9th September 2013
Zed laughed as his best friend - an average height guy with curly, light brown hair called Isaac - threw the football across the room to one of their other friends who were cheering and encouraging the behaviour. The noise in the classroom was loud, filled with the chatter and laughter of the group of students as they waited for their teacher to come back into the classroom. It was morning registration, but they would also have their first lesson in here seeing as Mr McCune was their English teacher too. The teacher had let them into the classroom before disappearing to get a copy of the register because his laptop wasn't working.
Isaac, who was sat in front of Zed, turned around in his seat to face his friend. "Party at mine on Saturday, my folks are out," he grinned. "You gotta be there, man. None of this 'family issues' thing like the last few times. My cousin's bringing a load of her friends from the all-girls school in Denver, and her friends are hot. It's gonna be epic, tell me you're not gonna leave me hanging."
Zed returned the grin, already nodding his head along. Isaac's parties were always great and he never failed to give everybody a good night. Sometimes they got a little out of hand but that's what made them so fun. Zed had missed the last few parties because of savant problems, but also because his mother hated Isaac and knew how his parties usually went. But if Zed planned ahead now and behaved well for the rest of the week, he had no doubt his mom would go soft and let him go to the party. "Course I'll be there," he said to Isaac. "And just how hot are these girls you're talking about?"
Isaac laughed loudly but quickly went quiet, as did the rest of the class, when Mr McCune walked back into the room silently. For a teacher, the old grump didn't talk that much. However when he did speak he was strict as hell - albeit, he was a good teacher but still - and everybody was pretty scared of him. Registration was always the same, every day: they'd enter the room and sit in their seating plan, Mr McCune would do the register in silence, simply looking around the room to see who was or wasn't here, and they'd stay in silence for the full twenty minutes unless he told them to talk amongst themselves. He simply had an aura about him that made people know they shouldn't mess with him. Well that, plus the fact he gave detention to as many students as he could even for a small thing.
His chair creaked as he sat down, his wiry frame sitting up straight. He pushed his black-rimmed glasses up his nose and started going through the register, his head lifting every now and then to find a student. A minute later however, he paused and put the register down when there was a knock on the door.
The door opened and blocked Zed from being able to see who was there but a moment later he heard the familiar voice of Mr Joe who worked at reception. "Mr McCune, good morning," he said in a cheerful tone. "I thought I would escort Miss Williamson here seeing as it's her first day back. It is your registration group that she's joining, yes?"
Mr McCune nodded and smiled in the direction of the door. It was very rare that he smiled thankfully; his smile always made him look even more cruel and intimidating somehow. "It is yes," he said. "Bluebell Williamson, it is lovely to have you back in our group. I'm sure your old classmates will be just as thrilled to have you back," he shot a sidelong glare around the room, knowing full well that most of them used to bully Blue in registration as well as other lessons of the day. "Thank you, Mr Joe. I'm sure Bluebell will be fine now. Bluebell, if you would like to sit in the back next to Zed, that's the only seat free, and I'll add your name to the seating plan. Welcome back."
"Bluebell Williamson?" Zed heard Gina whisper loudly; it was the kind of whisper that carried around the whole room so everybody could hear. Gina Mariana was the 'Queen Bee' of the school and was obviously gorgeous with her red locks and curvaceous body. She had had a string of boyfriends but didn't make it a secret that she had a huge crush on Zed. She was always trying to get his attention and although he admitted she was attractive, he had never even thought about dating her. She just wasn't his type- he preferred blondes to be honest. "Fatty Blue is back?" Gina giggled. "I'm surprised we didn't feel the ground shaking with her walking down the corridor. Poor Zed, having to sit next to a beach whale." Her friends - or minions as Zed thought of them - laughed quietly at her teasing.
"Silence," Mr McCune snapped. "Gina, you have a lunchtime detention. No arguments or complaining. Bluebell, sit down."
"Good luck on your first day back Bluebell," Zed heard Mr Joe say. "Have fun."
Blue stepped into the room as Mr Joe shut the door behind her. The whole class - including Zed - stared at her in disbelief. Surely that wasn't really the Bluebell Williamson they had all been going to school with since they were young children? She looked completely different! She was no longer a large girl who dressed in unflattering large t-shirts and baggy jeans with frizzy blonde hair to her shoulders. She'd always been small height-wise and that hadn't changed, but now she was skinny too. So skinny that it almost looked unhealthy- her collarbone jutted out and her waist was tiny with a flat belly, although she had a slight curve to her hips and her breasts were the perfect size - not too big and not too small. Not that Zed paid any attention to that when it came to girls (heavy sarcasm, of course). She had pale white skin and golden blonde hair that was tied up into a messy bun on the top of her head. The weather outside was bright and warm so she was wearing a red, floral print jumpsuit that cut off mid-thigh and had paired it with a pair of dirty Converse. Her blue eyes were wide as she looked at all of the staring faces; she looked terrified and Zed noticed that her hands - which were clutching a plain black over-the-shoulder bag - were shaking uncontrollably.
Feeling sorry for her, Zed pulled the chair next to him out from under the table. As it scraped across the floor loudly and broke the silence, Blue jumped and snapped out of her shock. She quickly walked through the gaps between the tables to the back of the classroom and sat down next to Zed, avoiding his eyes and looking down at the table. Still, the rest of the class stared and Zed couldn't blame them. He was still staring at her himself. It had only been ten months since she left school (everybody had been told she'd gone to live with her aunt, but Zed knew the truth about her being at Rosewood thanks to his brother) so this was certainly a drastic transformation. She was small and dainty now, and Zed finally realised that she was beautiful although he doubted she knew that.
"Okay, talk amongst yourselves until the bell for next lesson goes," Mr McCune said with a tired sigh. Finally, everybody looked away from Blue and turned to chat to their neighbour, talking in hushed whispers and glancing back at Blue every now and then- clearly they were talking about her and how different she looked now.
Zed cleared his throat and said, "hey. I'm Zed, Victor's brother. It's nice to meet you."
Blue looked up at him with a frown on her face. "We've been in the same classes since we were three years old. You're not just meeting me now."
"Well no, but this is the first time we've properly talked," he replied, shifting awkwardly in his seat and gulping. He didn't want to frighten or anger the poor girl, but it seemed like that was all he was doing. "Anyway, Victor asked me to look out for you so if you need anything, just let me know. It's fine, I don't mind."
"Well that was nice of Victor but I don't need or want your help with anything so just forget it," she said bitterly. "Just leave me alone... Wait, does that mean Victor told you where I've been?"
"Yes, he-"
"Great," she snapped. "Look, if you tell anybody I swear to God..." Her threat hung in the air between them. She didn't seem like the nice, vulnerable girl that Victor described her as. She seemed feisty, fully capable of defending herself even though just a moment ago she'd literally been shaking in fear. Which was the real Blue?
"Don't worry," Zed said gently. "I won't tell a soul, I swear. Your secret's safe with me, it's not my place to tell anybody. Besides, Victor's already told me plenty of times that he'll kill me himself if I tell anyone. He's real protective of you."
Blue seemed taken aback by this, as if the thought of someone being protective of her was surprising. "Oh. Well uhm, thanks for not telling anybody."
She looked away then and angled herself in the chair so that she partly had her back to him and didn't look at him again. Zed took that to mean that the conversation was over.
Walking home from school with Daisy, Blue couldn't stop thinking about the day she had had. Of course, she hadn't made any new friends and honestly, not much had changed whilst she'd been away. Gina and her minions were still ruling the school and Zed Benedict was still the school heart-throb and the most popular guy there. Everybody stared at her all day, wondering how on Earth she could look so different after not even a year away. They whispered as she walked past, her paranoia ringing loud in her ears; she just knew they weren't saying nice things about her.
The only thing that had changed was that a few of the guys had started paying attention to her. Their attention was unwanted. She didn't get a thrill out of being ogled at, nor did she need them to offer to carry her bag for her. She was perfectly capable of doing that herself, she hadn't broken both of her arms for crying out loud. Besides, the guys that were giving this attention to her were just a few of many students that had bullied her before she'd gone to Rosewood. Did they think she would just forget about that because they were being a little nice to her because of the way she looked now? And it was just typical that they were friends with Zed Benedict.
Zed Benedict. Where did she even start with him? No, he had never bullied her but he'd just stood by and watched as all of his friends did. What kind of decent guy did that? She hated him for trying to be so polite to her today when he probably knew full well that there was no chance of them two ever becoming friends. Why would Blue want to be friends with someone that let his friends bully her and occasionally even laughed along at their teasing? She also hated that he knew about her stay at Rosewood. The popular crowd at school were rarely ever nice people so she wouldn't be surprised if Zed told everybody her secret just for the fun of it. Him swearing not to tell anybody was not reassuring to her.
Daisy brought Blue out of her miserable line of thoughts by asking, "so how was your first day back at school?" She smiled up at her sister, looking hopeful that nothing had gone terribly wrong.
Not wanting to worry or upset Daisy, Blue smiled back at her. "Yeah it was great," she lied. "Nobody in my classes was horrible to me, it was a lot better than last time."
"Oh good!" Daisy exclaimed. "I'm so glad things are getting better for you, Blue."
By the time they got home, Elliott was just returning from picking Poppy up and Blue repeated the same story to him. She had a feeling that he could tell she was lying so she quickly headed upstairs to her bedroom before he could question her any further. She really didn't want to have to tell him that school was still bad; it would cause him to unnecessarily worry about her.
She threw her backpack onto the floor and wandered over to the bookcase, browsing the shelves for a good book to lose herself in. Once she'd chosen a book - one that she had read countless times before even though she had plenty that she'd never read - she walked over to the window, planning to open it and let in some fresh air.
Without meaning to, she looked across at the Benedict house and the bedroom that was straight across from hers. She saw somebody moving about in the bedroom a moment before they strolled past the window but looked up and stopped when they saw her stood there. The light brown skin, dark hair and blue eyes, along with the high cheekbones and tall figure, were all completely familiar to her. Rolling her eyes with a groan, she shook her head in disbelief. Typical, she thought to herself. Zed would be the one with the bedroom that looks straight into mine.
She quickly opened the window before pulling the curtains closed as Zed just stood there and looked at her still. Once the curtains were closed and she didn't have to see him anymore, she relaxed and walked over to her bed, sitting down on it so that she could read comfortably.