Chapter Seven: Poison Ivy
On the way to class, Stephanie's phone beeps and she brings it out of the pocket of her jeans to check it. Just then, she bumps into someone but luckily for her, her phone doesn't leave her grip. She looks up to see the person she bumped into, only to find a very furious-looking Ivy glaring at her.
"You bitch! Are you blind or something?" Ivy yells.
Poison Ivy.
"I'm so...."
"Shut that trap you call a mouth," Ivy yells again.
Stephanie shuts up and couldn't help but roll her eyes.
"Who are you anyway?" Ivy asks snootily.
"I'm pretty sure she's a loser," Aspen, her best friend, more like her minion, snickers beside her.
"Are you a transfer student or something? I've never seen your pathetic face before, not that I'll want to," Ivy bellows.
'Yeah, yeah.
I'm glad you've never seen me before but it's so unfortunate I see you often. Who wants to be scrutinized by your bitchy eyes?'
Stephanie says in a head.
She continues to look down. She doesn't want Ivy to mark her face for oppression.
"Answer me you bitch," Ivy yells.
"Oh wow. She's blind and mute at the same time," Aspen says.
"What's going on here?" A different voice asks that makes Stephanie look up finally.
Ivy immediately wipes every sign of anger or bitchiness on her face.
"Hey babe," she beams at Luke who asked the question.
Luke ignores her.
"What's going on here?" He asks again.
"Nothing darling. We just bumped into each other and I was trying to apologize to her," Ivy lies smoothly.
Stephanie doesn't react 'cause she knows Ivy hides her real personality from Luke.
Luke doesn't look convinced but decides not to argue.
He's pretty sure that he just heard Ivy yelling. Who would be trying to apologize to someone and be yelling?
"I'm sorry about that," Luke tells Stephanie who has her head back to facing the ground.
She nods and scurries away not without noticing the glare from Ivy.
Idiot!
Her real name should be Poison Ivy or Ivy Bitch or something. She's the pathetic one, Stephanie muses.
And Luke is oblivious.
She walks into her first class, luckily for her, she isn't late after that drama.
A few moments later, Luke walks in.
He sits at the front and then the teacher enters a few minutes later.
After class ends, Stephanie stares at her note for a while and when she believes everyone is out, she looks up only to meet Luke standing right in front of her.
"Hi," he smiles.
What is going on? Stephanie asks herself.
Could Brooke have been right about her new look or rather haircut?
About it attracting guys?
About it getting her attention?
If not, why would Luke be saying hi to her?
She keeps thinking without answering Luke.
"Hey," Luke snaps his fingers in her face.
"Um..hi," she replies reluctantly.
"I'm sorry about earlier with Ivy. She isn't always like that. I don't know what came over her," he says apologetically.
Stephanie almost drops her jaw.
He's apologizing for his bitch of a girlfriend.
She's not always like that? Stephanie scoffs internally.
He doesn't even know the real Ivy.
Well, she's trying her best to hide it.
Gosh, Ivy doesn't deserve someone like Luke.
"It's okay," she replies.
"I'm Luke," he offers his hand.
I know that already, she muses.
She hesitates before taking his hand.
"Stephanie."
"Nice to meet you. I don't think I've seen you before but you kinda look familiar," he says as they shake hands.
Stephanie shrugs, "Nice to meet you too but we've spoken before."
"Really? When?"
"At Jason's party. I took you to wasted Cole," she explains.
"Oh...oh....oh. It was you," Luke exclaims before frowning. "But....."
"I got a haircut," she cuts him off.
"That explains it."
Stephanie stands with her backpack and puts her things in it.
"I have to go. Don't wanna be late for my next class."
"Oh okay. Thanks for Friday night. See you around," Luke answers as she walks out of the class.
She stops at the doorway and looks at him.
"You should get to class too," she tells him and hurries away.
She hurries to her next class without stopping at her locker. She enters and takes a seat towards the back. She then looks around to see if she has the class with anyone dramatic but she doesn't.
**
Throughout his first class, Christopher could barely concentrate. He keeps his eyes trained on the girl with the long black hair. He can't wait for class to be over so he can talk to Hazel. He's really surprised he found her this quickly. He expected a little struggle to find her.
When the bell rings for the next class, Chris hurriedly packs his things and follows the girl down the hallway.
"Hey," he yells but she keeps walking. He nears her and taps her on the shoulder. He has a smirk plastered on his face. She turns around and he stops smirking when he sees her face. She isn't Hazel. He should have sensed it.
"Hi," the girl says flirtatiously.
Is she flirting right now?
He called her. He should be the one making the move, he thinks.
"Chris," she calls when he doesn't answer.
"Sorry. I thought you were someone else," Christopher tells her.
She moves closer and touches his chest.
"I can be anyone you want," she says flirtatiously.
"Gotta go," Chris says and walks away.
He knows it wouldn't be that easy to find Hazel. He'll just have to keep looking.
He walks the hallway heading towards his locker. He sees Ivy with Aspen and a scowl appears on his face. He doesn't acknowledge them but Ivy notices him and smirks. He finishes at his locker and walks to his next class. He must find Hazel. He will find her. He has to. But....why does he want to find her so badly?
He has no idea but he just knows that he must find her and he'll make sure of it.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
When the bell rings for lunch, Stephanie leaves her class for her locker. She meets Brooke waiting for her there.
"Hey B," she says as she opens her locker.
"You wouldn't believe what happened today," Brooke tells her.
Stephanie closes her locker and turns around to face Brooke.
"Oh. Let me guess!" Stephanie exclaims. "Jason spoke to you today or Cole asked you out?"
Brooke frowns, "No. You guessed wrong. Cole asked me to join him for lunch."
Stephanie's eyes widen slightly, "Really?"
"Yeah."
"And what did you say?" Stephanie probes.
"I declined his invitation," Brooke tells her.
"What? Are you insane?" Stephanie almost yells. "You like him and you didn't agree to sit with him for lunch?"
Stephanie looks bemused. She doesn't understand why Brooke did that.
"I do like him but you're forgetting something," Brooke deadpans.
"What?"
"Poison Ivy sits at his table," Brooke deadpans again.
Realization dawns on her and she calms down, seeing the reason.
"Oh....." She trails off.
"I didn't realize that but you should have agreed and you'll ignore her."
"Nope. You know I really don't like her and I don't want her type of drama in my life," Brooke elaborates.
"I understand, B. I bumped into her this morning. She wanted to skin me alive." Stephanie shakes her head slightly, "No scratch that. She buried me six feet under the ground with her eyes," she adds with a sigh of irritation.
"Bitch," Brooke snickers and they both start laughing.
"Um B?"
"Yeah?"
"I don't wanna eat in the cafeteria today. I'm not hungry. I'll just go to the library," Stephanie says apologetically.
"It's no big deal. Let's go together. Who wants to eat in a café filled with assholes anyway," Brooke replies dryly.
"Including Cole?" Stephanie raises her eyebrows.
Brooke shrugs in response.
"No B. Go and have lunch. I'll be fine," Stephanie disagrees.
"No way Steph. Let's go," Brooke insists and drags her towards the library.
Stephanie smiles grateful she has such a great friend. The real reason she doesn't want to go to the café is because she doesn't want to be in the same room as Chris right now. She thanks her lucky stars that she doesn't share any classes with him today.