Chapter 2

Gaelen took a deep breath when he walked towards her. He stopped in front of her desk and she looked up to meet his gaze. What did he want from her? She had heard of situations like this before. When she had lived with her Aunt and Uncle, she had often watched movies where the guy stood in front of a new student to bully lunch money out of him or her. What was she going to do? She had no lunch money. She had always made her own food so she hoped that he would be satisfied with home-made lunch. Of course, there was always the possibility that the cafeteria food was on an entirely different level. Maybe the school lunch offered four courses instead of the three she always prepared. In any case, it was worth a try. She couldn’t afford getting in trouble.

“I’m sorry, I don’t have any lunch money, but if it’s okay with you, you can take my lunch. I mean, it may not be as good as the school lunch, but please bear with it for today!” She dug into her bag and thrust her handmade lunchbox at him. When she glanced up at him, she saw him blink in surprise. He looked confused which ended up confusing her.

”It’s alright, I don’t want your lunch,” he said and started laughing. The class joined in and Gaelen sighed. She knew it. There was no way city people would be satisfied with such old-fashioned lunches like hers.

“I promise I’ll get you the money sometime this year.”

“No, I’m not trying to get lunch money out from you either,” he said between laughs. “I just wanted to let you know that you’re sitting in my seat.” He had stopped laughing, but the amusement still rested on his handsome features.

“Oh.” Gaelen blushed, and quickly gathered her things.

“Gaelen, you can sit in the seat next to Damien. That one is unoccupied,” the teacher called out, after the class had calmed down. Gaelen simply nodded and sat down. Damien reclaimed his seat and turned his head to face her.

She was a strange one. It was the first time someone had mistaken his motives so drastically. When she looked up at him, he saw fear in her eyes. Her social experience was probably nonexistent, and whatever she knew about high school was probably taken from some cheap soap opera. When she had bumped into her that morning, he didn’t get to take a good look at her face, but judging by her attire, he had figured that her face was probably nothing special to look at, and he was right. Appearance-wise, she was at most above average, but she had no curves or anything else to recommend her. Her eyes and hair were both dark brown so she didn’t have any of the conventional exotic features that caught male attention. If she had a killer body, it didn’t show through her oversized overalls and worn out flannel shirt. He decided right there that he wasn’t interested.

BREAKBREAKBREAKBREAK

Within the morning session, she got lost seven times and was around ten minutes late to each class. Her direction sense was damned. She had a detailed map that illustrated every corner, staircase, and ramp in an accurate scale, but it didn’t help her in the least. Map or no map, it didn’t make a difference. She had tried to use her compass, but following north, east, south, or west in a school didn’t prove to be very logical. Of course this was after she failed at analyzing the sun’s direction.

A female voice called out to her from inside a classroom. “Hey, are you lost? You’ve passed this room four times already.”

Gaelen nodded and the girl stepped out the door. She was a pretty girl, her hair a sleek dirty-blond, her eyes a bright green. She wore a pair of denim shorts and a tight green Le Tigre polo which helped emphasize the captivating color of her eyes.

“Here, I’ll help you,” she said, and asked for her schedule.

“Oh, you’re supposed to be in Ms. Areniki’s class right now, but since there’s only ten minutes left of class, you can skip it. I’ll take you around instead,” she offered.

Gaelen’s face brightened up. “Really? Won’t you get in trouble for leaving, though?”

“Oh, we’re having a student council meeting this period, and it’s pretty much over so we’re just screwing around.”

“I see, then I’ll take your offer.” Gaelen smiled wholeheartedly at her. They started on their tour around the school.

“I’ve never seen you around before…” She remarked. It wasn’t that she had memorized all the faces in the school, but with someone who dressed like Gaelen, it would be difficult not to remember.

“Oh yeah, I’m new here. I just started today.”

“Really? Well, I’m Agnes. You are?”

She responded enthusiastically. “I’m Gaelen!”

It was exciting. The thought of making a friend overwhelmed her. Ever since the morning incident, nobody had spoken to her. She wasn’t one to ask for help either, since she had been brought up to live independently. It felt uncomfortable asking for help and the last thing she wanted to do was cause trouble for others. If she could prove herself to not be a hindrance, perhaps people would be willing to become friends with her. It was what her aunt had told her before she had left for the city.

“Well, lunch is next so you want to come sit with me? I’m in first lunch too.”

The bell rang and people began to rush out of their classrooms.

“The time before and after lunch is like war. If you don’t keep up with the tide, you’ll get killed.”

Gaelen’s eyes widened with horror. When she had come to the city, she hadn’t expected a possibility of getting dying. She understood that the risk of getting hit by a car was over two hundred percent higher, but she didn’t want to die violently.

Agnes took one look at her face and quickly explained.

“No! Not literally of course! It was a figure of speech. I only meant that this time is crazy.”

Gaelen nodded in comprehension. She could see that. It was complete chaos. They finally reached the cafeteria, and Agnes motioned for her to sit down at a table.

“If you need to buy lunch, it’s up there. It costs three dollars per lunch, and you can either go to the sandwich and salad line, the hot-lunch line, or the fast-food line, which is a horrible rip-off. They give you a slice of the cheapest pizza ever made and charge you full lunch price. The hot lunch is absolutely disgusting too so I never get school lunch.”

Agnes pulled out a six inch sub from her sandwich bag and Gaelen took out her three tiered lunch box. It weighed around four to five pounds with all the food inside and made a large thunk when she placed it on the table.

“Holy fuck, is that your lunch?”

”Yeah.”

“Good God, what the hell do you have in there?”

“Well, the first layer is appetizers and other little bites you would eat before the main course. You can have some if you would like.”

Gaelen took off the first layer and offered it to Agnes. Agnes thanked her and a few moments to choose.

“God, they all look so good! Did you make these?”

“Yeah, my aunt taught me. When we were bored, we’d just come up with new recipes.”

Agnes laughed. “Did you grow up on a farm or something? By the way you talk it seems as if you’ve never been exposed to society.”

“Yeah, I’ve been home-schooled ever since I was born. This is my first time in a place with a population density of over two people per square acre.” Gaelen shrugged. With so many people, it couldn’t be too difficult to make friends. Agnes seemed nice enough. She just hoped that there were more people like Agnes. Of course, she had no idea what “mean” was. Her interaction with people had been minimal and all the people she had ever known had been “nice.” Bullies were mean. She found that out from watching the Bernstein Bears. Killing was mean, and pulling someone’s hair was mean as well. She racked her brains for other mean things, but couldn’t think of any more.

“Well, it’ll definitely be difficult for you to settle in looking like that.” Agnes gave her the once-over.

Gaelen looked down at her attire. She couldn’t see anything wrong with it. From where she came from, everyone had dressed that way. Showing skin was the expressway to skin cancer so her entire wardrobe consisted of long-sleeved flannel or wool shirts and several pairs of long pants. She couldn’t imagine adorning herself in the clothing the city-people had taken to fashion.

“Most of my clothes are like this so I don’t have a choice. I think I’ll manage in time.”

Agnes shook her head in disapproval. “Do you have any spending money?”

Her inheritance provided her with a substantial amount of money per month. Since the house had been in the family for generations, mortgage was not an issue. The only thing she had to worry about was the bills, which she had calculated the previous night. After all the costs, it left her with a good grand every month. The money was transferred to her bank account, which she had convenient access to.

“Yes, I have some,” she answered.

Agnes clapped her hands together. “Great, I can take you shopping this weekend if you want. I’m going there anyways,” she said. “I’ll drive us and maybe show you around. I’ll introduce you to some people too.”

Gaelen beamed at her in appreciation.

:”Would you really?!” she asked. “I’m so excited! I’ve never been shopping before! Well, I’ve shopped for vegetables and fruit before in a market, but…. Oh! Shopping in the city!”

Gaelen’s enthusiasm was contagious. As lunch carrieid on, Agnes soon found herself more and more drawn in by Gaelen’s simplicity. She was interesting and almost in an entirely different world from everyone else.

The lunch bell rang, signaling the end of the first lunch. Agnes stood up, surprised at how quickly the time had passed. She stood up, and Gaelen followed in suit.

“Well, it was really nice meeting you. I’ll see you tomorrow then.” Agnes gave her directions to her next class and left with the crowd.

Gaelen continued to smile. For her, it was always difficult to stop smiling. There was one time where she smiled twenty-four hours straight and ended up requiring medical attention in order to get her to stop.

She didn’t manage to find an opening in the hectic crowd that scrambled around so she decided to wait. Just then, all motion halted and the noise level died down significantly. She seized this chance meandered through several people. She was never the most graceful person, and with so many people, she inevitably tripped in a most unflattering way. She sprawled face forward into a suspiciously empty clearing amidst the densely populated mobs. Even more suspiciously, the empty clearing turned out to be a fairly long aisle.

Gaelen sat up and put a hand to her cheek. It hurt, but she was pretty sure that she hadn’t broken anything. She stood up and dusted herself off, oblivious to the stares and whispers focused in her direction. When she finally lifted her head, she came face to face with none other than Damien Haides. He was tall, but not overwhelmingly so. He was perhaps five eleven or six and stood a full head taller than her. Off to his side, a beautiful girl stood clinging to his arm, and behind him stood three more guys. Their bodies were proportioned almost equally as well as Damien’s but the way in which they held themselves, and the charisma that surrounded them was what made Damien the obvious leader of the group.

When they had walked in, the way the people moved to the side was like the way Moses parted the Red Sea. Of course Gaelen had failed to see the event, as she was too busy flat on her face. But when she got p, she found herself staring straight into his face.

“Oh, hey! You’re in my homeroom aren’t you?” She exclaimed. She was confused as to why he was standing in front of her and why he didn’t just move to the side, but she figured that it was a good time to make conversation.

“Well, I would love to talk, honestly, but I’ve got to get to class. I mean, I have no idea how to get around this school. I’ve probably attended a cumulative amount of half an hour of class so far. Geez, I don’t see why this school has to be so big,” she let out a sigh of exasperation, unaware of the increasing stares and whispers. Damien opened his mouth to speak, but closed it immediately after.

“Well, I’ve got to go now, so I’ll see you around, maybe?” Without waiting for a response, she ran off, map in hand, deciding on whether to turn left or right.

Once she was out of the cafeteria, the people around Damien sprung to life. The girl who had been clutching onto his arm let out of a sound of disgust.

“Ew, who the hell was she? Damien, seriously… I know that you’re nice and all, but I don’t think you have to be nice to that girl. What the fuck was she wearing? She looks like one of those hillbillies,” she laughed at her own joke and the others around her joined in. She looked at Damien expectantly, hoping that he would see the humor in it as well, but she was shot with a disappointment when Damien only smiled. Yet, she got over it since after all, she had elicited a smile from him.

It was fortunate that she wasn’t aware of the true source of that faint smile.

Throughout lunch, Damien failed to focus on the petty chatter and gossip of his latest female acquisition. Not like he ever did anyways, but he nodded occasionally and took regular intervals to give an occasional, “Oh, I see”, “wow”, or “Oh, haha.”

What weighed on his mind was Gaelen’s idiocy. He knew that she grew on a farm, but could anyone have been any dumber? He recalled her smiling face as she looked up to him after picking herself up from the ground. She had thought that he actually wanted to make conversation with her? He had stood there, stationary waiting for her to move out of his way. Everyone else took the hint, why couldn’t she? That’s why it was so uncomfortable for him when she started talking. He hadn’t expected that in the least. He expected her to apologize and quickly scamper away, just like the country bumpkin she was supposed to be.

“Oh, isn’t her name Gaelen? Everyone’s talking about her lately,” his friends had said from across the table. The mention of her name snapped Damien back from his daze.

“Hey Damien! Are you even listening to me?” His girlfriend pouted. “You like, never pay any attention to me. Sometimes I even wonder….”

Damien did a mental eye roll but put on one of his signature smiles and closed the distance between the two of them. His lips met hers in a hard kiss, but it satisfied her well enough. She brought her arms up to wrap around his neck and she pulled him to her. The rest of the company at the table whistled and cheered Damien on.

“And that’s how it’s done.” A dark haired boy narrated. When they parted, his girlfriend sat there gasping for breath, her eyes staring at him dreamily. Damien had only kissed her to shut her up, but to her, it always seemed like more. Maybe it was because he happened to be such a good kisser.

“Wow, why all of a sudden?” she asked.

Damien sighed. The silencing kiss didn’t seem to be too effective. Now he had to answer the irritating question. He knew what she wanted to hear though, so he fed her the bull.

“Because you’re so cute when you’re all shaken up like that,” he grinned playfully at her. She silenced immediately and turned a brilliant shade of pink.

“Just like that,” he repeated. Nice and quiet, he added mentally. His friends were grinning at him.

“You player, Haides! Smooth-talker!” They laughed and Damien laughed along.

“Dude, that Gaelen girl seriously surprised me just now. I didn’t expect her to just get up and start a conversation,” he let out a bark of laughter once again. He had vocalized Damien’s very own thoughts.

“Ethan, you interested?” Damien teased.

Ethan shrugged. “She looks easy. I could probably get her in my bed by telling her that it was the way everyone made friendships in the city. She’d probably buy it.”

“She’s not bad though,” a sandy-haired boy put in.

Damien lifted a skeptical eyebrow towards him. Tim had always been the group pacifist, but he didn’t see how that could have degraded his taste so drastically.

“Dude, are you serious?” Ethan asked, mirroring Damien’s expression.

Tim only shrugged. “Well, she’s definitely weird, but I guess that makes her all the more cute.”

“Hell, I’m interested. Just not in that way.” The last boy with the nearly black hair added.

Damien chuckled. Tim and Fletcher were the eccentric ones, for sure. He was never able to fully understand either of them, especially Tim. The four of them had been best friends since third grade. They were the only three people who had any idea of what the Damien unmasked was like. Of course, they had found out by accident and Damien was sure not to reveal that side of himself to anyone else. But, unlike what he expected, Damien had actually become closer to Ethan, Tim, and Fletcher rather than more distant. They often taunted him when nobody was looking, but they still respected him regardless.

“Whatever, what she does won’t really affect us,” Damien finalized, and that concluded the topic for that day.

“Ms. West, you are forty-two minutes late. Do you seriously expect me to believe that you got lost for forty-two minutes?”

Gaelen was standing in front of the class, staring at her feet, red with embarrassment. She had thought that she was clear on the directions after Agnes had drawn them out and illustrated it for her, but she couldn’t make sense of the random staircases. It didn’t help that the map had omitted one set of ramps and stairs.

“I don’t care if you’re new or not. If you don’t get this straight by tomorrow, you WILL be serving detention with me,” Ms. Gertrude barked. When she saw Gaelen nod ever so slightly, she calmed down. “Now that you understand, sit in the empty seat over there and take as many notes as possible.”

Gaelen scrambled to the desk, accidentally tripping over her feet several times in the process. She took out on of the new notebooks her Aunt had purchased for her and began to scribble down as much as she possibly could in the allotted eight minutes that remained. In a frantic race against the clock, she emerged victorious as she walked out of the room, shaking out her sore pen-hand.

The last lunch was just over so once again, the halls were packed as densely as a pack of Doritos were not.

There was no way that she’d allow herself to be late again. That had been enough embarrassment to last her through the day. The teacher had been a good teacher though.

She was strict, but good. Her Aunt had always told her that teachers must be strict in order to be good teachers. In that case, Mrs. Gertrude was probably the best.

Scanned her map once again, locating where she was at the moment. She placed her finger firmly and as she walked, she moved her finger accordingly. This time, she managed to get to class only seven minutes late.

“Oh! Gaelen West, is it?” A bubbly voice bounded over to her. “I’ve been looking forward to meeting you! Welcome to US-history II AP. I heard you did really well on the placement exam. They don’t usually take new transfers for AP, I’m Mrs. Delusa. ” she gave her a wink. “Everyone, this is Gaelen. I hope you’ll all be friendly with her!”

At this, Gaelen smiled brightly, immediately forgetting her embarrassment.

“Hmm, I know! Since we were planning on watching movie today, anyways, do you want to introduce yourself? I mean, you could probably do it soo much better than I could, anyways,” she laughed. Even her laugh was bubbly. Gaelen took an immediate liking to Mrs. Delusa and smiled back at her.

“Um, hey… I’m Gaelen West and I come from… the countryside. My best friend is a rabbit and my hobby is raising chickens and ducks. If anyone knows where I can find somewhere to buy some hens and cocks, please let me know.”

The class laughed at her introduction.

Mrs. Delusa looked around the class for a free desk. It wasn’t necessary though, there were at most sixteen kids in the entire class, and empty desks sat galore. She offered to sit in the seat in the corner, but Mrs. Delusa refused to place her anywhere but somewhere surrounded by other students.

“This way you can make more friends!” she had exclaimed, her face aghast at the repugnant suggestion Gaelen had made. Gaelen gave her a three minute appreciation speech and sat in the empty desk in the third row, second seat from the left. She looked over to the people sitting around her as Mrs. Delusa put a DVD into the player. She was pleased to see a familiar face behind her. Damien Haides sat languidly, leaning back against his chair, long legs splayed.

“Oh, hey! Wow, what a coincidence!” she exclaimed, genuinely happy to see someone who wasn’t entirely a stranger.

The side of his mouth edged upward and he mouthed a silent “hey.”

:”Well, while I learn how to get this confounded thing to work, you guys should get to know one another,” she called out from the front of the room, fiddling with the TV and the DVD player without much success.

Several people turned around to talk to her.

“Hey, did you seriously grow up on a farm?”

“Why? Is that hard to believe?” she asked. They looked over her appearance and then the boy who had asked shook his head.

“Nevermind, I believe you.” He grinned. “I’m Fletcher by the way. I take it that you know Damien already?”

Gaelen nodded. “Yep, he’s in my homeroom and I had the pleasure of bumping into him in several other occasions today.”

Several people snickered, but she blocked it from her mind.

“I see. Well, since I don’t feel like introducing the rest of the losers from this class, I’ll just introduce the people around you,” he said, and a dissonant chorus of “hey!” and “dude!” arose from the class.

“Haha, just kidding!” He laughed and several others joined in.

“Fletcher, you ass. Go get laid.” A boy from the back called out, good-humouredly.

Fletcher grinned widely. “Will do, will do...”

Damien finally opened his mouth to speak, and the whole room quieted. “Someone, go help Delusa. She’s going to break the DVD player and the TV.” Everyone turned back to the front to see Mrs. Delusa wrestling with a DVD player, now detached of all the wires.

“I think this may be broken,” she shrugged innocently. The class just gave a sigh of exasperation. There was no helping that woman.

Damien walked out of history with Fletcher and Ethan by his side.

“Wow, I didn’t expect her to be in our class,” Ethan remarked. Indeed, Damien hadn’t expected her in AP History either. Maybe she wasn’t as stupid as he thought she was. Her entrance exam must have been really something if she had been allowed to join the class in the middle of the year.

Ethan spoke up once again. “Haha, did you hear her introduction?” He did a poor imitation of her voice. “Um… if anyone know where I can get a chicken or a cock, please let me know!” Ethan and Fletcher broke down laughing. “Hell, I know plenty of places where she can get a good cock.”

Damien grinned at this. “What did you have in mind?”

“This Gaelen hillbilly seems like a hell of a lot of fun. When you take a closer look, she’s not bad either. Tim was right. If we touch up on her a bit, she’d be as bangable as that whore you’re fucking right now.”

Damien laughed. He couldn’t deny that. Priscilla Rollins was hot, but she had become way too touchy lately. She hung off him both literally and figuratively. He had pursued her in hopes for a challenge, but once the actual dating began, she did a complete one-eighty—of course this never affected her eternal bitch disease.

“Maybe. You guys are going to take a go at her?”

“Hell no. Not until she cleans herself up. :Look at her clothes. They’ve got like… cow shit stains and who knows what else. I’m sorry, but I’m not touching anything that’s come in contact with the vomit of yesterday’s dinner, “ Ethan made a disgusted face.

“Ethan, you are probably the biggest bastard out of all the one thousand seven hundred fifty-six bastards I’ve met in my life so far,” Fletcher stated as-matter-of-factly

“Where the fuck did that come from? Get some real stats, Fletch,” Ethan rolled his eyes.

“Dude, I’ve been meeting bastards ever since I turned nine. Considering that I meet one bastard every two days and that I’m over seventeen at the moment, my numbers are statistically accurate, you asshole.”

Fletcher glanced over at Damien and waved his hand in front of him to catch his attention. “Hi Damien, would you like to join us and stop withdrawing into that covert asshole world by yourself? We’d prefer if we were assholes together.”

Damien laughed. “Actually, Fletch, I was thinking about your numbers. It’s one thousand four hundred ninety-six. You exaggerated by three hundred which is almost two years worth of bastards.”

Ethan shot Fletcher a smug look. “Take that.”

“Well, oh yeah? Damien and Ethan here account for three hundred and two on their own,” he shot back and the three of them began to laugh once again. Ah, life was good.

A/N:

Well, FINALLY an update.
This is EeenAce updating again. Haha… Well, I realized how terribly irresponsible we were with this fic so I took some time off of my break to write this chapter. I’m finally getting used to this third person thing… It got easier towards the end which usually happens, but I hope that the third person thing won’t pose any more problems because it was irritating in the first chapter.

So, Gaelen has officially caught the attention of everyone.

Haha, Da Vinci wanted her to make an emo friend in this chapter, but I thought that the preppier kind would be easier to make the story fly. Haha, I hope Damien doesn’t earn the hate of everyone right now… I mean… he will change… hopefully XDD….

Now, what I hope for even more is for Da Vinci at Work to get off her ass and write the next chapter. That way I can get back to ToTM and the new story I’m working on. Which would be… quite different from my normal stuff.

Anyhow, signing out.

DelaA