Picture Of Rebel on the side played by Lily Collins

CHAPTER-I

Waking up at 6.am in the morning because your traitor of an alarm clock starts ringing is not the best way to start the day. Trust me.

I groaned and peeked at the alarm by opening one eye. Stupid, stupid alarm. I cursed it to the seventh hell for waking me up at this ungodly hour. 

Immediately I started calculating. Hmmm...

School starts at 8:30am which gives me two and a half hour to reach it. Who needs that long to get ready ? Not me for sure. I don't care what I wear,only that it be comfortable. That leaves the chore of the bathroom and eating breakfast. That will take me 30 minutes ,tops. Patting myself for such a great idea and  being such an awesome co-ordinator , I hit the snooze button and promptly escaped into a world where my English teacher was a chicken and encouraged everyone that the best medicine for sickness was a double cheeseburger taken periodically after every hour.

Six snoozes later, at 7.00 am, I was running around the room like a headless chicken, trying to get ready for school. What kind of an idiot thought  30 minutes was enough for getting ready for school? It took me that long just to sit up and stretch myself. Damn me and the scrumptious cheeseburger that I could still taste.

After throwing on black ripped jeans and a black T-Shirt(from a collection of clothes that ranged from varying colors of black to black), I grabbed my skateboard and raced quietly down the stairs. After I reached the last step, I peeked at the kitchen and saw my mom, with her back to me, opening the fridge to take out something. I looked at my watch and saw that it was five minutes to the last bell for homeroom and I obviously didn't have time for breakfast.

I quietly grabbed an apple from the fruit bowl on the table and tiptoed towards the door, with my fingers crossed behind my back hoping that mom wouldn't see me. I had just opened the door and congratulated myself on my success when---

"Rebel Maya Gupta, if you dare to put a single foot out of the door, so help me God, I will pull your ears and drag you to the dining table."

I turned around, with my shoulders slumped and looked at my mother, who was standing there with her hands on her hips and her eyebrows raised.

"Mom, I am late for school. Can't I miss breakfast for one morning?." I whined.

"That's what you said yesterday and the day before and let me see, ah for the past three years," my mom said sarcastically, emphasizing the last part.

"But I grabbed an apple, so I am technically not missing breakfast. And do you know, how healthy an apple is? Only one apple can keep the doctor away. Can any of your other food do that? No, it cannot", I said winningly.

"Sit. Down. " my mom said, emphasizing every word.

So I did what every brave girl does and sat down on the dining table muttering under my breath.

"Nobody understands me. I had an apple but you had to..............." That's when the most delicious smell hit me.

"You were saying something, honey?" my mom said, placing the pancakes in front of me.

I didn't answer her because I was too busy eating. School won't miss me for another fifteen minutes.

*************

After getting killed a couple of times on the road as I was barreling in front of cars and almost hitting a poor lady, who very calmly gave me the middle finger, I reached the school on my skateboard, fifteen minutes late.

I skateboarded straight to the stairs leading to the school building and ran up the stairs. I ran till I reached the office and then I stood leaning against the wall of the office, trying to run past it, undetected.

"I know you are standing there Ms. Gupta, " a kind, teasing voice came from the office.

" Do you know how creepy that is?" I grumbled as I entered the office.

"I told you three years ago, nothing passes my eyes without me knowing" she smiled.

She had, in fact, did say that and since then, every time that I came in late(which is basically every day), I have tried to dodge past her with no success. Seriously, it is like the woman had a sensor attached to her brain that had the Rebel Wavelength wired into it.

"Whose class do you have now?" she asked.

"Mr. Dave," I said, with an evil smile.

"Oh, the poor man." she sighed.

After coming out of the office, I raced to my A.P.English class. The door was closed so I quietly opened it. Mr. Daves was reciting one of Shakespeare's sonnets. His eyes were closed and his voice was filled with emotion. Too much emotion, if you ask me. The girl sitting on the first bench directly in front of him had her head on the desk and her book covering her head since Mr. Daves,  in his bucket full of emotion, was spitting his feelings all over her.

I knocked on the door three times to break him out of his trance. Mr. Daves opened his eyes and looked at me with an irritated look. I smiled at him sweetly. He sighed and then gestured me to enter the room and take my seat.

He again closed his eyes and started professing his love for the Dark Lady.

 I had come in late so many times that the teachers had announced me a lost cause and just stopped giving me detentions. 

I quickly made my way towards the last benches where Grace, the head cheerleader, was sitting.

The moment I sat down, she glared at me. I looked at her for a moment and asked,

"What?"

"Do you know there was a party at Trisha's yesterday and everybody went there and got drunk and worse?"

"Yes I know. You begged me to go with you remember?" I replied, taking my book out of my bag and keeping my skateboard by my leg. Since I always came in late, I didn't have the time to put it in the locker, making it my date for the first period.

"Well, all I am saying is all the people were drunk like anything. But the guys who were drunk? Even they managed to come on time. So why couldn't you? Would it kill you to come to school on time?"

"Well since I have never come to school on time, except for special occasions or when we sleepover, I really think it would kill me. Or if it doesn't, it will definitely kill the teachers of shock and nobody wants that, do they?" I said.

"You are impossible.  Why do I bother ?" she said, dramatically.

"Because you are my best friend," I said.

Yes, Grace Beckett, the head cheerleader, the most beautiful girl in the school was my best friend. Now you might wonder why she would be friends with an antisocial, trouble maker like me. Well,we had been friends since kindergarten, long before the social class of high school starts setting in. A girl had stolen Grace's tiffin from her on our first day, and seeing Grace cry, I had punched that girl on the nose and returned Grace's tiffin to her. When that annoying girl had complained to the teacher, Grace very graciously had informed the teacher that she was lying and that I hadn't punched her. We had been best friends since then. Over time, she became dazzlingly beautiful with her blond hair and electric blue eyes and became the head cheerleader and I, with my auburn hair and chocolate brown eyes, became the troublemaker. But the bond between us was as fresh as the day I had smiled at an angelic girl of five who had smiled back at me with her eyes full of tears.

I looked at the skateboard by Grace's side and smiled. Yep, Grace was the head cheerleader, with a badass streak of her own. I guess, some of my cool nature had passed onto her.

"Not my finest moment," she said with her heads bowed, reading my train of thoughts as usual. I grinned at her.

After a few moments of listening to the lecture, I noticed that Grace was looking at me again.

"Now what?"I said, rolling my eyes.

"Well, when are we going?" she said excitedly.

"Going where?" I said confusedly, racking my brain to think if I had forgotten something today. Are we already close to the monthly excursion to the mall that Grace always dragged me to, for the sole purpose of buying clothes? I had no problem with her buying out the whole mall for her endeavors. But no, my best friend insisted that I buy clothes with her too. THAT is what I had a problem with. Getting a lecture on the difference between grass green and moss green and how turquoise made my eyes pop just gives me a searing migraine. What could be worse than that?

"Going to buy our prom dress! Have you forgotten?" she asked.

That.

Dammit, now I wish it WAS the monthly excursion to the mall. I much preferred having my eyes eaten by ants than to stand in the prom section with all the girls giggling how that certain boobalicious dress will get them lucky on prom night.

Sigh.

"Well no I haven't. But you seemed to have forgotten that prom is  not for one more month. What is the rush? We can buy it a week before prom. There's plenty of time.", I said airily.

And one,two,three.........

Grace gasped so loud that finalists on the Who is America's Top Next Model could take classes from her. Seriously, sometimes Grace behaved just like the stereotypical blond cheerleader.

"Have you lost your mind, Rebel? A week before prom?!! Trisha bought hers two weeks ago and it's gorgeous! No, we are going today! And that is it, young lady.", she huffed.

And as you can see, she also acts like my mom.

"Fine, we'll go today," I said rolling my eyes. I did have my earphones with me, didn't I? And I could always set off the fire alarm in the mall if Grace became too tiresome.

"Don't forget to ask Brandon what his tie color is. We have to co-ordinate our dresses with the boys' ties." she reminded me.

I groaned as she mentioned Brandon. Grace was going with James, our friend and her previous date from last year, when we had first met him. Grace had asked me to wait for a guy to ask me but they never did. I don't know why, but the guys are afraid of me. It was a mystery, really. (Cue evil grin).When I had told her that I wanted to go stag, she had looked at me in such a way that I had promptly told her that I was joking. Brandon had been one of our friends when he had first joined our school. He had been awkward and shy and Grace and I had befriended him. But soon after that, I had encouraged him to participate in the basket-ball tryouts. Long story short, the moment he became jock, he changed from getting bullied to being a bully himself. But sadly, he had asked me to the Spring Dance long before this phase, so now I was stuck with him.

"Fine, I will." I sighed.

"Ms. Gupta, can you answer the question?" a smug voice said from the front of the class.

I stood up with my eyes wide, looking at Mr. Daves, who was looking at me triumphantly.

And that's when I noticed a guy, sitting on the first bench, whom I hadn't noticed before, glaring at me.

I frowned at him.

Who is this guy and why is he glaring at me?

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