Spoilt

2. Strange beginings

I stumbled into the chair next to him. I started to feel faint, Mr Garland's voice turned into a muffled drone. Out of the corner of my eye I could see Alex staring at me. I blinked and tried to snap out of it. He looked concerned.

"Rhea? Rhea? Are you okay?" Mr Garland appeared in front of me.
"I...I'm fine," I croaked.
"Are you sure you look rather pale?"
I felt everyone's eyes shift, I felt awkward.
"I'm okay," immediately everyone looked away, Mr Garland didn't even answer. He went on with the lesson as though nothing had happened. Usually I didn't mind the attention, but I needed to get my head sorted out. Alex sat next to me, he didn't speak or catch my eye at all for the rest of the lesson. I could feel him there, occasionally I would take a peek at him, but he just continued blanking me, as though he was in a daze. His purple eyes were fixated on thin air, it was strange.

At the end of the class Mr Garland got us all to stand up and answer a question. Alex remained sitting, no one said a thing.
"Emm... I think we need to stand," it was like he was deaf.
"Eh, Hello?" he didn't answer.

"Who's the boy I was sitting next to?" Julia and I were walking to our next class.
"Who?"
"You know the weird one with white hair and eyes like me,"
"I don't know who you're talking about..."
I sighed, "Alex, why didn't he speak to me?"
"I don't know of any Alex."
I strained my eyes through the crowd, I thought I could see him.
"Look the boy over there, he just went into that classroom," Julia and I peered through the door.
"Him!"
"I've never seen him before," Julia looked puzzled. "That's weird, I...I know everyone at
this school, and you say he's in our class?"
"Yes! He was sitting next to me!" Julia was irritating.
"I'm sorry Rhea but seriously I've never seen him till now."
I tried to shake it off, but everything was too weird.

The lessons went by in a blur, soon it was lunchtime. I hadn't been in any other of Alex's classes. Julia took the lead, I followed behind, the school still seemed like a maze to me. We stopped off at our lockers, Julia had stuck various pictures of bands and celebrities all over her door. It looked very colourful in comparison to mine.

'Bang.'
I whipped around, a small girl was lying on the floor her ginger hair covering her face, she groaned. I watched as another girl loomed over her.
"Don't you dare think you can get away with that Mona!" she spat.
Mona cowered away from here, shrinking back into the wall.
"I didn't mean it! Corrina please, let me come back and sit with you!" She was close to tears.
"Excuse me? What did you just say?" Corrina's eyes flashed.
Mona gasped, "Please! I have no other friends."
"Good, that's what you deserve! No one likes a sly lying bitch as a friend." She raised her hand, like she was about to strike Mona across the face. I saw her hesitate. Mona was terrified, trapped in the corner, like a quivering mouse.
"Hey!"
Both of them twisted to look at me. Corrina stepped back, glared at Mona then stomped off down the hall. Mona smiled gratefully at me.
"Can she sit with us Julia?" Julia who'd been watching everything nodded.
"Yeah, that's fine."
Mona's face lit up, "Thank you so much!"

Mona was bubbling with energy as we sat around the lunch table, she had everyone laughing so hard we couldn't breathe. I couldn't understand why someone had been so mean to her. I asked Alice who was sitting next to me about Corrina.
"Corrina? Corrina Pearson?"
"I think that's her name yeah."
"She's okay I guess, Mona must have really annoyed her though, I wouldn't have thought Corrina was a bully."
I watched Mona push back her head, cackling at some joke Julia had said. She's didn't seem like the horrid type. The bell rang, only two more lessons and my first day at Waterfeild Academy would be over.

"So, Rhea right?"
"Yeah," I smiled at him.
"And you're Ethan, Ethan Stewart?"
"That's right!"
I glanced towards Mrs Cook, she walked to the other side of the room.
"I like your eyes."
I tried to smile, " Thanks, I think..."
"So do you understand this stuff?" He shrugged towards the board, formulas and different equations were covering it.
I shook my head, "it's like another language."
Ethan smirked, his brown eyes twinkled.
"I've never understood it either, I don't see the point." Yawning, he stretched out his arms, I could see they had been taken a great deal of time on. He caught me looking at his muscles and flexed them. I flushed, he stopped and sat back.

I knew every other girl in the class was watching us enviously. Mrs Cook was trying to explain the maths problem but I wasn't listening, to be honest I never really listen in class, probably the reason I'm in such low sets for everything. Ethan kept on swinging on his chair to face me. Whenever he sat forward, I just had to examine the back of his head and he would talk. At the end of the lesson I waited behind for him.
"So, you doing anything?"
"What now?" I laughed.
"Yeah now, ever been to Roxy's?"
"No, I only just moved here remember?"
He grinned "that's great then, want to come?"
I bit my lip, Mum said she'd pick me up, but I really wanted to go with Ethan. I'm sure Mum wouldn't mind, I'd just have to to tell her then we could go.
"Yeah, I'd love to come, but I have to tell my Mum first."
"That's cool."

I rushed over to the spot Mum said she would be, Ethan stood slouched against the school wall. I hoped she'd hurry up. Eventually I saw our small blue car drive into the car park.
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry I nearly forgot about you," Mum said.
"It's fine, hey I was wanting to go to this cafe with one of my new friends,"
"Oh right, that sounds good."
"I was wanting to go now," I looked mum in the eyes.
"That's great, I'm glad you made some new friends! Go and have fun, I don't mind when you're home."
"Ok, bye!"

Ethan walked over.
"Ready to go?"
"Yeah." Just as I said that, Alex strode past, nearly walking right into me.
"Rude," I mumbled.

He stopped, and stood very still. His eyes were wide, as though I'd said something terrible. He just stared, his expression was more of shock or even like he was scared. I looked back, for a moment we held each other's gaze, then he broke away and almost ran down the pavement.