Hello all! I'm so very sorry it took me so long to update. I have had an extremely busy few days, to say the very least! I hope you enjoy chapter 3.
Disclaimer: I do not own Glee or any of its characters.
The more Ryder thought about Marley after school, the worse he felt. He was utterly confused- since when did he care about girls? Katie maybe, but he was mad at her right now, and wholly consumed with thoughts of Marley Rose. He didn't want to concern himself with Katie at all at the moment, but he realised that he could use her to his advantage, so logged onto the chat-room, and, seeing that she was now online again, clicked on the conversation, and typed a new message.
ryder_lynn: Help me undastand the female mind. How can I make u not be mad at me?
Ryder of course, did not feel he had to do anything to appease Katie- if anything, she had to do something to appease him, but he would use her female knowledge to formulate a plan to approach Marley tomorrow at school after he had made a fool of himself today.
katie_xoxo: Who says I'm mad at you? x
Ryder sighed loudly at Katie's reply. For one thing it had absolutely no relevance to Marley, for another, Katie was either oblivious to her wrongdoings, or chose to avoid them completely. He tried a different tactic, and typed in another message.
ryder_lynn: You ignor me every time I sujest we meet. So your mad or your afraid.
The blonde beauty took a good ten minutes to formulate her reply.
katie_xoxo: You know I worry that you'll be the douchebag you portray yourself to be to your friends. Online you can be yourself. What if you can't offline?
Ryder was infuriated. He thought Katie of all people understood him, but perhaps not.
ryder_lynn: How can you say that? You no I wud jump at the chance to be with u if u just showd me u wanted it too. But it doesnt seem like u really do, and u no what? Maybe some other girl mite be better for me, mite actualy acknolege me in real life.
An image of Marley Rose flickered through his mind as he pressed send. A couple of minutes later, his laptop bleeped.
katie_xoxohas gone offline.
Ryder groaned in frustration, picking up a pen from his desk and throwing it against the wall. He had no new ideas for Marley and the situation with Katie had only been aggravated. He picked the pen up and flopped face forward onto his bed. He would have to play it by ear. He knew he had his second English class of the school year tomorrow, which of course, Marley was in, and he also knew now that he wanted the mysterious brunette more than ever.
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Ryder was keen to get to English class extra early the next day to try and forge an opportunity to speak to Marley, so dragged Jake along to Miss Holliday's classroom ten minutes before the end of morning break. Marley was already outside the room, seemingly sticking up a flyer or a poster of some sort onto the noticeboard next to the door. Ryder turned to Jake, put on a smirk, and approached her.
"Hey Marley."
The brunette jumped at his voice, which was becoming a bit of a habit, and turned to glare at him, not saying a word, before turning away and busying herself with her poster. Ryder sighed.
"Look, Marley, I'm really sorry about yesterday. I was an ass…but…it's just because…look, don't tell anyone this, cos it's not 'cool', but…I get really shy around beautiful girls, and my brain just kinda shuts down and I say something stupid." This was of course a little white lie to make him seem sensitive, he believed, but she didn't know that.
Marley bit her lip, and she kept up the silent treatment, but Ryder didn't miss her cheeks turn pink under her newsboy cap upon hearing his compliment. He clenched his fist behind his back in celebration, and vaguely heard Jake snigger in appreciation behind.
"So what's this?" He asked nosily, gesturing towards the poster Marley was still carefully straightening and pinning onto the noticeboard. Marley pointed her nose up and still refused to speak a word, so Ryder leaned in and slowly read what it said.
Do you need a tutor/singing teacher?
Contact Marley Rose on facebook for help in English or singing lessons.
$10 an hour
"Hey I need a tutor!" Ryder exclaimed enthusiastically, causing Marley to jump yet again. She turned to him, her eyebrow raised in a sarcastic 'in your dreams' way. "I do!" He assured her. "My grades are super bad, especially in English, and they need to improve if I'm gonna get that football scholarship."
Marley shrugged, as if to say that it wasn't her problem after what he'd said yesterday.
"So are you a super clever great singer then or is it all about the ten bucks an hour?" he joked, determined to persist with the stubborn, shy girl.
"Well you know…" Marley finally spoke, "me and my fat lunch-lady of a mom need all the extra money we can get," she snapped sarcastically and went to stand by the door. The lesson was just about to start, and Miss Holliday came marching over to unlock the classroom and usher the students in. Ryder hoped will all his might that Jake hadn't noticed that part of the exchange. Luckily, when he turned around he found that he was busy flirting with Kitty Wilde.
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Like usual, Ryder and Jake spent the first half of English messing around and paying zero attention, also oblivious to the fact that they were wearing Miss Holliday's patience thin.
"Alright, boys I am done with this. We are not having another year like last year. You are seniors now, you cannot afford to mess around like this if you want to get into college. I'm splitting you two up."
"No!" Ryder and Jake both protested, but their teacher was not having any of it.
"Ok," she started, thinking about what to do with the seating arrangements. "Ryder, swap places with Sarah please, sorry girls but I think Mr Puckerman and Mr Lynn could do with your calming, sensible influence," she said sympathetically to Sarah and her desk partner. Ryder groaned, before realising who Sarah sat next to. He turned to grin at Jake before picking up his things and taking the now vacant seat next to Marley, who rolled her eyes towards the sky.
He spent the rest of the lesson stealing glances at the beautiful girl to his right. A couple of times they made eye contact as she turned to look at him too. She would never tell him, but she had a huge crush on him…if only he wasn't such an idiot.
Miss Holliday finished the lesson by springing a rather unwelcome surprise on her students.
"Ok guys, that's two lessons we've done on Macbeth now, so on Friday…we will have a test on it!" she said emphatically, as if it was cause for celebration. "And yes, it does count a very small percentage towards your final grade, so your homework is to study hard for it over the next couple of days."
The students groaned in unison, and Ryder felt his stomach lurch. English just wasn't his forte, he hadn't been lying when he told Marley he needed tutoring in it, and if this was going to count towards his final grade, he needed to do well in it, even he knew that deep down. He would have to work really hard for the rest of the week.
Hope you enjoyed it! I would really love a review from you, it would make my day! Thanks! Also, keep signing against SOPA if you haven't done so already!
To my lovely reviewers:
Savannaramirez35: I know, it's strange, but it's terribly fun to write :p thank you so much, I hope I do! It's all rather daunting right now but I'm sure it will get easier as my French improves :p thanks again for your lovely review, and I'm still loving your fic :)
Rima Akien: I know- we always need more Ryley! Ah, you will see both those things develop, but I'm not giving you any more spoilers, lol. Thanks so much for your kind review!
TeaAndGlee: Glad you're liking it so far! Thanks so much- I'm sure I will miss our beloved UK, but I'll be fine I'm sure :p
Guest: Thank you! Relived you like the idea and bad boy Ryder, I will certainly continue with it :) You will see soon!
Thanks also to those who favourited or followed :)
I will try to be quicker with the next update but with my other story due for an update and classes starting this week (in French!) I honestly can't promise anything :s
Loads of love from Lauren xxx