"Please, Rena? Come on, just this this once? Sara is already copying from Mel and plus I'm afraid to even ask her," Danny begged me.
This is how my class started. Not with a lesson, but with Danny begging.
This also wasn't a new occurrence.
Danny was currently clutching my arm, whilst pleading and having finally grown tired of ignoring him, I turn my head towards him.
He was pouting in desperation.
"I swear, you're just as bad as Sara," I told him, shaking my head.
"But Rena, you're just so smart, and clever and amazing and-" Danny stopped showering me with fake compliments, when I gave him a dry look.
He carried on pout and I rolled my eyes.
"Danny, you know we're in a different history class, with different teachers? Our homework isn't even the same," I told him.
I love him, but sometimes he can be so slow.
He then paused, looking at me for a moment whilst he processed what I told him, before smacking his hand to his head.
"Ah crap," he cursed.
Clearly it finally dawned on him that copying my homework, won't exactly do him any good.
To avoid copying between classes, teachers wouldn't give the same homework. They would change it up a bit, so the work was specific to the teacher who gave it.
It was cruel, but worked. Well, most of the time.
"Mr Heichmann will actually kill me," he then muttered.
Mr Heichmann is honestly the strictest teacher in the whole school. Nothing gets past him.
I'm pretty convinced that he has some kind of sordid background. Or something where he developed this 'terrifying' look about him. I'm not saying he was involved in anything dangerous, but not ruling it out either.
"Drama queen," I scoffed at Danny. "You'll just get detention," I then shrugged.
I was lying. Mr Heichmann did look like someone who'd give out a more severe punishment, but then I wasn't about to tell Danny that.
"Another detention and I get benched for basketball," Danny sulked.
Probably hypocritical of me to think poorly about the football jocks, but then be okay with the guys who play basketball. Well, it's mainly because Danny and my friend Max, are on that team and they're the complete opposite to them.
Danny and I share this kind of sibling bond. We don't have any of our own, but weirdly we're just there for each other like brother and sister. Not that we ever call ourselves that. It's kind of unspoken, but we both know it.
Max is then Danny's best friend, and so naturally we all just became friends too.
When I glanced at Danny again, I sighed seeing the sad look on his face.
His puppy dog eyes were worse than Sara's.
I turned around, to look at other people in our English Lit class, until my eyes spotted someone that could be more useful for Danny.
"Marty, in the back over there, pretty sure he's in your class. Ask him," I told Danny.
Suddenly, his expression seemed to have morphed into one of joy. The one that basically says 'I'm not going to be killed by my history teacher'.
"Marty," he then called out, after shifting his eyes towards the boy in the back.
Upon hearing his name, Marty seemed to spring into action like a meerkat.
Danny quickly turned back towards me. "I'll ask him," he said, and then smiled. "Sorry, cupcake. You'll have sit on your own this time," he winked at me.
I laughed at his words, as if not sitting next to him was going to be the worst thing.
"I'll survive," I told him, and then waved him off. "Now go, before Miss Daley walks in."
"Atta girl." Danny said, as he walked away.
***
As I was talking to Max and Flo who are sitting behind me, Miss Daley, our English Lit teacher cleared her throat.
I looked up and saw a girl standing next to her. Her red cheeks look like she was blushing.
She looked to be about my height, maybe a little shorter, with green eyes and blonde hair.
I can practically hear the guys thoughts in the class, as they stared at her.
"Class, this is our new student Juliet Morris," Miss Daley informs us.
She then looked to the girl. "Now, honey, don't worry. I won't embarrass you and make you introduce yourself, you can do that on your own time. For now you can take a seat next to Serena over there," Miss Daley said.
Looking in my direction, she smiled. "Serena, raise your hand."
I did as she asked, and raised my hand, giving a little wave as well.
The girl, Juliet, looked at me, and smiled a little. She then walked towards me hesitantly, and took the empty seat next to me.
She looked like a little lamb, about to be slaughtered.
When she sat down, I smiled at her.
"Hey, I'm Serena, but everyone calls me Rena," I told her in a hushed whisper. We weren't actually meant to be talking, but it's always polite to introduce yourself.
The only times people generally called me Serena, was when they were trying to be serious or get my attention. The only except to that was Sara, who liked to call me S occasionally.
Juliet, then looked towards me, and a smile came over her face too.
"Hi I'm Juliet, but everyone calls me Julie," she said in a quiet whisper.
I would imagine Jules would've been her nickname, but Julie works too I guess.
"So, what is-" I was about to talk to her but then once again, Miss Daley cleared her throat and started the lesson.
"So class, we are going to start working on Shakespeare this term," the whole class let out a groan at that.
Miss Daley rolled her eyes. "Oh hush all of you," she playfully replied. "I've actually got a great project for you all to work on," once again, a choir of groans sounded through the classroom.
"If I hear more groans, you'll regret it," and once more, they groaned.
Julie looked towards me, and I could see she was trying to hold in her laugh, as was I.
Miss Daley narrowed her eyes. "Wow okay, just for that, you don't get to choose your own partner's. Whoever you are sat next to right now, is who you will be working with this term on the project."
This class does not learn with the groans.
"I did say you would regret it, so the sly looks you were giving your preferred partner, well you can just try again next term," Miss Daley then said, looking quite triumphant.
To be fair, she could do a lot worse.
"Is she always like this?" Julie whispered to me.
I laugh at her slight worried look. "No, she's actually one of the best teachers at this school. People are seated according to who they want to sit next too, other teachers actually have a seating plan," I told Julie.
Miss Daley really is one of the best teachers. She will even put a movie on if she's too tired to teach. I mean how cool is that? Probably not great teacher-wise, but as a student it's great.
"Seriously?" Julie asked, and I nod. "Wait, what about you? Why aren't you next to someone, or am I taking someone's seat? I'm sorry, I..." Julie continued to go on.
"Whoa, okay breathe," I said to her, and she took a breath. "Usually Danny sits next to me, but he hasn't done the history homework, so he's at the back copying from his mate," I reassured her.
I glanced towards the back at Danny, who didn't really seem to care about our current ongoing lesson, but was more involved in furiously copying Marty's homework.
I really hope he's not doing it word for word.
When I looked at Julie, she still looked a little guilty, and so I gave her my best reassuring smile.
"You really don't need to apologise. You seem really nice and I honestly don't mind working with you," I told her.
She seems really sweet, just nervous. Which is understandable, since it's her first day.
Besides, and more importantly, she seemed like someone that would actually do some of the work, unlike Danny.
"Thank you," she blushed. "You're really nice too. I was scared I'd be alone," she then confessed.
"It's fine," I smiled at her. "What's your schedule like?"
Julie reached into the back page of her notebook, and and pulled out a piece of paper.
She then looked at me and passed me her schedule.
I held it in my hands, scanning over her classes and smiled.
"This works out great. We have a few lessons together, including Calc before lunch," I said, looking at the sheet.
When I looked at Julie she seemed to be smiling wider too, probably in relief. It's got to be hard to navigate the school on your first day. It can actually be a whirlwind.
"You can join me and my friends at lunch, since it gets a bit hectic in the cafeteria," I then added.
The cafeteria is basically a jungle. That scene from Mean Girls is actually pretty accurate, when it comes to our school during lunch.
"Thank you, you're so kind I-" Julie began to say.
"No more thanking me, it's okay," I quickly cut her off.
She smiled and nods at me.
I honestly forgot we were in class.
Miss Daley was glaring at Julie and I, waiting for us to stop talking.
I just gave her a innocent smile, to which she shook her head.
"Okay so the assignment-" she continued the lesson. "-Shakespeare has many novels, which have been adapted into many different plays, movies and shows. I want you all to pick a novel and an adaption of the novel in any form and submit a 2000 word critical essay, analysing the concepts and similarities. Simple," she finished, or so it seemed.
"...Oh and you will also create a presentation to summarise your findings," Miss Daley then added on.
The choir of groans began again.
"Of course more groaning," she shook her head. "Be happy, you ungrateful lot, it's such an easy assignment."
To be fair, this is probably one of the most easiest assignments we've gotten.
"I actually like this assignment," I happily said to Julie.
"Me too," Julie said in agreement, but then frowned. "But then there is a lot to choose from."
She's not wrong, and I can be pretty indecisive at times.
"How about we get together later and try and decide," I offered.
"Sounds great-" Julie smiled, and then looked a little sheepish. "-But um, my house is still kind of a mess, we haven't moved in properly..." she began to nervously.
Did she think I was going to take offence, at not being able to study at her house?
"Oh that's fine," I then told her. "You can come over to mine."
"Are you sure?" She asked, looking very hesitant.
"Yeah, of course," I told her. "Meet me by the bike stand at the end of the day and we can go to my house together."
She finally smiled again. "Okay great."
The rest of the class went on as usual, with Miss Daley explaining a bit more of the assignment, and example of what she expected.
I also found out that Julie was really great at anything to do with maths, which made me extremely happy that I had Calc with her.
The subject really wasn't my strongest. I'm better with words than numbers.
It'll also be great to have someone else in this class, that will distract me from the fact that Liam will also be there too.
I just didn't realise that what I thought was a blessing, would turn into a thorn resting on my heart.
***
It's funny, I actually chose the name Julie, because of Julie from Friends.
The one that comes in-between Rachel and Ross in Season Two, if you know, you know.
Thought it was appropriate for the story. But I gave her the full name, Juliet, because it's such a pretty name.
Thanks for Reading :)