CHAPTER 7

The rest of the lessons of the day passed slowly, with Rose fretting over her friends who she had now most definitely lost forever, and over the boy who caused it. It was stupid really, that they'd let some guy get in the way of their friendship, but then again, she thought, they weren't exactly soul mates in the first place. Rose would way rather spend a mealtime sitting with Drake Merwin than with Brianna, Taylor, Becca, Meagan and Lucie. They just had absolutely nothing in common. While they seemed happier gossiping about celebrities' lives than getting one of their own, Rose thought if she heard one more 'Would you rather' or was forced to read one more magazine, she would have to kill herself. It wasn't that she wasn't girly, she loved nothing better than buying new shoes or getting herself all made up for a special occasion, it's just that she didn't give a damn about what Robert Patterson was up to, or if Peter Andre and Katy Price still loved each other. And instead of sighing over sports captains, and then crying when they got with some cheerleader, she preferred to actually go and talk to them. To make something happen. But then maybe that wasn't the best idea, after all, that's how her face had got mashed up...

Eventually the last lesson of the day, Maths, which had gone the slowest out of all of them, was over and Rose was queuing up in the canteen for her dinner. As she stood there, she scanned the room, where was she going to sit now? She didn't want to sit with Derek and co. again, they might think she was going to make a regular thing of it! They were nice people, but she did not want them following her round every day thinking they were friends. But she didn't know anyone else well enough to join them. The dinner lady served her some pizza and now she didn't have any more time to kill, she had to make her decision. She could always go and sit on her own, but she'd never live that down. And Taylor etc. would love that. She weighed up her options and, sighing, slumped down with the nerds from English class.

"Hey Rose!" They all grinned at her, she smiled back weakly.

"We were wondering if you were going to join us again today!" Gerald smiled.

"Yeah, we were just discussing a lunchtime catch-up club, you know, cos we're getting so much work at the moment what with GCSEs coming up and everything. Of course, it would be exclusive to the Digits, but I suppose you could come along if you wanted?" Derek looked up at Rose hopefully.

"The digits?" She asked, raising an eyebrow. They all nodded enthusiastically.

"That's the name of our club, we change it every month, you know, to keep it secret and everything, I suppose you'll have to join now, either that or we'll have to kill you!" Gerald joked and they all laughed.

"No but in all seriousness, you are most welcome to join! It's really quite fun, we have all kinds of events going on, different clubs exclusively for us that no one else knows about! I bet you were gutted when you started here and realised there wasn't a chess club, well, good news – we have our own one!" Sylvie gushed, Rose mentally stabbed herself, wishing she'd gone for the sitting on her own option.

"Umm...well, I wouldn't want to intrude..." She muttered and they all shook their heads vigorously.

"No, no, it's fine! We're actually missing a member since Stephanie left, so you'd make the numbers even again!" Sylvie smiled, then she started laughing hysterically, the boys caught on and joined in the laughter, Rose looked at them all blankly.

"Umm...what's so funny?" She asked.

"See, Sylvie said you'd make the numbers even, and we're called the digits!" Gerald explained between giggles. Rose smiled weakly as she mentally shot herself. Multiple times. The conversation moved on to last night's Countdown and Rose stabbed at her pizza with her fork, picturing it as little tiny Sylvie, Gerald and Derek's.

Just then she heard a familiar laugh from behind her and, spinning round, she saw the one and only Drake Merwin standing there.

"Alright Drake?" She asked flatly. He laughed even harder.

"You must have been so desperate!" He laughed, looking from Rose to 'the Digits'.

"Why, whatever do you mean?" Rose asked.

"Oh, come on! Nerdald, Geekvie and Dorkek?" He laughed again at his own joke and Rose rolled her eyes.

"Is that all you could come up with?" She said dryly. Drake crossed his arms defensively.

"Hey, I came over her to save you from these creeps, do you want to come and sit with me or not?" Rose looked unimpressed, while inside her heart did back flips. She looked from him to the petrified nerds who all looked as though they had just wet themselves, and she didn't doubt that they had. She thought about playing hard to get, declining his offer, then she realised that if she did that she'd never be able to get away from them and their strange little club, so she pushed her chair back and took her tray without another word to 'the Digits'.

"That's what I thought..." Drake said smugly, and Rose rolled her eyes.

Diana scanned the room boredly when her eyes fell on Drake and his little girlfriend walking their way. She smirked. It was weird seeing Drake walking with someone. He wasn't what you'd call sociable...and by that, she meant he hated every living person, but apparently that excluded one. The girl he was walking with was pretty, well, she would be without the cuts and bruises on her face. She looked quite confident as well, and that in the presence of Drake Merwin said something. The only person in this school who didn't seem to be absolutely petrified of him was Caine Soren, Diana wasn't, but that was only because she knew Caine wouldn't let him lay a finger on her. But if Caine wasn't there, she'd be trembling like the other saddos did. She wondered what the girl saw in the sadistic psychopath, if she actually liked him, or if she was just using him like Diana used Caine. But that wasn't entirely true...she did like him too...a bit. She nudged Caine.

"Look who's coming over" She muttered and he looked up, a smirk breaking onto his handsome face. Then he turned serious again.

"Give her a read when she comes over, hanging out with Drake, she might be useful..." Diana nodded.

Drake sat down opposite a guy and a girl who Rose had seen before but not spoken to. They were both very good looking and Rose felt out of place with her battered up face next to the 3 could-be models. Drake tucked into his pizza, not bothering with introductions, so Rose rolled her eyes and introduced herself.

"Heyya, I'm Rose..." She smiled, the guy was looking at her curiously but the girl smiled back.

"Ah, so you're the famous Rose, we've heard so much about you!" She said offering her hand to shake as Drake glared at her. Rose placed her hand in hers and saw the girl's expression change slightly for a split second. "I'm Diana." She said, "And this is Caine." Then she turned to Caine and muttered something that sounded like 'three', but Rose couldn't be sure with all the noise in the canteen. Suddenly he seemed much more sociable.

"So...Drake do that to your face? He's quite a charmer isn't he?" Drake glared at him and Caine grinned. Rose shrugged.

"Well actually I find getting beat up a real turn on." She said and Diana laughed.

"Looks like you've found your ideal guy then!" Drake's death glares were now aimed at everyone.

"Why did I ask you to sit over here...?" He muttered to himself.

"Cos you wove me?" Rose asked, fluttering her eyelids, Drake looked appalled but didn't pull away as Rose hugged him side-on. The rest of the dinner hour passed quickly as Rose found herself laughing more than she'd laughed with the other girls for the whole time she'd been here. She found herself liking Diana's sarky and confident manner and Caine's equally confident and charming personality as well.

"Omg, look who she's sitting with!" Meagan gasped as she stared over at the table on the far side of the room where Caine Soren, Diana Ladris and Drake Merwin always sat. But today there was another girl sitting with them too. The others all gaped as they watched Rose Azalea laughing with the school bullies. Although they were more than bullies, they were messed up creeps who made the rest of the school look like the nicest people in the world.

"This is NOT gonna end well..." Becca said and Meagan glared at her.

"Good. I hope it doesn't. That'll teach her to take advantage of us and then drop us when she gets a better offer...we did everything for her in the first few weeks! Taking time to show her the ropes when we could've done a load of other stuff, then she just ditches us for those psychos!" The others nodded, but warily. They were all kind of scared of Meagan. She could be really funny, but she was also a right bitch, good to have on your side in a fight, but not good to disagree with.

"Yeah, she wasn't even fun! She'd just sit there not talking, gazing over at her freak of a boyfriend..." Taylor chipped in and Meagan nodded vigorously.

"Exactly! D'you know what, I say we show her we aren't pushovers. When her new 'friends' ditch her and she comes crawling back to us, we won't be there for her. I say we completely blank her." The others nodded again, but only Meagan and Taylor looked like they meant it.

"I don't know...that's a bit harsh, she hasn't even really done anything to us..." Lucie said.

"Yeah, and no offence but blanking her? She's not gonna notice, she's too busy blanking us!" Brianna added. Meagan glared at them angrily, annoyed at being humiliated.

"Well, fine, I'll think of something else. But she is not getting away with this." Meagan said as she marched out of the canteen. The other girls looked at each other nervously, and then Becca pulled out a copy of Heat and they all grinned and began flicking through happily.