Lie To Me

03. First Day

AVA STONE

I had never been more grateful of hearing a bell ring.

First period was finally over and I couldn't wait till I was out of that room. I stormed out through the door the second the bell rang, still chewing softly on my bubble gum. Technically, it was strictly prohibited to eat any kind of food in class, but I couldn't help myself. It was either that or use my mouth to give the teacher a snarky remark each time she spoke.

Advanced anatomy teacher was an old, uptight lady with an irritating, obnoxious voice and a scowl present on her face for most of the lesson. I've just met her but I already strongly dislike her. She would glare at us at the minimum sound we made, she'd judge us with her eyes and I've already witnessed how she gave detention to two students for stupid, incoherent reasons.

Not knowing anyone in class made the time spent there even more boring and unbearable. I was kinda jealous of Leah and Cole for that; they had first period together and at least they had each other in class while I just had me and my bubble gum.

I looked down at my phone to see a text from Leah, telling me she and Cole were both waiting for me in front of the restrooms in the east side of school. After giving them a quick reply, I made my way through the school's hallways, swaying amongst the sea of students.

I soon spotted them. Cole was not-so-discretely waving his hand at me with Leah standing by his side. She quickly grabbed his arm and pushed it down with a small glare directed towards him, not wanting to drag attention towards us. I rolled my eyes as a tiny smile threatened to form on my lips and started walking towards them once again, but I was stopped when a body collided against mine.

"Sorry, beautiful," they apologized.

With slight irritation, I looked up to see a tall, blonde guy staring down at me with his dark blue eyes and a cheeky smile, showing his dimples.

"Hey, I'm Hayden Clarke, probably the hottest, sexiest, most handsome and attractive guy you'll meet in Greenlake. It's nice to meet you," he introduced himself with a wink as he extended his hand out for me to shake.

Flashing a hesitant glance towards my friends, I slowly took his hand and shook it lightly as he smiled once again. I cleared my throat, taking my hand back and nodding at him.

"Ava," I curtly said.

"You're new, right? I've never seen you around here before. And believe me, I would have remembered if I had," he asked while looking me up and down, though he only gave me time to answer him with a tiny nod before he resumed speaking. "Well, in that case, why don't you seat with me and my friends at lunch? It would be nice to get to know some more people and I'm sure my friends won't mind. We wouldn't want you all by yourself, would we?"

"Uh," I hesitated. "I'm actually here with my cousins. They're new too, so I can't leave them all by themselves."

Truth is, I wasn't quite sure of sitting with him and his friend group. Call me antisocial, but I didn't want to befriend more people than necessary.

I pointed at Leah and Cole, my 'cousins' who were watching the exchange between us curiously from afar. Hayden briefly glanced at them before turning back at me with another of his charming smiles. This guy is too smiley for me.