Being Watched

Chapter 5

“No,” I groan into my pillow when my iPhone’s alarm starts ringing at seven in the morning on Monday.

I feel like crying because I really want to sleep and I really don’t want to go to school.

“Shut up,” I mutter as I stop my alarm.

A few minutes later, I sigh and rub my eyes as I sit up in my bed.

I walk to my bathroom, still half asleep.

Fifteen minutes later, I stumble down the stairs, rubbing my tired eyes.

Okay, so maybe I shouldn’t have stayed up till two in the morning watching movies.

I yawn as I walk into my classroom right on time. I walk to my seat, bumping into two desks on my way there.

I drop my bag on the floor and collapse in my chair. I rest my head on the wooden desk and my eyes immediately close and the sounds around me fade.

“You okay, Stephany?” I hear a distant voice but I can’t open my eyes to see who it is.

“Stephany?” The same voice calls again and I slowly open my eyes.

The first thing I see is Gavin, Jeremy’s best friend, eyeing me.

“Mmmm,” I mumble with my head still on the desk.

An amused smile spreads on his lips and then he laughs.

I sigh and lift my head, knowing the he won’t let me sleep anymore.

“What were you busy doing all night?” Gavin asks with a smirk.

“Shut up you pervert,” I say, shooting him a glare.

“Kidding,” he says, laughing. He runs a hand in his black hair, removing it from his eyes.

I take a good look at him even though I’ve seen him several times in Jeremy’s room. He has black hair that needs to be cut, light brown eyes, a big nose, and a very skinny body.

Some of his friends keep on teasing him and saying that he’s ugly but I think he’s okay. I mean he’s not hot like Jeremy but he’s not that bad.

He’s fun too!

“Really, though, why are you so tired?” He asks.

I sigh and run a hand over my face. “I lost track of time while watching movies.”

He chuckles. “Sounds like something I would do.”

I smile at him. “Really?”

“Yeah,” he replies. “We should have a movie night sometime.”

“Are you sure you can handle my movie night?” I say challengingly. “One night, no sleep, and six movies. That’s twelve hours of movies.”

He smirks. “Trust me, I can handle it.”

“Okay, then Gavin,” I say. “You’re on!”

“Saturday night, my place,” he says. “My parents won’t be home ‘cause it’s their anniversary so we’ll have the place to ourselves.”

“Perfect,” I say.

“Is this what I think it is?” Jeremy’s voice says. I turn around and find him standing behind me with his eyes wide.

Confused, I glance at Gavin and he rolls his eyes at his best friend.

“Jeremy you pervert! We’re planning a movie night,” Gavin says.

Jeremy smiles sheepishly. “Sorry, I just heard the last part.”

I roll my eyes at him and Gavin shakes his head.

Jeremy then raises his eyebrows at us. “Aren’t you going to invite me to your movie night?”

“You’re not cool enough,” I joke.

“No, I’m actually too cool for that but I’ll sacrifice a night for you,” he replies with a smirk.

Before I could say some awesome comeback, Gavin says, “We both know you’ll end up falling asleep as soon as the second movie starts.”

Jeremy looks offended. “I will not.”

“You will.”

“I will not!”

“We’ll see, then,” Gavin says, smirking. “Be there on Saturday.”

Jeremy grins and nods his head.

I chuckle because I think he’ll fall asleep soon too.

“I’ll get three movies and you’ll get the other three,” I tell Gavin.

“What about me?” Jeremy pouts.

“You’ll be sleeping after the first one so you have no say in this,” Gavin says making Jeremy scowl.

“And Stephany they better not be chick flicks,” Gavin says.

I laugh. “No, don’t worry.”

“Good,” he says, grinning.

“Hand in your cell phones please!” A teacher’s voice says and everyone quiets down for a couple of seconds before talking again.

I take my iPhone from the desk and start walking to the front of the classroom where there’s a wooden box on the wall divided into small squares with numbers under each square. Every student puts his cell phone in his square and they lock the wooden box then unlock it when the final bell rings.

“Hey, can you put this for me please?” Jeremy asks and I stop before turning around and taking his iPhone.

“Which number?” I ask.

“Seven,” he replies and I nod.

I put my phone in square number eleven and Jeremy’s phone in square number seven. The supervisor then comes in and locks the box.

“Hey Janna,” I say, smiling when I see her next to her desk.

“Hey, how was your weekend?” She asks.

“Good, yours?” I ask, thinking of Andy. We texted all afternoon on Sunday and I knew that this was the beginning of a nice friendship.

“Good,” she replies and I smile as I go back to my seat before it gets awkward. I still don’t know them very well so conversation is hard.

“Hi,” Emma says when I reach my seat because she is in her seat right in front of me.

“Hey,” I reply and we chat a bit before the teacher comes in and the lesson starts.

When it’s time for Sociology, I finally decide that it’s time for me to take a nap. As soon as I rest my head on the desk to sleep, Emma turns around in her seat and starts talking to me.

“So what did you do this weekend?” She asks.

I reluctantly lift my head to look at her.

“I just went with my parents to their boss’s cocktail party,” I say, shrugging.

“Was it nice?” She asks.

“Meh, I watched ‘The Simpsons’ with the boss’s son,” I reply.

She laughs then waggles her eyebrows suggestively, “Ooh the boss’s son!”

I laugh too and shake my head.

“Is he cute?” She asks.

“Yeah, I guess,” I answer her.

She giggles and gives me a smirk which I ignore.

“We’re just friends, Emma,” I say.

“For now,” she replies, making me laugh.

“What about you?” I ask her.

“Went on a date Saturday night,” she says.

“Really? With who?” I ask curiously.

“My neighbor,” she says with a wink.

I chuckle and ask her, “So did you have fun?”

“Yeah,” she replies and I see a faint blush on her cheeks. “We’re going out again tomorrow night.”

“You like him,” I say, smiling at her expression.

“I guess,” she mumbles shyly and I grin. How cute!

Someone calls Emma and when they’re talking, I rest my head on the desk and immediately, the teacher’s loud voice disappears and I fall asleep.

“Stephy, wake up,” I hear someone’s voice say and I mumble a protest to both being waken up and being called ‘Stephy’.

After a small shake, I sigh and open my eyes.

“Don’t call me Stephy,” I mumble when my eyes meet Jeremy’s blue ones.

He smirks at me. “I’ll call you whatever I want.”

“Whatever,” I say, rubbing my eyes and letting out a yawn.

“You should sleep at night,” he reprimands me.

I roll my eyes at him. “Okay, dad.”

He chuckles and ruffles my hair. I ignore it because I’m too tired to reply. I glance at my watch and notice that it’s already five minutes into break time.

I look around the classroom and see that it’s mostly empty. I frown slightly when I don’t see Emma, Janna, and Rena in class.

Why didn’t they wake me up? Do they find me annoying? Or do they think that I’m an outsider and I won’t fit in their group? Or they just wanted some time without me?

“Jeremy!” Gavin calls and my gaze travels to where he is standing with the rest of their group, waiting for Jeremy.

“Um I’ll see you later,” he says and I blink at his retreating figure.

I won’t lie, I expected him to invite me to sit with them today. I mean I know Jeremy and it was something he would do.

Maybe he thinks I’m not good enough to be in their group…

I stand up from my seat and groan as my head pounds. I walk out of the now empty classroom and down the staircase. I have another twenty minutes of break time to kill.

I walk out of the building and see all the groups of students hanging out. I find Emma, Janna, and Rena sitting in one spot but I don’t go sit with them because I don’t want to impose.

Instead, I walk to the courtyard where only a few students are sitting on the large stairs around the court.

I sit on one of the empty large stairs, away from most of the students.

There are a few guys younger than me playing soccer in the court and I watch them because I have nothing better to do.

At times like these, I wish I never moved here. I could be sitting with my best friends right now instead of sitting alone here.

But moving here was the right thing to do. It’s better for my parents’ career life and our family life.

All the noise around makes my headache even worse so I decide to go back to my classroom even thought there are still five minutes of break time left.

I walk a little faster to avoid the few stares as much as possible.

When I get to the classroom, I plop into my chair and try to calm my headache. I close my eyes and wait for the pounding to stop.

Suddenly, the bell rings loudly making me jump in my seat.

I sigh and relax as I wait for my classmates to arrive. I play with one of my bracelets which reminds me of my best friends. We bought those rubber bracelets around three years ago. We all wear the same one but with a different color. Martha’s is pink, Carla’s is yellow, John’s is blue, Jack’s is red, and mine is green.

I look up and stare blankly at all the students that are coming in, talking and laughing.

“Hey, sleepyhead,” Emma says when she arrives to her seat.

“Hey,” I reply, giving her a quick smile.

I expect her to ask where I was during break time or if I stayed in class, sleeping, but she doesn’t. Instead, she fixes her books and pens on her desk without saying another word to me.

I bite the inside of my cheeks as I wait for the teacher to come. I just want this day to be over already.

I shouldn’t have expected myself to make friends quickly and fit in immediately. I mean the people here have known each other for years now and I just arrived here last week.

“Still sleepy?” I recognize Jeremy’s voice immediately.

“Yeah,” I mumble absentmindedly.

“What’s wrong?” He asks after a short pause.

My eyes meet his blue ones for a brief second and I reply, “Nothing, I just space out when I’m tired.”

I’m still biting the inside of my cheeks because it’s a habit. I always do that when I’m lying or when I’m hurt.

The truth is I want my friends. How long can a girl stay without having her best friends by her side? I feel so unwanted here. In my old school, I had my four best friends and many other friends. I couldn’t walk to my locker in the morning without being stopped at least seven times to talk to some friends. I was loved there. My whole life was there.

That’s when the moving away thing started to really sink in and I started feeling homesick.

“Mm,” Jeremy mumbles, frowning slightly.

I ignore him as I look around the classroom once again.

The class is really great and the students all get along well. If I were here from the start, I would’ve loved it. Maybe I would’ve loved it even more than my old school but I’m the new student and new students don’t fit in easily.

Finally, the teacher arrives and the lesson starts. The rest of the day drags but it ends eventually. When the final bell rings, I quickly grab my bag and cell phone from the now unlocked box and leave.

When I get home, I finish my homework and then sleep till my parents get home and wake me up for dinner.

I smile and tell them that my day was good even though it wasn’t. I can see how happy they are here and I won’t take away any of that happiness just because I miss my friends and because I don’t fit in.

After dinner, I go up to my room and fall asleep, hoping that tomorrow won’t be as bad as today.

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