Little Miss Perfect

Chapter 4

Chapter 4

"Yeah, I'm fine Luke," I said.

"Are you sure? 'Coz-" he replied

"Hey, Luke. Why aren't you in school?" I asked.

"Oh, well, I ditched," he said.

"Get back there now. Tell Stace and Brandon that I said hi. I gotta' go to class now, bye!" I said.

"Have fun being the new girl, bye Sandy!" he said and hung up.

I grabbed my bag and keys and left the house. I wrote down the dorm number on my hand, because I didn't want to repeat what happened last night again. I got lost, and ended up in the school office asking for my dorm number.

The corridors were literally empty, so I must have been either really late, or really early. When I went to the class room, it was empty so I just sat down at the back. Later, a few kids began to enter, and they looked like the were the over-achieveing students, keen to be in class early. Some sat at the front, some sat at the back. One boy came and sat my me. Instead of making a conversation, he pulled out some notes and studied. I sat there playing with my fingers. Soon, the class room began to fill, and positively, no one noticed me. The teacher also came in and introduced the topic we were studying. Then began the roll call. He frowned at one name, which I guessed was mine.

"Miss Santana Cole?" he called. The class looked around.

"Here, sir," I called. All eyes were looking at me. The guy who sat next to me frowned slightly.

"Oh, I see, you were the new student the principal mentioned," he said and carried on.

The whole lesson was pretty much boring, because I had done the stuff back home. The guy next to me also found the worksheet easy, and soon we were just sitting there in an awkward silence. I snuck a look at him. He had dark hair, and pale skin, with freckles on his nose, lightly spreading to his cheeks. He wore glasses, and that was the only thing making him look like a nerd.

Then the teacher asked us to swap sheets and mark each others. He swiftly switched the sheets. I saw that his name was Cory Brandon, as it read on the sheet. The teacher read out the answers, and he got all of them correct. I ticked it neatly and handed it back to him.

"100% Well done," he said, and flashed me a blink-it-and-you-miss-it smile.

"Same. Congrats," I said.

"So...um...what brings you to this school?" he asked. I was surprised that he hadn't pestered me with questions earlier.

"Scholarship," I answered. He nodded and turned away. One question, that's it. I was starting to like him a little. The teacher took in the worksheets, and dismissed us shortly after the bell went. I packed my bag, then re-packed it waiting for the class to empty. I didn't want to be shot with questions after the first lesson. Then I walked up to the teacher and asked him about something, pretending I hadn't understood. He explained it to me, then smiled.

"They'll stop pestering you in a couple of days," he said. "New kids are pretty common."

"Thanks, sir," I said and walked out quickly. The corridor was pretty much empty now. I found my way to the next lesson. The warning bell went off, just as I entered the class room.

"Miss Cole, welcome to English" said the teacher, a young blonde woman.. "You're late, but I'm letting you off today."

I nodded and she pointed at an empty seat in the middle of the room. The person sitting next to the empty seat was the blond guy in the field from yesterday. He smiled as I sat down.

"Remember me?" he whispered. I stayed silent. The whole lesson, he tried to talk to me, but I ignored him, or gave him short replies.

"OK, kids. Your project for the next month is to work on a magazine. I'll give you a sheet containing all the information about this project. You will be working in groups of four," explained the teacher. The class started to pick out groups in a whisper.

"I will be picking the groups," she said. The class groaned. "We know what happened last time I let you pick groups," she said, looking at a bunch of girls sitting at the back of the room. Then she started reading out the names.

"Santana Cole, Nathan Bradshaw, Josh Cooper and Cory Brandon will be group B" she read. Josh -the boy from the field- grinned at me. Cory came over and sat down opposite us. A blonde girl came over to us.

"It's such a shame that you have to work with these losers, babe," she said to Josh. "But on the bright side, you'll be chilin' while the nerds do the work." Then she whispered something into his ear, making him smile. He whispered something back, and she giggled off.

"Just to make it clear, Cooper, if you don't do any of the work, we won't put your name on the project," said Cory. He sounded confident and smooth. I gave him a grateful smile.

"If I were you, I'd be more worried if Little Miss Zip Mouth will speak, or if big brother will turn up," he said. I narrowed my eyes at him. I was also wondering who big brother was.

"You don't need to speak to make a goddamn magazine, and I don't give a s**t if Nathan turns up at all," hissed Cory.

The door opened, revealing a tall, muscular guy.

"Speak of the devil," whispered Josh, revealing that the guy was Nathan. He looked tough and had a bad boy stride to him.

"A word please, Nathan," said the teacher.

"Sure, Miss," he said before stepping out of the room.

He returned later, with a smirking face. He pulled out a chair and sat next to Cory. He nodded at Josh, ignored Cory and planted his eyes on me.

"New girl, huh?" he said. I looked at down at my notes.

"Great team we make huh? The school's bad boy, geek kid and Little Miss goody two shoes?" said Josh.

He had got me completely wrong. Little Miss Goody Two Shoes? I was hardly good.

"You calling me a good girl?" I asked him. He raised an eyebrow. I lifted my sleeve up to show one of my tattoos. It was a black eagle, carrying a heart. I also had a Celtic pattern on my back, a daisy chain around my ankle, the word 'Autumn' on the top half of my back and Sam's name in a heart on my collarbone. I had gotten these with a fake ID.

He smirked.

"One tattoo doesn't prove that you're not a good girl, babe," he said.

"I have no reason to prove anything to you," I replied, just as the bell went off. I grabbed my bag and walked out of the room.

"Hey! Wait!" someone called. "Santana!"

I turned around to see Cory. He ran up to me.

"I just want you to know that no one speaks to Cooper like that when he's flirting with a girl," he said. "Well, no one ever did."

I frowned. "He was flirting?"

"Yeah, he called you babe. You didn't blush either, so that was cool," he said. I nodded.

"So, where you going? I'm heading to the library," he said.

"I'll follow you there," I said.

"Great! I have a friend who loves the library!" he said.

"Wait...I'm your friend?" I asked.

"Umm...well...you don't have to be..." he trailed off.

"No...it's just...I haven't had a friend in a long time," I said. He nodded understandingly.

The rest of recess went all right, since all we did was read. After the next few lessons was lunch. I walked out, following the stream of students into the canteen. In the queue, kids peppered me with questions, which I ignored. I became tired of it, so I walked off outside.

This time, I was wearing a coat, so I wasn't cold. An orange leaf fell gracefully to the ground. Sam. His name rang in my head. I missed him a lot. I do not show it to anyone. Most people think that I had gotten over him, but I cried myself to sleep during some nights. I never spoke about him to anyone, except Connor. A tear escaped my eye. I bit my lip. I wasn't going to burst into tears on my first day. A horn sound made me jump. A guy in a motor bike took off his helmet and offered it. Nathan.

"Wanna' ditch?" he asked.

I quickly wipe the tear off before he could see it and smirked mischievously.