Chapter Four

Initially, I thought I wouldn't be able to catch  proper sleep due to the excitement and anxiety about going to school but I was proven wrong as I had a pleasant and sound sleep. That was actually unexpected but definitely a good sign though it doesn't cover up one bad side that I desperately need now. I wanted to sleep on the way to school to avoid facing Gabriel as I have to ride with him to school. But now I can't sleep, not because I had a good sleep,but because Gabriel's friend, whose name is Sebastian, is constantly rumbling about things that I'm not interested in.

I feel like my head will explode anytime if he doesn't stop and thanks to my luck, it feels like he is not gonna stop anytime soon. I can't ask him to shut up either as it would be considered rude. He is also Gabriel's friend so I don't wanna offend either of them, I'm already walking on eggshells.

I was already tensed knowing that I would have to go to school every day with Gabriel as it's actually his car. I won't be able to handle it if Sebastian tags along with us every day. 

"So, you are not originally from here, right?" I nod my head at his question. 

It's probably my 20th time answering his questions by either nodding or shaking my head. He still doesn't get the sign that I'm not interested in talking with him. I would rather accept the awkward silence between me and Gabriel than  hear him talk about useless things. Maybe I'm being too harsh on him but I can't help myself.

"Gabriel didn't tell me his brother was mute." He mutters under his breath, his tone friendly yet teasing.

"Wish Gabriel's brother was deaf too." I say inside my head. 

"Don't be shy, dude. We all are brothers here after all." He literally jumps off of his seat and grabs my shoulder from the back of my seat. I mutter "I know" to him. He still doesn't let go of me, his hands are now hurting my shoulders. 

"You won't survive if you are always so quiet, dude." He exclaims, jerking my back.

"And we won't survive if you keep talking shit." A rude voice stops him from jerking my shoulders, finally making me free from his gasp. Now,I understand what people mean by annoying cousins. He would be in that category if he were my cousin.

Thank God he isn't!

"No one asked for lemonade. Don't open your sour mouth, kill." I hear Sebastian arguing back with Killian. 

Kill? That's a weird nickname to give someone. 

Being  thankful, I turn back to Killian to offer him a gentle and amicable smile but he decides to ignore it even after seeing it. The embarrassment makes me clear my throat and cast my glance outside of the car immediately.

Yeah, I forgot to add that  Killian has also joined us and this is the 3rd thing that is keeping me awake. Whatever happened between him and Gabriel that day still lingers around my head. I hope he didn't misunderstand me like Gabriel did. 

"You two shut it down. We are almost here. Don't eat my brain." Gabriel finally speaks up, he was silent till now.

 He always looks like he woke up on the wrong side of the bed and he is like this to his friends too. That's a relief knowing that it's not him totally hating me, it's just how he is. Claim to be rude but still a good man. Or else who would go 10 miles back to pick up their friends and drive them to school? Of course not a guy who acts like he dislikes his friends. 

"Well, we are not rich like you all. So, that's what we are gonna have for breakfast. Your stupid brain." 

"I forgot my scotch tape home today." Gabriel grits his teeth as he speaks. 

"Don't make this a kink of yours, Mr.Bennet." I can see Gabriel's veins popping up to his neck. Turning back to Sebastian, I laugh without any sound so that Gabriel doesn't hear me laughing at him. Sebastian throws me a wink when his eyes land on me. He can actually be funny, not just annoying. 

"Just shut the fuck up or else I'm gonna throw you out of the damn car."

"I mean it's your car. What can we say here, right?" 

"That's right. So, shut up now." That makes me crack a laugh once again  because I can imagine Sebastian making a sour face. I have known him for 30 minutes and already I can guess what expression he is showing without looking at him. He is actually really impressive but that doesn't mean he isn't annoying. 

"I hope you are not like your brother or him." I am guessing he means Killian. I can't really look at him as he is sitting  right behind me.

I hope that as well. Being ill-tempered will make living a life more miserable for me. I've built myself to hold my emotions back. If there is no one to show it to, why should I waste my time anyway? 

●+●

It's finally over and I'm already in my class. Though Sebastian lingered around and injured my ears even after entering the school, I'm alright now. He wanted to help me find my first classroom but Thank God I didn't need his help as I already knew where to go. It wasn't a problem finding my classroom as I had already visited the school and had an entire tour of the school with Henna when she took me for the admission.

Killian is the opposite of Sebastian. And for some reason it bothered me that he didn't talk at all. Anyway, Gabriel parted his way even before we could reach the school hallway because he didn't want to be seen with me.

"I haven't seen you around here. Are you a new transfer student?" Turning my gaze at the direction of the person who asked that question, I smile a little and nod my head. 

When I entered the classroom there were a few students present but none of them greeted me or introduced them to me, not that I expected them to. But I hoped they did as I'm always shy when it comes to talking to new people and that's why I have difficulty making friends. It's not like I don't want people talking to me, it's just I don't know how to approach first and I end up feeling uncomfortable when they start to talk too much because at some point they want to know me and I'm too ashamed to do that. So, I stay in the shadows, hoping someone will shade some light on me. It makes me happy that someone finally came up to me to talk. 

"Oh well, welcome to Milestone High. You can call me Tani." She forwards her hand as she stands by my seat while smiling sweetly at me.

Her pretty smile matches with her blue floral dress and long hair. Altogether it makes her a pretty girl who also seems innocent and kind. And by her facial structure I'm guessing she is Asian.

She seems very friendly which makes me smile. I hope everyone will be friendly like her though I doubt that. 

"Don't shake your hand with strangers, Tani." An unknown girl storms towards us and suddenly stands between us, pushing Tani behind just when I'm about to shake my hand with her. It happened so quickly that I don't actually know what happened. 

That girl turned her head towards me and did she just wink? 

She has a different kind of fashion I guess, with an almost revealing dress, perfectly styled hair, she is totally opposite of Tani. She can be identified as the popular girl I suppose. However, she reminds me of a wild cat, I don't even know why. 

"Simy is my name-" 

"Si-" I try to speak but Tani beats me to it. 

"And you have no shame." The Simy girl turns to Tani.

"Don't steal my line and I'm only shameless when it comes to handsome boys." Turning her head quickly to me she winks once again. What's happening? Am I being hit on? 

I wasn't wrong when I said wild.

"You already know my name so let's get along well with each other." She forwards her hand and I awkwardly shake it, still confused. 

"Is that just I'm deaf or you speak too low? I couldn't hear your name." She says as if I said my name. She didn't give me the chance to say my name yet for crying out loud. 

"Don't bully him, you idiot. Let go of him." Tani comes in between and recuses my hand from Simy's grasp. Why am I being attacked like this today? Being surrounded by talkative people? It's one of my worst nightmares.

"So what's your name?" She waits for my answer and I finally decide to answer even though I have no idea what's happening. I just wanna get rid of her.

"It's-"

"You two are so dead today!" An eardrum breaking yell makes me stop uttering my name. Not only me, everyone else in class seems alarmed by the sudden noise. It was almost terrifying. 

"Run, Tani. Satan is here." Two of them run off at the speed of lightning from the back door when another girl with a red face from anger, chases them. 

"-River." I mutter to myself as they are not here to listen to me. It was once again calm and quiet when they left the classroom. I found peace again though I've a feeling It's not gonna last long. It was so weird. Everything seems to happen too fast. Is it what people call school life? Weird and fast but somehow fascinating?

I shrug all the thoughts and take my seat once again. Opening my English book, I start to read the first chapter. The homeroom teacher will be in class in 5 minutes so I should prepare my lessons now. 

I  wanted to prepare for all the missed lessons earlier but I had to wake up early and come to school as Gabriel has an early meeting regarding his soccer team before class today. So, that's why I'm so early. 

"I haven't got your name yet, pretty boy." I jump a little hearing someone whispering into my ear suddenly which catches the attention of some of the students who are entering the class as the bell has already rung.

It's no surprise that it's Simy because she winks as soon as I look at her. I think she has a disease of winking or something. A normal person doesn't wink that much. 

I should feel offended that she is bothering me too much but something about her flirting wink and smile seem friendly, not actually flirtatious . Nonetheless, I'm thoroughly annoyed by the sudden appearances. 

"Why did Satan spare your life?" She raises her eyebrow at my bored tone.

"What?" She asks, looking at me, confused. 

"Ah, I see. You got some jokes, pretty boy." When she gets me she laughs a little too loud. 

"Because if she is only satan, I'm Lucifer." she smirks, taking the seat beside me. God,do I have to tolerate her throughout the whole class? 

"River Bennet? Well, not a bad name for a pretty boy like you." Reading out my name from my Id card, she smiles at me but not a gentle smile, it's more of a smirk.

"Can you please stop calling me that?" I try to speak to her politely but she is getting on my nerves. What's there to be pretty about me? Nothing. It's infuriating hearing someone calling me that or throwing any compliments towards me. It's almost sickening. 

"Stop calling you what? Pretty boy? Why? Are you a pretty girl? Well, I don't mind a pretty girl." 

"Is there anything in your eyes?" I say, sighing as she doesn't forget to wink this time too.

"Don't you see the reflection of my love for you in my eyes?" She says giving me her puppy eyes. 

"Ewww, that was the lamest of lame pick up lines you have ever used." The third girl who was earlier called "the satan" comments. 

"I know." Simy admits confidently as if It's something to be proud of. 

"Well, everything she says is automatically lame." Tani adds. 

"I know." The satan girl says. 

"I'm really-" Simy gets interrupted by the homeroom teacher. 

"Yeah, yeah. Good morning kids, sit down now you all and stop making noises." I didn't even have the chance to stand up because I was caught in between the bickering of three girls. 

Simy ends up sitting with me at last and two of her friends sit just right behind us. I wish I could sit somewhere else but there is no vacant seat near me. Sighing, I start reading my book as the teacher starts taking attendance. 

"Come on now, Ai. Stop being angry." I hear Tani talking from behind. 

"You guys left me behind just to chat with the new boy." The satan girl says, whose  name is Aii apparently. 

What does that mean anyway? I've never met anyone named Ai. 

The group of these 3 girls looks like random pieces of clothes put together to make a dress because they are so different from each other. At least, according to their dressing sense and tones. Ai looks scarier and demanding. Her style is also very different from the other two. She looks like more of a goth.

"So? You want us to date a boring girl like you when handsome boys like him exist?" Simy whispers beside me. 

"Everyone who has a stick between their legs is handsome to you. I say that you mend your habits or you are gonna get played by someone, idiot."  I'm trying my best to ignore them but the Ai girl is too loud for me to ignore. I would be embarrassed if someone caught me talking like this.

"Simy!" 

"Why don't you grow a stick between your legs if you are that jealous?" 

"Simran!" 

"I'm your best friend, you idiot. Not your ex that I would be jealous of." 

Both of them are so lost in their bickering that they can't hear the teacher calling for Simy

"Simran!" 

"Y-yeah, Mr.dick….I mean dick-dick-dick....damn, yes, Mr.dickinson!" How come no one is laughing at this? It's getting harder for me to suppress my laughter but I can't laugh as everyone is normal. 

The teacher just sighs like me and keeps on taking presence like before. It baffles me that no one is reacting. Am I that dirty minded or everyone else is just innocent? 

"Don't look so surprised. It's because it's her 100th time doing this. The first time everyone laughed their butts off." Tani explains to me which still doesn't make sense. 

"I don't know. I always start procrastinating when Mr.Dickinson starts taking attendance. Well, this time It's not my fault. Pretty boy is just too distracting." I have no words to reply so I just ignore her. I just wonder when this class will be over.