Facade

chapter 6

Another chapter up; hope you enjoy.  I never put up character cast, it was deliberate.  They are all whomever you want them to be. Even yourself 😁

The beeping of the alarm woke me the next morning. I had a good night rest. I at least had a little peace after my chat with Camilla lady night or should I say this morning. I thought I had enough time until I checked the time and realised the alarm might have been beeping for a while.

I jumped up and scrambled to the bathroom, I'm contemplating forgoing a shower and just brushing my teeth and cleaning up a bit, afterall I had a shower late last night. I hurried up and got dressed. I rushed downstairs and was surprised to see everywhere empty, with a slight frown on my face, I looked around then saw the small piece of paper stuck to the fridge.

I raised it and realised it was in my father's writing " honey I got called in early at work and since your mum and the boys were ready I gave them a ride. We let you sleep in a bit because you're probably tired from yesterday, we hope the alarm does wake you, and please be a dear and call Camilla to drive you.  Love, dad."

I heaved a breath. Sometimes I think I'm crazy and just seeing things when it comes to them, but other times they can be so cold they give me chills.

I shot a text to Camilla " hey Cam where are you?  One thing you can always trust Camilla to do is reply a text, and she doesn't disappoint " leaving the house now why? Any problem?"  I smiled " I need a ride" she simply sent " on my way".

I really don't know what I would do if she wasn't my friend. She does so many things no questions asked. I sighed again and went to wait for her upfront. With her maniacal driving she'll be here in no time.

About 7mimutes later, I see her navy blue Toyota corolla making it's way down the street to my house. I hopped in as soon as she stopped and in no time we're in school. Because of her driving, we made it on time but barely. The first bell has been rung, and they would soon sound the tardy bell.

She parked at the first available space and we rushed to the school entrance.
I saw a figure in a black jacket and denim pants standing close to the entrance. I guess he heard our footsteps because he looked up, I saw many of the female students who were passing giving him overt lookover, while the more quiet ones were trying to be surreptitious about it.

Our eyes met and he frowned " why are you just coming to school? I've been waiting here for you". I merely raised an eyebrow " and why are you waiting outside? I thought the agreement was for you to find your own way?"

He ran a hand through his hair and said " look I'm sorry about what I said alright, both the person that labelled this school and the person that made that map are either confused as hell or one and the same". I couldn't help it, a small chuckle rolled past my lips.

Not until Camilla gave a small cough beside me did I remember she is there. I turned to her to see that she had one brow up at our exchange.  I guess she was surprised and I don't blame her, I rarely talk to people, yet somehow even from the very beginning, talking to Ethan has always been easy.

I rolled my eyes at her expression and introduced them " Camilla this is Ethan, a new student and Ethan this is Camilla, my best friend." Ethan just nodded and Camilla mumbled a nice to meet you. I turned to Ethan and sighed, "let me see your schedule". He handed it over and I had a slight frown on my face again. " we have a lot of classes together except for immediately after lunch, you have advanced chemistry with Cam, and the last period, you have advanced algebra." I handed schedule back to him " come on I'll show you where first period English is, I have it now too. It's the other building". I turned to cam, "see you at lunch". She narrowed her eyes at me, I just rolled my eyes at  her hilarious  attempt at communicating with her eyes.  I turned and started walking away and Ethan followed.

We didn't have to go far to find the class, we were about to open the door when the tardy bell rang. We came in and all eyes seemed to snap to us. Everyone was already sitted since the teacher was in front of the class. He turned from the board at the interruption and sighed " you're late miss jones". One thing I hate more than attention is being reprimanded especially publicly. I couldn't meet his eyes and was opening and closing my mouth trying to say something when Ethan came to my rescue " I'M new and the principal asked her to take me around, I might have delayed her, it's not really her fault".

The teacher sighed again and asked me to take my seat, he then demanded Ethan introduce himself before class. I could already see half the population of the class looking at him like prime run. I just rolled my eyes and brought our my writing materials. I love English class so I always pay extra attention. What seems like a while later, the bell rang. I was packing up my things when I heard Jacinth and her cronies walk up to Ethan. I sighed for the umpteenth  time.  Jacinth Reiley, self proclaimed princess if Amos high, is a trouble I don't really need.

She walks with joy and Janet, or it would be more accurate to say they walk with her, because it seems they have made it a life mission to copy everything Jacinth does, I'm cynical enough to believe that it's until they knock her down and out. So they look eerily identical when they went to welcome Ethan to the school. I heard their whole speech about how he shouldn't soil his name by associating with the underdogs* I saw them look in my direction at this point*. They told him he was good enough to get into the top tier of the social hierarchy and they are the top.

I sighed and picked up my backpack. I knew it was too good to be true. I was almost to the door when I heard a deep calm voice call out " hey wait up Ariella".