Spot On (The Badboy Chronicles)

“He resembles a Greek god.” These are words that Rhys Connell is used to hearing. One would think that the countless compliments and stares he recieves all day everyday might be a tad bit tiring, but to Rhys, it is not even close to that. The continuous attention fuels his drive. Now what is his drive exactly? Well, it is quite simple: to be loved but feared at the same time, to be given all the attention but not give any in return, and to be the greatest badboy in the history of all the badboys to have ever graced the halls of Phoenix High School. Rhys has grown up in this town of Denwood since he was a small boy. He still recalls the first day his younger brother, father and pregnant mother moved in here thirteen years ago; it still feels like yesterday. Ever since that day, a lot has happened to their family; his younger sister was born, his mother retired from her job as an emergency department nurse to become a full-time mom and his father became the owner of a successful auto dealership in the centre of town. And one more thing, Rhys became the most talked about student in his high school (and he still is). It almost feels like he is a celebrity around here, and he loves it! Every corner he turns toward, he finds eyes ogling him or scowls on envious faces directed at him. He usually brushes off the negative parts because there is never a perfect way to be well-known, there are haters everywhere. So, he just learned to deal with it. Despite the long list of people wanting to at least be his friend, Rhys is also known for keeping close to zero friends in his circle. As far as most people know, his circle consists of his siblings only; no one else has had the honour of calling Rhys his or her friend, because he does not have any. Rhys Connell is a complicated guy to be honest; he desires attention but yet he does not make use of it. He wants to be loved by everyone but wants nobody to enter his circle. In conclusion, Rhys is a closeted attention-seeking guy (quite the paradox). This new year may as well be the end of all these pampering; this year marks Rhys' final year in high school, the beginning of the end. The thought of having to start over and build a reputation may sound haunting to someone who may put themselves in his shoes, but he is not worried for even a second. He plans on not pursuing education further, he does not want to go to college; this is a decision which he has held onto for the past three years and nobody else has been let in on it, his family has been living under the illusion that just like all the anxious senior students, he will be applying at one of the colleges in the coming weeks. Rhys has not been an excellent student and neither has he been the worst student, he has been average all his schooling life and the thought of having to go and spend four years doing something that is not of value to him irks him to the core. More than anything, he wants to be successful, he wants to build a strong and financially stable life for him and perhaps for the family he may build one day; he plans on creating his own path and making reality of the ambitions and goals he had set for himself a long time ago. This year will hold many surprising discoveries for a great lot of these senior students at Phoenix, one of them being the new girl in town — Billie-Rose Thomas. Billie-Rose is a tall, gorgeous girl with a neatly cut pixie haircut and piercing medium brown eyes; her plan is to finish high school with good grades and start the pending stage of her life on a strong foundation without the hindrances from her past. However, being new in town is not the best way to go about her goals, and she is aware of it. If anything, being new in a place only creates curiosity among the individuals who have been there for longer than she has. She may try to divert the attention from herself by walking in the shadows and not stepping on anyone's toes, but it is highly impossible to go incognito when there is so much she needs to fill out in her resume before going off to college. So, she plans on starting off slow and taking baby steps to the top, she really wants to get to the top. At seven-thirty sharp, a black minivan parks in front of the mighty gates of her new high school, and only now does she feel the anxiety. “Go on sweetie, you'll be fine.” Billie-Rose's mother assures her while simultaneously giving her a gentle hand squeeze. Billie-Rose lets out a sigh, an attempt to relieve her stressful nerves. She knows that her mom is trying to make her feel better but the reality is: times have changed and now there is lot more work needed for one to fit in. Her mother has always been supportive of her and her sister, she has been a single mom for quite a while and in Billie's eyes, she has handled it with all class and grace. It is often hard to move on from heartbreak caused by someone who has been in one's life for a long time, but her mom put her feelings aside and sought to look out for her two daughters when their father left. Billie-Rose in particular had a hard time processing her parents' separation because she saw nothing wrong in their relationship, but the older she gets she realises just how toxic the relationship had been and the separation was the best thing to do. Billie has since vowed to not allow herself to fall into a toxic relationship; she hopes to find the right person who wants to be with her for the right reasons. “Alright mom. I'll text you if I need you to pick me up. I love you.” she announces and gives her mom a kiss on the cheek. Once she steps out of the car, a cool breeze brushes past her face and carries the short strands of hair from her forehead and into the air for a second or two. She closes her eyes and inhales sharply. You've got this, she reassures herself. She peels her eyes open and waves at the car window before stepping onto the sidewalk and allowing her mother to drive away. The time to start afresh has arrived. She is yet to register, so the first stop she has to make is at the school administrators office. Once she steps into the yard, unfamiliar sounds travel to her ears; the sounds of people chattering, basketballs bouncing, cheerleaders practicing, acoustic guitars chiming and harmonies from a group of singers startles her, it feels like a very long time since she had seen so many people doing so many things all at once. This past summer, her mom and sister spent it at her grandparents beach house by the coast; the peaceful sounds of oceans all day long was serene and witnessing all these people right now seems like a vigorous shake back into reality. She scans the yard, trying to find the entrance leading to the offices; one thing she does not plan on doing on her first day is making herself a centre of attention by asking for directions. After a few seconds she finally spots the bricked building, plastered on the top centre of the entrance doors is a great logo of a golden phoenix with the words ‘semper in ortu’ scribbled under it. Billie-Rose slowly closes her mouth which was hanging open a couple of seconds ago, the sight in front of her is magnificent, the perfectly sculptured logo and the foreign words (which she plans on finding out its meaning when she gets settled) screams ‘amazing’ in her ears, maybe the school is not bad at all. She slowly and carefully takes small steps towards the entrance, trying to not create a scene or attract unnecessary attention. Once she sets foot on the last and fourth step making up the stairs, she intertwines her fingers together to stop them from shaking and inhales sharply before stepping into the hallway. There are students plastered everywhere in the hallway, most of them standing next to their gold and grey lockers; gold and grey must be the school colours. On her left is the school offices, and Billie mentally rejoices for it, at least she does not have to look lost for too long. She immediately walks over to the offices until she comes to a halt in front of the reception, this is it! “Good day, my name is Billie-Rose Thomas. I am here to collect my class schedule.” she announces once she walks over to the lady at the reception. The woman, who has a perfectly gelled low bun and beautiful dark brown almond eyes, nods at her before walking over to a stack of papers behind her. When she returns, she has a sweet smile on her small face and she hands Billie a sheet of paper and a set of two keys through a slot in the glass separating them. “Welcome to the school Billie-Rose. This is your class schedule and keys to your locker, your locker number is on your schedule.” she says before walking back to the stack of papers behind her. “Here are the school rules and code of conduct, as well as a list of extracurricular activities you would like to take part in. The stations where they are based are all written in there. I hope you enjoy your year here, and once again, welcome!” she says while handing Billie another sheet of paper. “Thank you!” Billie exclaims before walking away. Locker 154, she wonders where that could be, she hopes that the locker is in this exact building; it would really be a bummer if she had to get out of here and search for the other building where the locker could possibly be, she refuses to look like a maniac and a newbie (although she is one) in front of all these people. Today may as well be one of her lucky days because as soon as she walks back into the hallway, she spots locker 151 situated directly opposite her; her locker must be nearby. She continues walking straight ahead, witnessing the locker numbers ascend with every step she takes until she stands in front of her own locker. So far so good, her first day has not been troublesome at all. She inserts the key into the keyhole and opens the tall gold and grey door. As expected, the locker is vacant but also very clean and she is already imagining the creative addition she can include in it. Whilst Billie-Rose is settling in and getting ready for her first class, a black and sleek motorcycle pulls up into the school parking lot. Evident from the sudden halt in the activities that were happening in the school yard, this can only signal the arrival of one person: Rhys Connell. For a moment, one could assume that a pause button had been pressed; for a lingering five seconds or so, the whole school yard goes mute and all eyes remain pinned onto the guy (dressed in all black) descending from his equally enigmatic motorcycle. Once he removes his helmet, one can swear that a collective swoon can be heard from a group of cheerleaders. And just like always, Rhys does not spare anyone a glance; from the moment he arrives, to the moment he enters the hallway and walks over to his locker. Life is full of coincidences, or maybe not; many believe that everything happens for a reason, nothing is a coincidence, whilst others believe that being at a certain place at a certain time can be purely coincidental. Billie-Rose's plan was to at least finish her first day at a new school without being noticeable at all, but could it be just a coincidence that the most talked about student at Phoenix has the locker 155? When Rhys stops in front of his locker, he expects the girl rummaging through her bag to step away or at least give him a glance and gasp, because she is standing in front of him. When he sees no reaction from her after a while, he decides to get her attention. He flings his locker door open and he assumes that she would get out of the way to avoid the swinging door but to his dismay she does not even flinch, only until door collides with the left side of her head does she quickly step aside. “Ow! What the hell?!” she shrieks as she clutches the side of her head and sends glares directed at him. He slowly pulls the door to his locker towards him and quietly closes it, all the time his eyes not diverting from hers. To say that he feels sorry is an understatement, he is completely mortified. Sure, he wants to be feared by everyone but not by initiating violence and as false as it may seem, he did not intend on hitting her with the locker. But for Rhys, his ego is far too important to take blame for something that is entirely his fault, so he resorts to keeping a taut face and uttering no words. If looks could kill, Rhys would be long dead. Billie continues to send dangerous daggers at the boy in front of her but he seems unshaken. What kind of madness is this? She rolls her eyes before slamming her locker door shut, the action sends a loud noise down the hallway and all the students whose full attention was directed at the two wince from the sudden change in air vibrations. “Stupid i***t!” she hisses, loud enough for him to hear. She walks past him, making sure to collide her right shoulder with his and hoping that he would take a hard fall. As she disappears through the hallway in search of her homeroom class, Rhys tries his best not to look behind him and at her retreating figure, he slowly clenches his fists, closes his eyelids and inhales sharply. Once he reopens his eyes and unclenches his fists, he fixes the backpack strap on his left shoulder and walks out of the main building. The hallway remains silent, everyone tries to grasp a hold of the events that just unfolded but no one utters a single word and by the time the first bell rings, everyone retreats to their respective homerooms and it is as if nothing even happened, just like every other time someone had tried to embarrass Rhys. ——— SPOT ON ——— By the time lunch arrived, everyone was talking about the new girl in Phoenix. Though they managed to keep the incident with Rhys out of their mouths, many were surprised by how Billie-Rose had behaved towards Rhys; most of the students in this school fear him, not out of fright but out of respect. Rhys is someone who carries himself with so much pride and elegance, he takes advantage of his great looks and physique to spark interest among the students of Phoenix. So, many were surprised by the fact that Billie did not swoon over him; actually, this is what has been dancing in Rhys' mind since the altercation. She did not even show any interest in his looks or even show any sign of being uncomfortable under his intense stare, all he received from her was an anger-filled glare and a hard shoulder nudge, she forcefully bumped her shoulders into his! For the whole day until lunch, Rhys started coming up with ways to cross paths with her again but this time to create a mutual ground; he is aware that she is new at the school and for that reason he wants to make sure that the dynamics do not change. He is the badboy (aka unofficial king) of this school, and as much as he could care less about others (a few) not being very fond of him, he does not want to paint a picture that portrays him as the major enemy and that she has to feel the need to fight him all the time; she can hate him yeah, but he wants zero to none interactions between them in the near fututre. When he spots her coming out of the drama building and heading towards the cafeteria, he immediately picks himself up from the bench he was sitting on and walks in the direction the she is headed. Once he approaches her, he is hesitant but he decides to face whatever is coming; he reaches out his right hand and wraps it around her left upper arm, causing her to come to an abrupt stop. She immediately turns to him, anger flaring from her face. The intensity of it increases once she realises who is holding her back, she immediately yanks her arm away from his grasp and looks around them, hoping that there is no crowd starting to gather, she has already stirred up enough curiosity about her.. To her satisfaction, most of the students seem to be ignoring them, and it is only because Rhys is glaring at whoever's eyes land on the two. “Can I talk to you?” he asks, in a low voice. The anger on her face does not dissipate and she cannot believe what he is asking her, she wants nothing to do with him. “I do not want to speak to you…” she hisses, and turns around, ready to leave. He pulls on her upper arm, stopping her once again. “If you want me to beg you, I won't. This is the last time I am asking nicely, I need to talk to you!” he says, his voice a bit raised from the last time. Her eyes become larger from bewilderment. Did he just say that he is not going to beg her? Who does he think he is? He is the one who wants to speak to her, yet he is making it seem like she is the one who wants his attention. She uses her right hand to grab ahold of his which is holding onto her upper arm and yanks it away; she takes a step away from him. Her mouth opens up to say something to him, but she immediately closes her mouth, shakes her head and walks past him, making sure to give him a shoulder nudge again. She is not one to tolerate such behaviour from men. Rhys stands in the same spot, for a minute or so. He does not know how to react, he has never been walked out on by a female; the fact that she did it twice is even more painful. For the first time ever, Rhys feels like he is at the mercy of somebody, and he hates it! His pride has taken a big hit and he cannot just let her get away with it. He deserves to have the last word, not it being the other way around. A chuckle escapes his lips and he briefly runs his right hand through his short hair before turning around to face the direction in which she walked away. “You really want to play that game huh?” he mutters under his breath. “I hope you have enough to go all the way through.” He removes the leather jacket that previously hugged his body in all the right ways before walking over to the bench he was sitting on, he grabs the helmet which he left laying on the bench and fits it perfectly on his head, then he walks over to the parking lot and mounts his sweet ride before driving away. Now, are coincidences still valid in these kind of situations? Or is it just fate bringing two unlikely people together? This may be a start of something new but does anything good come out of a rocky start?