Title: Predictable
Author: ~aDdIcTeD-2-GG~
Rating: G
A/N: Sorry about the wait, I've been on holidays so I haven't really had time to write lately. Thankyou for all the reviews by the way!
Chapter 8: From A 'Nobody' to a 'Somebody'
***** Tuesday morning, Chilton *****
"And so students, that is how the battle of Hastings was won." The History substitute looked around the class expectantly, as if waiting for a flood of questions to begin.
"Please remind me exactly when this 'battle of Hastings' took place." Some moron who thought he was being smart questioned.
"Uh, 1066 A.D." the substitute replied eagerly.
"That's, what, 200 years ago?"
"Actually that's 938 years ago." The teacher corrected.
"Whatever! Basically it was a helluva long time ago and doesn't have anything to do with us people in 2003, does it? So why are we learning about it, huh?!?"
"Yeah!!!" The rest of this moron's group shouted in support.
The teacher sighed. "The fact that it's 2004 seems to have escaped your notice..."
Rory gave up trying to pay attention to this meaningless discussion and found herself drifting in and out of sleep. It wasn't like Rory to fall asleep in class but she'd done quite a lot of it lately. She concluded that her tiredness must have been stress related. There had been simply too much going on in life for her to handle as of late. Hopefully things would start to slow down so she could pause to catch her breath.
Finally, the bell sounded to signal the end of class and the beginning of lunch. Students filed out of the classroom and into the noisy corridor. Rory found herself being pulled along by the flow of students in the direction of the cafeteria. Before she had time to realise, Rory had been pulled right past her locker and had to push numerous people out of the way to reach it again. She looked up and who should be standing in front of her locker, but Tristan Dugrey - the man himself.
"I knew you'd join me eventually. Although it was actually starting to get lonely here..." Tristan commented
Rory silently opened her locker and retrieved her books for the afternoon.
"Looking forward to Thursday dinner? Apparently your Grandma kindly invited us along again."
Rory closed her locker once more and walked away.
"Where you off to?" Tristan questioned, following her.
Silence.
"You're ignoring me aren't you." He stated rather than questioned.
Silence.
"Look, I told you I was sorry and now I'm proving it. What more do you want me to do?" Tristan pleaded.
Abruptly, she turned around.
"Go and join your multitudes of so called 'friends' and leave me alone, ok? I don't need you hanging around out of sympathy. More importantly; I don't want your sympathy." Rory hurried away.
"Wait!" Tristan called out, running after her.
Rory literally elbowed her way through the crowds, pushing people out of the way in a desperate bid to get away from Tristan. As Rory hurried towards the cafeteria she could hear Tristan calling out to her, asking her to slow down 'and give him a chance'. Looking ahead of her she could see the crowd was thinning, gradually moving aside and forming a clear path. Students had stopped to watch as the popular new kid chased after a nobody – who was clearly a somebody to him.
As Rory approached the doors of the cafeteria she stopped. The cafeteria was motionless. No one moved, no one dared utter a word. It was like someone had paused a scene from a movie. Everyone's eyes were on Rory. All she could hear was Tristan's voice and his heavy footsteps getting closer and closer until she could feel his body heat. And then Tristan's voice went silent too. But not for long. He took one look around and then called out,
"What are you all looking at?!?"
Immediately, the cafeteria returned to it's usual noisy self. Rory headed straight to the lunch queue, quickly collected her lunch and sat down at the nearest empty table. She pulled out her Discman and turned the volume up. But she still couldn't drown out Tristan's voice in the back of her mind. She felt like his incessant calls were ringing in her ears, repeating themselves over and over again. She felt a hand tap her shoulder.
"Go away, Tristan." Rory hissed.
"Hi, I'm Paris. And the man you talk about is no longer stalking you. He's currently cracking jokes over at the jock's table."
Rory turned around to have a hand thrust in her face. She took Paris' hand and had her own violently shaken up and down.
"I'm Ro-"
"Rory. I know and so does everybody else in this school by now. I'd like you to meet my friends Madeline and Louise. They're a little thick so don't mind them."
"Wow, Tristan is like totally hot." Madeline commented, here eyes widening. "I'd love to have him chase me the way he chased you, Rory."
"Ooh! Count me in too!" Louise added. "You're new aren't you, Rory? Because I'm sure I've never seen you around before…"
"Actually I've been here for just over a month now."
"Really? I've never noticed you before." Louise remarked.
"I'm sure you're not the only one, Louise. I mean, I only ever see you when I go to my locker, which is right next to yours and in about half my classes." Rory's sarcasm seemed to have escaped Louise.
"I guess that would be why…"
Paris and Rory both rolled their eyes.
"Rory, you should really sit with us in class and at lunch." Madeline commented.
"Girls, we'll put it to a vote." Paris announced. "All in favour of Rory joining us at lunch and in class raise your hand."
All four girls raised their hands, drawing unwanted attention from other students.
"It's settled then." Paris declared.
"I hope you're not too smart Rory, because Paris hates it when anyone does better than her." Madeline warned.
"Well I guess it's no mystery why she chose you two to be her friends." Rory muttered.
The girls stopped talking for a while and concentrated on eating, or in Madeline and Louise's case, concentrated on refraining from staring at Tristan – an action that proved impossible for the two. Rory didn't eat much of her lunch. The so called 'spaghetti bolognaise' looked like little clumps of red ants crawling all over her spaghetti, so the only safe thing to eat was the pre-packaged biscuits. Luckily Rory had half a mars bar in her bag left-over from breakfast. Not the healthiest thing to eat for lunch or breakfast, but never the less better than eating ants.
Louise and Madeline were not particularly subtle with their staring. They sat there doing nothing else, just simply following Tristan's every move. Suddenly both Louise and Madeline broke out of their reverie and looked at Rory, then Tristan, then Rory, then Tristan and finally Rory.
"Whatever you do Rory, don't look at Tristan." Madeline whispered.
"He's totally checking you out!" Louise whispered as well.
Rory continued to eat what was left of her mars bar, unaffected by Madeline and Louise's comments.
"Rory? Did you hear what we just said? Tristan is totally che-"
"Thankyou Madeline!" Paris interrupted. "But we heard you the first time! Just because Rory didn't burst out in giggles and go all giddy with excitement doesn't mean she didn't hear you."
Louise and Madeline looked at each other and then burst out in a fit of giggles, much to Paris' annoyance.
"Would the two of you start acting your own age!" Paris demanded.
Madeline and Louise's giggles ended abruptly and their faces now bore innocent smiles.
"Finally you listen." Paris said.
"Actually…" Rory began, "I don't think you're the reason for their silence."
"Well, well, well if it isn't my favourite group of girls." Tristan greeted.
"What brings you here today, Tristan?" Louise questioned, a seductive flare to her voice.
Rory rolled her eyes and began packing up her lunch and her Discman.
"So, Louise, Madeline and Paris, are you all still coming around to my place for that little gathering I was telling you about yesterday?" Tristan questioned.
Rory got up and walked off, leaving her new friends and Tristan behind. Rory's tolerance for Tristan was wearing thin and the only way to prevent a public outburst was to walk away. She had no idea what she'd do come Thursday. An entire meal with Tristan staring across the table at her – a recipe for disaster!
A/N: Hope this chapter was ok. Remember to review!!!!!!
~aDdIcTeD-2-GG~