**

The bell rang, indicating that it was time for lunch. As decided, I walked to my locker debating whether I should talk to him or not. It's driving me crazy and he doesn't even know that. Forget it. I am not talking to him.

It's lunch. That means food. Yay! Food can really help my mood. I was happily skipping to the cafeteria when Leah and Laura met me halfway.

"Why do you look so happy?" Leah asked, a little suspicious. What? Can't I be happy?

"Oh! You see it is lunchtime and I'm hungry. For a change, today we are having pasta with white sauce. You know I am in absolute love with it," I said, licking my lips by just thinking about my pasta that I am going to have in five minutes.

Yumm!!

"Want to tell me what happened this morning?" Laura asked, looking at me.

"Nope," I dismissed. She sighed. The conversation is over.

We entered the cafeteria and directly went to the line. Luckily, there wasn't much line. I took my pasta and a bottle of water, some orange juice, and went to our usual seat with Laura and Leah talking about the upcoming event.

Laura is a part of some school management. So we come to know about it before it's announced.

A few minutes later, Ashley entered. She looked angry. She sat down and threw her bag down beside her. Like really threw it.

"Woah, easy there tiger. What's got you so angry?" I asked her. A little scared for the person who might have done that.

"Oh, you'll see when they enter." They? Who are they?

As if on the cue, four boys or should I say four hot looking, drooling worthy, Greek god, entered the cafeteria. The whole canteen went silent. All the girls were drooling at them. If Beth was here she would have fainted. Well, she doesn't live here but comes to meet us frequently. Anyway, the problem is them.

Shit.

Like really. They were none other the school's badboys Ryan Baldwin, Jason Woswood, Alec Taylor and of course Chase Mason. I can't believe he befriended them, but what did I expect, that was bound to happen.

All of them were troublemakers-from what I see, my guess is- Chase is one of them too. Girls are surrounding them as if some superstars are sitting in front of them. All of them are players. Seen with a new girl every week.

They went to their table and sat down. Not even a second later, all the desperate girls were surrounding them. I rolled my eyes at them and turn to continue eating my food. I felt eyes on me so when I looked up, I saw the three of them staring at me.

"What? Do I have something on my face?" I asked, touching my face to see if something was there.

"No." Leah said as she continued staring at me, openly. Geez! She is making me self-conscious.

"Then why are you looking at me?" She didn't even blink. "Leah, staring is rude." I raised my eyebrow while telling her.

"Are you for real?" Ashley asked me. Now what did I do? I sighed.

"Even I got a bit, only a bit affected as they entered," Laura said slowly, as if explaining a child about how to open a present without tearing them like hyena.

Bad example? I know, but I can't think of anything else.

"So? You know I don't like to talk about boys or related," I said. "I don't like attention." They sigh and thankfully didn't say anything else.

**

The bell for the last period rang and all four of us decided to go to the nearby cafe where I work.

We entered the cafe and went to our usual seats. We often come here. I have a shift at 4 o'clock and now it's only 3. So we decided we'll hang out for a while here and then go our separate ways.

"What do guys want?" Alice, my co-worker asked. She is pretty in her own way. Red headed girl, but sweet when required. She is one of my good friends.

We gave our orders. She smiled at me which I returned and then she left. We were talking about the trip that our school is planning on taking us when the door to the cafe opened and entered the four Greek God of our school. Yup, the badboys. That's what I like to call them.

Alec looked our way, smirking while whispered something to the other boys. All of them looked our way and began walking towards our table.

"Why are they coming here?" Ashley asked. I tried not to panic. I don't like attention and nor can I talk to boys while the rest can.

I looked here and there anywhere, except their way.

"Hey Leah, girls," Chase greeted nodding our way.

"Can we sit with you guys?" Ryan asked, giving us his charming smile.

"No." Laura answered. Ryan raised his eyebrow. I snorted at her response, causing their attention to turn towards me, but I tried to make it sound like a cough, but I guess I'm too bad at it.

"Any problem there, sweetheart?" Chase asked. I blushed and refused to look at him. I hide my face with my hair as they fell like curtain around my face.

"No."

"Hmm." I know he was looking at me. But I continue to stare at the table in front of me.

"We don't have a problem. You can sit with us," Ashley pepped in. No, I don't want them to sit with us.

"So what are you guys doing here?" Alec asked.

One thing I notice is that Jason wasn't much of a talker.

"Nothing just talking about the trip our schools is taking us," Leah answered. Alice came back with our drink, only to be surprised to see more people at our table. She kept our drinks and asked the boys what they wanted.

The conversation took place back and forth, but I didn't say anything, occasionally answering the question directed towards me.

It was 4 o'clock, time for my shift. I was just a cashier. Liam doesn't like me working. It took so much for me to convince him to let me work. Eventually, he agreed.

People came by, ordered, paid and left. It was nearly 7 at night. My shift was over by then. I went to the staff's room to get my bag. When I came out, I saw Chase sitting where we were sitting before. I thought all of them left while I was working, but I guess not.

Maybe he was waiting for one of his fling. I ignored him and stepped out, ready to walk home.

"I was waiting for you, you know," Chase said as he fell in steps with me.

"Don't you have a date or something, you were waiting for?" I looked at him.

"No, I was waiting for you to finish your shift so we could walk home together." He said.

"Why?" I asked as if it was the most obvious thing. "Why would you wait for me?"

"Well, it's already late. You shouldn't be walking home this late."

"I usually have my car, but it's gone for repairing. Anyway, it's not my first time," I said. Silence took place between us. We reached our house without any further talks. Both of us in our thoughts.

"Guess I'll see you tomorrow," I said. He smirked at me.

"Don't miss me too much, princess," I rolled my eyes at him.

"You wish." I said.

"I wish a lot of things." I made face at him. He only chuckled and went inside as I went to mine.

Now I have something very important to do.

**

The next morning, I got a call from Ashley saying that she couldn't pick me up. So I decided to walk instead of asking either of my parents to drop me off.

"Sweetie, why don't you go with Chase?" Mom suggested.

"No Mom, I can walk to school," I answered.

"I already asked him. He doesn't have a problem. So you shouldn't either," She said in a motherly tone. I sighed, agreeing with her.

The door bell rang and I open the door, only to be greeted by Chase who stood there looking hot.

"Ready?" He asked. I nodded my head as we went to his car. I opened the passenger seat as he went to the driver's seat.

We were good 5 minutes away from our house when I decided to break the silence, "Thanks for the ride." I awkwardly thanked him.

He smirked at me. "Don't sweat it, sunshine. I give every needy girl what they want," He winked at me. Leave it to him to make any sexual comment.

"Yeah, as if I'll ask you," I rolled my eyes.

"You never know," he said as he parked his car. We got out of the car to see everyone looked at us. My whole body warmed because of the attention that was on us or specially me. I looked down and hurried inside.

When I entered, the first thing I saw was that Ashley's face had a look of shock as she stared at something in front of her.

I slowly made my way towards her to see what has got her so baffled. When I saw, I burst into fits of laughter. Soon enough Ashley joined me and so did the rest of the student population.

There in front of me, hanging from the ceiling was the photo of Jeff sleeping with his thumb in his mouth, like when a baby sleeps. Trust me when I say, it wasn't even adorable.

Written down on the picture was -

Oh God! My stomach ache from laughing so much. The whole school population that was present there, started laughing. It's was so funny.

At that exact moment, Jeff entered the school. All of them doubled over their laughter as they saw him. At first, he was confuse, but when he saw what people were laughing at, his face turned bright shade of red.

Serves him right. I held back my smirk as Chase and his gang entered and started making fun of him.

He looked at everyone at the hallway, but stopped when his eyes fell on Ashley. He stormed towards her, cursing under his breath.

"You bitch. I know you did it. What the hell do you think of yourself? You are nothing but a piece of-" before he could finish his statement and come any close to Ashley, I slide between them, so I was face to face with Jeff.

He scoffed down at me, "Get out of my way, you nerd."

I smirked at him, "What makes you think I'll listen to you." I heard the crowd gasp. I know, not everyone knows that I can talk.

"You shouldn't come in between. It doesn't concern you," he said. Then glanced back at Ashley and looked at me. "Wait! Of course, you are her best friend. So you will come to her rescue. But a nerd like you should go in a corner and hide herself or she might not know what's coming her way." He looked at Ashley now and said, "Listen, you bitc-"

Smack.

He didn't get time to complete his sentence as I slapped him across his face. I was beyond angry. No one speaks to my best friend this way and specially not in front of me.

A look of surprise washed over his face. In fact, all of them looked surprised. The look they gave me was like they never expected me to do something like that.

I took a step closer to a fuming Jeff as his checks were red from my hand where I smacked him and said, "You listen here, Jeff and listen very carefully. She's not a bitch, but you definitely are an asshole. You want to know why? Because an asshole like you would ask a girl to come to party with her, then dump her and use her to make your ex jealous. That's what an asshole move is. As for friend, yes I am her best friend. I will support her, unlike yours who are laughing at you." I looked at his friend who now sobered because of my comment.

I smirked at them and looked back at Jeff with a hateful glare I could muster.

I turned to walk away but turned again, so I was facing Jeff. I walked towards him, looked him straight in the eye and said, "If I see you near Ashley or any of my friends for that matter. I promise you it won't be good."

With a last glare, I turned around to walk in Ashley direction. Without stopping, I took her wrist and dragged her behind me. I know everyone was stunned by my reaction. If Emma was here, she would have been proud of me.

I know I did the right thing because when I looked at Ashley, she had a grateful smile on her face.

**