Gracewood Academy (Hope and Secrets)

Chapter 9- Well Aren't You Popular

It's been almost a week since the party and living with Jess has been hell. Every morning she hogs the bathroom for an hour, only leaving me with about half an hour to shower and change after my morning run. I started running again this week, when I realised that I would have to be waiting around an hour to get ready anyway. But it became a habit every day when I realised how relaxed I felt after clearing my head. The view of the ocean helps too.

"JESS!" I yell through the door. "Quit hogging the bathroom, I need to have a shower!" The shower doesn't even sound like it is on. What is she doing in there? Looking at my phone I see that it is 7:40am and I have to be in homeroom in 20 minutes. I bang on the door again. "Jess, really? You are going to be late too if you don't hurry up." Just then the door opens and Jess walks out perfectly dressed with her makeup all done.

"Jeez calm down. A shower isn't really gonna help you look good anyway, honey." She looks me up and down judging my sweaty running clothes. Ugh, she is such a bitch. What the hell does Matt suddenly see in her? Matt and Jess are still hooking up and it has been a nightmare. She will be a bitch when we are alone and then she will pretend to be nice when Matt is around. He has pretty much ditched me and Ty at lunch to hang with her posse at her table. I later found out that the two girls that follow Jess everywhere are called Tiffany and Rhianna. So now Ty and I usually eat lunch with the guys we met at the party and Anna. Anna and I have become instant friends and I feel like I have known her forever. It is great to have a girl to talk to here.

I ignore Jess's rude comment and rush to the shower, throw on my uniform, tie my hair up into a messy wet bun and run out straight to first period, makeup free and without breakfast. I don't have time to go to homeroom, not that Mr Stevens would notice anyway so I just head straight to AP English.

I spend the rest of the morning in a bad mood and at lunch everyone has noticed. "What does her see in her? She is so manipulative." I continue ranting on at our table in the Cafeteria. At the table is Ty, Anna, Tom and Dan. Simon is at Computer Club and Greg had to go and talk to the football coach about something.

"I know what you mean." Ty mutters in agreement. It is even worse for him because his best friend has ditched him for a girl he hates.

"You guys need to stop whining and do something fun!" Anna tries to cheer us up. "After the game we can all go to that party tonight?" Tonight was the first football game of the year which Matt, Ty, Dan, Greg, Kyle and Chase are all playing.

"Sounds good! Can we get ready at your room?" The more time I spend away from Jess the better.

"Sure. Should I ask Emily to join us?" Emily is Anna's roommate. I have only met her once or twice. She is very shy though and spends a lot of time either studying or reading on her own.

"Great. And then we can meet you and Simon there?" I ask Tom who agrees. We part ways and head to our afternoon classes. It turns out that Tom and I are in art together, which we are both extremely bad at.

On the way I feel an arm go over my shoulders, I turn to see Chase. "What do you want, Evans?" I groan.

"Oh, come on Carter. You can't still be annoyed at me for yesterday?" he smirks.

"Did you really think that it was a good idea to randomly add the wrong chemicals to our experiment and make it blow up?" I shrug his arm of me. "You completely ruined my shirt! How are you even in AP Chemistry?"

"Hey! I'm not as dumb as I look. I was just curious." I glare at him.

Tom laughs at our exchange. "Come on Hope. Let's go to Art."

"Bye Hope, See you later!" Chase calls out to me from down the hall.

"Well aren't you popular." Tom sits down next to me in the back row of canvases.

"Ugh. He is so annoying. Why can't he just leave me alone?" I sigh.

"Maybe he is into you? Most girls at this school would die to get Chase Evans attention." He points out. As if. Even if Chase and I were the last two people on the planet I wouldn't get with him. I would probably use the opportunity to kill him as no one else will be around to arrest me for murder.

"Well I'm not most girls." I mumble.

"To be honest, I do kind of get what the fuss is about. Chase is pretty hot." He grins at me.

"Wait, are you...?"

"Gay?" I nod. "Nah, I like chicks too."

"So you think Chase is hot?" I laugh.

"Don't you? Are you blind?" He looks at me in shock.

"Well, yeah of course. When I first met him I thought he was gorgeous. Then he opened his mouth. And stole my muffin." I frown.

Tom laughs. "Well if you don't like Chase then who do you like?"

"If I tell you, you have to promise me not to tell anyone. Especially Ty."

"Okay fine I promise." He grins. Who knew this boy liked to gossip so much?

"Fine. I kind of like Kyle." I whisper.

"Kyle?" Tom yells loudly getting most of the class's attention.

I cover his mouth with my hand. "Shut up. Yes Kyle. Keep it down. You don't need to announce it to the whole world." I am sure my face is bright red from the embarrassment.

"You know that Ty is going to kill you right? He is already very protective over you and the fact that it is Kyle just makes it worse after..." he trailed off.

"After what?" I whisper as class starts.

"It's not my story to tell. Let's just say there is a reason that they don't get along." He sighs. "Damn you are lucky. You have two of the hottest guys at school pining over you." He winks.

I laugh. "They are not pining over me." Class continues uneventfully.

Kyle must have done something to really hurt Tyler. I just hope that I don't get caught in the middle.

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