Little Miss Perfect

Chapter 3

Chapter 3

"Bye, guys!" I called, getting into the car. Luke put the last of the luggage into the boot, and kissed my cheeks.

"Bye, lil' sis'" he said. I waved one last time, before the car took off. I was met by a guide in the airport, who helped me with my luggage, which was barely anything. I was willing to leave back most of my old life. In the airplane, I sat first class..As I had nothing else to do, I watched a random movie and soon the plane landed in New York. I was met by another chauffeur, who worked for my dad in his New York branch. I slept through most of the journey, and the chauffeur woke me up.

"We're here, Miss Mathews," he said.

"It's Miss Cole now" I corrected. I had wanted to change my last name, mainly because I didn't want to be recognized and my parents had picked Cole, because it was my grandfather's name.

The building was an old red brick school house, with an entrance for the girls' dormitories and boys' dormitories. I immediately knew that it would take me a while to learn the directions.

I was give instructions to go into the principal's office. The principal was a tall woman with the neatest bob and perfectly filed nails. I hated her immediately.

"Miss Santana Cole, I personally welcome you to Ruthstone Academy," Then she started going on about how great her school was. My parents had picked this school, and although we were paying for the fees, I was going to pretend that I was a scholarship student. The headteacher stopped talking and raised her eyebrows in a questioning manner.

"Sorry...I wasn't listening," I said sheepishly.

She pursed her lips. "Would you like me to assign someone to show you around during your first week here?"

"No, thanks," I said. "I'll manage fine with the map."

"Well, I do have someone to show you to your dormitory." she said. "Enjoy your stay here, Miss. Santana Cole. Bridgit is waiting for you outside my office,"

I nodded goobye to her and walked out of her office. There was a girl sitting outside. She had bright orange hair, geek glasses, red and green braces and was wearing bumblee-bee striped leggings with a colourful dress.

"Hey!"she said, smiling brightly."Santana? That's a pretty name. I'm Bridgit! I'll show you to your dorm. Want me to help you carry your bag?"

"No," I said. Her eyes dimmed.

"Are you sure. It look-" she asked

"I said no!" I snapped.

"Sorry," she muttered. "Manners cost nothing."

I sighed. "Just show me if you have to"

We walked up the stairs in an awakward silence. She guided me to another corridor.

"Okay, room 12-0-7. I think that your stuff will already be in there." she said.

"Yeah, thanks." I said.

The dorm was pretty basic, with a closet, dresser and bed, but it was large.

My phone buzzed in my pocket and I saw that the caller was my dad. I really couldn't be bothered to talk to him, even though the last time he had tried to call me before was months ago. I dumped my phone under my bed, quickly picked a book from my bag and walked out and onto the field. I had to go through a lot of corridors to even find my way out, so I guessed that I would probably be lost later. But that was later.

There was a soccer game going on the field, but I made my way towards an empty bench. Opening the book half-way, I skimmed through the words, getting bored. I whistled a random sound to myself. I was already missing Luke, Stacey and Brandon, but it felt a little better to be away from our house. I say house, because it was not really home. Not anymore.

The football rolled towards me. A tall kid with blonde hair and big eyes ran over and took the ball, then went back to the game again. This encouraged me to watch the game. Half the boys were wearing jackets, the other half weren't so I guessed that that's how they split the teams. I could also tell that the non-jacket team was losing badly. As the game progressed I started to pick out a few mistakes in footing that could be improved on. I watched Luke and Mark's friends play. Sometimes I would join in but that was very rare. Sam would always say that I wasn't pretty bad for a girl. Sam. I missed him. Especially lately, since it was autumn.

Autumn was always his favourite season, because although it was the end of summer, there will always be another summer. When I was in a bad situation, he would always say Autumn. My dad always thought that Autumn was a sad season, because it was when everything died. Autumn was also when Sam died. His death anniversary was 3 weeks back, around the time I was with Connor.

Thinking of Connor bought back a lump in my throat. How I trusted him.

Flashback

I sat on the sofa sipping a drink. It was summer and I was sweating. Most girls had tans and were showing a lot of skin, but since I had stayed indoors for most of the time, I had stayed the same pale tone. Now I felt self-conscious, sitting there with all these random girls. I did sneak into clubs at times, but it had been ages since I had been to a real teenage house party. I heard one of the girls talk about this and had thought of giving it a go.

The difference between here and a nightclub was that here everyone knew you. Everyone knew your story, and how your brother died, and how that changed your life. In a club, no one knows you, so no one can judge you. You can be messed up in any way, but be a completely different person for one night. And get drunk. And party.

There was also a bunch of older college boys. Most of them had girls with them, apart from a few. And most of the other single girls were looking at them. I caught one's eye. Blond. Tall. Muscular. Tanned. I saw a hint of something in his eyes, just before he walked over. And he smiled, hypnotizing me.

He offered his drink to me, but I shook my head. I never get drunk in a house party. You will never know what you will end up doing. He smiled.

"It's loud here, wanna go somewhere else?" he asked.

So that's how I ended up, sitting next to a random guy in a garden bench.

The ball hit my head, waking me up from my daydreams.

"Sorry, new girl," said the blond haired kid, as he ran up to me. I just looked at him, indicating that I was half pissed and half not bothered. He grinned at me, showing cute cheekbones and dimples. He indicated for me to throw the ball. I picked the ball up, which had rolled under the bench, and threw it at him. He raised his eyebrows, impressed by my throw. I gave him a dead look, and went back to the book. I heard him run away after that.

The wind blew harshly against my exposed skin. I was wearing a t-shirt and jeans, and it was October. I had to go in soon, in order to avoid hypo-thermia. I wondered what would happen to me here. In my old school. I used to be one of the popular girls, but that changed after Sam's accident. My best friends had tried to get me to talk them, but I pretended that they didn't exist. One of the got annoyed and told me how she felt about this, and I told her to leave me alone. They had done exactly what I had told them, expecting me to come back round one day. For months, they gave me party-invites, but I had ignored them. Slowly, they turned into my past. At first, I had kept my head down, and focused on my studies. Then I started smoking. By 16, I sneaked into nightclubs using fake ID's. But I always stayed in school, and had never ditched, because Sam always thought that ditching was terrible. I understood nothing the teachers said, always daydreaming or doodling, but somehow I ended up passing most exams.

When I was a kid, I wanted to be a ballerina, a fashion designer, a writer, an actress, a pop star and even a princess. As I grew older, my future grew empty, like a blank piece of paper. One one class assignment I had failed, and that required me to write about my future. When Sam died, I had stopped living.

"You not cold?" a deep voice asked. I jumped a little, and saw the blond haired kid behind me. I frowned and shook my head.

"You don't speak?" he asked. He was starting to annoy me. I looked down on my book.

"What's your name?" he asked, his voice a little more soft. "I'm Josh,"

"You don't need to know my name," I said, coldly.

"Fair enough," he said. "But I want to,"

"You don't always get what you want. Life should've taught you that." I replied. Life was the best teacher in the world. You make mistakes. Life teaches you not to do them again.

He sat silently, next to me. The wind blew, making me shiver.

"You're cold," he stated.

"I know that, thank you very much," I said. I stood up, and walked away. Life has taught me not to trust people. Like I said before, life is a very good teacher.