Chapter 7 Anywhere But Here

Annabelle sat at the table in the library working on some of her homework, staring at the pages in front of her with a glazed look in her eyes. She had been at the school for two months now and she still hated it. The upside was being in Simone Bradley's class room every day, the downside was fighting the ever mounting attractions she had to her. Try as she might, Annabelle couldn't stop thinking about her. Even her music had started being affected by the gorgeous blonde in her thoughts.

"What are you thinking about?" Sam asked sitting down next to Annabelle and opening her bag.

Annabelle gave her a sheepish smile and blushed. Sam groaned knowing it could mean only one thing. Sam sighed and shook her head taking her Pre-Calculus book out and opening it to the lesson she needed to study. Sam knew how Annabelle felt, like every other girl that had been in Simone's English Literature class, she had once had a crush on her as well. It was short lived and burned out fast once her sister had realized it. She had sat Sam down and warned her to stop what she was doing to her friend, before they all got in trouble. It was then Sam learned Simone's secret and had promised to keep it, but it hurt her to see Annabelle going through a similar thing.

"You know it's not going to work, right?" Sam asked glancing at her friend staring into space.

"What" Annabelle said innocently looking back at her work.

"This thing you have for Simone Bradley. It's not going to work. Every girl here has had some kind of crush on her, but there's a line you just don't cross." Sam said forcing Annabelle to look at her.

"Nothing is going on with anyone. I wish I was anywhere but this place, ya know? Jail is starting to look a damn sight better." Annabelle huffed angrily tossing her pen on the table.

"Jail?!" Sam gasped looking at her friend in shock.

"Yeah I had to choose. This," Annabelle explained with a gesture of her hand. "Or jail." she added crossing her arms back over her chest.

"You'd seriously pick jail over this place?" Sam asked in disbelief.

"Yeah. The wardrobe is so much nicer!" Annabelle replied sarcastically and rolled her eyes.

Sam breathed a sigh of relief as she heard the joking nature of her friend come back to the surface. She gave a small chuckle and stole another glance at her friend who was staring across the room at somebody. Sam looked up and saw Simone walk in, and immediately grabbed her stuff and excused herself. This place was too confined to escape the object of Annabelle's infatuation.

Simone saw Sam's mad dash out the side door of the study hall and followed her out. She just caught a glance of Sam's retreating figure heading up the stairs leading to the dormitory and decided to catch her up there instead. As Simone reached the landing on the top floor to the dormitory, she saw Sam enter her bedroom. Simone approached the room and knocked on the door frame announcing her presence.

"Hey!" Sam started and then saw who it was and groaned. "What now?!" she added clearly not happy Simone was there.

"I've warned you about that attitude of yours Samantha! I'm not going to tell you again." Simone warned her getting angry.

"So give me a detention!" Sam retorted glaring back at Simone not backing down.

"You know I don't want to do that, Sam. What is going on with you? This attitude of yours is a recent development; you usually aren't this disrespectful towards me." Simone sighed walking over to Sam and putting her hand on her arm.

Sam shrugged it off and stepped away from Simone. Her temper was starting to get the better of her and she needed to back away before she reached out and touched someone. Sam moved over to the window and opened it so she could get some air before turning back to look at Simone.

"Nothing is going on. I just don't like getting yelled at just because you're my sister's best friend. I've always had the utmost respect for you, and then my own best friend gets here and you treat me like I'm some kind of criminal." Sam said cracking her knuckles to get her temper to calm down.

"Look, I'm sorry about that, but you really need to start putting your own personal and professional feelings aside. I'm sorry I yelled at you about Annabelle, but please don't discuss my personal life with her. Okay?" Simone apologized and Sam nodded. "One more thing, I want you to stop whatever it is you and Catherine have going on. It's very disruptive for my class and I do not appreciate it. Are we clear?" Simone added watching Sam's expression. Sam nodded again and turned her back on Simone.

Simone excused herself and left the room, as she walked down the hall way she heard a scream of frustration and the sound of something hitting a wall. She sighed, shook her head, and walked back down to the study hall area on the floor below. As she walked in, she saw Annabelle sitting at the table she was at before with her head bent down studying and those thoughts she was trying to fight creeped back into her mind.