Yeah... cos when I said a couple of days until I updated at the end of the last chapter, I obviously meant a couple of weeks... sorry, guys! (Had tests and assignments and a friend staying over for a few days.) Think I'll stop making predictions from now on, though.

3

On Monday, I obediently led him around the school, as per mom’s instructions. I explained to him that some classes had double periods and pointed out the main buildings. This was all so pointless. Surely he would be assigned someone to take him on a proper tour once he gets to class.

“And here is yet another toilet –”

“Where are the fields and courts?” He interrupted.

“Well, there’s a soccer field over there,” I pointed to my left, “And the gym’s just around the corner.”

“That’s it?” James asked incredulously.

“What else were you expecting?”

“At least a basketball court,”

“There’s one in the gym.”

“One?” He brushed a hand through his hair exasperatedly, “There’s two performing halls, several dance rooms, a whole music block, and there’s one basketball court? One soccer field? One gym?”

“Do you have a problem with that?” I asked, getting defensive at the tone of his voice.

“That’s just incredible. I’m surprised you people aren’t fat little piggies already.”

I gave him a fake smile and said, “Well, you’re one of us now; better watch your calorie intake!”

Seething in silence, I started to count to ten and hoped he would drop dead in the meantime.

“Karyn!” someone called me.

I glanced back to see Aubrey hurrying toward us, running with a slight heaviness on one side due to the shoulder bag she carried.

“Hey,” I said, giving Aubrey time to catch her breath.

“Hello,” she said instead to James. Then looked at me expectantly.

“Aubrey, this is James, James, Aubrey.” My tone was zombie-like as I introduced them. I winked at Aubrey to tell her that this was the drunk guy I’d been lambasting for the past few days. Although, judging by her lack of comprehension, my twitching eye didn’t seem to convey the message too well. “Aubrey, James’s my new neighbour.”

“Nice to meet you.” Aubrey smiled sweetly at him. I suppressed my urge to throttle her right then and there. How could someone so smart be so dumb? It was time for some serious BFF intervention. I don’t think I could bear it if Aubrey hooked up with James. School was hell enough without him around.

“Actually,” I cut James off before he could utter a word. “I need to show James around, and class starts in five minutes. I’ll see you later,” I told her.

I grabbed James and left without waiting for her reply and made it at least a hundred feet before James came to a halt and unpeeled my fingers from his wrist.

“You’re a little freak, aren’t you?” James asked me conversationally.

“What?”

“You act like you can’t stand me, but it’s obvious you’ve got it bad for me.” James grinned and bared his fangs.

I stared at him, not quite sure how to respond to something so absurd.

“Why else would you drag me away the instant your friend smiled at me.”

“You’re unbelievable,” I said. I could feel my mouth pulling at the corners tightly.

I’ll admit, I don’t have much of a patience, especially for this idiot here, and until he apologises for everything he’s done, I don’t know if I can be civil around him.

“The school’s got signposts everywhere, you should be able to read. Good luck.” I patted him on the back before heading for my homeroom.

“Stop.” He grabbed my bag and pulled me back by the straps, causing me to nearly lose my balance, “Give me back my map.”

I glowered at him and shook his hand off. I handed the map to him. “All right?”

“You know, you’re not much of a tour guide.”

“Gosh darn it! And I’d always dreamt of being a tour guide, ever since I was little,” I mocked.

He gave me a chilly smile. “You’re still little.”

I nearly responded with my fists at that. I’ll be the first to admit that my height, or lack thereof, bothers me. I didn’t need James pointing it out.

We stood in that courtyard for a long moment, simply staring at each other – me with loathing and him with derision – until I couldn’t stand everyone walking past looking curiously in our direction anymore. “I’m going to class.”

I started walking towards a modern three-level brick building which had been constructed this past summer. A few steps later, I stopped. “What are you doing?” I asked James, who had walked with me. He gave me his by now familiar smirk and I suddenly remembered. “Ugh.” Someone powerful up there obviously despised me, because James and I shared four classes together.

The classroom door was open and a smattering of people were already in their seats. The bell was due to ring in two minutes. I sat down in my usual seat between Holly and Tom and breathed a sigh of relief when James picked a table half way back on the left side of the room. It was satisfactorily further away from me.

“Who’s the new guy?” Tom asked.

I shrugged.

“He’s not bad, is he?” Holly commented.

Ugh. Was I going to have the exact same conversation with every girl in the school?

“Hey, so is Aubrey going for cheerleading this year?”

I had seen the tryout signup list posted last week, among the multitude of other extracurricular activities. I had put my name up for the winter production and considered a few other options. But cheerleading, and pretty much every other sport, had never been my thing.

“I guess so, why?”

“Because they just made Stacey the captain.” Holly made a face. She wasn’t a fan of Stacey, and neither was I.

“Great,” I said glumly. “When does her head explode?”

"Make sure you tell me, I wanna watch.”

“What’s wrong with Stacey?” Tom interjected and was met with two pairs of scornful eyes.

“Are you kidding?” Holly asked.

“She seems fine to me,” he continued undeterred.

“She’s a complete bitch,” I said.

“Complete bitch,” Holly emphasised my point.

Tom broke into a knowing grin. “You guys jealous or something?”

“What?” We asked in unison.

“She is pretti… uh ah haha…” he drifted off into nervous laughter. He cleared his throat. “So… how was your weekend, Karyn?”

Luckily for him, the bell rang. I sat back and realised that without me noticing, the room had filled up and now Mr Wilkins was starting his roll call.

My annoyance over both Tom and James’ words continued into first period, which just happened to be Maths: the bane of my existence; the death of me; the silver to my inner werewolf; and so on and so forth. On the bright side, James wasn’t in this class. So one less torturer!

“Ow!” I cried as I felt a sharp elbow poke into my arm. I looked up and blushed at my outcry as I realised the room was silently waiting. For me. I turned to face Ms Gunther, who had her arms folded and not a trace of humour on her face, and uttered a silent prayer for divine intervention.

“Uh… Could you repeat the question?” I never liked getting on her bad side, not that I enjoy getting on the bad side of other teachers either, but Ms Gunther was especially scary. She reminded me of an insect, cold, hard, and capable of scaring the shit out of you just by moving into your line of vision.

“The answer to question five, if you please.” She held out the whiteboard marker.

I breathed a sigh of relief; I had actually done the homework for once. I walked to the front with my book and copied my answers onto the board. I raised a self congratulatory eyebrow to Heather as I walked past Ms Gunther on the way back.

“Close call,” she whispered.

I shrugged carelessly, displaying all the confidence I didn’t feel. I hoped Ms Gunther didn’t make a habit of this, since this little excursion probably cost me five minutes of my life, if my berserk heart rate was any indication.

“Guess what?” Aubrey said by way of greeting when I met her at our lockers after the final bell had rang.

“Someone’s giving me a million bucks.”

“No. Brendan’s moving back this year.”

“Seriously?” I perked up at that news. “That’s even better than the million bucks! How come he’s coming back?”

Ever since I’ve known Aubrey, I’ve had a major crush on her brother. Yes, even now, at my supposed “rebel” stage I’m going for the sweet, trustworthy guy. Says so much about me, doesn’t it? Although it’s not as if I can help my feelings. Every time I think I’m over him, all he has to do is look at me and I fall right back in.

“Mom and dad are going over to England for granddad’s eightieth and rather than going straight there, they’ve decided to travel a bit. They made Brendan come home to watch over me.”

“So...” I considered the implications. “This mean I’ll be having lots of sleepovers at your place, right?”

“Nuh uh, I think the sleepovers should definitely take place at your house.” Her eyebrow raised suggestively.

“But you’ll deprive me of quality Brendan-watching time,” I whined, trying to deflect her from her goal.

“You don’t think James-watching is just as worthwhile a hobby?”

I snorted.

Aubrey slammed her locker shut and spun the combination. We headed for the car park, dodging the usual mess of students loitering around the hallway. The bell had rung ten minutes ago, but like us, nobody else seemed to be in a hurry to leave the building.

“But you’ll admit he’s cute, right? I mean...” She waved a hand in front of my eyes. “These are working, right?”

“Eh...” I shrugged. “His face annoys me.”

“Oh, speaking of...” Aubrey lifted her chin in his direction.

James was leaning against his locker, books under his arm, talking with... oh sheesh, Stacey. How did they find each other after one day? Talk about like attracting like. Without a word between us, we both turned down a side corridor to avoid that blonde witch.

I glanced at Aubrey, wondering if seeing James with Stacey has made him lose some of his lustre. Her face was expressionless, but I knew Aubrey and I recognised the fleck of irritation in her eyes.

Success? Maybe.

Progress? Hell yeah!

There you go, all the main characters have been introduced, (there are five, if you're counting). If anyone still remember me mentioning a spin-off project in the works - that's a pretty big hint as to where an important subplot is heading.

Right now my main concern is in not making Karyn too negative. Although between her thoughts, conversations with James and later, Stacey, that's kind of hard. I think maybe having her in more scenes with people she doesn't hate is an option. Do tell me if she's turning you off though.

As always, comments are welcome!