away won't be good.
This isn't good. Mum stands up and I pull her into a right embrace. I don't know how long we stood there, just crying on each other's shoulders. This was bad. This was really bad. We could have stood there forever if it hadn't been for the doorbell. My heart began to beat terrifyingly fast. It can't be him surely. It can't be. I am almost afraid to open the door incase it is him. I grab the handle and yank open the door. I open it to see a plump woman, probably mid to late 40s standing on our door step holding a plate of cookies. "Hello. I'm Lucinda. I live next door. My son came home and told me a new family had moved in next door." I moved out of the way to let the lady in. "Come in. Please." Just as I was about to close the door a foot, followed by a leg, entered the doorway. I quickly open the door to see Alex Ryder standing on the door step. "Can I come in." It sounded more like a demand than a question so I let him in.

While our mothers sat eating cookies and drinking coffee, I took Alex upstairs. "So this is your room." He says as he looks around. My room doesn't contain much. Just my bed, my desk and dressing table, my wardrobe. My floor and desk are littered with photos and boxes of stuff yet to be put away. "Yeah it's not much but it is what it is." The walls are a baby blue colour and my desk, dressing table and bed frame are white. I love any colour that is pastel, blue or white. I look through the window to see Alex's room. Great. Not only are we neighbours but we can see into each other's rooms. "So..care to explain why you and your mum look like you've been crying?" He asks, breaking the silence that was threatening to settle on us. "Because we have. You have to promise not to tell anyone this but, the reason my mum and I moved house is because back home, my father abused my mother. Not only that but I was getting bullied at school. Everything started going down hill. My relationship with my father, my parents' marriage, everything. Then my dad divorced my mum. We lost everything. Then we moved here planning to start over. When I came home today my mum was sitting at the table crying. She had received a text from Dave, my ex-dad. It read: 'clever lady. Moving house and country. Getting a new phone AND new number. You thought you could hide from me. How pathetic. I will find you and the consequences of running away won't be good.'" I finished what I was saying. Only then did I realise that I had spilled my whole life story to a complete stranger. "Not even Holly knows this. Given that I've only known her half a day and we've only had one class togethe-" I was silenced, partially out of shock and confusion, as two strong arms wrapped around me and held me close. It felt weird but somewhat...natural. We stood there like that for a few more minutes then we began to talk. He told me his story seeing as I had told him mine. His father died when he was younger. A 'friend' of his father's had killed him. Then I needed to get a drink. I came back and we continued to talk until his mum came to tell him that is was time to go home.