Part Three

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She woke up in her bed as usual. She went to school as usual. But Foxfire was unusual.

Christina blended into the crowd as she always did, straining her ears to make sure no gossip was about her broken face at all from the beat down last night.

It wasn't about her. Instead, it was about Yavin and some girl. Girls were wailing and crying together by their lockers.

"Yavin isn't with me, he's with her now..."

"...I've got no chance with him anymore, now. I should've made a move..."

"...I could so treat him better than that Biana Vacker! What does he see in her, honestly?"

The last rumor snapped her to attention. Christina had always thought of Biana as a kind and outgoing fashionista. A bit stuck-up, maybe, but she'd never done anything really wrong to anyone.

If that girl and Yavin were an item, that theory must've been wrong.

Both Biana Vacker and her brother, Fitz were immaculate populars combed to the t. God knows Biana could do better than the likes of him – she'd had suitors after her since the time Christina stepped into Foxfire.

She kept walking, this time to her own locker. Dumping her books into her bag, she straightened her hair before once again making sure she didn't look like a fool – that would subject her to more from Yavin Siths later.

She slipped into class, into a seat at the very back, where no one would take any particular interest in her. The bell rang just as her butt touched the seat, and a small smile made its way to Christina's face at the thought of herself never having a single tardy – she prided herself on that, despite anything thrown at her.

This was the one class she had with other students, not just one-on-one. It was the one class she had to have friends for, and she didn't have friends.

Sir Henly clapped his hands together to get the class's attention. He was a rather frail looking but knew exactly what he was doing in the garden. "Listen up, kids. I'll be assigning you a partner to grow a venus fly trap from the Forbidden Cities. You must nurture it, and by the end of the trimester I expect it back grown up and looking healthy."

Christina tuned out, instead choosing to study her hands, which, if you looked closely, were covered in scar after scar from just the past few years. Her head snapped up when she heard her name.

"...Christina and Fitz," Sir Henly rattled off, emphasizing her name, acutely aware she wasn't paying any attention.

She let out a silent groan. Fitz. Of all people, Fitz. When he lazily sat there while partners flocked to partners, Christina heaved a sigh. Of course, he would think that she was supposed to come to him. She would rather not have, but she dragged her chair over with her materials, knowing word to Yavin would get her way worse than usual. She cleared her throat, "Uh, hi."

Fitz didn't even bother meeting her eyes. "What's your name, loser?" He looked bored, and extremely uninterested in knowing anything, but Christina's nonexistent smile formed into an actual one at that.

He didn't know her name! Now if he managed to say anything to Yavin, he wouldn't know it was her. It was genius! Triumph singed through her, and she smiled brightly at him. "It's Larna. What's yours?"

She wanted to take the words back as soon as they left her mouth. His eyes widened at the two words, and he looked taken aback, pointing to himself. "What's mine? You don't know what my name is?"

Christina had a great poker face. "Nope."

"Fitz Vacker, it's a pleasure," he said robotically, not even sparing her a glance. "Look, I'd like to work with you as little as possible, so could we just switch the pot back and forth between us by my locker every week?"

"Sure, where's your locker?" Christina honestly didn't know this time, but she really would rather not have known.

Once again, Fitz's pompous face reacted to her words with shock. "Do you know nothing about things around here, or what?"

Christina immediately bristled, defensive. "Just because people have crazy weird crushes on you doesn't mean everyone's a fangirl, okay, dummy?" she snapped, sending him an angry look.

It was as though she'd said nothing. "Alright, cool, you can take first week," he said, packing his bag and handing her the seed. Fitz pulled out some crazy contraption, probably some game, then gestured to the seed packet and the pot, "Plant that."

Christina rolled her eyes. She was not looking forward to working with him at all, honestly, what a jerk. He didn't even care. The difference was, she did.

All the populars were normally jerks, so what was she expecting, really?

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A/N: something huge is coming, guys. brace yourself for next chapter. and thank you for 150 reads - that's what this chapter is special for, you guys earned it.

Stina | ✔Where stories live. Discover now