My eyes fluttered open and I groaned at the sound of Helen shouting my name and the alarm clock blaring away on the nightstand.

"Secret!" She yells again.

It sounded like a rocket set for launch. The entire neighbourhood must have heard and if they didn't then they needed to get their hearing checked.

"What?" I grumble miserably from under the sheets.

"Get up! You're going to be late," She demands loudly and I gripped the cover more tightly, leaving painful fingernail dents in my palm.

I gave an inaudible response, but when she didn't reply I grumbled again louder telling her to go away.

"You have two choices," Helen lectures calmy, "get up and go to school or... spend the rest of your life as an escort."

I snorted, pulling on the sheets even tighter, "They don't have those in the hell do they?"

Helen scowled and walked away and I heard Adam snicker. I tossed the covers from over my head and saw the idiot standing at the door leaning on the door frame.

"Get out your ass!" I snap throwing a pillow at him.

He hit it, sending it tumbling to the floor and left chuckling leaving the door wide open. I cursed under my breath and the alarm clock was still going off. I looked at the time before knocking it off the nightstand. Weak rays of sunshine escaped through the curtain and I threw off the sheets miserably and sat up in bed.

It had only taken an hour to shower and get dressed and I spotted Emmett through his window again when I went back to my room. I still had forty minutes to make it to school and descended the staircase fully dressed in a denim painted jacket and a white shirt, paired with a high waisted denim that didn't fit all that well and a pair of converse. My hair was hidden in another bun and I didn't care for makeup but still added a little mascara to my long lashes, then a little lip balm.

I tossed the black satchel on the countertop before getting the milk for the breakfast cereal. The cereal to milk proportion was off but I dug in nevertheless, eating a spoonful of Cocoa Pebbles that hadn't had a drop of milk on it. I had managed to finish most of it before it was time to leave for school. The kitchen clock flashed 8:30 AM and I left the house in the Beetle, heading out for my unofficial official first day at whichever whisky loving, giant bearded, cigar smoking doofus the school was named after.

The Beetle sped pass Blade's house. There was no motorcycle in the driveway. Helen was still badgering me over the break-in but at least she didn't stick to her threats. Our brawl was less than ladylike and we both wanted nothing more than to put it behind us. The journey was short and the ivory coloured prison looked simply welcoming on the outside but on the inside, it would speak differently. The Beetle rolled into the parking lot which was already crowded by hundreds if not millions of students. Most were in groups gossiping and leaning over cars and I cruised along searching for a parking space in the almost packed parking lot. I had to honk down on the horn to get a bunch of idiots to move out of the way. A parking space appeared down by the end and I approached. A Jeep was parked on the left and a motorcycle on the right. The Beetle came to a halt before I could park.

Have you got to be kidding me?

Annoyed I honked down on the horn causing a disturbance. People were beginning to stare and I shoved my head out the window and hissed loudly at the couple clamped together making out in the parking space.

"Hey! Move it!"

They ceased kissing for a second and looked around, then as if they hadn't been disturbed, resumed sucking out each other's souls through their faces. The girl had fiery red hair and wore a mini dress with flats while the guy was wearing black tees and jeans with a converse. They continued kissing up a storm, neither of them made an attempt to pry away from the other. I shoved my head through the window a second time and hissed.

"Are you deaf?! Move it!"

The brat didn't move instead she gripped the guy by the front of his shirt and started kissing the living daylight out of him. I killed the engine and stared at the both of them still intertwined together trying to swallow each other whole. A full minute had passed and my patience was on end. Neither of them seemed any closer to ending their kiss.

Well, two can play at this.

The Beetle's engine purred to life and I honked on the horn slowly inching closer and closer to Romeo and Juliet, as if they forgot how their little love tale ended. They pulled apart as the car moved closer and closer and they backed away out of the parking space.
"Are you crazy?!" The girl screams huffing.

The engine died once more and I got out and closed the door.

"Are you crazy?!" The girl screams again and I ignored both of them.

"Daphne babe, just forget it," the boy was saying holding onto his fuming girlfriend's wrist.

"Are you kidding me Ian the crazy bitch almost ran us over?!" She yells at the guy.

I flung the satchel over my shoulder and walked towards the building leaving the guy trying to calm his girlfriend. Students from all direction were now flocking to the building holding hands and chattering. Senior boys with arms thrown over the shoulders of girls who were an inch or two shorter clamping them to their sides. Already it seemed I was going to be the only single person in this school of couples. The name John Wickerman High was in bold letters at the front of the building. The sea of students flooding into the school remained thick and I walked along surrounded by chatter and laughter. Even though I had been living here over a year and a half, I only knew a few people and none of them was in high school. I walked along the crowded corridor looking around for the main office.

"Secret. Is that you?" Familiar feminine voice calls.

I halted and turned to see a beautiful blonde with the bluest eyes I've ever seen on anyone making her way through the crowd.

"Hey Char," I say as the slender woman caught up, clothed in a purple waistcoat, a hot pink top with a green pencilled skirt and canary yellow pumps.

My focus was on her outfit, taking it in from top to bottom. I squinted at the blinding colours. I couldn't imagine anyone seriously wearing that many colours in one outfit. Even though she looked out of place and bizarre she had managed to pull off the look in a good way.

Char smiled at me and I had to dig deep to pry my eyes away from her outfit. She was another one of Helen's friends who dropped by the flower shop every now and then. Helen knows just about everyone, she has more friends than I have hair follicles. Me on the other hand, I tended to avoid crowds and people.

"Why do you look so lost?" She asks smiling.

"Please tell me you won't be one of my teachers," I mutter.

She chuckled. I hadn't meant for her to hear and I apologized softly.

"No need to worry, I teach the little ones," Charlotte beams.

Good, cause I'm not trying to be visually impaired by the end of the week.

"Searching for the office?" She queries and I nodded.

"Come on let me show you," she offers a smile leading the way, "how's Helen?"

"Ah, fine," I reply and she walked with me to the office to retrieve my new kid on the block starter kit to take me through the rest of the school year.

"Right here," she says showing me the office.

I told her thanks and she whispered something about having to report to her little munchkins then she left. I only hoped she was talking about the juniors. The lady in the office was smiling warmly. As soon I got everything I needed I left, going over the class schedule in my hand. I scoffed at the fact that I was going to have History in the first period.

Great. Just great.

The bell chimed and people hurried off to class. A girl wearing a mid-thigh black Jean skirt and a white shirt with simple white flats bumped into me almost sending me plunging to the ground. I snapped.

"Would it kill you to watch where you're going?"

She stood a few inches taller than I was and she looked down at me stunned.

"Geez it's not like I body slammed you or something," she sputters.

"Well next time look where you're going." I hiss walking around her.

Someone hollered a name that sounded like Amelia. It was probably one of the two girls she was walking with. I walked in search of the history classroom frowning. As I was passing the staircase I overheard a guy wearing a red hoodie on the lower level, telling his friend he was going to history class. He looked at my age so I fell back until he finished talking and tailed him. He climbed the staircase and I follow suit ignoring those students descending. He had some sort of weird accent, but I trust he knew where he was heading. The crowd made it hard to stay close and I reached the top of the staircase just in time to glimpse him disappearing through a classroom door.
I walked towards the classroom which was already full of students finding seats. A teacher was sitting at the table waiting for the class to finish filing in and settle so he could commence teaching. I walked into the class and most of the students turned to stare.

The teacher too looked up. He was wearing a shirt that was either pink or purple I couldn't decipher and quite frankly I didn't really care. His low trimmed haircut made him look about twenty-eight if I were to take a guess. I bet I was right, I almost always guess people's correct ages.

He smiled or did something that resembled a smile as I approached. I handed him one of the slips of paper I was carrying and he looked down at it before clearing his throat and looking back at me.

"Welcome to the class," he says and I nodded awkwardly.

There was a hushed whisper throughout the room.

"We can worry about the introductions later," he adds quickly, "for now just take a seat."

I muttered thank you and came face to face with a class of about thirty students staring back at me. Just by how quiet the room had gotten I was almost certain what the whispers were about. I spot the guy I had tailed sitting a few seats from where I stood. An empty seat sat next to him, only one of three. I made my way to the empty seat and dropped my bag on the desk then sat.

From the corner of my eye, I saw him watching me and pretended not to notice and just stared straight ahead at the board behind the teachers head. He cleared his throat and leaned closer.

Oh God please tell me he's not about to talk.

"You're new?" He queries.

Dammit.

He waited for me to respond and I looked over at him when I could've just pretended to be foreign or even deaf.

"No, I've been around for 17 years," I reply.

He looked confused for a couple seconds then he spoke again.

"Ah, I mean if you're new here?"

I had hoped he would have taken my initial response to realizing I didn't want to talk but he seemed to have missed the hint.

"Oh yeah," I respond and stared straight ahead again.

"What's your name?" He questions and I frowned.

I turned my attention back to him a bit irritated and responded quietly.

"Secret Nolan."

His eyebrows furrowed, probably thinking I was messing with him again. He seemed to realize I wasn't and tried to hide his initial facial expression and played it cool.

"Um nice to meet you, Secret Nolan," he says in his deep accent, "everyone calls me Oswald Seymour but you can call me-"

"Ossey," I interject.

His pointy ears turned a bit red and I hadn't noticed just how truly curly his hair was. He pulled his lips into a thin line and looked a bit embarrassed before sinking back into his seat. I didn't think anything was wrong with calling him Ossey. I furrowed my eyebrows at him and he avoided my gaze.

It's not offensive, is it?

Wait...unless. Holy hell! He was going to use that dumb 'but you can call me tonight' pickup line.

Oh my God Oswald!

It was now beyond awkward for the both of us and I focused my gaze straight ahead of me. Oswald didn't say anything else and the final two boys entered. The one at the front was rather lanky and he looked confused as if he was in the wrong class. He walked to his seat and the second boy behind him emerged, and almost as if by magic his eyes fell on me.

I held firmly to the desk in front of me and for a second I held my breath. My nails were digging into the desk and my jaws clenched.

He stopped walking and we held each other gaze for an elongated couple seconds. A nasty smirk spread across his face and he ran a delicate hand through his hair and took a single step forward.

"I should have known that piece of low life dimwit goes here," I hiss through gritted teeth.

His eyes locked on me again, and this time he looked as if his birthday had come early.

#TBGWP
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