"No worries, Clara. We are just fine with Lennox here," the guy with the gravelly voice answered, before introducing himself to me. "I'm Lachlan."
"Oh, come on, you really don't want to sit with Lennie," she retorted, her sweet facade faltering for a moment. She reminded me of those v
ideo game villains, flickering into her 'final form'.
"I find Lennie quite interesting," the melodic voiced guy said, holding his hand out to me. "I'm Aeson, by the way," he said, giving me a wink. When I gave a small wave instead of taking his hand, he retracted it and looked even more amused.
"Evander," the boy with the honeyed voice said, giving me a small smile and not bothering to look at Clara. Are these guys nuts?! She's gorgeous and tall, they're crazy to ignore her.
"Hello, Gorgeous," mister deep voice said, as he looked right at me, a twinkle of mischief in his eyes. Did he just read my fucking mind?! At that panicked thought, his smile spread. I'm fucking losing it, I thought, pulling my eyes away. "I'm Tristan."
"Calev," the broody boy with the smokey voice said simply, giving me a curt nod before looking back at his food. I get it, dude, this whole thing is uncomfortable. His eyes flickered to Clara as her face turned a brilliant tomato red. Clearly, she was not used to being ignored. I, however, enjoyed her discomfort immensely. I had the overwhelming urge to stick out my tongue at her, but I knew when these guys’ fascination with me wore off, I’d have hell to pay for it.
"Don't think this makes you any better than you were before. You're still the same Lennie you’ve always been," she reminded me, her voice returning to sugary sweetness, while her eyes filled with a deeper hatred than before. Not wanting to make it worse, I simply looked back down at my book. I went to my fail-safe, singing ridiculous songs loudly in my head until they just go away. I glanced up to see Tristan rubbing his head like he’d suddenly been hit with a headache, and the others had varying looks of confusion and judgement on their faces.
"Hey, Clara?" I said, finally having had enough. At this point, I didn’t care what anyone thought of me. I had no real chance here. When she turned around with laughter in her eyes, I exploded, standing up and gripping the edge of the table while I screamed at her. "Fuck you. You're just a shit human, and I honestly hope that the day karma catches up with you, I get to watch you go down." With that, I simply sat back down and picked up my book like nothing had happened. I heard her stomp away after a few moments, and the tension in my shoulders drained. I was sure that I would pay for that later, but for now, I didn’t give a shit. Honestly, I felt lighter than I had in the last four years. Not wanting to see Clara staring daggers at me, as I’m sure she was, or the pity I knew I’d find in the guys’ eyes, I kept my head down for the rest of the period.
The moment the bell rang I shoved my stuff in my bag and rushed off. Now that the school had moved on from the gossip of the morning, things were back to normal. Which of course meant that I had to dodge around people to avoid getting bumped into. The rest of the student body was back to calling me names as I rushed past them, but oddly enough, Clara's voice was silent.
History was next, so I stopped at my locker to grab my afternoon books. The moment I reached out for it, I saw the thick letters adorning the locker. 'Watch yourself, pariah' was scrawled across it, the red paint still dripping down to the floor. Using a tissue I had stuffed in my pocket, I wiped off the lock enough to open the locker and exchanged my books. I kept my head high as I walked to history, feeling more anger than anything else. I would never understand the students here. Sure, there were the random few that shot me looks of guilt and pity, but it wasn’t like they were willing to take the risk of ostracizing themselves. But really, could I blame them? Who would want a piece of the attention I got? Not me, so as much as I would have liked to call them out for their cowardice, I couldn’t. Self-preservation and all that.
The history room was still empty when I stepped inside, so I slid behind my desk in the back of the room and pulled out my notes. Mr. Harris never came to class until the bell rang, so this was prime Clara targeting time. Clara walked into the room, right on cue. Her eyes narrowed on me for a second, pure hatred in them as she chattered behind one of the new guys- Evander, I think. He continued to ignore Clara, coming to sit next to me instead. What the hell is he doing? This was social suicide for him, and it was going to make my life even worse.
"Does she have an off switch?" he muttered to me as he took his seat. I snorted, forgetting myself for a moment, before hiding behind my curtain of hair. This time he was the one to chuckle.
"So, where are you from?" Clara asked, her sweet and gentle voice so unlike her, I had to force myself not to scoff.
"I'm not interested, so if you don't mind leaving me alone, I'd appreciate it," Evander said casually, before scooting his desk closer to me and turning his back to her completely. Clara’s mouth hung open like a door with a broken hinge. It was funny, but my mind still tried to convince me that it wasn’t real… that he just liked the chase.
"What the hell are you doing?" I hissed at him, unable to hold back.
"Uh, we are in a place of learning," he said as he gestured around. "I'd say you have a good guess at what I'm doing."
"No, smartass. Why are you snubbing her and talking to me?" His eyebrows rose up at my question.
"And here I thought you were smart," he mused, shaking his head in mock disappointment. Clara sat fuming behind him, looking like she was close to exploding in anger. Her face was red, and she huffed silently; even her eyes looked out of focus as she mumbled under her breath. She was probably plotting my death. My stomach burned with acid at the thought of her retaliation, all because the new guy was giving me attention instead of her. Before I could offer a plea to Evander to leave me alone, Mr. Harris shuffled into the room in his usual harried state.
"Class, welcome our new student, Evander Kova. He and his brothers started here this morning!" Mr. Harris said as he hurried into class. His beaming smile and wispy brown hair made him endearing. He never let anyone be rude or mean to others in his class, and he talked to me like I was a person. Sadly, this was something not all the teachers did, which meant he was probably the one person at Obsidian I didn't hate. The jury was still out on the new guys. "If you'd like to share a textbook with Miss Malia, we will jump right in. In fact, she's probably best suited to get you all caught up if you want to borrow notes from her. I have a feeling she'd make the perfect study partner," he said, beaming brightly as I slid further into my chair, feeling Clara’s death stare on the side of my head.
"Perfect, thank you!" Evander called to the front of the room, as he moved his desk closer still. "Now you can't hide from me, Lennie," he said smugly. This time his voice was low and smooth in my ear, sending a shiver down my spine that I couldn't stop.
"It's Lennox," I muttered, moving my book closer to the edge of the desk so he could see. I hated to admit it, but I didn’t hate the nickname when it was said in the way he did.
"Nope, it's Doll," he confirmed, without even bothering to consider it. My annoyance was cut off by Mr. Harris jumping into today's lecture. I took notes and tried not to notice the boy next to me, who smelled like sandalwood and had a smile full of mischief.
February 21
Afternoon
Lennox
It seemed that at least one of the five new kids were in each of my classes. Every single one of them seemed to get there early enough to snag a seat by me, effectively making me a mentor for all of them. For once, school was passing just a little bit smoother, but still I kept most of myself guarded. It wouldn't be the first time someone had shown me attention just to turn into a complete jerk... it's only day one.
My attention was too torn today to focus on a book or homework. Instead, I actually dug into my food and studied the lunch room around me. I wondered if the guys would be coming to sit with me, before I pushed that thought down too. I didn’t need to think like that since just two days ago I was the girl who couldn't walk three feet in the hallway before getting bumped into. They would join in soon enough.
"There she is. Who knew she actually had a face, she's always hiding behind that hair," Tristan joked, taking a seat beside me. His grin was infectious, and I couldn’t help but quirk up the side of my mouth in a small half smile. His white hair was cut short and slightly tousled. He had vibrant blue eyes that drew me in, but the smile that spread out across the chiseled angles of his face had my heart skipping a beat. He was tall, somewhere around 6'2, and dwarfed my petite frame.
"Hey look, you almost got her to crack a smile," Lachlan said, sitting on my other side. The other three joined a few minutes later, all of their trays stacked high with food. Lachlan had coppery red hair and pale green eyes. He seemed shyer than Tristan, his smile muted but just as adorable. The way his freckles peppered his nose and his slightly dimpled half grin had a blush rising in my cheeks.