CHAPTER SIX: LEO

I couldn't believe I was going to the same school as her. I was excited to see her again, but I didn't show it. I sat beside her and said nothing while listening to Mr Hunter's announcements, but after a few minutes of talking rubbish, he left, and then some idiot said something rude from the back of the class

"Are you deaf, or do you simply choose not to speak?" The idiot asked mockingly, causing his friends to laugh, but I didn't even acknowledge him, let alone answer his question; instead, I pulled out pride and prejudice and began reading, ignoring everyone around me, but I caught my little waitress sneaking glances at me, which made me feel quite smug.

Then I heard footsteps behind me and turned to see some guys standing beside my table.

"You know it's rude to ignore people, new kid," the guy said, and I recognized his voice; it was the idiot from before, so I didn't bother looking up and acknowledging him or his friends.

But then he grabbed my book, ripping it slightly before tossing it to the ground. I raised my gaze to the men in front of me, then to my book. I really wanted to knock him out, but I didn't want to get in trouble on my first day. With a soft sigh, I reached into my bag and pulled out my old iPod.

I put on my earphones and leaned against my table, then the bell rang, and I got out of my seat and walked out of the classroom to my next class, because if that idiot didn't have that little tantrum of his, I would have had the chance to talk to Athena.

"Fucking retards," I muttered under my breath as I walked to my next class, math. I tried to pay attention to what he was saying during class and after class, he gave us some questions to answer that would be submitted the next time we saw him.

It was finally time for lunch, and when I walked into the cafeteria, it was very noisy, which made me feel uneasy. I detested loud places. I grabbed a tray, served myself, and took a seat at the table closest to the door. I was about to put on my earphones when three girls approached me, looking like stereotypical mean girls, how cliche.

"Hello, new kid. I'm Diana, the girl to my left is Gina, and the girl to my right is Clara; you're quite tall; are you on the basketball team?" I knew what she was after when she took a seat with her hands on the sides of her head, exposing her cleavage right in front of my face, and I wasn't the least bit interested in her and will never be.

"Yes, and why do you care, Putta? I didn't feel bad about calling her names. She was behaving like a whore.

"Oh what does putta mean, it sounds exotic," She asked but just as I was about to tell her to leave me alone, I was interrupted by one of the guys this morning. I found out his name is James and the other guys' names were Dylan and Tom.

"Diana, stop acting like a desperate whore. He doesn't seem interested, and aren't you supposed to be with Dylan?" James said, causing Diana to glare at him.

"Who I talk to isn't you or Dylan's business, so do you mind going away, Leo and I are having a conversation," before she turned to face me, I had already gotten up, put my tray in the bin, and left without looking back at the two idiots arguing behind me.

I walked to my next class, which is history, sat down in a chair near the entrance, put on my headphones, and lost myself in the lyrics of one of my favorite songs, clouds by NF. As I watched everyone enter, however, my eyes caught Athena, the diner waitress; I'm not sure why, but there was something about her that drew me to her.

She took the empty seat beside me without looking at me, I watched her with a side glance as she brought out her books getting ready for class, a few minutes later the teacher walked in and I stopped staring and focused on him while he was talking about some assignment he gave the class yesterday, then a few minutes into class Athena placed something on my table, it was my book that the douchebag from before destroyed, and it looked like she fixed it, I was surprised at the gesture, she fixed my book and she didn't even know me

"Thank you," I said quietly before returning my attention to the teacher speaking in front of me. I wanted to thank her properly after class, but she bolted like she was late for something. Maybe next time, I thought as I rushed to basketball practice.

The only good things in my life are Shane and basketball. I had to stop playing basketball because of the stress at home and my inability to stick to the team's schedule. As a result, the coach at my former high school removed me, which made me angry but defenseless to do anything about it. However, now that I have the chance to play again, I won't waste it.

Dylan, his friends, and some other guys walked into the locker room when I was about to change, I saw him smile as he approached me, "Hello new kid, so you're the scholarship kid coach has been talking about, I should have known, you can always spot a beggar when you see one," Dylan said while his friends laughed, I'm beginning to think these dudes share one brain cell.

"Was that an attempt to insult me, Dylan, because I'm sure you can do a lot better than that?" I said with a small smile as I exited the locker room before he said anything else.

Coach made us do some practice runs before we had an in-house basketball game between two teams. Dylan and another guy named Tyler served as team captains. Dylan obviously did not choose me, which I found amusing; he was behaving like a spoiled brat.

When the game began, there was some foul play from Dylan's team because they did everything they could to win, but even with the cheating, his team lost, and my team won with my help, of course; not to brag, but I dominate on the court.

Dylan was pissed that his team had lost, but he couldn't do anything about it, so he just glared and walked out of the gym with his friends.

I didn't bother going back to the locker room to change because I was already late to pick up Shane from school, which was about to close in thirty minutes, and I needed to pick up groceries on my way.

I dashed out of school and stopped at the mall on my way to get Shane. When he arrived at his school, he was already waiting at the school gate, with a worried expression on his face, meaning that something was wrong.

"Hey kid, what's up, what's with the look?" I asked, hoping he'd tell me what was wrong because I didn't want to see him sad.

"Some kids were mean today, it's nothing I can't handle," Shane signed as he got into the car and fixed his seat belt into place,

"If you need me to talk to your teacher, just say the word kiddo," I said, as I gave him a side hug before starting the car and driving away from his school.

Shane was in a better mood by the time we got home, which made me happy, but I was curious as to what the kids said to him that upset him. Shane went to put his belongings away and freshen up, while I put the groceries away and started cooking dinner.

"Shane, dinner is ready," I yelled as I arranged the table, a few minutes later when dinner was ready.

"You don't have to yell, I can hear you, I'm dumb not deaf," he signed as he placed his phone on the table and took his seat in front of me.

"Don't be smart and eat your food," I said as he gave me a cheeky grin before stuffing his face with meatloaf.

During dinner, he told me about his first day, except for the part about the kids who had said something mean to him today. What do I have to do to get him to tell me?

After dinner, we cleaned up, and I assisted him with his homework while I worked on mine. When we finished his homework, he went to play on his Nintendo while I finished up the rest of my assignments.

Before Shane and I went to bed at nine o'clock, I tucked him in, made sure everything was locked, and his school bag was packed for the next day. Before falling asleep tonight, my thoughts were focused on a certain redhead.