Taking My Penalty

10: Prince Charming

TALIA

Leland was probably the best thing that's happened to me all year.

I didn't know there would be much out there for me since being in Ashton and Pitt's. I thought miserable teachers in more miserable classrooms with even more miserable students were it.

I wasn't usually someone to fall behind in my classes but being in Leland made me realise I had even more support than before. There was no chance I'd fail my GCSEs even if I just moved there. The teachers gave me all the help.

The people I met were a bonus to it all.

I became friendly with a lot of people in my class, seeming as though I was the new girl, and honestly, I had developed a pretty good reputation. There was nothing to worry about when it came to making friends that wouldn't leech onto me because of my family.

My friends were real and since I've been trusting them for years I just finally got to be at school with them. We could actually hang out while they looked out for me like I did for them. Maeve, Delilah and Camilla were perfect.

In fact, everything was so good I'd pretty much gotten past the events of my first two days at Leland. Everything ran smoothly enough after the incidents that I could forget it.

Obviously, my parents weren't so past it. They were so particular about making everything work out perfectly since I moved to Leland. So much so that I learned that they gave Felix a pretty hard time because of the matter.

How stupid.

Percy says he got shouted at by his parents and mine for not 'protecting' me.

Again. Stupid.

I doubted I needed protection anymore.

Scotty Weissman wasn't talking to me whatsoever and Reece Kennedy wasn't doing anything harmful.

We were friends.

Not like best friends but we saw each other around. 

Often, we'd catch eyes at school and he'd flash that Prince Charming smile to me from a distance.

For some reason, I still felt like I would have appreciated a conversation from him. Even a word. Just a 'how are you' or something but clearly he preferred just to look at me.

I kind of missed being around him if I was honest. He was my first out-of-the-social-circle interaction and though it went weirdly, I learned he wasn't all bad.

Isn't that why I told him we can be friends?

Actually, I was sure I knew the answer to why I didn't get the conversation from Reece. I was almost definite— nope, I'm lying. I was definite that I did not fit the criteria for the people he hung out with.

His group consisted of all the football team and the occasional arrival of a group of girls who hung around him. Those girls were loud, talkative, lip-glossed and the one most fond of him was bleach blonde.

Yep, me and her don't really have the same niche.

At all.

I debated whether he was faking those smiles to me since that girl was rarely never not around him and he never smiled at her. Actually, he never smiled at anyone.

He made me question what our definition of friends was but I was definitely unfamiliar with whatever it was.

I wanted to be his friend.

Is it bad I'm slightly annoyed that I didn't fit the benchmark for the girl-friends he had?

Am I jealous?