Aubrey POV

"What the fuck do you want?" he says looking me up and down with a disgusted looking expression. Did I miss something?

Ok Aubrey play it cool, don't let him see how much this hurt you. 

"Well nothing to do with you" I say turning around and walking back to stunned looking Spencer, I turn back in a moment of my newfound confidence "Later dickhead" and then immediately regret it and rush up to Spencer.

"What the fuck? Who does that guy think he is?...I'm going to go teach him a lesson" Spencer says giving Ian a death glare and cracking his knuckles. 

I laugh, that's what I tend to do when I'm uncomfortable, "No Spencer, don't worry, I'm fine." I say as a grab onto his hands and look him in the eyes, trying to give him a smile, but I'm pretty sure he can tell it's force. 

His expression softens when he looks at me and says "Stay away from him"

"Don't need to tell me twice" I chuckle to which Spencer offers a sad smile.

I turn to have one final look at Ian, because I obviously hate myself, and I see him staring back at me and Spencer's intertwined hands, with his jaw clenched. I quickly tear my gaze away from Ian, drop my hands from Spencer's and pray to god Ian and I have no classes together. 

"Off to chemistry now princess!" Spencer says in a chirpy tone trying to distract me.

"Let's go" I say grabbing Spencer's  wrist and pulling him along. 

"Oh please do lead the way" he says laughing whilst being pulled along by me. All the while I can feel an intense stare, I shrug off the feeling and indulge in Spencer's help in distracting me. 

I stop suddenly and Spencer rams into the back of me "Woah there" he says turning me around.

I giggle and then look up at him and admit "I have no idea where I am going" 

He shakes his head with an amused smile and grabs my hand again and leads me the opposite direction I was going.

We arrive at the chemistry classroom and take a seat at a bench close to the front. The class passes relatively quickly and I find that I really like the teacher Mr Black and the content is relatively similar to what we learnt at my old school.

I am so lucky to have Spencer, he makes me feel so much more comfortable.  

We leave chemistry and enter the packed hallways where I follow closely behind Spencer to our next class, English. By the time we reach the classroom the hallways are cleared out, and when we arrive the classroom is full but with no teacher.

I look around the classroom and then make eye contact with Ian. Bloody brilliant. I start coughing in shock and then am brought out of my staring competition with Ian when Spencer pats my back. 

"What are you two doing still standing, go sit down!" the teacher says as he enters the room. I turn to face him and as soon as he sees me his face morphs into a slightly shocked expression.

"Oh you must be our new student! Ms-" he says trailing off

"Aubrey...Carter" I say looking at him and smiling awkwardly.

"Well take a seat Ms Carter... why don't you sit next to Mr Gray hmm?" he says walking over to his desk and placing down his tan suitcase. 

I turn to Spencer and give him a concerned look and he nods and begins walking toward Ian. 

"No no Mr Fuller I need you right up at the front" our english teacher says in a condescending tone and pointing to the seat at the front next to the girl with midnight black hair going all the way down to her hips. 

Spencer offers me a sad look and I smile letting him know it's ok. I then turn to go sit next to Gray. Bloody hell, I officially hate this class. 

As soon as I sit Ian looks around the room and then fixes his gaze on me. He is staring at me for an uncomfortably long time before I turn to him and offer him a small smile. Kill em' with kindness. 

He looks behind us and then rolls his eyes at me. What the hell is up his ass? I turn behind me to see seated behind us is the intimidating looking guys he was standing with before. The guy with blonde hair winks at me and I quickly shoot my head back to face the front and then notice in the corner of my eye, Ian's fists clenched tightly.

Whatever, at least I got my copy of Jane Eyre back. God this guy is so unpredictable and his mood swings are the last thing I need for my final year of school. 

English class passes by awkwardly slow and I can't help but keep glancing over at Ian who is periodically focused intently on his page sketching something or focused on me. 

The bell goes off to indicate the end of the lesson and it scares me causing me to jump slightly, never had this feature at my old school so I'm still getting used to it. I get up as fast as I can and sprint out of the classroom and into the bathroom. 

I rush to the basin and stare into my reflection. What the actual hell is going on. 

"Uhhhhh, never seen someone so vain before. I mean we get it you're pretty, move on." I hear a girl say. I look in the mirror to see it is the girl with midnight black hair.

"Hmmm? Wait no- hahah" I awkwardly mutter, completely stunned by how gorgeous she is up close. She has soft green eyes, porcelain skin and the most delicate freckles across her nose and a jawline I could cut a cake with. 

"What am I waiting for?" she claps back quickly and not breaking eye contact with me. Why do I have to be meeting only intimidating people?

"Oh nothing! Sorry-" I am very uncomfortable with the energy we have created in the studio today.  

"Okkk" she says washing her hands and then turning to leave.

Not wanting her to go I quickly say "Aubrey"

She turns around with an amused expression on her face and says "I know."

I blush and say "What's your name?"

She looks me up and down "Wouldn't you like to know?"

I gulp and say "Yeah..."

She looks shocked by response and continues looking me up and down obviously sussing me out. 

"You look like a Molly" I muse to myself, and then clap my hand over my mouth once I realised I said that out loud.

"Well the names Riley" she says turning to walk out the bathroom. As soon as she leaves I let out a breath I didn't know I was holding. Geez that was intense. 

I walk out of the bathroom after straightening my skirt and am greeted with Spencer flashing me a goofy grin. 

"Ms scary just came out of the bathroom with a blush, never seen her like that." Spencer says to me, almost more thinking out loud than directly talking to me.

"Who?" I ask.

"Oh, Riley Storm, could call her the school's loner. But that's by choice, she isn't exactly the friendliest" Spencer says.

"Oh-" I say, thinking about our encounter. I thought she was cool, got that kinda badass vibe.

"You think she's badass don't you?" Spencer asks shaking his head slightly in amusement. 

"Oh huh- yeah" I say fighting the blush that graces my cheeks. Spencer looks a little shocked by my reaction but instead of teasing me starts leading us towards the cafeteria.

We enter the cafeteria which is buzzing with activity and life. Woah. Spencer looks down at me and nudges me slightly to get my attention. He flashes me a reassuring look and says "You ok?"

I nod and walk in front of him leading us towards the food. We get our food and then seat ourselves on a table near the window, which thankfully is the table on the opposite end of the cafeteria to where Ian sits with his gang of intimidating people. 

"Who's this cutie?" a girl with blonde hair says walking towards our table with two guys behind her. My eyes visibly widen realising I'll have to meet new people. Oh shit.

"This is Aubrey" Spencer answers for me.

"Hey Aubrey" one of the guys says ruffling up my hair then taking the seat next to me. 

The other guy sits next to Spencer and then the blonde sits on the other side of Spencer.

"Hi" I say shyly, god dammit Aubrey.

"I'm Jay" the guy who ruffled my hair turns to me and says. He looks like he is about 6ft and Korean with dark brown hair. 

"I'm Rachel" the girl with blonde hair says and gives me a genuine smile. She looks like she is about 5ft 7, has tan skin and has her blonde hair pulled back in a messy bun.

Everyone then looks at the guy who is yet to introduce himself and says "Dan".  Dan looks to be about 5ft 9' and has chocolate brown eyes and brown skin. 

"Well now you've met everyone" Spencer says.

"It's nice to meet you all! I hope you don't mind if I sit with you guys" I say

"Of course!" Rachel says. "Welcome to the group!"

"Thank you" I smile at her.

It goes silent and getting courage from their kindness I decide to speak. "You know this whole buffet thing is so cool" I say digging into my mac and cheese.

Dan coughs on his food and Spencer and Jay start laughing whilst Rachel gives me a weird look. 

"Princess this is not a buffet" Spencer says in between his laughs.

"But-" I begin before Jay cuts me off "Awwww I like her Spencer can we keep her?" 

Dan and Rachel roll their eyes and Spencer says "If the lady will have us"

Not knowing how to respond I blush and take a big mouthful of my food and they all laugh, even Dan who softly chuckles. 

"Well I better run, coach wants to talk to the team quickly" Jay says standing up and taking his bag with him. He turns back to say "It was nice meeting you Aubrey" and leans in to again ruffle my hair. 

"God leave her alone Jay" Rachel sighs and shoos him away. 

Rachel then asks Spencer a question about some class they have together and then it is just Dan and I left on one end of the table. He pokes around at his food obviously also uncomfortable, he seems shy like me.

"Hey so um Dan, what class do you have next?" I say just loud enough for him to hear. 

His head shoots up and he looks at me stunned, widening his eyes. "Biology" he says then drops his gaze back down to his food.

I nod and before I can say anything he says "What about you?"

"I actually have no idea, I should probably check" I say pulling out my phone and checking my schedule. "Ah it says I have history next."

He smiles at me and then I notice him looking at the cookie on my tray. "You want it, too full to eat it" I lie leaning back and patting my stomach,

"Really?" he says shocked.

I chuckle and nod "Yeah go for it!"

He timidly reaches forward and grabs the cookie. "Thanks" he says.

"Sure thing" I respond with a smile. 

"Did you say you had history next girlie?" Rachel says.

"Yeah" I say taking a sip of my water bottle.

"Sweet, we can go together in a minute" she says finishing off her sandwich by placing the remaining half in her mouth whole.

"Damn Rach" Spencer says, to which Dan and I chuckle. 

"Don't look at me!" she muffles with the food in her mouth and turns around which just causes us all to start laughing louder.

As I laugh I catch a glimpse at Ian, who is staring directly at me and if looks could kill well I'd be 6ft under. He nods his head down and looks at his phone then back at me. What the hell is this boy doing? Just ignoring him I return my attention back to the group in front of me, where Spencer is patting Rachel's back as she chugs water and Dan looks between me and Ian confused. 

I check my phone and see a message from Ian. 

        Ian: We need to talk. 

Hmmmm, I don't think I want to talk thank you very much Ian. I quickly close my phone and try to hide my frustration and hint of sadness from my face. I'm way to stubborn to want to talk to him again, he'll probably just say something mean. 

Yet it seems like I didn't do a good job at hiding my emotion because Dan then asks "Everything ok Aubrey?"

"Hmmm yeah it's all fine, I'm all fine!" I say a little too quickly.

He nods knowingly and starts packing up his bags. 

I feel my phone buzz in my pocket and choose to ignore it before I then again feel Ian's intense gaze and then see him typing on his phone and I feel more buzzes from my phone. Ugh. I pull out my phone and see the messages from Ian.

       Ian: I said we need to talk.

       Ian: Don't ignore me Angel. 

       Ian: ANGEL!

       Ian: Fucking respond to me

       Ian: We need to talk

       Me: No ❤️

Oop. I look up and see his reaction to my response. You could practically see the steam coming out of his ears. 

What does he expect me to do? Oh of course Ian, let me come crawling back to you as soon as you show me the slightest bit of attention after completely embarrassing me and making me feel like shit. As much as I want to, no. I do not need this.

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this is how i envision the new characters- you of course imagine whoever you want though.

~Riley Storm~

~Jay~

~Dan~

~Rachel~

thank you for reading <3