Jazmin went through all of her classes staring dazedly at the cryptic marks on the whiteboard with an idiotic smile etched on her face. Each time, she would find her gaze roaming to the daylight sprinkling over the lush courtyards outside. Then, all that would be on her mind was the peerless and effortless elegance of Rowan Barlowe.
A mere week earlier, she would have scoffed lividly if anyone had told her that her mind would soon be conquered by a good-looking adolescent. She would have beaten anyone to death, were they to throw around such 'far-fetched' notions. And yet...
Indeed, there was no fault upon Rowan's benevolent existence...
During her Art class, she had wistfully yet secretly outlined the graceful slope of his sharp chin on a paper. Then her pencil explored the daring and enchanting glitter in his green eyes. Her heart would flutter with thoughts of his tender, low voice.
Ugh... She smacked her cheeks together and focused on the lunch tray before her, frustration brimming through her countenance. It was lunch break—that meant it was 3 hours before she could see him again. 3 hours...if only she could influence gravity and, therefore, time.
"Hi Jaz~" greeted Jason as he seated himself before her and set his tray of confectionaries onto the table. That day, they had not had any English lessons and, therefore, could not meet.
Jason, apparently, was on the lacrosse team which would be attending a provincial competition the next day - Saturday. He soon started ranting about how fate was so wicked to separate the two of them once again. All the while, the young man was oblivious to Jazmin's distant mind.
Now, Jazmin had not noticed this yet but she had been sitting there for a good 15 minutes, gazing dreamily at her untouched, chocolate-flavored cupcake. She was picturing Rowan's expression when they would meet again - clearly, 'curiosity' would not be a fitting term for her emotions. More like 'infatuation'. The students passing by had wisely avoided her. Well, except the eccentric Jason Chapman.
"It's been a while, Jaz. How did you find Violet House?" he asked, digging his cute canines into his burger. Of course, he was having a burger for lunch.
"You should eat healthier," Jazmin commented, pretending not to have been lost in dreamland a second ago, her amber-brown eyes glossing over the burger.
"I'd rather not be told that by someone who has a mountain of cupcakes for lunch," he retorted with a mocking smirk, glancing at his friend's colorful food. His brows furrowed, as though he'd noticed a pest crawling over their table.
The young man swiftly swiped Jazmin's sugar-filled tray. He added some of his salad to her tray then slid it back to her. "Try some vegetables today. I won't be letting you eat any more sugar," he advised, "Sugar is a lot more harmful than oil, you know." He, being a brazen sadist, was pleased to find his partner was aggrieved by this.
The young girl groaned but still picked up some of the slimy salad with her fork. She scowled at the unfamiliar taste. The disgusting taste of health. Ew.
"No wonder you're so ridiculously healthy-looking. The lacrosse team seems to double as a nutritionist team. This salad tastes like WHO's poop, if that organization could be personified," the aggravated girl remarked, her lips twisted into a disgusted frown.
Nonetheless, she still continued chewing and swallowing the salad. She was not going to lose this battle. She was highly competitive even with her food.
Jason smiled as he watched her. "Don't worry. There's more where that came from," he said and dumped some carrot and cucumber slices into her tray.
"From your asshole, I presume, WHO?" the girl inquired facetiously, lifting a brow.
"My poop is something much unhealthier, Puppy Dog Jaz," Jason answered. "But if you're so curious..."
Jazmin groaned, further agonized by that belittling nickname and his suggestive comment. However, from the corner of her eye, she promptly captured a commotion ensuing amongst the ritzy students.
A noisy crowd of flustered teens was forming near the entrance to the cafeteria. The echoes from the growing crowd of excited students drifted round the tables.
There was a most curious(or rather, capitalistic) manner in which the tables were sequestered. There was the 'popular, cool kids' tables(as Jaz had opted to call them, due to lack of a better phrase) clustered closest to the serving point.
And then there was us, the lowest strata of that tiny society, secluded in musty corners to indulge only in the delightful echoes of laughter from the higher tables. The scrawny, wrinkly-smiling kids who would usually spend their days lusting over anatomical diagrams in the library or sucking on their boogers.
Jazmin and Jason didn't suck on boogers though, they protested at the generalization. Jason Chapman actually qualified as a popular, cool kid, being handsome and athletic with good grades. He was, instead, a proud rebel by choice - as he had chosen to call himself - who refused to conform to vomit-worthy arrangements.
"Hey, what's happening over there?" Jazmin asked, drawing Jason's attention to the excited crowd of teenagers.
Jason glanced once, then returned his blue eyes to his food tray, wearing an disinterested look.
"Oh, that? It's probably just one or two of the Lords of Potterhouse, those haughty rich boys, again," he commented, rolling his eyes to express his lack of empathy for the crowd's excitement, "Those classy sons of donkeys usually eat in separate offices so everyone makes a big, unnecessary fuss when they come here. Vulgar of them, I'd say."
Jazmin nodded. Her thoughts wandered to Rowan Barlowe, one of those idolized Lords of Porterhouse—or haughty sons of donkeys, as Jason preferred to call them. The one whom she would be meeting again later that evening. She considered catching a glimpse of the other lords - Ezra and Kendrick - but abandoned the notion just as quickly. Another thought soon came to her thereafter.
"Umm...Jason, do you know what the Body Fitness Club does?" she ended up asking since she had agreed to join without any real insider information.
Jason's blue eyes lit up. The word 'gossip' was labelled on his forehead as he spoke fervently. "Just as the name suggests, that club is comprised of the sturdiest meatheads in Potterhouse. I hear that their club leader, Frederick McOwen is his name, is nicknamed 'Draconic Tornado' in other schools.
"The club - BFC for short - specializes in all forms of combat, be it jiujitsu, kungfu, karate or taekwondo, you name it. They have top-tier coaches guiding them. They even have that enigmatic school council president, one of those shitty lords, Rowan Barlowe, as their deputy club leader..."
His voice lowered at this point. "However, I heard that one of their members recently disrespected a judge in an inter-school tournament and the club consequently almost got erased from existence by Rowan," he expounded and then his eyes glittered curiously at Jazmin's thoughtful expression.
"Do you want to join that club?" he asked hesitantly. Jazmin's brows knitted at the query. More like, she wanted to get closer to a certain someone. Not break bones while fighting some meatheads.
Jason's brows lifted sky-high when Jazmin nodded wordlessly, looking at him expressionlessly. To be fair, she was a lot more experienced in combat than she let off. Perhaps it wouldn't hurt to join?
Jason smiled crookedly, seeming apologetic. "To tell you the truth, it is not a walk in the park to join the BFC, especially for girls, because you have to receive a direct invitation from one of their executives. Their stringency is somewhat understandable though, noting that that club also attends international meets across the world," he said.
The troubled girl nodded, wondering if she should tell him or not.
Uh, screw it.
She clasped her palms together, keeping her eyes on her friend. "I did get an invitation this morning."
"What?" The young man froze in shock.
Jazmin sighed, mostly because it was so intoxicating and butterfly-inducing to say that name. "I got one...from Rowan."
"What? Why? Wait...what? H...him? You got one from the Rowan Barlowe?" Jason repeated. His eyes dilated disbelievingly, looking as though he was experiencing a brain tumor - hopefully, it was not a life-threatening one because Jazmin was yet to even join a medical school.
"Yeah," she answered calmly, a vague redness coloring her cheeks. "I bumped into him coincidentally when I was lost this morning. He helped me find my way to the tuition block...then he asked me if I would mind joining the Body Fitness Club."
Jason cleared his throat after a moment of apparent schizophrenia. "I see..." He quietened for a moment, absorbing her words. He lowered his voice and cleared his throat, leaning his face closer to Jazmin's, as though to share a dark secret.
"If that's the case, do you actually want to join the BFC...or...do you - and I say this with much genuine concern as a friend - have a crush on him?" He inquired seriously.
Jazmin shrugged. Her cheeks were infused in a light pink though her voice was as calm as the air around them. "Do I look sporty to you?"
Jason sighed. "So you've followed the bee to find honey. How are you so certain that you won't get stung at the end?" he asked.
"I don't know, Jason," she admitted after a quiet pause, looking confused and disgruntled as she kept her chin atop her clasped hands. "I really don't know."
"I've never felt this way for anyone else before. It's weird and makes me...tingly inside. This feeling is so unscientific and ludicrous but it feels so true and...and...real," she uttered breathily and sighed.
The young man watched her silently, giving her the chance to air her thoughts. The muddled girl quietly veered her gaze to the bantering students spilling out of the cafeteria. "I really don't know. But it makes me wonder if I was brought to this school...just for...this."
'For him,' she thought.
'For her to know him. Perhaps he could make her heart temporarily forget her family's tussling activities. Or would it all be for naught?'