Unrequited Love

Chapter Two

“have an awesome first day in your final year,” he said with a smile on his face. I returned a half smile to him and got out of the car, facing the tall building in front of me with litters of students everywhere, giggling could be heard from every corner as I walked towards it, sounds of hands shaking each other, everyone seemed so happy to be back.

“Girl, I missed you so much,” I saw a couple friends hug each other. I never know what that feels like, having a friend I mean. I shake the thought off and head straight for my first class. I can most definitely pull through this year alone.

“Good morning class, welcome to your final year,” the lecturer stated. “This course is going to be more practical than theoretical. Which means, you’ll be working with partners.” I could hear students grumbling and I felt the same way. I didn’t want to have to talk to anyone, no one at all. “If you refuse to work together, you get an automatic F. And it won’t be for my course alone, the partner you’re assigned to will be your partner for every other courses you’ll be taking. Is that understood?” There was no response so he took his file from the table and began to list out the names of all the students and their assigned partners. I could feel my heart beating so hard against my chest out of anxiety, who was I going to be paired with? I hope it’s someone smart who likes to talk less and work more and minds their business. I hope it isn’t any of those McClaire twins, the queen bees of the school, and I hope for the life of me it isn’t Phil Jakes, the very loud, notorious playboy of our school. Always chews his gum so loud and is the desire of every girl.

“Layla Tim, your partner is…” my heart was beating faster and faster, I could hear it echo in my ears, my palm became so sweaty, I felt like I would pass out any second. “Philip Jacobs,” God, no, anybody but him.

“Who the hell is Layla?” I could hear his stupid loud voice two rows behind me. I said nothing, but I most certainly could feel the stares, I pulled the hood of my jacket over my head and sunk into my seat. There goes my plan of being completely invisible.

“the weirdo? Nah man, you can’t play me like that! You gotta give me a normal human being,” were the words that fell off his lips when he realized who Layla was.

“The goal of being paired with your partner is to see the behavioral change in human beings after being with people they aren’t familiar with. If the goal isn’t achieved, you fail this course. There will be no swapping of partners, no changing of topics, and definitely, no slandering your partners or else you both suffer for it. Quite unfair I know, but that’s my welcome gift you. Have a wonderful final year, first semester.” I could hear him grumbling from behind me and that made me feel worse. I could hear the people around him chuckling, the mean girls eyeing me up and down. God, why on earth do I have to go through this?

I was relieved when this class was over, i threw my books into my bag and headed for the door. I tripped over something and fell to the floor hitting my forehead on the hard floor. I could hear people laughing in the background, I tried reaching for my glasses as I couldn’t see without them,

“You shouldn’t have done that,” I heard someone’s voice, Phil’s voice. I felt a hand lift me from the floor and my glasses placed in my hand, “are you okay?” He asked me. I walked away from him,

“She’s such a weirdo, even her clothes look like she borrowed them from an orphanage,” I can tell from that squeaky voice it had to be one of the McClaire sisters.

“When do we meet up?” He said walking behind me. “We need to work together to pass this class and we won’t be passing of you remain dumb. Can’t you speak? Do you speak sign language? Do you not understand English?” He asked still walking behind me but I said nothing. My head still hurt very badly, “you know what? Go to hell! You deserve what you got today. I swear to God if I fail this course because of you, you’ll regret ever getting assigned to a guy like me!” He kept nagging but I blocked him off by plugging my ear buds in and putting the volume on the highest.

What a way to start my first day. After going unnoticed and having nothing putting me on any of their paths, the ugly duckling, Leyla, is now partners with the school’s most famous and eligible student, Phil, which makes me very vulnerable to the bullying of either of the McClaire sisters and his stupid friends.

I saw the driver waiting outside my building as I walked out. At least, he’s always on time to save me some embarrassment.