Love in a Hellhole: Rewritten
Chapter 2
"Trouble, trouble, trouble," -Taylor Swift
Nina Martin
I sat in Biology, getting quite impatient for the day to end. This was my last class of the day and I was really in need of a nap.
Amber basically screamed at lunch, and asked if I knew about her car. Long story short, it was just one of her Justin Bieber fangirl attacks, just…not about Justin Bieber.
Mr. Sweet began talking about the first day and how we were going to learn basic safety skills because it's 'better to be safe than sorry.' By 'better to be safe than sorry', Sweetie means he didn't teach Safety Skills to his freshman class last year and the school almost burnt down because of it, while releasing some toxic chemicals in the process.
It was quite a laugh, to be honest. We didn't have school for, like, a week because they had to send in lots of men in yellow astronaut-like suits (kind of like those guys from Monsters, Inc., just that they were all human) to make sure everything was safe, which it was, but they said it would be best for the students to take a week off just in case because something about how lab tests were not always 100% efficient, I don't care. Sat through the lecture, got the t-shirt, I'm not causing myself any more mental damage from that dreadful day.
"I know that you guys like where you are and everything, but this year I will have you all in arranged seats. I will now begin calling out names," said Sweetie. "You will all be in pairs of two."
I began to tune him out, just winging it and hoping that I don't get in too much trouble for not listening.
"…and Nina Martin in the third row, first table on the left."
I raised my hand, but I was far too impatient to actually wait for Sweetie to look up, acknowledge me, and decided whether or not he was going to call on me.
"Swee—Mr. Sweet, can you please repeat the name of who I will be sitting next to?" I asked, catching myself from calling him Sweetie, because once, my friend Patricia did that and he went hella crazy over the whole thing, giving her afterschool detention every day for two weeks, saying something about it being disrespectful and offensive to him. He also commented that she shouldn't be giving her teachers 'pet names.'
See, the thing is, Patricia had said, "Sweetie, please come over here." I don't know why he couldn't have just scolded her and moved on with his life, but no, he just had to ruin Patricia, Amber, and I's Twilight marathon. And, it was meant to be an insult towards him for having such a weird last name, and in my opinion, it was anything but a 'pet name.'
Pet names happen to be something that you call someone, as to show them that you are really fond of them, and Patricia Williamson hates teachers.
Well, Patricia hates all teacher except the drama teacher, Jason Winkler, who is pretty cute in my opinion, and it seems that Patricia has the same opinion. She had a crush on him for quite a while last year, and I'm not sure if it's been through the summer and carried on to this year. I'll need to get back to her on that, as the last time I talked to her was about three months ago, on the second to last day of school, because she had to miss the last day of school so she can catch her flight since she, her parents, and brothers were going on a summer-long cruise, and all she had to talk to me about was her newfound Ed Sheeran obsession, so I couldn't get many words in about Mr. Winkler.
And while we're on the topic of her obsession, it was very unlike Patricia, as she is typically into all of that Green Day and Three Days Grace jazz. Typically bands with the word 'day' in their name. But I can't blame her for obsessing over Ed. I firmly believe that it's impossible not to like Ed. He's so gorgeous with his ginger hair and whatnot.
Also, I never really got around to texting her during the summer, because I figured she was probably busy and let's all face it: I'm too lazy. Plus, she takes forever to reply to texts and I'm quite impatient. Amber and I should find her at lunch and ask how she's doing, so we can all catch up.
Okay, I'm getting off topic.
"Your partner is Fabian Rutter, Nina," Sweetie said giving me a glare.
I made a look that was supposed to look sheepish, but it probably ended up looking like I found a two-month old cheese sandwich in my bathroom cabinet.
Stop making that face. I know you're making that face to imagine what mine is looking like right now. But stop, it's unattractive and you can't be getting distracted when you're reading a story, especially a story about me.
Getting off topic again. Sorry.
Anyway, I grabbed my things and moved to my assigned seat, signaling for the boy currently in my seat to get up. The boy got up as I took a seat, and Sweetie gave me another look.
My table-buddy's name is Fabian. That's a weird name. I wonder what his mom was smoking when she named him that. Was she hoping for him to be a girl named Faye, but he ended up being a boy, and she wanted to keep the words 'Faye' in his name, so she just extended to name to be a bit longer and more socially acceptable to be a boy name? I don't know, sometimes I wonder if I really am messed up in the head. My mom, nor my dad never dropped me. I think.
Mr. Sweet was about to return back to calling out names when he burst through the door.
He had dark brown hair, and beautiful blue eyes that you'd swear was a piece of the ocean. But, along with him came this… this atmosphere. A weird flash into the future, if you may.
It was weird, but it felt like I could be best friends with him forever and we can call each other offensive names but we'd know that it didn't mean anything, or we can curl up on the couch and watch Ted together as the fire crackled in the fireplace and my mother yelled at me to turn it off because I have younger siblings.
He seemed like the definition of 'best friend.'
"Mr. Rutter!" Sweetie yelled, slamming his clipboard down on his desk. "You are forty-five minutes late into class! Do you have any explanation for this?!"
'Mr. Rutter' shrugged. "Not really, sir. I just…got lost."
"That is no excuse! You are in eleventh grade and have been attending school here since ninth grade!"
"I'm sorry. It won't happen again," the boy said sarcastically, but Sweetie didn't seem to detect it.
Mr. Sweet pinched the bridge of his nose and closed his eyes. "Fabian, sit right there next to Nina, please, and stop disrupting my class."
"Where is Nina sitting?" Fabian's eyes scanned the classroom.
Okay, I just had to say something.
"Hmm, I don't know, maybe Nina's sitting next to the only empty seat in the room?" I suggested.
I know that I was starting off the year on the wrong foot with the person sitting next to me, but it's not like we were going to be living together for the rest of our lives or something.
Fabian looked at me, startled, but didn't say anything, Maybe he wasn't used to anything with a vagina speaking to him in that tone.
He quietly took a seat next to me.
"Oh, and the person you're sitting next to is going to be your lab partner for the rest of the year, so I advise you to at least try to be friends," Sweetie added when he finished calling out names.
Well, I'm screwed.
He could've mentioned that three minutes ago when I made a strangely clever comment about my lab partner's intelligence.
"Look, I'm not sure how this is going to work, but I hate working with others, so really, I'll just do all the work and you can just get a whole year of free A's," Fabian said to me. "Yeah, I have to be good in school to stay on the team, so I'm kind of a know-it-all."
Okay, I really deserved that after insulting his intelligence, but it still annoyed me.
Nina, make a smart comeback! It's been twenty seconds since he told you that smart comment and you can't just not say something.
I think I have an idea… Ugh, nothing. Why do I come up with such clever comments when I'm not supposed to, but when I really need one I'm stumped?
There are only three words that you need in a verbal fight. Those words happen to be and, so, and okay. The words are supposed to be said sarcastically to the other person/people, but in rare cases, like this one, no of those happen to work because if I said any of those, I would be admitting defeat.
It says specifically in the Book of Sass, page sixty-eight, section six, and paragraph four, to never ever admit defeat. It's one of the Golden Rules, guys.
Oh my God, what am I going to do? I can't come up with something fast enough! Okay, deep breaths, in and out, in and out.
Idea! Just act like you're too good to listen to whatever he said! Be too sophisticated, too mature. Don't look at him. Don't look at him. Don't look at him.
I turned to him. Don't I have willpower?
"You have to know stuff to be a know-it-all," I stated simply.
There it is! There's the beautiful comeback! Thank Jesus!
"Do you even know how to spell stuff?" Fabian asked. Oh, it's on.
"Can you count to five?"
"Do you know how to use the Internet?"
"Can you spell your own name?"
"Do you even know what a touchdown is?" Honestly I didn't because I don't give a damn about football. But let's keep that fact about me under wraps, because like I said, never admit defeat! Well I can admit defeat in my mind and to you guys, just not to other people. Read: Not to my enemies.
"Do you even know how old you are?" I could hear my voice getting louder but I ignored it because YOLO. Really, I think it's a dumb saying, but I can blame all the stupid shit that I do on it, so it's all cool beans.
"Do you know how to brush your teeth?" His voice got louder, too.
"Are you even potty trained?"
"ENOUGH!" Sweetie yelled. "I refuse to have my class disrupted by you two questioning each other's ability to function! Both of you, to the principal's office, now!"
I could hear the snickers of all of my classmates. They don't matter, though, and I don't need to impress anyone.
My dumb partner already got me in trouble on the first day. And I have to deal with this every day, for the rest of the year?
No, just no.
I couldn't have been more wrong about the whole best friend thing because I already hate him, even though I kind of got myself into this trouble, but let's ignore that and blame everything on him, okay?
I'm not a good role model. Danny really shouldn't look up to me, because I'm too impulsive, and that's not a good trait to have.
Really, I blame my father. I take his genes and he was a troublemaker in school, so I guess he passed down the unfortunate trait to me.
Okay, so we have two people in the blame: Fabian and Dad. That's what I'll tell Victor.
If you were wondering, Victor's the principal. He tells us to call him Mr. Rodenmaar, but we call him Victor behind his back, kind of like Sweetie.
Fabian and I got up, gathering our things, and leaving the classroom to begin the walk to Victor's office.
As soon as the door shut behind us, and we were out of the sight of the class, I kneed Fabian where the sun doesn't shine.
"You could have just asked me if you wanted to touch me right there when we got out here, all alone, you know," he smirked.
My mouth would have dropped to the floor at his comment, but I couldn't admit defeat, so I said, "You're a pig," and walked faster to Victor's office.
I know that it was really lame to say that, but I was too mad to go through the whole thinking process of a comeback.
I didn't know that you could develop a strong dislike to someone on the first day of school, within fifteen minutes of knowing him.
Someone get the world record book. I could already see it on the page with the description and everything.
But at least I learned something today: my lab partner is an ass. And the sad thing is, I'm stuck with him every day, for five days a week, ninety minutes in a day, for the rest of the year.
If you listen closely, you can hear the trees sobbing outside.
Sorry that this chapter was so crappy... I'll update this soon, guys! Please review and tell me your opinion on Fabian's first impression on Nina.
