Chapter 12

First day of school – the day that Riley scared the most of. She wasn't sure she wants to go to school and meet Amanda and her gang, she was afraid that there are more students like her.

She barely was watched in public during the last two weeks. She was mostly at home with her mother or with Sportacus in the theatre hall but that's it. She didn't want to show her face in case that Amanda saw her.

She didn't want to go to school. But eventually she did.

She walked with her mother until the two had to go to separate ways – Rachel to her job at the elementary school, and Riley to her first day in the 9th grade.

Walking down the hall of the 9th grade, she lowered her head and looked at the floor, hoping no one will notice her, but in the corner of her eyes she saw some for her new mates for school looking and whispering. Now she just hope they won't notice her Band-Aids, 3 on each wrist. She heard a group of guys from the 10th grade who were passing there whispering and calling her "cute", "good looking" and she even could hear one of them calling her "hot". That really made her smile and blush. Guys? From the 10th grade? Interested in her? She thought for a minute she went crazy! She didn't know why they were calling her like this. She didn't wear anything sexy or any make up, she just dressed in her casual style – Her known white flowers bow, a purple t-shirt with the text "Geek Chic", black shorts, black All-star shoes and she had a black sweatshirt tied around her waist. What attracted them to her?

Now she raised her head again, since she had to look for her locker. Then she found it, locker number 218. She opened the locker and began to put her things from her school bag in there, when the locker beside her got opened too. It was a blonde girl who her hair was tied in a high ponytail and bangs that went to the right. She wore long black jeans and a red t-shirt. Riley noticed that they had the same patterns on their school bags but in different colours. The blonde girl caught Riley staring at her bag, so she decided to talk.

"Oh, yeah, we almost have the same bags." She smiled at Riley.

Riley made an eye contact with her and didn't know what to say, so she just said "Yeah" and went back to her locker. She began to decorate it with some magnets, pictures and her class schedule.

"Hi, I'm Carolina." The blonde girl, Carolina, smiled at her, while she was still organizing her locker.

"Oh, hi... I'm Riley..." Riley told her quietly.

"Oh wait, you're the new girl!" Carolina realised.

"Oh, so you already heard about me..." Riley said and lowered her head, thinking she might her for her brother, like Amanda did.

"Yes, I did. From my brother, actually. Ziggy, if you know him." Carolina told her.

"Oh, so you're Ziggy's sister. Yes, I met him." Riley told her.

"Hey, don't worry, I'm not going to tease you about your brother. Robbie's not really trying to hurt the kids, just to scare them, so they really don't like him. The adults don't like him because he's scaring the children, but us the adolescents, we don't scare easily and he's actually pretty boring to us, and most of the times he's just funny for trying to make everyone lazy and then fail. So don't worry, you'll be safe with me." Carolina explained to her. Then she noticed the Band-Aids on Riley's wrists. She wanted to ask her about them but knew it wasn't the right time since they just met.

"Hey, Caro!" They both heard a voice behind them.

"Hi Nathan!" Carolina greeted her friend, who rushed to her.

"Where's your locker?" She asked.

"Right across yours." He said, pointing at locker number 215.

"Hey, Nathan, um, this is Riley, the new girl in our school." Carolina told him.

"Hi, nice to meet you. I'm Nathan." He said and offered his hand which took. He couldn't break the eye contact with her. He thought she was gorgeous.

"Hey, so I see you guys already met the new girl in our class." Amanda said, coming from behind Riley.

"Class?" the three of them asked in union.

"Yes, I just checked the list and it seems that Riley Giselle Rotten is going to be our class mate, and our teacher is going to be the one and only, Mrs. Stewart. Isn't that just great?" She looked at them with a big triumphant smile.

"Yeah, now Amanda, go away." Nathan told her in a cold tone.

"Ok, fine. I'm going to look for my brother." Amanda said and left.

"Do you guys know her?" Riley asked her new friends.

"Unfortunately, yes. We both known her from childhood like most of the students here, and she had a crush on me for like 4 years but I never gave in to her. But basically she's a little rich bitch. And so are her friends." Nathan simply explained.

"Yeah, I already got that." Riley nodded and put her hands in her pockets.

"So, what, are you guys dating or..?" she asked.

"NO!" The two said in union.

"We're like brother and sister to each other, we would never date." Carolina said, putting her hand on Nathan's shoulder.

"Oh, alright. That's really nice." She smiled.

Then the bell ring, and the three of them went to class.

They sat together in the first row. Carolina sat with Riley at the table, while Nathan sat in the table next to them with another friend of his.

Mrs. Stewart came in and greeted them all. When she began to read the names, Amanda, who sat in the third row with Chelsea, just waited for Riley's name to be called out loud! She couldn't wait to hear the laughs of everybody because of her name. And then it happened.

"Rotten Riley." Mrs. Stewart called. The class remained silence.

"Rotten Riley." She called again but no one answered.

"Is Ms. Rotten is here?" she called once more, and this time Riley decided to answer.

"I'm right here, Mrs. Stewart..." Riley quietly said and raised her hand a little.

"Well, you shouldn't be that shy, my dear. You're almost 15, right?" Mrs. Stewart smiled and continued to read the names.

Amanda really got mad. How come nobody laughed at Riley's last name? So she decided to speak up.

"Hello?! Why didn't anybody laughed at Riley's name?! She's a Rotten, for god's sake!" She yelled at the class. Riley wanted to cry at the moment, but held herself.

"And why would they? They don't hate Robbie, and they don't judge her because of her brother's actions, unlike you, Ms. Goldstein. I'm also very disappointed in you, since you got a detention on your first day in school." Mrs. Stewart told her, and the whole class went "OHHHHH!" and Riley was very satisfied with herself.

"What?" Amanda asked in disbelief.

"Yes. And you also have to apologize to Riley." Mrs. Stewart said.

Amanda just stared at her in disbelief. "Now." Mrs. Stewart ordered.

Amanda rolled her eyes, but did it.

"I'm... Sorry, Riley." She barely could say that.

"See? It wasn't so hard." Mrs. Stewart told her and continued to read the names.


In the second break, Carolina and Nathan took Riley with them to the yard. They sat on a bench while watching everyone else who were in the yard. Then they began to question her – Where did she come from? How was it to live with Robbie as a brother? What she liked? What she hated? They wanted to know everything about her.

"Hobbies? Well, I guess singing and writing songs..." Riley replied.

"Really? You sing? And you write your own songs? That's amazing!" Carolina said.

"Y-You really think so?" Riley couldn't believe that she thinks that's amazing.

"Are you kidding? You're an actual artist! That's really cool. We would like to hear you some day." Nathan said, and couldn't hid his smile when he saw Riley blushing.

"Well, I did sing a couple of times to Sportacus, but..." Riley said.

"Wait, you already met Sportacus? And you sang to him?" Carolina asked.

"Um, yeah... But just few times. He helped me around here when I moved in." Riley said.

"Hey, you know, since it's the first day of school, we're finishing the day earlier, so how about we'll take you to the smoothie shop? Have you been there?" Nathan suggested.

"Um, no, but that'd be nice." Riley smiled at him, and now it was Nathan's turn to blush.


In the end of the day, Nathan, Carolina and Riley passed by their lockers before leaving to the smoothie shop. When Riley opened her locker, around 5 pieces of paper flew from it.

"What's that?" Carolina got interested.

"Wait, what are you doing?" Carolina frowned when she saw Riley taking the papers to the trash.

"I used to get this kind of notes in my old school, and for years. These are full of insults." Riley said and went back to the trash.

"Can I check them first?" Carolina asked. Riley sighed and gave them to her. Carolina checked each one of the notes, and then she got a huge smile on her face.

"Oh, girl, you should totally keep them!" Carolina told her enthusiastically.

"What, why?" Riley asked confused and Carolina handed her the notes back.

She saw names, she saw classes and she saw numbers. She looked a few times just to be sure, but then she understood – it was the phone numbers of those 10th graders from earlier!

"Did you ever get those in your locker?" Carolina asked.

"No! And not even as a joke so everyone can laugh at me!" Riley said in shock.

"What is that?" Nathan came and asked.

"Looks like Riley is being popular among the 10th graders." Carolina smiled.

Riley put the notes in a small pocket her bag.

"Alright, let's forget about it, now let's go!"


At the smoothie shop, after getting their orders, the three of them sat at one of the tables.

"Thanks for paying on me, Nathan, but you really didn't have to." Riley told him.

"Oh, that's really nothing." He said, then quickly took a sip from his smoothie.

Carolina looked back and forth at her friends. She now understood what he was doing. He got a crush on Riley.

"Hey, so, Riley? Besides writing, do also compose your songs?" Carolina asked.

"Um, yes, of course. I play piano and I used to play guitar." Riley said.

"What do you mean by 'used to'?" Carolina asked.

"I used to have a guitar, but... It accidently broke and now I'm saving really hard for a new one. So meanwhile I'm using the one that is in the theatre hall." Riley explained.

"But I do have a piano at home."

"That's really nice. Hey, how about we'll come over to you later, and you'll play for us?" Nathan asked.

"I guess that'd be ok, but I'll have to ask my mom first." Riley told them and picked out her phone to text her mother. Few seconds later, she got a reply.

"My mom says it's ok." Riley smiled.


At Riley's home, Riley sat next to the piano that was placed in the living room, and Carolina and Nathan stood from each side of her and leaned on the piano.

"Well, this is a song that I wrote a month ago, but only now I got the melody for it."

Once Again/Violetta (English Dub)

I say come on get this

Your piece of heaven might be in her kiss

I think it's all, all worth a try

But if you fall in love she might make you cry

Oh yeah, just hear what I say

Read and stop thinking, let things leave where they may

Don't you agree? You're worth a lot!

It's your turn now so don't forget what you got

We can, can always just try it again, oh

Want it? Go get it, it's not very hard, no

If you don't make it then try it again, oh

Once again, you can try

Once again, go get it

I say come on get this

'Cause love is something that can be hit or miss

But you can make it, you now you can try

Your dream can come true when you reach the sky

You can, can always just try it again, oh

Want it? Go get it, it's not very hard, no

If you don't make it then try it again, oh

Once again, you can try

Once again, go get it

Love says when you see a lot of sadness inside

Be who you are

And then you'll see there's nothing to hide

You'll take a ride inside a shining star

We can, can always just try and again, oh

Want it? Go get it, it's not very hard, no

If you don't make it then try it again, oh

Once again, you can try

Once again, we got this

"Wow, Riley, you're super-talented!" Carolina told her.

"Thanks." Riley smiled at them.


Author's note: After a long time I didn't write a chapter for this story, I ended up writing f***ing 8 pages in Word! But yay, she's making friends, plus, many boys are attracted to her now (I really liked that thing with the boys from 10th grade). Oh, and I realised that I changed Riley's mother name from Rachel to Clarice by accident, but I fixed it. Anyway, F&F&R :)