It was 8:00 in the morning. What idiot thought it was a good idea to have an Algebra class at 8:00 in the morning? Castiel asked himself this as he rested his head on his textbook as the rest of the class chatted back and forth and the teacher, Mr. Johnson, began pulling up the first problems for the day on the smartboard. He had stayed up late in the night, practicing one of the songs for his and Lysander's band, and now he was paying for it. Why did school have to start so early anyway?
He had just about dozed off when a knock sounded on the door. Snapping out of it with a flinch, Castiel lifted himself up and took a look to see.
Now entering the classroom, a binder in her arms, a girl approached Mr. Johnson and held out a blue slip of paper without a word. Mr. Johnson's gaze turned from it, to her, then to the clock. He took it from her before he spoke, "Ah, you must be the new student. You're late; class started ten minutes ago. Did you have trouble finding the right room?"
"Yeah," she said, her voice so flat that it was obvious that she didn't mean it, "Sorry."
"Well, just be sure not to let it happen again. Since this is your first day, I'll let it slip. You might need help finding some of the other rooms as well so I'd suggest finding another student to help," standing from his desk, Mr. Johnson then addressed the class as a whole, "Everyone, I'd like you to meet your new classmate, miss Juliet Sharpelle. I trust you'll all get her caught up if she's not already. Miss Sharpelle, there are textbooks in the cabinets on the left, and some extra seats in the back."
"It's Jewel," Castiel heard her mutter under her breath, "not Juliet."
If the teacher heard her, he ignored the comment and instead continued with his work. Juliet's eyes scanned the room before finally her stare landed on him. Some seats? There was only one seat left in the class; right in the back next to him. She looked away, searching for someplace else she might find to sit, as if another desk would magically appear, with naturally no such luck. She scowled before quickly erasing the sudden expression back to a neutral blank. For some reason, Castiel felt himself shrink back when she had looked at him, but he didn't know why.
As she plopped by him, staring into space with one hand cupping her cheek, he was able to get a good look at her. He couldn't help but find her startlingly beautiful. Her coal black hair curled and flowed like water past her shoulders to the middle of her back. Her eyes were a vivid shade of violet that seemed so mystic, yet haunting at the same time. Her skin was pale, but not in a bad way; more like the way described in fairytales such as Snow White. And her lips… they were just the perfect shape and fullness, colored a natural deep pink.
She wore a black leather jacket with matching fighting gloves and combat boots that came up to her knees. Underneath those was a loose, plain navy tee of some fabric not unlike silk and a pair of dark denim jeans. She didn't wear much make-up either, just a touch-up of mascara.
She was undeniably beautiful.
Juliet's eyes flickered from the front and over to him. Catching him staring at her, she frowned and huffed quietly, "What are you looking at?"
Caught off guard, Castiel quickly turned around and gave the top of his desk a cold stare of his own. He felt her gaze on him for a minute longer before she looked away. Perhaps he had offended her by staring? Either way, her response was uncalled for. But what could he say?
During the middle of class, Juliet had given up on paying attention to Mr. Johnson and began to doodle on a notebook. She more than likely wouldn't get in trouble; Mr. Johnson never really noticed what was going on in the back unless you were talking excessively. Getting bored himself, Castiel couldn't help but take a peak. Without turning his head, he glanced down at her paper. Little sketches of little things- a pie, a bunny, a chibi kid sticking his tongue out.
"Not bad," he whispered, "although you might want to erase some of those lines better." Amethyst eyes gave him a dismissive glance before she chose to blatantly ignore him. Castiel scowled. Rising up a little in his seat, his voice noticeably gaining volume, he snarled, "Look, I don't know what you're problem is, but-"
"Castiel!" announced the teacher, one eyebrow raised in both warning and question, "Do you have something you wish to say?"
"No sir," he replied, sulking back in his chair and then, glancing with new found venom over to Juliet, he muttered, "Just trying to welcome the new girl."
"Hmmm… I see. Perhaps, then, you wouldn't mind giving Ms. Sharpelle a tour after class is finished?"
That caught the girl's attention. Sitting straight up, she stated, "That won't be necessary; I'm sure I can find my way around on my own."
"Maybe so, but your tardiness- it would seem- proves otherwise," Mr. Johnson was already at work scribbling a note on a sheet of paper. After signing it, he called Castiel over and handed it to him, "In case you're late for your own classes while finding hers."
Needless to say, it was a very, very long class after that. Once the bell rang for second period, Castiel waited for the girl as she took her sweet time to put up her pencils and collect her belongings. Together, neither one speaking to the other, they walked out of class and into the hall. As soon as they were far enough away from the door, Jewel spun on one heel and turned on him angrily, "Great job on getting me in trouble on the first day."
Castiel nearly laughed at her outburst, "Oh really, you seem to do that plenty well on your own, sweetheart."
"I didn't ask for your company," she retorted, already walking away, "Look, I can find my way around just fine. I don't need your help, so do what you want with that stupid note." With that, she spun off in the other direction, positively fuming, her boots clomping against the floor.
Snarling in distaste, Castiel turned to the first person he could find to see who exactly this girl was. And that would've been Nathaniel, just stepping out of his English class. Nudging him roughly in the side, hard enough to grab his attention and maybe bruise the flesh, he asked, "Who's the new chick?"
"Who?" He looked ahead at the person Castiel nodded to. Juliet was currently putting away her binder and grabbing a drawstring bag from her locker. Nathaniel smiled, "Oh, you mean Jewel. She just transferred here from Celestial High on the other side of town." He scratched the back of his head with one hand, his notepad in the other. "It's been quite a while since I've seen her. It'll be great to catch up again."
Castiel had no idea why Nathaniel would see anything in such a pest. She was a pretty thing, for certain, but had all the charm of a dead slug smashed on the side of the road. They were complete opposites in all the ways he could think of unless his despise for both counted. Still, one thing kept nagging at him.
"You know her?"
Nathaniel gave him a surprised look. "Well, yeah… You don't?" Seeing Castiel make an irritable expression, he continued, "You're saying you don't know Jewel? Juliet? That name means absolutely nothing to you?"
"Give me one good reason why I would, Blondie!" Castiel shouted, growing annoyed with the questioning, "I only just met her today!"
Before Nathaniel could speak, the class bell rung, warning all students to get to class quickly, "I've got to get to class. Maybe I'll tell you later." Before Castiel could stop him, he was gone. Grumbling, Castiel raced for the gym. Maybe working out his frustration would calm his nerves.
He entered the boy's locker room in a huff, ripping open the door to his locker and yanking out his duffle bag. With quick efficiency, he stripped himself free of his usual garb and donned on the green tank and black jogging pants that he typically wore for that class. Lysander, coming around from the other side of the lockers to greet his friend, frowned upon seeing his agitated state. "What's wrong?"
"New girl," he answered flatly, slipping on his tennis shoes, "with an attitude problem."
"I didn't know we had a new student."
"Probably best if that you didn't run into her. At least Amber seems to have a personality."
"She's that intolerable?"
"Worse," the pair walked out and reentered the gym together, beginning their exercises and stretches before class began, "I swear, she's lucky that I don't hit girls, but if she keeps it up, I might just make an except… Oh, you got to be kidding me!"
Juliet exited the girl's locker room, dressed in a black T-shirt and a pair of grey shorts. Her hair was pulled up in a high-ponytail. It was just his luck to get her for not one of his classes, but two in a row. She didn't seem to notice him and went over to the couch to find out what all she needed to do. Lysander looked at her as she passed by, "Is that her?"
"Yep."
"She seems decent to me." They watched as she miraculously got the couch to smile back when she spoke with him. Sweet Amoris High's gym couch was known for being strict and blunt, possessing little charisma and hard to get by with. If he ever laughed, everyone would know that the apocalypse was upon them. "Maybe you misunderstood something?"
"It's kind of hard to mistake someone practically telling you straight to your face that they want nothing to do with you."
After the daily exercises, the class split up into four different teams of six to play volleyball. The couch stood in the middle of the court between the pair of nets in order for him to observe both games and once. When both games were complete, the winning teams and losing teams would face off against each other. Lysander and Castiel were already on opposing teams. Juliet had been added to Lysander's, making it an even six.
"Don't start thinking that an extra player's gonna help you much," Castiel taunted his friend. Lysander's team usually lost, not due to their lack of a player, but because most of the people on his team were the artistic or musical type who were only in the class because it was a requirement to graduate.
"Don't count us off yet," Lysander grinned.
Castiel- as well as some of the other, more athletic, students- kept an eye on Juliet, evaluating her skills. She seemed to be an average player; good enough not to hold the others on her team back, just not good enough to be considered a real threat to them. Unlike some girls, she didn't flinch when the ball came her way, but she also typically stayed in the back, allowing the others to go in for it.
Eventually, when Castiel's team lost a game, they were sent over to face the losing team; Lysander's. His teammates looked to each other, spreading out, but not overly concerned. Juliet was up to serve, and from what they had seen so far, her serves typically meant that the ball would fall just after it pass the net.
Juliet stepped back and called the score, the ball in her hands, "First serve- zero serving zero." The ball went soaring and Castiel called that he had it. He bumped it back over to the other side and smiled; this would be an easy win.
All of a sudden, Juliet was right there by the net, having run over in a burst of quick speed. She jumped up in the air and hit the ball with her hand, spiking it back over and making it slam into the floor with a loud bang. Castiel moved back as the ball nearly struck his head in the process.
Everyone- including the couch- stared at her, baffled and bewildered. All of this time, she hadn't shown them her full potential or given it her all. She had been faking weakness. Castiel glared at her, getting a smirk in reply, "Careful," she warned, "You don't want to get hurt." She spun around, a hand on her hips, and moved back to prepare for the next serve.
"Well," Lysander blinked and approached Castiel, "She certainly is… something."