CHAPTER SIX

"Are you serious?!" Hannah exclaimed, scepticism colouring her voice. She tried hard not to snigger at her boyfriends' expression but she couldn't help herself and burst into giggles. The two of them were neatly perched on a wall in the school grounds during their last lesson as they both had a free. Hannah had been nibbling at her Ploughman's sandwich while Gabe was brandishing a wedding invitation towards her.

"See for yourself – look, he spelt my name wrong! Who does that? How is it even possible to spell your fiancés brothers name wrong on your bloody invitation?" he grumbled.

Up until now he had been happy with his older sisters upcoming wedding, boasting about the prestigious location and how incredibly exclusive it would be. But now that Marcus – yes the Marcus Fitzgerald of Fitzgerald International – had misspelt his name, he was fuming.

Trying to take his mind of it to avoid him getting genuinely angry, Hannah changed the subject.

"So do you still want me to be your date?" she asked hesitantly. She'd never been to a wedding before – her grandfather had always ensured she wouldn't attend a single family one – and wasn't sure what to expect.

Gabriel took a swig of his Dr Pepper and nodded earnestly. "Of course!" he exclaimed, as though the idea she wouldn't come was preposterous. "You're my girlfriend aren't you?"

Hannah smiled, or at least she tried to. She liked Gabriel of course but sometimes she wondered if she really was his girlfriend; there were times she felt as though she was just for show – a trophy.

"Hmm, I dunno what to wear. I guess I'll take Ash and go shopping soon then," she murmured, thinking out loud as she mentally prepared a list of all the stores she would visit.

"What are you talking about honeybee? I'm gonna take you remember? It's the least I can do when I know you're a bit unsure about coming with me in the first place," he said, somehow managing to sneer at the end even though he was being polite.

Hannah shook her head and tried to explain what the problem was but she didn't know how to. How could she tell him the reason she was so hesitant was because she didn't want to disappoint him? Status meant everything to him and with her on his arm, his reputation might end in tatters in front of everyone important to him. She had never had any luck with parents – or even adults in general. Maybe it was her strained almost non-existent relationship with her own mother or maybe it was the giant question mark painted in her past. Instead of saying all this however, he opened his mouth and his next words made her almost flinch.

"I'll buy you a Jazz dress, it would be the classiest most beautiful dress and everyone will notice you," he told her, not paying attention to her miniature freak out. "And you'll look incredible, honeybee, in your mothers creation! Everyone will notice the exquisite design and maybe you could talk about it with my sister since you seem to get on with her the most. We'll go tomorrow!"

Hannah wasn't sure how to decline that invitation but it needed to be done. There was no way she was wearing a design of her mothers and there definitely was no way she would announce who her mother is at the wedding like she knew he was hinting at. She knew his family didn't consider her good enough as her background wasn't as prestigious as their own but she wasn't using her mothers success as a stepping stone – especially as her mother couldn't even admit she had bought a child into this world.

Instead of telling him this however, she sighed in relief when she realised the bell was about to ring signalling the end of the school day and made up an excuse. "I don't think I'll be able to sorry, I gotta get started on an English project Mr Daniels gave us, gotta meet up with my partner after school tomorrow sorry babe."

Gabriel would probably have brushed it off if it wasn't for that last part. His conflower blue eyes narrowing, he slowly asked her the question on his mind, dress forgotten. "And who exactly is your partner?"

Hannah knew he wouldn't be happy due to his obsessive controlling manner but what choice did she have? Her education was much more important. He wouldn't understand, just like the way Ashlyn wouldn't because the two of them were born into a life of privilege. She needed to succeed, to get into a top university, to get a good job and most importantly to get somewhere with her life. She needed all of this because she needed to prove she was worth her life. But he didn't know that and she knew better than to let him know.

"Just some guy in my class, no big deal," she muttered with a flip of her dark hair, her facial expression of indifference. "He's nobody important, just some scholarship kid."

She could see the relief on Gabe's face when she said that, although she felt guilty for it. He didn't think of Rayne as a threat like he would if it were any other guy because he didn't think a guy without money would be valuable in her eyes. He always assumed Hannah thought like him and that's where her problems lay. She wasn't like him or Ash or like the rest of her friends. She knew that if it wasn't for Aunt Sara paying for her tuition fees as well as Cameron's, she could very well have been a poor scholarship kid too. Her mother had never brought her anything in her life, fuck, the woman couldn't even look her in the eyes!

But it wasn't right; this blatant sexist and classist mind-set of practically the whole school. And the problem was that it was so deeply embedded into everyone that nobody even realised there was a problem in the first bloody place!

All these thoughts just made her angry and it wasn't good for her to be angry in front of Gabriel. He expected her to be calm and collected all the time, to not be phased by everything. So Hannah just clenched her fists and jumped up from where they were sitting as the bell rang, giving him a quick kiss and muttering something about having to do something.

She glided to her locker, twisting the combination padlock when she reached it. Politely smiling at a huddle of year eights who were gaping at her in awe, she pulled out the few textbooks she needed over the weekend and sauntered towards the front gate to look for Cameron.

He was in the middle of flirting with Catherine, Helena and Charmaine when she spotted him and she laughed to herself. He was such an idiot, that stupid boy. Catching sight of her, he bid the girls goodbye as they batted their eyelashes and made his way over to his cousin.

"Took you long enough," he commented, pulling his tie off as they fell into step walking together. Hannah was about to reply when she caught sight of a familiar figure a little ahead of her. Rayne Parker. Remembering her lie to Gabriel, she figured she might as well make it real since they needed to meet up anyway. Forgetting about her cousin for a minute, she ran a little to catch him before he left.

"Uhm, hi Rayne!" Hannah called out once she was close enough.

Rayne almost had a heart attack when he realised who was talking to him. He had genuinely thought Hannah Adem would be too concerned about her image to go out of her way to talk to him and that he'd end up doing their English project alone. But lo and behold, here she was in front of him, her uniform looking as pristine as though it was brand new. Her hair was waving slightly in the wind – like a L'Oreal advert – and her smile was so wide, it automatically made him give a shy smile back.

Her cousin Cameron was standing a little behind her and Rayne eyed him wearily. Although he'd never encountered him before, he perfectly recalled the many times Tobias, Gabriel and Jakub would pick on him relentlessly and he wasn't sure if Cameron would do the same. But to his surprise, Cameron wasn't looking down upon him with a sneer, as though he was better despite the high social status and obvious money he was rolling in. He was just standing there normally; his russet skin a little paler than usual due to the cold winter, his posture indifferent with his hands shoved deep into the pockets of his navy school trousers.

"Could I have your number please?" Hannah asked a little breathlessly, her voice sounding a little too musical for his taste. She flushed a little and Rayne tried not to gape at her doing so. He was pretty sure she had never had to ask someone for their number before in her life – people tended to flock towards her like moths to a flame.

"You, uhm, you– what?" he asked eloquently, genuinely confused as to why she was asking.

She raised a perfectly arched eyebrow and answered with a smile. "Well I was thinking we could meet up to work on that project soon, y'know, if you're okay with that." She hoped she had kept the worry out of her voice but wasn't so sure; she just didn't want him to say no. Despite not knowing a thing about the boy in front of her, she knew he wouldn't suck up to her like many others did and that was a refreshing change.

He stared at her a little before he came back to his senses and answered. "Oh. Sure!" he pulled out his pitifully cracked Samsung Galaxy S2 and tried not to compare it with her sparkling iPhone 5S gold as he recited his number to her. She sent him a missed call so he could save it and they planned to text later to decide when to meet up and where.

And it was only when she was sauntering away with Cameron, bag elegantly draped on her shoulder that he realised what had happened. Rayne had Hannah Adems' number in his phone! Fuck.