Vicky clutched the timetable and locker keys to her chest as she hurriedly walked up to her first class---Maths.
Why would anyone be so cruel as to start their day off with geometry was anyone's guess, but that is what Levi had chosen so Vicky was onboard with it as well.
She paused at the entrance to her classroom. A tall, thin mustached man was drawing complex shapes on the blackboard.
"Can anyone tell me the area of this polygon?" he asked turning to face the classroom.
Most of the students were not paying attention, some were staring out the window, a few were tracing doodles at the edges of their copies and Levi---Levi, sitting in the left most seat at the end of the classroom was actually studying.
"Five hundred." Levi said suddenly, his deep voice filling the void. Vicky felt her heart flutter slightly as locks of unruly dark hair fell over his face. He was wearing a pair of thin rimmed glasses, that covered his darker eyes. Vicky knew he was a jerk, knew he was insensitive and selfish and...knew that she was not, yet, over him.
"Mr. Speckovsky?" interrupted a girl up on the front row. "There's someone at the door."
The mustached man looked at Vicky and gave her a welcoming smile. "Hello. Come on in and introduce yourself. You are new here right?"
Vicky nodded, her legs taking her mechanically into the classroom. Full of students...and boys.
Her knees were shaking suddenly and her hands felt clammy. She was breaking out into a cold sweat, was she going to faint? Calm down Vicky, calm down, you can do this. You Can Do This.
"Hi." she said and took a deep breath. "My name is Victoria Fannington. You can call me Vicky."
She did it. She didn't stutter. She didn't stammer...she---
"Hey, aren't you that chef chick's daughter?" called out a shaggy haired guy from the back.
"Which chef chick?" asked a guy in the middle row. "The cute one? Or the hot one? Cause this one if both." he added with a disgusting wink. Vicky was overwhelmed with the directness of it all.
"Yeah that's right." said the girl up in front whirling back to scrutinize Vicky. "What the hell is she doing here?"
"Well--well I -I -I" started Vicky, her insecurities catching up to her.
"There's an empty seat over here." came a familiar rich, deep voice. Vicky's eyes daretd up to meet his bespectacled gaze. "Mr. Speckovsky, the answer to the problem on the board is five hundred."
"That is correct." said the mustached man, clearly snapping out of his reverie. Vicky was sure he watched 'Baking Hacks with Paula' too. "Go on Vicky, take the seat behind Mr. Walters."
Vicky nodded gratefully, hurriedly walking up to the table behind Levi.
"Thank you." she said as she sat down on the chair, relief evident in her eased breathing.
Levi gave her a slight nod, but didn't turn back to look at her.
Vicky was not good at geometry, or arithmetic, or algebra or any math to be accurate, but looking at Levi's muscled back sheathed beneath his thin grey T-shirt, his curly tufts of hair just within her reach and listening to his deep, deep voice when he wasn't fighting with her was worth it.
"So Vicky can you answer this for me?" asked the teacher when she was in the middle of a particularly whimsical daydream.
"Um," she stared at the blackboard to see what looked like cuboid on top of a sphere, surrounded by a cube. There were numbers written all around it, none of which made any sense to Vicky.
"What is the radius of the sphere?" he asked pleasantly, clearly expecting Vicky to be able to answer.
"I don't---" she started but stopped as she saw a crumpled piece of paper at her desk.
"Eight. The radius is eight." she said with a covert glance at the beautiful handwriting, which she recognized to belong to Levi.
"Brilliant. That is correct." said Speckovsky returning to the board and solving it for the benefit of everyone, including Vicky.
Vicky could have cried tears of happiness when the bell finally rang for the next period, except that Levi got up and left without as much as a glance towards her.
Vicky gathered up her notebooks and followed him out. After all they now had physics class, together.
***
"Hi. I am Vicky." she said a bit clearer this time as she introduced herself to the class once more.
A girl with thick rimmed spectacles smiled at her. "Hi Vicky, would you like to sit here, this place is empty."
Vicky nodded, coming up to sit beside her.
"I'm Traci." she said, tucking her blonde hair behind her ears. "I hear you are someone famous' daughter."
Vicky laughed. "Somewhat. My mom's a chef."
A good natured, short woman entered the classroom just then. "So you kids ready to learn about refractive indexes today?"
There was a general murmur of agreement and the lesson passed without too much of a problem.
***
"I have Biology Lab right now." said Traci with a smile. "What do you have?"
"Computer Science Lab." said Vicky with a grin. Finally a subject for her to shine in!
"Okay then Vicky," said Traci as she walked off. "See you at lunch!"
Vicky nodded before rushing off to find the computer room. She got a little late looking for the room before finally finding it sandwiched between the chemistry and physics laboratories.
"Hi, I am Vicky." she said automatically as thirty pairs of eyes looked towards her. Levi sitting at the far corner didn't pay any attention to her.
"You are late." said a tall, thin woman standing by the desk. "I do not tolerate tardiness in my class."
"I'm so- sorry." said Vicky hurrying to explain. "I I was was a little lost."
"Get out." said the woman coldly.
"What?" asked Vicky confused. She was only five minutes late...
"Did you not hear me?" asked the woman glaring daggers at poor Vicky.
"Y-yes." she said turning and leaving, not noticing that Levi was watching her go.
***
Vicky sat down at the empty cafeteria for an extended lunch. She had never been kicked out of a class before or felt so horribly incompetent at school.
She pulled out her big lunch bag and stared at it. She wasn't hungry at all.
Sighing she laid her head down in the table, her forehead bumping against the red plastic as she closed her eyes in frustration.
Tap. Tap. Tap.
She opened her eyes and looked up.
"Hey Princess." asked the lip ringed guy---David.
Vicky sat up straight. "Hi Dave-David."
He raised an eyebrow at her as he sat down opposite her.
"I saw Ms Kieth show you the door." he said smoothly playing with the chain around his neck. He was wearing a death metal t-shirt today. Vicky hadn't heard of the band before but "Slay the Dragons" sounded pretty bad-ass.
"You you were in the the same cl-class?" she asked. She hadn't spotted him there.
"Yes. I was." he said with a lazy nod. "Aren't you gonna eat that massive lunch of yours?"
"How- how did you leave so soon?" she asked. "Were you you kicked out too?" she added hopefully.
David laughed. "No Princess, not today. Today I just finished my work really fast and headed out."
"You code?" asked Vicky in surprise. She opened her lunch bag to pull out two sandwiches.
"I love to code. But my passion's in data security." he said accepting one of the sandwiches.
"Wow." said Vicky with a nod. "That is amazing."
"You---what do you like?" he asked, taking a bite. "Man this is good. Did your mom make these?"
"Yes she did." said Vicky with a smile. "I'm more into ethical hacking, though I enjoy coding too."
The bell rang loudly for lunch, just then, as students took to the halls and headed towards the cafeteria.
"Hacking?" repeated David thoughtfully as he contemplated another bite.
"Hacking." she confirmed.
"Wow." he said finishing off his sandwich. "Thanks. This was delicious."
"There's more!" said Vicky pulling out a box of pasta. "This is mom's special cheese pasta. You have to try this."
The cafeteria was filling up with people now, with Traci spotting Vicky and waving at her.
Vicky waved back just as David stood up. "Thanks but maybe some other time. Your friend is here, I think. See you later." said David giving her a sly wink and walking off. He was sexy when he did that and Vicky tried not to stare too much.
"Vicky!" said Traci as she sat down in David's place. "How was class?"
"I got sent out." said Vicky feeling slightly embarrassed.
"Ms. Keith is really strict." said Traci nodding sympathetically. "So I'm guessing you're not going to buy lunch."
"No. Here, try this pasta." agreed Vicky as sh handed her new friend a spoon.
"Oh my God." said Traci as she put the food in her mouth. "This is heaven! I seriously lucked out when you sat beside me in physics class."
Vicky laughed as she tucked in too. She didn't notice the pair of eyes watching her and she didn't feel alone.
Most of all, she didn't feel that the world revolved around Levi anymore.
He was her crush, yes, but she was quickly realizing that there was so much more to life than just him.
A/N:
What do you think of David and Traci?
Thanks for reading everyone!