Arabelle Lock (GirlxGirl)

Chapter 1

"Oh please, Lock, even if Marissa was into that kind of disgusting stuff, she wouldn't be interested in trash like you," she hisses.

My grin falls flat. I slowly rise from my sitting position menacingly, my expression falling into a poker face. I take steady steps towards Charlotte, who backs away from me unsteadily with a weary look on her face until her back hits the chain fence opposite from the one I was leaning against. A flicker of fear crosses her steely eyes. I lean into her until my lips were next to her ear.

"If I'm trash, what does that make you?" I whisper mockingly so that only she can hear me. She shudders lightly. I'm abruptly tugged from Charlotte. Shoving the hands off of me, I spin to find Marissa releasing me with a grimace.

"What's your problem?" Marissa exclaims. I narrow my eyes at her, aggravated that she put a stop to my fun. She looks confused, and slightly angry. I sigh, absorbing the fact that she's already begun to hate me. Realizing that I still had my cigarette in my hand, I through it onto the ground, smothering it with my combat boot before assessing her face carefully. Our eyes lock together, and I smile subtly.

"Don't hate me yet, Love," I say quietly. It didn't dawn on me that I had said that out loud, until everyone in the group was staring at me as if I was an alien. I turn around and begin walking away to hide my blush.

I grit my teeth and will the blush to dissipate. I do not blush. I don't. 

As I am making my departure from Charlotte's crew and Marissa, the bell rings to mark the end of lunch. I grumble unhappily as I adjust my messenger bag backpack and walk to the Science and Arts building, where I have advanced placement physics next hour.

As I enter the classroom, I notice that I am the first one there. Mr. Knight, the chem teacher, raises his eyebrows at me over his newspaper, probably dumbfounded as to why I'm here so early since I'm usually the last one here (or absent, or a few minutes late). I send him a smirk as I make my way to the back of the classroom.

I lean back in my desk, sitting in my usual slouched position. I cross my feet and prop them on the chair in front of me, and cross my arms over my chest. Closing my eyes, I allow myself to drift off until class begins.

"Arabelle... Arabelle?... ARABELLE!" I open my eyes drowsily to find a pair of shining grey eyes peering at me in annoyance. I jerk out my slumber, unfortunately falling out of my seat in the process. I flinch in pain as my foot twists awkwardly, trapped between the two metal bars that they had been propped in between a few seconds ago. Most of my classmates emit muffled laughter as I scowl angrily at Marissa, the person who just woke me up. Just my luck.

"What the fuck do you want?" I growl. Admittedly, I'm not friendly when I'm publicly embarrassed. She looks momentarily caught off guard by my hostility, but quickly gathers her composure.

"Don't act all pissy with me, you're the one who fell asleep. If you had been awake, you would have realized that we're doing a lab today, and we are partners," she replies tensely. Glancing around the room, I notice that everyone was standing up and walking to the back of the room, where the lab for the day had been set up. Bringing my gaze back to her, I narrow my eyes.

"My sincerest apologies," I drone sarcastically. Hoisting myself off of the floor, I try not to wince when I put pressure on my right ankle.

The only person I get along with in this school is my friend Lily, and I haven't even seen her yet today. Almost everyone else dislikes me--something I'm completely okay with. Before today, whenever there was a lab I would work on my own since the class had an uneven number of students. Since Marissa makes the class even, I guess she's been forced into a partnership with me.

I brush past the blond as I walk to the lab station in the back left corner of the room, managing to not limp. I know it's not twisted, because I've twisted my ankle before, it just just hurts like a bitch. It'll pass. For now, I don't even mind the pain.

I grab the supplies needed for the experiment from the front table, then stalk back to our station. I toss the stopwatch to Marissa, along with the experiment directions as I set up the materials.

"Thanks," she mumbles as she started scanning the directions. The air around us was tense, a mixture of the awkwardness from lunch and the awkwardness from what had just happened.

I was starting to regret snapping at her when she had woken me up. Technically, it wasn't her fault that I'm such a pathetic lazy ass.. Should I say I'm sorry? Would that be weird? I'm over thinking this...

"I'm sorry for snapping at you," I mutter uncomfortably. I'm bad at expressing any level of remorse. I'm not used to apologizing, or of being apologetic for that matter. I typically do not give a fuck if I hurt someones feelings. Marissa is just... different.

She looks up at me in surprise. Her surprise over my apology probably says something about her impression of me, but I'd rather not dwell on that. "Um... That's okay. I'm grumpy when I wake up, too," she replies uncertainly. Her eyes widen at her own words. "Oh dear god, did I just use the word 'grumpy' to describe the school badass?" she says, mortified. I raise an eyebrow at her, smirking.

"I'm the school badass, huh?" I repeat teasingly. Marissa blushes an adorable pink shade.

"I didn't mean... I mean... Um..." she stutters. She huffs in aggravation, accepting the fact that she did indeed just call me a badass. "Don't let that go to your head. You don't scare me," she says confidently.

"If you say so," I chuckle in amusement. There's a beat of silence before she groans.

"Can we start over?" she pleads. I shrug, my smirk still in place.

"Sure."

Placing her delicate beaker down on the lab table, she holds out her hand with a stern business expression. "Hello, my name is Marissa Oliver. It's a pleasure to meet you," she says in a jokingly professional voice. I nearly die from cuteness overload.

Keeping it cool, I nod in a respectable fashion. "The pleasure is all mine, Miss Oliver. My name is Arabelle Lock."