Alina
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I ducked into Math class a little late and took my seat quickly.
Mr. Paul was just handing out quiz papers. He narrowed his eyes—mimicking Lord Voldermort's signature snake slits—tipped his chin upwards like he wanted to scold me before shaking his head and rolling his eyes, refusing to let me ruin his never pleasant mood any further.
I sighed in relief.
Wouldn't want to get into trouble with forever grouchy and grim-faced Mr. Paul. Especially now since my mood could be rated near irritated-overload. I swear Mr. Paul was so frustrated and angry with his dull and loveless life that he takes it out on us. The only time I've ever seen him wearing an honest smile—not those fake things he paraded around during pep rallies—was when we failed his endless pop quizzes.
Mr. Paul placed my quiz paper on my desk with a malicious sneer. I read the words written in bold on the top 'revision quiz on last year's topics'. At the bottom of the paper and in smaller font, the sentence 'this test makes up 10 percent of your Math aggregate this year was also typed in bold and I found myself releasing a small gasp and staring blankly at the first five questions which stared back at me in turn.
"I wish we could have Mr. Dave as our Math teacher this year..." Hailey Rowe complained from the front. Mr. Paul snorted.
"Instead of grumbling, how 'bout you save yourself some time and start working on your test Hailey."
Hailey let out a groan, sitting straight in her seat and flipping Mr. Paul a bird when he had his back to the class.
"Just so you know, the results of this test would make up about 3 percent of your math aggregate this semester."
"What? That's fucked up!!" J.B Matt shouted from the back of the class.
He had this bad habit of swearing out loud in between classes and getting a lot of teachers angry. I can assure you he's spent more time in detention and Principal Darian's office in one high school year than I have at my workplace. Which means a lot since; I had been working at Abuela Marcia's food shack for the past two and a half years. Speaking of which, my break from work would be ending tomorrow. Lizzy had done a fabulous job working for the both of us while I was away and I had a feeling she might need some form of compensation.
"Language J.B, we wouldn't want you going down to the Principal's office and miss such an important test now, would we?" I heard Mr. Paul croon.
"Actually, I'd prefer that. Does anyone know how to tackle any of these questions?"
"I doubt anyone even remembers any school related stuff after such a long holiday," Kylie said in that frog-like voice of hers.
I found myself snorting and rolling my eyes.
If anyone in this room should be complaining about this test, it should be people like J.B and Hailey and not Kylie. When it came to academics, she was one of the best students our school had. Brilliant, pretty and over confident on her abilities—somehow she managed to ace all her classes despite being in the popular circle for too long —Kylie was in no way scared of this test. She was just trying to brag and get some attention her way. As usual.
Fiona shifted in her seat, tossing Kylie a look that hinted she had said something silly, before staring straight at me.
Kylie followed her eyes and smirked.
"Of course, this test should be easy for people like Alina; I mean she's been best in Math for like what? Three years in a row?" Kylie chuckled, bitterness laced in every sound rolling off her throat. I was the only person whose academic trophy she still hadn't managed to get and it made her angry.
"Well you really can't blame her can you? That trophy is the only thing she gets to prove her value with," Fiona added, tossing me an empathetic grin. "Without that trophy, Alina Davies would be a boring old Sasquatch. Ain't that right Alina?"
I huffed, as Mr. Paul came to my rescue, clearing his throat. "Enough of the bickering girls, let's let my best student tackle the questions in peace shall we?"
Kylie and her ditzy friend snickered.
It was bad enough that I was having a bad day and had no idea how to tackle any of these questions, but now, with more than five minutes of the time gone, there was no way I could finish up all twenty questions on the sheet before the required time elapsed. Things couldn't get any worse than they already were.
Finally, Mr. Paul's timer on his desk buzzed, signalling the end of the quiz. I stared at my work with a satisfied smile. At least, I had attempted all twenty questions—even though I was only sure of my answers to about thirteen of them.
I submitted my finished work on Mr. Paul's desk just as the bell rang. He gave me a quick thumbs up and I smiled dimly, lifted my backpack higher up my shoulders and lunged for the door. There was only one thing on my mind.
Find Jake Hardy.
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It had been three periods since that kiss incident in the halls and I still hadn't found Jake. Wherever it was he'd zoomed off to had to be the most secret place in the entire school.
I walked up to my locker, resolving to speak to Jake tomorrow before classes began when I found him leaning on my locker while playing with a basketball. Good, he decided to find me instead. I released a sigh of relief and walked up to him. Surprised he wasn't flanked by his friends Cole Reynolds and Chase Wilder like he always was.
"Hey Jake, I was looking all over for—" I started, until he cut me off.
"We need to talk Alina."
"Sure. I was thinking the same," I accepted, nodding.
"Are you doing anything else after now?" he moved a few steps away from my locker and out of my way, his hands buried deep in his pockets.
I chewed on my lip and gave his question some thought. I normally had extra classes after school every Monday and Thursday with the biology teacher Miss Ellen, but since today was the first day of a new year, she decided to skip classes today. I was totally okay with that considering the fact that my brain wasn't in the right state since lunch break.
"No...I was going to head straight home." I brought my eyes to meet his, silently grateful I'd taken some time to clean my locker out before now. Turned out, there were roaches in there. My guess was the half eaten donut had disappeared courtesy of them.
Jake ruffled a hand through his hair, sending some bangs falling over his eyes. "Well, do you mind if I drop you off?"
Jeez, was this guy as unpredictable as the weather or what? You think you have him figured out, and then he goes on to do something you never imagined. I was totally expecting Jake to be angry when he finally saw me and not calm and offering me a ride home. This was the second time he was causing my jaws to drop wide open today. Who knows what else he had in store for me?
"Well, my brother—" I started to say until he interrupted me, again.
"He's not coming to pick you up today. I heard what happened in the morning,"
Oh yeah. . . I totally forgot about that.
"Oh. I forgot," I admitted, zipped up my back pack, and tucked a strand of hair behind my ears, feeling nervous under Jake's stare.
He bumped his head against a locker "Is that a yes?" I got a hint of excitement in his voice.
And no, it wasn't one of my lucid dreams this time.
"Sure," I shrugged, staring down at my converses and comparing their black stripes to ones on his.
Jake stopped spinning the ball in his hand, clutching it to his navy blue leather jacket. "If you're done getting your things, can we get going?"
I stared at him like I had not understood what he meant, when in fact I was trying to piece together a puzzle I just found. One I would like to call...Jake
"Sure," I muttered, realizing that my last two statements had been a repeat of one word. My brain was either getting roasted with all this thinking or my entire word bank had sunk down the drain from the second Jake and I started talking. I bet it's the latter.
Jake wove his fingers through mine, tossing me the smile that made a ton of girls—including my little sister—fall for him. I sucked in a breath slowly, staring at his hands entwined with mine as he walked me out the school's front doors. This was officially the second time I ever walk down the halls holding hands with a boy. All of this had somehow, by Merlin's magic happened in one day.
If this was any indication how the rest of the school year would be, I was totally looking forward to it now.
Author's Note
Hello everyone.
I'm very happy about how things are beginning to shape up in this book. It might interest you to know that I managed to complete this chapter, 1600+ words long in one night, while listening to a lot of Tate McRae, Halsey, Olivia Rodriguez and Halsey songs. I hope you enjoyed reading it as I much as I did writing it. Please continue to journey with Alina in this and expect a new chapter update in a few days.
Much love,💕💞💖
Unikwriter333