Her

01

PHOENIX

Monday. The first day of school.

"What is your problem?"

They all look at me, the two girls and the boy. One of the girls is pink-haired, the other one blonde, and the boy black-haired. All of them are dressed in similar outfits, leather jackets and boots, and all of them are new at our school, Greenwood High School, aka the biggest High School in Greenwood, England, aka hell. I guess them being new should be a reason to be friendly, but since one of the girls has just addressed me in a pretty rude tone, I don't see any reason to. Plus, I've never been what people would call friendly anyway. Bitchy, arrogant, weird - that's what people would call me. But friendly? Definitely not.

"What my problem is?" I say. "You."

I see the pink-haired girl's eyebrows moving together and the boy's eyebrows moving up, giving him an expression of surprise and amusement at the same time. The other girl - the one who hasn't spoken to me - is looking at me in what I can only call amused disbelief.

For a second the girl with the knitted eyebrows just stares at me. Then she spats out, "What?"

"You're standing in front of my locker."

The girl snorts, rolls her eyes and says, "Oh no, really? I didn't realise we were standing in front of your locker. How could we have not realised that? So, so sorry, princess."

I return the eye roll, saying, "Just move, will you?"

She doesn't, so I step forward and half shove her and half make her move by herself. I hear her saying, "What the fuck?", but I simply ignore her and open my locker. I feel all their eyes on me while taking out one of my books. I shut my locker, turning back to them. My eyes find the ones of the girl that has spoken to me - or rather made fun of me -, and I can't help but notice that she has very pretty, brown eyes.

Brown has always been my favourite eye colour. I never really understood why so many people are crazy about blue or green eyes. Maybe I never understood it because I have green ones myself, and people tend to like better what they themselves don't have. I don't know what it is, but for some reason I've always liked brown more than any other eye colour. In my opinion, there's something special about brown eyes - especially the ones I'm looking into right now.

I realise that the girl standing in front of me not only has very pretty eyes, but also a very pretty face with interesting structures. Her skin is warm, golden, like caramel, her nose is straight and pierced, her lips look full and soft, and her eyes are chocolate brown, large and rather wide set, giving her a unique, magnetic look. What makes her stand out even more is her hair, which is a nice mixture of pink and brown. And although I usually don't find coloured hair pretty, I have to admit that she pulls it off pretty well - but of course, I'd never tell her that.

After a few seconds, I also realise that I'm staring at her, a girl who has no idea who I am because this is the first time we have ever seen each other. I curse myself. But then I realise that she is staring at me too, her eyes traveling over me, ending up meeting mine, and my embarrassment quickly vanishes.

Feeling my usual confidence return - or the one that comes every now and then, usually not when I need it -, I put on a mocking voice and say, "What is your problem?"

The boy lets out a chuckle. The girl glares at him, then she turns her attention back to me, her expression grim. I can see her mouth opening, most probably about to insult me. Yet before she gets the chance to do that, her blonde friend says, "Aza." She places her hand on the pink haired girl's shoulder. For some reason I expect her to shake the hand off, but she doesn't. They're close, I think. I feel an unpleasant feeling which I can't name rising up inside my chest. What is it? Sadness? Jealousy? Anger? Somehow it feels like all of them at once. Sadness-jealousy-anger. That's what it feels like.