As you can see, this is Chapter 3 of the Castle Heights series! I meant to get it written and uploaded much quicker than I actually did, but I've been pretty busy since uploading Chapters 1 and 2. Anyway, this is a Belle POV. Next chapter will be another Wendy POV. I'm thinking the chapter after that will be either a Mulan or Jasmine POV. By the way, I don't dislike Jasmine, I just want to show how other people see her before writing from her POV. Also, I introduced Cinderella's stepsisters before introducing Cinderella herself, but she and a lot of the other characters will be introduced in the Wendy POV.
I was sitting in study hall, bored out of my mind, when I noticed the new library aid and realized he was kind of hot. And by kind of, I mean really freaking hot.
My first day of school had been pretty standard. I had study hall for my homeroom, and thankfully it took place in the library. I had pretty much lived in the library my entire freshman year. That's where I met my boyfriend, Gaston LeGume. I was reading The Great Gatsby for the millionth time and he was studying Algebra 1, which was a freshman class. (He's dumb, okay? Get over it.) Our eyes met. You know the drill.
Six months later, I was in the library again, minus my football-playing boyfriend. Instead, I was surrounded by nervous freshmen and gloating upperclassmen. As far as I could see, I was the only sophomore there. At least Jumba, the librarian, liked me. He was huge, probably almost seven feet tall, and pudgy. He loved wearing Hawaiian shirts and always tried to get people to check out the library's massive science section.
Anyway, back to me. I sat in the row next to the back. Behind me was a gaggle of freshmen. In front of me, Jasmine, who was pretty much the princess of the junior class, was discussing homecoming attendants with some other members of the cheer squad.
"I'm soooo excited!" she gushed. She kept flipping her hair. Jasmine used to have super gorgeous hair before she put blonde highlights in it. Now it just looked tacky. Her new boyfriend, Flynn Rider, played football with Gaston so I guess we were expected to be kind of friends now.
Oprah Tremaine squinted her overly-lined eyes. "I don't know if I'm even going to run," she admitted while stroking her extensions. "Everyone knows Ripley's going to win queen."
My ears perked up at that. Ripley Hart was notorious for being a man-eating head cheerleader. She had so many guys wrapped around her finger that she was called the Queen of Hearts. Ripley seemed fine with it and even wore oversized, heart-shaped earrings. I guess that was just in case anyone forgot who she was.
Oprah's twin sister, Ellen, rolled her eyes. "Duh, Oprah. We'll still be on the court. Senior attendant is still totes amaaaaaaay-zing." Ellen and Oprah used to be identical twins before they started using hair dyes and plastic surgeries. Now Oprah's naturally brown hair was pitch black and about seventy-five percent fake. Ellen sported a perfectly perky fake nose and huge butt implants. They both had bright green eyes that were accentuated by tons and tons of eye makeup.
Oprah wasn't so convinced. She took a long sigh before countering, "What about Snow White and Sleeping Beauty?" It took me a second to realize who she was talking about. Snow White was better known as Charlotte Irving, a rich and popular senior who was unfashionably pale and generally well liked. That meant the cheerleading squad pretty much hated her, often calling her So White instead of her other nickname. Sleeping Beauty was Aurora Bayle, who frankly slept around a lot, explaining her well known alias. I understood why Oprah was worried.
Jasmine didn't let Ellen reassure her sister. 'Well, I'm positive that I'm going to be one of the junior attendants," she bragged loudly. Then she elbowed Flynn in the ribs. "Aren't you making sure the football boys are voting for me, sweetie?" she cooed.
Poor Flynn looked like a deer caught in headlights. "Um, I know a lot of the guys are voting for Mulan, since she's kind of one of us," he told everyone almost apologetically.
His girlfriend didn't look too worried about that. "I guess that's why there's two spots. One can be a throwaway so the girl that really deserves it can still be on the court," Jasmine decided. Then she brushed a stray hair off of the shoulder of her shirt. It looked like she was waving off any thoughts of Mulan beating her out for junior attendant.
"What about Megara?" Oprah asked. She seemed to be full of questions today. Usually she wasn't full of much, since she seemed to keep her stick thin figure through means of starvation.
Jasmine laughed loudly. "She dumped Herk out of nowhere so she's basically nothing now," Jasmine informed her. Her smirk would have scared the crap out of me, but it was blown off of her face by the sound of someone walking through the door.
Rapunzel Roth, another sophomore, made a loud and quite late entrance into the library. Even though I knew Rapunzel, we didn't exactly run in the same circles. She had been normal until about halfway through seventh grade. That was until Megara Kormos ditched her friends Mulan Lu and Alice Pleasance. Rapunzel has kind of filled in Meg's gap. Then she had started dying her hair bright purple and wearing dramatic makeup. Since then, she had decided to become a cosmetologist and started drawing on a fake black mole next to her left eye. Today she wore bright red lipstick, black cat-eye eyeliner, and tight black jeans. Everyone watched as she slowly sashayed to a seat in next to mine. I noticed Flynn especially seemed to have his eyes glued to her. Apparently, so did Jasmine. That was proven by her grabbing Flynn's chin and forcing him in for a very loud and public kiss.
"Settle down, everybody," Jumba said loudly so he could be heard over the roar of excited high schoolers. Jasmine released Flynn from her grasp. His cheeks and ears were very pink as he quickly glanced over his shoulder at Rapunzel. Luckily for him I seemed to be the only one who saw.
"Anyway, my name is Jumba and I'm the librarian here at Castle Heights High School. I'll give you your library cards here when my library aid gets back from the administration office with them," he finished. Then he shuffled back behind the library desk and left our class sitting at the library tables.
Rapunzel was painting her nails navy blue, so I decided she wouldn't be interested in talking. Jasmine, Oprah, and Ellen had continued gossiping about homecoming. The freshmen sitting behind me didn't look familiar, except for a blonde girl with pouty lips and a bored expression. I had seen her walking into school with a red haired boy. Her blonde bun was perfectly messy and her off the shoulder top complimented her petite frame. She was definitely going to grow up and be like Ripley or the other popular girls.
Finally I slipped out of my chair and started browsing the new arrivals section of the library. It was directly across from the tables but the rows of computers made it pretty well secluded. I breathed in the scent of new books. It smelled like home and comforted me. Maybe being in the same homeroom as these girls wouldn't be that bad. Gaston always tried to get me to talk to them at the football parties we attended.
I started browsing while I was thinking about that. Unlike Megara Kormos, who had abandoned her friends when she got a boyfriend, my social life hadn't changed much. Gaston came over a lot and occasionally we'd go to parties. But neither of us ever drank and I hadn't been swamped with other football girlfriends trying to befriend me. It was probably because I wasn't into cheerleading or volleyball or shopping, which seemed to be the only things they did. I didn't really have friends.
My friends lived in a world that I couldn't live in, but I could visit: the world of books. I know it sounds dumb, but books were my escape from being a friendless girl with a mega popular boyfriend.
"Can I help you?" A masculine voice yanked me from my thoughts. I looked up to see a guy standing in the next aisle. He looked vaguely familiar but I don't really know how. He seemed to see my startled expression. "I'm sorry to scare you," he apologized. "I'm Adam Foley and I'm the library aid."
I wasn't sure where I knew Adam Foley from, but I did know he was extremely good-looking. He had deep-set blue eyes that were surrounded by kind of nerdy-chic black glasses. His light brown hair and chiseled jaw made it difficult to stop staring at him. "I-I'm Belle Higgins," I choked out. Something about this totally hot guy was making my throat close up.
He smiled. I melted. "It's nice to meet you, Belle. Are you a sophomore?"
I nodded and smiled back. I had no idea what to say. I'm not really the type that has trouble talking to guys. When Gaston first showed interest in me, I managed to be witty and fun and make sure he liked me more than I liked him.
Adam tilted his head to the side. "I feel like I know you from somewhere. I'm a sophomore too, but I just transferred last year."
This is could respond to. "I was kind of thinking the same thing," I admitted. "But I'm at the library a lot, so you'll know me from there soon."
He chuckled a little. "That sounds just great. I'll leave you to your books." And with that, he placed another book on the shelf he was at and left.
I stood there wondering what on earth had just transpired. Had I been flirting? What about Gaston? I hit myself in the forehead with my hand. Gaston! I loved him to death, but he tended to get crazy jealous sometimes. If Gaston found out that Adam had been paying attention to me when Gaston wasn't around, he would tear Adam limb from limb. Was I cheating? I guess not, but it couldn't hurt to be careful.
As I left homeroom, I had a new objective: avoid the library at all costs. And especially avoid the hot new library aid with hair that looked like a shampoo commercial.
Wait, where had that come from?