Chapter 21
Carrie's POV
Calculus was boring as hell. I struggled to keep my eyes open the entire hour filled with pointless numbers and letters. The teacher was a balding man who looked about fifty dressed head to toe in corduroy, he droned on and on about pointless crap, which I drearily copied off the blackboard and struggled to restrain a yawn every other minute. A folded piece of paper landed on my desk. I frowned when I saw it had my name written across the top.
You're going to die in double physics... E x
I looked over at Ethan, who was sat at the desk to my right. He looked bored as hell and I pulled a face at him, which he responded with sticking his tongue back at me. Eventually the boredom that was Calculus ended and I was forced to endure something much worse. Double physics. I didn't even know how I managed to stay awake, especially as I didn't know what on God's name the teacher was going on about. The end of period bell made me jump from my slumped position on my chair. I frowned and blinked blurry eyed, remembering what was happening.
"Come on, it's time for lunch and I need pizza," said Ethan, practically jumping up and down in front of my desk. I quickly shoved the open textbook and notebook into my bag, and followed Ethan to the lunchroom, getting my signed slip from the teacher on the way out. The lunchroom was like any other stereotypical high school lunch room I guess. Food and tills lined up on one side of the room, and then circular tables with about six chairs covering the rest of the space. A large version of the Morganville school mascot was printed on the centre of the floor, but I found the venomous viper unnerving and to be honest, rather weird. I mean what was wrong with squirrels or unicorns... Okay, that sounded better in my head.
After paying for a packet of cheese balls, a Twinkie, a paper plate of fries and a diet cola, I followed Ethan and his tray stacked high with pizza, to a table towards the edge of the room where two guys and two girls where sitting down. They all looked up as I stood awkwardly beside Ethan, I started to become anxious.
"People, meet Collins. Carrie Collins meet Mia, Bella, Jaime and Corncob," he said gesturing to the people at the table, who all seemed nice as they smiled at me, in a non 'why are you about to sit with us?' way.
"Dude, I told you don't fucking call me Corncob," said a guy with blond hair, spiked in all directions, throwing an empty juice carton at Ethan.
"Please ignore Corncob Carrie, he still hasn't come to terms with his new name," said the girl Bella, who had thick dark brown that hung in luscious waves past her shoulders. She had big wide brown eyes, which were outlined in coats of mascara and eyeliner. She pulled out the empty chair beside her and gestured me to sit down, I smiled at her graciously and sat down beside her, Ethan sat down at the empty chair beside me. Mia sat next to her, she gave me a small smile but seemed a bit shy, and she had shoulder length blonde curly hair.
"Why are you called Corncob?" I asked curiously, opening the packet of my Twinkie.
"Because last week they had Corncobs in the cafeteria, and dumb ass over here thought he could fit the whole thing in his mouth. Ended up being stuck in his mouth for an hour and a half, whilst three people tried to pry it out of his mouth..." said Jaime, who was swinging back and forth in his chair. He had black hair with was hair sprayed upwards, you could still see the lines his hairbrush left behind. His light blue eyes grinned at me.
Corncob, who I still hadn't learnt his true name, glared at Jaime and threw a plastic spoon at me.
"Call me Zack, my name is Zack," he announced, standing up.
"Sit down Corncob," said Bella.
"Okay," said Zach/Corncob, returning back to his chair. His eyes turned back to me, "So Carrie, I hear you're new in town..." he asked me, suddenly everyone's eyes were on me.
The rest of lunch wasn't as awkward and uncomfortable as I thought; it actually flowed into easy conversation and laughter. I had told them me and my mom had moved out of Morganville when I was a baby, and I had only come back. I had asked Claire if she was okay with that excuse, I didn't want to tell people the truth that didn't already know, she said it was okay and it gave her an excuse too.
"Okay, time for the run down on everyone in this shit hole," said Bella, looking around. "Over there, we have a prime example of the early stages of human development in the form of cave men, also known as the school jocks" she said gesturing to a large table at the centre of the room, where the guys looked likey they had spent too much money on steroids amd were sitting wearing baseball jackets with their surnames printed on the back.
"Also somehow fit..." said Zach/Corncob, who I had learnt was openly bisexual.
Bella gave him a look of disgust before moving on, "and over there, are Morganville's equivalent to the Plastics," she said gesturing to a table close to the windows, wearing clothes that barely covered their assets and looked like they had replaced Crayola for their makeup.
"And then, you have us. The only decent and slightly cool people in this shitty town," she said grinning, just as the bell rang.
"Carrie, what lesson do you have next?" Ethan asked me, his tray now mpty of pizza.
"Um..." I said fishing out my timetable from my bag. "English Lit," I replied. It was the only subject that had looked slightly appealing.
"Mia has Lit next," he told me as I threw the remainder of my lunch in the bin.
Mia appeared by my side, giving me a small smile, "I'll show you the way, if you want?" she asked shyly.
"Yeah, that'll be great," I told her, giving her a reassuring smile.
"So, where did you stay after you left Morganville?" she asked me, as we sat down in the English room, trying to make conversation. She was quite short and only reached my shoulders.
"I moved around a lot," I explained. "Have you always lived in Morganville?" I asked.
"Sadly yes... I want to leave this shithole though, I want to move to Europe or somewhere and be a writer," she told me.
I was about to respond, when the teacher silenced all conversations and I was sucked into an hour of Jane Austen. Might sound weird... But I was finally starting to like high school.
Ethan's POV
Jaime, Bella and I were trying to extract copper using electrolysis in Chemistry, and we were failing miserably.
"Dude, you totally have the hots for her!" said Jaime, nudging me.
"I don't!" I tried to tell them convincingly, as well as myself.
"Bull, you totally fancy her," Bella said from across the lab table. "But I approve, she's hot and she seems awesome and I bet we totally have the same shoe size," she said adjusting her safety goggles.
Okay, I had to admit Carrie was very far along my attractive scale, she over took Mila Kunis when I first saw her, and she was close to kicking Megan Fox off my list.
"Okay... Maybe I do fancy her... just a bit..." I admitted, taking a piece of copper out of the solution and giving it to Jaime to weigh.
"You should ask her out then," said Jaime, writing down the microscopic weight of the copper we extracted into his book.
"Maybe I should ask Carrie out, I mean what's the worst could happen? She could only smack me across the face and then it would be totally awkward between us for the rest of high school, which would mean we couldn't hang out together ever..." I exaggerated.
"Yup, that's the worst of it..." said Bella.
Great, then I had nothing to lose. Note the sarcasm.
Carrie's POV
"And now you have my number," said Bella, handing back my phone with flourish and a grin. "I'll text you tonight."
Mia, Bella and I were walking out of the school gates, I had given my now signed slip back to the reception, where I was forced to endure small talk receptionist about my first day to school. Bella and Mia had waiting for me, which was quite nice of them. Bella was waiting for us outside of Bio, Mia and I had talked through sixth period Biology, and she was actually quite cool once we had got to know each other. We had loads of things in common with each other, and she had made me promise to iMessage her later.
Ethan was slouched against the brick wall entrance, he straightened up when he saw us coming out of the gates.
"Er, come on Mia... we need to go somewhere..." said Bella, grabbing Mia's arm, and dragging her away. Mia started to protest, but Bella whispered something in her ear, which sounded like 'I'll tell you later.'
"Bye Carrie, I'll talk to you later!" Bella yelled whilst dragging Mia around the corner. Mia let out a yelp, before holding up her hand to wave.
I frowned, "Well, that was weird..." I said, turning to Ethan.
"So how was your fist day?" Ethan asked, leaning against the wall.
"You know what, it was actually okay," I said smiling, looking mindlessly around.
"Cool, um... can I ask you something...?" he sounded nervous, and hesitant to ask.
I turned around to face him, "Um, yeah sure," I told him, wondering what I had done. Maybe he wanted me to stop hanging out with his friends or something...
"You don't have to say yes or anything, but..." his voice trailing off. "Will you go out with me?"
Well, that was unexpected.
"Ethan, I just got out of some complicated shit and I just don't want to be in a relationship or anything right now..." I know it was a crappy excuse, but I just didn't want to be with anyone right now.
"Oh okay," he said, he sounded disappointed as if he were expecting it. Shit, I am such a bitch, I silently thought to myself. "No, it's fine Carrie, I get it," he said, seeing the expression on my face.
"I just want to be friends for now, it's not that I don't like you, I do, you're an awesome guy, any girl would be lucky to have you, I just don't want to be in a relationship right now," I told him, fiddling with my hands awkwardly.
"It's fine, don't worry. I'm happy with being friends. Hug?" he asked, opening his arms out.
I stepped into his arms, feeling is soft warm body against mine and his arms wrap around my waist. God, he was an amazing guy, as well as normal. I've never met someone who didn't come with a pair of fangs that liked me in that way. But Ethan wasn't what I wanted, or needed, there was only one person who ticked both boxes for me.
Extra long chapter for you guys! I think her first day of high school went better than expected, but did she do the right thing by turning down Ethan?
The next chapter will be the last chapter in the story :( I'm probably going to write a sequel, if you guys have any ideas or suggestions feel free to tell me. A title for the sequel would be great help too :)
Any guesses what's going to happen in the next and final chapter? Thanks for reading and please review!