amnesia 》5sos (ON HOLD)

9 || Her

The first few hours of school dragged on. The same lecture, just from different teachers. Tests, homework, and continuous amounts of work were thrown at me.

School in Australia was nothing like school in America. There was different kinds of standardized tests, different things that you were required to know. I wasn't complaining, I needed some time before I could fully decide whether I absolutely hated it or not.

I had a few friends, but none of them compared to some of my past ones. Everyone already had their cliques, and I'm sure they didn't need anyone else to add to the already occurring drama. So I just hung out with Ash and the other guys. Sure, they were sweet and all but I always felt so awkward and out of place. I needed a close, girl friend.

I sat my tray down at the empty table. Usually Calum and Michael showed up together, then Luke, then Ashton and then me. But today, for some strange reason, the boys had not showed up yet. I sat down puzzled.

I picked at the strange mystery meat on my plate. About fifty different conversations were going on around me at once.

Girls talking about boy drama, and boys talking about some kind of sport. The guys usually talked about music. Which I didn't mind, I myself was a big fan of many different genres of music.

I could make out Ashton's laugh from a mile away. I looked up to find Ash, Mikey, Cal, and Luke making their way towards the table. They all had giant smiles spread across there faces, but from what?

That's when I saw, her. Her eyes squeezed shut, mouth turned into a large smile, her long brown hair bounced in curls behind her. The guys continued to crack up at whatever she happened to say. I picked up my phone and scrolled through Instagram, trying to make it seem like I hadn't seen them approaching.

"Bri," I heard Michael say.

I looked up from my phone. I pretended to be startled to see them. "Oh hey guys!"

"Bri, this is Taylor she just moved here from Canada." Calum said pointing to the girl standing next to him. Ever since what happened at Michaels a few weeks back, Calum and I have been much more friendly around each other.

"Hi there!" I beamed, making sure I gave her a nice big, fake smile.

She gave me a puzzled look. "Where's your Australian accent?" She questioned turning to the rest of the guys.

They all chuckled, obviously finding her dumbness amusing.

"I'm from America," I said slowly. "I moved at the beginning of the year."

Her eyes widened as if a lightbulb went off inside her head. "Oh!" She nodded, "makes sense!"

She took a seat next to Calum and began to play with his hair.

A hot boiling feeling started to form at the pit of my stomach. Of course, it wasn't jealousy. There was just some part of me that didn't want her Canadian hands all over him.

Calum didn't seem to mind it though. He sat there patiently scrolling through his messages.

"Why don't you ever straighten your hair?" She giggled.

"Because I don't have a straightener." He mumbled.

"That's not an excuse silly! You can always use mine!"

I rolled my eyes in disgust. I had only known this girl for five minutes, and I could already tell I hated her.

The rest of the boys sat in silence chewing away on their peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.

Taylor walked over to Luke and began to tickle his stomach. "You need to smile more cutie!" She giggled.

This caused Luke's mouth to turn up into a huge grin.

Was she intentionally trying to get on my last nerves? I was the one who was supposed to make the guys laugh. I was the only other girl who was supposed to sit at their table. And I was the only person who was supposed to move from North America! And she was ruining every single one of those.

I had clenched my fists so hard that the water bottle in my hands was crushed and water was all over the table. Everyone had their eyes on me.

"Back in my old school we used to do that when there was a new student. Just to remind them that their heart was probably crushed because they missed their old school."

Taylor gasped and hid her face in the crook of Luke's neck.

"Shh." He hushed rubbing her back.

Calum took a sip of his apple juice. "Sounds like a strange tradition to me."

"Well," I said while scraping the last of the mystery meat off my tray. "It was nice meeting you Taylor. Hopefully I'll see you around sometime, eh?" I smiled and held out my hand.

She gave me a pouty face and stuck her head back into Luke's neck.

All I could do was smile. This girl was so oblivious, it was going to take nothing to bring her down. I could make a game out of this, and so far I held the lead.

"See you guys later." I said sweetly. Before they could say a word I strut out of the cafeteria.