I sat in the teacher's staff room, spinning on an office chair with my hair flowing closely behind. Bored. If you saw me, you'd think I was in trouble because no one steps foot in the staff room except for the people who actually work here. In reality, I was waiting for the school paper to print. I'm the photographer and I needed to make sure that everything looked just fine. So, they allowed me to stay...for just this once. But even though they say "just this once", I always managed to get back in somehow.

I was in for two minutes, but that's all I needed to see him walk in; the new kid. He had grey eyes and dark hair that was perfectly messy, but he still ran his hand through it. As he spoke to the teachers inaudibly, I lifted up my camera. I'm a photographer. What can I say?

My camera is the type that immediately prints the picture after you take it. So there I was, taking pictures of the new 'new kid', collecting the Polaroid photos as I go. See, our school just opened and it gets new students every three or four days. I was one of them, but I became fairly popular in a matter of minutes. Actually, I was very popular and I don't exactly know why. However, it might have something to do with the fact that I attacked my classmate because he tried to trip me on my first day as I was walking to my desk... but that's another story.

Tucking my camera into my skirt pocket, I turned to face the head of the school paper. He held the paper out to me and spoke, "I think it's fine, but maybe you could run a double check." I nodded and flipped through the paper, but I kept my mind on my camera. As it sat in my pocket, it made a giant bulge. I was hoping that he didn't notice, but he began to narrow his eyes at me.

"Yeah, I think it's fine," I said, closing it up and giving it back to him. "Okay, thanks. Bye!" I rushed out the door and into the hall.

There, I was accompanied by my friend, Lila. She jumped around me like a hungry dog. "Did you get them?" she asked, eagerly. "Did you get the pictures?"

I nodded and lifted them up. "Of course. What did you think?" By now, I'm a pro at this. She shouldn't think so little of me.

She gasped and took them out of my hand. "Oh my god! He's gorgeous!" I sighed and snatched them away. Immediately, she pouted and whined, "Why can't I have the pictures?"

"Because you're drooling on yourself and, let's face it, slobbering isn't attractive," I replied. There's a whole inside joke about drool when it comes to Lila and me, but I'll tell the tale at another time.

She giggled and we went back to class, prancing down the corridor, singing and spinning like drunkards. Once we got to the classroom, it was business time. Lila stepped on a desk, gathering other people's attention. "Listen up!" she shouted at everyone. "We have a new student!"

Everybody turned their heads to me and crowded around as I was laying out the photos. They all made some sort of noise of approval. After they all dispersed, some girls came back to buy a couple of them - including Lila. I shook my head at her, but she just grinned like an idiot. Lila's job is to advertise, my job is to collect merchandise (a.k.a. Photos), and we actually have another partner in crime named Drake who wasn't there at that moment. His job was confronting the targeted person, engaging in conversation, and recording their voice.

After the bell rang, signifying the end of my mini market, we all sat down at our designated desks and I took my seat in the back corner next to the window. Our teacher entered the room and coughed in his elbow. "We have a new student," he said, hoarse. "Please come in."

The boy walked in and looked around the classroom before writing his name on the whiteboard. "Hey! My name's Elliot Kray. I'm pleased to be here," he said, bowing. Classy.

Our teacher pointed him towards the empty desk beside me. He took his seat and about five seconds later, I hear a quick, constant tapping. My eyes shifted towards Elliot to witness him hitting his pencil against the top of his desk. I am not a very patient person, so I immediately snapped.

"Excuse me," I whispered. He looked up at me and raised an eyebrow. He's cute; I must admit that. I continued, "Can you please stop tapping your pencil?"

He dropped his pencil and sharply turned his head to face me. His other eyebrow lifted up at the sight of me, but they quickly returned to their original spot. "I'm sorry. Was I bothering you?"

"Yes. Thanks for stopping." After that, I thought this conversation was over, but, alas, Elliot was not content.

In other words, I felt him staring straight at me. After a few minutes, it began bothering me. I was about ask him to quit it, but he cut me off, "Maybe I get annoyed too."

My eyes widened. "Eh? Pardon?" Honestly, I didn't have the slightest idea of what he was talking about.

He kept babbling on, "I get annoyed too. You know, like when strangers take pictures of me." I don't have to be smart to understand what he meant and know that he's talking about me. Plus, he wore a smirk on his face.

I looked away from him and muttered, "I-I'm sorry." How did he know?! He didn't even look at me! Even if he did, I would've seen him do so in one of the pictures!

He leaned in closer to me. I mean, he even did the classic 'cup one hand over your ear' move. "What was that? I couldn't hear you..."

You couldn't? Well, maybe I should shove my foot in your ear to widen it for you. Maybe that would-- "I'm sorry," I repeated louder.

He sat straight and crossed his arms. "I accept your apology." This guy...

I stared out the window. At least, it looked like I was. Actually, I was staring at Elliot's reflection. He was eating a bag of chips during class and our teacher did nothing about it even though he commented on Elliot's loud crunching. That, of course, ticked me off.

Finally, PE came and I was able to get away from the noises. We had to run, so I just jogged alongside Lila. By the look on her face and the direction of her head, she was watching Elliot. Well, all the girls were watching Elliot. It was like a bunch of loud, glittery, teenage stalkers. I can't help but to sort of pity the guy. Then, Lila and I ended up in some sort of conversation that had something to do with me switching seats with her.

If I told her that he annoyed the heck out of me, she would just scold me. I know because it has happened a number of times before. Some "cute" guy would confess to me, I'd reject him and say that I didn't like him, and Lila would give off a whole speech about my idiocy. But, hey, what else are friends for?

I dragged myself from class to class, admiring the energy that I still held inside of me in order to carry out these tasks. The night before, I had slept at twelve o' clock and woke up in the middle of the night. Staying awake for an hour or so, I finally managed to fall asleep at 4 a.m., but later, I had to wake up again at 7 a.m. Complete torture. I only had five hours of sleep when the healthy standard is nine or something!

Lunchtime came and I literally sprung into joy. I mean, people were staring at me like: 'I wonder who's that freak dancing on her desk?'

So, I'm in the cafeteria with Lila standing beside me in the lunch line. When we sat at our table with our other friends, Cassy, Tyler, and Drake, guess who came to accompany us? Elliot: The friggin' pencil-tapping, noisy eater.

Cassy stared at Elliot menacingly. "State your name," she demanded. She's practically my guard dog. This girl will stalk or threaten a person just to make sure that her friends are okay.

"Elliot Kray," he said with some sort of determination. I could almost hear a faint growl coming from Cassy's gritted teeth.

"Down girl." Tyler roughed-up Cassy's hair and spoke, raising an eyebrow at Elliot. "So... um... what are you doing here?" We call this guy Tyler. He's a bit more of a goody-two-shoes, so he's not in Lila, Drake, and my business, but he is the one who supplies us with all our 'gadgets' and he won't tell on us, so he's a great addition to the team.

Cassy's too busy being a guard dog, so she has no time to work with us. It's a shame, though. Like I said, she's a great stalker. We could have been rich... but, hey, what can you do?

"I'm friends with Lila and Odette," Elliot said to Tyler, looking fairly pleased with himself.

Lila melted away while saying something like, "He knows my name...Oh my god...he said my name..."

Friends? 'Friends' my butt. I don't befriend my arch-enemies. Anyone who sniffs me out while I'm stealthily taking pictures of them is a bad person in my book. Yes, I know I should 'keep my friends close and my enemies closer', but it's hard to keep your enemies close when they interrupted you while you're trying to listen to your teacher for the first time in two years. He practically washed away all my efforts in a single take. I didn't like it when people washed away my efforts, therefore... I hated him even more.

"No," was what I said to Elliot after his statement. "No. No. No. No. No. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no." For a split second, I saw him pout, but the guy's very resilient.

Before long, he responded, "Yes. Yes, Odette. Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes."

Drake slapped his hands over both of our mouths. It slightly hurt, but the sound that came from the slap was really loud and it seemed like it would've caused great agony. But it didn't. Which is a good thing. I don't know how many people know this, but Drake is strong. Like, really strong. His father would drink and abuse the kids whenever he wanted to... so Drake would teach himself a thing or two about strength and try to achieve it. Not only that, but whenever there was something heavy to carry into the house, Drake would bring it in. So, back when Drake was small and cute, he would be able to carry gallons and gallons of water in one hand.

Where were we in the story...? Oh, yeah. My mouth was slapped.

Drake glared at the both Elliot and I. After a bit of silence, he finally spoke, "Don't get to level-ten."

Elliot looked confused, but I understood clearly what he meant. Right now, when Drake smacked our faces, it took him no strength, so it was at a 'level-zero'. Gradually, it rises for each level, but the amount of strength doesn't raise at a constant rate. The level always doubles the previous level. So, level-eight would feel like two level-sevens. If that's the case, then level-ten is two level-nines. It doesn't even end there, though! It ends at level-hundred. But Drake won't go higher than level-ten when he's dealing with his friends.

With that said...

"Elliot's not exactly a friend, is he?" I asked Drake. "If not, then, you can go higher than ten on him, right?!"

Drake glared at me for a second and pulled a level-four on my cheek. Yes, he skipped three whole levels. "I thought I taught you better than to wish for pain to be inflicted on others. I'll do the 'wishing' and 'inflicting' for you. But if you say that again, then you're disrespecting my teaching abilities. It's not nice. Don't do that." I held my cheek and nodded obediantly.

Lila perked up all of a sudden. "Hey, Elliot! I'll introduce you to the group." She pointed at all of us one at a time, telling Elliot our names and whatnot. "I'm Lila, of course. I'm also known as Lil' A, Liar, and Pringles. Yes, I have a reason why I'm sometimes called Pringles. The one who slapped you is Drake. His nicknames are Dray, Dr. Kay, and Drake-ula; kind of like 'Dracula'. This scary woman is Cassy. Also Cass, Sass, Speedy Gonzales, and Girl. Tyler is the name of the guy over here. He is also Tye, Taye, Tate, and Mr. Totem."

He nodded, showing that he had listened. "I'm Elliot. I'm also called Eli... That's about it." His eyes skirted across our faces until he stopped on mine. "How about her? What about Odette?" he asked Lila, pointing at me.

"Well, you already know her name; Odette Harte," she said. "Odette has no nicknames because she claims that 'nothing suits her' or 'sounds normal'..." Lila turned her head and pierced her eyes through my skull. Or so it seemed.

I quickly shoved food into my mouth so that I have a reason not to talk. For my quick-thinking, I received scowls from everyone. Thankfully, they let it pass. With one glance at Elliot's face, you could tell that- for some reason- he was disturbed. He had on one of those faces that kind of looked like it ate something sour while getting its foot smashed with a cinderblock.

"That's kind of sad... isn't it?" he asked me, trying not to have on that odd expression. "I mean... just going by 'Odette' your whole life while everyone around you has a nickname... It must be lonely, right?" I had no idea what he meant by that. Plus, why is he the one that's saddened by this?! It's a sucky feeling you get when your rival pities you...

"No," I replied rather flatly, making his eyes widen. "There's no good nickname that's related to 'Odette', so I'd rather not go through the trouble of trying to find one." I continued eating, ignoring Elliot's long stare.

Everyone else went on with their conversations and whatnot. However, Elliot just kept his gaze fixed on me. It was quite unnerving and disturbing. Then, he let out this sort of long groan as if he were a dying zombie. As expected, it didn't last long before he stood straight up quickly, making the table shake a bit.

He pointed at me like I was an alien and shouted, "I swear I'll find you a nickname if it's the last thing I do!" After this claim, he ran out of the cafeteria like a mad-man. I still don't know how the heck he gets that kind of motivation from something so trivial...

It wasn't long before I felt arms hugging me from behind. "I'm sorry. I can't take it..." a person muttered into my ear. A male; that's all I was able to find out at that moment. Honestly, I didn't know who it was. He sighed and said one last thing before I turned to check who it was, "I want you to finally see me."

[]Author's Note[]

So, alas, that is the end of chapter one~

Let me know what you think! Don't be a silent reader! If you liked it, then please continue! If not, then what the heck are you still doing here? It's okay, I don't mind.

During this chapter, Odette spoke very little about her first day: "...I attacked my classmate because he tried to trip me on my first day as I was walking to my desk... but that's another story." Keep that in mind. Okay? Okay. Great.

And who is this mystery person?! I wonder... Yes, I created a new character before knowing who it will be. Don't judge me. It's a guy, though!

I'm just as clueless as Odette... Take pity on my soul.

Well, that's it! So, vote, comment, follow, and keep going! I hope to see you in the next chapter!!

This is Iris! Signing... Off!!

-!Ri$