"I don't want to know what would happen if they got their claws into me," Brooklyn admitted and grinned sheepishly. "Am I mean for judging them so quickly?"
"Not at all," Sasha laughed. "They are bitches, trust me. You don't want to be in that 'clique'."
"I'll take your word for it," Brooklyn nodded and looked down at her timetable. "Hey, can you help me find my lesson, since Brandon ditched me?"
"Course, what have you got?" Sasha wondered and looked at Brooklyn's timetable. "History, I have the same lesson, let's go!" She said happily and turned on her heel and started walking down the busy corridor with Brooklyn.
Brooklyn studied Sasha as they walked. She was pretty, with short brown hair and a doll like face. She seemed rather confident and didn't look like she would take shit from anyone. She was nice enough to help the random new girl, that earned her a tick in Brooklyn's books.
"What's up, bitch?" Sasha said casually as they walked into a half filled classroom. Sasha grinned at a girl with ginger hair who waved.
"Hey, slut," the ginger said and looked at Brooklyn curiously.
"Alice, this is Brooklyn; she's new," Sasha said and Alice smiled.
"Hi, I'm Alice," Alice said and gestured to a seat next to her. Brooklyn smiled at sat down next to Sasha and Alice.
"Oh wait, what about your cousin?" Sasha said and frowned.
"He ditched me first," Brooklyn said and Sasha laughed.
"Cousin?" Alice questioned.
"Brandon, he's in this class," Sasha said.
"Brandon? You two are cousins?" Alice said.
"Yeah, I'm living with him," Brooklyn nodded.
"Cool," Alice nodded. "So why did you come to this little old town?"
"My parents are getting divorced and it's getting ugly, so they sent me to stay with my aunt and uncle," Brooklyn explained.
"Oh, sorry," Alice frowned.
"It's alright, it's been going on for ages. It doesn't bother me anymore," Brooklyn shrugged.
"My parents split up a few years ago, I know how horrible it can get," Sasha said and sighed. "I nearly moved continents, but I decided to stay with my dad here."
"And I am extremely thankful for that," Alice grinned. "I need you to keep me sane. If you had left me to deal with my brother alone, I might've killed myself."
"She's being dramatic," Sasha said to Brooklyn and laughed. "She has a twin and they argue all the time. It's rather amusing to watch."
"Amusing?" Alice gasped. "He put hair dye in my shampoo and made my hair go green! I had to walk around school with green hair for a week!" Brooklyn bit her lip and pictured Alice with green hair. She couldn't help but laugh and Alice pouted. "It wasn't funny!"
"It was hilarious!" Sasha exclaimed and laughed. "You got him back, though!"
"What did you do?" Brooklyn asked and Alice grinned.
"Filled his locker with fish guts," she shrugged and smirked. "He was not happy."
"He went mental," Sasha giggled. "He stormed into class, his face was bright red from anger and he threw a fish head at Alice. It was classic!"
"And he got suspended," Alice grinned.
"Suspended, why?"
"He threw a fish at the teacher because she told him off for throwing one at me," Alice chuckled. "He's an idiot."
"This school sounds mental," Brooklyn laughed.
"As long as you don't get in with the wrong crowd it's pretty decent," Alice shrugged.
"Yeah, Sasha pointed out the cheerleaders," Brooklyn said.
"Oh, stay away from them, but I wasn't talking about them."
"Then who else should I stay away from?"
"My brother's friends," Alice said seriously and Sasha nodded.
"Why?"
"They aren't the friendliest bunch," Alice said and pursed her lips. "They are the bane of this school. Basically everyone is scared of them and if you get on their bad list... Your high school experience will be ruined."
"They can't be that bad," Brooklyn said disbelievingly.
"They are. The leader, Greyson, once beat a guy up for stepping on his toe," Sasha said. "I hate the lot of them, no offence Alice, but even your brother."
"I hate him," Alice laughed. "My brother is the twat of the group, he's Kal. Ace is the sensible one, he stops the others from doing something crazy and is probably the nicest, Greyson is the leader and is probably the scariest, but Harry is also really scary because he has the whole 'dark and mysterious' vibe."
"I wouldn't say Harry is scary like Greyson, I would say he is threatening," Sasha corrected.
"They sound lovely," Brooklyn said and chuckled. "I'll make sure to stay clear of them."
"If we see them we'll point them out so you can hide. They're probably going to be interested in you because you're new. We hardly ever get new people in this town."
"Great," Brooklyn muttered.
"You'll be fine, they aren't that bad. Just be careful around Greyson and Harry," Sasha instructed.
"If Kal does anything stupid then I'll just fill his locker with fish guts again," Alice shrugged and laughed. "I'd pay to see his reaction again."
*
Brooklyn was lucky enough to have most of her lessons with Sasha, Alice and Violet who Brooklyn had been introduced to. Violet was pale with long dark hair, reminding Brooklyn of Violet out of The Incredibles.
The three girls seemed lovely and Brooklyn clicked with them immediately. They had informed her of all the schools gossip and pointed out everyone of importance. Sasha did seem slightly annoyed that she couldn't point of Alice's brothers friends. She wanted to warn Brooklyn to stay away, they were a rough bunch.
Sasha linked arms with Brooklyn as they walked through the canteen. (FYI: I had many comments on my previous book asking what a canteen was. It's a cafeteria/lunchroom/dining hall/refectory etc. Hope that stops any confusion ☺️) It was extremely busy and the girls had to barge a few shoulders to get to the lunch queue. A few people stopped and spoke to Sasha and she introduced them to Brooklyn who smiled sweetly and greeted them.
Sasha seemed to know lots of people and Brooklyn loved meeting new faces. When the two girls reached the front of the line, they collected their food and then made their way over to Alice and Violet who were seated at a table.
The girls chatted about random topics as they ate, questioned Brooklyn about how her first day was and discussed what guys they would date.
Half way through lunch there was a loud bang and the canteen doors flew open and a boy fell to the floor. Silence filled the room and everyone watched as a guy with dark hair looked over the guy and glared furiously.
"Get in my way again and I will rip your head off!" The guy growled and he was soon joined by friends.
Brooklyn noted a ginger guy with a grin on his face, a brown haired guy with a frown and a long blonde haired guy with a blank expression.
Brooklyn studied the guys, but her eyes were drawn to the blonde. His face was empty, void of any emotion. He scratched his stubble and watched as the dark haired guy scared the boy on the ground.
After a minute of the dark haired guy verbally abusing the boy, the brown haired guy placed his hand on the dark haired guys shoulder and gently pulled him back.
"Stop staring!" The guy boomed and soon everyone went back to their lunch. The girls started talking immediately, but Brooklyn found herself watching the blonde guy as he barged through the crowds of people and took a seat at an empty table.
"Brooke?" Sasha snapped her fingers in front of Brooklyn's face to get her attention. "Earth to Brooklyn?"
"Sorry!" Brooklyn gasped and grinned sheepishly. "I zoned. What were you saying?"
"We were saying that they are who you need to stay away from," Sasha said. "The guy that did all the yelling, that was Greyson. The ginger guy, Alice's brother. The brown-haired guy was Ace and the blonde-haired guy was-"
"Harry," Brooklyn nodded and fought the temptation to look at the gorgeous blonde-haired boy.
If she had she would've seen him staring back at her.
"Bonjour, bonjour! Come in, sit, my lovely children!"
Brooklyn turned to look at Sasha with a raised eyebrow when she saw her French teacher. She was 4,11, wrinkly, had greying hair, bright pink glasses and was grinning madly at the passing students.
"We call her Mrs Mental," Sasha whispered and Brooklyn stifled a laugh as the girls took a seat towards the back of the classroom. "She's a lovely old dear, but she's as nutty as you can get."
Brooklyn chuckled. "I suck at French," she admitted.
Sasha grinned. "Welcome to the club. Alice used to be in this class, but she got kicked out."
"Why?" Brooklyn wondered and Sasha laughed.
"She watched an episode of Friends," Sasha said and smirked. "She thought it would be funny to copy Joey from the episode when he was learning French. Yeah... It didn't go down well with the elderly French teacher who nearly broke down because Alice wouldn't stop. Arguably, it was hilarious, but I don't think Mrs Mental appreciated
Alice's hard graft into perfecting the fake French language."
Brooklyn laughed and took her notebook out. She opened it up and took out her own. As she started to write the date Sasha stood up. "Where you off to?"
"I need to speak to Mrs Mental quickly," Sasha said. "I need an extension on an essay due."
Brooklyn turned back to her book as Sasha walked off and she racked her brain, trying to remember the French word for Monday. English was the only language she would ever be fluent in.
Brooklyn looked away from her book when two of the guys that she was warned to stay away from strode in. Kal and Harry. Kal seemed carefree as he made his way through class, grinning brightly and even winking at Mrs Mental. Harry had a blank expression, his hands were stuffed into the pockets of his skinny jeans and a few strands of his longish blonde hair fell into his cold eyes.
Sasha finished talking to the teacher and turned round, growing tense when she saw them heading in her direction. She quickly sped ahead of them and made her way back over to her desk.
"Hey, Sash!" Kal said cheerfully as the two guys sat on the desk in front of them.
"Kal," Sasha said stiffly.
"Who's your friend?" Kal wondered, turning his smile to Brooklyn.
"Hi," Brooklyn said, matching Kal's smile with a bubbly one of her own. Alice said that her brother was a dick, but he seemed perfectly fine to Brooklyn. "I'm Brooke."
"Pleasure to meet you, Brooke," Kal said. "I see you've made acquaintances with my sister."
"I have."
Mrs Mental spoke up before Kal could say anything else and Kal turned to the front. Harry who hadn't even faced Brooklyn yet completely ignored the babbling French teacher and turned in his seat, leaning forward so he was resting his arms on Brooklyn's desk.
"I think you'll find," he said quietly and pointed to Brooklyn's book where she had failed to write the date in French, "it's Lundi."
Brooklyn arched an perfectly plucked eyebrow at Harry. "And who might you be?" She asked quietly as she looked down and wrote down the correct French word.
"I'm pretty sure you know," he murmured and swiftly plucked Brooklyn's pen out of her hand. She quickly looked up and raised her eyebrow again.
"That was rude," she commented and held her hand out. "Can I have my pen back?"
Harry twirled the pen between his fingers. "Sure."
Brooklyn reached forward, but Harry moved his hand out of her reach. Brooklyn narrowed her eyes at Harry. "Give me my pen, Harry."
Harry's eyes flickered to hers and he tucked the pen into his jacket pocket. "So you do know who I am," he said in a low drawl and turned around to face the front.
Brooklyn stared at Harry's back with wide eyes and the only thing stopping her from telling him to give her the pen back was that Mrs Mental was talking. Brooklyn frowned and reached into her bag and grabbed another pen, carrying on with her writing. She thought her eyes were playing tricks on her when she looked down at her page and saw that she had written two words.
Lundi and...
Harry.
Harry heard the crumpling of paper behind him and he noticed that Brooklyn's breathing had spiked.
He smirked.
*
"Brooke, over here!" Brandon called when Brooklyn walked into her next class. She smiled brightly at him and made her way over to his desk, taking a seat next to him.
"Hi," she greeted.
"Hey. How's your first day?" Brandon wondered.
"After you ditched me in the first 10 minutes?" Brooklyn said and teasingly punched Brandon's shoulder. "It's been good. I've met a group of girls, they seem lovely."
"That's good," Brandon nodded. "You're keeping out of the wrong crowd, aren't you?"
Brooklyn rolled her eyes but nodded. "I am. What is so bad about that group of guys? The girls warned me about them-"
"Just stay away," Brandon said sternly.
"Somebody isn't a fan of theirs," she commented.
"Just stay away," Brandon grumbled.
"Okay, grumpy pants," Brooklyn teased and took her book out of her bag.
The teacher seemed pretty laid back and set questions for the class to do, but let everyone talk and work together while doing so.
Harry and Greyson walked into class 15 minutes late and Brandon scoffed and rolled his eyes. Greyson's head snapped up to glare at Brandon and he walked over to his and Brooke's desk.
"You got a problem, Brandon?" Greyson said lowly and crossed his bulky arms over his chest.