Not Your Girl

Chapter Ten

Chapter Ten – I think he’s given me hope | Not Your Girl

 

Class had been a blur. Instead of cramming every single piece of knowledge that the teacher spoke into my brain, I took the time to daydream about this new guy. I didn’t know what it was about this guy that had me so anxious yet excited to see him again. We hadn’t even spoken to each other… only made eye contact once. Hell, I didn’t even know his name. But I wanted to see him again. Before all this crap had gone down with Ryder, I had made it my business to introduce myself to every new kid in this school. I had always wanted people to feel welcome into the Oakwood High community. But now that my reputation had gone down the drain, I felt out of place. I couldn’t go up and introduce myself to anyone anymore. Besides, he would probably already know about my reputation by morning tea. The bad boy’s girl. The slut. If only someone had invented a time machine… I would have looked at Ryder just for that one day so that he wouldn’t target me. But what if he targeted me anyway just because I was the one girl he hadn’t slept with yet? Was there even a way to avoid Ryder?

The bell pierced the air, signalling the end of second period and the start of morning tea. I scooped up my books and trudged out of the classroom. Head down, hair falling down over my face, I stared at my red converse. I looked up, expecting to see my usual locker cramped with red scribbled words but instead a guy crouched next to it, scrubbing off the last letter of the last word. A crease formed between my eyebrows as I walked over. The guy pushed some dirty curls out of his eyes and dropped the sponge in a bucket of water, admiring his work before noticing me.

“Ah, Jessica Southern. I don’t believe we’ve officially met but there’s no denying that you know who I am and that I know who you are.” The boy announced in a husky tone. He was right. I did know who he was. Spencer Rudd. But no one else knew that. Just me, because I had heard his mother call out to him on the first day of year eight when she wanted a kiss goodbye. Everyone else knew him by the name Spud. To him, Spencer Rudd was the scrawny mama’s boy. Spud was his gangster name that he tricked everyone into believing was his real name.

“I’m not denying it, Spencer.” I said, my lips twitching up slightly as I spoke his real name. Spud’s eyebrows narrowed.

“How do you-” He started but I already had my explanation in order.

“First day of year eight, Mummy wanted to kiss her little boy goodbye. Don’t worry. I’m not going to spill your secret. If I wanted to do that, I would have done it in the previous four years that I’ve been at this school.” I said and Spud seemed to relax. He gestured to the clean locker door.

“Right… well, I came to apologise for the… ah… decorations… that I’ve been placing on your locker. They won’t be there from now on. Compliments to your buddy, Ryder.” Spud said, running a hands through his curly hair. I quirked an eyebrow as my eyes glanced at the dry blood on Spud’s lip. I didn’t take me long to figure out how that happened. Ryder…

“Huh. Well, thank you.” I responded and Spud ran a tongue over his wounded lips before shoving his hands in his pockets and walking off without another word. Weird guy. I admired my clean locker for a second before opening it up. I heard giggles and exited chatter. I glanced over my shoulder to see Grace Fort practically clinging onto the shoulder of the new guy as she led him down the corridor and towards the cafeteria door. I couldn’t help the surge of anger directed towards her from swelling up inside of me. She slept with Ryder and gave him details about me, only making him more intrigued to annoy me. Then she went and joined Ava Johansen’s group even though she knew I hadn’t liked Ava or her group of bitches. Now she was all over the new guy… the guy who I was finding very difficult to not pay attention to. I looked away for a few seconds before curiosity drew my eyes back. My eyes once again met the eyes of the new guy. He was silent as Grace rambled on about something from where she clung to his shoulder. He didn’t seem to be paying any attention to her at all. His eyes were fixed on mine. Grace noticed that he wasn’t paying attention to her and followed his line of gaze to me. She pursed her lips and pulled the new guy away from me and into the doorway of the cafeteria. My brown eyes followed them and I couldn’t stop the corners of my lips from twitching upwards when the new guy looked back over his shoulder, trying to get one last glance at me. I still didn’t know his name.