Iced ✓

Chapter Two | Reputation

A reputation can be both a good or bad thing depending on how it's perceived by others but one thing is for certain, it's always exaggerated and blown out of proportion by others. It was a cloud people held onto tightly to maintain their popularity, whilst others dusted away, not giving a damn. It was something that you got from the second you walked into a school.

Cyprus had just done that. His reputation was already being built from all the glances he got. His blonde hair had been swept back neatly, and uniform had him looking tidy. Not that it would last long, by his constant tugging at his collar. He navigated himself through the school building, finding himself lost, very quickly, in this large school.

"Um, excuse me ma'am? Can you help me find this classroom?" he asked a girl, who was busy with her locker. She had the same navy blue uniform as him but with a skirt. Her inky black hair was in a high ponytail and she looked younger than him, once she turned around.

"Hi, you must be new. I'm Aziza and I can most definitely help you. Where do you need to go?" she said, in her american accent. He told her the room he was looking for and he took him there.

"So, you're an american?" he asked her. He had noticed that she didn't have the same British accent that he had been struggling to understand since he arrived here.

"Yes, I am, and where are you from?" she asked him. Aside from his accent, his sun kissed skin gave away that he was not from this place. London had few sunny days and around this time of year, you would be lucky if you saw the sun, with the short days and long nights. It was going to be a major adjustment for him.

"I'm from sunny South Africa, my parents moved here after getting better jobs," he explained to her. He already knew he was going to be asked that question many times, so he might as well answer.

"Oh cool, I'm only here for a while, my parents had a work thing and they weren't going to leave me in America because it was for a long time... and here we are," Aziza explained before stopping at a door. It was the classroom he had been looking for.

"Thank you, Aziza. I'm Cyprus by the way," he said before he knocked on the door. He was late.

"I know," she replied, with a smile. She had got wind of this cute new guy before she had left class to get something from her locker. A group of girls had been gushing about him.

"Oh, well I'll see you around." He shrugged off that she knew about him already. News obviously traveled very fast in this school. He entered the classroom and everyone stared at him. He could hear some of the girls whispering about him but he ignored them. He told the teacher he was new and was told to go sit in the only empty seat in the classroom. A seat next to a beautiful girl.

The teacher droned on about a project that they would have to do and present to the class at the start of next term. Cyprus took quick notes, glad he had already done this topic in his old school. He made a note to talk to the teacher about the topic this class had already covered to see which ones he might have missed out on. It was the reason why starting school in the middle of the year sucked. The rest of the lesson was given to given to work on this presentation with the person next to you.

"Hey, I'm Cyprus," he introduced himself to the beautiful girl beside him. She ignored him, and continued scribbling in her note book. She was unhappy to have a partner. She loved working alone, there was no one better to rely on than yourself. Now she was stuck with some new kid, who probably didn't know anything and was behind on all the work. It would be like doing all the work yourself but with his name on it, to take credit where it wasn't due. She made a list of simple topics for him to research and the rest for herself. She ripped the page from her book and handed it to him.

"You can do this, and I can do the rest," she demanded. He took the piece of paper from her hand and started reading the simple topics he wanted her to do. He wrote down the answers next to the simple topics, already knowing the answers. He was annoyed. She was rude and hadn't even introduced herself. She had just ignored him and carried on working.

"Will you at least tell me your name?" he enquired.

She turned and stared at him with her cold icy blue eyes in an attempt to intimidate him but he wasn't backing down. He wasn't afraid of a little glaring. Eventually she spoke.

"You'll find out soon enough."

Cyprus shook his head unsure of how to react to her answer. The bell went and he packed away his things. He tossed the piece of paper in her direction and said, "Maybe tomorrow you'll actually want to work together for real."

He left and went to the front of the classroom to talk to the teacher, not giving her a second glance. She picked up the paper and found all the answers had been written down next to the topics. She huffed, he would soon learn the laws that dictated this place and then he would back away quickly. She doubted he would want to work with her once he found out about her reputation.

~*~

Reputations are a terrible form of judgement.