During lunch, I find myself staring at the large bulletin board at the center of the hallway filled with current announcements. I blink twice, three times, four, five, and several more as I look at the new addition to it. On a large piece of silver paper with bold letters in the middle, is my name. Above it; say hi to the new Vice-President for the senior class.

Once I have processed my new status as vice president, I gulp. It had become official for the whole school to know. Which meant, I would have to find the courage to speak to Abacus Kennedy. Like a zombie, I make my way to my locker and exchange the books I would need for the rest of the day with the ones I wouldn't. Once I close the locker door, I don't hesitate as I let out a groan and lightly bang my head against it as I try to come up with a solution. But with the first thought came more, and none related to Abacus. Instead, they started drifting to my morning conversation with Mr. Webner and the guy who walked in. Why did he call me Strawberry? Why did he smirk at me?

As I am about to bang my head against the locker one more time, I feel a hand stop the impact.

I give a sideways glance to see Lynett piercing at me with furrowed eyebrows. I hastily regard her and gently move her hand out of my way as I continue to gently bang my head against the locker. Once again I felt her hand on my forehead and this time I looked up to see her rolling her eyes but with a concerned look on her face.

I sigh and lean back into my locker now, fully facing her. "Did you see it?" I ask her, defeated.

She gives me a smile, "Yes. Which is why I'm wondering why you're here instead of holding your head proudly." She places her hands on my shoulder and shakes me a little, "your vice president. That's amazing." I give her a half-smile before letting my head lean on the locker again as I slowly slide down it.

I shake my head, "I don't know what I was thinking Lynett. I'm not cut out to be vice president. Having to address the whole student body on multiple occasions."

She crouches down next to me, "you've been in debates and math competitions before with people looking at you."

"That's different. I've done my research beforehand and know exactly what I have to do and say. Also, it's not like there was a huge crowd looking up at me. Mostly my family, not my fellow peers who will be judging me."

She contemplates this, "Well you won't be alone. You have the whole student council. Besides, I doubt you will have to talk to us more than the president himself."

"Everyone's going to know who I am," I whisper, more so to myself than her. She grabs my hand and pulls me up.

I look at her as she shrugs, "would that be such a bad thing?" We stand in silence for a moment as I think before I respond.

"I guess we'll see."

"Exactly; don't count your chickens before they hatch." I laugh at her phrase but nod because she was right. I could be making something out of nothing, but I won't know until I have to. "Now let's go get some food," she says and drags me with her to the cafeteria.

Once we get our food, I follow her lead to the outside patio where we find a seat close to the entrance. I immediately take out my English book and start reading it. "Heyo," Lily, our peppy cheerleader friend says as she takes a seat in front of us. I mumble a quick hello before continuing my reading. She turns her attention to me and lowers the book as she stares at me. I maintained eye contact with the fiery red-haired Asian, confused at what she was doing. She gives me a wide grin before speaking sweetly, "Amelia pie, do you by any chance-" I knew where this was going, "have the calculus homework?" I stare at her with empty eyes. She quickly makes puppy dog eyes and gives me a pout. "Please- I was up all night watching Delilah," she says and holds up a pound of flowers with a painted face.

"His name is Tommy," Olivia says as she takes a seat next to her girlfriend. Olvia was also a cheerleader but she had less pep than anyone. The only reason why she had agreed to join the cheerleading team was for Lily. I watch as Olivia pulls her top down a bit more with a scowl. "Couldn't they have made these longer," she says to no one in particular. It seemed to be her go-to statement every time she pulled her top down more. Lily looks at her and then at her own outfit before smiling, they both had on the classic silver and green cheerleading outfits with their high ponytails and ribbons.

"I like it," she tells her with a shrug.

Olivia rolled her eyes as she began eating her food while Lily turned her attention to us, but my eyes were already on my book again. She lowers my book down once again, but this time I am met with the unmoving brown colorings of a pound of flour. "You can't say no to her."

"He is a boy," Olivia tells her.

Lily ignored her and continued giving me a pouty face. I sigh and grab my backpack, giving up. I can see as Lily cheers a bit and hugs her flower baby closer before giving it a kiss. I hand her the paper as she thanks me repeatedly before starting to copy the answers on her blank paper. "What's with the flower baby?" Lynett questions, bored with eating her food.

Lily huffs, "it's for home economics. It's so annoying cuz, my partner, here-" she looks at Olivia, "never wants to take her home. So I stay up all night watching it."

"It's a pound of flour, it doesn't cry or do anything."

"Excuse me, I have dogs-" Lily starts, "I have to make sure they don't rip her open."

"You could leave it on a high shelf," Olivia tells her.

"I will not neglect my flour baby-" Lily retorts as she holds her. I roll my eyes and engross myself into the story once again as they continue bickering like an old married couple.

"Why is Grayson Archer looking at you," Carter Evans asks as she places my book down and gives me raised eyebrows.

I scrunch mine up in confusion and stare at her before she huffs out a breath and places her hand on her hips. "Grayson- archer. He's staring at you and I'd like to know why."

All of the girls are staring at me now as I try to comprehend her words. Someone named Grayson was staring at me? I look over at them as they look at me expectantly. Seems like they were caught up on something I wasn't.

I speak slowly, testing the words that are coming out of my mouth, "I'm- not-sure-who- that- is?"

Carter rolls her eyes before moving to the side, unblocking the bleachers from me. From the distance, I am barely able to make out the figure of the guy from the morning as he looks over at our table and sure enough, his eyes were on me again. I involuntarily shiver at the action, as I stare back at him. He had such captivating eyes that I couldn't seem to pull away. It was as if they were a magnet and I just seemed to be made of a ferromagnetic material. Like an insulator, Carter's hand on mine stops the flow and I find myself able to move from his gaze towards her. She gives me a menacing look, "by that eye contact I'm assuming you do."
I look up at her with a bit of fear as I stammer in self-defense, "I- don't."

"Leave her alone Carter," Lynett says and removes Carter's viper grip from me, "why would she know him?"

"Just ignore her," Lily tells me, "she's just jealous because Grayson has never given her a second glance."

Carter huffs as she crosses her arms, "that is not true." As she goes on to explain herself, I find my attention drifting to him again. He had a standoffish demeanor and although he was surrounded by people, he looked miles away. Unlike the rest of the football team that wore their varsity jacket, he wore his black leather jacket. My eyes widen as he takes out a cigarette from his pocket and places it on his mouth. He gets out a lighter and starts igniting it. I can see him look up and find me again. With a raised eyebrow, he takes a drag of his cigarette and blows it into the air.

Like a spooked mouse, I quickly look away and back towards Carter who has seemed to come to a realization after her tangent and is giving me a sad smile. She places a gentle hand on mine and squeezes it as she speaks, "I'm sorry Amelia. I guess I was just being jealous at the fact that you somehow might have caught his attention when that's all I've wanted, but maybe he was staring at something else."

I give her a fake smile as I remove my hand from her grasp and nod my head, because the truth is, I do think I caught his attention but I don't know-how.

"Why would you want to catch his attention," Olivia says with disgust and emphasizing the word 'his'.

Carter turns to her in shock but Olivia just rolls her eyes. "Who wouldn't want to get his attention."

"A lot of people," Olivia says in a bored tone.

I had enough of being out of the loop. I stand up and place both my hands on the side of the table as I address the group of girls and say loudly, "who is he?"

They all turn their attention to me and give me a smile. Lynett pats my seat and I sit down with arms crossed. Carter crosses her leg as she files her nails.

"Someone unimportant," is the blank response I get from Olivia.

"He isn't unimportant," Carter says, "I'm actually pretty shocked you haven't heard of him before. It's Grayson Archer," she adds in a duh tone. I give her an unimpressed look to which she responds with an eye roll. "Let's just say, he's the hottest guy in this school and people wished they could be him or be with him."

"He's a delinquent."

"He's misunderstood," Carter challenges.

"How would you know- he never gives you the time of day," Olivia contradicts.

"Only because he went to military school instead," she tries to defend.

"And why was he sent there- because he is a delinquent."

"So he gets into a couple of fights and drinks, how is that being a delinquent?"

"He stole and crashed a car," Olivia says, "he's slept and dumped a bunch of girls, gone to jail, and has no morals whatsoever. He's a complete asshole."

"He is not," Carter defends.

Lily's voice breaks their argument, "the point is- that boy is more trouble than is worth if you ask me."

"Well now-" Carter gives her a sly smile, "the real question is. Lily- would you allow him to cause trouble in your life?" We can see as Lily's face turns bright red and she shyly looks at the ground, giving us her definite answer. Carter smoothens her jacket as she says, "my case rests."

I think about their conversation when something clicks in my head. I stood up, "wait- how do you guys know all this about him if you guys have never talked to him yourself."

They looked at me as if I was hit in the head with something and wasn't making any sense. "People talk, Amelia," Carter shrugs.

"So you're telling me these are all baseless accusations?" They give me blank looks. I sigh as I sit down again, "unbelievable."

I can feel my stomach start twisting and a nausea feeling settles in when Lynett brushes her shoulder against mine. "They're just rumors. Besides- he isn't important, right?" I nod my head, he wasn't important so why was I getting all worked up over these rumors? "But you know who is important-" her eyes drift off to Abacus who has just walked outside with a huge grin, a tray in his hand, and a group of people around him.

"Abacus," a guy from the stance yells out, with open hands. Abacus looks up and gives him a nod before setting down his tray as he pulls out the football he had tucked under his arm and launches it toward the guy. The world goes silent as I watch as the football flies across mid-air, twirling past me before the guy quickly catches it. Then suddenly, there was noise. There is a flutter of cheers going around to which Abacus smiles and tells everyone to calm down.

Lynett's voice rings in my head, "He isn't important, right?" as I turn my attention once again to the bleachers where I see Grayson roll his eyes and stand up with annoyance as he walks away from everyone. He turns back once and catches my eyesight, I can see his face soften a bit before it turns back to a scowl and he storms off into the parking lot, out of my sight. I feel the slight tightness in my chest as I shake my head, push my food away, and respond to myself, "right."

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