Chapter 2:

Beckinsile's Point of View

The humidity from the gym engulfs me as I open the heavy door and walk into the brightly lit space. Part of the right side is taken up by bleachers where my classmates are gathering. My teacher, Ms. Anderson, is checking something off on a clipboard nearby. She's tall and has a muscular build. Her hair is bright red and pulled into a ponytail. Ms. Anderson is dressed in shorts and a t-shirt with our school's logo and mascot. I go to West Way High and our mascot is the wolves; real creative, right? Nope; I never thought the cutesy alliteration was creative or extremely fearsome, which is what a mascot is supposed to be, right? It's supposed to make other schools fear us.

"I guess it could be worse; we could have the teddy bear as our mascot, at least wolves are somewhat fearsome." I think as I walk towards the bleachers. I'm so wrapped up in my thoughts that I don't even notice I've taken the seat right next to the obnoxious pencil-tapper from my math class. "I really need to become more observant," I think as I fold up my schedule and throw it into my bag.

"Hey Beckinsile," I can feel the boy smirking at me.

I clench my fist at my side and put on a fake smile.

"Hello whatever your name is," I say coolly and turn to face Ms. Anderson who is beginning to call roll.

"Here we go again; more people snickering and making obnoxious comments about my name," I mumble to myself and cross my arms.

"It's Oliver," The boy holds out his hand for me to shake.

I take a hold of it and shake firmly. He has a firm handshake as well, and his hands are a lot bigger than mine.

"Oliver Marshall," Ms. Anderson calls out in a chirpy voice.

"Here Ma'am," Oliver calls back to her in a slightly bored tone.

I smile into my lap a little as she calls out more names. I brace myself as Ms. Anderson reaches the end of the alphabet.

"Beckinsile Williams," I hear a few snickers and hushed comments as I raise my hand.

"Very good; everyone's here, that's a good sign. I'm Ms. Anderson and welcome to your physical education class. You will each require a uniform. For those of you that don't already possess one; I will be passing around an order form. Please have those into to me by Thursday. Uniforms are due Thursday; bring them into class with you on Thursday.We will be handing out locker assignments on Thursday,so if you don't have your uniform by then, than you can't receive your locker assignment."

I zone out of her lecture after that. Gym is one of my least favorite classes. Besides the fact that I suck at every sport known to man, I find the class extremely boring in general and don't even get me started on those God forsaken uniforms. I can feel Oliver staring at me but I can't understand why. I can also feel all the populars staring at me with their stupid smirks and utterly useless remarks.

"What kind of name is Beckinsile?" "Why would someone name their kid that? Do they not love her?" "Her parents are just setting her up for failure with a name like Beckinsile." I had heard them all before and long ago decided to not let their unintelligent remarks faze me. Eventually they would give up, or so I hoped.

The teacher gave us the last ten minutes of class to socialize. I was in no mood to talk so I pulled out my phone.

"Wow, I'm going to pretend that didn't hurt." I heard Oliver say in a teasing tone.

"What are you pretending about?" I mumble as I scroll through my Instagram feed.

"I'm sitting right here and you'd rather be on your phone than have a conversation with me. I'm going to pretend that doesn't hurt."

I hear him chuckle slightly next to me.

"I barely know you and in the short time I have known you, you've made fun of my name, so I guess I just don't feel like having a conversation with someone like you." I say with my eyes still glued to my phone screen.

"Your reactions to my teasing amuse me." Oliver says with a smirk. I respond with an eye roll and then go back to my phone.

I hear someone walking down the stairs between the bleacher sections. Their high heels clack along with them which could only mean one thing.

"Who would name their kid Beckinsile?" There it is; another unintelligible remark from an equally unintelligible person.

I turn around and find Danika Blackwell sneering at me. Danika is the main popular girl at our school and one of the main people who enjoys bashing my name for the fun of it.

"Who would name their kid Danika? It sounds like a stripper name. Where's your pole Danika?" I cross my arms and give her an "I win" smirk.

I can hear Oliver chuckling next to me as Danika stalks off with her wannabes scurrying close behind her.

"Danika," I say and she whips her head around to face me. "Hooter's is that way." I point in the direction of the gym doors. She glares at me and storms off. There are some people I can hold my tongue around but Danika Blackwell is not one of those people.

"Where did that come from?" Oliver utters through chuckles.

"I pick my comebacks." I say as I turn off my phone and slip it into my bag.

"She looked so pissed off. I love it." Oliver has a grin on his face as I turn towards him. "Oh so now you want to have a conversation?" He chuckles and has a smirk playing on features while waiting for my response.

"Yeah; at least you don't mock my name all the time." I shove him a little.

"I should really work on that. It looks like Danika could use some competition for most annoying."

"What she needs is better insults. Every insult she says I've heard before. It's becoming slightly boring." I smirk and cross my arms.

"I bet I could come up with some original insults about you're name." Oliver says in a teasing tone.

"I'd love to see you try."

"Oh I will and when I come up with one you will never hear the end of it." Oliver grins at me as the bell rings. "Where is Beckinsile going now?" Oliver says in a mock thoughtful tone.

"None of your beeswax," I say as I grab my bag and walk towards the door.

It turns out that I have Science with Mr. Mitchell next. I walk down a couple of hallways and find his classroom with a few minutes to spare. I grab a seat at the lab table in the front of the room in perfect view of the board. The seats around me fill up but the one next to me remains empty. It remains empty until none other than Oliver Marshall takes it right as the bell rings. I groan internally as Mr. Mitchell brings the class to attention.

"These will be your lab partners for the rest of the semester; so, I hope you chose wisely. However, if problems do arise I can and will change your seats."

"How ironic," I mumble as Mr. Mitchell begins to call roll.

As usual when my name is called, a chorus of hushed snickers and unintelligible remarks ensue. I roll my eyes and raise my hand. I'm last so after my name is called; Mr. Mitchell begins his lecture about what we will be learning this year. I zone out, as I have done for most of my classes, and daydream about whatever happens to come to me. I daydream about Never land and having Peter Pan take me away from this cruel world to be forever young with him.

Peter Pan was my childhood hero. I had read all the books and watched the movie at least a hundred times. Once, I even made Gabe and Nate play Peter Pan with me. I was Peter and they got the privilege of being my lost boys. They didn't enjoy it very much which made me enjoy it even more.

"The second star to the right shines with a light that's rare, and if it's Never land you need, its light will lead you there," I hum as I slowly come back to reality.

Mr. Mitchell is still droning on about the topics we will be learning this year, making me instantly regret coming out of my daydream. I hear Oliver tap his fingers in an annoyed way while Mr. Mitchell begins explaining lab procedures. "Apparently his annoying habits are not limited to pencil tapping." I think with a slight smirk.

The bell rings a few minutes later and I throw my bag over my shoulder. Oliver follows me out of class and falls into step next to me.

"I bet your parents don't love you and that's why they named you Beckinsile." I hear Danika's chirpy voice call out from behind me.

"Hey, how much do you're stripper services cost per hour? I'm having a party this weekend." Oliver smirks at Danika as she groans and stalks past him.

He holds out his hand, expecting a high-five. I unwillingly high-five him.

"That was a pretty good comeback, I guess." I smirk at him as the two of us check our schedules.

"English," We both groan at the same time.

"I think you're stalking me." I chuckle as both of us walk towards Ms. Matthews's class for English.

Oliver and I walk into the classroom to find the chairs set up in a circle.

"I really hope this isn't part of a getting to know you game the teacher has planned." Oliver whispers before walking off to find a seat.

I felt compelled to sit with him for some odd reason but that thought was obliterated when I saw Fiona waving frantically to get my attention. I grin and take the seat next to her.

"Oh my gosh, Becks. I've missed you. I can't believe you left me alone with Ed for two whole periods."

"It's not like I had much choice." I chuckle before pulling out the summer reading the school had assigned us.

"I'm glad to see some of you remembered your summer reading assignments. Please pull them out and if you don't have them, make sure you've found them by Thursday.We will be beginning our discussion on Thursday.Today I'm going to give you a short lowdown on what we will be learning this year and then we will be playing a getting to know you game." A simultaneous groan is emitted from all the students.

"I know how much you guys love those but I want you to be close with your classmates as we will be doing lots of group projects and one-on-one discussions."

"Ooo fun; I love group projects." I think to myself as Ms. Matthews takes roll which goes down like every other class; snickers and all.

She then lectures us about our curriculum and proceeds to explain the "getting to know you game". Basically, she'll say something and you go into the middle if you like it.

"Summer vacation," Ms. Matthews starts off and everyone steps into the middle. I roll my eyes as we go back to our seats.

"This is going to be a long class," I mumble to Fiona as our teacher calls out the next topic which was fashion; Fiona obviously steps into the middle.

"Chick flicks," I smirk at Fiona as we both step into the middle. The next few topics were more male-oriented so I sat in my seat quietly as people shuffled into the middle.

"Alternative music," I stand up and step into the middle. Then I notice that Oliver and I are the only ones in the middle.

"This has to be a joke. More than two people have to like alternative music in this freaking class." I think as I meet Oliver's eyes. They're a pretty blue-gray and have a teasing gleam playing in them. He sends a smirk in my direction as I walk back to my seat.

The bell rings about fifteen minutes later and I find out that I have lunch next. Luckily, Fiona does too, so we start to walk towards the cafeteria.

"Beckinsile," I hear Oliver causing a commotion behind me but I keep moving forward.

"What does he want with you, Becks? Also, why is he calling you by your full name?" I hear Fiona hiss as she walks over to the lunch line.

I pull my lunch out of my bag and search the cafeteria for Ed's familiar head of flaming orange hair.

"Beckinsile, I'm so glad I caught up with you." I hear Oliver catch his breath behind me.

"Please don't call me that." I mutter as I continue my search for Ed.

"What would you have me call you then?" Oliver sounds slightly exasperated. I bite my lip and turn to face him.

"Becks, call me Becks." I say and whip back around. I see Ed's brightly colored hair and start off towards him.

I make it across the cafeteria and plop down in the seat next to Ed.

"I heard you and Fiona were at each other's throats without me." I smirk as I pull a sandwich, a water bottle and some strawberries out of my lunch bag.

"Who told you that?" Ed says with a playful grin.

"Fiona," I chuckle a little and take a bite of my sandwich.

"Technically speaking she was at my throat and I had to get a little revenge. It was all in good fun, Becks." Ed says as he takes a drink of his water bottle.

Fiona sits down on the other side of Ed with her lunch tray.

"That line was crazy; man, some people are such animals where food is concerned." Fiona groans as she digs into her salad.

"You never get in between a person and their food; the first rule of living in America, Fi." I laugh and pop a strawberry into my mouth.

Fiona and Ed start talking about their third period teacher; a conversation that holds no interest to me. I pop another strawberry into my mouth and wait for their captivating conversation to end.

"Hey Becks," Oliver whispers in my ear as he steals a strawberry.

"What do you want Olly pop?" I smirk as he rolls his eyes.

"What are your favorite alternative bands?" Oliver looks at me seriously as if he truly wants to hear the answer.

"Mayday Parade, A Rocket to the Moon and Stereo Skyline." I say with a small smile.

"How about you?" I turn my attention to Oliver.

"All Time Low is hands down my favorite band of all time." Oliver smirks at me and steals another strawberry.

"They're cool," I muse as Ed and Fiona's conversation finally ends.

"You want to introduce us to your friend?" Ed smirks causing me to blush slightly.

"This is Oliver. Oliver this is Fiona and Ed." Ed shakes Oliver's hand and Fiona just gives him a slight wave.

After introductions, Ed and Oliver start talking about some video game that I've never heard of. Fiona and I just go back to eating, having no interest in the conversation whatsoever.

The bell rings a few minutes later; telling us to go our next class. Since it's the first day, we have to go to every class instead of the usual block scheduling. The administration wants to make sure every teacher gets to see their students and give them a supplies list. Tomorrow, I would have Math, AP Science, Marketing and French. On Thursday, I would have Gym, AP English, AP History and French. We get a half hour study hall at the end of the day every other day and all of our other classes are an hour and a half. We don't get study hall this week though; that starts next week. I was not looking forward to having math for an hour and an hour of my AP core classes would be heck. I turn down the next hallway and walk into my marketing class. Mr. Walker, my marketing teacher, is sitting at his desk watching his students file into the classroom. The tables are set up for four people.

"Don't even bother taking a seat. I've made up a seating chart." Mr. Walker gives me a smile and I just stand awkwardly next to a table.

After all the students have filed into the classroom and he's called roll; Mr. Walker begins to call out the group assignments. Oliver, ironically, is in my marketing class as well so, since I've made karma mad , he'll probably end up at my table. I wait with baited breath for my name to be called.

"Danika Blackwell, Oliver Marshall,"

"That's the start off of a great group," I smirk to myself as Mr. Walker continues.

"Brandon Johnson and Beckinsile Williams."

"Of course," I roll my eyes and walk towards my new group. "This has to be a joke. It can't just be a coincidence. Somebody planned this. Somebody is out to get me, so they bribed my teacher to create this awful seating chart." I think as I take my seat. "Not only am I stuck with Oliver again but now I have Danika and her good for nothing boyfriend too. What did I ever do to deserve this?" I fold my hands in my lap and stare across the table to find Danika's heated glare staring back at me. Oliver, obviously, took the seat next to me and across from Brandon. The whole situation was shaping up to be pretty awkward.

"These will be your seats for the next few weeks so get used to everybody at your table because you're stuck with them. Now, I don't want to give you guys some long, boring lecture about what we're going to learn this year. Instead, I'm going to start you off with a project. I'm going to give each group a product and it's your job to come up with a campaign spread. You must make a commercial and a magazine ad. The projects are due on October 2nd. You all may begin brainstorming as soon as you receive your product."

Mr. Walker comes to our group first. He gives us our product which turns out to be coffee. He hands us a planning sheet and moves onto the next group.

"So, do you guys have any ideas?" I say in a level tone.

"No, but I'm sure your brilliant brain filled with amazing comebacks can come up with something." Danika sneers and snatches the planning sheet away from me. I roll my eyes; this is going to be a long project and it's only the first day.