I HATE YOU?

Chapter 1

I don’t think there’s much to say about Luke Reddington, but the few things I will say is that he’s a heartbreaker, the devil in disguise and I hate him and I really wish I’d never ever see his face again. Why do I hate him you say, it’s because he had indeed broke my heart but that not a story I’ll get into as yet.

So imagine my surprise when I applied for a teacher’s assistant job at my old high school, Ferncourt High, and saw that he was also a teacher’s assistant and we were both working in the same department. I know you’re thinking it, karma right?

You’re probably wondering how our little reunion went, right? It went something like this, it was on a Monday morning. Weatherman forecast a cloudy windy day with a temperature of under -20•C but, you guys didn’t came here to hear that. I had a arrived at work at around 8am, reported to the English Literature Head of Department and to the teacher I was working under.

The English B department was a large room with work space cubicles. Inside was everything I envisioned every school department would look like. Walls decorated with school projects and the air smelled like freshly print papers. The ground and work stations were littered to the brim with text books and sheets of papers. I guess you could say the place was inevitably a mess.

I was standing beside our head of department, Ms. Anita Lockwood as she introduced me to my fellow coworkers. “ He-hem, since I now have all your attention, good morning. This beautiful young girl beside me is Amy-lese Richards and she is the newest member of our faculty working under Ms. Olive Bernard.”

One by one each of my coworkers introduced themselves to me, until he was left. We stood there facing each other, with me of course giving him the stink eye and him staring nonchalantly at me. If he wants to play that game, I sure will.  

He held out his hand and said “ Luke Reddington.” Hate surged through me as I glanced at his 6’3 towering frame, but I still managed to force a sincere smile and shook his rough yet delicate manly hands.

And that was pretty much it. It wasn’t really that much of a reunion, but you asked for it.

It’s late Friday evening and I had just finished cleaning and restocking the department shelves, and I know that’s not my job but I can’t stand to see the place so disheveled. I check my nude colored nailed for any blotches or cracks and slowly peeked over at Luke. Which wasn’t really hard since his cubicle is right beside mine.

He’s angrily punching letters into his laptop, as usual.  He’s always so harsh, and dull. I’ve never seen this man crack a smile, not even with his students. Well it’s not like I’m watching him or anything. He suddenly stops murdering his keyboard, stared up at me and snickered ever so politely.

I quickly turned my head and stared back down at my manicured hands. I can’t believe he caught me staring at him, and like the little punk I am, I looked away.  I know for a fact that he’s calling me stupid or something. Luke 1 – Amy-lese 0, I scribbled furiously on my note pad.

“ Umm, Ms. Amy-lese?” I look over to entrance and see one of my students. I think her name is Brianna. A beautiful black girl with curly 4c type her. But, she like Luke is just one of the many pains in my life.

“Hello Brianna, school closed a couple hours ago, why are you still here?” I smiled and inwardly rolled my eyes when Luke’s typing became louder. He’s so petty.

“ I had some SBAs that I had to complete Miss,” she plays with her fingers and I just knew what was coming next, “ I would like a little more time to complete the 4 page essay on the poems that were assigned to us. I have a lot of work piled up and they’re mostly SBA related but I will have it done by Monday.”

“ Of course I understand.” My head spins as I said that, knowing that I’ll have to stay late Tuesday and probably have the deduct mark, which I never do and I still won’t do.

Brianna quickly mumbles a thank you and left. I avert my gaze back to my fingers. Ms. Bernard storms into the room and drop a stack of papers on my desk and does the same with Luke. I quickly stole a glance at him, to see that he was staring at me also. I squinted my eyes and smirked and I think he knows exactly what I’m thinking. I’m going to finish marking these papers before him.

“Ms. West said you should get those done before 5 so you can leave early,” Luke nods in response and I suppose the same thing goes for me. “ and she also said that you should ease up on the kids. You’re too hard on them sometimes.”

I quietly mumbled an as if. “ And you Amy, you’re too soft on them.” Luke snickered and I turn my head to flare at him. “ I’m trusting you guys to close up after, I’ll see you guys next week.” She grabs her bags from her desk and wave as she leaves the room. 

I grab a pen from out of my pencil case and begins marking the first paper on the pile. I’m on my fifth paper when Luke said, “ You know, if you keep on writing notes and giving them corrections you’ll never finish on time.” I glance at his pile, he’s already half way through.

“ The notes are for encouragements,” I say rolling my eyes. “ As for the correction, they need to know where they went wrong so they won’t make the same mistakes when they’re sitting their exams.”

“ You’re too nice to them.” He finish and sorts his papers from the highest to the lowest mark. He opens one of his desk drawer and place the papers inside. “ I could help you mark them if you like.”

I laugh, “ No thank you.” And scribbled Luke 2- Amy 0, I really think I earned a point in default because I’ve never offered to help him with anything. He lost that game.

~~~~

Hey guys, I'm Daneille. I'm 17 turning 18 next month and I'm from Jamaica. I've written, well partially written a lot of books in my life. I say partially because they're without endings. I do however, have faith in knowing that I will complete this book, you guys would have to be patient with me.

If you like this first chapter, don't hesitate to vote or leave a comment.

                                    Love yah ❤