The annoying clock rang as soon as the sun peaked from the ground. Lillian was ready for her day to begin. Stepping on the same ground that caught everyone to turned to her, giving her cold stares. However, this had always been her daily routine since she started high school. She refused to let any hatred from arrogant kids bother her. She sat on the desk that was next to Cam and rested her head on her arms.
"Huhuhu, another day to feel more miserable," Lillian mumbled.
She turned her head to Cam's desk.
"Adding him in made it worse,"
A few minutes later, the classroom door was opened. One of Lillian's classmates entered and slammed her polished hand against the desk.
"New girl, get out of here right now, this will be my seat," The girl said.
She had curly light brown here that reached down her back. She wore heavy make-up that made her stand out even if she was a mile away. Nancy was her name, Lillian remembered.
"This was not your seat yesterday," Lillian replied.
"You don't belong here, not this seat, not this place, not this school, and certainly, not this earth," Nancy warned.
Lillian knew if she continued the conversation any further, there would be serious troubles. She decided to listen to Nancy and moved somewhere else.
"But where do I sit?" Lillian asked.
"Who knows? Maybe you'll be lucky enough to get an empty seat," Nancy replied.
Lillian let out a long sigh and left for the bathroom. She washed her face with cold water and forced herself not to shed any tears in this school. Finally, the bell rang and she rushed back to class 2-A. Lucky for her, there was an empty seat in the middle. She settled down on this new seat, listening to the whispers that were passing back and forth from one student to another. She felt some crumbled paper being thrown at her from the back.
"Hey! New girl! Did you get kick out by Nancy?" A boy yelled.
Lillian dislike speaking to the ignorance. She ignored everything they said or do even if those actions were hurting her. Crumbled papers or maybe even pencils constantly hitting her back.
"Hey! I'm talking to you!"
The teacher was late, she hadn't shown up since 5 minutes after the bell rang. Lillian felt a strong object hit her back, she stared at the book that dropped to the ground after it was being thrown at her. Yet, she pretend nothing had happened. The boy from the back pushed the chair out with a strong force.
"THIS B***!"
She felt his presence coming closer to her until the teacher stepped in.
"Alright class! I'm sorry for being late!" The teacher yelled.
She stood in front of the class staring at Lillian with disappointed look. The teacher cast her gaze on the floor where the crumbled papers and pencils sat beside the new girl.
"Lillian, pick up your trash! I'm very disappointed in you, littering in such a clean classroom! Come to class 3-B during lunch," The teacher yelled.
"I'm sorry, teacher," Lillian replied. That was all she could said. Any talk back to her teacher would dragged her into a huge mess. She gathered the trash and threw them into the trash bin. Lillian knew that there were mocking laughter and giggles as she made her way to the boy at back. She put pencils and a book on his desk and returned to her seat. Ash stared at the new girl and smiled. She was brave and interesting, he thought. After hours of learning and writing, the lunch bell rang. Lillian met her teacher like she requested in the morning.
"Lillian, as a punishment for littering your own classroom. You need to pick up any trash that lies around the school. Got it?" The teacher demanded.
"Yes M'am," Lillian replied.
The punishment was pointless because the school was absolutely clean. Lillian took this chance to grab a plate full of food from the cafeteria. She held the solution to her hunger on her hand while walking toward the water fountain. She lost her appetites as soon as she saw a group of girls walking toward her.
"This can't be good," Lillian mumbled to herself.
The girls walked by Lillian with their chattering and whispering. One of them forcefully kicked Lillian's leg from behind which made her fell backward. Her plate of food spilled on her and dirtied her uniform. They giggled as they walked farther away. The whole school laughed and whispered to each other. "She is such a loser."
"She deserves it."
From a distance, Cam, Ash, Laney, and Georgia stared at the new girl.
"Is she the new girl everyone been talking about?" Laney asked.
"Yeah, she's pretty interesting, though," Ash answered.
"Interesting? She looks poor and disgusting," Georgia joined the conversation.
"Disgusting… huh?" Cam mumbled.
Lillian scooped up her lunch onto her tray and threw it into the trash.
"What a waste of food…." Lillian mumbled.
She went to the bathroom to wash off the stain on her hand and her white shirt. Ash was outside waiting for Lillian when she exited the bathroom.
"Hi," Ash greeted.
"Hello, what do you want?" Lillian replied.
"No, just making sure you're okay,"
"I'm okay, thank you,"
Lillian walked away from Ash, hoping the other girls won't made her their next target.
"Hey!" Ash called out.
The new girl turned around while hugging one of her arm, her eyes focused on the floor.
"Do you not like talking to me?"
The question strike her, it confused her. Does she like talking to him? Does she hated him?
"I don't know, I'm too low-class to talk to arrogant people like you," Lillian replied.
This was the first time a girl had said such a thing to him. For some reason, there was a feeling in his heart that was hurt when she spat out those words. Perhaps he began to like her?
Lillian could see Cam and his friends walking toward them from the corner of her eyes.
"Your friends are coming," Lillian alerted Ash then walked back to her classroom.
Lillian swore this was the longest lunch break ever. She sat on her seat and rested her head down on the table. Her stomach growled loudly every minute that passed by. A moment later, she smelled food sitting on her desk. Standing in front of her was the boy that had been throwing papers at her in the morning. He turned away from Lillian to hide his blushing face, his hand hold a box of riceballs out to her.
"Here, you must be starving, right?" He asked.
"…..."
"I'm sorry I throw papers and pencils and the book at you. I was surprise when you took the blame… I uhh... don't usually apologize to people.. so be grateful!"
Lillian's lip curved into a smile.
"Thank you very much!" Lillian said.
"Y-you're welcome! I didn't put any medicine in it so don't worry,"
Lillian took a bite on the riceball which tasted so delicious. She gave him a smile again. The boy was red from seeing her smile, he never noticed she was so pretty before.
"It's delicious!"
"T-thank you, Imma go…"
"Thank you!"
The bell rang when Lillian finished her food. The class became noisy with the laughter and giggles of girls and boys. Behind her, the voices of Nancy flirting with Cam spread throughout the room. In front on the left, Lillian saw Ash sitting quietly at his desk. She was anxious to look around the room but to accidentally made eye contact with Cam forced her to look forward.
During P.E, the coach told everyone to pick a partner for the warm-up. Unfortunately, for Lillian she had no one in the class to pick. So to make up for that assignment, the coach ordered her to run two laps around the field in 5 minutes. With that being said, she ran the whole field two times without stopping, only to find out that the whole class would be playing dodge-ball. The coach would randomly pick a team for everyone. She divided the whole class into four teams. Lillian was put on the same team with Cam.
"Oh my gosh! Cam vs. Ash! We're so lucky to be in this class!" Girls screamed.
"We're going to win for sure! Go Ash!"
"No no, we're going to win! Go Cam!"
Lillian was the only girl who wasn't so excited to be on the team. She wanted to run out of the gym and leave this school.
Ash stared at the new girl that didn't look too happy to be playing dodge-ball. As expected, she disliked being in such noisy area. He let out a small chuckle and turned to Cam.
"I'm not going easy on you, Cam," Ash warned.
"You don't need to," Cam replied.
Lillian stared at the blank wall, wishing she was that wall, just chilling and doing nothing. The coach blew the whistle to start the game. Before Lillian knew it, rubber balls were being thrown back and forth. Most of them would hit the girls, though as Lillian would expected. Soon enough, there were only three people on the other team, including Ash. While there were only two people on Cam's team which included him and Lillian. It was challenging to eliminate the other members because they dodged the ball so easily. Cam was the only one who did all of the throwing.
"You're out number, Cam!" Ash yelled.
"My skill could add up to three people, we're equal," Cam replied.
What? Lillian thought. Cam acted as if he was the only person playing. Lillian pick up the ball that was rolling to her. While the other team's attention was focused on Cam, she threw the ball with a powerful force to the other side. It hit one team member.
"Boo-yah!" Lillian cheered.
She covered her mouth with her hands, feeling embarrassed with all eyes on her. Ash smiled at her exuberance. Cam didn't know he was smiling until he saw Lillian dancing at her success.
"Look like Cam got a trump card beside him," Ash said as he turned to Lillian, "I won't go easy on you,"
It was two vs two, so Lillian decided to come up with a strategy. She grabbed a ball from the floor and focused her eyes on Ash. He also caught her stare, too. She positioned to threw the ball, Ash was prepared to dodge it but it wasn't thrown toward him but to his team mate. It was an unexpected situation. The member was out.
"Strike!" Lillian yelled.
"Two against one, now," Cam said.
There was cruel gaze upon the new girl. They were jealous and angry because she was acting too close to their idols. Lillian dropped the ball from her hand when she sensed the glares from every girls. She lost her concentration to dodge the ball that Ash thrown at her. She was out of the game. The room's atmosphere turned back to normal. There was cheering for Ash and Cam. Once again, Lillian wished she was the wall. In the end, no one knew who won the game because the bell rang.
Lillian was being pushed against the wall by the girls who were jealous of her during the game. One was Nancy who been trying to get close to Cam since forever.
"You, someone who is a commoner, should not get too close to Ash and Cam. I'll beat you up!" Nancy yelled with anger.
She grabbed Lillian's collar and scowled at her while her friends cheered for her.
"Go Nancy! Beat her up!"
Suddenly, someone's arm grabbed Nancy from behind and leaned her against the wall. Nancy was shocked to see Ash being so close to her. He had his hand on the wall behind her.
"You saw how Lillian threw the ball at my team mate right? The poor boy still has a bruise on his shoulder. Don't be so angry at her, okay?" Ash said.
There goes his charm speak that made every girl melted whenever his voice echoed through their ears.
"Do you mind I borrow her for today?"
"S-sure,"
Ash grabbed Lillian and exited the school entrance.
"T-thanks…" Lillian said.
"No problem," Ash answered.
"I-I gotta go.. Bye.."
Before the girl left his side, Ash grabbed her arm.
"Erm… you were great today, I had fun at P.E."
"Thanks, you're great, too."
Lillian left the boy and headed to the mansion she was going to work at.