The Girl With Many Names

▪︎ Chapter Three ▪︎

I walked into my fourth period class with Clover, Maths. One of my favourite  subjects. As soon as we got in, the once noisy class became quiet and all eyes were on us, I could feel it without even looking at them. I'm guessing the tale of the 'loser' who told Cynthia to shut it this morning had already spread like wildfire. Not caring, I walked straight to an empty chair by the window.

"Everyone is staring, Dani" Clover whispered, stating the obvious as she took the seat in front of me.

"I know" I shrugged "They'd stop sooner or later"

And they did stop staring seconds later like I said. The teacher seemed to be running late because we were thirty minutes into his period and he hadn't arrived. I plugged in my earphones and began to play Imagine Dragons at an earbleeding volume, but that's how I loved my music, earbleeding. I was well into my music when I felt a tap on my shoulder, making me look up.

"Oh shit" I muttered as I quickly tucked my earphone away because apparently, the teacher had arrived. I checked my watch to see it was already 45 minutes to the end of the class. I looked to my right to see the boy from yesterday morning, the one on the stairs.

"Oh hi, you're the guy from yesterday morning right?" I asked. He nodded.

"Thanks again" I said.

"No problem....again" he said, facing the front of the class and I chuckled lightly.

The teacher taught on sets and its properties and it was one long class. The boy seated to my right - I don't know his name yet but I spotted a little 'H' on the front of his notebook, so I've decided to call him that until I found out his name. Anyways, H was quiet throughout class, I mean seeing as the teacher arrived late, most people were barely paying attention as they chatted away. He probably doesn't talk much.

The recess bell finally rang and trust me, it was right on time. We were just about to venture into Venn Diagrams and I've heard that it's one nasty topic. I intended to ask H for his name at the end of the class but I forgot and when I remembered, he'd already left. I'd just ask Clover during lunch.

I didn't bring a lunch pack today, so Clover and I made our way over to the lunch line, bought our lunch and went over to the same table we sat at yesterday. It was empty and that was good because it was a nice spot and you could practically scan the whole café from there.

"Hey Clover, there was this guy that sat to my right during Maths, do you know him?" I asked some minutes into our lunch.

"Oh yeah, Blake Harper" she replied.

"Harper?" I asked "Is he related to Steve?"

"Yeah, rumour has it that they are, though they hardly speak to each other  in school" she replied "He's a Harper child even though he doesn't act like one and trust me, being a Harper child is one big deal. His parents were one of those major shareholders I told you about earlier"

"Were?" I asked noticing her use of the past tense.

"Yeah, they died in a car crash some years back" she replied sympathetically "His family is still held in high esteem at our school though"

"Oh" was all I managed to say. And I thought I had been through shit. Even though I hated my dad at the moment, I couldn't imagine life without my parents.

"I'm guessing that's why he doesn't act like a 'Harper child' like you say"

"Probably, before his parents died, he wasn't much of an extrovert but at least he had lots of friends" she explained "now, he just walks around alone."

"That's tough" I replied.

"So does he have as much admirers as Steve?" I asked trying to lighten the atmosphere