Chapter 2: Strange

I should probably be late, except for the fact our teacher wasn't there yet. The students were already complete, though, except for me. I was the only one missing.

I started to make my way to the seat on the farthest part of the classroom, when three students laughed as they thought of tripping me with the bag they put on my way.

Alanna, Trina and Haven. The bitchy cheerleaders I would be with for one whole school year.

And to make it worse, I even heard their inner thoughts about my clothes.

"Look at the new girl-her style is soooo last season.-I think she's the new loser in town." Which emanated from just about everyone else in the room, but mostly from the Alanna, whom I assumed is the queen bee of this school.

I sat on the chair and let my hair fall to make a curtain between us.

Just then, the teacher , Ms. Carter (although all the students disrespect her and call her by her first name which was Kathleen) went inside the room and turned towards us with an annoyed look stamped on her face. It was clear this wasn't her favourite day of the year. She just had a big argument with her husband this morning which she was worrying would lead to a divorce; something she had a phobia of from her parents. Her son had just joined a fraternity and comes home everyday with a bruise on his right cheek from the hazing.

And although I knew this was personal, I couldn't stop myself from peering into her head. This teacher was different, and somehow, her life was perfect before she engaged into any romantic relationship. She had two sisters she loved and her parents were happy, until her dad found out her mom was cheating on him.

I shook my head quickly, and reminded myself that this was her own problems, not mine, and that I had no reason to interfere with her life.

Ms. Carter looked at each of our faces, and gestured to a boy who was standing at the door. I didn't even bother to look up.

"Students, this is Nathan Redfield. He would be your new student from California, along with…" she says, forgetting my name. She suddenly points to the back right straight at me." Carnelianne Suarez."

Forty- two pairs of eyes stared right back at me.

Alanna laughed. "Carnelianne? That's a loser name!" Only attempting to get Nathan's attention, when she didn't care about me at all. In her mind she was thinking, Fudge. Nathan Redfield is totally smoldering hot.

Trina and Haven joined in, and soon the whole class was laughing at my name. Only Nathan wasn't. He was looking at me in a strange way.

Ms. Carter glared, and silence took over the room.

"Okay Nathan, you could seat right next to Carnelianne right there." She orders, smiling forcefully as she points beside me.

Alanna narrowed her eyes at me. He's mine, you freak. Poor hot Nathan is going to sit next to some loser like you.

Whatever the cost, she was right. If her description of hot is muscular and handsome, then Nathan is really one smoking hot guy. He was wearing a brown leather jacket, with a fit black t- shirt under it, clinging tightly to his muscles. His pants are dark black denim and brown shoes that are more for combat than strolling in a park.

But what's stranger is even without looking at him, I could feel the heat of his gaze at me. Those two green eyes trying to penetrate through me. And it was really giving me a bad feeling.

I shouldn't have noticed.

I dreaded the next forty minutes of Math. It wasn't just because of the hard numbers swirling in my head, but also the awkwardness of having Nathan beside me. We were both new, and I can't help thinking that there was some familiarity in his gaze. Interested, I tried to peek in his head. But there was nothing.

"Umm… Carnelianne, right?" he asks, smiling.

"Just Lianne." I replied, trying to smile back.

He laughed. "Do you mind if I borrow your formulas?"

I grabbed my bag and searched for the formula list that was included in the school supplies. "Why?"

"I need it to catch up to the square root thingys. Well, I think you know them already, right?"

"Umm…y-yeah." I stuttered. He has no way of knowing that I knew all the formulas.

He laughed lightly as though he heard what I was thinking.

I stared at him for about a minute after that, shocked. Then I leaned back and decided to ignore everything peculiar that happened today.