The bad boy and the broken girl

Chapter 6 - I'm like Moses

Ashton POV

True to his word, slightly before 8:00, I hear the sound of a car engine outside. I grab my bag and locking the door behind me I head towards the car at the end of my drive. I quickly slide into the back.

'Hey guys.' Cade nods his head at me but says nothing as he pulls away.

'Hey Ash.' Noel says, turning in his seat slightly to look at me.

'So I hear you went for a run this morning and had to get rescued.' His voice is teasing and I smile slightly.

'Something like that, thought I wouldn't say I needed rescuing.'

'Yeah, don't insult her feminine prowess. She needs no man.' Cade says from the front seat and I glare at the back of his head.

'Ha bloody ha.' He smirks, making eye contact in the rear view mirror. Noel coughs in his seat and I turn back to him. When we pull into an empty space I see a lot of people shooting fearful looks at the car. Everyone recognises Cade's car and I'm about to step out of it. Ah shit.

'What?' Noel asks and I look up to find both him and Cade looking back at me.

'What?' I ask and Cade looks at me like I'm crazy.

'You just suddenly said, ah shit.'

'Oh, um, yeah it's nothing.' He looks doubtful but nods as Noel gets out and then opens my door. Shouldering my bag, I step out the car. The effect is immediate. Silence falls in the fairly busy parking lot as I get fearful, confused, respectful looks, along with bitchy glares from the majority of the female student body.

'This isn't the normal affect I have on people.' I say under my breath and both Noel and Cade smirk before taking a step closer to me.

'Come on sweetheart, let's just go into school.' I nod and shoot a smile at Cade before walking towards the doors.

I feel like freaking Moses when he parted the Red sea. The path to the doors is made easier by people scampering out the way. Just as we approach the steps up to the doors I spot Drew, Caleb and Ryder, the rest of Cade's cohort who walk towards us, shooting me careful looks and looking at Cade questioningly. I think I hear him mutter something about later but I ignore it as I walk up the stairs and through the open doors. The same thing happens in the hallways, people going quiet as we pass and I feel ridiculously uncomfortable.

'Alright, everyone get back to what you were doing. We aren't a walking freak show, stop staring.' Cade barks and everyone immediately immerses themselves in conversation.

'Thanks.' I say under my breath and he doesn't respond apart from the corner of his mouth tilting up slightly and his eyes darting to me before he continues talking to Ryder. I spot my locker and Kallie leaning against it on her phone and so I quickly throw a 'bye' over my shoulder and hurry over to her.

'Why is Cade and his group staring at us?' She asks, looking somewhere over my shoulder and I shrug, not turning around.

'Who knows. He's probably still angry about yesterday.' Kallie opens her mouth but then the bell rings and I send her a quick smile before heading to my first class. Once again, I choose a seat at the back of the class and people file in, shooting me looks and muttering to themselves but I ignore it.The teacher walks in and everyone quiets down thankfully. We are a couple of minutes into the lesson when the door swings open and five boys saunter in. Everyone stares at them as the teacher gapes before finally managing to say.

'Noel, you're late. Why are the rest of you here?' Cade shrugs.

'We're all in this class, we just never bothered to show up.' That makes sense, though I wonder why Noel always shows up if the others don't.

'Oh, right, um sit down.' The teacher says, clearing his throat and Cade turns to face the class where every girl is staring and batting their eyelashes and the boys are trying to look cool. Then his eyes find mine and we stare at each other for a moment until he glances at the others and starts to walk forwards. Weaving his way through the desk he plops down in the one beside me, while Noel sits the other side. Caleb, Drew and Ryder sit in front of us. I shift in my seat and look to the rest of the class to find them all staring, even the teacher has gone silent and is watching before he blinks and resumes teaching.

'Hey.' Noel whispers and I smile slightly back.

'Hey Noel, Hey Cade, hey boys.' Directing the last part at the three in front of me who nod their heads while Cade lifts the corner of his mouth.

'To what do I owe the pleasure of your company?' I ask and Cade shrugs.

'Noel said you were in the class, we need to go to some lessons and your sarcasm amuses us so we thought, why not.' I look around at the others who are nodding in agreement and I raise an eyebrow.

'Lucky me.'

'Indeed. Most girls would like the pleasure of our company.'

'I'm not most girls.'

'Apparently.' Cade remarks drily as we stare at each other. Ryder abruptly clears his throat while smirking and the others look away, their mouths twitching. I suddenly hear the teacher say something about group projects and snap back to attention as he splits us off into groups of 4. There are two boys left over from the rest of the class when the teacher looks at us.

'Um, can two of you come over here?' He ask and I'm about to volunteer when Cade speaks up.

'No, we all stay together in a group, and she's with us.' I look at the teacher, waiting for him to force us to split but he just looks at Cade's blank face to the looks on the others and nods before pushing the two boys towards another group.

'Seriously?' I mutter under my breath and Cade turns to me.

'What?'

'How? Even the teachers are scared of you. Is there anyone in this school who isn't scared of you.?'

'Them.' He gestures at his friends and then looks me dead in the eyes. 'And you.' I'm about to open my mouth and correct him when I realise he's right. I may think he's scary and a bad ass, but I'm not actually scared of him. When I don't say anything he smirks.

'Besides, my uncle is the Director of the Board of Education for this state. He wouldn't dare piss me off.' That makes more sense and I smile.

'Right.'

'So what do we actually have to do, I wasn't paying attention.' Noel says and I turn to him.

'None of us were.' He fake glares at me while the others chuckle.

'Hey, Mr Reynolds, what are we doing?' The teacher glances up from his desk to see who is talking and when he sees it is Cade he quickly hurries over.

'You're making a timeline of a particular era. You're the 60's. You need to put as much information of what happened around the world and make it look good.' Cade nods his thanks and Mr R. scurries away to his desk.

'So, how we going to do this. It's going to need to be big.' Ryder says and I speak up.

'Get pieces of A3 paper and stick them together and then write on that.'

'Good idea.' Caleb says and I shoot him a smile which he returns.

'Okay. I can get a hold of the paper. How about we all do some research on specific years and meet up tomorrow after school?' Drew says and we all nod.

'We can do it at mine, my parents aren't around.' Cade says and all the boys murmur agreement while I stay silent. Going to Cade's house? He turns to me.

'That a problem sweetheart?' His voice is taunting like he knows what is running through my head and I am silent for a second before I sit up straight.

'Not at all.' He smiles, a real smile before turning away and talking to Ryder.