Great.

My body froze for a moment while I eyed his tense back. He leaned forward, leg bouncing rapidly. It looks like he'd rather be anywhere else, and I guess I can relate to that now.

I dragged my feet to the second couch, not missing his head that shot in my direction.

And I absolutely didn't miss his exasperated sigh.

I rolled my eyes and dropped my bag to the ground. The couch is actually pretty comfortable. Good. I'll be here a lot.

"What?" I hissed after a minute, narrowing my eyes at him.

I tried to hold back, but his eyes just bore holes into my head. A few lose strands of hair fell over his forehead, making it really hard to not find him attractive.

"Who the hell are you?" he asked, slightly scoffing. Geez, what a charming personality this guy has.

"Who are you?" I returned, mimicking his deep voice. So what? I never said I have a nice personality.

His jaw clenched, and his leg finally stopped bouncing. I watched silently as he leaned even more towards me, looking at my face like I'm a stray dog.

The second his mouth opened, the secretary's door opened as well. We both turned our heads to the right, watching her leaving her office while holding a pile of papers.

"Oh!" she stopped when she spotted us on the couches, her hand coming to her heart. She squinted her eyes at me, until something like recognition showed on her face.

"Olive, right? You weren't joking when you said I'll see you a lot, uh?" she laughed. I met Josie this morning while collecting my schedule, and I may have warned her about me.

I shook my head and gave her a small smile, but her own just widened. "I see you've met you new couch buddy, I'm surprised it took you that long to be sent here."

I turned my head back to him, only to find his eyes already on me. He gave her a tight nod and mumbled "Me too."

She shook her head, slightly amused. "I'll make sure to tell Mrs. Bernard y'all ready to meet her."

I clenched my jaw. What the fuck am I supposed to say to the principal? And no doubt she'll tell Alessandro I ended up here before fucking lunch time. I'm officially fucked.

"Tell her you'll apologize to the teacher who sent you here, and she'll let you go."

I had to blink a few times to understand what I'm hearing. The guy who did nothing but glare at me since we've met just gave me a tip?

He's not even looking at me. His eyes are closed as he leans back on the couch, legs wide apart.

I glanced at him suspiciously. "Thanks." I mumbled.

We didn't talk for a few minutes, not bothering to acknowledge each other's presence. I liked it that way, until the sound of a message from my phone pierced through the silence.

We're at school. Where the fuck are you?

It was Ares. The audacity of this man. At least they're here. I quickly typed my reply.

Principal's. Meet you at lunch.

"I'm late, Carter. I know!" A familiar voice made me raise my head from my phone. "Didn't mean to leave you here all by yourself-- but I guess you've got some company."

Sunglasses guy. He dropped himself to the same couch as Carter, I assume, and looked at me with the same smirk from this morning.

"Hello again, pretty lady." Tristan raised his sunglasses to his head, revealing two deep blue eyes. His friend seemed to be interested by his words, because he finally turned his head and looked at him.

"You know her?"

I scoffed. "The fucker gave me a heart attack while trying to flirt."

Tristan seemed very amused by my words, but Carter only eyed me with a frown.

"You know, I have an answer for you." he lowered his sunglasses back to his eyes, casually moving to sit next to me.

I furrowed my eyebrows, both at what he just said and his arm around my shoulder. "Huh?"

He wiggled the glasses with his free hand. "I wear those so I won't get blinded by your beauty."

Oh, an answer for my 'Why do you have sunglasses' question. I heard a snort, and I had to agree.

"I'm with him on that one." I pointed at Carter, who was back to lean against the couch with his eyes closed. "That's the best you came up with?"

Tristan's smirk fell. "I thought about it for the entire first period."

I couldn't help but laugh a little at his defeated expression, but I guess that was a wrong move, because a his smile returned immediately after.

"I can share some more answers at our date tomorrow, how does that sound?"

I grabbed his arm from my shoulder and threw it back at him. "Revolting."

He looked at me dead in the eye, trying to figure out what will make me say yes to him. This guy is not giving up, but that's fine. I can reject him a thousand times.

"Well, I--"

"Go away, she's clearly not into you." Carter grumbled in front of us, and I just realized that he opened his eyes and watched our interaction.

I raised my brow at him, and he returned it with an eye roll.

"Fine." Tristan mumbled, relaxing against the back of the couch. "Your lose, I'm fucking delicious."

I cracked a smile. There was no denying it, he was pretty handsome. But, no.

"Shit, that's some badass scar you've got there." he got closer to me, and I punched his arm.

"Get the hell away from my neck, you perv."

I wasn't really angry, not at all. Ever since I got it on our last night at the orphanage I received all kinds of comments. Badass is actually one of the nicest ones.

I bit my lip to prevent a smile from breaking into my face when Carter tried to subtly glance at the spot where my scar is. "If you want to see it you can just ask."

His eyes connected mine, and not a second later his usual scoff returned. "I don't."

Sure.

The principal's door opened, revealing a tall woman with black curls, a big smile decorating her face.

"Ah, my usual troublemakers." She raised her eyebrows at the two boys, but smiled softly when she spotted me. "A new face! Why won't you come in first?"

She gestured inside, and I had no choice but to pick up my bag and follow her. I glanced back at Carter, remembering his advice.

His nod was the last thing I saw before she closed the door behind me.

°°°

"I can't believe you actually got sent to the principal!" Nyla laughed, walking by my side with a tray of food.

We've met at the cafeteria, and I immediately told her everything that happened.

"Yeah, but at least I didn't get a detention or something." I smiled, leading her to the table in which I spotted Ares and Theo.

Carter's advice worked perfectly.

"So, you see those two?" I pointed at them. They were staring at each other, both glaring. "These are my friends, they're cool, don't worry."

She smiled at me. "I'm so glad I met you. Otherwise I'd be hiding in the bathroom and eating my lunch obove the toilet."

I returned her smile and nudged her playfully.

I was going to say something nice like 'I'm glad I met you too', but then someone crashed onto me. For the second time today.

The hell?

My cup of water completely splashed on the girl's clothes, drenching her cheerleader's uniforms.

The three of us stayed silent for a few moments, staring wide eyed at the girl. She was a little shorter than me, with black hair and brown eyes.

She was absolutely gorgeous, but the furious look on her face made me stop staring at the puddle at her feet.

"I'm so sorr-"

"You bitch!" she hissed, narrowing her eyes at me and spreading her arms to the sides.

I bit my tongue only because I did accidentally bumped into her. But again, accidentally. And not entirely my fault, because she also bumped into me.

"Here," I handed her every napkin from my tray, feeling kinda bad. "Maybe this will-"

She harshly yanked them from my hand, pressing it to the top part of her red skirt. At least it's not white.

"I can't believe it!" she threw the wet napkins back on my tray, and it landed right on top of my sandwich. I swear I felt blood come out from my tongue. Don't say anything.

"You're fucking lucky it was just water." She glared at me one last time before walking right past me, shouldering me while doing so.

I watched her pushing people out of her way, but I noticed how most of them just moved on their own, looking at her quietly.

"Who the fuck is that?" I mumbled, and to my surprise, a voice I know too well responded.

"I believe this is the head cheerleader, Raven Pierson." Ares poked his head between Nyla and I.

"Rumors say she sent the girl who slept with her boyfriend to the hospital, but her daddy's so rich she got away with that."

Damn.

I kicked his leg lightly. "How do you know that?"

He smirked. "She was in one of my classes, and some guy explained to me what's her deal after she yelled at someone. Kinda scared the living shit out of me though, I tried to sleep."

After he finished his explanation, he tore his eyes away from mine and looked down at Nyla, who was watching him with a raised eyebrow.

He straightened himself and clapped his hands, giving her a charming smile. "Hello, foxy mama."

Nyla appeared to be unamused, and looked at me with a 'Is he for real?' expression.

When I shrugged apologetically, she returned her gaze to him. "Don't call me that. Like ever." her tone was sharp, and without missing a beat, she continued to walk towards the table Theo sat at.

"I think I'm in love." Ares followed her figure with her eyes, only looking back at me after I slapped his arm, hard.

"What was that for?" he whined.

"I get it. She's pretty, and you have a thing for pretty girls." I poked his chest once. "But she's an actual friend I made, so don't mess things up."

"Goddamn, fine!" he took a step back, holding his hands up. "Can I ask her number though?"

"Like she'll even give it to you." I shook my head. "Foxy mama? The hell?"

"I got excited."

Chapter 28!

An extra long one to make up for not updating quickly enough<3

I have tests and school till 5pm and it's really hard to not sleep my free time away ;)

Make sure to vote and comment, it really warms my heart❤️

Love you so much!!