Boarding School Bliss

Chapter 7

Samantha had to drag herself out of bed the next morning. She'd hit snooze so many times, she'd nearly been late to Lit. She'd tossed her hair, still curled from the party the night before, into a messy bun on top of her head.

Mr. Alek had changed their seating arrangement for the duration of their project, so Samantha now sat at the same table as Dawson, but their table was currently empty. Samantha raised an eyebrow at his empty chair. She never beat him to class. She was pretty sure no one did.

Dawson entered the room right before the bell rang. He was yawning and didn't look fully awake. He gave Samantha a weird look and she realized she'd been staring at him. She quickly looked away and busied herself with her notebook.

"Alright, class." Mr. Alek said, waltzing into the classroom seconds after the bell rang. "Since you should all be meeting your project partners outside of class, we're no longer going to use class time to work on them. We're moving on to poetry."

Samantha grimaced. She was horrible at poetry. Luckily, today they were only studying famous poets' work instead of creating their own. On the other hand, she may have trouble staying awake, she thought, as Mr. Alek passed out a few sheets of paper. He instructed them to read the poems to themselves and then they would discuss them as a class.

Dawson slipped on his reading glasses and Samantha slouched back in her chair with the first poem. She had struggled her way halfway through it when his voice distracted her.

"I hate poetry." Dawson mumbled.

Samantha wasn't sure if he'd been talking to her or simply expressing his frustrations out loud, but she was so surprised by what he said that she glanced over and answered.

"You do?" She asked.

Dawson peeked over at her with an expression like he had, in fact, not meant to say that out loud. "Yeah," He said. "I prefer my words to be more straightforward. You know what I mean?"

"Yes, I do!" Samantha said, perhaps a little more vehemently than necessary. Dawson grinned at her in surprise and she added, "Sorry, I'm just horrible at poetry. We've never been able to get along."

Dawson started to say something, but a yawn interrupted him.

"You seem really tired today." Samantha said, mostly just to see if he would own up to having been at the party the night before.

Dawson raised an eyebrow at her and said, "So do you."

Oops. Samantha shrugged and said, "I was out late."

Dawson gave her a small, distant smile and said, "Me too."

After school, Samantha and Jasmine met up with Lyla and Cara to go to the mall. The four of them piled into Jasmine's car already excited about their shopping trip. None of them had anything they really needed to get, but they never turned down an opportunity to shop.

As they browsed through the clothes, the girls filled each other in on the goings on around the school.

"And poor Samantha got stuck with Dawson in Lit." Cara said, with a pout that didn't look at all sincere. Samantha's brow furrowed, but before she could say anything Cara continued, "Although, I guess he is really smart. It's too bad he's so weird or he could be kind of cute."

Samantha gasped and whirled on her friend. "He's not weird! What makes him weird? The fact that he's smart? Or that he reads a lot?"

Cara looked slightly taken aback, but she crossed her arms with an amused expression. "Wow, Samantha. I didn't know you cared so much. Has someone developed a little crush?" 

By Cara's expression, Samantha knew she was just trying to rile her up and didn't actually suspect her crush. Even still, Samantha's heart rate sped up, but she rolled her eyes, saying, "I just hate that you're so judgemental. You can't let anyone be themselves. If they're not falling all over you, you trash them."

Jasmine and Lyla had turned to watch their friend's argument, each with a forgotten garment in their hands. It was rare that Samantha outright confronted anyone, let alone Cara, who was known for being vicious when she wanted to be, and Jasmine looked entertained at the confrontation. Lyla nibbled on her bottom lip, her eyes bouncing between the two girls worriedly.

Cara's eyebrows rose and her eyes burned with anger. "Oh, and, you're one to talk."

Samantha shook her head in confusion and disbelief. "What could you possibly mean by that?"

"Oh, please, Samantha, your entire life is ruled by what people think of you. You tiptoe around everyone because you couldn't handle it if anyone didn't like you."

Samantha didn't know what to say to that. She knew that Cara was trying to get to her. The problem was she also knew that Cara was right. She was too busy trying to be who everyone liked that she wasn't entirely sure who she was or if she even liked the people she spent all her time with.

Samantha sighed and let her hands drop to her sides. The anger went out of her and she suddenly felt very tired.

"I'm going to get coffee." She turned and left the store, but not before she saw Cara's smirk.

She was halfway down the hallway outside the store when Jasmine caught up to her. Samantha raised her eyebrows in question.

Jasmine shrugged and tossed her shiny hair over her shoulder. "I wanted coffee too."

Samantha smiled at her friend and Jasmine linked her arm through hers. 

Author's Note: Hey guys! Sorry this one is so short! I was struggling but I needed to make this confrontation happen! Thanks for reading and I'll try to post more than one chapter this week but if I can't I'll definitely have one next Friday!!