A/N : Hey peeps! I'm so sorry for the late update. But from now on, I'll be updating regularly. Promise! :D

PLAYLIST :

     "Wake up, Gina. We're late. Again," I groaned and pulled her pillow from under her head forcing her to wake up.

     Her head lolled to the side and she opened her eyes. "I'm not going, lark. I'm sick. Get out," she mumbled before going back to sleep.

     Unbelievable!

     "Gah! You're stoned again," I said, my voice laced with annoyance. "When did you come home last night?"

     "Stop acting like mom. And leave," I heard her muffled reply.

     I rolled my eyes though she couldn't see me. "Fine. Do whatever you want to. Give me the car keys."

     "Why would I give you my keys?"

     "Does hangover kill your common sense cells? I need to drive to school. Duh."

     When I didn't hear her reply, I shook her arm. I would've searched for the keys myself, but Gina's room was a mess and it'd take me hours to rummage through it and find the keys. I continued shaking her arm till she smacked my hand.

     "I'm not giving you the keys. Drive with mom."

     "C'mon Gina, don't be a bitch. She has to drop Eric first. I'll be more late."

     "Drive with Tiffany."

     "Don't you think I thought of that? She's already in school."

     "Your problem, sis. I gotta go somewhere."

     "Oh yeah, right. To get more stoned. Great! What is your problem?"

     "Right now, it's only you." She pulled the sheets up to her face effectively signaling the end of our conversation. "Now shoo."

     "Fine, I'm going. You rot on your bed." I threw the pillow on her face and left her room.

     My dad had already left for his law firm and my mom would drop Eric to school before going to her art gallery. I hurried out of the house and into the driveway just in time to see my mom and Eric getting in the car. I caught up to them just when she was about to start.

     "Hey mom, wait up!" I ran to the Escalade, opened the door and plopped in the back seat.

     My mom was confused seeing me here. "Where's Gina?"

     "She said she's sick."

     Her forehead creased with worry and I quickly added, "Don't worry. That's only her excuse for skipping school."

     She sighed deeply and started the car. Eric climbed up on his seat and turned around to look at me.

     "Hi." He grinned. "Why didn't Gina let you drive her car?"

     "Ask her yourself. I don't know."

     He eyed me and I could actually imagine his little brain going into overdrive coming up with his theories.

     "Did she find out about Brent?" he whispered.

     "No."

     "Does she know you have her phone?"

     "No Eric. Shut up now," I scowled.

     "We have to keep this a secret from mom too?" he asked.

     "What are you two whispering about?" my mom asked.

     "Nothing mom," I said to her. "Yes," I answered Eric's question. "Now turn around and sit quietly."

     "You're no fun," he complained sitting back on his seat and turning on the music in the car.

~~~

     My watch showed that I was twenty minutes late for Calculus. It was a long time, about a month, since I'd been twenty minutes late. Usually it's just ten to fifteen minutes. Cursing under my breath, I entered the class.

     Mr. Hunt, who was writing an equation on the whiteboard, stopped writing when he saw me and bore his eyes into me. I stood at the entrance, making my innocent face. After staring for what seemed like an eternity, he flicked his head towards the class, which meant I could go in and sit. Every student was scared of him though he never said anything to any student. His silent glares did all the work.

     I quickly slid on my chair in the fourth row and copied the problem Mr. Hunt had written on the board. But before I could finish it, he erased it. Oh, no! I suspected he'd ask me to solve it because I came late. That's how his brain worked. Everyone was working on the solution and he sat behind his desk staring at the class.

     The thing was, Mr. Hunt wore shaded glasses and when he did the silent gazing thing, I could never tell who he was staring at. It felt like his eyes were on everyone, all at once.

     I lowered my head, trying to deflect his stares so he wouldn't pick me to solve the problem. Luckily, the boy sitting in front of me was tall. So I could hide behind him and not look creepy.

     The question. I had to copy the question. My friend Olive sits next to me and I snatched her notebook from her desk in a hurry without asking or even looking at her. I started jotting down the question. It was something about derivatives. I didn't know the solution but thank god, Olive had already solved it. I'd just copy.

     "Hey, what was that?" A boy hoarsely whispered who was sitting next - wait... next to me! In Olive's seat! I looked at him with my mouth hanging open. His glare was worse than Mr. Hunt's.

     "Uh," is all I managed to say looking at his over-reactive annoyed expression.

     "You don't snatch people's notebooks." He took back his notebook. And I still hadn't copied the question!

     I finally recovered from his intense expression and keeping my voice down, so Mr. Hunt wouldn't hunt me, I said, "I'm sorry. I thought you were Olive."

     "Last time I checked, I was a guy named Derek Whitley." He said it like his name should mean something to me or he was some kind of a vip. "And no one ever mistook me for a cross-eyed crazy nerd."

     My face flushed hearing his rude answer. How dare he call Olive all those things!

     "Last time I checked, this was Olive's seat, not yours."

     "Is she here now?"

     I glanced around the class but didn't find her. Odd that she'd skip class.

     "No, but-"

     "Exactly. I thought I'd sit here instead of the last row for a change. But looks like this is the crazy corner." He arched his eyebrows and gave me a lopsided grin.

     "Excuse me. I just wanted to copy a question. No need to get all worked up," I retaliated.

     "All you had to do was ask nicely, not snatch my notebook thinking that would get you my attention," he smirked.

     "Seriously? You gotta be kidding me! Why would I want your attention you... you-"

     "Hold it, sweets," he smirked again. "It'll take you forever to come up with profanity."

     What the hell was his problem! Being rude just coz I took his notebook. And why was I even fighting with him.

     "Look, dude," I said calmly. "I got no interest in you. And don't worry, I'll copy the question from someone else who isn't obsessed with their notes. Now don't make another stupid remark. Or maybe if you're the pompous kind who always wants to have the last word, go on and be done."

     For once, he was at a loss for words. He didn't say anything and went back to his beloved notebook. I definitely wasn't expecting him to not make a comeback. But yeah, whatever. I asked for the problem from the guy sitting in front of me, who unlike Derek wasn't obsessed with his notebook.

     Whatever weird obsession he had with his notebook. And, he was rude and arrogant. I wondered why all the girls were crazy about him. Something about his smile being super cute, Shayna had said. Well, he wasn't smiling now. Huh! I hated this guy. At least, I only had to sit next to him for just one period today.

~~~

     The first thing I noticed after coming to Biology class was Olive sitting in her seat. She sat next to me in both Bio and Calculus.

     Mr. Crosby hadn't come yet, so there was the usual chattering in class among the students. Except Olive. She sat alone at her table and was reading some extra study material which wasn't even assigned to us. She didn't talk to anyone except me. Actually, no one talked to her.

     What Derek said was exactly what everyone thought about her. Possibly, I was her only friend and that too only in Calculus and Biology, the two classes we had together.

     "Hey, Olive," I said, sitting in my seat and removing my notebook from my backpack. "Were you late today?"

     "No. I was early to school." She adjusted her glasses to look at me, I think. I couldn't really tell where she was looking because her strabismus was acting up again. She had occasional cross eyes and was bullied a lot because of that.

     I didn't like the fact that she'd never retaliate or complain about her bullies but I also admired that she didn't let them affect her or her grades and just shrugged it off. She was a smart student and most of the time she topped the class.

     "Early? Then why weren't you in Calculus?" I asked.

     "I was in the library working on the biology assignment and lost track of time. When I saw the time, it was already half way through Calculus. So I decided to sit there for the rest of the period and complete the assignment."

     Before I could say anything, Suzy Fowler interrupted our conversation. She stood in front of our tables with her two friends aka sidekicks, Kate and Veronica, standing on either side of her.

     "What's wrong, freak? Cross eyes making it difficult to see the time?" She sneered and her two dumb friends laughed at that. "No wonder there. I'm surprised you can even see the time. I always thought you see two different times with your two eyes."

     Olive ignored her, but I couldn't just sit there and not say anything. I'd already not defended her in front of the conceited idiot Derek.

     "Leave her alone, Suzy," I warned her.

     "Oh, I see. Nerds forming a nerd pack and sticking up for each other. What makes you think I'll just listen to you?"

     Kate and Veronica laughed again.

     "Is that a job you assigned your minions, Suzy? Laughing at all the trash that comes outta your mouth? Because for whatever reason, nothing you say sounds even remotely funny to me."

     "Hold your tongue, Castillo. I'm talking to Olive, so you better not interfere."

     "You're not talking to her, you're bullying her."

     She ignored me and asked Olive, "So you're done with Crosby's assignment?"

     "She's not telling you. If you wanted her help, you should've been nice to her." Olive tried to tell me that it was okay, but I told her I'll handle it. She shouldn't have to put up with girls like Suzy.

     "Why all the gloating, Castillo? You haven't got your sister's hotness or your girlfriend's style." Suzy smirked at me.

     I smiled at her. "You're right, I haven't. But I don't need that to stand up to you."

     Her next words which I was sure would be taunting and cruel, were interrupted by Mr. Crosby's arrival. Suzy gave me the death glare and left for her seat.

     When we settled back, Olive said, "You didn't have to do that."

     "I didn't?"

     She laughed. "Thanks for standing up for me.

     Mr. Crosby gave us the period to work on the assignment on genomes. We had to make a model and write a report on it.

     I saw Olive making the report. "What are you doing? Didn't you say you completed the assignment?"

     "Yep, I did. I had two ideas for the report so I'm making both. I'll use the one which I like best."

     "Wow. And here I am, struggling with just one assignment."

     My phone chimed and it was a text from Tiffany.

     I replied an ok and continued working on the assignment.

~~~

     Tiffany and Shayna were already in Tiffany's car when I met them.

     "Where are we going?" I got in the back seat and strapped on the seat belt this time. I learn quick.

     "Somewhere cold."

     "Cool."

     Tiffany started the car and Shayna adjusted the rear-view mirror to look at me. "Bad news, Vivian."

     "What is it?" I asked.

     "Nate knows it wasn't Carla who called him yesterday."

     Wow! Shayna knew. Whatever happened to not telling anyone.

     "How?" I asked.

     "Nate is such a wuss. He tells everything to Tif." Looking at Tiffany's expression, she said, "Ok. Not a wuss. He's a loyal boyfriend. He told Tiffany about a girl texting him who he thought was Carla. But then Carla texted him too with her old number. When he asked her about the other number, she said it wasn't her."

     "Ok," I said.

     "Ok? Just ok?" Shayna said, her voice incredulous.

     "Yeah. Doesn't matter now, Shae," Tiffany agreed.

     "You guys don't get the point," Shayna insisted. "Don't you see what this means?"

     "What?" Tiffany​ and I asked together.

     "Broaden your minds, peeps. He'll know it was you, Tif. He's gonna think you're a jealous and desperate girlfriend stalking him."

A/N : Thanks for reading! If you liked the chapter, please show it through your votes and comments :)

# If you could be any one for a day (real or fictional), what would you be?

Thank you so much gjoomredzy for your encouraging comments on every chapter! They inspire me to write better <3