Dusk **UNDER CONSTRUCTION**

Chapter 3

"Uh, they're nothing special," I reply, feeling heat rush to my cheeks. Compliments are something I'm definitely not used to.

Luke seems to shake himself out of his daze. "We should probably get to class," he quietly says, albeit sheepishly.

I walk next to him, which makes me notice how tall he really is next to my slim 5'7 frame. All around us, students are rushing to their classes while Luke seems to be casually strolling along. Almost as if he doesn't even care about his first day of class.

He over-dramatically bows and holds his hand out. "Welcome to biology milady," he smirks as he hold open the door for me. Luckily, we're not late, not thanks to Luke's slow walking. My Mother would be furious if I was late to class in general, but I think she would murder me if I was late my first day.

We rush to the table in the back, effectively making us lab partners for the year. The bell rings just as we're sitting down. A short, balding man wearing a suit strolls into the class. "Good morning everyone, as most of you should know, I'm Mr Gray. Now considering you're all juniors this year I don't think the formalities are necessary. So I'll just hand out the syllabus for you to read and if you have any questions come see me at the end of class. For now, we shall be jumping right in the curriculum." There's an entire classes worth of groans. "Now don't be like that. Today is just reviewing material that has already been covered."

"He may not look like much but he's a hell of a lot of fun to tease and the bonus is that he plays along," Luke whispers in my ear, his breath sending shivers down my spine.

"We'll be covering a topic that you all should have gone over in your sophomore year, and that is the artificial insemination of animals, such as cows to get desired traits. Now to start this process, a bull is found with a desired trait... yes Lucas?" I turn to my right to see Luke with his hand raised, a cheeky smirk on his face.

"My name's not Lucas," he mutters under his breath. "How do they harvest the bull's semen?" He asks, there are a few snickers in the class.

Now it's quite obvious that Luke wasn't expecting a reply because when Mr Gray replies with how the scientist must "give the bull a handjob," Luke sinks back into his seat, obviously shocked that the teacher was so blunt.

The rest of the class passes with, much to Luke's advantage, no more run-ins with Mr Gray.

As the bell goes, I turn to Luke. "Well, guess I better be on my way to English." With Miss Sunshine and the textbook definition of how a surfer dude should look, I add in my head.

"I can walk you if you'd like," Luke offers with a lopsided smile.

"Well only if it's on the way."

Luke nods, confirming he's not going out of his way for me as we begin our walk to English. The beginning of the walk is silent between us, despite the animalistic sounds around us that questioned whether we were in high school or a zoo.

"So... what's it like being Thomas' step-sister?" Luke asks.

"He's not my brother." I take in a breath. "Well he's nice I guess, kind of reminds me of..." I feel myself choke up, I haven't said his name since the accident, almost as if my mind wants me to forget. "Never mind," I sigh.

After a some-what awkward silence, Luke announces that we've reached my class. I smile and thank him before glancing around the class. My gaze settles on Adam, with Fiona sitting behind him, barely containing herself and she franticly waves me over. "Maya!" she squeals.

I feel myself smile slightly at her enthusiasm, Fiona's so innocent and child-like, and it's refreshing when in an environment such as high school. I take a seat beside her. Both Fiona and Adam turn to me. "So Luke walked you to class? That's surprising," Adam comments.

I furrow my eyebrows, "why's that?" I question.

Fiona looks at me with deep brown eyes. "His class in on the other side of the school."

______________

The remainder of my classes before lunch pass pretty much uneventful. However, in that amount of time I learnt that while Fiona is a bubbly, pastel pink Barbie, she also very tech savvy. She showed me the bands social media accounts which she runs pretty much by herself. She also handles all the equipment and if they were ever to find a lead singer and record songs, she would be running that too. Adam is the epitome of surfer dude. He's a pretty funny guy and keeps Fiona grounded. Hannah is tough and takes nothing from no-one. She also has a massive crush on Luke, she stared at him the whole time during Math. Speaking of Luke, he's the only one in this whole group who remains a mystery. He's dark and brooding, but from what I saw in biology today, he's also a bit of a class clown.

Currently I'm making my way to the cafeteria with the entire group. Adam has his arm around Fiona and he talks to Thomas, while Fiona chats with Hannah. That just leaves Luke and I, walking side by side in silence.

We get to the cafeteria and sit at a table, me being in between Thomas and Luke. I feel out of my element, at my old school I was the stereotypical popular girl, I was the cheer captain and I only dated football players. Thinking about it now, it disgusts me, and it wasn't me.

­­­______

"Ash what are you doing?" I ask worriedly. It was our first day of freshman year and my brother, being the idiot he is has decided that we're going to sit at the popular table.

"Come on, May! Don't you want to make Mom proud?" There it is, the one thing that Asher and I have always strived to do. Impress our Mother. "You know how she's always saying all she wants is perfect popular kids, now's our chance!"

I sigh, he honestly had me at "make our Mom proud".

Little did I know the measures I would go to in order to make that happen.

_______

"You alright Maya?" Thomas asks. "You zoned out for a bit here."

"Yeah I'm fine just wondering."

"Penny for your thoughts?" he asks as he flicks a penny at my head. I wince when it hits me.

"I was just wondering, Abigail's at the popular table and she's a freshman. Why aren't you?" I cringe at myself for being so blunt.

"It's amazing what people will do when you're rich," he sighs as he looks at his younger sister, obviously worried that her newfound popularity will get to her head. "I've just never been interested, I figured that if I'm to take over the family business then I'm going to have to put up with people like them for the rest of my life. I'm avoiding it as long as possible."

I sit there and consider. Thomas has a point, my brother and I had to claw out ways to the top in order to feel like we were worth something. However Thomas was already there, we didn't need to work for anything.

It's not Thomas' fault but that kind of stung.

I emerge from my thoughts only to find Thomas talking to Adam. Luke once again being the only one silent. It was so easy to talk to the others, so then why was it so difficult with Luke? Why was he so quiet and closed off when he's around the band? He certainly wasn't like that in biology.

"How's school going for you?" I ask.

"Are you really trying to make small talk?" He smirks.

"So what if I was? Not like you're making much of an effort."

"I'm more of an observer. A wall flower if you will."

That makes me think back to his biology stunt, "Oh cut it with the cliché teen angst, even I can tell you weren't always like that. What about biology, huh?" I jab his chest lightly.

Damn it's toned.

"That's different."

Why oh why do boys have to be so infuriating?

______________

The school day had ended and I couldn't be anymore grateful, it had seemed to drag. Thomas invited me to the bands practice which I was both hesitant and eager for. I hadn't gotten myself involved in anything music related since the accident. It was too painful, brought back too many memories.

But Dad wouldn't want this, Ash wouldn't want this. So maybe, just maybe, it was time.