Love At The Coral Reefs

Chapter 1

"Ouch..." Eleanor Winters cried as she fell on the floor after hitting what seems like a wall that sprouted infront of her. 'Great just great, first day of the last high school year and I am already meeting the floor!' She rolled her eyes.

The books that Eleanor, the golden-brown haired girl carried came crashing down onto the floor, making a huge ruckus in the hallway of Symphonic High School.

The laughters and the talks of the many students in the hallway seemed to come to a complete halt and all the students from that area had their attention fixated on her.

She silently cursed her small stature of 160cm for being the fault of always letting her become the receiver of pain as well as attention that she did not want.

"You are the one who bumped into me and now you are acting like the victim!" The sarcastic, cold voice of a male reached her ears.

Eleanor looked up for what seemed like endlessly until she reached a face and let out a surprised gasp. The tongue in cheek, the mahogany hair, the two piercings on the right ear and the three piercings on the left ear only meant one thing.

She then decided to curse herself again, screw her and her luck for bumping into the bad boy of the school, Daniel Thorn Romero. Rich, arrogant and cold were the traits of the male infront of her.

Even in her school which was known to only have rich students attending, Daniel and his group of friends were known to be from a much higher class than the rest of the others.

The 182cm male stared at her, with annoyed eyes, but did not make any move to pick her up or apologize. "You need to stop thinking to yourself and stand up so that I can go my way!" Again the same irritated voice reached her ears.

She certainly did not like the tone of the guy infront of her and she did something that she might regret in the future, but at the moment she could not give a damn. "Well, you have eyes, you can go around me. You don't have to stand there and ruin my scenery. I think the scenery without you is better. Goodbye."

The boy infront of her looked at her like she was crazy and with unbelieving eyes. Because Daniel was sure that with his reputation in the school, every girl in the school is head over heels for him and everyone favours him. So from the disrespect he garnered from the girl, irritation sprouted within his heart at the girl who looked at him like he was the garbage that she wants to get rid of.

Unable to stand the anger in him anymore, he decided he would let the girl off as he promised he would never bend his principle, which was never to argue or make fun of a girl. He gave a quick scoff and stormed away without saying a thing.

She smiled to herself, 'right Eleanor, you are doing the right thing, you must not let others bully you. What an irritating guy!' She cheered herself up and stood up ignoring the glances and whispers surrounding her.

Some girls looking at her with jealous eyes and some boys sneering at her. She now remembered why she hated school so much.

Eleanor almost fell back down if not for the immediate gripped on her arm. She turned around and saw her trusted friend Beatrice who bore a horrified expression on her face. 'Great now my ankle is sprained...'

"Oh my God, El, do you even know who you were talking to, I would have peed my pants. But the important question is should we go to the Doctor Office, your ankle seems bad!" Beatrice whisper-shouted into her ears, making her wince at the sudden sound.

She glanced at her ankle which was swollen and then groaned. "I know who I was talking to...but he didn't have to be so rude. Thank you for catching me Bea, I think we have to go to Doctor's Office to get my ankle fix. Screw bad boys and their bad appearances at different parts of the school."

Beatrice continued to look terrified but still managed to slowly maneuvered Eleanor towards the direction of the Doctor's Office.

~~~~~

"Sorry Mr Jackson, I fell and my ankle became swollen, so I had to trouble Beatrice to bring me to the Doctor's Office." Both girls were now at the entrance of the class, with many pairs of eyes staring at them.

Thankfully, Mr Jackson, their smiley form teacher was a reasonable man, "Is alright, I was just rearranging the class seating arrangement for the year. Please take care of your ankle." Then to her horror, Mr Jackson continued, "Eleanor you sit beside Daniel and Beatrice you sit next to Marshall, now hurry along. Your first class is starting soon."

The beaming face of Mr Jackson made it difficult for her to disagree so she just agreed while crying internally. After one last glance at the similar expression on Beatrice face, Eleanor made her way to the table that Mr Jackson pointed.

As she came nearer to the table, a smirking face came into view and he even tilted his head gazing at her amusedly.

Daniel was holding his laughter as he saw the constipated look on the females face as she walked towards him after being told of her new seating. 'Eleanor, huh, we are going to have so much fun...' He thought, he was not going to bully her, bullying is under him. But he is going to make her become friends with him...because she was different from all the other girls around him.

However, he was surprised by his own thoughts, he was always the one rejecting the advances how did it change for him to be the one now advancing on a girl he just took notice of this morning.

He never paid attention to any girl in his class, especially quiet ones so he did not even notice her in his class. For him school was for studying so that he could get out of his father's hold...

His group of good friends, Marshall, Terrius, Samuel, Benjamin and Henry looked at him with eyebrows raised and mirth filled eyes, he just smirked back at them, mouthing to them, 'She is out of bounds for you fools!'

Daniel almost laugh out loud at how all of them nodded their heads obediently at him and then returned their gazes to their books. Then he turned his attention back to the girl.

Eleanor sat down and refused to look at her table partner who was now staring at her blatantly, causing her to feel uncomfortable. 'Why did I annoy him, now he won't let me off.' She wanted to burst into tears at this point.

She was already the target of a few girls in the class and now they were going to target her even more because of him as they are head over heels for him. Eleanor did not notice she was grabbing onto her bag straps tightly out of anxiety if not for the calm low voice that startled her.

"You need to let go of your bag straps and take out your books, class is starting soon." Turning around, Eleanor almost bumped into the face of Daniel who was looking innocently back at her. 'When did he get so near to me!'

She let go of her bag straps, embarassed, and took out her books for the next class ignoring the male beside her who seemed to be enjoying her discomfort.

~~~~~

Unpredictable was an understatement to describe the fox who sat next to her. Daniel did not apologize to her or talk to her for the rest of the lessons, instead his whole attention seemed to be on the lessons.

However, nearing the end of Mr Mark's Chemistry class, he took out a bottle of medicine from his bag and placed it on her table. "For you, your ankle must hurt bad. I always use this medicine if I bruise while dancing so it is good."

Eleanor gawked at him in disbelief, 'he dance? my my...wait why is he so nice does he want something from me...what if it is not medicine but chemical...' she thought. Then pushed the bottle of medicine back to his table. "No, I am fine, you can take it back."

"Well, I can take it back and help you apply or you take it yourself and apply. Chose one?" The lighthearted way he spoke did not lessen the underlying threat in his voice.

She scowled deeply at him then grabbed the medicine and placed it back on her table. "Happy now, perverted fox." 'Right, there goes my clever mouth.' Eleanor thought waiting for a reaction from the fox who just merely gave her a flirty smile that annoyed her.

"Perverted fox, that is new..." he raised his eyesbrows wiggling them.

"Ringggggggggg..." the lunch bell rang, saving her out of the misery she was in. She almost ran out of the class, but composed herself as she had a swollen ankle and walked out of the class with Beatrice hurrying after her gently holding her.

"Make sure you put the medicine." The voice over her shoulders almost made her jump. Eleanor turned around to see Daniel towering over her, holding out the bottle of medicine. 'Damn his height and long legs', she thought with exasperation.

Eleanor really wanted to swear at Daniel at that moment. He was not suppose to care, he was suppose to be a bad boy she dislikes, not turn her life into those cliche romance novels that she read every time she was bored at home. Where a handsome, rich and young bad boy falls in love with a good girl.

For crying out loud, she was eighteen this year and all she wanted to do was score well enough to get into a good University. Not have a conversation in the middle of a hallway with a bad boy persisting her to take his damned bottle of medicine.

So she snatched the bottle out from the outstretched palm and hobbled her way to the canteen with a very curious Beatrice looking at her for answers.

~~~~~

"Right, this is it, there goes my life..." Eleanor groaned as a highly elated Beatrice giggled.

"Stop being a drama queen, it is not so bad and his medicine is good right." Beatrice asked, her face all knowing.

Eleanor had no reply to refute Beatrice as the medicine did work wonders and the aching feeling in her ankle did disappear by a little margin, as she could now rolled her ankles without it causing too much pain.

"What if he ruins my life because I told him he was ruining my scenery!" The helplessness in her voice was clearly heard by Beatrice as she giggled then suddenly choked on her ice cream.

"YOU WHAT, SIS TELL ME YOU DID NOT SAY THAT!" The sudden screaming of Beatrice made every head in the canteen turn towards them and Eleanor who tried to shut Beatrice's mouth with her palm became the center of attention for the third time that day.

Eleanor wanted the earth to split and a hole to appear so that she can crawl into it and hide herself forever from the stares of the people around her.

"All of you better return to your food in the count of three. Three...two..." Without him even continuing to one, everyone gazes return back to their trays and she knew very well that the calm deep voice belonged to Daniel.

Looking back up Eleanor met the eyes of Daniel who smiled smoothly at her mouthing. 'You are very welcome!'

"Oh my gosh, did you see that, sis either we are both hearing things or he is protecting you what a lucky girl!" Beatrice gushed, now speaking much softer much to Eleanor's relieved.

"He most probably is going to get rid of me that is why he is being so nice." She shook her head at Beatrice, totally unconvinced by the sudden kindness he was showering her with.

Beatrice grabbed onto her hands, "You need to stop overthinking so much, maybe he just felt bad for making you fall. Anyways for your own sake having him around is much better, at least the girls will stop trying to bully you."

"Bea, they will bully me even more because of him and I can take care of myself. I don't need his help, there is no free lunch in the world. I don't want to owe him anything." She mumbled, it was only the first day of school and she already had a painful headache.

"El..." Beatrice started but seeing that Eleanor had stopped eating, she continued, "Let's just eat, everything will be just fine."

Eleanor decided that she was going to steer clear of Daniel, she did not need more problems on her plate and if he was playing with her she does not want to go through the heartache.