CHAPTER THREE
"You have to what?!"I cringed away from Lyric's ear-piercing scream. "Jesus, girl. Calm down!" She stared at me with shock written all over every corner of her features. "You can't seriously be doing this!"I shrugged my shoulders and slammed my locker door shut. "But I am. Headmaster Venus said that I will still be getting all of the credits for my normal classes, but I won't be technically taking them anymore. Instead, I'm going to be a sort-of teacher's assistant while I'm in every class Justin is in."
I began walking in the direction of the Art wing. Lyric bounded after me. "What if he gets suspicious, though! I mean, you're suddenly going to be in all of his classes, hovering over his shoulder twenty-four-seven. He can't be that stupid.""Headmaster Venus already told the professors to tell the students some stupid crap about why I'll be in there." I rolled my eyes as I came to a stop outside of the sketching class that I will now be assisting in. I turned around to face Lyric and grabbed a hold of her shoulders. "She has everything covered. I'm going to be fine." Spinning her around, I pushed her in the direction of her next class. "Now go. I'll see you after school."
"If you're still alive by then!"
A small giggled bubbled from my lips as I slipped into the classroom.
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"Valentina!"I pulled my nose out of the book I had just been reading at the sound of my name. After searching the classroom for about 3 seconds, I noticed a small hand in the background. I set my book down and rose to my feet, weaving between students to make my way to the back corner of the class.
My steps faltered a couple desks away. It was Rosie Arnold, a small, hyperactive girl in my year. Her bouncy red curls were a mess today, just like every other day of her life. She might be small, but I couldn't deny the fact that she was also stunning.
Plus, she had always been nice to me.But that's not what made me stutter. Her seat was the desk right in front of Justin Bieber.
His dark brown eyes were fixated on a random spot in the room, his black combat boots plopped on top of his empty desk. Art class seemed to be the only thing he was interested in, and he had finished his drawing just moments before.
Shaking my head, I continued on my way to Rosie's desk. "Yes, Rosie?"Her little brown eyes were scrunched up in confusion as she stared down at her unfinished drawing. "I can't get the cheeks right. No matter what I do, they always turn out wrong!"I couldn't help but to smile at her frustration. She looked like an angry little kitten. Peering over her shoulder, I noticed her mistake right away. I reached my hand out for her little piece of charcol.
"May I?"She didn't hesitate to drop the charcol into my fingers. "Go for it." Pulling my hair behind my shoulders, I twisted her paper so that it was facing me instead. Balancing the tip of the charcol on the left cheek, I began filling it in.
My tongue unconsciously stuck out the side of my lips as my teeth latched onto it. I repeatedly pulled my hair back and pushed my glasses up my nose as I put the final touches on the tip of the cheek with my pinkie finger. Happy with my work, I pulled away and let Rosie take a look at what I had done. "How does that look?""Perfect!" She snatched the charcol from my fingers and hovered it over the right cheek. "Now tell me how you did it!"
I rolled my eyes playfully and moved to stand behind her so that I could see her picture from the right angle. "You have to make small, circular strokes to begin shading the top of the cheek where the hair lays. This gives it a look that the hair is casting a dark shadow over her face." Her curls bounced as she nodded her head and began moving the charcol acorss her picture. Almost immediately, my hand dropped to cover hers. "Lightly, Rosie. You have to remember, this isn't a pencil. It's much darker, so you need to be very gentle. Little strokes, like this." I guided her hand down the cheek easily, cocking my head to the side and letting my wavy brown hair fall over my shoulder. Letting go of her hand, I watched as she shaded in the rest of it by herself. "Good. Now take your pinkie and drag it across the cheek to blend the shades together. Make sure you don't take too much color from the top though, because you want it to be a bit darker than the rest."
"Like this?"
"Perfect!" I moved my hair from my vision, smiling down at her work.Rosie's head raised up an inch, her eyes never leaving her paper. "Thanks, Val!"
I smiled gently at her. "No problem." Turning around to make my way back to my desk, I jerked to a stop before I could even take five steps.
Justin Bieber was staring at me. His light brown orbs pierced into my own green ones as they widened in shock. Somehow, while I was startled by the curiosity on his face, I nearly tripped over my own feet in my dazed state. Fatefully, I caught myself on the desk next to Justin's at the last second.
Not-so-fatefully, it also happened to be Lindsey's desk.Lindsey glared at me and pushed my hand from her desk. "What the hell? Can you do anything right?" I dropped my eyes to the floor and nervously tugged on the bottom of my skirt. "Sorry," I mumbled, letting my hair fall over my shoulder to create a barrier between us.I could practically hear the smirk in her voice.
"What's wrong, nerdy? Now that your little protector isn't here to defend you, you've lost your voice?" My fingers unconciously reached up to tug at my hair. A chair screeched behind me as Rosie turned around in her seat. "Leave her alone, Lindsey." Lindsey turned her taunting eyes to Rosie. "And what are you going to do about it, pipsqueak?"
"Nothing, but that wont stop me from doing something about it." My gaze darted to to the seat next to Rosie to see her best friend, Jessica, glaring over at Lindsey. Jessica was about a step down from Lyric. She wasn't necessarily a typical bad girl, but you still didn't want to get on her bad side. Jessica was to Rosie what Lyric was to me.Lindsey dropped her gaze back to me. "It's sad that you have to have other people stand up for you."
"Just because she won't sink to your level doesn't make her a bad person." Rosie's cheeks were flushing from anger. She was a little person, but she also had a very samll fuse. "Unlike you, she doesn't go fishing for drama on a daily basis."
Lindsey scoffed and flicked her hair over her shoulder. "It's not my fault she's easy to pick on. I like making her squirm.""How about you just shut the fuck up. God damn, your voice is annoying as fuck." Shock froze my body as I looked over at Justin. He dropped his feet to thefloor from the desk to lean forward towards Lindsey.
"It's amazing I was able to drown out that annoying little squealling sound that comes out of your mouth when I fucked you last year."Rosie and Jessica giggled while Lindey's eyes widened. "What?"Justin cocked his head to the side, a smirk spreading across his lips. "Why do you think I picked up my clothes and left as soon as I was done?" Lindsey blinked at him once. Twice. "I thought you did that with all of the girls you slept with... "
"
Just the annoying ones." I slapped my hand to my mouth to smother my laugh. Lindsey looked up at me and flickered her eyes back at Justin. "Why are you standing up for her?" He shrugged lazily and leaned back in his desk. "I'm not standing up for anyone." He flicked his hair out of his eyes and crossed his arms over his chest, his brown eyes focusing on something random in the room. "I simply wanted to shut your whiney ass up."
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