𝘨𝘰𝘰𝘥𝘨𝘪𝘳𝘭 ; Angus Tully

TWO

Lola quickly brushed her teeth and pulled on her black sweater and maroon skirt as well as some warm tights. She had decided, based on how the guys dressed at this place, to at least look nice and presentable for her classes.

"You can do this Lola," She whispered to herself in the mirror, "It's just like school back at home. Just with no girls. It's fine!"

It was in fact not fine.

She looked down at her schedule for the hundredth time as she walked to the dining hall for breakfast, not paying attention as she smacked into the back of a stocky boy. Her schedule dropped as she stumbled back a bit, thanking God for those incredible balancing skills that came out of nowhere.

  "Oh man I'm sorry," The blonde boy grimaced, bending down to pick up her schedule and handing it to her, "You're the new student?"

  "Thanks," Lola grabbed the paper from him, "What gave it away?"

  "I've never seen you before," He smiled, "and you're a girl so I just assumed. Jason Smith by the way. You headed to breakfast, I can walk you if you like?"

  "Lola Mitchell," She shook his hand quickly, "and yes. I honestly have no idea where I'm going, so lead the way."

  Jason smiled, as they walked to the dinning hall together. A few looks were thrown their way, but Lola decided to ignore it as they entered the building.

  "If you don't mind me asking," Jason began, "Whyd you come here?"

  She flushed at the question, the boy obviously didn't mean it in a rude way but it sure the hell felt like it.

  "I basically got chosen," Lola said, "Barton wanted to start adding girls to their curriculum and I guess they wanted to do it slowly so they picked me?" Lola shrugged, trudging along the hallway.

  "Chosen?"

  "I had to take a test," She explained, "I tested into the school and was given a scholarship."

  "Ah, gotcha!" He smiled, stopping in front of the large oak doors, "This is it. You're more than welcome to come sit with me if you want. A few of my friends don't get down here this early..."

  A pity invite. Great.

  "Yeah sure," Lola nodded, following him into the large dinning hall. The two made their was to a pretty empty table, besides a few boys sitting further down.

  "You thinking about joining any clubs?" Jason asked, scooping eggs onto his plate, "Sports? I play football," he motioned down to his letterman jacket he was wearing.

  "Pretty sure there aren't any girl teams for me to play on just yet," Lola filled her glass with orange juice, "And I haven't really been looking at any clubs. I've been to focused studying this schedule."

  "Mind if I look?" He said with a mouthful of eggs.

Lola scrunched her nose up a bit, as she handed him the schedule. She had basically memorized everything on it by now: First period was calculus, second period was Ancient Civilization, third period was Ap Literature, fourth period was typing and penmanship with Miss Crane and fifth period was home economics.

  "Why do you only have five classes?" Jason whistled, handing the schedule back.

  Lola shrugged, biting into her toast, "No locker room for me to change into for gym," She was definitely okay with that, "Do you know what ancient civilization is? Pretty sure we only had world history and US history in my old school."

  He frowned, "It's hard. The teacher sucks. But you seem smart so I'm sure you'll do fine." He looked down at his watch, "Mass is starting soon. We ought to head over, I'll show you the way."

——

  The walk to mass was a short one, Lola quickly took a seat in the third pew, Jason had ended up sitting with his group of friends. The boys crowded on the one in front and behind hers but only a few boys sat on the same one as her, they were a good distance away though.

  She looked around the church as the priest stepped away and the headmaster began to talk. She had only met him twice, Dr. Woodrup. Once when she was accepted into the school and the second when she picked up her schedule from him the other day.

  "And also, as some of you may have noticed, we have a new student," Dr. Woodrup smiled.

  Oh God. Oh why here of all places. Her face paled as her head shot upwards.

  "I hope you treat her with the same respect as you treat your other peers," He said, "Especially you upper classmen."

  The word her must have caught the other boys by storm because all eyes seemed to be on Lola and all whispers seemed to be about Lola.

  Lola glanced around the room, her eyes landing on a boy opposite her row. He seemed to not care as he held a bored expression on his face, playing with the hem of his jacket. He was cute, Lola thought but soon the expression was ruined when he turned to flip the boy behind him off.

  She frowned as she turned back to the front, the headmaster saying a few more words before the students were dismissed. Quickly, Lola grabbed her bag and folded her schedule, taking determined strides to her first period of the day, calculus.

  She mumbled the number of the room as she marched up the second floor of the main building and to the opened door. Boys sat at their desks, goofing off and talking loudly as they waited on their teacher to show up.

  Lola walked in the classroom, giving a small smile to the class as she made her way to the back of the class, next to a boy with wavy hair.

  "Hi," Lola smiled.

  He nodded, sitting up a bit as she sat in the desk next to him, "Hi." He gave her a curt nod, "Mitchell right?"

  "Lola Mitchell," Lola said.

  He smiled, "Teddy Kountze."

  "Nice to meet you Teddy," She said, "I take it you're a junior too?"

  "Yep," He said, turning to look her over, "You're in calculus?"

  What was with these boys and their passive aggressive questions?

   Lola bit her tongue as she nodded her head, "Yes I am," she unfolded her schedule, "As well as these."

  He took her paper and looked over them, smiling slightly as he handed it back, "We're in a few class together."

  "Are you taking the civilisation class too?"

  "Unfortunately," He frowned, "At least you'll be in there now and I'm not stuck with that dickhead Tully."

  "Tully?" She raised an eyebrow.

  "Yeah," He furrowed his eyebrows, "You'll be good at this school if you make sure to steer clear from him."

  "He can't be that bad," She glanced at the boy.

  "You have no idea." Teddy scoffed.