|12|

•Charlotte•

English was our first class but the day seemed to be a hard one today. Lizzie was quiet because she felt like today was going to be a negative day in her book. The weather was terrible, the constant splatter of the rain hitting the windows, echoed in my mind as we sat down at our desks.

Dad was suffering at home, able to walk but constantly tired and he was eating less day by day. Joe hadn't called me in for another fight, which meant less people were coming or they were either under lockdown because word had spread of a fighter who everyone wanted to watch. Me. The word was a breath away from falling into the wrong ears and immediately everything would end if the police came to find out I was minor.

"Hey." Calvin walked into the room towards us. Lizzie smiled at him as he sat behind our desk. "Where's Mrs Margaret? She's never late." He asked.

"I'm not sure." Lizzie shrugged her shoulder, glancing at her watch. "She is five minutes late today."

"Can we join you at lunch today? Me and the boys?" Calvin asked her. She smiled and turned to look at me. I shrugged my shoulders. It was all up to her. Lizzie smiled at Calvin and nodded, who returned her smile.

Mrs Margaret walked into the class with a tired sigh leaving her lips as if she was done with us all. "Class," she called out to get everyone's attention. "We have a new student with us today."

I froze in my seat as I watched him walk inside, his school bag over his shoulder. Cameron ran a hand through his hair, smiling at the class, his gaze running over us all. I glared at him as he smiled at me. I could feel Lizzie and Calvin's eyes burning in me but I didn't look at them as Cameron faced Mrs Margaret.

"Shall I take a seat?" He asked politely, probably already planning ways to kill her if she said no. Mrs Margaret nodded and pointed to the seat in the first row.

Cameron turned to face the class, a constant fake smile glued to his face. "It's really nice to meet you all. I'm Cameron." He introduced himself before sitting down at his desk.

It was bad enough that they followed me around everywhere, but in school? He didn't belong here and I knew what they were doing. Forcing me to join the gang, a constant reminder of who they were and what they could do.

I wasn't going to let it affect me.

"Open your books to page 35." Mrs Margaret said. "Lee, start reading." She called out to him. Lee coughed dramatically and let out a deep sigh before starting to read.

***

"He is in every class we have, Charlotte." Lizzie sighed as we picked up our trays and walked out of the cafeteria. The rain had stopped and the sun was shining again, drying up every wet spot.

"I'm tempted to chop his dick off and shove it in his mouth."

I was seething as I walked towards our bench. Cameron was in every class Lizzie and I shared. Every single one. He didn't talk to me, he didn't even sit next to me but he knew his presence affected me. He was constantly there, laughing and talking with a few girls or guys, making himself a part of my life.

"I think that would be a lovely sight." Lizzie laughed as I placed my tray on the table.

"Hey." I heard Calvin call out to us as he walked towards us.

Ramon and the others were behind me. There was something about Ramon that made him different then the others. It was the clothes he wore, as if he was a businessman. He noticed me staring at him as he walked towards us, a long black coat over his white shirt. Alex smiled at me and Josh winked as the boys walked towards us.

"Hi." Lizzie smiled at Calvin as he sat besides her.

Ramon had a knowing smile on his face as if he was enjoying this exact moment. I turned away from them as Ramon shrugged off his coat and walked towards the bench.

"Here." Ramon said, stopping me from sitting down. I watched as he laid his coat on the bench, covering a few wet spots. He looked at me, and motioned with his hand to me to sit down. I sat down quietly and pulled my tray closer to me as he sat besides me. Alex sat on my right and Josh sat next to Lizzie.

"You guys left strangely yesterday." I told them realising this was going to be one quiet lunch.

Lizzie had come to pick me up once my shift was done and I had told her how they left the note and the money. She had fangirled excitedly in the car claiming it was so sweet he left me a note.

I poured ketchup on the plate besides my fries as Ramon answered. "My mom called us home for dinner. Can't ignore her orders." He answered, reaching out to grab my fries. I slapped his hand away and put the bowl of pasta in front of him instead.

I wasn't going to eat it anyway but it was just the temptation to buy it. Fries were my favourite with chicken pieces.

"Has Cameron talked to you yet?" Calvin asked as he handed the boys sandwiches and the water bottles he had bought.

"Cameron?" Ramon asked, confused as he picked up the fork from my tray and started eating the pasta, I had given him.

Ramon and I had no class together other than Home Ec. We didn't have history or english like I had with Calvin.

"Her ex. He joined school today." Cameron filled him in and Josh chuckled besides me.

"I'd like to see you beat him up. Just give me a shout before you go to see him." Josh said as he ripped open the plastic from his sandwich box.

"I'm not going to talk to him." I shrugged my shoulders at them as I dipped my fries in the ketchup and ate it.

"Good." Ramon said besides me as he drank his water. "If he causes any problems, come to me." He said and I nodded, not wanting to tell him I could sort it out myself.

"Do you always eat outside in the cold?" Alex asked us, a grin on his face, his eyes squinted a little with the smile. I nodded, smiling back at him.

"Would we rather sit with everyone in a stuffy cafeteria? No thanks." I said to him and Lizzie chuckled to herself.

"It's really unfair that we aren't in your home ecs class." Josh sighed. "We're stuck drawing a house which by the way," he pointed to himself and Alex, "we can't draw."

Calvin said something to Alex in Italian leaving Lizzie and I confused. "Maybe you can take a look at it? I noticed you liked to draw." Calvin asked Lizzie as Alex picked up his A3 folder. He pulled out his book and opened it to see a beautiful drawing on the first page of a birds eye view of the inside of a house.

"Ramon drew that but Mr Collins knew and said we had to draw it ourselves." Josh explained.

The drawing was beautiful. Every inch of it was shaded beautifully as if he had taken his time sketching out a room he dreamed about.

"I can sketch something out for you, if you would like?" Lizzie asked softly as she pulled the book towards her and Calvin grinned as Alex nodded, a grateful look in his eyes.

I sat quietly watching them talk for a while about how they wanted their house to be, with a game room and fridge full of food. Lizzie explained to them she was just going to sketch out the outline and different rooms. They could add all the details themselves. I watched then talk while I ate quietly.

Ramon sat besides me texting on his phone, and eating. He didn't utter a word, his eyebrows furrowed at his phone, muttering to himself in italian.

Once I was done with my food, I stood up and Lizzie looked up at me. "I'll see you in class. I have to go do something." I told her and she nodded, knowing I really didn't want to sit here.

Nobody uttered a word as I left my tray besides them and picked up my bag. Walking away from them, I pulled my bag over my shoulder, feeling eyes burn in the back of me as I walked into the school.

My next class was home ecs, which I would have with Ramon. I needed to work on an outline today. To make a detailed but less than a thousand words essay, explaining all the key points and the out of box ideas.

I headed upstairs knowing the bell would ring in the next few minutes and they would all come as well.

"Charlotte." I heard his voice behind me and I ignored it as I walked to my home ecs class. I heard him follow me through the empty corridor.

"Leave me alone, Cameron." I said to him as he called out my name again, jogging towards me.

Cameron stood in front of me and I glared up at him, as he grabbed my arm and pulled me closer to him. "Let go of me." I tried twisting my body away from his as he met my glare.

"I don't want to be here, but if you don't talk to him, I'm going to suffer just as much as you. He just wants to talk to you." Cameron said to me as I pulled my arm out of his hold.

"You can all rot in hell for all I care." I hissed at him as he glanced behind me.

"This isn't going to end here." He whispered harshly at me as the bell rang through the building and he walked away from me.

"What the fuck did he want?" I heard Ramon's voice behind me.

"To get back with me. Apparently I'm good in bed." I muttered, sarcastically as I walked into the class and headed towards my desk.

Ramon followed me and sat besides me,pulling our desks together as the class started filling up with students. "Next time let me walk you to class." He said and I turned to look at him.

"Is that supposed to change something?" I asked with a raised eyebrow and he smirked.

"You have no idea, amore."

"Why do you call me that?" I asked confused, knowing it meant love or some sweet italian endearment.

Ramon chuckled. "You like it, that's why."

"No I don't." I answered just as Lizzie and Calvin quickly walked into the class. She grinned at me as they sat behind us. Mr Collins walked into the class.

"Today I would like you to-"

I felt Ramon move closer to me, and I felt his breath against my ear as he whispered to me. "You don't realise you smile when I call you amore." I heard the grin in his voice. "See. There's the smile."

Ramon pulled back as I realised I was indeed smiling. A single world could make me smile and I hadn't even realised it.

"That's all. Carry on with your work." Mr Collins said and turned back to his desk. I didn't hear a single word he said.

"How about I make a deal with you today?" Ramon asked as everyone started talking around us.

"Deal?" I questioned as I pulled out my notebook and opened a new page and picked up my pen.

"I'll do the work if you answer my questions." He pulled the notebook closer to himself and took the pen out of my hands.

"I'm assuming you have a lot of questions?" I sat back in my chair as Ramon started writing in my notebook.

"You have no idea." He chuckled to himself as I leaned over his arm to see him writing the method of how we had made the cake in his house.

I smiled to myself. "Ask away."

"Cameron. Tell me about him." Ramon was straight to the point, as he carried on writing but I knew his attention was on me.

"Why do you want to know?"

"I want to know if I should kick the shit out of him today or tomorrow." He chuckled, glancing at me as I rolled my eyes, a smile on my face.

"I met him at the diner." I started telling him. "Dated him for a few weeks before I realised he was a complete jerk."

"Did you sleep with him?"

"That was sarcasm, Ramon." I chuckled to myself as he turned the page over and started writing again.

"Just trying to get to know you a little better, amore. You're a closed book."

I disagreed. "I think I'm as open as you are."

Ramon put the pen down and leaned against his chair, facing me. "Ask me anything and I'll answer it." He dared me.

"Anything?" I taunted him, making him assume I would ask for his darkest secret.

Ramon leaned closer to me, his knees touching mine as he faced me. "Whatever you want, amore."

"Your favourite colour?" I smirked at him as he chuckled to himself.

"Black." He answered and nodded. He did wear a lot of black clothes like myself. Black was just a safe option that went with every single thing in someone's closet.

"Tell me yours." He asked as I picked up the notebook again and placed it on his knee as he started writing.

"I like purple." I thought about it. Purple and black were my two favourite colours.

"Purple does look good on you." He smiled to himself as I realised he was drawing something. Sketching with a pen.

I leaned closer to look at it and Ramon pulled it away shaking his head at me. "Ask your question." He told me.

I thought about it as I leaned back wondering why in the world we were not doing any work but just talking. The question came to my mind and I grinned. "Did you really try to sell drugs in school last year? That's why you had to repeat the year, right?" I asked.

He didn't look up at me as he answered, a smile on his face,his hand constantly drawing. "You know Alex is a foreign exchange student, right?" He asked, glancing up at me and I nodded. Alex had joined our school last year, everyone was in love with his beautiful flawless face. "Last year his english wasn't good, and he misunderstood a senior in my year. He assumed he wanted drugs so he brought them to school but the guy wanted actual coke, the drink." He chuckled to himself. "I took the blame for it because his dad was a right fuck up. They told me I would repeat senior year."

It really didn't make any sense. The school wouldn't make him repeat a year if he wasn't failing his classes. They would exclude him for a week or two the most but that was it. His family was rich, they could have easily pulled some tricks.

I nodded, not believing him though but also not questioning it. I told him lies as well and I was no one to judge. "Show me what you're drawing."

"Pazienza, amore."

"You have to stop speaking a different language. I only speak english." I told him as I pulled out my other notebook to work on the essay I needed to write.

"I like seeing your cute confused face." He said as I opened the notebook up.

"It might work on Tiffany but not me." I chuckled to myself, noticing Tiffany glancing at us every two minutes.

"That's what I like about you. You're not on your knees begging." He said and I turned to look at him.

"And if I were? Would you leave me alone?" I raised an eyebrow.

Ramon leaned closer to me, his voice a purr as he answered. "Get down on your knees and I'll think about it."

"Prick." I muttered to him, shaking my head and facing my chair towards my desk. Ramon placed my notebook in front of me and I didn't move as I stared at a picture of me. He had drawn me. It was beautiful, strands of my hair framing my face, the small details of the freckles that scattered all over my face. All with a pen.

"That is the smile you have on your face when I call you amore." He said to me, chuckling at my wide eyes.

I felt the blush rising on my face as I pushed it away and shook my head at him. "It's beautiful." I told him as I closed the notebook and placed it aside. He grinned at me. Ramon grinned at me as I placed the second notebook in front of him.

"Write down what I say." I handed him the pen, and with a smile on his face he nodded.

I was pushing the drawing out of my mind as I started talking and he knew it as he smirked to himself.

Why was he being nice?

■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■

Ramon Ramon Ramon Ramon.

*sigh*

Question- Favourite K-Drama?

Has to be Healer for me. (That's Alex up there/on the side by the way^)