Mischief

nine

Elliott Reed*

—

Rummaging through my bag, I look to see if I had brought my textbook to class. "Shit." I whisper, seeing as it wasn't there. I raise my hand in the air. "Yes Ms. Pullman?" "Um sorry, I seemed to have forgotten my book." "Share with your partner then." He answers. I set my bag on the back of my chair and look up to see a boy come and sit at the desk next to me.

"Oh hi there." He smiles. "I'm Elliott, I suppose Mr. Gabin assigned us as partners." "Oh uh hi." I smile. "Audrey." I further more introduce myself. "It's nice to meet you but I also forgot my textbook." I laugh "Would you mind?" "Oh no not at all." He reassures. "Here." He gestures.

—

As we all turn in our worksheets, the bell for lunch rings. I start walking up the wooden stairs to my dorms when someone stops me.

"Audrey!" "Wait up." He runs down the hall. "Oh Elliott, hi." I smile. "I just wanted to say thank you for your help in history." He laughs. "Oh it's no problem." "In all honesty, it's really the only subject I'm good at." We both laugh. "Thank you for lending me a hand too, it's like I always forget important things when I need them." Referring to my textbook incident.

I start walking away but stop when he speaks up again. "Um wait." He gently grabs my shoulder. I look into his eyes, indicating he can speak. "Would you maybe want to sit with me in the dining room?" "I'm sure my friends wouldn't mind and you seem like a cool person."

"Really?" I smirk. "You think I'm cool?" He slightly blushes while looking down. "Of course." I say. "Looking forward to it." I smile.

"Thanks Audrey!" He shouts, running down the hall, his dress shoes slightly squeaking against the polished floor. I laugh at his actions, turning on my heel, towards the dormitory.

—

I make my way into the already crowded dining hall. I had told Morgan before hand so she wouldn't feel secluded but thankfully she was talking with Sasha and a few others. I'm still shocked she's his girlfriend. I mean she's beautiful really but it still hurts to know he went behind my back. But that's in the past. I need to get over Felix and go make some new friends at the moment. I sigh before looking around for them again.

Across the table next to them sit Elliott and three other boys. "Hey guys." I greet them, sitting down. "Oh hey, guys this is Audrey. She's in my history class." We all great each other briefly. "Uh this is James." He points to the tall boy with brown hair and dark blue eyes. "That's Jeremy." He introduces me to the ginger. "And this is Jace." Showing me a boy with olive skin and freckles.

"Your all Js." We all laugh. "Well um I'm Audrey, as you all know." I nervously laugh. "Well the foods ready, we should eat." Elliott says. We all talk about random subjects for the next twenty minutes. James is quite the comedian, Jeremy knows a lot about everything and Jace is just really chill and laid back which is great.

When lunch is over, it turns out I have one more block with Elliott and my last one with James as well. Morgan and I had spent the rest of our day in our dorm reading, watching TV, and doing other things to relax.

—

"I'm actually going to Sweden." She laughs. "My cousins live there so yeah." Morgan explains what she'll be doing over the holidays as we study and talk on the grass. "What are you doing?"

"I think my grandparents are going to visit." "They haven't been to the UK in a while so there's that." I nod. "How long?" She asks. "About ten years. They visited when I was like five but we usually just visit them."

"Don't they ever get homesick?" She laughs. I laugh along with her. "Funny enough, no. I mean they were literally born here and raised my mum but I guess they took a liking to France." I chuckle.

"Hey ladies." Elliott surprises me with his voice. "Oh hey Elliott." I smile. "Who's this?" He asks. "This is Morgan, my best friend. Morgan this is Elliott, from my history class remember?"

"Oh yeah, hi." She smiles. "Nice to meet you." He replies. There's a few seconds of silence before he breaks it again. "So I suppose you both are excited for the holidays?" "Oh yeah, we were just talking about that actually." I laugh.

All three of us spend the next hour talking about holiday break, upcoming tests, and other random topics. "I should get going." Elliott says. "A few mates of mine are actually planning a small prank on Mr. Hughs." He smirks.

"Really?" I laugh. "With who?" "A few friends of James, those boys you met a few days ago actually. And there's this one group of boys we're going to hang with too. Felix and some others." He replies.

My face freezes at the name. "Blackwood? Isn't he like the the trouble maker around here?" Morgan asks. "You could definitely say that." Elliott chuckles. "A heartbreaker too. I heard he ditched his girlfriend for this one girl a few months ago."

"Really?" I choke out, pretending to act surprised. "Yeah, but I mean he's always been that way. Even since late primary school." "Gets a new girl every few weeks and then just ditches them. Honestly, I feel bad for his girlfriends, they never seem to find out."

Elliott's words make the pit in my stomach grow even larger. It makes me utterly furious that I was one of those girls described as objects. "Well we should get going Elliott." I smile. "Hope that prank of yours goes well." I say, smirking slightly.

"Yeah you too guys." "Enjoy your weekend!" He shouts walking away towards the schools entrance. "What a week." I sigh, looking up at the sky that's about to reach dusk. "Tell me about it." Morgan laughs as we swing our bags over our shoulders.

—

creds: Lorenzo Zurzolo as Elliott Reed

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authors note: k so HOPEFULLY this turns out good because so far I feel like I've just been throwing random ideas onto pages and publishing them. But honestly, I didn't really plan this book besides it being about two teenagers falling in love so that's kinda on me💀