Counting Stars | ✔

Chapter Fourteen

"We have a new student with us today. Miss. Donovan." Mrs. Ronin gestures at Ellyn, who is smiling at us. "She's a transfer student from New York. Let's try to make her feel welcome, shall we? Please take the empty seat behind Miss. Morgan there."

Oh, how awesome. Another reason to hate this class!

Mrs. Ronin continues with her lecture blah blah blah who cares? I don't care about all these literates and their immortal works. What I care about is my feelings for Liam, and how much it hurts to see him with this red-headed epitome of beauty. I can sense it between them. It's like they know each other on a deeper level. She was all over him this morning. The way they conversed and their body language was enough to make it known that they definitely had a history. And they unsurprisingly fit perfectly together. They are both gorgeous, almost like an old treasured painting or a carefully made sculpture. The image of them together is haunting me in broad daylight.

Sanchez won't stop clicking his pen against the table, and it's giving me a mild headache. Am I the only one who hears it? How is nobody bothered? Jeez!

Why is Ellyn smiling at Mrs. Ronin? And why is Mrs. Ronin Looking at me?

"Miss. Grayson." Mrs. Ronin calls.

Crap!

"Yeah?"

"Can you please repeat what Miss. Donovan just said."

Huh?

I haven't been listening since she said open your books and turn to page 73 at the beginning of class.

Everybody is staring at me now, and Brittany and Shannon are practically high-fiving each other with their eyes. I look down again.

"You can't, can you? Where the hell were you, Miss. Grayson? If you don't want to learn, just don't show up!" She scolds, looking at me with her cold icy eyes.

Only if that was a choice, lady! I wouldn't have set a foot in this class.

I remain silent.

"Miss Donovan has volunteered to direct one of Shakespeare's finest plays, Hamlet. And I am assigning you to help her."

I look over at Ellyn, who is smiling at me.

Not happening!

"I have afterschool detention." I blurt out, suddenly remembering a way out.

"Oh, I'm sorry. I should have been more considerate of your time." Mrs. Ronin's voice drips with sarcasm. "There's no way out of this, Miss Grayson. I'll talk to Principal Carter if I have to. You better take this seriously, it's 40% of your grade."

I nod. Today is my last day of detention anyway. But it was worth a try. Sitting for an hour in detention with Brittany would have been enough to make me want to bleed myself dry, but luckily Jayden was with me. His presence made the situation bearable.

I try to keep up with the rest of Mrs. Ronins' blabbering just so she won't find another reason to further attack me. After what seems like ages, the bell finally rings.

"That was brutal. What happened back there?" Steff catches up to my pacing.

"I zoned out, I guess," I say.

"So, you're going to direct a play, huh?" Ryan has appeared and is by Steff's side.

"So it seems. Wanna be casted?" I ask.

Even though I'm not fond of him and he definitely is not fond of me, we are giving it our best for her sake.

"Hamlet, The Prince of Denmark. To be or not to be." He says and smiles. "All that heavy stuff is not for me." He says and turns to Steff.