Chapter 4
My first day at Crestview High passed rather quickly and without that much trouble. Sure, as the new girl I got a few strange looks and random glances in the halls and throughout my classes, but I expected it to happen so it wasn’t all that horrible.
In my old school, I would be the object of everybody’s torture the minute I walked onto the property line, and now I just seemed to be skirting around the edges of attention, just the way I wanted it.
In all four of my classes I hadn’t actually got any work because it was simply the first day. The teachers, who seemed nice enough, just explained the course expectation to me and the rest of the class before giving us the rest of the period to chat quietly amongst ourselves.
Functions and biology were the only classes that I shared with Olivia this semester, but it looked like we were well on our way to being friends the way that we were so comfortable with each other. It all felt a little strange to me; not talking to somebody my own age for so long and then suddenly, a girl that is similar to me in so many ways approaches me and that was that, we were becoming friends.
I sat with her at lunch as well, but thinking we would eat with the rest of her friends and I would have to branch out even more, made me extremely nervous. I didn’t know if it was a good or bad thing but I quickly discovered why Olivia was being so nice to me – she didn’t actually have any other friends at the school.
I guess with her cute but quirky style that matched her personality, and her amazing ability to study and ace all tests, most of the student body didn’t want to befriend the nerd. It worked for me though as I had quite a nerdy personality myself, and I didn’t see a problem with hanging out with a girl that focused on perfecting her grades as much as a normal girl would focus on perfecting their nail polish.
Once the school bell rung signalling the end of the day, I said goodbye to Olivia before taking the trip home on foot.
That night my mom arrived home just after four, and just as I suspected, she loved teaching the group of kids here just as much as she did back home. Over dinner we shared stories about our days and she smiled when I told her a little bit more about my new friend., telling me she was glad that I was making friends here, even if it was only just one. We then spent the rest of the evening whipping up a batch of chocolate cookies before watching old re-runs of Gilmore Girls together on the sofa. My mom and I had always been close, and it was times like this that I remember how important it is to appreciate the people close to you.
The next morning at school passed by almost the same as the day before however, the teachers were over the first day shock and actually started on the lesson plans they had built for the year. It was only lunch time and I already had a page of calculus review along with a few easy chemical equations to balance and complete.
When the lunch bell rang, I packed up the books and pens that were scattered on my desk in chemistry, sliding them right into my bag before throwing my bag over my shoulder and walking out of the classroom. I still made sure not to pay attention to the few glances I was still getting as the new girl - they weren't bothering me and I didn't need that pressure at the moment.
Walking out of the classroom, I turned and headed towards my locker and smiled as I saw Olivia weaving her way between groups of people the hall to get to me.
“Hey Jessalyn, did you want to eat lunch together again?” she asked with a happy expression on her face.
I had already seen her this morning in functions and we had chatted then, but I didn’t actually take the time to look at her interesting choice of outfit until now. She had on a white chiffon type t-shirt that was decorated with multi-coloured polka dots, a pair of dark green jean shorts that had been frayed at the ends, and somehow her outfit was tied together with a cute and subtle pair of white flats. I guess she liked to show her quirky personality through her clothing because, although I wouldn’t pick this outfit out for myself, it definitely worked for her.
As I continued walking down the hallway with her by my side, I remembered what she had previously asked me. “Yea sure.” I replied. “Just let me drop my books off at my locker and grab my lunch first.”
In my peripheral vision I could see the slight up and down movement of Olivia’s head as she nodded in response while keeping in step with me.
Once the weight of books were lifted from my bag, I grabbed the lunch I had packed for myself this morning, as I wasn’t all that fond of the food the cafeteria had served the day before, and shut my locker.
Both Olivia and I started to talk about our classes as we walked to the back of the school and to the courtyard where they had a few picnic tables set up for people who didn’t feel like eating their lunch in the hustle and bustle of the cafeteria.
As we both sat down and started to eat, I saw that she had also brought hers from home as she had been going here for four years, and probably knew the food they sold here ws no good.
For a majority of the hour we just chatted about random things before she started asking me how my life was like back home. It didn’t hurt to reply to her questions however, as I had only actually known her for a day, I didn’t really go into depth about how bad my life was. I simply told her that my family was really close and I was a shy girl who didn’t have many friends in town, not going on to tell her about my dad’s death or about the bullying I received constantly.
With only about ten minutes left in our lunch period, I reached my hand into my lunch bag and took out a plastic baggy which had been packed with a couple of the chocolate chip cookies my mom and me had made the night previous.
Extending my hand across the picnic table, I waved the cookies slowly in front of Olivia’s face. “Want one?” I asked.
I saw a flicker of excitement in Olivia’s eyes as she raised her left hand off of her lap and reached it into the bag to grab one of the cookies. Not wasting a second, she immediately took a huge bite out of the cookie.
I giggled at her reaction as her cheeks became chubby with the amount of cookie crumbs she had stored in there. “Hungry?” I asked with a slightly teasing tone.
Olivia smiled sheepishly at me before bringing her spare hand up to cover her mouth as she chewed and digested the food. Once her mouth was free of cookie traces, she was free to speak. “These are really good.” she said, gesturing to the half-eaten cookie in her hand. “Did you make these?”
I nodded in reply as a shadow of a smile graced my face. “Yea, my mom and I made them last night.”
Olivia nodded in reply but didn’t respond in a verbal way as she started to eat the rest of her cookie, this time more like a human and less like a caveman.
Reaching my own hand into the plastic bag that rested on the picnic table, I grabbed the other cookie and brought it up to my mouth. Right before I was about to sink my teeth into the delicious goodness that is a moist chocolate chip cookie, my eyes glanced over to the side of the school building and rested on a slightly familiar figure.
Bringing the cookie down from my mouth and resting it back on the plastic bag, I looked to Olivia. “Hey Olivia,” I said, waiting for her to glance in my direction. As she looked up from the table, I continued as I nodded my head discreetly towards the side of the school. “Do you know who that is?”
Turning her head slightly to peak over her shoulder, she quickly located the person I was talking about. “Who, the one with the beanie?” she asked and I nodded slowly in response. “Why would you want to know? I mean come on, you’re only at this school for one day and you already have a crush?” she asked with a teasing voice.
I scowled at her playfully before shaking my head back and forth. “No, no, nothing like that.” I replied. “I sort of ran into the guy yesterday as I was coming out of the office and, let’s just say, I didn’t exactly think he was the nicest boy in town.”
Olivia snorted at my description. “Sounds about right to me.” she muttered quietly before taking another glance at him and turning back to me. “That would be Mr. Cason Michaels, the esteemed bad boy of our wonderful school. He’s the object of many girls’ fantasies, but the rumour is that he's never given into any of the pompous drama queens that go to this school.”
As Olivia finished explaining, I took a look around and sure enough, most of the girls that sat were also sitting outside for their lunch had their eyes glued in the direction of the bad boy.
“Cason Michaels huh?” I asked, not really expecting a response as the question was meant to be hypothetical. “Why does he stand by himself, leaning against a school wall at lunch?”
Olivia shrugged as I finally brought my cookie up to my mouth and indulged in its gooey goodness. “I’m guessing Evan’s out sick today so he probably see’s nothing better to do than stand there and give all us girls something to see; an extremely hot guy.”
“He’s not that hot.” I stated, but I knew the second the words left my lips that I was indeed lying.
Cason Michaels could put many A-list celebrities to shame with his muscles, body type and rugged good looks.
Olivia probably saw right through my lie though as she just rolled her eyes at my cock and bull statement. “Sure, and Ryan Gosling was just voted the ugliest man of the year.” she replied with a full burst of sarcasm.
I shook my head in amusement as I finished my cookie and took another glance at the supposed bad boy. “So, who’s this Evan guy you mentioned?”
“He’s Cason best friend, has been ever since Cason first stepped into this school two years ago on the first day of sophomore year.” Olivia explained. “I guess the two knew each other before he came here or something and he’s the only guy that Cason can actually stand according to rumours. Not as hot as Cason but he’s definitely up there.”
I nodded. Of course the bad boy would isolate himself from all the other guys in the school while having a partner in crime - just typical.
Before I could ask another question about the guy currently walking towards the front of the school, the bell rang to signal the end of lunch.
Sighing quietly, I quickly packed up the rest of my lunch and stuffed it into my bag.
“I guess I’ll see you in bio.” Olivia said as I was about to scurry into the school in front of her.
Turning my head back to look over my shoulder, I smiled at her and nodded before heading quickly into the school.
Before heading straight to my English class I had to make a quick trip to my locker and grab all the books I needed for my afternoon classes. Making it quick, I opened my locker, switched out my lunch for my school supplies, and hurried to my classroom on the second floor.
Entering the classroom seconds before the bell rang, I got a couple of brief glances from my unknown classmates before they turned back to the conversations they were previously having with their friends. I ignored any glances or strange looks I was receiving as I headed toward the back row and planted myself in the same desk I had been in yesterday.
As I took out the supplies I needed for this class; a couple of pens and my English binder, the teacher walked in. My English teacher was definitely from another planet than my old English teacher had descended from. My teacher back home was a balding, old grump who didn’t like any of his students. He had a mole or two covering his face, a huge acne problem, a body odour you could smell from miles away, and he gave a different assignment at least twice a week.
Even I, who was probably the smartest and most attentive junior that ever attended that school, hated him with a burning passion.
This teacher however, based on what I had heard from Olivia and the impression she made on me yesterday, was nice and more kind-hearted.
Mrs. Tyler was a younger looking teacher that had long brown hair and wore heels to make her seem a couple of inches taller than she was. With her professional sense of style, she looked like a grade A bitch to the untrained eye however, apparently she was one of the nicest and fairest teachers this school had.
She turned to face the class after the noise had been toned down, halting the rest of the mindless chit-chat that had still been present and smiled at the class. “Now, just as all your others teachers have probably told you, yesterday was a very relaxed day as it was the first day but today we’re actually going to have to work.” she spoke with a kind voice that still held authority.
A collective groan swept the classroom as the thought of doing work didn’t appeal to my classmates but, Mrs. Tyler seemed to find it hilarious as she let out a light laugh.
“Don’t worry, it’s not anything hard, just a bit of review to make sure all of you are fit to be in advanced English this year.” she said before grabbing a small pile of papers off of her desk.
She walked from one side of the room to the other, handing out a small stack of papers to the first person in each row to pass back to the rest of us.
“It should take you a little while to finish as there’s quite a few concepts that need to be reviewed but I’ll be giving you the entire rest of the period to finish and we’ll take it up tomorrow. This isn’t necessarily something I want you to work on with your friends however, if there is something in the package that you don’t remember or just haven’t learned, feel free to come and ask me or one of the people around you.” she explained, ending with a smile before she turned around to sit at her desk.
Five minutes into the package and I was starting to realize that it wasn’t that hard at all. I had always been fairly good in English, and it didn’t bother me when I had to write out full response answers to questions that required a more in depth answer.
After another minute of working, I had completed the first page and was about to flip over to the second when the classroom door opened.
Raising my head up from my paper, just as most of the class had done, my eyes set their sights on one person and one person only.
Cason Michaels.
“Hello Cason, what can I do for you?” Mrs. Tyler asked, pushing her chair back so she could stand up.
Cason had one hand on this backpack strap as his other was in front of him, clutching a white piece of paper with unidentified scribbles on it.
“Umm… I got moved to this class.” he stated as though he found the topic boring and uninteresting.
As those words hit the ears of just about everyone in our class, girls immediately started subtly running their hands through their hair. The more risqué girls like the cheerleaders and dance team members even took it as far as too push their shoulders back and unbutton a clasp on their shirts to make their boobs appear bigger. Not only did these actions go unnoticed by Cason, they were noticed by just about every other pair of predatory male eyes in the room.
Mrs. Tyler smiled at Cason, totally oblivious to the slutty behaviour that was taking place in front of her. “Well welcome to the advanced English program. We’re just doing a simple review booklet today to see where we’re all at so here’s yours and you can take a seat at one of the free seats that are left.” she said, passing a spare package to him before she returned to her seat.
As her words registered in my brain I got worried. There were only three empty seats left in this class; two in the front row and one in the back row.
Soon enough, Cason turned to the class, ignoring all the looks and hushed whispers that were floating around as his gaze swept the classroom. I kept my head down, hoping that he didn’t recognize me from the day before and pretended to be working on my package.
As I pulled my head up a couple seconds later, my eyes bulged slightly as they followed the path Cason was taking. He walked right to the back row of seats and plopped down into the only free seat back here, right beside me.
Taking my gaze away from him, I quickly glanced around the room to see a majority of the girls sending hate and envious glares in my direction.
“Hey, don’t I know you?” I heard as I turned my head back to Cason, who was smirking at my figure and had one of his eyebrows raised. “Aren’t you the girl that ran into me yesterday and then instead of an apology, just scurried off after sassing me when you thought I wasn’t paying attention?”
If I would’ve thought about my response before letting my mouth run, I probably could’ve stayed in the shadows until graduation, but no, stupid me had to open my mouth. “Sassing?” I asked in return, very amused at his choice of words.
“Ahh, it’s definitely you.” he replied with the same smirk, before grabbing one of the spare pens off of my desk and focusing his attention onto his work.
Turning back to my work myself, I realized that if the bad boy of the school could easily recognize me, I definitely wasn’t staying in the shadows of the school like I had hoped.
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So, because of a stupid turn of events and an ice day in my town, my anatomy exam has been postponed, meaning that I got more time to write this amazing chapter for you all to read :)
I hope you enjoy this chapter as I think it sets a tone for the story !
Also, like I’ve stated in previous chapters, this will more than likely be my Watty entry later in the year so every spare read and vote counts to me :)
Leave your opinions/feedback below in the comment section below and I’ll get to all of them eventually, plus, pointing out small errors or grammar mistakes really helps in my writing process. Thanks a lot x