Claudia

Chapter 5

Claudia's POV

Just seconds after turning in our quizzes, the bell rang for us to go home. After getting out of the rat's maze that is Harvey High School, I hopped on my motorcycle. I barely reached for my helmet when I heard my cell phone chime. It was a text from Zach.

"You're not gonna like this, but look what Polly posted on her Snapchat story." Below was a screenshot of whatever she posted. Normally, I wouldn't scroll through the Internet or check social media until I got home, but my curiosity got the best of me.

It was a selfie of Polly looking off to the side, her red lips forming a pout. Then, I followed her eyes and saw a caption in big pink letters. "This is the face you make when the new girl is mean to you in front of the WHOLE CLASS." There were also a couple of crying emojis next to it.

Great. Just great. Now half the school will think I'm some type of bully. So much for not drawing attention to myself.

"She has some nerve! What is her problem?" I texted back.

Then, just when I thought things couldn't get any worse, a silver Chevrolet pulls up not too far from me and rolls down the window.

Of course, the driver was Brett Hamilton.

"Hey, you really killed it today," he said with a small smile.

I stared blankly at him.

"Are you some type of genius or something? How did you know all of that?"

"Well for starters, I actually pay attention in class instead of talking about that Throne Games show," I snarked. He was one of the last people I wanted to see right now and I really just wanted to go home.

"Game of Thrones," he corrected me.

I just gave him another blank stare.

"Okay, are you mad at me or something? I mean, I didn't do anything wrong, but..." he rambled.

"You said I looked like Daenerys! What is even that supposed to mean?" It wasn't until I already spoke that I realized I wasn't too far off from shouting. A couple of people were staring at me, which only further added to my worries.

"That's not a bad thing! If anything, that's actually a compliment." Upon hearing this, I made a face.

"How on earth is that a compliment?" I was dying to hear what he was going to say at this point.

"Because Daenerys is cool. She's super powerful and controls dragons. Not to mention, everyone likes her and she's pretty easy on the eyes." He smiled at me. Was Brett flirting with me? I know everyone is different, but he sure has an odd way of doing it. There was a moment of silence before he opened his mouth again.

"I just don't see why you would come here." Forget what I said earlier. Clearly, he wants me to leave.

"What to do you mean?"

"There's a million other places you could go. Why would you ever come here?" False alarm, he's just trying to make small talk.

I had to think for a moment. Brett had a point. Of all the places in the world, why did I choose to come here?

"As you know, I'm from Santa Monica. It was warm and beautiful and I loved it, but after a while, I thought I could use a change of scenery." Hearing this clearly surprised Brett. He sat with one hand on the steering wheel, his eyes wide and his mouth agape.

"You willingly came to Crescent Hills?"

"Yes, what of it? I'm sure I'm not the only one."