Billie and Brandon: It requires time

4

Another day, another annoying lunch hour.

Jocks and cheerleaders laughing loudly and causing a disturbance in their corner.

Preppy girls and rich kids reading magazines and tittering over whatever stupid gossip was fresh in the rumour mill.

Nerds and geeks chatting merily, pleased that for once there were no students picking on them during this hour of temporary social hierarchy truce. Well...temporary truce provided that no idiots decided to start a food fight.

Freshman looking absolutely doe eyed in awe of the seniors.

Yup. Just another day at Franklin High.

Billie couldn't wait to graduate in the spring. She was fed up with the school and the annoying people. And of those annoying people, especially Zoe "We're going to be best friends" Donahoe. The annoying girl had taken to following her whenever she saw her, trying to strike up conversations with Billie when she was in the hallways and exclaiming greetings and nearly busting out Billies eardrums whenever they passed each other on their way to their classes. Zoe hadn't been kidding, only doubling her efforts and Billie had had it with Zoe following her with that big goofy grin on her face. Her friends had taken to calling Zoe a baby duckling because she basically was that way towards Billie.

Billie dragged her feet to her usual table, running her hand through her hair in exhaustion, glad to see that Gawa was already there and the rest of their pack of lovely delinquents hadn't arrived yet. She wasn't particularly in the mood to be around people just yet. He was picking apart something that she was sure probably belonged on his bike when Billie plopped down across from him, dumping her books on the table.

"Billie O'Connell doing homework?" Gawa said with a raised brow, though he was still scrutinizing the bike part "You got a day left to live or something?"

"Carl the Crabapple told me if I didn't turn in my paper by this afternoon, he'd fail me. Fuck this"

"So don't do it"

"My mom told me if I failed anymore assignments she'd start cracking down tougher on my extracurricular activities. Smoking and what not"

Gawa nodded in greeting to one of the sophomore rebels who took her place a little further down from them, looking absolutely bored out of her mind.

"Too bad you don't live alone like I do" he said with a smirk.

"Speaking of living alone, Zoe knows where I live and shows up all the damn time. Can I stay at your place until she gets the hint? She showed up at my room with brownies at two in the morning asking if I wanted to share them with her"

"What did you do?" Gawa asked, looking somewhere in the distant past Billies shoulder.

"I took the brownies and locked her out of my window" Billie grumbled in annoyance rummaging through her binder to see if she could find some loose leaf paper. She couldn't remember the last time she'd ever bought some "She vowed to try again next week and left giggling like some demented cartoon character. I've had it with this girl. Why does she want to be my friend so badly?"

"I don't know, but your little doe eyed sister--"

"Not my sister"

"Might as well be" Gawa countered smoothly "She's about to get harassed. Stepped on Jaydens foot walking by the jock table"

"What?"

Billie spun around in her seat, a brow raised, as she found Zoe's lanky form, grinning sheepishly and holding her binder in front of her as some type of shield as Zane Mitchell slowly approached her. She was getting backed up into the wall.