Chapter Six

It was the first day of school and I was walking in with a bruised lip and a black eye.

Coming home from the bonfire last night was such a hassle. Ma' was happy to see that I'd come home the moment the first street light went out and tried to sarcastically comment on how early I came back. But then she saw my busted lip, the cuts on my face and the black eye that was beginning to form which then made her go on a rant about she knew she shouldn't have let me go to the Bonfire and how I should've just stayed far away from the bonfire and the people who threw it.

If I were to be honest, I hadn't heard half the things she said. I felt like I  was spinning in circles as my head pounded. All I wanted to do was to take a thousand Ibuprofens to knock myself out until next morning came.

Ma' evantually got out of my hair and went upstairs to sleep. I crashed on the couch, too tired to remove the tree from my bike and too tired to go to the warmth of my bed.

I had a pair of sunglasses on to cover my black eye—also to treat the slight hangover—and I had a couple of band-aids scattered around my face to cover up my cuts. I could've worn a mask to cover up my bruised lip but I didn't want to look as if I was a celebrity or something.

I walked into my home room and sat down at the back of the class and immediately plopped my head down. The two boys who sat beside me immediately moved their stuff and sat away far away from me. I didn't mind because Kia and Joey needed a seat and I didn't want Kia complaining about how I didn't save them a seat at nine in the morning.

"You good sleepy head?" Kia said as she placed her bag onti the desk beside me.

I groaned, shifting around in my seat for a more comfortable position. Joey sighed as he threw his bag onto the floors sitting on the other side of me. Between the four of us Joey was the one who hated school the most. He looked the smartest and put together but he managed to fail at least every single one of his classes, how he didn't get held back a grade is beyond me.

"Let him sleep Kia." Joey mumbled, resting his head against the wall.

"Sleep? It's the first day of school. He can do that when he gets home." She exclaimed.

"Kia shut up you're being so loud." I grumbled.

"Loud? I'm being my usual self."

I could never understand how this girl could always be so cheery after a full night of partying and drinking her health away. Sebastian would usually be the one to shut her up when she gets like this but being a grade ahead of us, he wasn't here to save my sweet sweet brain from the pounding headache Kia was trying to give me. The loud chatter amongst my classmates and the sound of paper being thrown around the classroom really didn't help it either.

I was about to doze off when Ms. Dawson came into the room. The sound of chatter and paper being thrown ceased and was immediately replaced with sounds of chairs scraping against the wooden.

"Morning class." Ms Dawson scanned the classroom. "and Leo, who's head is currently on his desk. We have a new classmate and you guys already know to treat new people with respect I'm assuming?" Ms Dawson eyed Kia, referring to that one time she had accidentally yelled at that guy for sitting in her seat unaware that he was new.

"It was one time!"

Ms Dawson smiled as she rolled her eyes. "Would you like to introduce yourself."

"Well, I'm from New York and I moved here with my family last month and I—"

Zoning out, I furrowed my eyebrows, confused as to why her voice sounded so familiar. It was such a familiar melody that had blessed my ears with each word she spoke. I could practically see the girls smile as she spoke too. It was like an annoying song that I knew the lyrics too but not the song name. Just wanting to figure out the mystery, I looked up at it dawned upon me that it was the girl I met at the bonfire yesterday.

"Any questions?" She asked. A little bit of her tongue came out as she smiled.

"Say," Ethan said, chucking a bit, "what's a folk like you doing around here? Not a lot of people here look like you."

Delilah furrowed he eyebrows. "Excuse me?"

"Shut the fuck up Ethan." I hissed, leaning over the table slightly. "Or I'll smash a bottle over you head."

Ethan rolled his eyes, lamely sticking his middle finger up at me.

"Oh look who's finally joined the class." Ms Dawson smiled, walking over towards me. "I know it's dreadful that summer is over but do you really need the glasses indoors Leo?" She stuck her hand out.

I sighed, squinting as the bright light but my eyes as I took off my glasses and handed them over to her. Ms Dawson jumped back a bit, surprised to see such wounds on my face.

The silence in the room suddenly felt a whole lot louder too after I showed my black eye and cute and bruises on my face.

"Oh, well, okay." She stumbled over her words, slowly moving back to the front of the classroom. "You can sit over there."

The girl thanked Ms Dawson. It made my heart swoon to know that she had manners and was grateful for even the little things.

I burrowed my head back into my desk and smiled to myself, happy to know that Delilah was in my presence even if she was sitting three rows ahead just for an hour.