As I entered French class, half the students weren't there yet, so there were plenty of empty seats.
I look around and let out a sigh of relief when I see Alex there. At least like that, if the teacher is boring, I'll have someone to keep me awake.
As I walk towards him, Alex notices me and his face lights up immediately.
He was sitting in the very back of the classroom.
"Liv!! You can't understand how happy I am that we have that class together. It's like the most boring one and I needed someone I could whine to."
"Come on, French can't be that boring. It's such a cool language, dude."
"Speak for yourself, nerd. Plus, I don't need to learn it, I'm already like a pro."
I rolled my eyes at his immature comment, and just then the teacher entered the class and so the lesson began.
It was only five minutes into the lesson and I began to think that Alex was right. That teacher is the most self-centred person ever. Until now, all she did was talk about how she spent the weekend with her cousin. And how she was way prettier than her "of course". Not one word was said in French.
"You know, she already told us that like a thousand times. I wish someone would just shut her up, her and her huge tongue. I mean, jokes aside, that thing is bigger than my palm. How could she even fit it in her mouth?"
I try to hold back my laughter but fail miserably, which made all of the heads turn to us.
"Excuse me, miss, but could you please enlighten us to if you're conversation is more important than my teaching?"
I knew I should've bitten my tongue but I couldn't resist the urge to talk back.
"By teaching, you mean, how your dog slept three hours instead of four?"
Snickers and muffled laughter were heard from all over the class.
"Oh, so now we're making jokes' huh? Well, would you please repeat that in French, miss? Since you're too advanced to listen to me."
"Ce serait mon plaisir, madame." (It would be my pleasure, miss.)
The teacher looked at me with a surprised face as to how I had an almost fluent accent but tried to hide it.
"Go on, then."
"Je disais, que par apprendre, vous vouliez dire comment votre chien a dormi trois heures et nom pas quatre?" ( I was saying that, by teaching, you mean, how your dog slept three hours instead of four?)
I left the whole class speechless, especially Miss Johnson. Someone seriously needed to put her in her place.
"That's it, young lady. Detention!"
It was still my first day and I already got detention, great. Alex laughed at my face while I rolled my eyes at him.
I was pissed all period. Why would I be scolded just because I can speak French better than the teacher? It's illogical and unfair.
Later on in the day, I had Physics, English, Geography, P.E. And lastly, Chemistry.
To be truly honest, I wasn't a sport girl. In fact, I hated sports.
But also to my luck, Thea was there, in a dark corner I almost couldn't see her. I also realised that Thea spent a lot of her time in the school's gym. I was going to walk over to her when a boy got to her first.
She smiled at him and they began talking and laughing together and I swear I saw her blush at some point.
I was raising an eyebrow at her when Thea spotted me and she went all red.
"Uh, excuse me, could I borrow Thea for a moment?"
The boy looked confused at my request and looked at her for an explanation.
"She's my friend, she's cool, don't worry. I'll talk to you later, okay?"
The mystery boy smiled at her and left then.
"Sooo, not being curious at all, but who's that?" I smirked at her and she became even more red.
"No one. Just a friend."
"I thought you didn't want to have friends other than the group?"
"Uh, well, he's an exception. Plus nobody knows about Tommy and he prefers that we stay friends in secret, too."
"So, Tommy, huh? How long have you liked him."
Her face was going to be redder than a tomato by now.
"I don't like him. He's my friend."
"Thea, it's already obvious, and what's also obvious is that he likes you back."
"What? How did you- who told you-?"
"Come on, did you see the look on his face? It clearly said 'I'm in love', girl."
"But, no. I can't- he can't like me. Oh no, Theo and the boys are going to kill him and kill me next."
Confusion took over my face, "Why would they? I mean, I know they hate the others in this school, but if Tommy meets them, they might like him."
"Wait, do you why our group is that feared and popular?"
I grew even more confused.
"What does that have to do with this?"
"Wait, you'll see. So, a few years back, we were quite known around school because of our parents, but what got us to, well, this situation is my ex. I had a boyfriend, and I loved him deeply. But one night, he cheated on me, with this dog Amber. And when the boys found out, they beat the shit out of him in the school hallways, and he got sent to the hospital. Yeah, a bit brutal. Since then, everyone was scared of them, and they wouldn't let me date any boy from the school. Any time some guy tried to hit on me, the next thing you know, he's in the nurse's office. So, I don't want them to harm Tommy. He's the first nice guy I've talked to."
I looked at Thea with a sincere smile. I understand now why she's hiding him.
"But, you know, you can't hide him forever. If I managed to find you with him, who knows who will next? If anyone from this school sees you and him together, the news will come out, and the guy is gonna have even more broken bones. If you would like my advice, I think he should meet the others, maybe they will genuinely like him."
Thea's eyes filled with hope. Suddenly, she felt more confident.
"You're right. I have to face it. Plus, if they won't like him, it's their problem. I won't stop liking him just because of them. I feel way better now, thank you Oli-"
Thea was interrupted by our P.E. teacher shouting at us to come join the class.
We made our way as fast as we could.
Finally, it was my last period, Chemistry.
I entered the class and found the perfect seat. It was at the very back two seats away from the corner. I got my phone out a bit to pass the time until the bell rang and everybody was in the class.
I hear seats shuffle beside me, to my left first. I look and smile as I see that Jackson occupied it.
"Jackson, hey! It's great that we have chemistry together."
He smiled back at me. "Olivia! Great to see you. Still coming to my match today, right?"
"Of course, I'm coming-"
"No, you're not." I heard a voice say to my right. I didn't need to turn to know who it belonged to. James.
"James."
"Yes, Olive?"
"You can't choose for me if I want to watch the game or not."
"I didn't say you didn't want to. I said you're not going there."
"And why is that?"
"We have plans."
"We? What do you mean."
"Yes, we. We're going to Alexandre's house."
"And how come I don't know?"
"Because it's like a tradition. Every Friday night, we go to someone's house. This week, we go to Alex's house."
"Well, I didn't know."
"Now you know. So you're coming."
"I-but Jackson's game-"
"Jackson can play just fine without you being there, right Jackson?"
James stared at Jackson like he wanted to dig holes inside of him with his eyes. And Jackson, obviously mortified by James just like any other person in this school, said, "I, uh, yeah, yeah, it's okay."
"See, Olive. He's not going to die, so you're coming with us."
I felt like it was useless to argue with James, and Jackson let me down by being so easily intimidated by him, so I just nodded and sat back silently.
In response, he said, "Good."
And I thought I was starting to like James. He's so arrogant and his ego is too high.
As class started, almost everyone was there, except, there was one empty seat.
I ignored it and continued listening to the teacher's lesson.
About fifteen minutes into the class, someone knocked at the door. Then, David entered the class like it was the most normal thing to be this late.
The teacher stopped him in his tracks with an irritated face.
"Mister Sommers, where were you? And why are you so late to my class?"
I heard that mister Stanley, our teacher, wasn't someone to mess with.
"I was busy, sir."
"Well, I hope you won't be busy later this afternoon, so you could attend detention."
"Whatever." David sat in his chair ignoring the glares the teacher sent towards him.
My heart skipped a beat. I had detention. He had detention. Panic rushed through me. I don't want to be alone with him in a room. What if nobody other than us got detention? What if he's still the same?
I felt like I could have a panic attack right now. No, no, not again.
Jackson noticed my worried face and turned to me.
"Hey, are you alright? You seem stressed."
"I, uh, I'm fine."
"You're sure?"
"Yeah, totally."
Jackson seemed uncertain about my response but didn't pressure me. Deeply, I wanted him to tell me to tell him the truth, to tell me I can trust him, to tell me it's going to be fine. Or I wanted someone to tell me that.
Then, I heard James curse under his breath.
"You airheaded fool. It's clear she's going to have a panic attack."
He looked at me then and his gaze softened.
"Hey, Olive, what's wrong? Tell me the truth."
James 1, Jackson 0,
"You can trust me, I can help you."
James 2, Jackson 0,
"It's going to be fine, just try to relax and tell me what's bothering you."
James 3, Jackson 0.
James is a weird guy. A few minutes ago, he was being so bossy, and now he's the most caring person ever.
I get back to my senses and almost flinched as he touched my hand.
I don't pull it away, though. It would be the last thing I wanted to do.
I try to explain to him, my voice coming out as a whisper, "I'm scared, James. Thea, she told me about what David did, and lately, he's been trying to get me to hook up with him, and I don't know what to do, he won't stop it. And now, I'm going to be in detention with him, and who knows if there's going to be other people. He wouldn't even care about it too."
I managed to see a small wave of fear come over him before it was suddenly gone, replaced with an understanding face.
"Don't worry," he reassured me, "I won't let him get as much as ten meters close to you."
And then, James got up and went next to the table where all the laboratory stuff was put. He, then, knocked a few glass containers off the table, making it look like an accident. Still, the teacher, who had a very small temper, went crazy over a few glasses and shouted at James.
"Mister Anderson! How irresponsible of you! Detention, today!"
James went back to his seat with a smile of triumph, like he just got a trophy.
A sense of realisation hit me and I relaxed instantly.
James has gotten himself detention, just because I was scared to be alone with David.
He did it for me.
He was a really strange guy.
*Very handsome, too.*
What. I didn't just think that. No, no. I've only seen the guy for a day. But I can't lie, he's quite pretty...
I should get my act together already. I think I'm going crazy.
The class ended, and the others and I were going to meet outside the dorm building before James and I had to go to detention.
James said he had to do one last thing before heading so I walked there alone.
Jackson caught up with me halfway through the hallway.
"Hey, so are you feeling better now? And what was it that was bothering you?"
He tried to be kind and careful. But still, I was a bit mad at him deep down, because I wanted him to do what James did. I wanted him to get detention for me. Because I saw him as a nice guy. I never expected James to care for me as much as he did today. And I realised I never thanked James. I did a mental note to do it later.
"Yeah, I'm fine. James helped me."
"Oh. Well, uh, I wish you could have been to the game today, but that's ok. I hope you could come to practice, tomorrow. Some people come. We could catch lunch after if you want to."
Jackson looked nervous, I could see it. I felt bad that I couldn't attend the match today, so I gladly accepted his offer.
"Great, then. See you tomorrow!" he smiled.
"Goodbye!" I waved at him and we departed.
I make my way to the front doors of the dorm buildings and find that only Thea was there.
"Hey, Thea. Where are the others?"
"Oh, I don't know. Theo and Al were here, but they left a few minutes ago. They said James needed them for a moment, and that they wouldn't take long."
"Oh, yeah, James told me he had something to do."
What were they up to?
"Alex also told me you had detention. It's still the first day, and you still got yourself in trouble? No wonder why you're part of us now." Thea laughed.
"Hey, it's the French teacher. I just showed her how to actually talk French and she snapped. It's not my fault." I shrugged. I wasn't lying, I knew French better than her and I never even studied it.
Thea laughed even harder, and then we saw the boys coming back.
James had blood on his white shirt. We quickly ran to them with concerned faces.
James catches me staring at the blood worriedly, "Don't worry, it's not mine, Olive."
I relaxed a bit but still, Thea and I were worried as to why is there even blood on his shirt.
Thea looked at them with a disappointed face, like she was a mum scolding her children.
"Boys, did you get in a fight again?"
Alex was the first to respond.
"But we had a reason, I promise."
"Enlighten me."
"You didn't tell us that David was hitting on Liv. It's not good. Not when it's David that we're talking about."
"Wait, so you beat up David?" I asked.
Theo responded, "Yeah, he needed to know where his limits were. And right now, he was way over his limits. We had to teach him a lesson."
James added, slightly irritated, "Also, the football match of your little pathetic friend is postponed, since the captain had a little accident and injured his nose. He has to go to the hospital, you see. So now you can go to it, or whatever."
I was stunned at the guys. I've only known them for two days, and they have already done so much for me, more than anyone has done in my whole life. Even though they broke a guy's nose, I didn't mind it, since David deserved it.
Alex looked at the both of us, "What friend? What do you mean?"
James grits his teeth and said " She's now friends with Jackson. How did you even meet him?"
"I, well, he pulled me into an empty classroom, because he saw that David was chasing after me for god knows what reason, and I was lost. I didn't know what to do, so he helped me by hiding me there. I thanked him and we talked a bit and yeah."
Theo had an uninterested look on his face. "Of course, he did that. I know him, he's a coward. Always running from situations instead of facing them. If I was in his place, I would've punched this pervert straight in his jaw."
Alex grabbed my hands and looked at me with a fake disappointed face.
"Liv, you could've done so much better. I mean, you got us as friends, that's good. But you're going so low as to befriend him, too? Tsk tsk, choose your friends wisely my dear."
I laugh as I shake Alex's hands off and tell them all,
"He's not that bad of a guy. I'm sure if you talked to him, you'd like him."
James rolled his eyes. "Yeah, whatever."
I ignored everybody's eye rolls. Come on, is he that bad of a person?
Alex chimed in again, "Anywayyyy, today's at my place, but before that, we have to go to the store to buy snacks. Then we'll go back to my house. Sadly, our two friends here have detention, so everybody comes here exactly in an hour, alright?"
Everyone nodded and we all went our separate ways.
James and I were heading to detention. I remembered I should thank him for helping me.
"Hey, James, I should have said it earlier, but thank you, for getting detention just for me, and also for breaking a guy's nose. "
"It's nothing. I'd do it a hundred times if necessary."
I felt touched by his sincereness.
"Olive?"
I agitate at that name.
"Mhm?"
"Please be careful who you befriend in this school. Some people don't seem dangerous, but a lot are."
I didn't understand why he would tell me that, but still, I nodded.
And so then, we enter detention.
***
That chapter was longer in a form of an apology for posting late😭.
It was such a busy day yesterday, I couldn't write the chapter, reallllyyyy sorry.
But anyway, ain't you think James is really weird? One moment he's snappy and angry, the other he's all caring and calling her Olive.
And what do you think he meant by that last sentence?
Continue reading to find outttttttt.
~j
*edit*
I just realised that in all the chapters there were a lot of grammar mistakes😭😭😭
But rn it's like 3 in the morning so I'm too tired to fix them.
Tomorrow I'll fix it and post chapter 5.
Goodnightttt.
*edit number 2*
I just fixed all the chapters. It took like an hourrrr. So I might post chapter 5 a but late too, but I promise I ain't post late anymore😭 or I hope so.
Anyway I, peace out,
~j