I woke up due to the alarm. Groaning, I got out of bed and yawned, clasping my hands over my head. I hit the stop button and took my glasses from the nightstand. My drawers were full of the Oreos that Marcus bought for me for Valentine's Day, the chocolates were in the fridge. I smiled at the memory and headed to the bathroom.

After the shower, I combed my hair into a ponytail and brushed my teeth. I left the bathroom and to my bedroom, searching for what to wear. I took my baby pink hoodie and wore that with black leggings and pink sneakers.

I grabbed my school bag and my phone and walked out of the room. My phone beeped and I checked it.

"Hey aunt." I smiled at Aunt Nora who was watching her favourite series and eating popcorn. She looked very tired, like she stayed up all night watching it. Her hair was a mess and her glasses were about to fall off.

"Morning Alyssa. Your lunch is on the kitchen table." she turned to me, returning a smile.

"Nora, are you okay? You look like you haven't slept in days," I asked, worridly. I took my lunch bag from the kitchen table.

She shook her head,"I'm fine, just catching up on this series." Her shaking hand changed to the next episode.

"Oh." I nodded.

"Do you want me to drive you to school?" she asked. " I heard it's about to rain."

"No it's okay, aunt. A friend is picking me up," I replied.

Aunt Nora snapped her head back to me,"Really? Well, this is new," she murmured the last part. I heard a car hoot from outside and assumed that it was Trick.

"Okay he's here," I said grabbing an apple from the kitchen table and walking to the door.

"It's a he? Ooh, I want to see." Aunt Nora stood up from the couch and followed me to the front door.

"Nora, please don't embarrass me," I begged.

Aunt Nora ran her fingers through her hair and made her hair a bit better. She opened the door and flashed a smile at Trick.

"Morning..." Aunt Nora trailed off, waiting for Trick to complete the sentence by saying his name.

"Trick," he said and smiled back at Aunt Nora.

"So, how do you know my niece?" she asked and I rolled my eyes, feeling myself heat up. "Are you her boyfriend?" As soon as Aunt Nora said that, we both turned red though Trick was smiling and I was covering my face. Groaning Aunt's name.

"No, no ma'am. She's a friend, she already has a boyfriend," Trick explained, his green eyes finally met mine. My knees went weak.

Aunt Nora furrowed her eyebrows and looked at me,"Alyssa," she mouthed. I knew that look. Aunt Nora wanted me to explain. I nodded in response.

"Later." I mouthed back and Aunt Nora nodded and moved away from the door so I could leave. "Love you, sweetie." she waved at me as I walked with Trick to the car.

"I love you too," I said, but quieter. Aunt Nora smiled and walked back into the house. Trick opened the passenger side of the car for me. "Thank you." I gave him a small smile, getting in the car. He shut the door and walked around the car, getting in the other side. He started the car and drove.

"So... Alyssa?" he said, breaking the silence.

"Mhm?"

"Um... I was thinking that... that we should go out after school." Trick glanced at me then back at the road. "We can go to the movies again and eat out."

"Oh, I'll tell Aaliyah--"

"No, not as a group thing," Trick said and ran his fingers through his hair. "Just me and you."

My heart pounding harder than before. I was getting nevrous, so I started playing with my fingers. "A- as in a d- date?" I stammered. Dang it.

Trick chuckled,"Aren't you dating Marcus or did you guys break up or something."

Oh yeah, the dating thing with Marcus.

I sighed. Why did I have to lie about it? Marcus was probably going to come back and tell everyone that I was lying. Then again, he saved me from the bullies, maybe he would do this favour for me.

"Um, yeah." I looked away.

"But you know, he won't know, he's not here." Trick smirked.

"But he is my boyfriend," I quirked my eyebrow at him.

No he isn't. Shut up.

Trick frowned but it was then replaced by a smile. "We can just go out as friends then, just two friends hanging out. There's no problem with that, right?"

"I guess," I replied and smiled back at him.

"Great."

Trick arrived at school and we slowed to a stop. I got out, trying to ignore the looks. I saw Trick stay in the car.

"Percy asked me to fetch him," Trick said and closed the door. He winked at me and drove away. I breathed deeply before I started walking in the school building.

No pranks yet.

Usually, when I enter the school building, something is poured over me like goo or soup.

I looked down while walking towards my locker. "Hey Alyssa," someone said and I looked up to meet eyes of an unfamiliar person. He was greeting me, and I didn't know him.

"Hey." I gave him a small smile.

He nodded and walked away.

I started walking, What the heck was going on?

I tripped since I didn't look where I was going. My bag's zipper was not properly closed so some of my papers of my notes and homework scattered on the floor. I quickly tried to gather them all before people stepped on them but something happened.

Something I couldn't believe.

Four students stopped whatever they were doing to help me pick up my papers and neatly put them together. "Watch where you are going next time, okay?" a girl said to me, smiling. "Need help with anything else?" she asked as she stood up. Two other students who had helped me pick up the papers had said bye to me and left.

"N- no," I answered, staring at the two girls in shock. I had recognised one, the Korean girl, Aeri. I would see her from time to time. She had never done anything bad to me like bully me, she would look at me like she pitied me.

"Okay, I'm Aeri and this is my friend, Emma," she gestured to her friend and Emma smiled.

"She doesn't talk much," Aeri said.

"I do, Aeri," Emma spoke then groaned.

Aeri turned to Emma," Ha! You see? You can't keep quiet for 5 minutes. Looks like I win the bet." Aeri chuckled. Emma rolled her eyes and took out her phone from her back pocket and gave it to Aeri. Aeri seemed like a cheerful person, she wore a short, white dress that had printed on flowers and pink heels.

"I hope we meet again." Aeri grinned.

Yeah, I mean we are in the same school so...

"Time to ruin your dating site. Why do you have a dating app?" Aeri asked Emma as they walked away.

I was still sitting on the floor, I only noticed that when people started looking down on me, smiling. I got up and walked to my locker, putting my backpack in the locker. I took out an Oreo for myself from my locker and closed it.

I started eating, though uncomfortably, while watching people smile and wave at me as they passed. It had the first time I had smiled to this many students in school.

"Lyssa!" I heard Aaliyah call me and I snapped my head to where she called me from.

"Hey." I smiled and Aaliyah hugged me. This was the also the first time I had ever hugged a friend. I never had friends before, but then I knew, having friends was awesome. I hugged her back and we pulled away.

"Just want to say thanks for yesterday, at least Trick noticed me now." she smiled. "I think I have a chance with him."

"Sorry?"

"I think I have a chance with him. We might date... probably. Fingers crossed." Aaliyah crossed her index and middle finger and laughed. I chuckled nevrously and turned away.

I did hope that Aaliyah and Trick to together but I also felt that I was starting to like Trick.

"Turn to page 224," Mr. Wing ordered and there was groaning of voices. Mr. Wing was our Maths teacher, and he was giving us a lot of homework.

And that was coming from me.

"Yo, Mr. Chicken Wings!" someone shouted from the back of the class. It was Kevin. The class snickered and Mr. Wing glared at Kevin.

"What do you call a chicken without wings?" Kevin asked the question trying to keep a straight face.

Mr. Wing didn't reply, but the silence made him uncomfortable so he finally answered,"What?"

"I don't know, you tell me." Kevin then burst out laughing and so did the class. I chuckled. The 'joke' Kevin just said wasn't even a joke, he was just trying to distract Mr. Wing from giving us more homework.

Mr. Wing shook his head, "You should really keep quiet, Kevin. Do you want to be the reason that this class gets extra homework?"

Kevin sighed and said,"Whatever."

Mr. Wing continued,"So you do--"

The bell rang and the class cheered. It was only our break, everyone rushed out the class and to the cafeteria. I waited for Aaliyah, leaning against my locker. I saw her exit the bathroom and a smile appeared on her face when she saw me. "Hey," she smiled and we walked to the cafeteria.

As soon as I entered the cafeteria, I received some attention but from being bullied a lot previously, I learned to ignore it. I sat at the table at the back as usual, as this time, not alone.

Trick and Percy approached my table and Trick sat next to me while Percy sat across. "Hey Percy." I smiled at him. Percy first glanced at Trick before he greeted me back.

I took out my lunch, which was a ham sandwich with cheese, plus peanuts and raisins as a snack. "Aunt didn't pack the grapes," I murmured in realisation to myself.

Trick chuckled,"You're so cute--"

"Aaliyah!" I interupted Trick when Aaliyah came to the table and sat down next to Percy.

"Hey Aaliyah." Trick winked at Aaliyah and she gawked at him. I cleared my throat and Aaliyah snapped out of it.

"Trick." she smiled and blushed, looking down at her tray of food. Percy noticed Aaliyah blushing and he shook his head, mumbling something.

"Oh my gosh, Alyssa!" Bree's voice sang. I rolled my eyes then saw her approach me with Veronica on her side. She squeezed between me and Trick,"Whoa, why were you two sitting so close together?" Bree eyed me and Trick. "Alyssa's dating Marcus so hands off, baby." Bree said to Trick.

Trick sighed,"Yeah, I think we all got that Bree."

"Then why are you two always hanging out together?" she asked as she took sip of Trick's apple juice.

Trick narrowed his eyes at Bree then replied,"We were hanging out as friends. Just because she's dating Marcus doesn't mean I can't hang out with her."

But I'm not even dating Marcus, that was one of the moments I regretted lying about dating the most popular person in school.

"Oh, why didn't you hang with her before? Mm?"

"Because he wasn't here before," I finally spoke up.

Bree grinned,"He arrived here two weeks ago, when you and Marcus were still dating, he only decides to be your friend when he leaves? What happens when Marcus comes back and sees you two acting like a couple," Bree said and stood up.

Um, he wouldn't care 'cause we're not dating.

I looked away, we had gained everyone's attention. And when I'm talking everyone, I meant even the lunch ladies.

"Uh, Bree," Aaliyah said, standing up. Bree moved her gaze to Aaliyah. The girls both glared at eachother, it looked like they were fighting mentally. "Alyssa can have as many guyfriends as she likes. Just because she's hanging out with one, don't assume that they are in a romantic relationship, so can you please leave us alone because I bet everyone in this table is sick of you," Aaliyah said.

Bree glanced at me and smirking Trick. I shrugged at her. Bree huffed and left with Veronica. Veronica was on her phone the whole time, yet she didn't bump into anyone or anything.

Aaliyah sighed a breath of relief and sat back down. "She's so annoying," she said, shaking her head.

"Eh, don't worry about her. No one really likes her," Percy said.

"Can we not talk about what just happened... please?" I looked them and they nodded.

The rest of the day was awesome, no one had laid a hand on me and no one pranked me. Instead, people have been really helpful and nice.

All because I said I was Marcus' girlfriend.

Everyone was scared of Marcus, they dared not to say or do anything harmful or Marcus would kill them or something.

Too extreme.

It was the end of the school day and Aaliyah had left me because her mother came to fetch her. I was left with Trick. Trick got inside his car and shut the car door.

"Well, aren't you getting in?" Trick asked.

"Um, no, I'm sorry. I can't go out with you."

I felt guilty.

Yes, I mean, I wasn't really dating Marcus but as his unknown girlfriend, I should be loyal to the guy.

"Why?" Trick frowned.

"Firstly I have a boyfriend--" I started.

Uhhh.

"And secondly I don't think he'll like me hanging out with other guys, especially when he's gone. And he doesn't know you," I told him and he sighed.

"I know Marcus." he let go of the steering wheel and ran his fingers through his hair. "We're friends."

"Oh, but still. My aunt will fetch me so don't worry. I'm sorry but I can't go with you, it just doesn't feel right, especially when some people think that I like you," I blushed at the last part.

Trick smiled,"Don't you like me?" he asked, from his seat, he leaned on the passenger seat.

"Um, as a- a friend, I do," I stammered, my face heated due to the question and how close Trick was.

After what felt like a long time of him staring at my face, he backed away and shrugged. "Okay, I'll see you soon. Can I pick you up tomorrow?"

"Sure."

Trick drove away and I sighed. I walked back home, I arrived and immediately went to my bedroom. I dropped my bag and fell face first on my bed then inhaled deeply before taking a nap.