Secrets In The Garden / l.h ✔️

8

~Ophelia's POV~

"Opie, dear!" My granny called from the living room as I was about to leave for school on Monday morning, the nickname making me cringe as I turned around and poked my head around the corner. She knew I hated that nickname, but she insisted on using it, no matter how much I protested.

"Yes?" I asked, not bothering to complain about the nickname. I had given up on trying to get her to use a different one when I turned fifteen, just accepting that she wasn't ever going to lay that dreadful name to rest. She was the only one I ever allowed to call me that, though. "Are you going to school in that?" She asked me with a little furrow in her brows, eyeing my outfit as she cocked her head to the side.

I looked down at my light green and white plaid dress, adjusting one of the thin straps on my shoulders, shrugging. "Yes...why? Does it look bad?" I asked, frowning to myself.

Granny shook her head. "You look beautiful, Opie." She said, and I threw my head back with an exasperated sigh. "I just...Isn't it too short?" She wondered, eyeing my dress with worry. My lips twitched up and I walked over, doing a little spin around in front of her before I beamed down at her. "I promise it's okay. It's not that short." I assured, looking down at my white sneakers.

She hummed and slowly nodded her head, a little uncertain. "If you say so, dear." She smiled up at me, wrinkles forming more around her mouth. "You should get going before you miss the bus. Wouldn't want you to have to walk to school, especially so early and by yourself." She advised, using one hand to shoo me away. I nodded, leaning down to give her a hug before I headed towards the front door again, waving goodbye to her over my shoulder.

Making sure to lock the door behind me with my house key, I started down the driveway, a pep in my step. I assumed that Saniya had already left for school by now, noticing that her little beetle car was missing from her driveway as I glanced over at her house. She always seemed to be gone before me, though.

When I got to the bus stop, I waited there patiently until the bus arrived and then got on, surprisingly enjoying the ride to school instead of anticipating my arrival. I headed inside when I arrived, letting the school doors swing shut behind me. Today I didn't need to get any of my textbooks or notebooks from my locker, since I had brought them all home with me over the weekend to do the little homework I'd had.

I considered trying to find Saniya, but I decided against it and I instead sat down on the ledge that was above the area Saniya and I sat in during our free periods together. Although I didn't know exactly what to call it, as I hadn't had anything like that at my school in Naso, everyone else seemed to see it as a student lounge area, according to what Noah and Kimberly told me on Friday. Therefore, that was what I decided to refer to it as as well, since that was basically what it was.

Once the bell rang, I headed off to health class, sitting in my seat at the quiet table. That was what I called my group's table, since none of us spoke to each other. It was like there was a mutual understanding between us four that we didn't have any desire to speak to anyone here, including each other.

I began to take my notes like I did at the beginning of every class, as it was required for us to write down and memorize the vocabulary from each unit, which there'd be a test over at the end of the unit. In the middle of me writing and admiring how nice my own penmanship was, I got that feeling again—that feeling that I was being watched. At first I simply tried to ignore it, thinking that maybe I was just being paranoid and imagining it, but the feeling wouldn't go away. Frowning, I lifted my head and gently tapped the eraser of my pencil against my notebook, looking over everyone to try to find who it was that was staring at me.

My brown eyes eventually met a pair of blue ones across the room, making me blink in surprise. It was Luke, just shamelessly staring at me with his eyes narrowed. I raised a brow at him, silently asking him what he was staring at me like that for.