Chapter One: You Think I'm Hot?
Monday morning and Bradley kindly offers to drop me off. It was a bit of a surprise when he asked me but then again I don't want to miss a free ride. It's better than being on the bus where you sit next to random strangers and you get all sort of moody drivers.
I know some point this week he'll ask me to return the favour. That's how well I know my brother, I'll be surprised if he doesn't.
His eyes fix onto me as I walk into the school building giving me a sly look which says 'have a good day Madeline.' His sarcastic voice lingers around in my head.
My usual routine is to meet Lydia and Lauren in the cafeteria then we all walk down to homeroom together.
Walking past through all the people, I manage to get to the cafeteria in one piece. Normal and alive. I hate walking past them, they always shout halfway down the corridor and shove you into other students. Trust me, I've experienced this one or two times.
"Madeline!" I hear Lydia shout as she leaps into my arms, giving me a deathening hug. She wraps her thin pale arms around me, hugging me so tight I'm up to the point where I can't breathe, "I've missed you!" She squeaks so loud that I'm afraid one of my eardrums have just popped.
"You saw me... yesterday." I struggle to say. I swear if she squeezes me any tighter my lungs will literally collapse. Meet Lydia Barker, the craziest girl I have ever came across post Lauren.
Lydia has curly strawberry blonde hair and cute freckles that'd cover up her cheeks everytime she blushed.
Me and Lydia became friends of basically being seated next to each other in History at the very start of High school. After we bumped into eachother in the library several times that's when we started hanging around with each other.
She is a whole lot smarter than me. A lot. Then that just leaves Lauren- speaking of the devil I can't see her.
"So? It doesn't mean I can't hug you!" She squeaks in a much higher voice. Ouch- my ears. And there goes the other ear drum.
***
"Lauren. Psst. Lauren!" I whisper loudly. She turns around and glares at me with her big emerald like green eyes.
"What?" She hisses and frowns at me.
"Where were you this morning?" I ask curiously as she wasn't in the cafeteria or homeroom. Which is really odd for Lauren as she's usually there before either me or Lydia.
She brings her brown wavy hair to the side and stares at me for a while before responding.
"I was late... Thanks to someone." She hisses once again and I immediately know who she's talking about.
It is really hard to communicate across Mr Harold's class as he could hear anything-even a pin drop. But since everyone is talking for a change it's not going to be easy to get caught. Everyone's frightened of Mr Harold and his bold head that's shiny enough you can literally see your reflection.
Lauren sits next to Lydia, she says if she sits next to me she wouldn't be able to 'concentrate.' When really she doesn't sit there for her own sake but the boy infront of her.
Kyle.
The guy who made her late this morning, I don't actually want to know why they were late in the first place. She is crazily in love with him, since the first day she saw him. He likes her too- but he's too scared to admit. Let's just say Lauren really isn't easy to talk to without getting pinned to the wall, no matter what you say. When you get in her good books she's a great friend.
There is a knock on the door, everything and everyone goes dead silent. Everyone's head turns in sync to look at the door.
There stands the hottest guy ever. I could literally hear a gasp escape every girls mouth in the room, maybe mine too.
"Is this Mr... erm Harold's class?" He asks, while reading a paper in his hand. Which I assume is his schedule.
His voice is deep and he looks...well what can I say?
Mr Harold just nods and firmly replies,"take a seat anywhere you like. I didn't quite get your name, what is it?"
"Colton." He replies with a nod. I don't even have to look at the girls, I can hear them sigh dreamily. His eyes gaze around at the empty seats and they suddenly land on the empty chair next to me.
Oh no.
He walks through the tight gaps between the tables and pulls out the chair next to me. I squeeze my eyes shut and turn to look at Lydia and Lauren.
Lydia and Lauren are absolutely useless, they just sit there gaping at him with their mouths wide open. Doesn't Lauren have a boyfriend? I still wonder why he has to sit here, out of all the seats.
I have to admit Colton is really good looking, with his brown shaggy hair - not the bad shaggy the good one. His gorgeous hazel eyes staring into mine...
Wait what?
He's looking at me and I am looking at him. When did this happen?
"Hello?" He says waving his hand in front of my face. Oh shoot, he probably thinks I'm some weird person who can't talk or anything. Get it together Madeline, you've got to stop acting like a weirdo! My subconscious reminds me.
"What? Oh hi." I say calmly- well at least I think I am.
"I'm Colton." He greets giving me a nod.
"Yeah I know. You said that when you walked in." I laugh nervously making weird gestures to the door "I'm Madeline."
"Madeline..." He repeats slowly before giving me a cute boyish grin - the kinda grin would probably make the whole of the female population swoon and knobble at the knees. "Maddie. I'm calling you Maddie for short."
I shoot him a weird look. I shake my head and look down back at my lap.
"Why not?" He frowns at my discomfort.
"Because," I say, turning to look at him once again, "I haven't been called that since I was five, and as you can see, I'm not a little girl anymore,"
He looks me up and down briefly before smirking. "I'll say," he winks.
I scrunch up my nose in disgust before shaking my head and returning my focus to the work on the desk.
"So, you're one of those guys..." I mutter to myself, rolling my eyes.
My comment must have sparked some interest as in my peripheral vison, I can see him turning his body towards me, cocking his head to the side.
"One of those guys? What do you mean?" He asks.
"Oh nothing nothing," I dismiss him, not taking my eyes off the sheet in front of me as I complete yet another stupid algebraic equation. You know, I don't even know why they teach us this.
I mean, in what real life situation would require us to use algebra? Seriously.
"No, come on, tell me."
I sigh putting my pen down before facing him.
"Well you know," I shrug, before gesturing to his body, "the whole typical hot, bad boy cliche thing, You think that you can just like flirt with any girl you want, and they'll immediately fall at your feet and worship the ground you walk on. I mean I barey even know you, we just met. And from what I've seen, you're just like all the other boys." I say simply, before continuing with my work.
For a moment there, he looks taken back. With his raised eyebrows that are so raised they meet his hairline and folded arms, it takes him a few moments to respond.
"You think I'm hot?"
Wait...what?
I snap my head up towards him, only to find him looking extremely smug. I narrow my eyes. "Out of everything I just told you, that's the only thing you got?"
If possible, his grin growths even more wider. "So... you do think I'm hot?" he grins, wiggling his eyebrows.
I roll my eyes. "My exact point proven," I say shooting him a look.
***
With a huge grin on my face, I open the front door and I heard a very high pitched scream.
"Hi!" she waves exaggerating before jumping into my arms and we both fall to the ground.
"Agh Amanda, you're so bloody heavy." I yelp trying to carefully push her off me but fail.
Bradley comes racing down the stairs, as he hears us both practically screaming at the same time. He pulls up my now heavy pregnant big sister before he looks down at an almost flat me.
"What the hell happened?" He asks rolling his eyes unknowingly and pulling me up too.
"A-Amanda. Hug. Fell." I wheeze, gasping for air.
He shoots a look at Amanda and then to me as if to say nothing.
After the 'little' incident, which I shouldn't call little because she's so heavily pregnant. Amanda hugs me again but this time she doesn't fall and Bradley decides to join in.
"I'm so happy to see you guys!" She exclaims and her eyes slowly begin to fill up with tears. It feels like a year from the last time I saw Amanda, she lives just on the coast outside the city.
Bradley helps her take her stuff from her car, that she has brought with her and takes them up to the guest room. She has tons and tons of things here already hidden in my room, away from Bradley. The last time she left something of hers laying around he 'accidentally' ended up throwing it out the bathroom window
After sorting Amanda's things out and saying our goodbyes to dad, we all go into the dining room where dinner is now awaiting for us. Amanda is the best cook ever, she is a whole lot better then mum. Amanda never feels like a sister to me, she feels more like a mum and that's exactly how I want things to stay.
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