Chapter 1: Dear, I Hate You So Much

My eyes flew open to the sound of my alarm going off.

 6:15, I'm late!!!

Don't get me wrong, I take almost fifteen  minutes to get ready, but its the first day of my senior year and I'm not planning on taking a detention anytime soon.

Getting out of bed, I rubbed my eyes with the heels of my palms, chasing away any trance of sleepiness before quickly scurrying to my bathroom, and hell I shouldn't.

Standing in the mirror was a human version of a gorilla with disheveled brown hair, green eyes and smelly breath. 

This ladies and gentlemen, is my humble reflection.

Shaking my head in disdain, I averted my gaze from the mirror and carried on with my routine, noticing the dark circles that accompanied my features, an evident reminder to my lack of slumber. Last night was my parents' twenty first anniversary and let me tell you, our house was packed with a hundred dozen of family members that I've never even heard of. 

And boy they were like, 'Do you remember me dear? I used to change your diapers when you were younger.' which kills me because suddenly everyone, and I mean every single one, saw my butts almost eighteen years ago. I almost punched a guy who told me how we used to bath together again 'when we were younger'.

I mean, did mom really offer my poor fluffy butts to anyone who's interested?  

Ridding my thoughts from last night's events, my mind quickly wavered to the thought of my childhood best friend, Elena Matthews. We've been best friends since kindergarten, back when I thought she was the coolest person alive. 

I mean who the hell goes to school in LED sneakers when they're only four?

I know that sounds pretty lame but imagine my reaction on my first day of school when I see a normal student with lightening shoes! I was pretty much drooling. And when I was introduced to her later that day, she didn't miss how I kept gawking at them that she got me an identical pair on my birthday and since then, we were inseparable.  

Snapping out of my thoughts, I managed to take a shower in a span of five minutes before digging into my closet, in search for my all time favorite purple sweatshirt that has 'Normal Day' written across the bust area in large black font which I paired with my blue jeans. 

After slipping into my clothes, I dashed around my room looking for my black Van's and being the clumsy person I am, I managed to trip on my own feet before face-planting the hardwood of my floor. Perfect.

Grunting, I huffed at my inability to stay upright as I looked under my bed and eventually found my shoes with a bubblegum stuck at the bottom of it.

Way to go Layla..

In the large family I grew up in, I became more than accustomed to the horrible singing of Hannah, my ten year old sister in shower, Madeline's five year old loud wailing along with my mothers yelling at whatsoever.

Standing in front of my full length mirror, I let my waist-length hair into a messy ponytail noticing its split ends. I really do need a haircut. After spraying a bit of my perfume on my neck, I decide that I'm ready to go since I never put makeup; meaning I'm almost done there.

After taking a final look in the mirror, I think I look fine enough to show up at Stevenson High so I slid down the stairs, agonizing my butts in the process just before running into the kitchen to the mouthwatering smell of pancakes.

"Morning dad,"  I smiled at my handsome father as he turned around with a plate of eggs and bacon in his hands, giving me a quick kiss on my temple.

He always makes eggs and bacon on first day of school to give us some enthusiasm to wake up. Nodding my head gracefully, I muttered a quick 'thanks' and blew him a kiss as he slid the heavenly made plate across the kitchen counter,

"Suit yourself sweetheart."

After stuffing my breakfast into my system, I quickly bid goodbye to my parents gaining a 'good-luck' from dad and a 'don't get in trouble' form mom.

As if.

Closing the front door behind me, I shouldered my backpack as I jogged over to our tiny garage. It's so small that it can only fit one car in it, not that we own that much of vehicles in our family. Anyways, I got into the black spare car that used to belong to my brother before he got into Uni a year ago and slid the key in the ignition, hearing the engine roar to life. I only took my driving lesson just over two weeks ago and I barely made it since I don't really like to be the one behind the wheel, so taking a deep breath, I threw my backpack in the backseat and drove to school.

Ten minutes later and I arrived already to the parking lot of Stevenson High. Taking the key out of ignition, I noticed Elena my crazy best friend waving her hand and yelling over the loud sound of teenagers reuniting after a long summer,

"Over here best friend!" I rolled my eyes but couldn't suppress the smile tugging at my lips at her craziness.

" 'Sup Ele-" I was about to reply back but I didn't get the chance to finish my sentence when I was cut of by a -supposedly accidental- shove from the infamous Leonardo Cameron, the school's undeniably hottest football jock.

I know he's overly hot and so and so but that doesn't take away the fact that he's a spoilt jerk.  

Cursing under my breath, I got off the ground and dusted my jeans,

 "What's your problem?" I huffed crossing my arms in a defensive mechanism.

Quirking an eyebrow he looked at me in a bored manner but I didn't miss the glint that surrounded his intimidating blue orbs,

"You have eyes, use them." he shrugged it off, running his slender fingers through the waves of his light brown hair as he backed away. What a gentleman. The least he could have done is apologize, I mean he didn't even help me get off the asphalt. 

Pursing my lips, I turned around to an amused Elena which only ignited my temper. Well it's clearly not the time to mess with me baby,

"Anything funny there?" I scowled at her sourly.

Chewing on the insides of her cheek, she shook her head vigorously making numerous locks of her pale blonde hair slap against her cheeks, "Someone got their panties in a twist", she muttered under her breath.

"Well some butt-face just pissed me off," I reasoned as we made our way into the red double doors of our school. The buzz of excitement that filled the hallways drove me insane along with the freshmen girls that kept squealing loudly, just to get the idiotic boys in my grade to notice them which only added to my sour mood, making my scowl deepen.

"At least he's hot and you know it." she told me in a sing song voice, 

Rolling my eyes, I huffed. "Whatever." 

The shrill of the first bell went off, signaling that students had only five minutes to get to class and I didn't even get my schedule. Yay.

"I'll see you in bit."I gave Elena a quick hug and rushed to the main building to fetch my new schedule. 

Smiling at Monica the secretary, I skimmed through the newly printed sheet of paper to find that I have first period Calculus followed by English Lit and French. Maybe today wouldn't be so bad.

I arrived five minutes late to class cause I had a problem remembering my locker combination.  

"I'm glad you finally arrived, Mrs Frazier." Ms. Rihanna my Calculus teacher glared at me through her rectangular shaped glasses that were about to fall off the tip of her big nose just as the loud noises gradually dimmed to hushed whispers.

"Yeah, I'm sorry. I-I erm, I got lost." Her glare made me shudder as I stuttered the only thing that came to my mind.

Her burning glare let me know that she didn't believe my feeble lie since we both know I've attended this school since day one.

"Take a seat young lady." She spared me a look of disdain making me avert my gaze quickly.

Phew, almost got detention there. 

Scanning the class for a vacant seat, I hoped to find an empty one by the window but guess what?

Mr butt-face himself plopped his legs on the only empty chair right next to him, with a smug look on his stupid-hot face. Well, clearly that's not the problem. The main problem here is that it's the only empty chair in this stupid classroom. 

I'd rather have detention.

"Any problem there Mrs Frazier?" Mrs Rihanna snapped me out of my thoughts. Her voice was enough to give me short waves of shivers like I was being momentarily electrocuted.

"Uhh, I'd rather keep standing." I choked out, glaring at Leonardo from my peripheral vision if that makes any sense.

"I'm sorry but, no." She smiled at me sweetly with her sickening steel grey eyes. Geez, calm your tits woman, I thought as I forcefully dragged my feet to the dumb eggplant sitting at the far end of the classroom, flashing him a fake smile.

"Move." I half-demanded, crossing my arms and dropping my Jansport to the ground.

He only put two fingers behind his ears just to infuriate me even more, in an attempt to tell me 'repeat'.

Biting the insides of my cheeks until I felt the acidic taste of blood spread across my tongue, I repeated through gritted teeth.  "Excuse me," 

"Oh, my bad." he jutted his bottom lip out making me dig my teeth deeper into the insides of my cheeks as he slowly took his feet off the polypropylene chair so I could sit.  

Just go to hell already.

"So finally we can say good morning class and after your long vacation, I'm glad to announce that this will not be an easy semester so you should be ready with...." As Mrs Rihanna proceeded with her long talk, I tired but failed multiple times to focus my attention to what she's saying while being kicked in my shin. Not once, not twice but thrice by Leonardo and trust me, I still didn't burst out on him yet. Well that was until he did it again.

"What the heck is your problem, dipshit?" I hissed.

"Whoa, who pissed in your fruit loops? Calm down, I just need a fricking pencil." he whispered, and by this point I was practically fuming. Deciding that if I gave him my spare pencil he might as well just shut up, I gave it to him and quickly averted my attention back to our teacher but not before huffing rather loudly.

Not even ten seconds later and of course he kneed my shin again.

"Hey,"

"Tell me what the fuck would you need after I gave you my extra! Can't you just shut up?!" I whisper-yelled making a few neighboring seats turn their heads in my direction but I couldn't care any less right now. 

"Would you calm down already?" He bit back,

"I just did," I told him, pinching the skin between my eyebrows. "So what now?" I asked exasperatedly.

"I just wanted to say thank you." 

~~~~~

And after an excruciating morning, the final bell rang indicating lunch time. Getting to my locker in record time, I quickly shoved my backpack into my locker before slamming it shut right when 

Elena came into view,

"I'm starving!" I sighed, patting my empty stomach.

"Sure you are," she nodded her head with a laugh. Attempting to mock her silvery laugh which came out like the sound of a rat wheezing, making her laugh even harder and soon enough I joined in with her. Our laughter mingled together as she hooked her arm through mine while we walked to the direction of the lunch room.

The buzz of hungry teenagers filled the room and we quickly took place in the long queue.

After we paid for our food, we took our trays to an empty table and sat in opposite seats. Without waiting, I quickly unwrapped my burger and managed to devour it in a matter of seconds.

Looking over at my best friend who didn't even get halfway through her chicken wrap, I patted my -not so full- stomach in satisfaction, "That was good" I sighed.

"Yeah, you clearly took your time to taste it," she replied in a monotone voice, rolling her eyes to enunciate her deep sarcasm making me grunt in response.

"How was your class?" I asked her as I sipped on my sparkling water,

"Oh it was fine, I was selected to being the president of the student council again but apart from that, it was uneventful." she shrugged casually. Ellie always gets chosen to be the president each year since the start of High school. With her leadership abilities and great coordination, she always manages to earn the status, which makes me wonder why someone with such great abilities would want to major in beautician.

"That's gr-" Just when I thought she was done talking -which never even happens-, she proves me wrong by cutting me off by saying,

"Oh my gosh L, I totally forgot! You know that Tania girl who came from Georgia in sophomore year? She got into a bitch fit with this girl after she heard her badmouthing her boyfriend in the girl's locker room! Holy shit it was so lit, its not even the first day of school and there's already enough gossip to last us a lifetime." She sighed happily after letting out all the bottled up rant in one breath before she continued. "So how was your class?"

Letting out a low whistle, I smiled wistfully at the great memory of the past four hours. "Wonderful."

~~~~

French.

My favorite class of all time was a great way to end my first day of school until Leonardo decided to butt in again.

 When the bell eventually rang signaling the end of our final period, I met Elena at my locker and we headed straight to the parking lot after I packed the books needed for the tons of homework we were handed. Great.

I really think our teachers are taking some sort of revenge from our summer vacation, I mean that's not even fair! 

Ellie filled the silence between us with small chatter that I really didn't pay attention to since I was too busy trying to wove through the sea of high schoolers trying to escape this human invented hell-hole.

We finally succeeded in getting out and went to the direction of my black car. I looked through my jean pocket to grab my keys but I came out empty handed, so I quickly searched through my bags but they're still missing.

"You so have to try th-" I quickly cut off her idle chatter with my frantic voice,

"Holy chocolates, Ellie, I lost my keys!" I told her, my eyes widening in alarm and making her purse her glossy pink lips, a habit she does when she's in deep thought.

"Looking for these, babe?" A very deep voice that I already know too well cut through our small encounter. Turning my head to the side, a very amused Leonardo stood in my line of vision with my car keys dangling from his fingers. Oh no buddy, you've gone way too far.

"What the heck?! Why do you have my car keys? And how did you find them? Do not tell me that you stole them cause I wouldn't hold back from crushing your nutsack right now!" I shot at him one question after the other.

"Actually, apart from your empty threats of crushing my manhood which is close to impossible, I didn't need to find them. I had them for about seven  hours and eight minutes." He smirked at me tauntingly.

"You really don't want me to prove the validation of my words." I growled, raising my eyebrows with my arms akimbo. His face paled visibly, his Adam's apple bobbing as he shook his head slightly.

"I, erm, I forgot to return your pencil." he rubbed the back of his neck, shoving his hand into the pockets of his jeans and I narrowed my eyes at him before snatching my keys from his hands.

"Tell that to someone who cares, idiot." I glared at him and yes, I just called the school's jock an idiot.

While he's still frozen in shock, I decided that it's best if I escape quickly before I face a type of aftermath I know I'm not ready to face just yet. So I quickly gave a stunned Elena a goodbye kiss, got into my car and drove home before he processed what I had just called him.

~~~~

It was almost seven nd I had already finished my homework when I got a message from Elena,

Elena♡: wanna head to the mall in an hour?

Me: what's up?

Elena♡: I need some clothes.

Me: I don't think you need anymore than a packed closet ellie but sure, i'll c u there in a bit 

Elena♡: C ya ^^

Turning off my mobile, I went down the stairs taking two steps at a time before heading off to baby sit Mads. Fifty minutes later and I decided I should get going, so grabbing my keys, purse and phone, I  made my way to the front door yelling.

"Mom, I'm heading to the mall with Ellie." I announced,

"It's okay dear but be back at ten," she responded, her voice slightly muffled by the vacuuming cleaner. I swear our floors are entirely spotless so what she's doing right now, I'll never know.

"What? Am I ten?" I muttered, scowling at being given a curfew when I'm almost eighteen.

"Heard that young lady," she came over to where I'm standing and I wondered if she has any kind of hyperacusis hearing because I'm pretty sure only bats can hear this low. "and no you're not ten but I prefer it when you're safe." She snapped at me, her arms crossed tightly over her chest as she challenged me to snap back but I knew better than to respond.

"Yup, I get it I get it. Bye mom," I raised my hands in surrender and kissed her goodbye. Closing the front door behind me , I exited our two story house before heading  to the car and to the direction of downtown.

Starting my short drive to the mall, I connected my phone to the speakers, already belting out the lyrics to my favorite play-list.

'Throwing rocks at your window at midnight

You met me in your backyard that night

In the moonlight you looked just like an angel in disguise

My whole life seemed like a postcard

You were mine for a night

I was out of my mind

You were mine for a night

I don't know how to say goodbye

Making all our plans in the Santa Cruz sand that night

I thought I had you in the palm of my hand that night

Screaming at the top of my lungs 'til my chest felt tight

I told myself that I'm never gonna be alright'

A couple of songs later and I had already arrived to my destination, parked my car and texted Elena that I'll meet her at the main entrance so we could get into the mall together.

I've always heard that shopping with your best friend should be easy, fun even, but shopping with Elena has always been another thing. I never said her company isn't fun but when I spend over twenty minutes waiting so she could literally settle over which color is a better match for her outfit is the definition of exhaustion, boredom and infatuation. Snatching the shiny cloth out of her manicured fingers, I dropped it to the floor and apologized profusely to the poor salesman who was on the verge of committing suicide before dragging her out of the fricking store.

"You are the death of me," I told her as she tried to free herself from the iron clasp I had around her wrists while whining over and over about how much she almost chose which color from the pair she wanted and how she's never taking me shopping ever again which is so not true but I thanked the Lord anyway. 

Afterwards she was the one to force me into Hollister, Adidas and obviously Victoria's Secret as a fair punishment for my 'childish antics and lack of patience'.  

 After having a three minutes argument in front of Victoria's Secret that I'm so not getting into this store, Ellie reluctantly agreed to head home and free my sorry butts which leads to why we're heading over to the parking lot, only to be greeted by the only demons themselves: Giselle Harrison; Leonardo's bimbo and her two other minions, Katy Daniel and Floryn Gabriel, the other slutty chicks.

The three of them literally slept with half of the Male's population in town. Including hobos. 

"Hello there." Giselle's very high pitched voice threatened to make me deaf. Wincing, I covered my ears in attempt to lessen the absurdity of her voice note, making her eyes flash with irritation at my mockery. I really do wonder how Leonardo copes with her. Sign language maybe.

"Hey goats." I greeted back in fake enthusiasm, stretching my lips into a wide smile. Simultaneously, the three of them gave us dirty looks while muttering a string of swear words I'd rather not repeat. It's like they're all set on the same 'bitch mode' which includes automatic reactions and passive aggressive.  

"What's up Delilah?" she taunted, knowing all too well that I hate it when she calls me that. Opening my mouth to formulate a response, she had the nerves to silence me with her palm and turned her head to my best friend, her hips angled to the side so that she leaned more onto one leg making her pink leather skirt hitch even upward.

"Oh hey Elena, I never really got the chance to tell you this but I'm so glad you took my word and ditched that boyfriend of yours. He was a real jerk. You know I saw him doing the nasty with one of the girls in your drama class, or was it a college girl? I don't really care anyways, but I promise I never really wanted to be the one telling you this so you could save the pathetic relationship you had with him. But now that he's gone, for good of course, you have to know that he asked me to hook up with him at one of the jocks' party a summer ago, and I'm really really sorry but I couldn't pass such an offer." She shrugged her shoulders, sounding anything but sorry as she threw her long blond hair over her shoulder before continuing,

"I sorry babe, I know he's a true jerk and all but a hot jerk so you couldn't blame me, right? Oh! And boy was he goo-" Surprisingly, while my hands itched to hurt her the entire time she talked about her former boyfriend, Elena was the first to slap her. Hard. 

"Fuck you!" Ellie's face looked redder than a ripe tomato, her jaw locked and I could only imagine the level of aggravation she's in. 

The surprise itself that took over Giselle's features was enough to make me smile proudly and I made a mental note to give my friend a high five.

Elena loved him so much, and that was a lot to say considering he broke her just as much, and Giselle knew it. She fricking knew. If her words were enough to make my blood boil hotly under my skin, I can't even imagine what Elena had felt like while the she-devil talked to her about how good her ex-boyfriend was in bed. I can't even. 

"What the fuck?!" Giselle's shriek came out so loud that it literally  this time made my ears ring as she held her left cheek in her hand. I could already make out the red slap mark on it. Go Ellie, I thought smugly. 

"Have fun covering those red fingers marking your cheeks baby." I told her, smirking as I dragged a very angry Elena away before she gets executed at such a young age. Looking over my shoulder one last time, I grinned as Giselle's slaves ran to her sides, muttering soothing words to her while she kept on rambling over how she's going to get back at us so bad and some other shit I don't care about. I blocked their bitchy voices out as  I focused on calming my best friend,

"You okay?" I whispered, staring into her glossy eyes that threatened to let loos the Niagara Falls. Pursing her lips, she nodded reluctantly letting  couple of tear drops fall out of her eyes, trailing down to the corner of her mouth. Sighing, I wiped the moisture under her eyes and pulled her into a tight hug,

"At least she was right when she said you left him for good." I told her, feeling her arms wrap slackly around my torso, burying her head into my hair as I inhaled her favorite Channel perfume,  

"Yeah, you're right." she nodded lightly, sniffing. 

"And about being good in bed," I continued with a smile, remembering the uncountable times she used to tell me all about him and his magic.  

"That too." she agreed making me chuckle and she quickly joined in. 

××××



What's up guyssss? I'm so happy you gave my book a shot, I hope you had fun reading! I'm still new at this so tell me if I can pass off as an author ^^ What do you think will happen next? I'm so excited to share my ideas with you as long as you share your love with me!! ;)

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Khadijah