Chapter Two

"Shouldn't you be reading?" He whispered to Elena.

"I am reading, Matthews. I also..." She passed when the classroom door opened and Jeremy walked in with the same girl standing behind him. Elena was so shocked to see her again, her manga slid to the floor. 

"Jeremy," the teacher said. "So you finally show your face, I thought you weren't going to make it to this class."

"I'm sorry," he apologized. "But I got excused by the principal. This is Freya," he introduced the new girl who stopped forward with a shy smile. "She's new."

"I see." The teacher nodded. "Well Freya, welcome. As you can see, everyone else is reading their book. You should join them because in ten minutes we're having a test and before you speak, no, being a Jew student doesn't clear you, you'll also partake in the test."

"But, she's new, you can't do that-"

"It's fine Jer." Elena raised an eyebrow at that. "I'll write the test."

"Good. Now you two go take a seat while I prepare the test questions." She headed straight to the back of the class and Jeremy followed. 

Elena eyed her, managing to resist the temptation from placing a leg out so Freya would slip. "You know I've been friends with Jeremy for years and I don't call him 'Jer'. They've been with each other for just a few hours and they're already having nicknames for each other?"  didn't say anything, just did his best to hide the smile pulling at his lips, but he failed. "What's funny?" She rolled her eyes, going down to pick the manga. "Freya," she pronounced the name like it was the most irritating word ever. "The she-goat."

"Elena! Don't think I haven't been hearing your mutters. One more word from your mouth and I'll pick you out of this class, trust that you won't be taking this-"

"Oh, fuck you! Fuck you!" Matthews palmed his head at her words, while the rest of the class let out gasps of surprise. "I don't even want to take this stupid test."

"Oh really? Well, guess what? That test will be taking fifty percent of your assessment score and seeing that you need at least fifty-five percent to-"

"I don't care, if you want to fail me, fail me. I deal with enough stress than to be burdened with a stupid test of the first day of resumption. I'm out of here." She grabbed her manga, leaving everything else behind, she hurried away leaving everything else behind.

"Uh..." Matthews looked around nervously as all eyes were on him. "She's had a rough day."

She headed straight to the female's toilet, but she couldn't even go on reading her book, so she tossed it aside and brought out her phone instead. She went straight to her messenger and texted Matthews.

I think I overreacted.

She didn't have to wait so long because he replied almost immediately, like he was waiting.

You think? Anyways, I can't talk now. You just made Mrs Sarah even more grumpy than she already was. Later.

Elena sighed after she rolled that. Her mind went over what Mrs Sarah had said concerning the test taking fifty percent of her assessment. She snorted in doubt. "She wouldn't do it. Even if she did, mum's wish has got to come with some perks." She spent the rest of her time there, scrolling through I*******m till one particular post caught her attention. It was Jeremy's. It was a photo of him and Freya, the caption read, 'She's returned!' With the emoji wearing the party hat beside it. "She's returned?" She frowned. "Fuck, that means they were friends before all this." The bell went off at that moment. "Finally, it stinks here."

She hurried back to the classroom, nearly bumping into Mrs Sarah who was just leaving the room. "Oh, sorry," she said a quick apology and walked past her to the room. "Hey," she said hurrying over to Matthews' side. "Am I in big trouble?"

"What do you think? But, you did save the whole class. For whatever reason, after you left, Miss Sarah chose to cancel the test."

"You're welcome," she said with a sweet smile, taking her seat back.

----------

"I heard you were rude to your teacher today." Her mum was waiting for her at home. She was already dressed to go out, Elena was actually surprised to see that she was still in. Her mother worked the evening/night shift, left home by three and always returned.

"Hey mum, you haven't left for work yet?"

"Answer me, Elena." Her mother, Clara, was a small woman, and though Elena was much bigger and really stubborn, she tried her best to be firm with her. She wasn't exactly proud of the path Elena was taking in her life and she didn't fail to make this known. 

"Geez, won't you let me change my clothes yet before you start with this, Ma?"

"No. What's your problem Mia, why-"

"Don't call me Mia, Ma. My name is Elena. I don't want to be addressed by that name." Mia was the name given to Elena by her father. It was what her parents liked to call her. After the divorce, the mere mention of the name would only make Elena's blood boil. "Also, I'm sorry about the incident at school. I was angry and she got on my nerves."

Clara raised an eyebrow in question. "She got on your nerves? Elena, you have to watch your mouth. I don't know this path it seems you're taking, and I don't like it. Do you see Matthews behaving-"

"Mom, I don't know what you're thinking, but Matthews isn't the perfect image you're picturing him to be." 

"But at least he didn't cuss at his teacher and get kicked out of class."

"Ok, who is reporting you to me? Your new boyfriend?"

"W-what?" Clara wasn't expecting that. 

"Don't even deny it, he already confirmed it today. Also, don't act so surprised, you wanted me to know first because you don't know how to tell me yourself. That's why you sent me to deliver something to the principal, you guys probably already planned this." When her mum didn't say anything, Elena palmed her head. "Great, I never knew Principal Oscar was such a good actor, really deserves an Oscar award right now."

"Listen, I...I actually don't know where to start from Elena. We've been chatting for a while and we just started seeing each other a few weeks and... He's amazing, Elena. Please, support this."

"Support what? I don't want my own mother fucking my principal, it will be too much for me. You know what, let's have this discussion another day, I can't do this right now." She held tight to her bag and walked past her mother.

"We still aren't done discussing you cussing at your teacher. But since you just found out about Oscar and I, we can discuss this tomorrow."

"Whatever!" She hurried up the stairs heading straight to her room. Throwing her bag to a corner in the room and bringing her phone out from her jeans pocket. She saw that she had gotten a new text from Jeremy, which immediately wiped off the frown from her face. 

Hey, you around? I was hoping we could grab coffee together. I kind of need someone to talk to...If you're busy, no worries though.

Instead of texting him back, she went with a call instead. "Hey, you want to speak to me?"

"Yeah, I'm actually around the corner... If you're free, I can-"

"I am free, text me the address!" She rolled out of her bed, her phone still held to her ear. "I'll come meet you-"

"Hey, you know what? It's not something that requires you to come over, we can talk about it on the phone. I just need some female advice."

"Ok... I'm listening."

"So, there's this girl I like...very much and we've known each other for a long time now and I plan on confessing my feelings for her...uh, during the party."

"A girl you have feelings for?" She asked softly. "I wasn't expecting that."

"Yeah, I know. It's just, I never have enough confidence to admit my feelings. But hopefully, the alcohol on Friday would give me some sort of boost? I know this is completely random, I'm just asking, do you think I should?"

"Yes! You definitely should confess your feelings to her. Who knows she might feel the same way you do."

He chuckled. "Hopefully. You know, I hesitated in calling you, because well... relationships aren't kind of your thing, so I thought you would be against it."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, everyone knows the type of girl you are, one night stand? I mean, I remember you ignoring Adriel Jefferson for days after everyone thought you two were dating, I mean, I even heard he cried."

"Adriel and I just didn't hit it. But you know, it has to do with finding the right person. Once I do, I will love to have a relationship with that person."

"Ok then, see you tonight?"

"You will." The minute the call ended, Elena jumped on her bed with a loud scream. "I should call Matthews." But she decided against it. She didn't know why, but she noticed that Matthews hated it when she brought Jeremy up, he wasn't going to be happy to hear that Jeremy planned to ask her out that night. "I'll tell Silver when she arrives."

~~~

"Why? What do you mean by that?" Elena dropped down on her bed. "But we agreed that we would go together."

"Thank you. But I'm not ready to wash you, get wasted, dance around like a chipmunk and while trying to get Jeremy's attention." Matthew said from the phone.

She kicked the shoe she had been trying to put on away in frustration. "What do you have against Jeremy, Matthews? He's amazing."

"I didn't say he wasn't."

"You know what? If you don't want to come, fine. But Jeremy is going to ask me out today and I wouldn't want you sticking around when that happens anyways."

"Goodbye, Elena." He ended the call. 

Elena looked out the phone in disbelief. "The motherfucker."

"What's wrong?" Silver asked, stepping out from the bathroom. She had taken off her clothes and was standing only in her underwear. Silver was the only girl Elena was really close to, their mothers were friends, so they were bound to be one too.

"Matthews just said he wasn't going to come."

"What? Why?"

"I don't know...He has his issues."

She sighed. "Did you two have another fight?"

"Fight? No, we didn't. I don't know, he's just in a mood. But that's not going to spoil my day, or yours because Jeremy is really going to ask me to be his girlfriend."

Silver rolled her eyes, walking to the wardrobe to pick up a clean towel. "But... I don't want to annoy you or anything, but you sound so sure, what if he doesn't?"

"Silver, he literally told me about this girl he likes, he said he wants to confess his feelings to her and he said he would do that at the party. Earlier today, he asked if I was going to be at the party." She raised an eyebrow. "Have you connected the dots? Fine, if I'm not done, I'll give you a hundred bucks."

"Deal. But you are sure going to look like a fool if it turns out not to be you."

"Silver, boys do this all the time in horrible rom-coms. They meet a girl, tell her about the supposed girl they have feelings for and then, turns out there wasn't any 'girl' and he was just using that to hint that she's the one. That's what Jeremy is doing, he's shy and he thinks I don't like him."

"If only he knows how you stalk his I*******m page."

"Shut up, bitch." In reply, Silver gave her the bird while walking back to the bathroom.