Slade's POV

Slowly, I opened my eyes and saw my familiar room's ceiling .

How did I get here?

I looked to my left to see a cup there. It had cake in it, chocolate cake. Just then, everything came back to memory.

The club.........cake....... getting high...... dancing....... Anything after that time was very vague.

Groaning, I took my phone which was in the pocket of my jeans. I still had time to prepare for school, so I bathed and got ready. Wearing black jeans and a white t-shirt, I went downstairs with my bag so that I could have breakfast and go to school without having to come back up.

Mom was in the kitchen making breakfast, and I sat on the kitchen chair and greeted her good morning.

"Good morning, Slade. Slept well?"

I nodded as I texted Kendrick to come and pick me up. Kendrick was the most 'civilised' among my friends, so my mom wouldn't be against seeing him here.

"Where were you last night?"

I looked at her to see that she had removed the pan from the stove, and was looking at me with that look, that look that promised a lot if I did something as stupid as lie to her.

"I was out with my friends. There was a birthday party, so I had been invited."

She served the food.

"Well........you should've told us, or at least come back home early. We were worried about you."

I smiled at her, and took a bite of my food.

"This tastes really great, mom."

She smiled at me, and went on to serve herself before she sat down to eat.

"Where's Dad?"

"He'll be coming down soon. He's got a brunch meeting today, so he's not leaving early."

I nodded, eating up the remains of the food on the plate. The plate and the cup were put in the sink and I kissed her goodbye on the cheek.

Kendrick was taking too long, so I decided to walk while he caught up with me. After a short while, a car stopped beside me in the road and the window was rolled down. Kendrick smiled, his green eyes lively that morning.

"Hop in. We're gonna be late!"

****

We got to school with a few minutes to spare, and we rushed to our lockers and got our books before we headed to class. Jimmy was nowhere to be seen, which was puzzling. Kendrick, Dan and I will look for him later.

The day went by at a normal pace. It didn't feel like a drag but at the same time, it wasn't going fast enough. These walls screamed depression to my already depressed soul.

An hour before school ended, we had study time for the whole school. That was a system brought into practice a few years ago, coming from the examination that when students studied at school, it gave them more time on their books as compared to going to do it at home. To some extent, it was true, but it honestly didn't change anything for me.

Students were given ten minutes to go and study wherever they deemed appropriate, and they were not to move from there until it was time for everyone to go home. So, I just shuffled about in the corridors, not really knowing where to go when I saw Emilia walking towards the library. She'd let her blonde hair loose today, so there were no colourful ribbons in it. She wore a pale blue sundress and black snickers.

I followed her out of curiosity. She was cute and all, so I wanted to see what she was up to. Very few people shuffled into the library, and I wondered what was wrong with the place. When she sat down, I went about and looked for a book to 'read'. I just picked a random book about wildlife and went to sit next to her.

She looked at me and smiled before she went back to her books. It wasn't a seductive smile or anything. It was just......... friendly. It was a smile you'd give a stranger but it wouldn't make them uncomfortable. She had her notebook and a textbook open, and a Bible.

Bible? Why would she need that?

The room was awfully quiet, which made me understand why few students liked it in there. I, however, didn't like the silence so I decided to initiate conversation.

"Hey there."

She stopped writing and looked at me for a brief moment, greeted me back and went on with her studying.

I honestly was not used to not getting attention from girls. So I tried talking again.

"What are you doing there?"

She replied with a low whisper

"Studying."

Oh....you don't say.

"Cool."

"Yeah....."

I tried to read the weird book, but I couldn't. Reading it was just too boring. Looking at my 'study buddy', I could see that she was completely concentrating on what she was doing.

"Do you know who I am?"

She didn't look from her books.

"Yes, I do. Who wouldn't?"

I was intrigued by her, a little. She knew who I was and what I did, but she was acting like she was sitting next to an average Joe.

"Well....... aren't you intimidated by me?"

She finished writing her note and looked at me for a good while before she replied.

"Not really. Should I be?"

Wow......... What a question. I didn't even know the answer to it myself.

"That doesn't matter. So you aren't afraid of me or anything?"

She shook her head and went on with her notes.

"I don't see the reason for me to be. I didn't do anything against you or anyone here."

She was right. People in the school were afraid of me, mainly because of the fights they would've heard about or because of someone who would've gone on my wrong side and had been dealt with, and had told the story.

"So what's your name?"

"Is there any reason for you to know it? I don't think we're gonna meet again or anything after today."

I didn't want her to know that I already knew her name, so I had to come up with a neat excuse.

"I just wanna know it."

After a short while, she said it.

"Emilia Carter."

I nodded my head and looked at the pride of lions on my page. Just a couple of male lions in that pride and a few females with a single cub eating their kill.

"So...... you're going to look at lions the whole day?"

Shocked a little, I looked at Emilia who was looking at the book in front of me.

"Yeah.......does it matter?"

Drawing her brows together, she looked at me.

"Aren't you sitting for your final exams this year?"

I nodded and made myself comfortable on the chair and held my book with more confidence. Where that came from, I had no idea.

"Yeah. It doesn't really bother me."

She looked back at her books and continued to study after she'd said this.

"Of course it wouldn't. I don't think you're smart enough to even be bothered."

My eyes widened as I looked at the girl. Did she just insult me? I hadn't been insulted since.......... It had been a while since someone had the guts to do it. It was weird, but in a good way. The funny thing was , I wasn't offended. At all. I actually felt challenged.

"You're saying I'm dum?"

She laughed a little but didn't say anything about my question and went on studying.

"I'm not dum."

"Prove it then."

Raising a brow, I asked her how i was going to do it.

"When's your next test?"

"The day after tomorrow."

"Great! Your result will show if you're smart or not."

I laughed then, but the librarian, Mr Kath, sushed me from his table. Raising my arms in surrender, I looked at Emilia who was snickering under her hand.

"You're joking."

She shook her head, and went on with her study. She honestly thought that I was dum and that made me wonder if everyone thought of me as being dum.

Did it really matter what others thought?

"I'll show you that I'm not dum, but what do I get from this?"

"Well........ you get to know that I won't see you as a dum dum. I'll even tell my friends about it. Then you'll still be bad but smart."

"But-"

Just then, the sirene rang to signal the end of the day. She began to pack up her stuff.

"Bye, Slade. I gotta go. Things to do, people to see. Don't forget to study!"

She ran out of the library. I laughed to myself a little, wondering where she was running off to. I put the wildlife book back on its shelf and made my way out of the library.

We had a history exam, so I had to go home and do something I hadn't done in a while.......read. I called my boys and we decided that if we didn't see Jimmy tomorrow, we'd go look for him.

After they dropped me home, I went into the kitchen and made myself a sandwich before I went upstairs to my room. I found my notebook and put it on my bed. My earphones were in my bag as well as my phone so those were an easy find. I let music play and I began to study.

A call interrupted my music, and I answered it to hear that it was Jimmy.

"Jimmy! Where were you? Why didn't you come to school?"

Sorry, bro. Something came up and I had to be there.

"Okay, man. You can tell me tomorrow. I'm in the middle of something."

What are you doing?

"Studying."

There was a silence before he began to laugh like a maniac. When he didn't hear me laugh, he stopped it.

You're serious?? Why though? You never study!

"I have to prove a point to someone."

Who?

"Don't worry about that. Laters bro."

I cut the call, and the music continued to play on and so did the study.

†††††

I'm back with my late night chapters 😂😂😂. Enjoy

Italics during phone call was Jimmy responding to Slade.

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God bless y'all