That one moment

chapter 4

Nick's pov

Its finally Friday I've almost finished my first week I have never enjoyed waking up to go to school before but that was before I met her. There's just something about her. I grab my phone and text Elle.

Me - Morning. I've nearly survived my first week of school. See you soon. x

I stretch and get up doing the usual shower, teeth, dress. I head down stairs for breakfast. I check my phone and see 2 messages. I open the first one from Elle.

Elle - Congratulations, you survived and thanks to you so have I. See you at school. Meet you by the gates? x 

Me - How about I pick you up today? That's if you don't mind me knowing where you live lol. x

As I wait for her response I check my other message oh s**t it's from Cassie.

Cassie - Hey baby. I really miss you  maybe I could come see in a couple of weeks. x 

FUCK... I forgot all about Cassie. I haven't spoken to her for a couple of nights I've spent the last 2 nights talking to Elle. Not surprisingly she doesn't open up about herself but I hope that changes soon I'm going to ask her on a date for Saturday. Fingers crossed she says yes.

Elle - 232 Cambridge road. See you soon. x

Yes. She wants me to pick her up. Crap need to text Cassie back.

Me - Ok Cass speak to you later.

That should do. I guess.

"Hey dear." My mum says bringing me breakfast. I have a huge smile on my face. "Why are you so happy huh?" She asks wiggling her eye brows at me. "Well if you must know everything I asked Elle if I could pick her up for school and she said yes!!" I say way to excitedly. "That's great honey" she said just as happily. I text James telling him that we need to leave earlier because were picking Elle up. After breakfast we make our way to Elle's home. I text her telling her I'm outside and I look at her house. Its a small little white house she opens her front door and steps out I see her looking around and then she locks eyes with my brand new range rover, I smile to myself, she's too cute. She makes small unsure steps towards the car and I step out giving her a warm smile. "Morning, you look beautiful" I tell her and I can see her blush a little and lower her head down. I smile knowing she gets affected by my compliments. We sit in the car and she looks around eyeing up the details of the car. "Morning Miss Jones." James says formally. She smiles at him. "Morning sir, please call me Ellie." "Only if you call me James." she smiles and nods in agreement. We arrive at school and I get out holding my hand out for her and helping her out the car. We walk side by side into the school. I look around taking in all the other students that are hanging around before the bell rings. I see Mark sitting on a bench outside the school with Jack, Damon, Tyler, Alicia, Tori and Izzy. I smirk as I walk past them mainly looking at Marks beat up face, the swelling is going down but he still had a black eye and a plaster covering his nose till it heals. 

We head to Elle's locker and a couple dozen people standing there laughing and taking pictures, I have a bad feeling as we approach her locker there's a picture of an elephant. Some one has painted Ellie the elephant on her locker and underneath the picture they have written Fat b***h. I walk up and rip the picture off looking around "f**k off all of you." I feel my anger rising and no one moves until I grab the closest person to me and punch him in the stomach making him fall to the ground. Everyone starts moving along and I spot Alicia and her friends all smirking at me. I look at Elle who just look like she wants to cry. "Are you ok?" I ask and she gives me a sad nod. I take her hand and we walk to history, I try to cheer her up but I know its not working. We get into class and someone plays elephant noises on their phone. I cant take this anymore. I walk up to the person taking their phone and smashing it against the wall. Surprisingly I feel much better. "What the f**k that was my phone." This guy stands up shouting. "And what the f**k you going to do about it" I hiss back getting closer to him. I'm fully prepared to have a fight. I feel Elle take my hand and she leads us to our seats. "Elle I'm sorry, but I'm not going to let people treat you like this anymore." my voice still laced with anger. She gives me a warm smile "Thank you." she says. 

"Right class settle down." Mr hunter says. "Mr hunter Nick smashed my phone. I want this reported to the principle immediately." The boy says staring at me, I just smile at him. The principle will say nothing if she wants my dads money. I love that no one knows who I am otherwise they wouldn't talk to me like this. "Nick is this true" Mr hunter asks. "Yes sir it is" I smile at the boy still. "Ok can you both go to the principles office please." I stand up and leave giving Elle a reassuring smile. I get to the principles office and the guy is glaring at me. I pull my phone out texting Elle. 

Me - Am I missing anything exciting. X

Elle - No. still learning about World War II, Although we have a test next week, which I will no doubt fail. X 

Me - I will study with you, every night, all night if needs be till your ready for the test. X

Elle - Thank you. You truly are a good friend. x

My face turns to disgust at the word friend. I want to be more than friends maybe I should ask her on a date. I know she felt something the other day on the field. There's no denying our attraction. "Mr Marshal, Mr Peterson" Principle White says calling us into her office. We both stand and make our way into her office. "Ok boys what happened" She orders. "This morning me and Elle went to her locker where someone has vandalised it putting a picture of an elephant and call her fat as was walked into history this prick was playing elephant noises. so I smashed his phone." I told her honestly. She looked between us "Ok boys back to class." she says "Wait Principle White what about my phone aren't you going to expel him or make him pay for me to get a new phone." He pleads once again glaring at me. "No" she firmly states. I stand up to leave "Bye principle White" I look at the boy who's standing there pissed off. I bump into him purposely and he stumbles over his feet but he doesn't fall to the floor. "See you in history" I chuckle to him. "Principle White I want to know why you aren't taking this seriously." I hear him say as I close the door behind me. I love being me. Rules don't apply to me. I Head back to history and take my seat next to Elle. Everyone's looking at me and I know they want to know what happened. Shorty after in walks what ever his name is. He just stares daggers at me. 

The lesson finishes and I walk out I see the guy leaning against the wall opposite me, he nods his head at me signalling for me to follow him which I do leaving Elle standing by the door. "You may have the principle in your pocket but I know one way that will really hurt you." I follow his eyes and see he's looking at Elle. "Try it and I promise you will regret it."  I hiss out balling my fists up. He walks past me and I go up to Elle. "Is everything ok?" She asks. I smile at her not letting her know I'm annoyed. "Of course lets go to our next lesson what do we have?" I ask. She looks at me in disgust. "P.E." I know she hates P.E. I think its mainly because she never had a partner but she has me now. "Today were playing Dodgeball." Mr. Mathews says. this isn't going to end well. "I need 2 team captains." he says in front of us. Jack and Alicia immediately stand up. "Ok you two are the captains pick your teams. "I pick Nick" Alicia says smiling at me. Great. I go over to her and everyone gets picked except Elle. "Ok that's it" Alicia says. "Wait no one picked Elle" I interrupt. 

"That's because no one wants that thing on their team." Jack laughs. I look at Elle and I don't know how she survives this daily. I go stand with Elle. "Then I'm off the team" I say firmly. "Mr Marshal." I hear the teacher say. I look at him and I can see he's unsure what to say. "Look I know your new here but Ellie never plays sports." the confusion on my face must be obvious. "Ok well then I don't play sports either." I sarcastically respond. "Ok she can join my team. Happy now" Alicia huffs out crossing her arms over her chest. I take Elle's hand and go to Alicia's teams. 

There are 10 people on each team the sports hall is divided in half and we all have to stand at the wall opposite each other. There are 10 balls in the centre of the hall and on the teachers whistle we have to run and get a ball and throw it at the other team. "3, 2, 1 (whistle sound)" We all run and grab a ball I luckily manage to get one. Elle didn't, I stand in front of her protecting her I don't want her to get hurt. I see balls flying all over the place and sadly Elle gets hit from behind. She goes and sits down on the bench as far away from the other students as possible. I make sure to get the person that hit her. Mr Mathews leaves the hall suddenly and everyone stops playing. I look around and notice that the 9 other people who have a ball all stand in the direction of Elle. Before I could even move they all throw their balls at her hitting her in the face and sides. I run over to her and see she's got a bloody nose. I take her face in my hands and look her over, nothing looks broken. I stand her up and take her to the nurse as we leave everyone is laughing at her.  

While Elle's in the nurses office I march to the principles office. I barge open the door not even caring about knocking. "You need to start doing your f*****g job! You know Elle is being severely bullied and you do f**k all to stop it. Either you put a stop to this or I will." I shout through clenched teeth. I cant take anymore of this. I refuse to let Elle get bullied anymore. "Mr Marshal you can not just barge in to my office and bark orders at me." She shouts. "I can do what ever the f**k I like. Now sort this bully situation out." I storm out slamming the door behind me. I go back to the nurses office and knock on the door. Nurse Jenny opens the door with a smile. "Can I see her is she ok?" I ask worried. "She's ok just a nose bleed and a few bruises but she will be ok. You can wait with her I told her to stay here for the rest of P.E." I nod and make my way through and see Elle sitting on the bed. Her face is red and puffy and it breaks my heart knowing she's been crying. 

"Elle. Are you ok?" I sit next to her taking her hand in mine. She leans her head on me sniffling. "Am I a bad person?" she breaths out. I turn my head and look down at her. "What?" I ask shocked. "I mean for everyone to hate me I must be an awful person. What did I do to deserve this?" I feel her tears fall onto my arm. I wrap her in my arms cuddling her tightly like my life depended on it. "Ellie I am so sorry" I pause trying to fight my urge to breakdown with her. "You are amazing. You haven't done anything. I promise I will put a stop to all of this." I kiss the top of her head. 

We head for lunch and I go buy me and Elle lunch. She sits at our table and I bring over a tray with two lots of food on. I got us both a B.L.T sandwich and a coke. "thank you" she says while unwrapping  her sandwich. After lunch which surprisingly went ok we all head to our next lessons. We have English. When we enter the class room Mrs Scott tells us we have an emergency meeting in the School assembly hall. I wonder what's going on. We make our way there and I notice all students of all classes attending. Standing at the back with Elle I see practically the whole school and all teachers there. Principle White stands on a small stage addressing the whole school. "Good afternoon. Its come to my attention that there is bullying happening at school. This school will not accept bullying. Anyone being reported for bullying will be investigated and ultimately expelled." As she makes her speech I smile knowing I finally got through to her. Its about time she started doing her job and protecting the student here. "Ok that will be all, please head back to your classes." She finishes and walks off the stage. We head back to English. 

"Wow I wonder why she suddenly cares about her students?" I hear Elle mumble. "I guess someone put her in her place." I laugh out. She stops holding my arm pulling me to a halt. "Why do I have a feeling your behind this?" She folds her arms over her chest. I just laugh and wrap my arms around her. I bring my lips to her ear "I told you I will protect you." When we got to class everyone was talking about Principles White announcement. I just smile knowing they cant do anything to her now without being expelled. Although Elle wouldn't ever report them out of fear I gladly will. The rest of the day goes smoothly no one says anything to Elle. We have Maths last lesson one more hour till were done for the weekend. "Elle do you want to hang out after school?" I casually ask her. She smiles "Yeah, what did you want to do?" she whispers. "Miss Davies can you repeat that please I couldn't hear over Elle talking." Alicia looks over to us giving us an evil smirk. "Elle that will be after school detention." The teacher sternly tells her. I see Elle sink into her seat as everyone stares at her snickering. "Miss Davies it was me that was talking" I interject. She blanks my comment and carries on with the class. 

I purposely become distributive in the class but she doesn't take any notice of me. "Elle come and solve this equation" The teacher orders. I can see the fear in her eyes. I quickly look at the equation I lean over to her discretely tell her the answer "Three and one third" She walks up to the board taking the pen from her, she rights the answer I gave her down and the teacher looks shocked which is quickly replaced by annoyance. I need to get this b***h sacked. Elle walks back to me smiling, I can see the relief in her eyes. "thank you" she mouthed at me. I pull my note book out and write a message to Elle. 

Me - I know what were doing tonight. 

Elle - What's that?

Me - I'm tutoring you. :)

she puts the paper in her bag and the bell finally rings to say were finished. I see Alicia walk up to me. "Nick. I'm having a house party well its more like a pool party everyone's invited." She looks at Elle "Well almost everyone" 

"I have plans" I bluntly tell her. "Oh really doing what?" she curiously ask. "Just plans between me and Elle nothing that concerns you." I smugly tell her. "Nick if you want to go to her party you can." Elle says. I see Alicia face light up. "Great that's settled ill see you later Nicky" she starts to walk away "No you wont." she stops and turns to me. "What" she questions. I turn to Elle. "Don't you wanna hang out anymore?" I ask sadly. "course but I don't want you to have to sacrifice your life to keep me company. I don't want you to go the rest of the school year with no friends or anything because of me." It upsets me that she thinks I care about that sort of stuff. "Elle I only need you." I softly tell her. Alicia stomps off and I wrap my arms around Elle breathing in her strawberry shampoo. "Well I better get to detention." I role my eyes at that. "Ok but I'm coming with you." She laughs and I take her hand walking her to detention. We walk in and there are 2 other students. "Mr Marshal what are you doing here you're not on my list." the teacher says confused. "I know but I'm the reason that Elle got detention so I'm giving myself detention." I take a seat next to Elle before she has a chance to protest. 

I decided to use this time wisely and I spend the next hour tutoring Elle in maths. Wow she really is struggling. We go over algebra which is what our homework is. I love watching her concentrate she really gives it her all even if she gets it wrong. As we work on our homework I just take a minute to really appreciate her. I am so glad I met her. She really has changed me. The hour goes by quickly and we head out of the school. "So do you want to come to mine and study" she looks nervous. "Erm could we study at mine?" she asks. "Of course." we head to my car where James is waiting for us. James drives us to Elle's house and I tell him ill text him when I want picking up. Elle's mum is at work so were all alone and my mind immediately thinks of all the things we could do. "Would you like anything to drink or eat?" She asks me. "How about we order pizza?" I offer and she smiles nodding. We head upstairs to her room. As I climb the stairs I think how this is the first time I will see her room. I wonder what it's going to be like. She opens the door and I step in her small room. the walls are white and she has a single bed in her room. She has deep purple coloured covers with a few small white cushions on her bed which I suspect is for decoration. She has a small wooden wardrobe in the corner of her room. White curtains that are pinned to the side. There's a small night stand by her bed that has a photo of her and Tori it was taken when they were kids on Halloween I smile as I see she was dressed as Cinderella. She really does love her Disney princess. Her walls are empty she has no T.V or anything in her room she does have some speakers that sit on top of a beaten old 3 draw dresser. opposite to her bed is a little dresser and chair with a large mirror there's a few item of make up neatly placed. 

She puts her bag by her bed and takes a seat on the bed leaning against the headboard. She must of noticed I was looking around. "I'm sorry its not much." She gives me an uneasy smile. "Its got everything it needs." I laugh out. "so what did you want to study first maths or history I'm failing both." I take a seat on her bed and grab my maths book. "Lets carry on with maths and we will see how we get on" she grabs her bag getting her note pad and maths book. "Thank you, for helping me study on a Friday night." I smile at her. "there's nothing else I would rather be doing" I playful nudge her. We study for a couple of hours and I think she's finally getting the hang of algebra. We order pizza which I refuse to let her pay for, we sit side by side on her bed with our legs stretched out. She grabs her laptop and loads up Netflix's. We start watching 'Just go with it' I haven't seen it before but it was surprising funny. When the film finishes we start talking till my phone beeps and I see a message from my mum, I forgot to tell them I was going to Elle's . 

Mum - Hey honey you ok? Just making sure your ok James said he took you to Elle's but that was about 4 hours ago. Do you want me to make you dinner? 

Me - Hey sorry mum forgot to tell you. I'm helping Elle study we have a maths test next week. Don't worry about dinner me and Elle ordered pizza I'll be home soon. 

"everything ok?" Elle asks me. "Oh yeah sorry that's just my mum checking in on me. She worries about me sometimes." She chuckles. "Will you get in trouble for being here so late with me?" I love how she's always so concerned about me. "No" I chuckle. "Elle there is something I wanted to ask you but I'm a little nervous." I admit. She looks at me innocently. "Well. I wanted to know if you wanted to.... erm.. go to dinner with me tomorrow night?" I stutter the last part out praying she says yes. "Course why were you nervous to ask me that? We just had dinner together tonight." 

"Elle I want it to be a date, date not a just a friend date..." I gulp waiting for her response. "Wait your asking me out on a date?" I nod my head yes. "Yes of course I would love too." She says and I breath out the breath I was holding. My hearts racing a little. We look into each others eyes before I glance down and see the time. "I guess I better be going." She nods and stand up off the bed. We head down stairs and she waits by the front door. "Thank you for helping me with maths tonight. And for everything you've done for my this past week. I honestly don't know how I'll ever thank you." she looks to the ground. Her hands fiddling with the hem of her top. "Knowing your happy is you thanking me." I whisper softly to her, making her look at me. I can feel the tension between us building up and its taking everything out of me to not kiss her. but if I start I wont be able to stop. I need to go home and take a cold shower. "Good night Elle. I will call you about tomorrow" I kiss her cheek and head off to the car where James is waiting for me.