gets assigned a project with one of them

Julie groans as her alarm goes off blaring into her ears.

She rolled over turning her alarm off but layed in bed thinking for a moment.

It was the first day back to school since the summer holidays ended.

She spent a lot of time at Carrie's house over the summer with Flynn, her, carrie and Flynn would throw pool parties too.

Julie sighed as her dad knocked on the door telling her she would be late if she didnt get up.

Reluctantly she got out of bed and headed to the bathroom to do her hygiene.

Julie didnt have a bad life at highschool, in fact she was the second most popular girl at school, first being Carrie and third being Flynn, but nobody liked school so of course Julie didnt want to go.

As she finished with her hygiene, julie did her makeup neutral, threw her hair into a high ponytail and went to her closet to pick out an outfit.

She eventually decided on some ripped jean shorts, white Adidas and a cropped black hoodie that said 'keep dreaming' in white letters, then went downstairs where her father was making pancakes.

"Thankyou papi" she said as her father placed down pancakes with strawberries infront of her.

"No problem hija" said ray kissing his daughter on the forehead.

From beside her, Julie's brother, carlos was eating pancakes with blueberries.

"You ready for school Carlos?" Asked Julie as she took a bite out of her pancakes.

"Yeah" Carlos replied through a mouthful of food.

Rolling her eyes, julie said "don't forget your backpack this time"

Suddenly there was a car horn sounding from outside.

Jumping up from the stool she was sitting on, Julie took her phone and said goodbye to her father.

"That's Flynn and carrie, have a nice day papi" said Julie kissing Ray's cheek goodbye and rushing out the door.

"Dont get into any trouble" shouted ray after her.

Outside julies house was a white convertible, Flynn in the driver's seat and carrie in the passenger seat.

Jumping in the back seat julie greeted her best friends "hey girls"

Carrie groaned at Julie's perkiness "dont know how you are this happy on a Monday morning Jules, it should be illegal for school to start this early"

At Julie's raised eyebrow flynn chuckled "she hasnt had her decaf yet"

Julie nodded understanding. Carrie was not a morning person, neither was Flynn but she presumably already had her 2 cups of coffee.

They stopped on the way to school to get Carrie's coffee and Julie's frappuccino and then made it into the school carpark where students moved out of the way so they didnt get runover.

The girls walked into the school building, stopping at each of their lockers to gather the books they needed and then stopped at Flynns which was closest to homeroom.

Carrie, julie and flynn were the most popular girls at school, there were other populars at school, but none of them as popular as the three girls.

Everyone at school expected the three to be mean and ruthless, so naturally they played the part, finding it easier than having the other populars walk all over them but in reality, the girls didnt have a bad bone in them.

Carrie was their leader, they had decided it was the best as carrie struck the most fear in everyone, she simply had that vibe about her that if you messed with her, you better wish you weren't born.

Flynn and Julie were tied, both girls could make you pee your pants with one look but both were too nice to be that cruel so they took place as second and third, still they knew how to play the part they were supposed to play, Julie was only slightly more popular than Flynn as everyone admired her voice.

"What do you guys have first?" Asked Flynn as they all stood by her locker.

"English with mrs Kate" said Julie, a grimace on her face. It was way to early to be annotating texts and answering 'how' questions.

"At least english is a bit more layed back, I have math with mr Johnson" whined carrie.

"I have math with mr Johnson too, I'm with you carr" said Flynn who was slightly more happy at the fact she wouldnt have to deal with numbers alone but still upset that she would have to deal with numbers in the first place.

Julie groaned "great, I'm alone then"

Both Carrie and Flynn had sympathetic looks, carrie about to say something when suddenly there was a ruckus down the hall.

Rolling their eyes discreetly, the girls shared a look, knowing what it was.

The other populars, bullying some of the less populars, one in particular.

"Hey look! Nerd actually started working out during the summer. To bad hes still a nerd" laughed Abigail, one of the populars bullying the boy.

Julie caught sight of the poor boy and couldnt take her eyes off him, it was true that the boy had certainly had a glow up during the summer. He was more tanned and his arms had more muscle than she remembered him having. (Which was close to none)

Julie was brought out of her thoughts by Carrie snapping her fingers infront of her face, both her and Flynn smirking.

"Sorry what? Asked Julie.

"You were stuck in your thought there, staring at a certain boy" smirked Flynn.

Julie's cheeks flushed a crimson colour "I was just shocked" she mumbled staring at the ground. Suddenly the floor had become very interesting.

Carrie's expression turned sympathetic "it's alright to like him Jules, I know we have to act a certain way infront of him sometimes but maybe one day, you can open up to him, show him the real you"

"I dont have a crush on him, I dont even know him for heavens say, and even I did, it wouldnt be allowed because of this stupid cliché" julie denied.

Luckily for her the conversation ended then when some freshman was pushed into flynn.

"Hey watch where you going!" Snapped Flynn.

The girls internally sighed, not liking this part of being popular, but hey, duty calls.

"Are you blind or what?" Shouted Carrie as the girls got into their formation.

"I-im sorry, I will be careful next time" stuttered the freshman, the poor girl looked as pale as a ghost

"Yeah you better, or you'll be getting a rather unpleasant visit from us" glared Julie.

"Now scrat" yelled Flynn as the freshman scurried off, not wanting to anger the girls even more.

The girls faces dropped as soon as everyone had gone back to what they were doing. It was true they were protective over each other, and they wouldnt let someone get away with that but being the most popular girls on school meant they had to be harsher than they wanted too.

Suddenly the bell rang, homeroom. Sighing the girls made their way to homeroom.

~

Julie was currently in English, with none of her best friends in this class, she had no-one to sit with so she made her way to a seat in the back, all her peers steering clear of her, scared she would snap at them if they made one wrong move.

"Hello class, today I will be assigning you a project, and if you dont do it then you can explain to the principal why you havent done it. You will be in partners and yes I will be picking" explained the teacher.

That earned a groan out of the class, Julie included, she hated partnered assignments in English, everyone she got paired up with was so scared of her that they ended up doing the whole project on their own because they assumed Julie was going to force them too anyway and ran away from her before julie could speak.

The teacher started calling out the partners, julie turned it all out until she heard her name.

"Julie Molina and Luke patterson"

Both Julie and Luke froze, luke because of fear and Julie because...well she didnt actually know why but she felt nervous for some reason.

"Now all of you move to sit with your partners, after I explain the project you will be working on it for the rest of class" said mrs Kate after she finished calling out names.

Julie didnt move from her seat, waiting for Luke to appear next to her and she didnt have to wait long.

"Hi, you dont have to worry, I will do this assignment on my own so you dont have to worry about being seen with me" he said in a nervous voice, he was shaking with nerves.

Julie took pity on the boy and placed a hand on his shoulder pushing him down into the seat next to her.

Keeping up her act julie said "you dont have to do it on your own, if I get sent to the principals office one more time for not doing my own work, I'm going to get suspended, and as for being seen with you, I'm the second most popular girl in school, my reputation will survive" she finished with a fake role of her eyes.

Luke stayed quiet and just nodded

Mrs Kate explained they had to write a 10 page essay explaining their thoughts of the effect mobile phones had on teenagers and that they would have 2 weeks to do it.

For the rest of class, they talked a bit about the assignment until the bell rang.

"Meet me at the front of the school after school, we can work on the project at my house I guess" julie gave a fake role of her eyes and walked out of class not waiting for Luke's response.

At lunch, julie plopped down in her seat at the table Flynn and carrie were currently occupying with a distressed look.

"Ooo girl, what happened to you" said Flynn always up for the gossip.

"I have an english project with Luke patterson, and hes coming over my house after school to work on it" Julie whispered so nobody would overhear.

"Luke patterson as in the luke patterson the populars, including us when we have to, bully, luke patterson?" Whispered back carrie, her eyes wide.

Julie confirmed yes.

"Damn girl, what you gonna do? Because first of all, he thinks your some mean popular when your really not so are you going to keep up the act at home? And second, you have a crush on him whether you want to admit it or not, you did last semester and you do now"

Julie blushed at the implication that she had a crush on the boy "I told you, I dont have a crush on him, I barely know him and I dont know what I'm going to do, I guess I will just go with the flow"

Carrie rolled her eyes "whatever you say Jules, but for the record, I think you should let your act fall, just a bit when your doing the project"

Flynn nodded agreeing with carrie but Julie just shrugged her shoulder saying a simple "we will see"

~

As the last school bell rang telling everyone it was the end of the day, Julie's nerves grew.

She didnt know why she was so nervous, luke was the one who thought she was going to murder him and hide his body. She had no reason to be nervous.

She made her way to the school gates where she found Luke already waiting for her.

"Hey" she greeted a small smile on her face, she didnt want luke to throw up because he was so nervous she tried easing his nerves a bit.

"Uh, hi" he mumbled, looking at his feet kicking the ground.

"Let's go" she said walking to Flynns car where the girls were waiting for them so they could drop her and luke off at Julie's house.

"Oh and a bit of warning, Carrie and Flynn are going to be dropping us off to my house but you'll be fine, they wont say anything" julie added when they were nearly at the car.

Luke visibly gulped but nodded.

Julie's face softened, out of the three of them, she was the sweetest.

"Hey, I promise you'll be fine, you'll be sitting next to me anyway" she squeezed his forearm a bit then dropped her hand back to her side.

Luke didnt know how or why, but somehow she had managed to calm him, shouldn't he feel scared of her? She was one of his bullied after all, but then again, she never really did say anything to him.

Luke shook his thoughts as they came to a stop by flynns car and got in the back seats.

"Hey Jules, how was last period?" Asked carrie

Julie groaned "brutal, I never get Biology, plus how is science going to help me in the future??" She complained.

"Girl I feel you, I had mr Harvey biology 3rd period, he called me out infront of everyone because I was doodling instead of paying attention, but the reality is, nobody was listening anyway, the old man must be blind or something to not see all the people practically falling asleep right infront of him" Flynn complained.

While this discussion went on, luke simply stayed silent and watched, they reminded him of Himself, alex and reggie a bit, only the girls weren't as dorky.

Julie turned to look at luke, offering a small smile in order not to make him feel like hes forgotten.

After 15 minutes they had finally gotten to Julie's house. Mumbling out a thankyou, luke got out of the car, following Julie into the house.

"Papi!? Carlos!?" Julie yelled out, checking if her father and brother were here. When she got no reply she knew they were at carlos baseball game.

"My dad and my brother aren't here so it's just us" said julie turning to face Luke.

When Luke's expression turned into one of fear, julie quickly backtracked.

"Oh wait no no, I'm not going to hurt you I promise, I just-" julie stopped sighing.

"Ok let's go into the dining room, I feel like I need to reassure you or something" she lead them into the dining room where they took a seat opposite each other.

Luke was still tense, clearly uncomfortable and still a bit nervous and scared.

Julie placed a hand over Luke's hand in a comforting manner. She decided she was going to let her act drop, without the girls, she wasnt very good at withholding the act on her own especially around someone who very clearly feared her and she (alright she would admit it) might have a tiny crush on.

"Luke, I'm going to be honest with you here because honestly, being mean is tough and I dont want to do it in my own home and I just dont like the look of fear and discomfort that takes hold of your face every time you look at me" julie started.

She barely knew this boy, why was she doing this again? Oh yeah, because she was a softy.

Luke was very confused now, he had absolutely no idea what julie was talking about.

"So, the whole thing at school, with me and the girls acting mean and ruthless and like we have no heart is completely fake" she stopped to giggle a bit at Luke's face.

"We are all actually very nice, and we hate having to bully people but it's what everyone expected and we didnt want to become a victim of bully ourselves and we know that's no excuse but I guess that's what we did to survive highschool" julie explained, biting her lip, waiting on Luke's reaction.

"So, your..not that person at school?" Luke asked tentatively

Julie smiled shaking her head "no, I'm not, and neither are carrie or flynn"

"Do you dislike me?" Asked luke wanted to make sure he didnt still have a reason to be scared or nervous.

"No, I mean I barely know you but I can tell your a good person so no I dont dislike you. You dont need to be worried luke, just be yourself here" julie smiled, squeezing his hand.

Luke smiled at julie, his nervous gone with the confirmation, he was still a but guarded, after all this could all be a trick but something told him he could trust Julie.

"Ok" luke smiled.

Julie grinned, letting go of his hand "great! Let's get started on this project then"

________________________________

Part 2 is already out.

Until next time x