02: He's Just Like Me?

❝ I knew you were trouble when you walked in, so shame on me now ❞

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I stole glances at him the entire lecture. My peripheral vision told me that he was beyond bored and yawned non-stop. Finally, he settled his hands on the desk, as he let his head fall gently on it, audibly sighing.

His face was resting in my direction and I could clearly see the Greek God he was. It was so very astonishing to see such a creation in itself. God really decided to pluck the best features and give them to Ray.

Everything about him was perfect.

Even if his lips were chapped and showed streaks of blood, even if his eye brow held the band aid I put on him and even if the little slant scar which adorned his left cheek looked brutal, it didn't mess up his insanely handsome face.

In fact, it made him look ten times more hot. Intimidating would be the right word.

I had this wildest urge to trace my finger over his face, explore every corner and nook of it just when he squinted an eye open. For a moment we just looked into each other's eyes before he spoke.

"I don't appreciate random people looking at me so if you could stop, I will be very much glad." His sudden, sarcastic and utterly rude response took me aback.

So much for helping him.

"I—I wasn't looking at y—" I helplessly stuttered.

"I don't care." And with that, he turned to the other side, as I searched for words. I couldn't even come up with a witty reply.

What had I even done?

Sure, I looked at him but it wasn't a crime. I mean, yeah, I guess staring was creepy, but can he blame me for having such a beautiful face? That was his fucking mistake. Or his parents. Or not?Anyways, he could've told me politely that he was uncomfortable and I would've understood.

Mr Smith's loud voice brought me back into the reality. "Im distributing these sheets across the room; look up the topics you've been assigned with your benchmates for the assignment."

A day into high school, and we already had homework piled up. Great.

No, wait a minute.

Benchmate?

Did that mean that I'd have to do the assignment with Ray?

No no no no. Not happening.

"Sir, do we have to compulsorily complete the assignments with our benchmate? Isn't it possible to choose other partners?" I dared to question, as the whole class eyed me, already bored.

Half of them had stuffed up the sheet in the farthest corners of their backpacks while the others had made a paper ball out of it and tossed it in the bin. The enthusiasm and commitment was...surreal.

"I think I have clearly mentioned that you have to do it with your benchmate. As in your case, Ms Williams, you'll have to do it with Mr Rutherford." I didn't like the way he emphasized on the 'have'.

I glanced down at the asleep boy while some people let out snorts and hysteric laughs.

A red head with tattoos all over her arms mouthed to me an all the best, her lips curling up to form an evil smirk as she picked up her bag and flung it over her shoulder when the bell rung.

I was into deep shit. I knew that Ray wouldn't be concerned with the assignment but I was. I needed grades to go to NYU.

Debating over whether to wake him up or not, finally, I hesitantly shook him. He budged a little but went back to sleeping. This time I shook him rather violently and he woke up, a startled expression stuck on his face.

"What the fuck?" He threw an annoyed and disguested look at me, assesing me from the top to bottom.

I subconsciously looked down at my outfit of the day—a pink sweatshirt, blue shorts and white sneakers— contrasting to his black leather jacket, black t-shirt and black ripped jeans paired with black combat boots.

"We have an assignment together." I blurted out, as he stopped in his tracks, turning his head back, giving me an amused look.

"And does it look like I care? You can do it own your own, for all that matters." He spat in a cold voice.

Something didn't seem right here. His cold voice. It was rather contrary to the desperate and soft voice he spoke to me in on the stairs when I helped him. Something told me he wasn't as he made everyone seem him to be.

"Mr Smith has clearly specified that both the partners must have an equal contribution in the assignment or else both of us will be graded a D. Don't you want an A?" I wasn't going to give up.

I needed good grades.

"An A?" He scoffed, running his hands through his jet black hair. "Of course that's what you'd care about, being the nerd you are. I won't do the assignment anyways, so leave me alone."

Nerd? Is that what I was to everyone? Is that what people pictured me as?

Anger boiled up inside of me as I decided that it was enough. Enough of listening to everyone's bullshit.

"I may be a nerd but atleast I'm a good person. A person who helps people through their shit unlike you who isn't even thankful for anything in life." His eyebrows raised at the cuss word, and for a second I thought a smile laced his lips. But it went away as fast as it came.

Weird. It seemed like he controlled what he expressed and what he said. Like he was careful to hide the real him.

"Whatever." Not uttering a word more, he walked away, his boots generating a slapping sound as they hit the cold granite floor in the empty hallways.

Fine. If he didn't care, I couldn't care more. I decided to talk to Mr Smith later. I was sure he'd understand.

Tired, I dragged myself to the other end of the school which was brimming with people. Lunchtime was always eventful and noisy excluding the gross noises of horny teenagers sucking each other's faces out.

My eyes landed on Katie who was sitting with a huge group of friends as they chattered on about a boy who had pissed on the flower beds in the school garden. The boy roared and sniggered as he recited his drunk dare and the girls giggled, battling their eyelashes, probably to get in his bed.

Katie had her arm flinged around Evelyn Johnson's shoulder, the queen bee of Moordale High. Prettiest, sexiest, hottest and the most bitchy girl in the campus to ever exist; Evelyn was on a "oh my god, come to parties with me" basis with Katie.

Everyone was friends with Katie. They all loved her. She had mutuals and friends more than the hundreds of books I had stacked up in my room. But I would rather have another hundred books than hundreds of friends. How didn't it get tiring?

Of course I never complained, she deserved to have a social life. It wasn't her mistake that I was the absolute nerd and an introvert, who didn't like to mingle with anyone unless they were obsessed with books, dark academia and BTS.

Sighing, I sat down on an empty table, fiddling and twisting my fork into the tasteless spaghetti.

The red head who I had seen earlier in class walked up to me, pulled a chair and plopped her tray on the same table.  Some people started whispering as I just blinked my eyes in confusion. Was it me or was it her?

Definitely not me. She must be famous or something. But then why would she sit with me?

"Hey nerd," she greeted, smirking as she set her plate down on the table.

"Can you stop calling me that?" Gritting my teeth, I spat out politely, not sure whether she genuinely wanted to initiate a conversation or wanted to tease the fuck out of me. She laughed, nodding her head in an affirmative. "Then what's your name? I didn't quite catch it earlier."

Whoa. Someone asked my name.

"June." Her eyes widened as she thought over it for a minute.

"That's a beautiful name. Suits you." She said nonchalantly, as she diverted her attention to her food. Is this how talking with new people felt like? It wasn't as exciting as it was said to be.

"What's your name?" I made an attempt to carry the conversation, not sure whether she would reply or snap. She looked up, speculating whether to tell me or not before she decided.

"Olivia Kennedy." She replied, shrugging her shoulders. "You're pretty!" I blurted out as she eyed me with an amused expression latched onto her face.

Well she was pretty. Her red hair complimented her pale white skin. Her eyes were a piercing yellow‐brown colour and her face was cut in the right places. Her jawline was sharp, angled perfectly. She had an athletic body which made her all the more attractive.

"Now, am I?" She asked, as she let out a half lopsided grin. I nodded, suddenly embarrassed to look her in the eyes and hence settled on diverting my focus on the food in front of me.

"So you're paired with Ray, it seems." My head darted up at her question as she wore a blank expression, waiting for me to reply.

"Well yeah, but he doesn't want to. I asked him and he just shooed me off. Boys." I rolled my eyes, wrinkling my nose up in disgust as I played over the uneventful conversation with Ray in my mind. She let out a soft laugh, shaking her head as if I had said something silly.

"Ray's just like you." She mused, as her eyes scanned me.

"Like me? Stop kidding, he's nothing like me!" I cringed, already disgusted at the thought of him being similar to me.

"Well he is. He's an introvert like you. He likes to keep his circle small like you. He doesn't bother to make new friends and he prefers to be left alone. The only point at which you both differ are that he hates to study and you practically live to study."

Was it?

"He seems like a boy who's upto no good." I let out, remembering his withering figure in the stairs. It was obvious that he had been in a fight and someone had beat him up. Olivia's eyes turned cold as she didn't respond. I feared that I may have said the wrong thing.

"I mean, I don't know what he's like, and I've never seen him in school either so..." I trailed off as Olivia's cold stare fixed on me.

"I understand," she said as she gathered her belongings and stood up. "Nice meeting you June." And with that, she walked off.

I definitely had said something wrong.

I felt a tap on my shoulder to see Katie looking down upon me, a frown stretched over her face.

"Hey Katie, how was your day?" I asked, as she sat down beside me.

"Boring. Slept in all the classes." Grinning, she picked up the juice carton and gulped a sip. "By the way, what were you and Olivia talking about?" She had an irritated expression on her face.

"Nothing serious, just general stuff. She's in my class so we exchanged a few words." She looked at me for a while before sighing.

"You really don't know who Olivia is, right?" She enquired as I shook my head. I didn't know, of course. I had just met her today.

"Olivia is famous for being friends with the school's so called bad boys, Ray and Simon. Their trio is unbreakable and they're often the root of unwanted things happening in school. They smoke, they do drugs and what not. Simon is the famous womanizer while Ray basically has bedded every other girl in Moordale High. Olivia is a human version of Satan, basically."

I hadn't got a chance to get to know Ray and Simon so it could be true or it couldn't be, but Olivia? She didn't seem to me like Satan. She seemed pretty cool.

"I don't know about the boys but Olivia was chill." Katie raised a brow as her mouth pursed into a thin line.

"June I know them more than you do. Please do me a favor and stay away from them."

"Well I can't because I'm paired with Ray on the recent assignment." Rolling my eyes, I took a bite of my food. Katie's eyes widened with horror as she clasped her right hand on her mouth.

"Wait what? June, you should change your partner. Should I talk to Mr Smith for you?"

"No, I want to figure it out. Let me think about it."

"There's nothing to think about! Don't you get it?" She stood up abruptly. "No, I don't know. You're changing partners. Period." She took my hand and started dragging me. It was after all, my choice to think about it. After what Olivia told me, I'd been reconsidering everything with Ray.

"Wait, I need to think about it." I stopped her as she looked at me with disgusting my eyes as if grossed out at the whole situation.

"So you want to do that assignment with Ray?" Her voice was cold, and final.

"NO, it's not like that." I held my forehead. "I—I just need to think about it. You are making it seem like I'm the bad guy here Katie. The assignment is already assigned and I have tried talking to Mr Smith once. I just...need to think again, okay?" I let it all out in a huffed breath, freeing my hand from her tight grip. She sighed as she stepped closer to me.

"Im just looking out for you June. You know how much you mean to me." Averting her gaze from me, she looked down, playing with her feet.

"I know Katie. I know, okay? So don't worry about me. I'll talk to Mr Smith, just give me some time."

She smiled and nodded as we both walked hand in hand towards the garden, moving towards a normal conversation. I refrained from telling her about my encounter with Ray before the first lecture. I knew she would panic.

Loud roars and whistles were heard as we reached the clearing behind the school building. Katie dragged me towards it excitedly assuming it would be a couple making out or asking each other out.

Katie lived for drama.

But the weird thing was that the people standing there were not smiling or cringing or hooting happily. There was horror stuck to some faces while some were deep in thought.

As we made our way upto the front, the scene that unfolded in front of my eyes made me go weak in my knees. I wanted to crumble and wither away. I think Katie felt the same because her grip on my hand tightened as her nails dug deep into my skin, drawing blood.

Ray.

Ray Rutherford.

He was beating a guy as if he wanted to kill him. Punches were awarded to him continously and the guy screamed and cried, his hands shaking dangerously.

I held back a scream, and bit my bottom lip to keep it in control.

Taken, I had seen fights. But never such gruesome and bloody as this. Ray wouldn't stop. He had this wild fire burning in his eyes that wasn't cooling down no matter how many times he hit the guy.

Olivia stood beside a guy, maybe Simon, as they both watched the scene. They didn't make any effort to stop him or hold him back. I wanted it to stop. But I couldn't do that.

My eyes suddenly met Ray's as he turned around to award the guy another kick in his groin but then his feet abruptly stopped. He kept looking at me and I'm sure he saw the horrified, scared expression etched on my face.

I suddenly caught a glimpse of guilt in his eyes but it moved away as fast as it came, replaced by the coldness. He averted his eyes from my gaze and looked down at the guy lying on the floor, almost lifeless, for a second before he walked away in an opposite direction.

Olivia's eyes burned into mine and she whispered something to the guy beside her, who then turned looked at me, his gaze curious. They both kept looking at me, until I peered down at Katie who was too frozen to even speak.

Her eyes communicated though. Her eyes told me that she wanted to get out of here as soon as possible.

I wanted that too.

As numb and horrified I was, I slipped my hand into Katie's and we both walked away, not before watching some suit claded men carrying him to the ambulance. The man who got beat up seemed to be in his late thirties.

What was he doing in a high school? Who were these posh looking people? I pushed away my curiosity as Katie's words rung in my mind.

I needed to talk to Mr Smith.

As soon as possible.

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2nd Chapter is down! What do y'all think about the story this far? <3