The smoke show

Chapter 2: Rough starts

" So what do you say? Are you in?" Tess asked

Shit, I wasn't listening.

" In what?" I said confused

" In going shopping for Stacy's back-to-school party this year?" Tess suggested

" Sure!" I replied

* BELL RINGS*

"Come on, homeroom is up next," Tess said, already heading to the door

Before following Tess, I took one last glance at Jaden. He was staring at me with those piercing grey eyes. I quickly looked away and headed to class.

-

As soon as I got in, I was assigned a seat.

" Welcome to your second year of high school. I see a few new faces so I hope you all get along this year. My name is Mr. Smith and I will be your homeroom and physics teacher. The person you are seated next to will be your study and project partner so I'll leave you 5 minutes to get to know each other." Mr. Smith explained

But nobody was seated next to me. Not yet anyway.

The door opened and a guy stormed in. He had blonde hair and a haircut carefully parted down in the middle with some strands covering his eyes. His eyes were dark blue. He was fairly tall, not as tall as Jaden but that didn't matter. He flashed a smile at Mr.Smith (even though he was 10 minutes late and knew he was bound to get lectured).

" Good morning teacher. Sorry, I'm late, the bus wasn't on time." He said, panting

Mr. Smith sighed as if he were used to it.

" Whatever Daniel, just find your assigned seat." Mr. Smith said disapprovingly

The guy approached my desk and sat in the empty chair next to me. A wave of ocean breeze scent reached my nose. I soon noticed some of the girls were doing Goo-goo eyes at him and some were giving me the evil eye. He must be popular around this school as well, I supposed.

" Hi, I'm Dan. You must be new." He finally said, flashing me a smile

" Hey, I'm Aria and completely new," I said

He laughed and flashed another one of those dazzling smiles at me.

" So how is your first day going?" He asked

" Interesting... I kinda already had a conflict with a student." I replied

" Oooh, you must be the one that confronted Jessica," Dan said interested

" I'm guessing news travels fast here," I complained

"It sure does," Dan confirmed

" I also argued with that guy Jaden. Why am I not getting along with anyone here?" I questioned

"You argued with JADEN?" Dan said, shocked

" Oh absolutely, I can't stand the guy," I said, annoyed

" Thank god, so I'm not the only one," Dan said, relieved.

"That's surprising. Here I thought everyone praised him here." I said

" No WAY. We basically hate each other. We kind of had a fight and well.. ever since then I despise him and he despises me." He explained briefly, doing so, a few strands of his hair fell in front of his eyes

" Damn, sorry about that," I said

" So what about you? Do you have a boyfriend?" He asked a little bit too quickly.

" Actually I don't," I answered

He almost looked relieved.

"I'm more focused on finding new friends than boyfriends," I said

" In that case, you may want to try out for cheerleading," He said, running his hand through his hair. " It's a way to find friends fast"

I normally wouldn't try cheerleading but I was in desperate need of friends. I decided it might be best if I just tried it. I mean what could be the harm, right?

-

Shit. Shit. Shit. I probably shouldn't have done this, I thought. Tess was going to try out so she was ecstatic when I told her I would too. Another 10 girls were stretching and getting ready. Unfortunately For us, Jessica was recruiting new members of the team.

" Okay ladies, our team is full so this year we will only be accepting 3 members. To start, each one of you girls has to show me your skills. Starting with..." Jessica told the girls

She looked at the girls into her eyes finally landed on me. She smirked and raised her eyebrows, challenging me.

" Well Aria, since you're so brave, why don't you start?" She said, challenging me.

Just great. Let's just get this over with. I walked to where Jessica was standing and began dancing. I did cartwheels, a few ariels and I topped it off with a split jump. I thought I was doing great until I lost balanced when I was landing and I fell face first. When I got up I could hear the other girls laughing. I just stood there awkwardly until they all suddenly stopped laughing and stared at me shocked. Even Tess had her eyes wide open. What was going on?

"So I see you're all fairly impressed by my cheer knowledge. " I said, guessing that that was why they were acting so weird

Then I smelled a strong scent of tobacco.

" I don't think It's you they are occupied with." Said a familiar voice from behind me.

I jumped up and slowly turned around. There was Jaden. Smoking. He blew the smoke through his nose and he threw the cigarette on the ground, gently patting it with his shoe.

" What do I have to do to get away from you? Why are you everywhere?" I questioned

Some of the girls behind me gasped. Jaden just stared at me and pushed his tongue on the side of his cheek to prevent himself from smiling. Our eyes locked for a second but I shook it off.

" I'm obviously done here," I said, realizing the severity of the situation.

I walked right past him. As I was leaving I could feel his eyes on me so I sped up.
Jessica approach him and twirled her hair with her finger.

"So Jaden, we should hang out more often. " She said, flirtingly

Jaden completely ignored her.

"Hey, what's her name?" Jaden asked

" What you mean Aria? You don't want to be with her, trust me." Jessica advised, jealously

In the middle of her sentence, Jaden turned around and went in my direction.
-

I ran back home, the people at this school were beyond worse than I thought. One day here and I had already been threatened, laughed at, gossiped about, and humiliated.

This is going to be harder than I thought

To be continued...