Chapter 1
Charlotte
"Wake up Charlotte! Move your lazy ass, we're gonna be late!" My brother yelled as he stomped into my room and dragged me out of bed.
"Noooo, just five more minutes? Please?"
I held onto my blanket with all my might like a koala. Unfortunately, my bro ripped it away from me. The sudden cold caused me to groan and curl into a ball.
"It's already 7.50; I swear to God if you don't get up right now, we're both going to be late on the first day of school."
"What?" I jumped, "7.50?! Why didn't you wake me up earlier?"
Although we lived only 15 minutes away from school, but school starts at 8, left us only 10 minutes to get ready and rush to school. Shit. I'm definitely late on the first day of school.
"Are you blaming this on me? I've told you so many times not to watch netflix until 3 in the morning; you never listen to me... God it's my first day of high school and you're going to ruin it for me. Hey! Don't forget to wear a bra to school; nobody wants to see your nipples perking out again. Did you hear me? Hey!"
Believe me, this is really is my younger brother, Joe, not my mom. He's 2 years younger than me, that mean he's going to be a freshman this year while I'm going to be a junior. He came back from my grandparents' house in Florida to attend in the same high school as I did. But actually for private schools like this, as long as you have the money, getting in is not a big problem. Heirs to international enterprises, celebrities' children, you name it, you find it. But of course there are abundant of smart people in our school, I just happened to be quite average.
Anyway, he's ten times more annoying and gibberish than my actual mom. Or even more feminine than I am. Sometimes I think my parents might have mixed up our gender. We don't get to see my mother around often, especially after dad died 6 months ago. She's a famous fashion designer with her own brand and chain stores, so she's always busy flying around the world. We have Marnie, our house keeper, to look after us though. I don't miss my mom much, or at all because I'd rather not see her.
I think the situation of our family made Joe this mature at such a young age. He's only 15, almost 2 years younger than me. I kind of feel sorry for him for missing out all the things kids at his age does, like hanging out, playing soccer, etc.
I put on my school uniform, a white button down shirt with the school logo and grey skirt (unfortunately we need to wear uniform to school, but I don't have to think about what to wear every damn morning) while my brother was still blabbering non-stop. I also grabbed my tie and jumper on my way out.
"Marnie, where's my breakfast?" I shouted into the kitchen as I tied my messy hair into a ponytail, ignoring Joe's gibberish.
"Here!" Marnie's chubby body dashed out and handed me a sandwich and a bottle of Snapple.
I eyed Joe and his perfectly worn uniform. He looked smart and groomed in our school blazer and tie. His tie is green since he's a freshman, while mine is blue. Dad would be so proud of him if he's still here. He watched us set off to school every morning, to made sure we're okay. I know he's watching us right now, but we just can't see him.
I stuffed anything likely to be useful into it my bag. I could feel my morning hair sticking up in all directions and I obviously didn't have to time to manage it. I hoisted my bag over my shoulders and rushed out the door.
"Hey, wait up!" shouted Joe from behind.
"Okay, okay..."
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I arrived at school just before the bell rings. I panted like a dog from the running just now. Some people shot me weird looks when I made my way through the crowd. You couldn't blame it on me, it was the first day of my junior year, and what did you expect from me.
As Joe reunited with his friends who are apparently also freshmen, judging by how they wear their uniform (wait, he has friends??), I marched through the entrance and saw my friends waving at me immediately. Maya and Jen were both smiling brightly. I mean, how could they be so positive about life on the first day of school?
I quickly joined them and start walking together towards the main building. Maya and Jen are my best friends post Kate. We were acquaintances all along but we became really best friends since my dad died.
Maya is like drop-dead gorgeous, she has wavy chocolate brown hair, tan skin and a curvy body. If she wasn't so vicious and hateful against boys, she's definitely going to beat Kate's ass. I think her hostility against the male population has something to do with her jerk-ish crush in middle school, although she denies it repeatedly.
For Jen, she's a huge nerd. She's always reading a book and working her butt off for a straight A on her report card. She's like my fairy god mother, rescuing me from all kinds of trouble. (Okay, actually she lends me her homework for me to copy, saving me from detention.) I guess we're just 3 not so popular weird girls.
"Hey Char, what happened to you? Did your bro finally get enough of you and let you sleep on the streets?" asked Maya, astounded by my "new school year new me" look. Really, am I looking that bad?
"I overslept, as usual," I answered.
I'm just slightly more untidy than usual, people wouldn't notice usually. But all the girls, especially Kate Morrison and her friends, are shooting me weird looks.
I looked around me, the popular girls were extra slutty than they already were. Their uniforms were not uniform-like with skirts as short as they could be, ties hanging loose and their shirt' top buttons were open, exposing their chest.
"What's happening? Did I miss something?" I questioned curiously.
This is abnormal. I can already smell their perfume ten miles away.
"Haven't you heard? "said Jen, enthusiastically.
"What?" I was totally dumbfounded.
It's rare to see Jen this excited about something because books are the only thing that interests her. Did Kate come up with the world's most sophisticated nuclear weapon to torture me? Or did she hire an army to shoot me down?
"It's nothing, some "celebrity" is coming back," said Maya, air quoting when she said "celebrity".
"Who? Is Chris Hemsworth coming to our school?" A stupid grin plastered on my face, although I know it's not quite possible.
"No," said Maya, rolling her eyes, "It's that just Gabriel Rodrigues. I can't understand why everyone worships him like he's God himself."
"Because he really is a Greek god, you get to see such beautiful creature around much," explained Jen with much enthusiasm.
"Never even heard of him," I said, shaking my head.
"How can you not know him? He was like the legend of the school before he left for Brazil," said Jen in disbelief.
"She's so oblivious to everything except for her baby Aiden," said Maya.
Wow, that kind of stings. I know Maya said that with no malice but it still kind of hurts to think about everything. I get that they're not a big fan of Aiden especially after they heard about how he treated me, but somehow, I can't seem get over him. I fall for him every time I look at his ocean blue eyes. It hurts every time I think about him and how happy we were. Or I was. I guess it's because we never officially broke up makes me think there's still hope. I don't think I can ever forgive what he's done, or what everyone has done, but I can't help thinking maybe one day he gets tired of Kate, maybe he'll come back to me.
Jen noticed my awkwardness and quickly changed the subject.
"He beat up some senior bullies when he was a freshman. You should see it for yourself, he's so cool. You don't know how the school's female population fell for him, not to mention his unbelievably good looks," said Jen, totally fangirling.
"That's not even possible, stop fantasizing, Jen. It has nothing to do with us anyway," I said.
Jen somehow reminded of how I was, before everything. How I thought Aiden was really for me, but that's never going to happen because this is the reality. The prince would never fall for some plain girl out of nowhere; he always lives happily ever after with the perfect princess.
The underlying bitterness in my tone took Jen aback, I immediately felt sorry. It wasn't her fault that everything's happened. There's no one to blame for dad's death, or everything that's happened, except me.
"But who knows, you're such a nice girl unlike those hoes," I tried to make a joke and lighten things up. Jen giggled and Maya did her iconic eye roll.
"If he didn't have that come-near-me-and-I'll-punch-you face on all the time, I might try to talk to him," sighed Jen.
"I don't get why all the girls are still willing to spread the legs for him even he's rude and probably has anger issues," said Maya in distaste. Well, it's not like you can control who you're falling for, I thought.
"I heard that he even got a girl pregnant in middle school," continued Maya.
"What? Seriously? In middle school?" I didn't even know how to have sex in middle school.
"I know right? He and his friends are all huge players. Players are the most disgusting thing on planet earth."
"At least they're willing to risk getting STDs, that's kind of great, isn't it? Sacrificing themselves for, uh, whatever," I shrugged.
We laughed as we make our way to our homeroom. Suddenly something really big thing ran into me and knocked my books over.
"Ow! Watch where you're going!" I yelled in frustration.
He turned his head to look at me, but kept going.
"People nowadays," I sighed while Maya and Jen helped me to pick up my books.
The scene was so familiar, but I couldn't remember when and where.
I think I might have run into him before.