The New Guy

Chapter 1

"Juliet Martha O'Connel!"

My mother only ever calls me by my full name on 2 occasions. The first being she is angry with me, the second is that I won't get up for school, which ultimately coincides with the first occasion.

Today it was the latter. I roll over and make an inhumane noise, whilst rubbing the sleep out of my eyes and try to figure out what day it is. Monday again, so soon.
My mum is standing in the doorway, giving me a disapproving look.

"Morning." I mumble in my somewhat unclear Irish accent. I am born and bred Irish, I live in a small village called Mullingar. It's pretty dreary, not much ever happens. I go to the high school down the road a bit. It's tragic, everyday there's a new drama. I hate it, everything about it.

I was never one for making friends really, I have a theory that as long as you have 1 good, real friend, that's all you need. I have my friend Olivia, she agrees with me. I can't deal with it, these girls smile to your face and stab knives in your back the second you turn.

I eventually roll out of my bed and mum leaves, reminding me of my maths test. I groan and slouch over to the wardrobe. I pull out the horrific uniform and start to get dressed in the white shirt, green and yellow tie (with matching blazer) and the tight, uncomfortable grey skirt. I sigh and quickly get dressed before daring to look in the mirror.

My nearly-waist length brown hair is sticking up in places and the bags under my eyes are prominent. I grab by brush and smooth out my hair until it settles in its slightly straight, slightly wavy fashion. I pick up my concealer and dab it under my eyes and apply some mascara to my green eyes too. I don't need to put too much effort into school. I have light freckles littering my nose and cheeks. My mother says they're a sign of beauty, but I don't like them really. I don't think I suit them as well as the other girls in my year.

Despite my dislike towards them I always find myself being jealous towards them, and I don't even know why. I'm happy enough, I do alright at school, happy family (sort of) , yes, still single but I'm working on it... Well not really. All the boys I know are idiots, I couldn't care for any of them.

I pull on my black brogues and head downstairs.

I am not an only child, although I feel like it sometimes. I have 2 older brothers who have both moved out. They were quite harsh to me in my upbringing, always wrestling with me as I'd always lose. I don't see much of them anymore, they are both married and working on their own families. So most of the time it's just me, and occasionally my mum and dad.

I sit down at the table and pour myself a bowl of cereal. I pull my phone out of my pocket to check instagram and twitter, but I'm very picky in who I follow, so there's never anything much interesting in my feed.

So yeah, here I am. Your average 17 year old girl. I'm not particularly exciting but I manage just fine being the way I am.

---

10 minutes later I'm clambering into the car with dad and looking over my maths notes, trying to fit in last minute revision. I know I'm screwed for this test, but I should probably revise anyway.
I check my hair in the rear view mirror as dad pulls out of the driveway. He tries to make some conversation with me, but I am too busy trying to cram 5 weeks of knowledge into my head in 10 minutes. I reply with vague "yep"s and "mmm"s until he gets the message. I feel bad for dismissing him like this, but I can't fail another maths test. Maths is definitely not my forte.

When we pull into the school car park I clumsily climb out of the car, dropping my notes on the ground. I sigh again and bend down to pick them up. I can see a cluster of girls out of the corner of my eye pointing at me and laughing at my misfortune, so I stand up straight and shoot them a big grin followed by a death stare. They all turn away and shuffle off to gossip about someone else. I roll my eyes and go to meet up with Olivia.

•••

We both sit in the dreary form room waiting for our form teacher to come and mark us present. She's already 5 minutes late, she's always very unorganised. We all chat amongst ourselves until she comes barging in and clears her throat to get our attention. A few people turn their heads and she booms out in her obnoxious English accent "Everybody, I would like you to meet a new member of our class. As you all know Ellis left last term, but we have a replacement! Everybody say hello to Niall!"

A tall boy with nearly all brown hair, except for a blonde quiff and blue eyes walks in. A few people mutter hello's, but for some reason he has captured my attention. He walks in and goes straight to the back of the class and sits down without saying a word.

That was pretty rude considering it's his first day! Maybe he's just nervous or something...

I make a mental point to say hello when we are dismissed, I want to find out more about the new guy.