I Fell in Love Again

-Iris- “Iris I swear, If you don’t wake up, I’ll take away your drawing supplies!” My mom yells as she keeps shaking me. Hearing that, my eyes shot awake. “Okay okay, I’m awake now!” I said as I got up and stretched my arms. “Get ready for school, breakfast is waiting for you downstairs” she kissed me on the forehead and then left. “Ugh, I really don’t want to go to school today” I groaned. I got out of bed to get ready for school. I went to the bathroom to brush my teeth and wash my face. After that, I quickly change into a white shirt with a black jacket. I put on a pair of black ripped jeans with white sneakers and got my white and gray striped pattern with burnt orange straps backpack and went downstairs to eat breakfast. I went to the dining room and saw that my plate was already on the table, I pulled the chair and sat down. She made pancakes with eggs and bacon. “Mom, you know I don’t eat bacon anymore” I groaned. “Oh, I forgot but why did you stop eating bacon in the first place?” she asked as she took the bacon and ate it. “It’s because of dad! He showed me a video of pigs squealing as they were being turned into bacon and ham,” I shivered “It traumatized me” Mom laughed “Then what about the other animals?” “Show me a video of them then I’ll stop eating meat for as long as I live” Mom just kept laughing. “Iris, hurry up and eat fast or you’ll be late for school,” she said as she calmed down. “Ugh,” I groaned as I ate my breakfast. “I don’t even want to go to school” “Hush. Be grateful that you even have the opportunity to go to school when others can’t. And besides, you’re in your senior year. Just this year to go and you’re done with school.” she nagged. “I know I know, you don’t have to tell me twice” I murmured as I rolled my eyes. “What was that?” she growled. I gulped down my food as fast as I can. “Uh, nothing. Oh, look at the time, I got to go. Bye mom, love ya.” I kissed her on the cheek and as I was leaving, I saw my brother, Darrell, coming down. I usually called him Rell, “Good morning and bye Rell,” I hurriedly said to him. “Uh, bye?” he said. I could hear my mom hollering out, “Have a good day at school!” I sighed. I hope so… I usually walk to school since it’s a couple of blocks away. I like to observe people, I think they’re interesting About a few minutes later, I arrived at Ravenwood High School, the school that I currently go to. As I walked in, I saw a bunch of people just hanging out by the school gate and talking to each other until I saw that girl. I felt multiple emotions at once, I felt upset but mad as well. Whatever, I thought. I put on my hoodie over my head so nobody would notice me. As I went inside, I saw two of my childhood best friends in the world, Brianna and Arianna, I usually call them Bri and Ari. They’re twins, so sometimes they say things simultaneously and at times, it can be creepy. I walked up to them and pulled down my hoodie, “Good morning, Bri and Ari” “Good morning!” they greeted me simultaneously with a smile. “So, what’s going on?” I asked. They looked at each other and then looked back at me. “Uh, nothing,” Ari said “Yeah, nothing,” Bri said “Okay then…” “Ha-ha, you guys are hilarious!” I heard someone laughing. I turned around to see who was laughing that loudly, it was that girl, Ivy. Just for a split second, we had eye contact until she looked away. But her eyes… she gave me a cold icy stare. What was that? I can’t believe she’s acting like that after what she did. Regardless, I should forget about her. I looked back at Ari and Bri. “Have you guys done the physics homework? Number eight is really hard to understand…” I went on but Ari interrupted me. “Are you okay?” she asked “What are you talking about?” I darted my eyes. I knew what she was talking about, but I didn’t want to talk or even think about it. “You know, about Rya-” Ari’s sentence was interrupted by Bri. “Don’t mention that guy’s name!” Bri fumed. “You guys… I’m okay so let’s not talk about him.” “But…” Ari tried to continue but I changed the subject. “Oh, look at the time, first period is going to start soon. Bye, see you later.” I waved goodbye to them. They waved back. I started heading to my first-period class. Ryan… was my boyfriend, well ex-boyfriend. We were in love with each other, or I thought he loved me, but I guess I was wrong. He broke my heart by cheating on me with Ivy, the girl from earlier. Are all men like this? Just use girls for their personal amusement? That is why I decided that… I wasn’t paying attention and bumped into a boy. “Oh, sorry” I apologize. “No-” I left before he could finish his sentence. …to never fall in love again. The first bell rung. Oh no, I got to hurry up, I don’t want to mess up my perfect attendance rate. I was just about to enter my class when I bump into someone. I looked up to see who it is and to my surprise, it was Ryan. Well, not really a surprise since we have the same first period. “Sorry” I coldly said. “Iris… Can we talk?” I ignored him and started to enter the classroom, but I felt a strong grip on my arm. “Let me go! I have nothing to discuss with you.” I struggled to get out of his grip. “Wait, just give me one minute” he pleaded. I have two minutes before the second bell rings so I decided to give him a chance only because he wouldn’t let me go. “Fine. You have exactly one minute” I reluctantly gave in. He finally let go of my arm. “Thank you.” “You have 57 seconds” I counted down. “Look, I’m sorry for what I did” That made me even angrier “51 seconds” “So please don’t take this out on my dad” “What? What do you mean?” “My dad works for your dad so ever since we broke up…” “40 seconds” “ He has been having a hard time at your dad’s company and they’re close to firing him. Please don’t take it out on my dad.” he appealed What is this? After what he did… How could he be so shameless? “Time’s up.” “But wait, it hasn’t even been a full minute yet.” “I can’t even stand to even look at you even for a minute,” I said as I started to walk into the classroom. “What about…” “Also, that is my dad’s affairs. Your dad must be not good at his work. I don’t bring personal matters to my dad’s work. Unlike you, I’m not so shameless.” He didn’t say anything after that. I’m so mad at him. How could I have been so blind to not see him like this? I walked in and sat down at my table. The bell rang and class was starting. Made it in time. This class’s subject is professional communication, it’s not my favorite but it’s not like I don’t dislike it. I would always partner up with Ryan and it would be fun. I sighed, I need to forget about him. “Good morning, class!” my energetic teacher, Ms. Clark greeted. “Good morning!” The class said in unison. “Okay class, we will start-” Right after she said that, the door opened. A boy came in, I was surprised to see who it was. It was the same boy who I bumped into the hallway earlier. But I don’t remember seeing him around or heard of a new student coming. I guess Ms. Clark must have not known he was coming too because she looks surprised. “Who are you?” She asked. He just stood there before answering, “Ashton James, I’ve been absent from school for several months,” he said in a deep, husky voice. He handed Ms. Clark some paper and she read it, then she put the paper on the desk. “Okay, follow me” she left the classroom and he followed suit. As soon as the door closed, people started whispering. “Is that the infamous Ashton James?” A girl whispered. “Yeah, I think so. He’s a delinquent, I heard the reason he hasn’t shown up at school is that he had to transfer to another school for beating up someone so badly, he almost died.” He feels familiar… Wait, I think I remember him. He used to be a friend of Ryan but they stopped talking, I don’t remember why. “Ryan, didn’t he used to be your friend?” a boy asked him “Yeah, but we don’t talk anymore,” he answered. They just kept chatting and talking about the rumors about him until Ms. Clark came back with Ashton. They finally quiet down, it was getting noisy. “Okay class, as you already know, this is Ashton James. He has been in another school for a few months. I hope you guys help him settle in again.” then she turned to him, “Now, where do you want to sit?” “I don’t care, I can sit anywhere” he responded I think she looked in my direction. The seat next to me was empty, Ryan used to sit there when we were dating but after we broke up, he moved to be with his friends. I hope he doesn’t sit there, I don’t want to attract attention again… “You can sit over there, next to Iris” she pointed to me. Ugh, you have got to be kidding me! Just my dumb luck. I hope it doesn’t get worse. But I regretted saying that. “Also Iris, since he hasn’t been to school for a while, would you be a kind student and guide him to his classes?” she asked. “Uh, sure?” I said “Alright, you can go to your seat now” He walked over to the seat next to me and sat down. “Okay, class…” Ms. Clark went on. I was looking at her but I was too distracted to pay attention to her. “Psst,” a voice said. Huh? Was it him? I didn’t think he was the type to talk to a girl like me. I’ll just ignore it. “Psst,” a voice said again Oh, I guess it was him, I turned to look at him and he passed a note to me. The note said “Hey, nice to meet you, Iris. I’m Ashton, in case you weren’t paying attention.” I wrote back. “Yeah, I was paying attention. Nice to meet you too, now let’s stop and pay attention.” He read it and look at me then wrote something back. “Oof, so cold and besides I can tell, you’re not paying attention either. Something on your mind?” Huh? How did he know I wasn’t paying attention? Was it that obvious? I looked at him and he was smiling. I just took the paper and silently ripped it then I started to actually pay attention to Ms. Clark. Geez, what did he think he was doing, trying to woo me? As if, I’m not like those girls, who fall for guys like him so easily.