→ Sometimes, what may seem the most unlucky, may be the luckiest

→ I'm so freaking glad I met you

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be Cinderella for halloween!"

"Well..." daddy droned, tapping his finger against his chin as if he was thinking. "You already are a princess so it will be perfect!"

I smiled in delight before suddenly getting suspicious. "Daddy, am I reeeeeally a princess?" I asked.

"You're my princess, bumblebee."

"Daddy?" I ask, looking up to get a clear view of his face. "Everyone at school has a mommy, do I have a mommy?"

Daddy's face hardens for a second but goes back to his smiling expression, so soon that my little mind didn't even comprehend the mood change.

"That's okay daddy! I don't need a mommy, I have you!"

"And I have you princess!" He replied, his usual grin back before grabbing me in a bear hug and kissing my forehead.

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"So, you must be the new girl?" I felt a presence above my shoulder and looked up to see a pretty brown haired girl hovering over me. She had curly brown which was pulled into a ponytail that reached half way down her back. Her dark brown eyes and contagious smile soon had me smiling as well.

Her question seemed friendly enough, not a question of hate but out of pure curiosity. "Yup, that's me, just joined today," I rambled.

"Don't worry, I know. Everyone heard about your run-in with the boys today," she laughed, wiggling one of her eyebrows suggestively.

"I bet they did." I rolled my eyes, scoffing. High schoolers these days had nothing better to do than sticking their noses in other peoples' business.

The brown haired girl pulled a chair back, scraping it against the tiled classroom floor, and took a seat next to me. "I'm Alexis, you can call me Alex," she introduced.

"Well, I'm sure you already know but I'm Jessica, and you can call me... Jessica?" She laughed at my poor attempt of humor. "Who are those boys anyway?" I ask, out of curiosity to put names to the faces.

"Basically your cliche popular boys. Well so they are two kinda popular groups at our school. One is Mason, Aiden, Jackson, and that group," she started, confirming my theory about their popularity. "And then there's the group you pissed off." I shudder at her choice of wording. "Tyler is the goofball of their group, then Jackson. Well, everyone calls him Jack. And he's like the player and-" She was interrupted by a petite woman rushing inside the classroom. The entire room quieted down and everyone seemed to turn their attention towards her. The teacher, I assumed.

She had short blonde hair that was pulled into a ponytail and glasses that were pushed so far up, the rim skimmed against her forehead. She seemed to be in her mid 30's and wore a plain blue top that reminded me so much of the jerseys we had at my old school.

"Quiet, quiet! Today, we are going to start a new project! Oh wait! Before we do that! Let's have our new student introduce herself today!"

My eyes widened as all heads turned around, eyes searching for a new looking face. I gulped before kicking my chair back with my foot and standing up. All pairs of eyes turned to face my direction, observing my every move.

I hate introductions in general. My inability to say anything positive about myself used to be concerning but now, I had just gotten used to it. I had no time for any fun or extracurriculars while living with my mother and I probably never would. Once my so-called brothers got tired of me, they would ditch me and I would be on my own yet again.

Shaking my head to get out of my thoughts, I took a shuddering breath. "Uh... Hi... My n-name is Jessica." One blazing gaze caught my eye and I met the eyes of the third boy I had pissed off earlier. The one Alex didn't get to naming yet. Uh oh. He didn't look that happy to see me.

She nodded, satisfied with my stuttering introduction. I sat back down in my chair and eyes slowly started turning back to the front of the classroom. One gaze though didn't falter and continued burning a hole on the side of my head. The third boy. I wanted to walk right up to him and ask him if he was so hurt by my speaking up to him and call him an idiot but I knew that wouldn't get me anywhere. Instead, I ignored his gaze and tried to focus on the teacher.

"...starting final group projects," she was saying. Immediately, several heads turned towards each other, making eye contact and nodding. I smiled at the memory of how I always read my classmates communicating through what my dad taught me about reading people. "And no, before you ask, I'll be the one assigning your groups."

Groans and complaints echoed throughout the classroom but the teacher only shook her head, not willing to budge.

"Damien and Rose, Christina and Dylan..." the teacher called on. I perked up when she got to Alex's name, hoping I got assigned with the one friendly face I saw in the classroom. I slouched again when my luck wasn't working and she was assigned with a girl named Kate.

"Ryan and Jessica," I heard her call finally. I looked around the room, hoping to get any clue who this "Ryan" dude was. I heard Alex stifle a snort besides me and turned around to see her looking at me with an evil smirk filling her innocent looking face.

"Who in heck is Ryan?" I whispered fiercely, already feeling exhausted by this day.

"The dude who seems to despise you so much," she subtly pointed her finger towards the other side of the room, making it seem as if she was just playing with her pencil. I followed the point of her finger to see the third boy still staring at me.

He's Ryan?!

His amused look seemed to grow when he saw how nervous I was. Today has officially been decided as my death day.

I twirled my hair absentmindedly but was broken out of my daze when a series of chair screeches and shuffling began. I looked up to see the pissed looking boy still seated at his desk. Sighing, I stood up and walked over to the open seat near his desk. He spared me a glance, no, a glare, before turning back to his staring contest with his desk.

I cleared my throat, knowing I have to take initiative if I wanted to pass this class. I refused to risk failing this class just because of one annoying boy. "So, what are your ideas on ways we can solve this problem?"

"I don't care," he replied dryly. What more did I expect, him to actually give me ideas? I ignored him after one roll of the eyes and slid a paper out of my bag to start brainstorming ideas. Playing with my pencil, I tried to concentrate but it was hard with all the noise and the irritating sound of Ryan tapping his nails on his desk. It was starting to get on my last nerve and I exhaled loudly trying to calm myself.

Maybe he would stop if I just asked him nicely.

"Hey Ryan?"

He looked up for a minute out of pure surprise that I would be calling his name. He quickly re-arranged his expression though to a glare. "What?" If stares could kill, I would be six feet under.

"Could you please stop doing that?"

He just smirked, playing dumb. "Doing what?"

I gritted my teeth, seeing under his 'innocent' act too clearly. "Tapping your nails."

"Oh! That!" He acted as if he had found an amazing discovery. "Let me think.... Oh wait! No!"

Oh, who was I kidding! Of course he wouldn't stop! I sighed loudly, unable to listen to take this any longer.

And just then, as if god had answered my prayers, the bell rang loudly. Turns out the phrase "saved by the bell" was actually true! Not being able to sit in this seat next to this idiot any longer, I swooped down to pick up my bag and speed walked out of the classroom, as fast as my legs could take me.

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