ONLY LOOK AT ME
Max was the unnoticed, bullied girl, labeled as emo who nobody cared about, who hid under her twin sister's shadow. Fang was her torturer, the stereotypical hot jock, who harbors a dark secret that nobody knows about. When he falls for her, will she ever be able to look at him differently?
Chapter 1- Max
I pulled my hood lower down over my head, watching my feet as I walked up the concrete stairs to union mountain high school. I was Max, the schools outcast. It seemed like every school had one in movies, but my life was far from anything out of hollywood. I had learned over time to wear earbuds all the time, except in classes so I wouldn't hear the smug comments about me as I walked from class to class.
I pushed past the heavy black doors and into the halls, pulling the sleeves of my black pullover down over my hands farther and balling the cuffs in my fists. We had just finished thanksgiving break, so being back wasn't so stale like a regular monday.
I was almost to my locker, when someone stepped in front of me, blocking my view of the hall. I knew who it was, the black v-neck and signature black leather jacket gave it away. Nick had bullied me since eighth grade when we switched schools, we being me and my twin sister Maya.
His lips moved like he was talking to me, but I looked back down at my feet and hurried past him, hoping he would dismiss me and go find his equally as awful friends. I hurried through the sea of people to my locker. As fast as I could, I undid the combination and grabbed my chemistry book, whipping my hands out from behind the door as Nick slammed the metal locker shut, making me drop my book.
I crouched and scooped the book up off the ground, but was yanked up by my bicep, coming face to face with Nick, who kept his impassive face he flicked my left earbud away from my ear.
"Hey Maxie." He said with a smirk, but I just watched him blankly, trying not to flinch as he gripped my wrist firmly so I wouldn't twist away from him.
"I missed you and you won't even say hey back to me?" Nick frowned, and I felt a small twinge of joy at making him angry.
He lashed out and firmly grabbed my jaw, the palm of him hand pressed against my throat. I raised my free hand, and gripped his wrist, watching my sleeve so that it didn't slip.
"Hey Maxie." He growled, his face uncomfortably close to mine. I fought the urge to head butt him but kept it down. I knew he wanted me to greet him, but I wouldn't do what he wanted, and just stared at him blankly, refusing to say "Hey" back to him. In all the time I had gone to the same school as him I had only uttered a few, short sentences to him, some of them not even audible. He groaned and let go of me, and I looked back down at my red vans, before he shoved me hard against the lockers, my head resounding off the cold metal with a clang. I sunk to the ground, my eyes screwed shut.
I opened them to see Nick shoving angrily through the crowd, who hadn't even stopped to see what had happened, they were used to it by now. I picked myself up off the ground, adjusted my beanie under my hood, and clutched my chemistry book tighter to my chest, the back of my head throbbing after bouncing off the lockers. I slowly stood up, ducking under the frowning eyes that had suddenly turned on me. I rushed off down the crowded hall to my chemistry class, sliding into my seat at the back lab table, all by myself.
I plunked my backpack down on the table, resting my arms down on the black table and laying my head in my arms, not even bothering to put in my earbuds. I heard the scraping of the lab stools and the loud talk and yelling of the other kids in my chemistry class. I peeked up over my sleeve to see my sister walk in, flanked my her cronies, Lissa, Brigid, and Ella.
I snorted a little to myself as she eyes up the whole room while posing with one hand on her hip, tossing her perfectly straight, blonde hair. I dropped my head back down into my arms, hoping Lissa would decide that doting on my perfect sister was better than picking on me. I heard a lab stool being pulled away from under the table, and someone sit down in it across from me, and put their backpack down on the table across from me. I carefully peeked up from under my hood to see if it was Lissa, but was shocked to see a guy who I had never seen sitting across from me, watching me expectantly. I slowly sat up, not breaking eye contact with the guy, nobody ever sat with me.
"I'm James, but call me Iggy." The guy said, and split a grin at me, quickly extending his hand towards me from across the table. I just stared at it for a second, before hesitantly accepting it. Any friendship for a few minutes was totally okay with me.
He smiled brightly at me, and firmly gripped my hand across the table, and I cracked a small smile back at him. I looked at him from across the table, he was pale, really pale with grayish-blue eyes and messy strawberry blonde hair that was longer in the front than in the back.
I drew my arm back into myself and looked down at my sleeve-covered hands as the class started and the teacher walked into the room.
I flipped open my notebook and started to take notes as the class went on, but slowly drifted into writing poems on the sides and left page of my notebook. It was another little secret that I had, I had filled journals and notebooks with my poetry, but never let anybody see or read them.
I quickly glanced up and saw that the Iggy kid was watching me again, and I pulled my hood down over my face, wishing he would just leave me alone. Suddenly, my notebook was swiped out from under my arm as the teacher turned back towards the board. I reached out for it, to try and stop Iggy from taking it, but he held it down out of my reach. I glared at him, but he was too busy looking down at the new poems that I had written on the footnotes of my notebook.
"Give that back!" I whispered frantically, but he just smiled and held up a finger as I tried to reach for it over the table. his eyes scanned the side of my notes agonizingly slow. I withdrew and waited for him to tear out the page and throw it around the room, for his lips to curve up in a mocking smile and to venomously recite each of my emotional poems, but he just nodded solemnly and passed my notebook back to me across the table.
"You're good, did you ever try writing song lyrics?" He asked, nonchalantly, jotting down another line of notes. I quietly debated in my head revealing any shard of information about myself to him, but my mouth responded before my brain.
"No." He smiled a little at me across the table, and shook his head at me a little.
"I'm not going to bite your head off or anything." My head snapped back up at him, and he toyed with the rings in his binder.
"I'm new, but I moved here with my brother and sister, if you want to sit with us at lunch." Iggy said with a smile as he dumped his stuff into his backpack and leaving the room with the other kids as the teacher dismissed us. I sat dumbfounded for a few seconds before sluggishly putting my books into my black jansport backpack. Had I just made a friend? Or as he just messing with me, like a few people always did at the beginning of every year. I made my way out of the classroom and to my next class, keeping my head low but still watching out for any cheerleaders of jocks as I hurried to my next class. I saw out of the corner of my eye Lisa shove Nick up against a locker, her hands on his chest, a coy smile on his face revealing straight white teeth. I turned my eyes back to the ground and put in my earbuds, the sight of them making my stomach churn.
The rest of my classes flew by until it was lunch, instead of barely crawling by. On the outside, I was just as boring as usual, but inside I was super excited to have someone to sit by, instead of sitting by myself on the grass outside. I got in line, and kept my eyes on my feet, not hearing anything around me except for my music. I jumped when somebody tapped my shoulder, and I jumped, my arms going around my middle securely.
It was just Iggy, with a huge grin on his face. I pulled out one earbud and half smiled at him.
"Hi Max!" He said, and pulled out a girl from behind him, she had perfect mocha skin, and long, shiny brown hair with little caramel highlights and happy, brown eyes.
"Hey." I said, and she squealed and bounced on the balls of her feet.
"I'm Nudge! i'm new too, but I met Iggy last hour and I didn't have any friends but we sat at the same table so now I think we're friends! Do you want to be my friend?" She asked, freezing in place with a smile on her face as I tried to register what she was saying because she said all of it so fast. My brain short circuited for a second, she wanted to be my friend too?
"Uhh, sure." I responded dumbly, and she squealed again and hugged me, Iggy just smiled at me over her shoulder as I awkwardly tried to hug her back, but my arms were stuck to my sides in a death grip.
We got our food, pizza dippers, and Iggy asked me where I usually sat. I dragged my toes around on the polished cafeteria floor.
"I sit outside in the grass." His face lit up, and he marched through the doors to go outside, with Nudge walking alongside them and me trailing behind, Nudges arm looped under mine. Iggy climbed a small hill with a scrawny tree and stretched out comfortably in the grass and took a huge bite out of his apple. Nudge and I sat next to him as two other kids burst out the door we just had gone through, a boy and a girl who looked like twins.
The boys head whipped around before landing on us. I shrunk back, hoping they wouldn't talk to me, but Iggy waved them over. Nudge scooted over and they sat down, forming a circle.
"Max, this is Angel and Gazzy, my humble siblings. They're freshmen, but pretty cool." The blonde siblings turned to them in sync,
"Hi Max." they said at once, making me crack a smile and respond with a small,
"Hi." The girls face lit up, her fluffy blonde curls falling neatly around her face as she took a bite of her pizza dippers.
"You're really pretty Max." She said, flashing me a smile, and I swear my eyes almost fell out of my head. She gave me a confused look, before turning to talk to Iggy and meet Nudge. I watched in silence as they talked and laughed, ducking my head to smother a smile when one of them would crack a good comment. I talked a little bit, saying I had lived in Colorado for six years, and Angel asked me why I didn't bring any friends with me outside.
"I brought Iggy..." I replied good enough, and Iggy fist pumped and Angel laughed a little, still watching me through clear blue eyes. I leaned back in the dark green grass, raising my face to the sun. It felt so weird, to be outside eating lunch in the warm sun with possibly my first friends since fifth grade.
"What color is your hair Max?" Nudge asked, snapping me out of my daydream. I looked down to see all of their heads turn towards me, Nudge winding one of her curls around her finger.
"Uhh, Blonde." I responded, feeling a little weirded out. Nudges eyes lit up, and she flicked a finger towards my hood.
"Can I braid it?" She asked, and I raised an eyebrow.
"Why?" She laughed.
"Because why not?" She asked, rocking back and forth on the grass. I shrugged and she stood and plopped down behind me, pulling my hood down off my green beanie, and taking my beanie off my head, handing it to me as my dark blonde hair tumbled down from under my hat. Nudge began to gently finger through my hair, carefully taking out any tangles.
"Your hair is like, soooo soft and thick and shiny." Nudge murmured, and I felt my cheeks turn a little pink, not quite used to receiving any compliments, But then again, probably fewer than four people at school had seen my hair until now. She french braided it down the back of my head, tying off the end with a black band.
"Done!" She exclaimed, and went back to her spot, taking a drink from her milk. I felt down the back of my head, feeling the neat braid under my fingers. I picked up my hat to put it back on,
"AH-AH-AH! NO!" I jumped at Nudge yelling and waving her arms.
"Don't! I like your hair out! at least until lunch is over!" She begged, opening her eyes wide and sticking her lip out just a tiny bit. I looked at her shocked, and couldn't say no the that face, and lowered the hat back to my lap.
"Fine, end of lunch." I said, twirling the end of my long braid. Nudge looked satisfied, and went back to talking animatedly to Angel about Miley and Liam's engagement. I finished up my lunch, and said goodbye to my new friends, who said "bye" with bright smiles as I picked up my tray and made my way back to the door closest to the school. I balanced my tray against the wall and my hip and pulled my lime green beanie back over my hair, tucking the end up under the hat so it wouldn't show, and pulled my hood back up before going back into the school.
I didn't see anybody, and made my way quickly down the hallway towards the roar of the lunchroom. turned a corner and the tables of loud students appeared in view, I ducked my head and put my tray on top of another red stack of them. I turned and wiped my hands on my jeans.
Maybe the rest of this year would be okay for a while.