The Heartbreaker's Game

09 - It Must Be Fate

Heather’s POV

Great.

Brilliant.

Fantastic.

Note my sarcasm because I can’t believe my bad luck to be stuck with such an obnoxious bully for the whole day.

What injustice is this?

Mr. Pike said we were free to ramble by ourselves as long as we stick to our partners and by the end of the day we should have taken notes about what we’ve learned (so that we can write a report about it during the weekends to hand it in on Monday, yuck) and to meet back up at the entrance at twelve for lunch somewhere else. If any of us were late, the bus was going to drive off without us and we’d have to find our way back home by ourselves so we had to make sure we were there on time.

I checked the time for the millionth time.

It was only nine forty-five.

We’ve been here for forty-five minutes and already Jared is driving me nuts. I tried to ignore him but he was making that very impossible, getting in my face with every opportunity he could get.

I wondered why he would be so ‘nice’ as to offer to be my partner — and by blackmailing me to do so.

I soon found out why.

He made me his personal slave.

There were some stalls behind the building, selling refreshments and food. He made me buy food for him, get water so he could drink before he ‘die of thirst’ (and I really wished he could, right now, at this very moment before I slaughter him myself), carry his bag, while trying to take notes for myself. Furthermore, I can’t go away when he’s trying to flirt with other girls who let him touch them.

Ugh. Talk about gross and wrong. This is a nightmare.

So I tried to busy myself with other things instead. Like think of that guy, for instance.

I wonder what his name was. I sound like some obsessive freak but I was really curious. Why did he look at me like that, so intensely? He didn’t look like he was from around here, he sort of looked Asian, if I was not mistaken. Could he have been a foreigner? Why was he standing outside the building? What is his name? What is he doing here?

“Yo, slave,” Jared called, waving his hand in front of me to get my attention, breaking my train of thoughts.

Annoyance flickered across my face as I unwillingly acknowledged his existence, being brought back to reality. “What do you want, Jared?” I asked callously, irritated that I cannot even get a day of peace-and-quiet from this idiot.

He raised an eyebrow, evidently disapproving my tone of voice. “Is that how you should speak to your senior and teacher?” he questioned with a slightl growl. “Do you wish for Mr. Pike to know what you wrote to me?” he asked deviously.

I was so wound up that I was beyond caring. “Show it,” I snapped, spreading my arms wide to indicate I gave up evading him. “I don’t care about it anymore.” The most terrible thing Mr. Pike can do is get me suspended. Even Aunty Irene would do worse — but it’s only suspension. It’s not like I’ve never gotten suspension from school before.

His smirk grew even broader as I began to walk away from him. “If I show the paper to the principal, I can have you expelled,” Jared said slowly, stressing on the word ‘expelled’.

Ah . . .

Aunty Irene would have a fit and she’ll send me away to boarding school or something. Or maybe make me start working part time. And I’ll bring disappointment onto her again.