Chapter 2
‘’Arrrghhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!’’ I winced like many others. Nicole’s shriek echoed down the hallway. People were gathering around to see what had the popular cheerleader scream in fright. Cole arrived then with his entourage of jocks. They all looked into Nicole’s locker and their eyes widened. Nicole started sobbing pathetically and I was having a hard time controlling my laugh. She clutched Cole and he winced probably due to her death grip on him.
Just then the sub principal arrived as the actual principal was off duty since his daughter was pregnant and almost due.
‘’What is going on here?!’’ he bellowed.
‘’Principal McCoy. There… it…’’ Nicole said between sobs. He looked at others for explanation and I think everyone was almost dumbstruck to say anything. Nicole pointed at her locker and Principal McCoy went closer to investigate. The expression on his face was slightly comical. Once again, I was dying from holding in my laughter.
‘’Spiders?’’ Principal McCoy’s voice reached everyone. Those who didn’t know what was going on now had recognition lit on their faces.
Okay, so you got me. Pleaded guilty! There were three huge spiders in her locker with some fake spider webs but the spiders were real. Or maybe they were Tarantulas? Who knows? The guy I got ‘em off said they were harmless. Since Jessie pointed out yesterday that Nicole was deathly afraid of them, I had an idea. I didn’t want to start something directly with her for giving me such a warm welcome, so I had to get back at her, only I did it indirectly.
I came in early and the hallway was dark. I made sure that none of the lights were switched on just yet. I had five minutes to set this up. I reached Nicole’s locker and put in her combination which I got off someone, by paying them and I knew they weren’t going to snitch on me. But let’s not get into that. I opened her locker and since it was dark, I had to really squint and focus. Once I started making out the shapes of the locker, I carelessly put some fake spider webs in, covering her belongings. Then I opened my jar of my spiders and slowly emptied it out in her locker, quickly closing it.
‘’Principal McCoy!’’ Nicole’s voice brought me back to the present. ‘’This is a serious issue! You have to catch this person stupid enough to put those deathly things in my locker!’’
Principal McCoy seemed slightly amused. ‘’This is not a serious crime, Nicole. No one was hurt. I can look into the CCTV though I can’t take any harsh action against the culprit.’’
‘’But Principal McCoy-‘’ Nicole was cut off by the principal walking away. She followed him, tagging Cole along. The rest of the crowd started to disperse.
People were talking about what happened as the news spread pretty quickly. At lunch, Jessie, Marissa and I were also talking about the incident. Whilst Nicole sat at her table looking vulnerable, as if someone had died. Drama queen.
‘’I wonder who pulled that off,’’ Jessie mused. Marissa nodded whilst I pressed my lips tightly together to keep from laughing. Both of them looked at me and I just shrugged.
‘’Oh c’mon! It was funny!’’ I burst out laughing this time thinking about Nicole’s reaction.
‘’You’re right. It wasn’t just funny, it was hilarious!’’ All three of us laughed. ‘’Whoever did it, is a genius. I mean she struts around school like she is fearless when she is afraid of a little thing like spiders!’’ Marissa said and all of us chuckled again. As much as I like these two, I wasn’t giving up this small secret about me being the one who pulled it off. Maybe someday but that day was definitely not today.
The rest of the week passed in a blur. Things still hadn’t died down about Nicole’s little incident. The horrible comments about me seemed to be going strong and Jessie and Marissa seemed to be dragged into it because of me. I confronted them and they told me it wasn’t any different before I started school.
Now I was sat in English, on a Friday and extremely bored. I had read up on the novel and I had nothing to do. I couldn’t be bothered to tell the teacher or ask for more work because that would just bring unnecessary attention from Barbie. I looked to my right and as usual, he was texting away, not at all bothered by the fact that the teacher was currently glaring at him. But she didn’t say anything to him. Huh. Would you look at that? So what if he’s rich and popular, she should treat him like she would any student and confiscate his phone. At least that would give me some peace from the constant typing on his Blackberry. I had given up asking him to stop because he would either ignore me or raise his signature eyebrow at me before continuing.
‘’Right class,’’ Mrs. Anderson interrupted my thoughts, ‘’I have decided on your projects and it will be in pairs.’’ The class started to buzz with excitement. Even I couldn’t help it. I mean I would finally get to be away from the God-like specimen next to me and actually focus on my work.
‘’And no, you won’t be choosing your own partners.’’
Or not. I just realised that if I was paired with Barbie then I would just take a dive off that cliff near the beach I went to once up here.
As Mrs. Anderson started assigning seats, I realised my chance to be partners with Marissa had gone down the drain as she was paired with some cute guy. I started to get more and more uneasy as I realised all the ‘nicer’ people had already been assigned partners.
‘’Nicole and Luke.’’
I let out a breath I didn’t realise I had been holding.
Hold on. Wait a freaking second. That means my partner is-
‘’Nina and Cole.’’
My breathing stopped. I started sweating. This cannot be happening! I should be feeling lucky I got assigned to the sexiest guy in the whole of West View High but all it does is makes me slightly scared.
Someone gasped. ‘’But Mrs. Anderson! How can you pair that… thing with Cole!’’
Nicole. Shit, I had forgotten about her! She is definitely going to up her meanness to me now. Her threat from the first day runs through my mind and I start to hyperventilate. I don’t even know why as I’m not one of those who is afraid of people like her.
‘’Miss. Bishop! I will pair whoever I want to with whomever I want.’’
‘’But Mrs. Anderson, Cole is my boyfriend and-‘’ she was cut off by Mrs. Anderson’s harsh glare. Nicole huffed and turned in her seat to shoot me a death glare. I was glad that her seat was on a different row and almost near the front of the class whilst mine was right at the back. I tried not to give her one my own and tried to keep my face impassive. Then she turned to Cole, batting her eyelashes as if to remind him who his girlfriend was. Insecure, or what? She turned back in her seat as Mrs. Anderson started explain the project.
‘’For the project, I want you to either write a report or do a mini role play on one of the following topics: Love or betrayal. Now this project is flexible so you can choose to do both a role play and a report or do just one, it doesn’t matter. I want you to incorporate Romeo and Juliet into it, whether it is as little as the using cast names to using the story. You will be expected to meet up outside of school hours to finish this project. It will be worth 70% of your final grade. So don’t mess it up!’’
Damn this project was looking gloomy.
‘’So,’’ I jumped at his voice. Cole had been sitting there silently throughout all of that that I had forgotten he was there! This was the first time he was addressing me and he comes out with…
‘’Your place or mine?’’
Yeah, I’m screwed.
So there is chapter 2... sorry if there are any mistakes as I've not edited it. Hope you guys like it. Don't forget to comment and vote!! :)
