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I WALKED OVER TO THE SEAT, cursing myself and the rest of the scholarship kids that have left me alone. The boy who we saw earlier in the pool stood in front of my desk, staring at me as I pulled out the chair and sat down. I turned to my side, smiling at the curly-haired boy who sat beside me. He mutters a simple 'hola.' and I turn my body fully to speak to him, still ignoring the pool boy who was continuing to stare at me, yet not saying a word.
"Hola. Cómo te llamas?" I ask as I begin grabbing my laptop and notebooks out from my bag, placing them on the desk neatly. The boy looks at me, smiling what seemed like a genuine smile.
"Ander. Y uste-" He is interrupted by the pool boy in front of me, who leans closer towards me as if to be intimidating. He looks me up, a smirk present on his face, and as he is about to speak, I interrupt him, just as he did to his friend.
"Le puedo ayudar?" I ask, my voice filled with attitude. He continues smirking, rolling his eyes at me, before leaning even closer, to the point where if I moved a little higher up, our lips would be touching. The lack of distance makes me shiver, and I move back slightly, hoping he wouldn't notice, but he did."What is your name?" He speaks slowly in English as if he doesn't think I can understand because I come from a poor school or something. Idiot. I don't respond, simply opening up my notebook, grabbing my pen, and beginning to doodle on the first page. This seems to frustrate the pool boy, who takes a seat, turning back to me with an annoyed expression. The teacher then enters, thankfully, and begins to talk.
"Okay. So, as we all know, we have three new students with us today. So, let's meet them." I hear Christian mumble from across the classroom. "Pero esto no es un tutorial de clase?" I giggle, knowing his knowledge of English is incredibly poor. As Christian's face appears on the screen, I look over at him, seeing a confused expression on his face. As he stands up, I put my head in my hands, not wanting to see how badly this would go. "Hello... Um, Goodbye." He says, and the class begins to laugh, including me. The teacher shakes his head, slightly confused, before changing the slide to reveal my face on the screen.
"Jada Eleanora Rossi Mandolini?" I stand in my place as everyone looks at me, including the pool boy, who has turned around in his seat and is staring into my soul, attention fully on me. "Hello. I'm Jada Eleanora. Please just call me Jada or Jade." I shrug, about to sit down, when the teacher asks a question. "Where are you from Jada Eleanora? What is your background?" I groan as he completely disregards my previous comment about my name. "I'm half Spanish from my Mother Giorgia, half Italian from my Father Sebastián. The first name is Spanish, and the last name is Italian, which I'm assuming is why you asked?" He nods, and I sit back down, pool boy still staring.
The teacher then calls on Nadia, who stands with confidence and passion. "Hello, I'm Nadia. I'm 16. My family is from Palestine, but I was born here in Spain. And when I finish my studies, I'd like to be a professional diplomat in the United Nations." "Wow! Impressive." The teacher then begins to explain something in Spanish, but I space out, doodling in my notebook.
"Are you even listening?" Ander whispers, and I shrug. "Not really." "You speak English well." "Thanks. As do you." The teacher then tells the class to quiet down as they react to something Samuel has said, and he begins the actual lesson. "So why don't we continue where we left off yesterday." I begin writing notes on the class, as well as writing down extra notes on what I needed to learn since we had only just joined. As I sat in the classroom, looking around me I realized that aside from Ander and the curly-haired girl from this morning, the rest of the students seemed very unhappy with us being here. Not an ideal start. Once class was dismissed, I tried to get out as quick as possible so as not to deal with my new classmates, but of course, I'm not that lucky.
"So, Jada Eleanora, huh?" As I left the classroom, the boy from the pool approached me, along with the curly-haired boy Ander. "It's only fair I know your name since you know mine. And it's Jada or Jade." I said, crossing my arms, and he smiles, before introducing himself. "I'm Guzmán." I nod, waiting for his attack, but he continues to smile at me, which is confusing, to say the least.
"So, are you planning on trying to take our places at the table too like your friend?" I stare at him confused, and Ander shoves him slightly. "She seems chill Guzman, relax." Guzman shakes his head, before resting his hand on my shoulder, smiling again. "She does seem chill, doesn't she? I like that." He says smirking, before he walks past me, Ander following behind him confused. Just as I am about to walk off and find my friends, I am stopped by a girl with long brown hair.
"Hola Jada Eleanora." I groan. "Yes?" I could tell she had no intention of being friendly, and so far I had done nothing to frustrate any of the privileged kids. "Hello. I'm Lu. See that boy you were just talking to?" "Ander?" "No, the other one, dear." "Oh, Guzman?" "Yes. See, Guzman and I, we're dating. So back off." I roll my eyes, not even bothering to respond, as I shove past her, about to walk outside. That was, until, she grabbed my arm, and pulled me aside. "Listen, dear. You seem like you could be a bit of trouble for me. and I'd rather you weren't, so just keep your hands to yourself." The girl smiled in a purely evil way, giggling slightly, but I shrugged, stepping towards her, causing her to look a bit taken back. "Well, I'm sure you can agree with me that Guzman is good-looking, right?" I ask her, smiling, and her previous smirk drops. "So, the thing is, maybe I will be a bit of trouble. I guess you'll have to see, dear." I returned her fake smile, before removing her hand from my arm. "Adios Lu," I call back, as I walk away, heading towards Christian, who did a little whistle at the whole situation.
Christian and I sat down with the others at the table, both of them studying. "Hola," I said as I sat down next to Nadia, who smiled weakly. "What's wrong?" I asked, and she explained that the school wanted her to remove her headscarf. "No way. Apuesto a que fue esa princesa elegante." I said, nodding over to where Lu sat. Nadia nodded in agreement, while Christian stared at the popular group in awe.
"Quién creéis que maneja aquí el cotarro?" I groan in response, opening my laptop and plugging my earphones in, done with this conversation, knowing full well where it was going. And sure enough, not even two minutes later, Christian walked over to the snobby kids. "Idiota," I mumbled, pulling out one earphone as he spoke.
"Por cierto, tienes Instagram? Si queréis, os paso el mío." "Sí. Ay, sí, por favor." Lu spoke, and Christian smiled back at us cheekily. "Es 'pekechristian007", la primera con 'k'." They laughed at this video he had posted just five minutes ago, of him dancing, trying to look sexy. The blonde girl looked mildly interested, and I shook my head, seeing the boys look more and more annoyed by the second. "Ay. Look. Es una foto suya con Jada. ¿Perdón, Jada? Ven aquí, por favor." She called over to me, waving her hand to indicate for me to go sit over with them. Christian then smiled and waved for me to come over too, and so, hesitantly, I got up, put my laptop and stuff in my bag, and sat in the seat across from them.
"Yes?" I asked, and she smiled, still seeming fake. "Are you and Christian dating?" I started laughing, and Christian looked confused, while I noticed Guzman was taking notice of the conversation now, looking at the photo Lu had. "Christian. Ella me preguntó si salíamos juntos." He went wide-eyed and began giggling too. "No, no- "She wouldn't date a low life like him," Guzman said, and all eyes went to him, including mine. "Pardon? And who would she date?" Lu asked, clearly not impressed by her boyfriend's sudden interest in the conversation. "Someone better than him." He pointed at Christian, who was once again confused. "Careful Guzman, it almost looks like you care. What does it matter to you who she dates?" Lu said, and Carla stared between me and Guzman, confusion evident on her face. "Oh, Jesus." I got up from my seat, grabbed my bag, and walked out of the hall, not sure where I was going.
