The last lesson we have to suffer before the start of the Christmas holidays is Geography. Mr Morris appears absolutely delighted by this.

"Now, now, children!" He grins malevolently at the class of seventeen year olds before him. "Don't go thinking that just because it's almost Christmas this lesson is going to be all song and dance and Christmas carols, no!" He sits at his desk and shakes his head. "I'm afraid we still have to do some work. Yes that's right! Work."

Everyone in the class stares back at him darkly. I'm half expecting him to give a manic cackle and pull out a black cat and broom from his arse.

"So what have we got in store?" Mr Morris asks the class. "I want you all to go over all the delta, estuary and changes to coastal areas work we've been doing and present it, and I don't want any posters. I want detailed data."

At once I groan, the way rocks are swished about by the sea isn't what I'd exactly call my favourite topic.

"But," Mr Morris suddenly adds, pointing his index finger upward to pause us all groaning, "I don't want to be a total Grinch, if you pardon the pun." After laughing at his own joke he continues, "Seeing as it is the last day, I'll let you choose your own groups."

Well, actually that is kind of good for him, considering how much he loves his alphabet.

I catch sight of Imogen immediately leaping up and gathering her things into her arms. Great, she's finally bothering to come over for once instead of me always going to her. I wait for her to come over while leaning back in my chair.

She doesn't.

Instead of heading my way, she makes a beeline towards Max's desk; there she dumps all her stuff. I sit, staring at them and feeling more than a little insulted. My own friend's just abandoned me for some guy she only got together with yesterday.

Huffing, I look behind me to see who Oliver is with. His entire group consists of girls. He has two of them giggling and whispering to him flirtatiously while he just chats to them idly. Oh good lord. I'd bet anything he met them at the Christmas dance, and I bet everything he took one of them home last night.

Shaking my head in disapproval and knowing I don't want to be in a group that resembles a harem, I search for anyone else I can be in a group with.

Georgia's already with some people, as are most of the people I recognise or am friends with. Great. As I glance over the class, a peculiar sight catches my attention. Two girls are huddled at the back of the class, isolating themselves away from everything and everyone. I'm surprised to see its Elle and Stacey.

Usually they'd be with the group Imogen's just joined, the one that consists of all the people Elle prides being friends with like Max and Luke Carter. But she's not with them. Instead she and Stacey, the only ones in their group, sit away from everybody. Elle's ignoring her friend and just typing away furiously at her phone while Stacey sits awkwardly next to her, looking like she wants to be anywhere else.

An unexpected pang of sympathy hits me. And then I remember the way Elle wanted to end things with Levi and the way she wanted to make a show of it. I wouldn't be surprised if Levi's friends aren't too happy with her either. I wouldn't be.

"Ruby, I judge you're not going to be doing this task all by yourself?" Mr Morris looks down at me from behind his large tortoiseshell glasses that magnify his eyes tenfold. I let out an embarrassed laugh and get up, gathering my things in my arms.

"Ha ha no!" I smile too brightly. "I'm just... uh, going to go to my group now." With that I quickly hurry away from him for fear of being giving a task sheet anyway and having to do everything myself.

My footsteps quickly slow as I head closer towards the clump of desks that have been pushed together for everyone to sit around. I've never really talked with most of the people Imogen's sitting with and have only worked with them occasionally which doesn't make the stirring apprehension I feel when I approach them surprising.

From here I can see Luke laughing about something at what an insanely pretty girl called Natalia Cook has just muttered to him behind her hand as Levi sits glancing down at his phone beside her. The rest of the group is composed of Imogen and Max and a girl wearing a wool scarf having a conversation with a boy from another group.

These are the type of people that are at the top of the stupid social hierarchy and the type of people I can't really stand.

Nervousness settles into my stomach rapidly as I hesitate for a second, debating whether to actually join Oliver and his 'friends'. But more than anything, it isn't the people who probably sweat designer perfume and bathe in it, but Levi. The idea of being in a group with him voluntarily rather than being sorted with him doesn't exactly seem fun.

Mentally shaking my head, I tell myself to stop being such a wimp and swallow down my uneasiness. Straightening and walking a little faster, I head over to the group.

Luke looks up at me with interest as I stand before them. I don't know him that well but recognise him from my Maths classes, in which he does exceptionally well. His dark brown hair and eyes don't make him that memorable in a crowd but his intellect, which I've heard lots of girls find attractive rather than geeky, does.

Glancing away from him, I look down at Imogen with a frown. "Thanks for abandoning me."

She looks up at me and gets off of Max, who she was leaning against. Her eyes widen. "Oh!" The noise lets me know she completely forgot about me. Great.

"Yeah." I nod and give her an awkward smile. Levi looks up from his phone, he glances towards Imogen and me before he raises an eyebrow in my direction. Slowly, I feel of a wave of heat creeping up my face. I keep my gaze firmly on Imogen.

"Join us!" Imogen says before pointing to a chair near her that had been left empty. She gives me a grin and pats the chair.

"Please don't," Levi intercepts, resting his chin in his hand and now looking at me with a bored expression. I notice his eyes look tired and how his hair is more crumpled than usual. I guess he's probably got a hangover from yesterday.

"Sure," I say, ignoring Levi and sitting down. All I really want to do is just talk to Imogen and stay away from this group of people I've never really talked to since I'm not exactly the best at starting conversations and introducing myself.

I suddenly realise Luke's still looking at me. He abruptly leans forward on his elbows and furrows his eyebrows together.

"So you're the one that's been stalking our Levi," he comments with a slight smile. I give a sputtering gasp.

"Excuse me?" I exclaim as Levi sits chuckling opposite me. "What the heck do you mean?"

"We've all noticed," Luke says before shrugging, "well at least, I have."

"I have too," Natalia in-puts, suddenly looking interested in the conversation. There's no denying that my cheeks are aflame and my moronic stuttering isn't helping my situation at all. Am I about to be interrogated?!

"I... What the hell..?" I open and close my mouth, stuck on what to say and completely speechless at this sudden bombardment of... of insulting lies! I knew I should've joined Oliver and his girlfriends.

"But," Natalia says, brushing a hand through her coffee-brown hair, "Luke's being an idiot. We know you're not stalking him."

"Obviously," I say through narrowed eyes as I look at Levi. "What the hell have you been telling them?" I demand, furious at the idea that he might be telling his friends I'm obsessed with him or something. The idea's bloody offensive.

"Ah," Luke says, grinning now, "he hasn't told us anything." He suddenly throws an arm around Levi and gives his shoulders a squeeze. Levi loses his look of confidence and now looks just as worried as me before throwing a warning look toward Luke.

"Don't-"

"You see, as his best friends- Natalia, Max and I have all noticed a certain change about Mr Parker."

"Luke, shut up," Levi says through gritted teeth. At this Luke simply laughs, raising his eyebrows at Natalia before letting him go.

"Shut up about what?" I ask; confused by the enigmatic grin Natalia was smiling.

"Alright, the task!" The girl with the wool scarf I now recognise as Kasia Badowski suddenly declares, interrupting everything and gaining everyone's attention. "I'll organise bits and bobs to each of you and if we all do it, we'll be done within the lesson."

With that she grabs a pad of paper before scrawling out things from the piece of paper that Mr Morris had handed us. She then allocates us each a job, warning us that she didn't want extra work to do over the holidays so we'd better get moving.

I look down at the piece of paper I've been given that I assume Max, Imogen and I have to follow. It tells us we need to write down the factors influencing the formation of deltas. How fun.

Natalia rolls her eyes at Kasia, swearing under her breath. Even her curses sound eloquent, Natalia's a girl who's accent can only be described as 'posh'. "That girl is so bloody controlling."

"Can't deny she's helpful though," Luke says, reading his own piece of paper. He then reaches for his textbooks and I do the same.

As the lesson passes, I kind of come to realise that Luke and Natalia really aren't all that bad, if I just look past the embarrassing start to the group work. They're not snobby or pretentious like I assumed they'd be. They're actually alright.

Half an hour in our table is the source of most the noise in the classroom with our loud talking and laughing. Mr Morris looked close to murdering us a few times but when he saw we're actually doing work, thanks to Kasia, he'd look more comfortable again.

"You like Sherlock?" Luke exclaims when I talk about the T.V. show being back on air in less than a month.

"Of course I do!" I reply, excitement bubbling inside me.

Levi abruptly groans. All he's been doing is completing his share of the work while watching us quietly.

"This isn't actually happening, is it?" he asks, looking at us all with a frown.

"What's happening?" Natalia asks.

"You guys being friends," he says the last word with disbelief and a touch of disdain.

"Well it turns out your stalker isn't all that bad," Luke says, grinning. I'm not comfortable enough with him to kick him in the shins, but I do give him a half-hearted glare.

"Seriously, stop calling me that."

Levi nods seriously. "Ruby prefers to be called Ladybird, as you English people call it."

"Ladybird?" Luke asks incredulously as Natalia cries, "English people?"

I just sigh and barely refrain from hitting my head against the edge of table. Slowly but surely I've been leaning to handle Levi's taunts a bit more sanely. Sort of.

"What do you mean English?" Natalia asks. "You're practically a hundred percent English apart from actually being American," she says before pausing. "Ignore how stupid that sounds."

Levi looks solemnly at her. "I'm a true American at heart."

"You say with an English accent," Luke responds mockingly.

"Whatever." Levi rolls his eyes before grinning.

I sit watching them with a small smile; I've never really seen this side of him before, this jokey Levi who isn't a complete arse but kind of nice. It's both different and weird to watch.

Throughout the work, I don't really talk to Imogen because she's too wrapped up with Max. It annoying but at the same time I realise that she's really crazy about him, so it's to be expected really. But then... when I'm with Ryan I've never completely ignored a friend. I've never done that.

By the time the end of the lesson comes round, Luke's declaring he's going to have a Sherlock marathon during Christmas and demands we all have to come whilst Natalia rather snarkily hands back all our work to Kasia, telling her she didn't need to worry about any more work in the holidays. Imogen finally turns to me with a smile.

I have trouble returning it.

I realise I'm being a childish but, honestly, I can't help it. When you're friends with someone you don't just abandon them.

"Max and I have decided we should all go to town, y'know, as a celebration that the term's over," Imogen says, shoving her pencil case into her bag. I swing my rucksack onto my back and give a tight smile before starting to walk out the classroom door. Imogen follows beside me.

"Well, have fun," I reply.

"You're included, you idiot," Imogen says, her smile faltering a little when she hears how cool my voice is. "Do you think you can come?"

"I... er, dunno really. Might be busy"

"Come where?" Oliver asks, his voice making me jump backwards in surprise. He's appeared behind me looking very, very pleased with himself. Judging by the way one of the girls in his Geography group says good bye to him. i.e. a lot of giggling, it's not hard to guess why.

"Town," Imogen says. "We're all going."

"Great," Oliver says, replying with a response far cheerier than mine. "Who else is coming?"

"Uh, Max's friends. Only a few of them though."

"Yeah, I can't come," I immediately say, Imogen's reply putting me off going. As nice as Luke and Natalia are, I do not have the energy for any more Levi.

"Aw, come on Rubes," Oliver says, nudging me. "It'll be fun!"

"I have to go home," I say, shrugging. Imogen looks at me sceptically.

"You're not mad at me are you?"

I look down at my shoes. "No."

"You are! You're being all... short with me and grumpy. You are mad at me!"

"I'm not mad!" I snap.

Imogen sighs. "Is it because of the whole group thing? Look, I'm sorry it's just that-"

She's cut off by Oliver suddenly giving a loud shriek as he claps a hand against his forehead.

"Shit! Shit... I've forgotten something!" he exclaims, suddenly looking very panicky.

"What?" I ask.

"I didn't hand in my final assignment for Art!" He lets out a loud groan before rushing off towards his locker without another word of explanation.

We both stare after him.

"Well I hope he's OK," Imogen says before looking back at me. There's an awkward silence between us.

It doesn't go noticed by anyone else since it's pretty chaotic at the lockers as it's the end of term. Everyone's taking their things home, hugging each other good bye for the holidays and cheering.

"Look it's nothing," I say, looking back at Imogen and waving my hand. I didn't want to leave school feeling angry at my own best friend for a pretty lame reason. "I was being an idiot."

Imogen sighs in relief before giving me a quick hug. We all get out stuff from our lockers before heading out of school together, deciding Oliver could meet us at the front.

We're discussing Christmas before Imogen suddenly gives a large squeal and flops down. For a moment I'm scared she's suffering some sort of weird fit but then I see her picking up a rock from the gravelly ground we're walking on.

"Look!" she cries, thrusting the rock in my face. I see nothing special about it.

"What?" I ask, bemused.

"It's the shape of a heart!" Imogen says, looking at me excitedly. Bloody hell. Is love making her blind or something?

"Can I borrow your phone? I need to take a photo of this and send it to Max!"

"Er, what's up with yours?"

"It's crapped up, again." She sighs exaggeratedly before looking expectantly at me.

I give a groan before thrusting my phone towards her after pulling it out my pocket.

"Thanks." She angles the phone to take a picture of the rock that resembles a heart no more than my big toe does. "Now how do you get to the photo gallery so I can send this to myself?"

She fiddles with my phone for a moment.

"Got it?" I ask.

Imogen suddenly freezes, her eyes widen as she looks at the screen and exhales a small gasp.

I raise my eyebrows at her. "Have you finally realised it looks more like a potato than a heart?"

She doesn't say anything; instead she swallows and looks at the phone a few more seconds before turning the screen. The picture of Levi and I fills it.

"What's this?"