"Shit!" I jump out of my bed as I see my alarm clock: it's 7:40 AM. "WHY DID NOBODY WAKE ME UP?" I grab clothes nearby me; I don't care if they match. After I change, I run downstairs. I pour some Cheerios into a plastic bag and then I pour some milk into it. I shake the bag quickly while I run back upstairs to check on my brothers.
"DUDE! IT'S 7:40!" I shout.
"Shut up D," Finn mutters and throws a pillow at me. His aim is completely off and it knocks over a stack of clothes.
"YOU HAVE SCHOOL. WAKE UP, OR I'M LEAVING NOW!" I say while opening Ollie's door too.
"D, just go without us," they both wave at me at the same time. Creepy.
"You're going to ditch?" I gasp. "You know what, do what you want! But i expect you guys here by second period or I'm going to call our Uncles." With that, I leave the lazy sobs on their bed as I sprint to my car. The Uncles part was actually a serious threat. My uncles are very accomplished men and take school very serious. When they found out that the four of us ditched school one day and went to see the first screening of some movie, they got so pissed. They grounded us and unleashed their worst punishments: We had to do each other's laundry.
I shudder at how disgusting my brothers can be.
I'm lucky I'm not pulled over on the way to school. I think I would have gotten three tickets for speeding, rushing the red light, and not seeing the stop sign. All accidental of course.
I barely make it to the school when the bell rings. Not again!
I grumble in a foul mood as I stomp to my locker. I'm late...again. This shall be my fourth tardy for first period, which means that I have Saturday school now. Stupid school policy and stupid brothers. Yes, it's always my brothers who cause me to be late. Plus, my first period teach hates me simply because the twins are also in the same class with me. GREAT. And I also feel like a slob with my hair in a messy bun and Finn's bro tank.
Huh. How did Finn's tank top end up in my room. I don't want to know if it's clean. I cringe in my mind at the possibilities. Perhaps nobody would notice it's not a girl tank? I tuck the tank inside my Adidas soccer sweatpants (at least these make me look more sporty than slummy). I groan as I realize I didn't bring socks. Of course, I brought everything in my soccer bag besides socks. Why did I choose to wear sandals?
I slam my locker. I turn around and knock right into someone. Great, what else can this morning throw at me?
"Sorry," I crouch to pick up all the books the guy dropped. Wow, he has a lot of huge textbooks from hard classes. I recognize most of them. I accidentally grab his Calculus book at the same time he reaches for it too.
It's so cliche, but our hands make contact and I feel a zap go through my hand. It could be just a random shock too. I lift my eyes and stare into a familiar set of grey eyes. We stand back up and stare at each other in shock and a look of recognition.
Hunter Reed. I remember him from my last game. I suddenly feel really self-conscious with my casual outfit. He looks really great, oozing sex pretty much. Girl, stop swooning.
He is wearing a shirt that matched his eyes with black jeans. His rich, chocolate color hair was cleanly combed but looked messy in a stylish way. It must have been a long time, but I didn't remember Hunter looking this good up close. Then again, I was tired and it was dark. He looks even hotter now, with a strong jaw and broad shoulders. His muscles were obvious, rippling beneath his clothes.
I feel very flushed for some reason. Then, I realize his mouth is moving.
"Thanks," he grins, flashing a kind but embarassed smile. I hand him the textbook back.
"You're welcome...Hunter Reed right?"
"Oh, you remember me? And here I thought a pretty girl like you wouldn't remember me." He chuckles.
"I-" I open my mouth but no words come out. I think he's flirting with me.
"Dela Greene right?" His smile was almost flirtatious. I dont know what he saw, but today was not a cute day.
"Ah, you remember me." I nod.
"Of course," his expressive eyes stares at me for a moment. I barely manage to keep myself from melting into a puddle.
"So what are you doing here?" I ask curiously, clearing my throat.
"I just transferred today," he glances at a white paper. "I'm supposed to go to room 301?"
"h, you're new?" I feel slightly happy, but I don't show it. I can't be crushing on him already? I just met the guy. Of course not. This doesn't happen in Dela's world. This is not a thing. The only boys in my life will be my uncles and brothers.. "Here, do you want me to show you around? I'm going to room 301 too!"
"Yeah, that'd be awesome." He nods.
"Here let me see your schedule real quick?" He hands it to me, and I glance at it. He only has math with me, but his schedule is almost the same as the twins. I don't think the twins will like that. It's a gut feeling for some reason.
"You're a senior?" His eyes twinkle faintly as he smiles softly.
"Yeah, you?"
"I'm a junior" I nod. "We have math, but I can direct you to where you need to go for some of the others if you want?"
"Thanks, but I don't want you to have to go out of your way and do that," he refuses my offer. Huh, he's a lot nicer than I thought he would be. I don't like being judgmental, but I would have assumed him to be cocky, or even arrogant? I guess I've lived with my brother too long for Hunter to be nice.
"So we're already ten minutes late. We should hurry because the teacher absolutely hates tardies." I roll my eyes and beckon him to follow.
"You're not on time, huh?" He smirks a bit.
"Blame my brothers," I roll my eyes. "I like to be on time, but they like to run on their own clocks."
He laughs and hurries with me to the class. We enter the classroom shortly and Ms. Hillebrand stops mid-lecture to look at me. She furrows her eyebrows and an unpleasant expression flashes across her face. "Delany, you're late again." She butchers my name intentionally, pronouncing it "Dee-lune-knee." Then again, her accent butchers everything.
Her face turns pleasant as she glimpses at Hunter. "Ah, who are you?"
"I'm Hunter. Today is my first day here." He walks confidently to her and shakes her hand. Handing her his office pass, he then adds, "Dela was showing me around, since I was lost. I'm sure you could pardon her?" He gives a warm, full grin.
I'm sure Ms. Hillebrand, the old bat, is flustered as she peers at Hunter. She blinks slowly and nods," Yeah, of course. Just this once."
Thank you gorgeous. I think silently. No saturday school for me. I head towards my seat and sit down. It doesn't help that Hunter has caught all thirty pairs of eyes in the classroom. Everybody must be curious, especially since he transferred in the middle of the year. Plus, Hunter is hot. All the girls are checking him out, and the guys are weighing him. Thank god this is an accelerated class, and the sluts aren't here. I'm sorry, but girls like Kendall are sluts. I wouldn't call her that if she wasn't.
"Thank you miss," he winks.
"Sup," Hunter says to the class. "I'm Hunter, and I'm new. Nice to meet you." He nods after his brief introduction. The entire class watches as he walks to an empty seat in the back, which happens to be next to my seat.
Everyone silently watches him as he walks down the aisle toward the seat.
"Thanks," I nod towards him.
"You nod a lot," he cocks his head as he watches me.
I pause and stare at him. Did I? I'm caught off guard as he continues to observe me.
"You're a peculiar guy Hunter Reed." I frown.
"How so?" His eyebrows lift in confusion.
I choose not to answer, but continue to frown. There's something about him that makes my skin crawl. Well, besides the part that makes me flushed and nervous around him. I'm certainly attracted to him, and the last time I've been attracted to a guy was...Mason. I turn away from Hunter and try to clear my thoughts. Hunter and Mason are so similar. I just can't put my finger on what exactly.
I must have been in my head for too long again since someone starts waving their hand in front of me, "Dela? Hello?"
"Oh," I snap back to reality and stare at the person. "Hunter, sorry. I was just thinking."
"Class is over?" He stares at me worriedly.
"Oh, it is?" A frown crawls onto my face as I realize I must not have taken my medication this morning. I was in such a hurry I must have forgotten.
I shake my head and leave the classroom with him. "Here, I'll lead you to your next class. It's near mine."
"Are you sure you are alright?" He glances at me again.
"Yeah," My eyes narrow at him. I'm glad he's worrying about me, but I just met the guy. He doesn't need to care for me so much.
"I'm sorry. I'm probably bothering you with all these questions." He backs away.
"You're fine." I say.
"Uh, ok.." he rubs his neck uncomfortably.
"Sorry, I've just had a rough morning. I'm not usualy so bitchy," I laugh, but it comes out really forced. I stop in front of his classroom. "I can meet you here after class?"
"Of course," he winks and leaves me in the hallway.
I sit down in my science class slump in my seat. My hormones are all over the place. I can't focus.
"Have you heard?" Franny scoots next to me and says excitedly.
"Heard what?" I plop my head on the desk and look at her.
"There's a new guy," she beams. "I heard he's a foreign model from some exotic country, that he's sex. Girls say he has already gotten a handful of numbrs already..." She keeps blabbering nonstop.
"Dela?" Her giddy face pauses as she watches me. Her smile slips as she looks at me. "Are you okay?"
"Yeah, I'm fine." I nod. "I just forgot to take my meds."
"Dela!" She says my name sharply. "You dumbo. Call your brothers to bring it for you!"
"They...don't know which ones to bring." I sigh. "It's not like I put them in a specific order in my cabinet."
"Dela..." she looks lost. I don't blame her. I mean I've gotten a lot better, but the meds I use is just to stablize my moods.
"It's alright. I'll probably leave early." I won't though. I don't like missing school.
"Okay then," she looks skeptical. "You have to call me as soon as you do."
"Yeah, of course. So what were you talking about?" I sit up straight and try to pay attention.
"The new guy!" She leans in and starts rambling all about the gossips she has heard.
"Wait," I stop her when she says an interesting part. "Hunter is related to Mason?"
She shrugs. "It's rumors. I don't know, but damn they could be. I've heard how hot they are. Oh my, I would totally go for them..." I shoot her a disapproving look, "...kidding. I have Jon. I'm kidding sheesh!" She laughs.
"Have you seen him? I've only heard of him so far. I hear he's only taking smart classes, so none of the populars have gotten a grab at him." I watch as more and more students gather around, listening to what Franny has to say. She's the one to get all the information, and everybody doesn't doubt her.
The girls overload her with questions, and Franny tries to answer as many as she can. A small smile comes out as I see the guys not so subtly listen in. They want to know about who this new guy is too.
Franny sighs dramatically. "All i've heard is rumors, so shoo!" She jokes as she tells them what she does know.
"His name is--" Franny says when she's with me again.
"Hunter Reed." We say at the same time.
"Huh?" She stops. "Wait, what?"
"Yeah, I met him. He's the guy we saw at the soccer game too."
"Which one?" She tries to remember.
"The one I talked to," I shrug, hoping she won't make a big deal.
"OH MY GOD!" She screeches, but automatically lowers her volume. "Oh my gawd Dela! Why didn't you tell me?"
"I didn't want to interrupt you."
"Dude, he totally was into you last time!" She nudges and winks at me.
"I guess."
"You're no fun," she pouts. "Oh wait, I didn't mean that. I just mean--" She tries to take it back.
"Yeah, i know what you meant," I pat her shoulder. "I'm fine Franny. You don't need to watch your words. I'm just a bit moody, that's all."
"Okay," she hugs me suddenly. I freeze before I return it. "Thanks."
"But this isn't over," she motions to the conversation between us. "I''ll hunt you down after class...no pun intended."
"Yeah yeah," I wave her away to her seat so the class can start. I doubt today will be productive at all. I grab my sketchbook and begin on a new page. I begin sketching from scratch of a young girl and boy climbing a huge tree. I'm almost done with sketching the tree when the bell rings. I glance up and stare at the bell. It's such an awful sound, very unpleasant.
I watch as all the students chatter amicably and exit the classroom in a rush. Franny skips toward me, her curls bouncing with every step. She shines to bright that it's hurting my eyes. "Let's go!"
"Oh, I told Hunter I would escort him to his next classroom," I mention suddenly as soon as we exit the room.
"That was three minutes ago!"
"Oh," I glance at my watch. Three minutes is quite a long time in a passing period. I glance around briefly, doubting he's waiting for me. As I expected, Kendall and her groupies are clawing at him. It's a swarm of girls flirting with him. He doesn't look uncomfortable in the crowd, flirting and grinning right back. I can't say I'm a bit disappointed in him. I thought he would be different. I guess I should have expected him to be a total flirt, another Mason. I wouldn't even be surprised if Mason and him became best buddies.
"Dela!" Hunter looks up and sees me across from him. He walks toward me, leaving the shocked girls. I've never truly felt the wrath of the populars until now. It is as though they can throw daggers with their eyes. Scary.
"He's walking towards you!" Franny whispers.
"Yes, I see." I chuckle.
"The sex god is sauntering towards you!" She whispers again.
"I can see that...wait what?" I give her a weird look as she continues to drool over this "sex god" that is heading our way. I wonder briefly if I looked like that this morning. God, I hope not.
I closer her mouth and snap my fingers in front of Franny. "Fran."
"I'm good. Jonathan. It's not like I can't look. Not touching," she rambles. I let her be.
"And I thought you ditched me," Hunter slings his arm around my shoulder. Fran's eyes widen as he does it.
"No," I stiffen at the touch. "I didn't."
"Uh you okay?" He takes away his arm, and I immediately relax.
"She's just fine," Franny chirps happily. "Hi! I'm Francesca!" She shakes his hand enthusiastically. I don't know if you remember me but we've met at the game last time?"
'Ah, yes," he nods. "It's nice to see you again." A silence comes over us as we all stand there staring. I don't miss the eyes watching us, glaring and watching in curiosity. My skin continues to crawl at the attention. I start sweating and getting clammy as the seconds pass by.
I don't think I'm okay.
"Franny here has the same class as you in the next period." I gulp. "She can bring you to the next class." I grimace and say tightly.
"Wait, Del--" Franny opens her mouth, but stops as she watches my appearance. She knows me long enough that she can see the signs of my next attack, which will happen in a couple seconds in front of the school if I don't book it. I take slow breaths and practice my relaxation techniques. I've learned to control them, but that doesn't mean I'm willing to risk having a breakdown.
I sprint out of the school and into a random room, shutting the door behind me. It's completely dark inside, and I can't find the light. My heart races even more as I begin trembling and experience the unpleasant chocking sensation. I slump against the door, falling to my knees. I keep praticing my breathing techniques, which gets rid of my nausea and dizziness.
By the time I calm down, I realize there's someone else in here. I reach for the light, searching around and eventually finding it. The light blinds me momentarily and I stand shocked as I see a familiar face.
"Mason?"