Monday morning comes in way too soon. As usual, my alarm goes off at 6:35 a.m. waking me and the other two on my couch up.
I look around my new room. It isn't the most spacious room, but I am completely fine with it.
My bed is next to my door. Next to the window on the other side of the room I have my desk and closet. And across from that is my little couch which Milli and Simon are sleeping on. I necessarily needed a couch that you could transform into a bed because I knew that Milli and Simon would sleep here quite often, and I don't want to always carry a mattress up here.
My phone goes off again and I realise I must've tapped on the snooze button. This time the alarm wakes up Simon and he smiles at me before shaking Milli awake. The two of them need to leave in half an hour because they need to change at home and then go to school from there.
"I'll start making breakfast. You wake her up and then come downstairs." I tell him and he nods with a smile.
In the kitchen I decide to go for simple cereal with some yoghurt. Mainly because there wasn't enough milk for the three of us.
The two of them come downstairs a couple of minutes after I had set our bowls on countertop.
We mainly talk about how bad dance practise will be on Saturday because we skipped it yesterday. When you skip practise, you need to stay half an hour extra next time. Only if the reason that you skipped was that someone in your family died, or you were extremely sick you don't have to stay.
It's seven o'clock when they start to head out. I give both of them an apple and a cereal bar to take with them. Like every time I do that they respond, "Thanks momma Rudes." I laugh and push them out of the front door. Just before they enter their car I shout, "Have fun at school. Love you."
"Love you too." They say before driving off.
This was a ritual of ours too. Every time I'd do something like that, they would call me momma Rudes. And then I would purposely act like a real mom and ruffle their hair or stuff like that.
At first this kind of annoyed me but now I've just seen the fun in it because I can embarrass them in front of everyone.
Momma Rudes kind of suits me. I am in fact the mom of our little group. Simon is the designated driver and Milli... Well she's the one that always has an answer to a problem. And the quirky one.
***
Art class was weird. And annoying. Ms Glews reminds us that the project she gave us is till Thursday.
The weird thing was that Elliot sat next to me and gave me a smile. I just ignored him. Well I tried to.
The annoying thing was that he constantly tried to talk to me. Like all the time. Even after I left to get to P.E., he still tried to talk to me.
Is he like blind or why doesn't he see that I clearly don't want to talk to him? I don't know what it is but just his presence annoys the living crap out of me.
What I saw next drove me almost insane.
Elliot. In my damn P.E. class.
I know that he wasn't here last week. Meaning he somehow switched classes.
The only other person I really know and talk to is Noah. Out of all the people I hang out with here at school, I can stand him the most. It's probably because he annoys me with his stupid pick-up lines that are so a bad that I crack up every time he tells me a new one that he found. I swear how the hell does he find so many. He's been telling me one a day since last year and hasn't missed a day once. Even on the weekends he would text me.
In P.E. coach said that we should play volleyball. Boys against girls.
I used to play volleyball in middle school and at the beginning of my freshman year in high school but ended that quickly when I started with dancing.
Most of the girls went to sit on the side as usual. It was six against six when we started to play.
We always play the circle method. You stand on the usual position but every time when you serve again after the opponent's team you turn onto the next position. Coach says it's because he wants everyone to play on every position at least once.
I go to the far back and get to serve first. It's not as good as it used to be but with no one here actually playing profession volleyball I am most likely one of the best.
Not even a minute into the game we need to turn, and I am libero now. Man, this is one of my favourite positions.
I see Elliot is serving now for the boys. The ball comes flying right at me. A little too high and a little too fast.
I quickly remember to take a few steps back so that the ball won't hit my head and pass it to the girl in front of me. She jumps up and smashes it over the net. Scoring for us.
I shoot Elliot a glare and mouth, "Watch it."
Over the next half an hour I play aggressive but well. I try to 'accidently' hit Elliot with the ball every time I get the chance to. I know it sounds pathetic, but something just ticked me off and I needed to get that anger out of me.
We end up wining and I see Noah smirking. Why the hell is he smirking? He just lost. I don't get him one bit.
***
When I sit down next to Noah at lunch he immediately smirks again.
"I swear to god I will chop your lips off if you don't tell me why you're smirking at me again." I threaten him and he just continues smirking.
I raise one eyebrow telling him to not test me today and he finally says, "I saw what you did there earlier today."
I roll my eyes and sigh, "Cut the crap Noah and get straight to your point."
"I saw how much you tried to hit Elliot in P.E. today after he accidently- wait the ball didn't even hit you. I mean after he accidently did not even hit you with the ball. Like what? Did you try to get him to shag you and then he rejected you?" he says but before I can answer he puts a hand on my shoulder and starts talking again, "Hailey. You know violence is never and answer."
I look at him. Then I hit his head. "In your case it is." I answer when he inches away from me.
"And what the fuck? Why the fuck would I want him to- Ah nevermind. He annoys me by just being there." I tell him and he inches away a little bit more, afraid I'll smack him again.
"Who annoys you just by being there?" Liam asks. By now the rest of them had started listening to what Noah and I were talking about.
Just as I was about to answer them, Anna smiles at someone behind me and says in a chirpy voice, "Hi Elliot."
Speaking of the devil.
Noah tries to not laugh but fails miserably and I turn to Elliot just to have him looking right at me.
I sigh, "What do you want?"
"I just wanted to apologise. I didn't want it to seem like I actually wanted to hit you in P.E. today. Um- Yeah. I just wanted you to know."
I stare blankly at him and ask, "Okay. That's it?"
He lets out a quiet yeah and turns to go away again. That's when Anna interferes. "Come sit with us. Your friend can come too." She says. Yup. She's definitely crushing on him. Why though is beyond me.
I hear a surprised okay and then footsteps coming our way.
I quickly grab my phone out of my back pocket and scroll through Instagram. I always do that when I don't want to talk.
They introduce themselves and I feel Noah nudge me. "Hailey." I say without looking up at them.
They fall into an easy conversation and Noah leans his head on my shoulder, trying to get my attention. "If you don't want me to hit you again, I would advise you to get your head off my shoulder." I tell him and he does but is still way too close to me.
"If you were mine, I would treat you like homework. Slam you on my desk and do you all night." He whispers into my ear in what is supposed to be a seductive voice.
I chuckle and turn my head to look at him. "Is your name google? Because you're everything I'm searching for." I whisper back.
He smiles at me and then leans a little bit closer. In a low voice he says, "Are you a parking ticket? Because you've got FINE written all over you."
I lean in a little bit closer again and say, "Thanks. But I have a question. Are you from McDonald's? Because I'm lovin' it."
Noah takes my hand and puts it on his chest, "Feel my shirt. You know what it's made of? Boyfriend material."
I grin but keep my hand on his chest. We are almost kissing. Our lips are only an inch apart. I'm still smiling, ready to hit him with another pick up line when someone clears their throat and we look at the table. Everyone is watching us.
"Sorry to interrupt but I didn't want to see you rip each other's clothes off." Sarah says and I'm guessing she was the one who cleared her throat to get our attention.
My hand is still on Noah's chest and his somehow found its way onto my waist.
"I don't want to seem rude or invade your privacy but are you two dating?" Elliot's friend asks.
We all look at him and before anyone can say anything, I remove my hand from Noah's chest, take his hand in mine and intertwine our fingers.
"Yeah... We actually are" I say with a fake smile on my lips.
I turn to Noah and wink at him, hoping he would get what I'm hinting at. And he grins at me.
Time to mess with them a little.
"What?!" Sarah, Gillian, Anna and even Liam shout at the same time.
"For how long?" Anna asks first.
"A few months." Noah answers.
"How?" Sarah asks this time.
"Well he always flirted with me and I thought that it was nothing but a few months ago he just kissed me after school and then everything happened on its own." I tell them and look at Noah with fake heart eyes. He gives me the same look and squeezes my hand a little bit. That brings their attention to our hands again. His hand is still on my waist.
"I don't believe you guys." Sarah states and Liam seconds that.
"What? You want me to kiss him to prove it to you?" I ask her with a laugh and Gillian answers before her sister can, "Yes."
I don't have time to process what I'm about to do before Noah's hand leaves mine and he cups my face with it, pulling me close. In less than a second his lips are on mine and my hand instantly moves to his neck, pulling him closer.
He pulls away after a long time and smiles at me.
Man. He for sure is a great kisser.
We turn to the table again. Their mouths hanging open and the two new boys sitting there look highly uncomfortable.
I chuckle.
Noah starts laughing.
And then I laugh too.
Before you know it, Noah and I are laughing hysterically. Hugging our stomachs from laughing that hard.
We high five each other and I calm down while Noah still can't stop laughing.
"You guys actually-" I chuckle again, "That we two-" I point my finger between Noah and I and start laughing again.
Liam is the first to speak up again. "Man. You two actually got me there for a moment." He admits and starts laughing with us.
The rest of them is silent while I wipe my tears away.
"Really guys. Loosen up a bit. It was just a joke." Noah tells them.
I turn to Noah again with a smirk and put my hand on his shoulder, "Dude. You really need to work on your kissing skills."
He pulls me close to him again and says in a low voice, "Well, we could always practise together." He wiggles his eyebrows at me and I shove him away laughing, "Okay. I think that was enough flirting with you today."
I stand up and grab my backpack ready to head out when Noah says, "Oh, you don't mean that. I bet you wish that I would flirt with you like that every day."
"If it helps you sleep at night. But don't get ya hopes up too high little boy." I counter and look at the rest giving them a small salute, "Later folks."
And with that I go away, grinning like an idiot.