Perception

Chapter 1~ Scarlet

She sits in the back of the class listening to the teacher drone on. Scarlet rarely paid attention in geometry. She grabs one of her numerous pens and doodles on the inside of her arm.  Bored to death of the lecture, she silently wishes her best friend was in this class. it would be do much better with her quirky friend, classes always were. She thinks about texting Emily, but quickly changes her mind. She thinks of her other best friend, but she doesn't feel much like talking anymore. Behind her sat Jett Anderson; he was talking obnoxiously loud and putting on his bad boy act for the whole class. Scarlet rolled her eyes and put in her ear buds. Loud rock music filled her ears. She tapped along to the beat and pretended to pay attention. She's humming along with the guitar line in her favorite song when the teacher, Mr. Goodman, pulls her out of her thoughts. "Scarlet, can you answer number five please?" Startled by the sudden call of her name, she looks up and blinks. "Hm?"Mr. Goodman, who Scarlet is convinced is against her, slowly smiles. "Number five on the homework, Scarlet , was my question too hard for you to comprehend?" The class snickers, and she feels her face heat up. Scarlet never liked drawing attention to herself, especially not this much. She looks down at the worksheet, remembering it was completely blank. She had opted to listen to music and text instead of completing it. She curses under her breath, "Fuck." Mr. Goodman stands patiently by his desk waiting, as if daring her to mess up. "Any time now Miss Evans." Rrrriiinnnggg! Before she could come up with some bullshit answer, the bell rang, saving her from humiliation. Scarlet hopped out of her seat and darted off to lunch, before Mr. Goodman could make her answer. She pulled out her phone and checked notifications. She had one text from her guy best friend, James,she opened it.

J- Your sitting with us at lunch, right? 

Scarlet rolled her eyes at the improper grammar and responded.

S- *you're and yeah, Emily will be with me too.

Scarlet though about her two best friends, it was no secret Emily didn't like James. She sighed a little and pushed her way through the crowd. She got to the cafeteria and saw that James was already sitting down. He smiled and waved at her. She walked over and took the seat next to him, leaving one seat for Emily, wherever she was. She's probably talking to Cam, Scarlet thought. Cam was Emily's boyfriend of two months; Scarlet didn't like him very much. He was fine when they first met, but now he was an arrogant asshole. Cam had his heart set on Harvard and he was some sort of super genius. He was the kind of guy that constantly reminded anyone of that. Most of all, Scarlet knew Emily didn't love him like she claimed and he certainly didn't love her. Her thoughts were interrupted by Emily plopping down next to her. "Hiya!" Scarlet noted the overly happy mood and replied with a simple "Hey." James looked over at Emily, but she just sat there. Scarlet sighed to herself, Why can't they just get along?  She got up and Emily and James followed. She noted James took the left and Emily took the right. It was very clear neither wanted to be by each other. Emily picked at her food and Scarlet frowned, something was definitely up with her. James had some comment about marching band that pulled Scarlet's attention from Emily. She laughed at the picture on the back of the milk carton, but was not met with her best friend's usual response. Emily just sat there typing on her phone. She sighed and poked Emily on the shoulder, "Hey, what's wrong? First you were overly happy and now you look depressed." Emily sighed and remained silent. Scarlet turned towards her. Emily turned herself slightly. "Cam." Scarlet knew she would ask more later, but right now wasn't the time. Cam and Emily had been fighting off and on. It was mainly over whether she was more important than Harvard. Scarlet though she knew the answer to that question already. After all, her intuition never failed her. She spent the rest of the lunch period being weird and trying to make Emily laugh. She succeeded and Emily seemed in a better mood, which made Scarlet feel better. They walked down the hall together until they had to go their separate ways. She was walking when she ran into a wall. "Ouch!There shouldn't be a wall here."  She looked up, but instead of a wall she found a person. She recognized him of course; who didn't know who Jett Anderson was? He was a star player, Eastwood's bad boy and, Scarlet assumed, an asshole. "Watch where you're going beanstalk." He just laughed at her. She couldn't believe his audacity. "Why don't you watch where you're going, munchkin?" He smirked and leaned against the wall. Scarlet looked him over; she couldn't help it. He was definitely attractive. She remembered she was mad at the asshole and stormed toward the class. The thought of him was still on her mind as she took her seat.