Chapter 4

Noah had been staring at me since the test started and I was pretty sure he hadn’t solved any of the questions on his question paper. I don’t even think he has written his name on his answer sheet.

I pressed my lips together and fiddled with my pen as I tried to convince myself not to stare back. Why is he staring at me? Is there something on my face? Does he want to say something? Do something? My eyes darted to his and I cursed under my breath before looking away from him because even though we had only made eye contact for a  brief moment, he had been quick enough to flash me a smile.

Noah hadn’t been as awful as Tyler and Shane were, he had just stood next to them while they harassed me and laughed at the insults they threw my way. In fact, if I had to pick between the three boys, I would choose Noah because he had been a lot nicer and he sometimes tried to make me feel better when I was upset due to Tyler’s and Shane’s harassment but I hadn’t trusted his motives since he was one of Tyler’s best friends.

One time, Shane had stolen my clothes while I was in the shower in the girls’ locker room and Noah was the one that had given me his gym clothes. I had first thought that it was some sort of plan that Tyler had concocted but when I realized it wasn’t, I had been really grateful. I had even smiled at him. But then when I tried to return the clothes to him the next day, he behaved like he wasn’t the one that gave them to me and that led to Shane starting a rumor that I had slept with a guy in the girls’ locker room. That rumor had made me really upset so when Noah tried to talk to me in Chemistry class later that day, I had ignored him. He had wanted to stay in Noah’s good graces more than he had wanted to help me.

“Mary,” Asia suddenly whisper-yelled in her seat and I turned to face her with raised brows. “You haven’t answered my question. What are you doing here?”

“Uh, attending school… writing a test,” I replied while twirling my pencil between my fingers even though I knew that she meant what was I doing in Foxbourne.

“That’s not what I meant, smartass,” she shot back and I snorted. “I meant here… in Foxbourne.”

“Well I moved back because of uni and I want to take the SAT tests here,” I said and her mouth formed an ‘o’ shape as realization washed over her face. Someone cleared their throat next to me and I instantly faced forward because I knew it was Mr Mason.

“You’re done?” he asked and I lifted my head to look at him before giving him a nod and a scoff came from Abigail who was sitting behind me.

“Nerdddd,” she droned and I pressed my lips together to keep myself from laughing because I knew she hated calculus.

Mr Mason’s eyes darted between me and Asia. “I play favorites, I know I do and I’m pretty sure that everyone in the class knows it too but I don’t want to make it more obvious than it already is.” He tapped my table while I gave him an innocent smile and walked from me to Noah who had already started to focus on his test.

“So you guys are all alone?” Asia immediately went back to whispering and I faced her again.

“Yeah but mum has Mrs Beckett keeping an eye on us.”

“Attention please,” Mr Mason announced and my head jerked in his direction as he let out an exasperated sigh while staring at the papers on Noah’s desk. He then looked around to make sure that everyone was focused on him before he said, “I’ll have you know that writing your name on your answer sheet is ten percent of this test so if you haven’t done that yet, do it now.”

Noah immediately started to write something down on his answer sheet and I shook my head sideways because I assumed it was his name he was writing.

Abigail muttered something under her breath and I resumed twirling my pencil between my fingers while Mr Mason walked over to his desk. Dia was no longer writing so she was most likely done with the test too and I opened my mouth to ask her if she wanted us to go to the mall after school because she needed some things but before I could, I noticed that Lana, who was sitting on my left, was trying to get my attention through the corner of my eye.

I shut my mouth as I stopped twirling my pencil and placed it on the table. I didn’t want to look at her because I was sure that Noah was either sitting next to her or behind her but ignoring her would be sort of mean and I wanted to know why she was trying to get my attention so I slowly turned to face her.

I gave her a tight lipped smile and tucked one of my braids behind my ear as I saw Tyler talking to Shane who was sitting on his left. Lana folded a piece of paper that was on her table and stretched it out to me while I furrowed my brows slightly. My eyes went from the paper to her face and then back to the paper before I reached out to take it from her.

As I pulled my hand back to my desk, Shane nodded in my direction and a wave of heat rushed through me when Tyler turned his face to look at me. Fuck.

I faced forward and took in a deep breath. I wanted to turn again to see if he was staring at me but I opened the paper Lana had passed to me instead.

‘You’re back,’ was what was on the piece of paper and I raised my brows as I lifted my eyes to hers. Really, I thought, That’s all she has to say. You’re back?

“I don’t know dude. I guess I am,” I blurted out and her face flushed while Mr Mason let out an ‘ahem’ at the front of the class.

Sadness washed over Lana’s face but I barely paid attention to her because I could see Tyler staring at me through the corner of my eye. He wasn’t smiling but he wasn’t frowning either and I didn’t know what to make of the blank look on his face.

“What did she write there?” Abigail suddenly asked, breaking my focus on Tyler, as she lifted herself off her seat and leaned over to see what Lana had written on the piece of paper. She scoffed after reading it and sat back on her seat while I crumpled the paper up.

“Two minutes more,” Mr Mason announced and shocked gasps came from some people in the class. “What? You didn’t actually think you were going to use the entire period to write the test, did you?” He shook his head sideways after no one replied and began to flip through the huge textbook on his desk.

“Mary,” Asia whispered and I hmmed as I faced her. “What about your brother? Elijah?”

My older brother, Elijah, hadn’t moved to London with us because he had started uni at Cornell last year. He already knew that I was back and he would be coming to Foxbourne Hills soon.

“He’s coming in two weeks,” I replied and she nodded before her face lit up.

“Oh, can I -”

“Miss Coleman, Miss Copeland,” Mr Mason suddenly called out and my head jerked in his direction as he shut the textbook he had been going through. “See you at detention,” he said and my shoulders instantly sagged. “... for the rest of your high school career.”

“You can’t do that?!” Asia burst out while a couple of people, including Abigail, snickered and Mr Mason tilted his head to the side, slightly furrowing his brows.

“Are you asking me or are you telling me?”

“I don’t know,” Asia replied while frowning. “Which one will get you to not give us detention till we finish high school?”

“Neither.”

“Oh, come on!”

Mr Mason shook his head and looked away from her. “Time’s up. Pencils, pens or whatever you’re using to write, down.”

Groans from some people who hadn’t finished the test and from Asia who was ignored, filled the class before Mr Mason began to collect the answer sheets. Asia kept frowning till he got to her desk and he took her answer sheet with a huge smile on his face.

She didn’t want to get detention and I didn’t either but I knew Mr Mason was joking about detention till the end of the school year. He would just give us for a couple of days, a week at most, but not for the year.

“It’s going to be a very long school year for you guys,” he said in a cheery voice as he moved from her desk to mine and picked up my answer sheet.

...He’s joking. He’s definitely joking. He has to be.

“Two other people are in detention for the rest of the school year too so you guys won’t be alone.”

“What two other people?” Asia asked while he moved to Abigail’s desk, narrowing her eyes.

“Noah and Tyler."

Fucking hell!