a/n: so I found this gem in my drafts, with a very cliche, and all together awful premise that I have seen done about four-hundred-eight-seven times here on wattpad (which you can probably guess very easily). I decided to change this up a bit, without the whole all-white-all-straight-all-goes-well love story that is portrayed all the time. I'm super excited and have changed the concept about 8 times, but this time let's hope I've got it right!!!!!!!

Jonathan Botham was sitting across and three seats to the left of Emily. It was as if he was trying to drive her insane.

It wasn't as though Jonathan was particularly annoying or life-threatening, but Emily would rather keep him as far away as possible from her, for reasons undisclosed.

"Emily." Her best friend, Cath, nudged her with the tip of her pointed high heels. "Over here. Seriously, do you still have a crush on him? It's getting kind of silly."

Emily's eyes grew to the size of the disposable tray she was currently eating off of. "Really, Cath?! He's right there." The mock whisper that was always on her lips when she was mad seemed absurd to her own ears.

Cath simply rolled her brown eyes, making sure that they stayed without motion on the stained tile above their heads. "And I didn't say his name, did I, idiot? You're the one who's making a spectacle of herself. If anything, if he hears us, maybe you'll get over that ridiculous crush you've had on him since sophomore year."

Emily looked back down at her unappetizing mashed potatoes. Okay, so maybe she's had a small, abiet ridiculous crush on Jonathan Botham for a little while now. Everyone knew. It wasn't that big of a deal.

"Freshman year," Emily muttered to her taunting potatoes.

Cath smirked, her purple tinted lips pointed up almost evilly. "What was that?"

Cath had most definitely heard what Emily had said.

Emily glanced over at the boy in question, his demeanor as dark and mysterious as always, totally oblivious that he being talked about. Emily noticed that he didn't seem to have a problem with eating the mashed potatoes from the school's cafeteria. "I have had a crush on him since freshman year, not sophomore. You know this."

Cath's face broke out into a grin; she could never let herself be wrong. "Of course I knew that, sweetheart. I just wanted to hear you say it."

Emily looked right at him, sitting all alone. She wondered if he was lonely, and silently begging for a girl like her to come over and sit next to him. Maybe he was just shy.

"It's a wonder he doesn't catch you staring," Cath said, typing at rapid speeds on her phone. "Loser."

xxxx

Jonathan didn't know why the blonde girl was staring at him. It was work to not look into her blue eyes everytime he looked away from what he was currently doing.

At lunch, Jonathan had brought it down to coincidence. He didn't normally eat in the lunchroom, and she probably wasn't too used to new faces in there, especially since he was most likely taking up some of her valuable table.

She hadn't kept her eyes off of him since then. Jonathan was in French three learning about past participles when the hairs stood up once again at the nape of his neck. This time it wasn't her, it was her little friend with the mean grimace and multiple piercings located on seemingly random spots on her head. They sat together at a cluster of four tables, and the blonde girl's face was unpredicably faced as far away from Jonathan as possible. The girl with piercings took up the remaining three spots at the table, purely with her cheery conduct.

The girl with piercings was particularly loud, and she was a person that he'd seen around school, unlike the blonde girl. It wasn't a surprise that Jonathan could hear her obnoxious voice over the teacher, who was trying to incorporate an unnecessary French word every three seconds into her lecture. "Jesus! I swear to God it's not that hard! See?"

With horror, Jonathan saw that the girl was walking up to him in a fury (or maybe - hopefully - that was just the way that she always walked?). He hardened his eyes as much as he could, hoping that his grey irises would scare away the angered girl. They did not.

The girl stopped in front of Jonathan, twirling the chair at the desk in front of him the other way, and sitting on it with her skirt spread apart. Jonathan could make out a little bit of Hello Kitty underwear. The panties, covered in little smiling cats, made him feel much better.

She flared out her nose, making her look even more like a bull than she already did, despite the gold ring in between both of her nostrils. "So what's your deal?"

Jonathan didn't know how to answer that. "What?"

The girl rolled her eyes at him. "What is. Your deal?"

Jonathan still had no idea how he was to respond to the girl's question. She flicked a bit of her dyed, red bangs behind her ear. "Why are you sitting here all alone like some loser? You can't be that much of one considering that I know your name and all, but still. It doesn't make much sense now does it?"

Jonathan gave the girl an incredulous look. What the hell was she talking about? "I don't know. No one's ever asked me to sit with them, so I've never really sat with anyone but myself."

The girl laughed out loud. It sounded cute, and not at all what Jonathan expected to come out of the girl's mouth. "No one's ever sat with you because they all think that you're some sort of terrifying monster, or some crap like that. There was a rumor going around last month that you killed your own brother with a pitchfork. I called bullshit to that, but the rumors about you usually go undisputed."

Jonathan wasn't sure what he felt about being thought in such a way. He frowned. "I don't even have a brother."

The girl laughed again, and Jonathan realized that even though he thought that she was scary just moments before, he could listen to her laugh all day. "Yeah, most of the rumors here are shit anyways."

The girl just sat for a moment, inspecting her nails for a chip in her pink polish. Jonathan went back to doing the exercises that he was supposed to have turned into the teacher ages ago. He was hoping that she would get the message and leave him alone to do the boring work.

She didn't. She only leaned in closer. "Do you want to work on the project with me and Emily? I don't think that you'll manage to get through it with only your wits, seeing that you're doing last quarter's homework assignment."

Jonathan looked at the girl, confusion probably clearly written across his face. "What project?"

The girl gave Jonathan a dead-eyed glare. "The one Ms. Donely just assigned. It's written very, very clearly on the board."

Jonathan looked up on the whiteboard, and sure enough the assignment was written in big, curly cursive across the entire board. He read through it, and she was right, he wouldn't be able to do it himself.

She played with an earring on her lip. "So what do you say, partner? Is a project seen in our joint future?"

Jonathan looked down at his fingers, wanting so badly to put the nail of his pointer finger in his mouth. He hadn't done that in years. "I guess."

The girl smiled, and Jonathan took a moment to realize it wasn't for him. The blonde girl was smiling too, looking over like she was anxious and waiting. She gave her friend two thumbs up, and the blonde's smile grew. 

a/n: what'd u think? ik its not my best work, but i'm hoping it'll get better as i go along. i'm super excited (!!!!!)