Fallen in deep

Chapter 8 - Life was all good until...

**Ella's POV**

A few weeks had passed and already the first month was just about over, maybe this will be a quick year after all. In school Bethany was giving me daily updates with the comings and goings of the school which included Hannah and Jason breaking up for the 100th time, Mr Davies drinking on the job-No surprise there and of course Zane! He was the hot topic of conversation and everyone seemed to be keeping a close watch on him.  Bethany informed me of the girls he has hooked up with and who he's been hanging around with, there was stories about him beating some guy up the other weekend and that is why he wasn't in school for a few days but who knows I've been staying clear.

Chemistry is improving too, Daniel is starting to make a bit more effort which is nice but part of me still feels awkward since he was a jerk to me before, he even asked me how my first party was, I couldn't even remember seeing him there as there were so many new people. When Zane could be bothered showing up for class he just sat opposite on the other table sometimes glancing over, probably trying to intimidate me.

At home I had enjoyed the occasional family dinner with Mum and Dad, they worked away a lot which I understood but they made up for it when they came back, I had even been shopping with Mum and Bethany over the weekend and enjoyed face masks and movies later that night. Life was good just now!

It was Thursday, just one more day to go to Friday, Bethany had already picked out her outfit for Josh's end of the month party - As if he actually needed a reason to have a party, he had one whenever he wanted to.

 I hate to admit it but I was actually looking forward to it, I enjoyed meeting the girls from last time and I was sensible enough only having one alcoholic drink when the rest was juice. Bethany was more adventurous  than me and had a few more.

I was feeling happy today so actually took careful consideration for a change to think what I was going to wear for school. I chose quarter length tight jeans with a white flower cami strappy top which covered my waist with my favourite white pump shoes and a thin cardigan.

Chemistry was my first subject, it had just gone 9am, I didn't have to worry about Zane being in as it was too early in the morning for him to show his face- it's alright for some to just wonder in whenever they feel like it and for some reason Mr Bain seemed to always let him off with it- Most likely frightened of him as there are stories circulating that he punched one of his last teachers.

Mr Bain handed out textbooks asking us to share, luckily I had my own as Daniel wasn't here, just then the door bursts open and in  walks a very sleepy looking Zane.

"How nice of you to join this morning Mr Hardy" Mr Bain said sarcastically

"Take a seat and..oh wait.. you will have to sit with someone with a text book as there are none left, there's Daniel's seat free have a seat beside Ella"

Oh great! I thought my awkward encounters were no more. Zane pulled out the chair and slumped down.

"Now class listen up, you are going to do a paired graded assignment"

The whole class groaned,.."You will be working with the person beside you. I want you to firstly copy this whole passage from the book, then next week you are going to complete a practical experiment  before finishing a knowledge test so I suggest you work with each other to study hard"

Each pairing had a different topic to focus on, this prevented people copying from each other and actually forced people to work together, I sighed thinking What ever did I do to receive this bad karma.

A hand leaned over grabbing the underneath my chair moving me closer.

"Your going to have to come  a lot closer so we can both see the book" Zane said sharply

The task couldn't of been easier, like Mr Bain said all I had to do was copy the passage and assignment instructions from the textbook  but that was proving to be extremely difficult as my thoughts were elsewhere. Being in such close proximity to Zane got me thinking about that night at the party when he stroked my arm and breathed on the back of my neck. He most likely doesn't remember it since he was drinking and I can smell the same fragrance as he had on that night, it was so distracting that I couldn't stop making mistakes and had to score out my work.

"Mind somewhere else?" His head turned to mine.

"Am just tired" Taking a new page, a warm flush appeared on my cheeks.

Still keeping my head down I thought about this assignment, I didn't particularly want to work with Zane but I also didn't want to be left to do it myself, I plucked up the courage to discuss it.

"So.. this  project, I can't do it all by myself, will you be in class? because if not I can ask if we should change partners or I can ask when Daniels  back?.."

"I'll do it okay!" he snapped a little louder than what I was expecting., I wasn't the only one who noticed, Ivy and Andrew were staring across the table.

"Okay ..well..we can go to the library one lunch next week? Most people will be going there anyway to study and get their resource books" I thought that would be a good place to start

"If you think I am spending my lunch break in the library then you thought wrong, not a chance, I've got better things to be doing  on my lunch break" 

I should of known, Oh like what?.. smoking weed?, fighting?, hooking up? I almost blurted out my thoughts, instead I just stared down at my desk. I would be lying if I said I wasn't annoyed.

He let out a long sigh " We will just do it one night after school alright?"

My head shot up "What?!!" was he actually being serious?

"Look. I'm not being seen in the library so take it it leave it"

"Fine." I mumbled

I didn't have much choice or say in the matter, I didn't really want to see him after school but I also didn't want to fail, truth be told I also couldn't see someone like him in the library either,  it would be damaging to his reputation and he doesn't seem to take things seriously anyway. Either that or he  just didn't want to be seen with me.

"So when.."I slowly whispered

"I'm busy tonight, I'll be in touch" was all he said when the bell rang for the next class.

***