dogfight-e.d

three

rey stumbles through another crowd of kids, her wild hair brushing in front of her framed eyes, the kids hardly pay any attention to her as they shove their elbows into her back and hips. rey lets out some small grunts and sighs as she trips over her untied shoelace and lands into the near by lockers, "watch it freak!" someone hisses making rey flinch and look down biting her lip. this was the routine for her at school and it had been for years, get shoved about and abused by the populars, at first the words would stick into her like knives but after three years she became used to it.

"hey sun ray" finally a warm voice, rey smiles and turns around to see her best and only friend jacob cartman standing there, "hey j" she smiles. jacob had transferred to the school six months prior, he was shy, awkward and had "nerdy" interests like writing and art, making him a target for harsh insults and taunting from the other kids, making him like rey.

they met a month into jacob joining the school, ethan's gang were surrounding him and had stolen his art book from his back and making fun of his drawings. after playing piggy in the middle with it, the boys finally got bored and threw the book on the floor, making the papers scatter onto the floor, they left jacob to gather his work himself but rey who had been watching sadly,ran over to help him. of course they were both quiet and awkward with each other but they soon became best friends. bonded over how they were outcasts.

"I can see how you spent your night" rey chuckles, looking down at jacob's hands which were covered with various colours of dry paint, he laughs smally and looks at the books rey's holding in her hands. rey's interests weren't what your average teen was supposed to be, instead of going out till the early hours of the morning drinking or talking to numerous boys on her phone, rey enjoyed spending her time reading, writing or looking at the stars. she was into astrology and had spent the night before looking up at the stars and charting them to add to her notebook which had spare papers stuffed into it. "you sure do love your stars, huh?" jacob beams at his best friend, finding her main interest in life a reflection of how intelligent and amazing rey is. she giggles and plays with one of her free curls, "what's not to love about them?".

jacob then looks in front of him and squints his eyes in confusion,"hey rey, look at that" he says and rey's eyes follow his and a similar expression falls on her face. "am I seeing things or...." jacob trails off at the sight. nate garner, one of the best looking and popular boys at school, who has a track record of bedding girls who were getting modelling offers, was talking to terri blacksmith. terri was another outcast at school, she was cursed with everything that made her a laughing stock for the other kids: wild bushy ginger hair, braces, a speed bump in her nose and a style that made the kids think she got dressed in the dark. she hardly got any male attention and was picked on by the girls in the locker room and yet there was nate garner, talking to her and not in a mocking way but instead he was smiling kindly at her, bopping her nose and making her giggle. "oh no he's making fun of her" rey says getting worried, "no rey..." jacob disagrees looking closer "I think he's.... asking her out" . "what? no way" rey retorts shaking her head. there was no way a guy like nate would ask out a girl like terri. that wasn't how it worked.

"let's get a little closer" jacob says and the two step a little closer to the two kids, enough to hear the conversation.

"yeah I've been meaning to talk to you for a while now...terri" nate chuckles smoothly, terri giggles again and looks down. "really nate?" she asks and nate nods, "so how bout it doll?" he asks raising an eyebrow "saturday night, it'll be my friends and their dates". "of...of course id love to nate" terri gasps breathlessly and nate smirks, "awesome here's my number" he writes some digits on a piece of paper and hands it to her. jacob and rey look at each other in confusion, one of the biggest outcasts at school just got asked out by one of the most popular and wanted guys, to hang out with his equally popular and wanted friends.

they watch as terri charges away, bright red in the face and grinning like the cat that's got the cream. "okay is it opposite day or something?" jacob asks looking at terri and back over to where nate now was. hes with his friends, rey watches them curiously, nate telling them something and they all pat him on the back. rey's eyes scan all of them before finally falling on ethan, she sucks in a breath at the sight of him. she thought he was cute, real cute with his curly dark hair and deep hazel eyes but unfortunately he was like all the other guys, a huge douche.

almost as if he can sense her, ethan's eyes turn from his friends and make contact with rey's. they stay there for a few seconds, looking directly at her, she doesn't think ethan has ever looked at her for so long, hell she doesn't think he's even looked at her at all but he's looking now.

rey sees a small smile form on his lips and she raises an eyebrow, she feels uncomfortable with him looking at her that way, no boy has ever looked at her that way. she looks away as she feels her skin heat up under his gaze. "come on jacob,we better hurry" she quickly mumbles to her friend, not wanting to be in ethan's point of vision anymore but even with her back to him as she stumbles to class, rey can still feel those eyes, his gaze like a shadow she can't shake off.