chapter 5

  The next day, I woke up and followed the usual routine and headed downstairs for breakfast.

As expected, my dad was already seated at the dining table. I dropped my backpack and joined him. Mom walked in and served dad. I walked over and kissed her cheek, "Good morning, Mom."

"Morning Darling."

I also kissed my dad's cheek. "Morning dad."

"Good morning, Sweetheart."

"How was your night?" Dad asked.

"It was lovely."

"Where's Charlotte and Miles?" I asked.

"Here I am," Miles answered as he entered.

"Good morning everyone."

"Morning," we replied him.

"How was your night?" Mom asked him.

"Great."

"Seems like I beat you to it today," I grinned.

"Yeah. Whatever," Miles replied.

"Where's Charlotte?" Miles asked.

"Still up. I should call her to come down." Mom said then she yelled, "Charlotte Darling, come down for breakfast."

"I'm coming Mom," she yelled back.

She came down few minutes later.

As always, Dad finished up before us and off he went to work.

"So, you wanna walk today?" Mum asked me, after breakfast.

"Definitely not."

"Well, I guess that's settled then," she smiled.

Charlotte, as I could see wasn't happy about it. 

"Why can't you walk to school? Just yesterday, you wanted to walk. Why don't you want to today?"

I grinned, "I don't feel like today and moreover, I'm walking from school."

"Let's go," Miles said heading for the door.

***

Later, I was about to enter the school building when a familiar voice called my name.

"Dayton, wait up," I turned to the direction of the voice and saw Adrian jogging over.

Gosh, he's so cute, I thought. Stop it Dayton, my head yelled. He's a no-go-area. Allison LIKES him.

He finally reached me and stopped.

"Hi Adrian."

"Didn't see you again yesterday. I last saw you in the cafeteria."

"Yeah, I guess we had different classes," I answered as we continued walking.

"Where's Allison?" He asked.

"Haven't seen her yet," I replied.

"Do we have the same class this morning?" He asked again. 

"We do. Allison told me when she checked my schedule yesterday."

"That's great. We'd walk together but can we stop by at my locker?" He asked.

"No problem. I need to stop at mine too."

He smiled. "Cool."

We stopped at his locker first because it closer than mine. As he got busy, his so called best friends came.

"Dude," one spoke.

Adrian turned.

"Oh, hey guys," he grinned and fist bumped them all.

"Dude! What are you up to this time?" The guy who I recall his name being Desmond asked Adrian also grinning.

"What else would I be up to? I'm getting my stuff for class."

"And who is she?" Bryant asked Adrian with a smirk, referring to me.

Seriously? I was standing just close to them. Or did he expect me not to have heard that?

Bryant and Desmond laughed.

"Guys stop it. She's new here. Allison introduced me to her," Adrian told them.

"Uh huh" Desmond and Bryant cooed.  

Zachary didn't seem interested. He kept looking around as if waiting for someone. It looked as if he was dragged there. He said nothing but it's not like k cared.

Adrian turned again to pick something from his locker and I walked away without any of them noticing because they were obviously too busy asking Adrian about me or too busy not caring.

I entered another hallway and went straight to my locker.

When I opened my locker, someone tapped me.

I turned to see a-not-so-happy Allison.

"Where have you been? I've been looking all over for you," she said. Even though we had just met the day before, we seemed to have some type of connection- like we've known each other longer than that.

"Sorry, I met Adrian on my way," I explained.

"Where's he? You guys have class together."

"I left him with his friends who were talking about me like I wasn't right next to them.

I walked away and yet, none of them noticed. Can you believe that?" I ranted.

She shrugged and the bell rang.

   "Let's head to class."

***

THIRD PERSON

After shutting his locker, Adrian turned and looked around but couldn't find Dayton. He blinked, staring at the spot she was once at.

"Way to go guys, you scared her away."

The others turned to look.

"Oh no!  And I haven't even introduced myself to her," Desmond whined.

"Me too," Bryant said.

"Too bad," Zach said without any sign of interest. He really doesn't care about the new girl. To him, it means another girl to come after him and he's tired of it.

The bell went for the first period.

Desmond, Bryant and Zach turned and began to leave.

"Seriously guys!" Adrian yelled after them.

"See ya later dude," Bryant said and they all waved without looking back. 

What's the use? We don't even have the same class right now.

Adrian walked off to his class, thinking of apologizing to Dayton. He entered his first class, looked around and saw Allison and Dayton talking.

"Alright settle down class," the teacher yelled as he walked in.

***

DAYTON

The bell went for end of the lesson. I packed up and so did Allison.

"There she goes again," Allison lamented.

"Who's she?" I asked and looked at the direction she was looking.

"Oh," I mumbled sighting Adrian and Eliza. Eliza was obviously flirting with Adrian.

I watched as Eliza twirled part of her hair in her fingers as she chewed gum. Then she giggled and hit Adrian playfully on the shoulder.

"Let's go," Allison started to pull me out of class. She let go of me once we were out.

"You should have just allowed me to walk myself and not pull me all the way here."

"Sorry," she apologized. I could see she wasn't comfortable watching them. We continued to talk as we walked.

"I thought they are always together."

"They are. Trust me, they always are - except when they have different classes," she told me.

She continued, "Eliza always jumps at an opportunity to talk to Adrian."

I smiled, "She's..."

"Dayton," I got interrupted. We turned and Adrian met up with us.

"Hi Allison."

"Hi," Allison smiled.

He turned to face me, " Dayton, I'm really sorry about earlier."

"It's no big deal. Don't worry about it," I told him.

"It's just that those guys could be jerks atimes," he lamented.

We all laughed.

"What's funny?" Someone asked. It was Bryant and Desmond.

"Just telling them about you guys," Adrian answered.

"Must be lovely things then." Desmond grinned.

"Of course," Adrian smirked.

"I'm Desmond. Pleased to meet you. What's your name?" He took my right hand and kissed it.

"Dayton," I smiled.

"And I'm Bryant." He did the same.

Gosh! These guys are so funny.

Adrian rolled his eyes at their display before finally asking "Where's Zach?"

"Having a 'private' conversation with Paige," Bryant did air quotes when he said private.

We were all walking together so Allison and I could hear them. 

"I can tell that Zach is starting to going soft with Paige cause he couldn't stand her presence before," Desmond said.

"Yeah. You're right," Adrian nodded.

"See you guys later," Allison told them when we had to go into another hallway.

"Yeah. Later," they waved.

"I'm sure Paige's happy now," Allison said irritated.

"I think they'd make a perfect couple."

"Whatever."

***

When it was lunch break, Allison and I walked to our lockers and then to the cafeteria. We got food and found a place to sit. I went to got a bottle of water from the vending machine and managed to bump into someone on the way back to our table.

I know what you must be thinking - that I'm clumsy and keep bumping into people.

"I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to....," I trailed off as I saw the person's face. No one else but the jerk I bumped into yesterday.

"You again!" He exclaimed.

The look on his face wasn't pleasant at all.

People were suddenly loosing interest in their food. One after the other, they were focusing on us.

I could imagine them whispering to each other since Zach's popular, I'm kinda new and all.

"I'm sorry. It was a mistake," I pleaded not really looking sorry.

"Like I said yesterday, I wasn't concentrating," I added.

"You're...."

"Stupid?" I cut him off. "Then I guess we're both stupid then." I said and walked off without looking at his face.