"𝘾𝙡𝙤𝙨𝙚 𝙮𝙤𝙪𝙧 𝙚𝙮𝙚𝙨, 𝙗𝙪𝙩 𝙣𝙤𝙩 𝙩𝙤 𝙬𝙚𝙚𝙥

𝙁𝙤𝙧𝙜𝙚𝙩 𝙖𝙗𝙤𝙪𝙩 𝙮𝙤𝙪𝙧 𝙨𝙤𝙧𝙧𝙤𝙬"

🀢 🀣 🀥

The strong ivory underneath my fingers, emitted a melodious tune, as it allowed my emotions to consume me. Closing my eyes, I wanted to clear my thoughts. Drowning everything out with the music.

I began playing a song that seemed familiar yet, I could not pinpoint where I had heard of it. Following the tune from the piano, I began to solemnly sing.

"In touch with the ground, I'm on the hunt, I'm after you," I sighed trying to keep my voice low and steady, "Smell like I sound, I'm lost in a crowd, And I'm hungry like the wolf."

"Wow."

My head immediately whips around to see the boy with hazel eyes, Stiles. He stood in the doorway of the music room staring at me like I was the most amazing thing in the room. I didn't understand what I did to deserve such awe, considering I was not special.

"You are amazing."

My cheeks reddened under his gaze, "I was just goofing around. I don't usually sing in front of others," I started, moving off the bench as I grabbed my bag from the floor. Flattening my blue patterned dress, and checking my hair, I looked back up at the boy to see him in a more comfortable stance, "Thank you. Stiles, right?"

He immediately nodded his head before stuttering, "Yeah. And you are the Ariel Martin."

I let out a soft laugh, "That's what they tell me."

"Ariel!"

The boy looks behind himself before he is rudely shoved out of the doorway by Lydia. Lydia pursed her lips assessing the scene, before looking at me, "Time for us to go."

"Lydia," My eyes widen as I walk to the door, "You can't just push people out of your way."

I look for Stiles once we reach the door but he is no longer there. Figures he must have taken Lydia's rude entrance as a sign of unwantedness.

I turned back to my sister with a frown, "You scared him away."

"Hmm," Lydia clicked her tongue, acting to be uninterested in whatever I was saying, "Who cares? He is a loser."

I frowned thinking about the cute boy. A grin formed on my face, thinking about how funny he had been in our English class today. He was so sweet when I asked him about what I missed the first few days of school when I hadn't been here.

I was so busy thinking about the boy that I didn't hear what Lydia said causing her to suddenly yank me out of the room.

"Come on," Lydia sighed impatiently pulling me down the hall.

🀢 🀣 🀥

Allison and I were in my bedroom, working on physics homework. Er, well, Alison was. I was bored out of my mind trying to figure out how I could fake spending longer than the six minutes it took me to solve the entire packet.

I sighed, highlighting my notes to make them look pretty. Although I didn't care if Allison found out I was smart. Lydia did, and she was right so do so. Appearances were key. Plus, it was easier to lie to everyone than just a few people.

Allison looked up from her work, watching the me in astonishment, "How are you already done? We just started five minutes ago."

I shrugged, placing the cap on her blue highlighter, the color nearly matched my eyes so I liked to use it, "I did it with Jackson during lunch. He already took the class so he knows all the answers," I lie.

Allison scoffed in disbelief, "You're so lucky."

I shrugged, careful not to seem to smart. Lydia and I have always been above average intellectually, but we knew that if someone ever found out, that they would be treated differently.

"I guess should be glad that Lydia is dating an upperclassman," I carefully told Allison. Not looking up from my notes, in case she could see my tell. Whenever I lied, I had this terrible habit of slightly pursing my lips to the side. It wasn't too noticeable but you could definitely see it if you knew to look.

Allison shakes her head as if she couldn't believe me, "But you are also really good in English, and math, and music...," Allison began listing all of our classes together.

Maybe Allison is smarter than I thought...

I bit my lip realizing I may have not been doing a good job at staying under the radar, "Please don't tell anyone."

Allison looks at the me in shock and confusion as if she couldn't understand why I didn't want this getting out, "Why wouldn't you want anyone to know?"

"I just don't," I rushed, my voice a bit higher than I intended.

Allison seemed to be taken aback by my friend's reaction, as she turned back to her notes. I winced realizing it looked like I didn't trust her, "Look, I'm sorry, I just don't want to be treated differently. It's happened before and I don't want to go through that again."

Allison nodded, before looking back down at her work again.

I began to feel guilty for lying to the Argent. Allison and I have really developed a bond and I don't want her to think that I don't appreciate her as a friend. I couldn't work, thinking I may have upset my only friend, so I tried to lighten the mood, "So how is Scott?"

Allison immediately shut her textbook as she looked up at the me with a sparkle in her eyes, "He is so kind and funny," Allison gushed biting her lip, "You know I had originally said I wouldn't date until college, but now I am not sure."

I clapped my hands togetherin excitement. They are so cute.

"He really likes you, I can tell."

Allison winced, "Do you think he likes me?"

I scoffed, tossing my pencil at her, which the taller girl immediately deflected, "Of course. I see the way you two look at each other."

Allison tucks her hair behind her ear, as she leaned back with a silly smile on her face.

"I want to wait until college to start dating," I decided to share, knowing I could trust her. It had always been the girl's plan to wait, knowing that any relationship I had in high school would be based on lies and deceit. I knew the pain that high school relationships could cause and I refused to let it break me.

Allison looked at me with an odd expression before nodding her head, "Because you want to focus on your studies."

I shook my head, wishing that was the reason, "Nope. I just don't think, for me, it would make sense to date, right now. I don't think I would be able to handle it," I confessed.

Allison smiles, "But what if you do meet your soulmate?"

I rolls my eyes with a small smile, before playfully replying, "Come on, Ally, we can't all meet our perfect matches on the first day of school."

Allison laughs, "I don't know about that A. Stiles seemed to be pretty interested when you sat behind him on our first day of school."

"I don't like Stiles," Ariel deadpanned. I knew what the consequences would be for both of us if we were to pursue each other. And I was not interested in the boy in the slightest. Although, theoretically, if I were to date someone at school. Stiles would seem to be a nice guy.

"Okay then..."

"Stop," I laughed, shoving Allison, earning a shove back.

We both freeze looking at each other before we burst out in laughter.

🀢 🀣 🀥

I was sitting in math class as I watched the teacher begin to call people to go up to the board and explain the homework from last night.

After Allison and I had finished studying, the previous night, Lydia had walked in explaining to us how Scott was able to hurt Jackson, so now he couldn't play.

Lydia, however, was more upset because Scott declared that he won't play tomorrow's game either. So now Lydia has given me the dirty task of questioning Scott on why he won't play.

I was looking down at my notes praying that I wouldn't be called up to the board. Not only did I not feel like presenting today, but I was not in the mood to lie about how I got these problems right when I missed class yesterday. That would only lead to the teacher thinking that I cheated and I couldn't deal with the drama.

"Ariel and Scott. Solve these for me," I sighed and got up from my desk.

Walking up to the board I worked to not make my heels click too loudly on the linoleum flooring, not wanting the same amount of attention my sister got.

Once I made it to the board I realized that I had forgotten my notes. I did not want to go back and grab them because that would look so awkward, but I also knew there was no way a student could solve this problem without notes.

Grabbing the piece of chalk, I sighed as I began writing out the solution to the problem. Solving it in my head and praying nobody was paying atttention.

Scott sat next to me in awe, as he had barely began the problem he was presenting, giving me a small smile, "Hey."

I smile, sending him a wink, "Hey, Scott. Congrats on lacrosse. I heard you made first line."

I turned around and saw Lydia sending her daggers. With a sigh I continued, "But there is a rumor going around saying that you're not playing tomorrow?"

"'Cause I'm sort of not," He muttered.

I bit my lip not knowing what else to say, but luckily for me, I didn't have to because Lyds took the liberty of walking up to the board and speaking for me, "Mr. Webster, it looks like Ariel needs a little help."

I turned to the math teacher to see him nod his head, "Of course."

"I think you sort of are. Especially when you brutally injure my boyfriend by ramming into him," Lydia tells Scott. How did she hear us?

I scoffed playfully at Lyd's insinuation that my work was subpar, "My notation is perfect."

"He brutally injured himself by ramming into me," Scott tells Lydia at the same time.

Lydia turns to Scott, "Jackson's gonna play tomorrow. But he's not gonna be at his peak, and we as the Martins prefer having our boyfriends at peak performance."

I opened my mouth to say something but Lydia spoke over me, "And your notation is good, but not that of Erdős."

"Excuse me for not concerning myself with a notation that can meet one of the greatest mathematicians in history's standards," Rolling my eyes, I watched Lydia finish the problem, adding a few more mathematical explanations.

"I date the captain of the winning lacrosse team, and if they start off the season by losing, I date the captain of the losing lacrosse team. I don't date losers," She told Scott, getting back to the conversation at hand.

"Losing one game isn't gonna kill anyone. In fact, it might even save some," He muttered the last part but I heard it.

"Fine! Don't play. We'll probably win anyway. Then we'll go out after like we were planning - and I'll introduce Allison to all the hot players on the team. And Scott McCall can stay home, surfing the net for porn," Lydia fake smiled then left, wiping the chalk off her hands.

"Mr. McCall you're not even close to solving your problem," The teacher stated.

"Tell me about it," Scott muttered.

I frowned, putting down my own piece of chalk after circling the answer Lydia had written, "Sorry about my sister," I began walking away, but not before whispering, "Umm...you are missing a negative."

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