C2 Chapter 2

The first thought that went through my head that Monday morning after I’d turned off the alarm was ‘fuck’. Today was the day officially the first day of senior year, which meant seeing all the other kids, doing work that I didn’t want to and studying that had to be done against my will.

I knew the day was going to be a disaster, starting with me almost breaking my nose as I literally tripped over London-my overweight Persian cat-trying to get out of bed.

She stared up at me with a bored, annoyed expression and I had never related to a cat more in my life than in that moment. She understood me, it was good to know.

“Yes, I’m not in the mood for today either.” I told her as I scrambled up to my feet and walked over to the closet.

And now I’m having a completely normal conversation with my cat

I picked out a pair of blue skinny jeans and a Ramones sweater before I booked it to the bathroom, outrunning Jade who was just coming out of her room too.

“Not fair!” she yelled from outside the door.

¬¬¬“Deal with it!” I yelled back and locked it.

When I weighed myself I had 59.8 kilograms, due to the fact that I threw up the other night. I made a reminder for myself to write my progress in my journal.

I came out of the bathroom at fifteen past seven, and by seven thirty we were done with breakfast and piling up in my mother’s car. School was starting at eight but everyone had to be in the gym by ten ‘til so our principal Mr. Brookscould say a few opening words. We also gad to drop by the secretary to get our schedules.

I was really hoping to have at least two classes with Jake and Emma, because I knew I’d never make it if I were on my own.

When we finally got our schedules and were making our way to the gym, Jade and I compared them to see which classes we had together.

“We have French, Sex Ed, P.E. and Psychology together.”

“Amazing.” I muttered sarcastically as we entered the gym. Half of the people in our school were already there (the other half didn’t bother to show up on the first day).

I found Jake and Emma, her own friends Eleanor and Kylie in the first row.

“Okay, okay settle down everyone!” Mr. Brooks said in a megaphone as soon as he entered the room, followed by some of the teachers.

“Oh bollocks, none of them are the new ones.” Jake pouted in my ear and I smiled, leaning my chin in my palms, my elbows settled on my knees as I listened to whatever Mr. Brooks had to say.

It was the usual speech; be good, don’t do drugs and all that crap. By the time the bell rang, he let us go and attend our classes.

“Do we have any classes together?” Jake asked as we walked to our lockers to get our stuff.

“Um let me see your schedules. They both handed me their papers and I quickly read over them.

“Well I have psychology and English with Emma, History and Spanish with you, you two have Art history together and the three of us have Sex Ed, French and P.E. together.”

“Aw yeah! High five!” he said and I ignored his raised hand so I could get my English things out of my locker.


“See you at lunch then?” Jake asked and I nodded, walking together with Emma to our English class. We entered the classroom just as the bell rang but a few of the seats were still empty.

We found our seats in the back, far away from the teacher’s desk so we could cheat on tests in peace.

I chewed on my bottom lip as we waited for the new teacher to make an appearance. It wasn’t long after that, because two minutes later the door opened and silence settled in.

The guy was young and attractive, with cheekbones that looked like they could cut and piercing blue eyes.

“Hello. I’m Mr. Sebastian White and I’ll be your English teacher this year.”

Everyone started whispering and gushing over him while Mr. White turned around and wrote his name on the blackboard. It was 2014 and our school still used a blackboard instead of a whiteboard. Amazing.

“So before I tell you a bit about myself I’m going to call out your names to see who’s present.”

Mr. White looked for something through his briefcase and finally pulled out the attendance sheet.

“Luke Black?” Mr. White started, looking around the room until his eyes fell on Luke, who raised his hand.

I didn’t really talk to Luke because he was in the ‘popular’ group of our school except for the one time we were assigned to a project in French together. He was really nice, unlike his brother Sean, who had a mouth bigger than his dick. They were the masculine version of the Edwards sisters. Not to mention that their parents had more money than they could possibly spend.

I swear to God our school was filled with rich snobs that didn’t get into private school because they were too dumb.

“Noah Hudson?” Mr. White continued and looked around the room, but no one answered. He sighed and moved on, mumbling something under his breath.

“Zachary Macqueen?”

Zack raised his hand from his seat in second row. I could say that I was somewhat friends with him; even though he was on the football team he was one of the (few) smart people at our school. He could draw really well from what I’d seen and didn’t talk to people unless he was friends with them.

“Danielle Piper?”

I raised my hand and tried to seem calm when everyone turned their head to stare at me.

“Emma Smith?” Mr. White called out and Emma smiled while keeping her hand up.

Was it just me or did he stare at her longer than necessary

“Harry Sampson?”

Harry raised his hand and kindly smiled.

I liked Harry; he was nice to everyone and always wore headscarves with plaid shirts. We were pretty good friends and he usually sat at our table during lunch. He always told the worst jokes but we would laugh anyway because they were just that bad.

After Mr. White made sure to call all the twenty something names, he started talking about himself. He was born in London but moved to Manchester with his fiancée (that left him eventually) and had just graduated from University.

Jake would love to hear that he was about five or six years older than us.

“Alright, now that you know something about me, I’d like to know if any of you read something over the summer?”

Does fan fiction count

A few hands were raised so I zoomed out completely because all this talk on the first day of school tired me.

“He’s so hot!” Emma told me once the bell rang.

“And you’re jailbait for him.” I replied as we exited the class. I had algebra next and that was honestly the last thing I needed.

When the lunch bell rang I sighed relieved and stood up. I had just finished my fourth period, which was biology (I only knew Harry and Carly in that class).

“Can I have lunch with you guys today?” Carly asked when we stopped by Harry’s locker for him to leave his stuff in there.

“Of course.” I said smiling before we started walking towards the cafeteria.

We got in line to get some food and I knew I could get away with just a small salad and maybe some orange juice. I was trying to stay under five hundred calories a day; I wanted to reach fifty kilograms by the end of October, which meant that I had two months left.

Jake and Emma were already at our usual table when we sat down.

“What’s this I hear about the English teacher being hot?” Jake asked as he stuffed his face with a hamburger that was probably not even that tasty since our lunch lady made it.

“He’s like, twenty three or something.” Harry answered. “What’s your next period? “Um, history.”


“Me too!” Carly said excited and Jake started talking about how he was planning on trying out for the football team.

“I wanted to try out for football too but I’m basically a giraffe with wobbly legs so I’m just going to join the school magazine.”


“I need to join that too.”


“My brother’s on that too.” Jake said. “So you’re going to get in definitely. “Yeah? What do you want to study at Uni?” Harry continued, directing his attention back to me. “Journalism, you?”

“A radio presenter.”

“Then you should sign up for the school radio.”

“It’s already full, I checked. So the magazine is probably the next best thing.” Harry said.

“We can go after school?” I suggested.

“Sounds good.” He replied, smiling.

“You’re still going to come to my football practice right?” Jake checked, looking at Emma and I. “I need my lucky charm bitches.”

Harry laughed, throwing his head back and clapping; as if he were a seal.

During the rest of lunch period we established that all of us had French, P.E. and Sex Education together. It was a big relief to know that I wouldn’t be on my own.

Being in the company of complete strangers made me really anxious and I wasn’t really that fond of the idea of having a panic attack at school, or anywhere else for that matter.

When the bell rang to announce that lunch was over, we all walked to give our trays back.

Carly, Jake and I got to history just in time before the bell rang and the new teacher (just as young as Mr. White) walked in.

“What is it with young teachers at this school?” I whispered to Carly when we sat down in the third row, since some guys from the football team already occupied the last one.

I spotted Kylie in the last row too, right next to Lucas Tatcher and of course; Jade.

Lucas had been on the football team since freshman year and was dating Eleanor Cartwright, the president of the student council, and also head of the organizing committee.

“Good afternoon class, I’m Mr. Tyler Flack and I’ll be taking over for Mrs. Green, since she retired.” The guy introduced himself and I made eye contact with Jake, who wiggled his eyebrows suggestively.

I rolled my eyes and turned my attention back to the teacher, who was now calling everyone’s name to make sure we were present.

“You can ask me question if there are any kind of-“ Mr. Flack started but didn’t even get to finish because Jake's hand was up.

“Yes? Mr.…”


“Macqueen. Are you married?”

“Yes, actually.” He answered and every girl’s shoulders dropped, including Jake's. “My wife teaches French here, you’ll probably get to meet her soon too.”

Jake rolled his eyes, but that didn’t go past Mr. Flack, who frowned.

“He’s so gay.” Jake whispered when the teacher turned around to write something on the blackboard.

“He’s married."

“So? Elton John was married. And besides, look at his pants. They’re so tight, just like-“


“Mr. Macqueen I have zero tolerance for people speaking at the same time as me.”

“Sorry, sir.” Jake answered in a suggestive tone and I almost laughed at his pathetic attempt to seduce the teacher.

Was I the only sane one here?

The bell rang and we all immediately stood up to leave the room.

“Oops. My bad.” Jake said in an innocent voice as he dropped his books right in front of Mr. Flack. He bent down to pick them up, making sure he stuck his ass out for the teacher to see.

“Good day, Mr. Flack.”

“God you’re such a bad actor,” I laughed when we were out of the teacher’s earshot.

He ignored me and checked his schedule.

“Oh fuck yeah we got Sex Ed next, my favorite subject.” He smirked and we walked over to our lockers. “Do you think the new teacher will continue to hand out free condoms?”

The classroom was already filled when we got there, and Emma made a sign for us to sit down on the seats she’d kept occupied for us.

After I sat down I looked around the room, noticing that half of the football team was there and a lot of people from the ‘popular crowd’.

The chatter in the room was interrupted abruptly when the door was slammed shut and in front of it stood someone who was probably a teacher.

No shit

“Alright listen up y’all!” he yelled as he walked over to the desk and let his bag fall on the desk with a loud thud. “I’m the new sex education teacher Mr. James. I taught school for three years in America so don’t even think about messing with me because I will not tolerate it! Ain’t nobody gonna be late to my class because I’ll be keeping your asses outside. And GOD forbid one of y’all tries to skip. I’m not afraid to assign detention to any of you, do I make myself clear?”

I bit my lip so I wouldn’t laugh because he was the funniest teacher (and at the same time most terrifying) we’ve ever had. “Yes Sir.” Everyone answered at once.

“Good.”

He walked around his desk to get the attendance sheet.

“I’ll be calling names and I don’t need no raised hands or any of that bullshit. Just confirm when you hear your name.”

He looked down at the sheet. “Luke Black! Sean Black! Eleanor Cartwright! Kylie Edwards! Carly Edwards? Noah Ha-oh this should be good. Noah Hudson?”

There was silence and Mr. James’ nostrils flared.

“Noah Hudson?”

Kylie stood up. “Uh, Sir? He’s not-he’s not here. “And who are you? His lawyer? Sit your ass down.”

Does the principal now about his vocabulary?

Mr. James continued calling out names as I leaned against the wall and turned to look at the whole class. That was my favorite thing about wall seats. You could relax for a bit.

“Jake Macqueen! Zachary Macqueen! Jade Morgan! Danielle Piper! Emma Smith! Liam Holloway! Harry Sampson! Lucas Tatcher!”

He finished calling everyone’s name pretty quickly, and it turned out Noah was the only one missing. His team had saved him a seat in the back that was still empty.

“Okay today we’ll be starting with the basic intro-“ he started and was about to go through his bag when the door opened.

And oh great, Noah actually showed up.

Everyone’s head turned to look at him. He looked exhausted, like he hadn’t slept in days because of the bags under his eyes. He was wearing a plaid shirt over a white tee and blue skinny jeans with black Vans that were somehow still loose on his boney legs. There was a backpack slung over one of his shoulders, which meant that this was his first class of the day.

“Sorry I’m late.” He said and that was the first time I’d ever heard him talk.

“Noah Hudson. I’ll be damned. What an honor to have you in my class!” Mr. James said sarcastically. “Actually, I should be thanking you because you’re the reason I got the job in the first place.”

I frowned, not really understanding what he meant by that. I thought Ms. Lancaster quit.

“Can I sit?” Noah asked annoyed and I rolled my eyes because he could at least try to be nice to the teacher; after all he was the one that came in late and missed like half of the first day.

“Yes, you may sit down.”