Study Buddies…
A/N: The story is in Cynthia's (my OC) P.O.V. unless stated otherwise. Also, this as an AU so expect A LOT of out of character-ness.
Thursday 1st period, pre-calculus w/ Ms. Hunnigan
I walked into the classroom and looked around.
Leon and Chris were talking about last night's football game. Steve was running around being annoying as usual. Billy and Richard were asking Rebecca for the answers to the homework.
I'm used to the classroom being hectic, so I only chuckled and smiled warmly as I took my seat in the back next to my friends and started talking about usual girl stuff.
Oh, I'm so sorry! Where are my manners? My name is Cynthia; I'm a junior here at Raccoon City High school. I am the class president with a 3.5 GPA. I guess you could say I'm in the "popular girl" clique consisting of Jill, Sherry, Ashley, and Claire, even though she is one year younger than us.
Jill was the most level-headed out of all of us. She always knew what to do whenever we come to her with personal problems. It's completely obvious that she likes Chris, the captain of the football team, but tends not to take action. Did I mention she was a total geek when it came to history?
Sherry is the daughter of William Birkin, a famed scientist that works for Umbrella. She doesn't seem to care for science, though. She is also the type who loves hooking people up, although she doesn't have anyone she likes herself.
Ashley is captain of the cheerleading team and always seems to act on impulse. She can be a little slow when it came to academics, but that's what Jill, Sherry, and I are for, we always to help each other out in subjects that we are stronger in. All of the guys seem to be head over heels for her and will even let her shit on them if she asked.
Claire, though she's not in the class with us right now, is Chris' younger sister. Chris tends to be overprotective of her, much like my dad is with me. She has a few admirers, though they are afraid to approach her since Chris would probably pound them. She, unlike Sherry, is completely fascinated with science.
"I heard there's supposed to be a new student today." Ashley said enthusiastically as she was smacking on some gum.
"Wow really? I wonder if it's a boy or girl…" Jill said, looking at Chris all the while.
"If it's a boy he better be cute!" Sherry added as she took out her notebook to start the warm-up. "Do you know anything about it, Cynthia?"
"Girl just because I'm class president doesn't mean I get that kind of info." I replied to her with a chuckle. She only pouted as she turned to the board to look at the warm-up question before jotting an answer into her notebook.
"Well, I guess will see soon enough." Jill piped up as she pointed to our teacher, Ms. Hunnigan, walking in the classroom.
"Alright everyone, take your seats!" Ms. Hunnigan said as she put a stack of papers on her desk.
She waited for everyone to seat down before continuing, "As you all may or may not have heard, we have a new student joining us."
The classroom just erupted with the sounds of voices upon hearing the news, more than likely speculation… or in Ashley's case, bad rumors.
Out teacher chuckled softly before raising her hands up to regain everyone's attention.
"Now I know you all are excited, but please take it easy with him and make him as comfortable as possible." She said with a bright smile on her face.
"Yes Ms. Hunnigan!" We all said in unison.
"Alright, now start your warm-ups, you have until the morning announcements are over."
Ms. Hunnigan sat down and started going through the stack of papers on her desk while we started working. Ashley, Jill, and I turned to Sherry to copy the answer from her. Just then the bell rung, so we knew that the morning announcements would start soon. We didn't really worry though, seeing as how we just copied from Sherry.
With no warm-up to do, we just started talking about stupid stuff that was said on Twitter and the fight that broke out at the football game.
"Omg girls, look at this text message I got from Leon." Ashley whispered quietly as she pulled out her iPhone 5. It is illegal to have electronics out in school, but Ms. Hunnigan… nor any of the teachers for that matter, seemed to really care. She pulled up her texts and showed us the one she claimed to have gotten from Leon. Sherry, Jill, and I read it silently, our hands over our mouths so no one could hear our gasps.
"Hey baby, how wud u lik to go out this weekend?"
"Omg Ash, you are SO lucky!" Sherry said softly as she finished reading it. Jill and I added an "mhm" in agreement. Sherry was right too, Leon was smoking hot! Especially his hair, which he always flips dramatically after he takes off his football helmet. Girls would literally kill to even have him acknowledge them.
The morning announcements ended and Ms. Hunnigan got up to collect the homework and explain the warm-up. As she was doing that, the door opened. Everyone grew silent as the principal, Ms. Belikova, stepped into the room. Ashley instinctively took her phone and shoved it back into her purse.
"Good morning Ms. Hunnigan and students," Ms. Belikova started, "I'm here to introduce your new classmate." She signaled to someone outside of the door and a young man with entered. "And pull up your pants!"
The class giggled as he groaned softly and complied, but stopped when Ms. Belikova's sharp eyes turned to us. "Now, introduce yourself."
"I'm Jake Muller," he pronounced simply, "I transferred here all the way from Edonia. Nice to meet you all."
As class president, it was my job to stand and formerly greet the new students and welcome them into the class. I stood up and my hazel eyes met his cold blue irises from across the room.
"Hello Mr. Muller, I'm Cynthia Ryman the class president. It's a pleasure to welcome you into our class. I hope you enjoy your school year here at Raccoon." I flashed him a warm smile, but he still kept his cold, gruff demeanor.
'Jerk,' I thought to myself as I sat back down. Jill and Sherry only giggled as they looked at my face. I guess I had unconsciously scrunched up my face, pouted, or made some other unpleasant expression. I started fiddling with my long, dark blonde hair, something I always did when I was nervous or annoyed.
Ms. Hunnigan started to introduce herself to Jake and eventually told him to sit down. "Is there an empty seat anywhere?" She called out. Unfortunately for me, the only seat available was beside me.
"Yes, over here." Sherry said happily as she pointed to the empty desk. She then quickly turned and flashed a devious grin, as did Jill and Ashley, who was fiddling with her phone until just now.
I sighed on the inside as Jake made his way to the chair and sat down.
"Thank you, Ms. Belikova." Ms. Hunnigan said as the principal turned to leave. When the door shut, Ms. Hunnigan turned to us.
"I'm sorry Jake, but I don't have a book to give you. So you're going to have to share with someone until I can get one, okay?" She said. "Cynthia, do you mind?"
Sherry, Jill, and Ashley snickered as they looked at my face. Hell, the whole class did.
"No, I don't mind at all." I said calmly as I scooted my desk closer to Jake's. I looked at him again and smiled, trying to be friendly unlike him, UGH!
Ms. Hunnigan began explaining the warm-up. After that, she told us to turn to page 134 and do problems 2-40 even. When I did, I looked at Jake again; his face displayed clear confusion as if he was looking at a foreign language.
"You understand this, right?" I asked him softly.
"No I don't, Ms. President." He said. Ms. Hunnigan must've overheard us as she came to the back of the room and asked Jake how far he had gotten at his old school.
"Not very far, I was only there for 3 days." He said solemnly, turning to the book.
"Hm, I see," Ms. Hunnigan started, "Rebecca, do you mind becoming Jake's tutor so he could catch up?"
The quirky girl piped up from her work and sheepishly turned to look at the teacher. Rebecca was extremely smart; she seemed to know everything and had a stunning GPA of 4.1! She wasn't in AP classes since she didn't want to be separated from her close friend Billy. There are many rumors that the two are an item, but she frequently denies it.
"I- I'm sorry Ms. Hunnigan! I'm not going to be available." Rebecca started, she shot a glance at Billy, but it went unnoticed by everyone except me.
The teacher sighed softly before turning to me again, "Cynthia, you wouldn't mind would you?"
'Oh god why?' I thought to myself as I nodded in response to her question.
"Thank you so much." Ms. Hunnigan said to me, "Jake I'll excuse you for this assignment."
Ms. Hunnigan went to her desk and opened her laptop to take the attendance. I went back to my class work, I worked down to problem 38 before Jake asked me, "Aren't you gonna scoot back over to where you were?"
"No, you might still need the book." I quietly replied to him without even turning his way. I sighed in relief as I finished the last problem. I was always so good at math, even when it got so complicated and stupid.
I looked to Jill, who was only on number 28. I looked to my other best friends, Sherry was on 24 and Ashley was only on 10, poor thing.
I sighed again as I realized I had no one to talk to and that there was still 45 minutes left of class. The only other person who was finished is Rebecca, of course, but she was on the other side of the room! I turned to Jake, who already had his head down and was sound asleep.
"Not that I wanted to him anyway." I mumbled very quietly to myself, almost completely under my breath and turned away.
"I heard that." He said, turning his head to face me. I honestly didn't care if he did; he was the one being a dick to me first, hmph!
"I wasn't talking about you." I whispered to him, of course I was lying so I wouldn't come off as a mean girl.
"Yeah whatever." He said replied to me, turning his head to face back down into his arms.
By this time, Jill was almost done so I could finally talk to someone. Just then, I heard my phone vibrate, so I reached into my purse and pulled it out. I opened it and it said I had a text from Sherry.
It said, "Omg just talk 2 Jake bishhh! 3 He cud use some friends lol." I wanted to throw something at her for even thinking of saying that. Why would I want to talk to him? It's bad enough I'm gonna have to spend time with him so he can get the notes anyway. But her last sentence is what got to me, because she was right. Looking at the message one last time, I sighed and turned to Jake.
"So Jake," I started softly, "what other classes do you have?"
The red head turned to me, "Now you wanna talk?" He said with a small chuckle.
'Arrogant douche.' I thought to myself as he dug through his pocket and pulled out his schedule and handed it to me.
As I read his schedule, I noticed I had the same class with him next period; Chemistry w/ Ms. Wong. But we didn't have any other classes together until B day.
"Do you know your way to Ms. Wong's class?" I asked him, smiling.
"No."
"Well, I can show you the way since I have her next, too."
"Um, th- thanks." His voice trembled slightly as if he was nervous.
"3 more minutes!" Ms. Hunnigan called out.
I looked to Ashley and saw she was only on number 34, there's no way she was going to finish in time. I took out my phone again and texted the answers for 34-40 to her.
She quickly took out her phone and quickly copied the answers to her paper, turning to me with a smile to thank me.
"Okay, pass your papers up!" Ms. Hunnigan called out. The sound of moving paper filled the room and the teacher walked around to collect them.
The bell rung and everyone except Jake and me got up to go to second period.
"Cynthi, you coming?" Jill called out to me.
"Oh, I'll catch up, I gotta show Jake around!" I replied to her.
Jill, Sherry, and Ashley all looked at each other and smirked before leaving me alone with Jake.
I packed up purse and scooted my desk back to its original position before getting and turning to face Jake.
"You don't have to help me if you don't want to." He said.
To be honest, I didn't, but I thought back to Sherry's text message and gave him my serious stare with my hands on my hips.
"Nonsense, you'll walk around like some lost puppy if I don't. I don't mind at all, really! Now c'mon!" He reluctantly followed me into the hallway, where we were greeted by Chris and Leon.
"Hey new kid, I'm Chris Redfield and this is Leon Kennedy. We're on the school's football team and wanted you to know you can come to practice if you're interested." Chris held out his hand for Jake to shake, hey that rhymes.
"Thanks man, I'll definitely think about it." Jake said as he shook the larger boy's hand.
Chris was very handsome with his ripped body, short and shaggy black hair, and tanned skin, no wonder Jill constantly stares at him.
"Well you can save your recruiting for later, Chris. I have to show Jake to Ms. Wong's, now if you'll excuse us." I walked past the two football players, Jake close behind me.
"They looked nice." Jake said aloud.
"They aren't really. They threw this poor kid named Piers into a dumpster last year as well as throwing his own lunch at him for no reason." I replied.
"Damn, I take that back then."
"Well, they are nice as long as you don't come off as a weakling to them." I quickly said back, trying to not give Jake anymore worries about being the new kid. I heard him chuckling slightly, but didn't say anything about it.
"So what's Ms. Wong like?" Jake asked me while we made our way through the crowded hallway.
"She's pretty nice and laid back, but the guys seem not to care as they always make sexual remarks and jokes about her." I replied.
We finally made our way to Ms. Wong's class and I led Jake inside. I told him that I was gonna get my notebook from my locker and that I'll be right back. This was of course a lie, as I always go to my locker AFTER Ms. Wong's. I instead made my way to the girl's bathroom where Ashley, Jill, Sherry, and Claire were.
"So how was he?" Jill said as she was looking in the mirror to apply some lip gloss. Sherry and Claire stared intensely at me while Ashley was trying to take a picture of herself.
"He's okay, I guess." I replied to Jill as I went to another mirror to fix my hair. The girls started staring at each other and giggling amongst themselves.
"What?" I asked as I was still adjusting my hair in the mirror.
"Oh nothing," Ashley started sarcastically as she put her phone in her bag, "anyways, let's go bitches, you know how Ms. Wong is when we're late." Ashley left the bathroom to head to class.
"Wait, what?!" I said as I finally came to the realization of what Ashley was getting at. The other girls giggled as we all left the bathroom to head to Ms. Wong's.
2nd period: Chemistry w/ Ms. Wong.
We made our way to class and took our seats in the table at the back right before the bell rung. Claire did exceptionally well in science and was put into Chemistry as opposed to Biology like most other 10th graders. I looked around and saw Jake at the middle table with Piers, Rebecca, and Steve. I sighed in relief as I realized he wasn't looking at me and was actually talking amongst his group as I pulled out my notebook and started on the warm-up.
After a while, Sherry whispered, "Hey Cynthia, lover boy's looking at you." She moved her head to signal me to look towards Jake. I looked towards him out of the corner of my eye and he immediately shot his face back down towards his paper. I rolled my eyes as I went back to working on the warm-up.
"Alright ladies and gentleman," Ms. Wong called out, "who wants to give the answer to the warm-up?"
She looked around and groaned as she noticed the only person that raised their hand was Steve.
"Okay, go for it Burnside." She said.
Steve only stayed quiet as he eyed the teacher. I hope he wasn't going to…
"Nice tits- I mean dress, Ms. Wong." He said, causing the boys in the class and Claire to laugh and for me to groan and facepalm myself.
Steve was always the class clown and a womanizer. It's honestly no surprise to me that he's single, but Claire always seems to laugh at his jokes… weird girl.
"Thanks, I found it in your closet last night while robbing your house." Ms. Wong sarcastically replied. I couldn't help but join in on the laughter, even though I hate my laugh.
"Okay, now who really wants to give the answer?"
Piers raised his hand and promptly gave the answer.
Piers was probably the only kid in school who was as smart as Rebecca, but he always dumbs himself down to "fit in." He is constantly bullied by Chris and Leon… hell make that the whole football team for that matter. He is pretty cute though, especially when he wears his ROTC uniform. There are also many bad rumors about him too, but like Rebecca, he constantly denies them. There needs to be more sentimental guys like him. I just wish he would be himself and stop giving a shit about what Chris and Leon think of him.
"Thank you, Nivans." Ms. Wong said as she started walking to the front to pull down the projector screen.
I knew we were getting ready to take notes, so I took out my phone so I could take pictures of the slides. I never liked writing down all the crap Ms. Wong puts on her power points. The girls did nothing since we always send the notes to each other anyway. The power point started and I started taking pictures of the slides. I looked and saw that Piers and Leon were doing the same.
Fortunately, the notes lasted all class. The girls got up to leave as the bell rung to go to their next class. I told them that I was going to send them the notes later and that I was going to catch up to them later. I rushed ahead of them to catch up to Jake.
"So what class do you have next?" I asked when I finally caught up with him.
"ROTC with Krauser." He replied to me.
I trembled as he said it; Krauser is an extremely intimidating guy! He stood 6'1 and was completely ripped with muscle. He served in some branch of the secret service for God knows how long and was very strict as a teacher. If I was Jake, I'd switch out ASAP.
"I can show you the way there, if you want." I proposed to him.
"Thanks, but Piers already said he was going to do it." He replied said looking to Piers, who was still in Ms. Wong's class talking with Rebecca.
"Okay, well be careful, Mr. Krauser is one scary dude." I warned Jake before heading to my locker.
3rd period: World History w/ Mrs. Ashcroft.
I arrived from my locker and went to History class. The teacher, Mrs. Ashcroft, was a coffee addict and extremely stern.
I was the only one from my clique in this class at this time so I just sat in the seat in the back where the windows were. Jill had this class yesterday and had already sent me the notes for today as well as the answers to today's class work so I took out my phone and placed it in my desk so I could use it whenever I got the class work.
I just stared out of the window throughout the lecture our teacher was giving since I already had the notes.
3rd period: R.O.T.C w/ Mr. Krauser (Jake's P.O.V.)
Piers led me to class and I took a seat next to him. He was a real nice kid; I couldn't imagine why anyone would wanna throw him in a dumpster. I felt Piers nudge me as he and the other kids stood up to salute the teacher as he walked in from the room next door.
"Hey you, ginger," he called out, his voice deep and intense, "don't you know the policy."
'Who the hell does he think he is," I thought to myself as I stared into his cold eyes as I replied to him with a confident "no." He tried to intensify his stare to scare me, but it sure as hell wasn't working.
"He's a new student, sir!" Piers piped up as Krauser started making his way towards me. The man stopped in his tracks.
"Ah," he started, "I guess that's what happens when I don't read e-mails…" he mumbled to himself. "You can all sit down now."
"Yes, sir!" The students said as they all sat down.
The large man made his way to me and said, "What's your name?"
"Jake Muller." I replied.
He went to his desk and pulled out some papers and handed them to me. It was the syllabus…
Just then the bell rang for lunch and Piers tapped me to knock me out of my daydream.
"We fortunately have first lunch, c'mon." He said with a big grin on his face. I nodded as I got up to follow him. I'm surprised I was actually making friends on the first day.
1st lunch
I made my way to the lunchroom, bumping into Sherry along the way. When we arrived, we immediately went to the vending machines for snacks and drinks since we hated school food.
"So what are you gonna do about Jake?" Sherry asked me as she was getting her lemonade from the drink machine.
"What do you mean, Sherrz?" I replied as I watched her. A devious grin crept upon her features as she turned to me.
"Now's the perfect time for you to give him his 'private lesson.'" She said the last two words so sarcastically, causing my face to flush slightly.
"You and your suggestions…" I mumbled as we made our way to sit with at the football team's table. They didn't seem to mind since we were close friends of Ashley.
"Oh look, there's Jake now!" Sherry blurted out. I turned to where she was pointing and saw Jake sitting with Piers, talking comfortably with him. I was happy he's already made a friend, but Sherry was right, now would be a good time to go talk to Jake.
I slowly made my way to Jake and Piers and stood next to Jake. I said hello to Piers before turning to Jake and asking,
"Are you ready to learn some math?" I asked him.
He nodded and turned to Piers, thanking him for whatever he's done for him so far. I told Jake that I didn't want to tutor him in the dining hall since it's crowded and noisy. I led to the school library; I greeted Ms. Harper and told her our reason for being here. She told us to take as long as we need and she'll write a pass for us.
We sat at an empty table; I took out my notebook and lent it to him.
"If you don't understand anything, let me know okay?" I couldn't get the damn nervousness out of my voice. I hope he didn't notice.
"Okay," he said simply as he started looking over my notes. I unconsciously started fiddling with my hair again. Thank god my phone vibrated with a text from Ashley.
"Sherry told us about ur P.L. with Jake, tell us everything when it's over! ;)" Okay, maybe not. I sighed as I put my phone back, only for it to vibrate again. Jake looked at me questionably as I quickly pulled it back out.
"And don't 4get to send those notes! :0" I almost completely forgot about sending the notes to them. I quickly sent a group text out to Ashley, Jill, Sherry, and Claire with the pictures of the notes attached. I sighed in relief as I put the phone back into my bag again.
"You sure are popular, prez." Jake said with a small laugh as he was still reading all of my notes. I was taken aback by his comment; I couldn't tell if he was trying to get under my skin again or not. "Hey, I don't understand this." He continued while pointing at my notebook.
I stood up and leaned over the table to see what he was talking about. He didn't seem to understand composite functions.
"Hold on," I said as I went to ask Ms. Harper if the library had any copies of the textbook. She pointed me to where they were; I quickly went to get one and bring it back to Jake, turning to the lesson in the book. I began showing him the examples and even told him to do some of the practice problems. He detested at first, but eventually listened when I told him I'll help. He seemed to grasp the concept after about 5 or 6 problems.
"Wow, you're pretty good at this." He said happily.
"Thanks," I started, "I've always been good at math."
Annnnd stop! I only really wrote this story to celebrate the release of Resident Evil 6, but I'll definitely continue if this gets some support! ^_^