ANOUSHKA
Creighton and I got back to campus so late last night. I woke up with a terrible headache but we had a school meeting in the main hall. Usually, when we had one, it was either to announce some important news or a boring presentation on how to improve our school. Everyone knew that whenever we had these meetings, our uniforms had to be top-notch.
Hair tied up.
Skirts below the knees.
Blazers on.
Ties straight.
However, it seemed those rules didn't apply to Wren. Either that or she just didn't care. She strode into the hall with her short skirt and pink gems on her black tie. Her hair was in a half pony, a pink scrunchie holding that hair up.
Low whispers fill the room but none of that affects Wren. She was confident in her stride as she strolls towards me with a smile.
She takes a seat beside me, and her vanilla scent immediately wavered in my nostrils.
"Hey." she smiles. "Sorry i'm late."
I shrug. "It's fine." I look down at her dazzled tie before looping my fingers around it. "You need to do that to mine. I'm thinking purple gems."
She winks at me. "I got you, babe."
I chuckle quietly to myself. "How was the gala?" she asks.
"It was fine." I whisper back. "Creighton was there." I say, rolling my eyes.
She grins. "I bet that made your day better." she whispers before forcing her attention back to the headteacher.
I roll my eyes before looking back at the headteacher.
"Good morning everyone" he begins, as he walks up and down the front of the hall, his hands behind his back. "Due to the terrible weather the past month, we were unable to hold our annual end of year party celebration. I and your other teachers are all extremely proud of how hard you have been working this year. So next week will be the new year party."
Cheers erupt from around the room. Wren leans in towards me, "Are we going?" she asks.
I turn to her, not even sure if I masked my shock. She asked if we were going, not just me.
"Yes." I say.
She grins. "We need to go dress shopping."
"We will," I tell her.
•••
"You failed." professor dick says, slamming my essay in front of me.
The class had finished and everyone left, leaving just me and this asshole alone. I pick up the paper, looking through his useless feedback. "Look. This is completely unfair." I tell him, reading the feedback that stated I wrote about the wrong topic.
He raises a brow in response.
"You told me I could do any topic as long as it was based around psychology. How is effect of parental conflicts on children not based on psychology?"
He opens his mouth to argue but I cut him off. "I really need this pass, sir." I tell him, practically pleading with him.
He shakes his head. "The topic was the role of the organization in memory. Take this failure as constructive feedback." he replies, a menacing smirk tugging at his lips.
He wants to see menacing? I'll fucking show him menacing.
Anger constructs inside of me as I glare at this pathetic excuse of a teacher. What teacher likes to see their student fail? Psychology was my favourite subject. I sometimes preferred it over maths. I was amazing at psychology. It's one of the only classes that I am enthusiastic to attend. I love the class and everything about it. Professor dickface just loves seeing me fail.
I snatch the essay off his desk. "Take that paper and shove it up your ass, professor dickface." I spat angrily.
His eyes widen and a red hue settles on his cheeks. Okay, that was a bit unprofessional of me. I storm out of the room but not before hearing him yell detention for the rest of the month. Ass fucking hole.
Looking down at my stupid essay, I wasn't watching where I was going and I slammed directly into fucking Creighton.
"Sorry," I mumble absentmindedly.
"You alright?" he asks, raising a brow.
I glance over at Luca, who also had the same expression Creighton did. Concern. Was it really that obvious? I run a hand over my forehead. "Professor dickface failed my essay because apparently I didn't choose the right topic."
"He failed you." Luca exclaims as if that is the most ridiculous thing he has ever heard. He snatches the essay out of my hand and looks down at my essay. After he reads it, a smirk tugs at his lips. "This is really fucking good Anoushka." he tells me, passing the essay over to Creighton for him to read.
"Thanks." I reply, smiling.
"I'm in your class Anoushka. He said we can choose any topic we wanted." Luca tells me. "Why did he fail you?"
"Exactly." I say, sighing. I grab the essay off Creighton. "There's nothing I can do about it now." I mutter.
I don't give Creighton or Luca a chance to say anything as I walk off.
•••
"Has anyone told him he has a face of an arse?" Wren asks, her brows furrowing.
A laugh erupts from me as I grin at my friend. God, she knew how to cheer me up. Currently, Wren and I were lying on our couch while eating ice cream. I told her what happened with my essay and she knew I needed company. She literally watched me spend hours working on that essay. All for fucking nothing. My parents are going to have a heart attack when they see that I'm failing another class.
Wren must have noticed my expression because she claps her hands together. "New game. Never have I ever." she blurts.
I raise a brow but I nod in confirmation of this game.
"Never have I ever run away." she says.
I scoop out another spoon of the mint chocolate chip ice cream before speaking. "I have."
Her mouth drops. "What."
"Months ago. It was when my parents and my relationship went downhill. They said they could control me if they wanted to and I just had to prove them wrong. I came back a few days later."
"Where did you even go?"
"My friends house. My parents hated him so it made it much better."
"That is badass," she says. "Teach me your ways."
I laugh. "What about your parents? What are they like?"
She shrugs. "Haven't ever met my mum but my dad." her smile widens. "My dad is my best friend. Even though my mum left me at his door at the young age of 16. He took care of me and I love him so much." she says, eating another spoon of ice cream. "Sometimes I wish I met my mum but having my dad makes up for her absence."
I stare at her in admiration. She talks about her dad with so much affection. A tinge of envy sparkled in my chest. Why couldn't my dad just be like that? Why couldn't he love me more than my mistakes?
"Your dad seems incredible."
She smiles proudly. "He is."
The front door opens and Creighton and Luca walk into the living room. "Luca." Wren blurts.
I glance at her surprised. She notices my expression and she blushes slightly. "We have classes together."
Oh. I nod skeptically and he walks to the couch and he drops beside Wren, pulling her into his chest. "Hey princess." he teases.
Princess? I am so going to force her to tell me what's going on between them later.
She blushes slightly and I look up at Creighton, who had a suspicious look on his face as his hands were hiding behind his back. "What do you have there?" I ask.
He grins. "So I may have had a conversation with professor dickface and he changed your grade." he tells me, uncovering the paper in his hand where a huge A+ was marked the front page.
No he didn't.
Creighton did that. For me.
My lips part our of utter shock and admiration for Creighton. He actually made him change my grade.
"Oh my god." I squeal, jumping up from the couch and practically throwing myself at Creighton. He let out a deep laugh before hugging me tightly and I only then realised that I had just fucking hugged Creighton Reid. I pull away to look at him and he passes the paper over to me. I look down at the paper as if it was the most valuable piece of art before glancing up at Creighton. "You have no idea how much this means to me." I whisper to him.
He smiles knowingly. "I think I have an idea or two," he replies.
I smile brightly at him. "How did you change his mind?" I ask.
"Luca and I may have broken into his office and we found a cabinet of files. Your essay was at the top with a huge A+ drawn on it. He's an asshole. He wanted to see you fail. We spoke to him and I-" he purses his lips as if he's trying to think of the best word to use.
"Threaten?" Luca tries.
Creighton nods his head in agreement to Luca before looking down at me. "He can't fail you for no reason, Anoushka. You could have shown the headteacher that essay and even he would have given you a straight A+." Creighton continues.
"He just wanted to see you fail." Luca adds. "Damn Anoushka. What did you do for that man to hate you?"
I give him a tight-lipped smile. "Yeah I don't know why he hates me." I murmur. I cringe and frown for a second. "It may have something to do with me telling him to shove the paper up his ass and then proceeding to call him a dickface." I admit.
Laughter erupts around the room and I couldn't help but join in. "You told professor dickface to shove the paper up his ass." Creighton says in between laughs.
"And then calling him a dickface?" Luca adds.
"What a fucking bad bitch." Wren grins.
"In my defence, he looked pleased that he failed me." I reason with them.
"Good on you Anoushka." Creighton says.
"Although, a month's worth of detention doesn't seem worth it." I mutter under my breath. "Anyway, Thank you so much." I say, glancing back at Luca. "Both of you."
Luca winks at me. "You're unbelievably amazing at psychology." he tells me. "Same with maths which is concerning considering maths is the Devil's subject."
I grin at him and he looks back at Wren. They whisper something to each other before standing up. "Where are you two going?" Creighton asks.
"English project."
"Maths homework." they both suspiciously say at the same time, which only makes me laugh.
I shoot Wren a look and she smiles. "Well done Anoushka. You really deserved that A+." she says, smiling.
Wren and Luca walk off to her room and I turn back to Creighton, smiling and then walking off to my room. "Not so fast." he says, grabbing my elbow.
"What."
"We have tutoring." he tells me.
"Actually I can't do tutoring today." I say, crossing my arms against my chest.
He shoots me a fake smile. "Funny." he deadpans, his smile dropping. "I'll get my things."
"No seriously. I have plans." I tell him.
He chokes out a laugh. "You have plans?" he asks.
"Yes asshole."
"What are your plans?" he asks, raising a brow.
"Like I would ever tell you." I laugh, turning around to walk to my room.
"I'll find out eventually Anoushka. You might as well tell me now."
I roll my eyes. It wasn't something I was embarrassed about. "I do reading." I say, scratching my head nervously. "With dyslexic children. I teach them how to read and write."
His eyes widen slightly and I almost regret telling him. "That's amazing Anoushka. Is it your job?" he asks.
I shake my head. "No I don't get paid for it." I say, furrowing my brows.
"Seriously?" he asks, his lips parting.
I nod stiffly. "I like helping children out. My childhood friend was dyslexic. Her parents struggled to pay for a teacher to teach her to read and write. Ever since then, I always wanted to help children out."
"That's nice of you."
"Although you might not think it, I'm not an evil person." I murmur.
"I know you aren't an evil person, Angel. This further proves it."
I shrug. "I'll be back at 8."
He nods. "It'll be dark by then." he says, his brows furrowing in concern.
"I'll be fine, Creighton." I say, letting out a small laugh.