Care for me (L. S.)

4

Tuesday the first of September | Eleanor

After running into Harry at the west wing of the school - no one actually knew if it was even remotely more turned to the west, but 'left wing' sounded dumb so every one just said 'west'- she felt a little more at ease. His face was familiar and friendly and he looked like he was actually glad to see her. She took her time to admire his outfit.

He was wearing big, red floral print trousers and converse. A beaded necklace hung over his white shirt that said 'choose love' and his nails were painted vibrant colours. He looked quite adorable just standing there; carefree with a cute smile on his face.

She greeted him and told him how much she liked his nails. He replied but didn't return the compliment. All due to that stupid thief-girl from the salon! Honestly there was a special place in hell for those people.

His green eyes weren't paying attention to her, but were instead scanning the courtyard for something. Eleanor chewed on her cheek trying to distract herself from the feeling inside her stomach making her want to run to the bathroom and spit out her insides.

As she heard Zayn's name she realized she'd been standing there plucking at her nails and didn't at all notice what the boy next to her had asked. She quickly faked her enthusiasm: "Zayn's got a new car haven't you seen it? It's a golden Ferrari!" Pleased at her acting skills she followed Harry to the group of people who had just called out to him.

Seeing a glimpse of Elvira and Niu, she rushed over to them, realizing how much she missed them in the summer.

Niu's dark hair was dyed blue at the ends, she had put it up in a cute bun, leaving out two nonchalant locks of hair to frame her face. They greeted each other by kissing the air around each other's ears, to not mess up their carefully made-up faces and complemented the other girl's outfits.

Then came Elvira, a tall brunette with smoky eye make-up. They had been best friends since year five, when everyone mistook them for the other girl because they looked kinda similar and their names both started with 'El'. (Which was also the reason why neither of them could use the nickname 'El' or 'Ellie'. Instead she called Elvira 'Elfie' and she called her 'Nory'.)

Eleanor repeated their little ritual, then praising the bronze tan she got from sunbathing in Miami.

Elvira smiled astonishingly jubilant.

"I have some news," she shouted, sounding like she was about to explode from excitement, but Eleanor interrupted her by pulling out her phone, showing them a picture of her brand new car. "Me too!"

"Wow!" Niu sighed. "If I wasn't a 'with roof, no goof' kind of gal, I would totally steal that thing."

Eleanor laughed.

But quickly stopped.

A girl stepped out from behind Elvira, taking her hand in hers as she went to go standing next to the brunette girl. She was rather petite, with a blonde ponytail and had the same jubilant smile on her lips.

And Eleanor recognized her immediately: it was the girl from the salon! The bītch who stole her ring! She was about to scream on the top of her lungs, when Elvira opened her mouth:

"This," she announced, the corners of her mouth almost reaching her ears, "is my beautiful girlfriend. She will be attending our school too this year."

The thief-girl sniggered, wrapping her arm around Elfie's waist.

"Nice to meet you two." Her voice literally sounded like a rich honey.

"I think you are Niu," she guessed. Niu nodded, giving a radiant look.

"Then you must be Eleanor." She brushed a lock of hair out of her face.

"I'm Kaia Smith."

Eleanor didn't really process what happened after the ring-stealing girl introduced herself. She remembered standing there, in a shock, unable to speak. She just stood there, biting her cheek till the bell rang and then practically ran indoors along with the striking-students. She hurried through the hallway as fast as her high heeled feet could run, smacked the door of the ladies rooms open and she gagged over the waiting toilet bowl

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The rest of the day was one boring blur full of receiving textbooks and talking about summer. As one of the popular girls in the school, people expected her to go to the most luxurious islands, to drink cocktails and have summer fling after summer fling.

The truth was that she spent a lot of her time dog walking for neighbours and convincing Louis to spend time with her, which ended up in her spending time with his three sisters.

She didn't normally like lunch. They always consisted of her friends hanging around the popular boys, and this day was no exception. She poked in her salad, trying her best to ignore Kaia who was sitting on Elvira's lap, feeding her strawberries and whispering things in her ear to make her giggle.

It quickly became clear to her that Kaia didn't even remember her. Or- which sounded more likely to her- pretended not to remember her.

She scanned the cafeteria and walked over to her boyfriend's table.

"Hey Lou!" She noticed Louis' sullen expression. She placed her hand on his shoulder, as a comforting gesture.

He took his headphones off and looked at her with the tiniest, barely visible pout on his face. "That woman from maths assigned me a tutor and she basically forced me to meet him for maths tomorrow," he mumbled, the irritated expression not leaving his face.

"Well, that's exactly what I've been telling you for months now! This is a good thing, Louis."

His face, withdrawn from any emotion, frowned surprised as he wasn't used to her going against him.

"So, who is going to tutor you?"

"Just some nerd, you probably don't know him. His name is Harry, I think."

Eleanor's face lit up when she heard the name. "What do you mean, 'I don't know him?' I worked with him at the bakery for a while, plus, Harry is one of the most popular, well um, nerds."

An eyebrow went up in the air while a mocking smile plastered his lips. "Popular nerd huh?"

"It's not like that. You'll see: he's really nice." And as if it came out of a movie, Harry walked in with his friends making heads turn in their direction. Him, succeeding to look both extremely masculine while wearing women's clothes, Niall being the sun himself, Liam looking like a rock star in a swimmers body and Zayn who seemed to be radiating coolness wearing a leather jacket and ripped black jeans.

She looked back at Louis, who wasn't very impressed with the sight of the four lads.

"He doesn't look like a nerd though," he finally said.

"Who? Harry? Yeah I guess he doesn't. You'd like him though."

Louis' eyes widened.

"No! I don't- I don't ... like him. He seems-" He fell silent.

Eleanor knew he was talking shīt but she honestly was relieved he was talking to her at all.

Trying to calm him down she added: "It's ok to like popular kids, it doesn't make you a weird wannabe, I promise. Besides, you should make some new friends considering Stan and Henry left for university."

She tried covering the sad truth in a pretty, faint smile.

It seemed to help because Louis suddenly grinned.

"Now, why would I need friends when I have you," he whispered, pulling her closer and kissing her lips.

She soon forgot her worries by putting all her care for this boy into kissing him, and for a brief moment, the pinching feeling in her stomach disappeared.