CHAPTER ELEVEN

"Okay, well thank you anyway. Bye!" Hannah replied to the apologetic lady on the phone, feeling quite disheartened. After Ashlyn had bought her the Jazz gown the previous day, she had been looking in the local paper and online for job vacancies but it just seemed as though nobody was hiring at the moment. Many places had offered her a chance to apply during the Christmas holiday period but she needed something immediately and it was only mid-September.

"Any luck fam?" Cam asked her, accidentally shoving his feet near her face as he scrambled around for a comfortable spot on the sofa.

"Ew, gross!" she practically squealed, pushing away his toes with the red pen in her hand. She ignored his sniggering at her disgusted expression and answered with a sigh. "Nope, 'fraid not."

Cameron leant a little forward and ruffled her dark hair with his hands; effectively messing up the neat curls she had taken ages to do. He was about to tell her not to worry about it, that he would pay for her but he kept his mouth shut. His cousin was far too stubborn for his own good sometimes but he could hardly blame her.

She hadn't been brought up with the luxury of two loving parents like him – she'd grown up as an outsider and although he knew she adored his parents, it wasn't quite the same. He did love his Aunt Jasmine in that obligatory family way but he also despised her. She'd single-handedly ruined her daughter's life from the moment Hannah was born.

If it wasn't for his dad Jay – Jasmine's brother – she would have thrown Hannah out on the streets the second she gave birth to her. Cameron was eternally grateful that his dad, although silent and somewhat intimidating, was a very open-minded man unlike the rest of their so-called family. He refused to ignore Hannah like his parents and sister because regardless of her father's mistakes, she was still his niece. Cam smiled when he thought of that, it made the idea of telling his parents his massive secret a little easier.

Trying not to think about it too much in case Hannah found out before he was ready to tell her, he changed the subject.

"Hey, last week didn't you say something about Mr Harris suggesting a job for you?"

Hannah jumped up in surprise, her eyes shining with anticipation as she remembered the conversation. "Oh my God, yes! I totally forgot. You're a genius sometimes, I swear man. Cheers, big ears!"

She laughed as he pouted at her nickname of him, covering his slightly larger than normal ears with his hands. "Hate you," he muttered in mock anger as he tried not to smile at how lame she could be.

She just ignored his words and squeezed his cheeks tight, laughing when he struggling to get out of her grasp. "I gotta go," she mumbled jumping up and running to her room to get dressed. "I gotta get that job!"

Hannah threw on her new floral print trousers and a matching pink peplum top, lightly brushed her MAC finishing powder on and scrambled around the house looking for her leather jacket. It was a little worn out as it was quite old but it was by far her favourite item of clothing. Finally finding it resting on top of the microwave – how did that get there? – she grabbed a flower crown sitting on the coffee table in a rather pathetic attempt to hide the fact that her hair was a mess and ran out of the house, yelling a quick 'bye' to Cam.

Mr Harris had mentioned a job opening at the library Hannah had been to with Rayne, although she hadn't realised it was the same one at the time. It was the perfect opportunity as nobody cool enough would ever step foot in such a, well, grimy area and so she didn't have to think of a cover story. And even if word did get out, like it usually did at Pemrose, she could always say it was part of her work experience right? All students had to do mandatory work experience for 80 to 100 hours in order to graduate and sometimes the school chose it for them. In that case, it was the perfect cover. Who would possibly think she would need a job for money anyway? She was Hannah Sandia Adem for Gods sake!

She managed to remember half of the way to the library by herself, relying on a few random road signs to help her towards the end. It was just after lunchtime when she arrived and the library was seemingly quite empty from what Hannah could see. With a confident smile she pushed open the no longer working revolving door and stepped inside, the smell of musty paper lurking in the air. From directly in front of her, she noticed the somewhat tough looking European girl who worked there. Hannah was about to walk towards her to ask about the job vacancy but her quiet steps faltered as she also caught sight of Rayne and Rebecca, the black girl that sat beside him in English class. The three of them were leaning against the non-fiction aisle, deep in conversation and occasionally laughing amongst themselves.

Hannah felt a tinge of sadness and something akin to jealousy as she watched them although she wasn't sure why. She quickly brushed off the feeling as slight envy of their close friendship. She had a lot of friends but could she honestly say she had a real friendship? The feeling intensified as Rayne leaned forward and hugged the 'emo' librarian – she must be his girlfriend – although she didn't dwell on why.

Pushing the thoughts out of her mind, she took a few steps forward until the rough-edged Rayne-dating girl turned a little and spotted her, her heavily lined eyes giving Hannah a once over. "Can I help you?" she asked professionally, in a voice so much softer than her outward appearance.

Hannah felt her cheeks flush a little as they all turned to look at her, Rayne's dark sage eyes widening with recognition. "Hannah Adem?" he said, sounding incredibly confused as to what she was doing here.

She only smiled that perfectly radiant smile in response. Hannah was feeling a little nervous at the way she was being scrutinised by the two girls and felt way over dressed. Compared to her regular clothes, this was one of her more simple dressing down outfits but it was clearly too over the top for this area. Her black and pink floral trousers couldn't have looked more out of place in the grotty library than if she had entered in a wedding dress!

Rayne's face was slightly scrunched in confusion, making him look somewhat like a cute bunny rabbit. Hannah suppressed a smile; it was adorable. "Whatcha doing here?" he asked.

"Oh yeah!" she answered, her voice as melodious as ever. She turned to the girl she had thought of as Rayne's girlfriend, fiddling slightly with her Marc Jacobs watch as she did so. "I just wanted to enquire and apply for the job vacancy if that's possible?"

The three of them gaped at her. Becky recovering the fastest, sizing Hannah up with clear dislike. She didn't know what Hannah was up to but she didn't like it. There was no way she was here for that reason; like the rest of students at Pemrose she was probably the heiress of a million pound company and had no need to work for anything. It was probably a joke or a bet or something similar. "Er what?" she asked, her voice harsher than intended. "Look, I dunno what you playing at but this isn't funny. These are our ends, don't you be coming in here all fancy-pancy as usual just to take the piss, alright?"

Hannah studied the girl carefully. Rebecca Price was very pretty, beautiful in fact. Her skin was a smooth sepia colour, rather deep in shade but also glowing with radiance. Her currently narrowed eyes were inky black, her brightly lipstick-ed lips pursed with protectiveness. Her hair wasn't in a neat afro as usual but instead braided elegantly against her shoulders and her sense of style was impeccable. All in all, she was very put together and Hannah couldn't help wondering why she didn't know her. Ashlyn had ensured she knew every remotely attractive person in school but other than her name and seeing her seated beside Rayne in English, she'd never heard of the girl before. Her words were rough however and she clearly didn't care how popular Hannah was, perhaps that was why?

"It's for school," she answered; internally glad she had thought of a lie so quickly. "I had a few sick days from last year and have to make up my work experience this year and Mr Harris suggested this place."

Rebecca's vision flicked over to her best female friend who nodded slightly. She stuck out her hand for Hannah to shake, the swirling tattoos around her arm contrasting heavily against her pale skin. "Dee," she said with a wiry smile in a slight accent, her tongue playing with the silver lip piercing. "My name is Diellza but you can call me Dee. Assuming you got five A* to C grades in your GCSE's and you have decent IT skills, you're hired."

Hannah nodded, her hair spiraling around her head. "That's a beautiful name! And yeah I do," she chirped, evident relief flowing out of her voice.

"Thanks, I'm Albanian," Dee answered with a grin, "How about you bring your results with you after school any day next week and some form of ID and then we can get started?"

Hannah agreed enthusiastically before Dee excused herself to continue working, wandering off to man the desk. Rebecca also had to leave and soon it was just Hannah and Rayne standing alone somewhat awkwardly. They made small talk for a while but she felt rather nervous and couldn't quite put her finger on why. I mean, it was only Rayne Parker; just some random kid from English class, no big deal.

"Um if you're free do you wanna continue our project now?" he asked her, hesitation spilling out from his chapped lips. Ever since they were assigned the project he hadn't actually asked her to work on it with him, sure she would reject the idea.

Hannah probably should have agreed, it needed to be done and for a change she didn't have anything else to do later on. She couldn't however; she felt trapped around him. Rayne had the habit of looking directly into her eyes and somehow his gaze made her feel transparent, as though he could see every last secret she was desperately concealing from the world.

"I'm actually kinda in a rush now. Sorry! Maybe next time though?" she replied quickly, looking around the empty library in a futile attempt to avoid looking at him.

He nodded and they parted, murmuring their goodbyes.

Rayne trudged towards the rickety front desk to say bye to Dee, pecking her lightly on the cheek unaware that Hannah was still watching. He felt annoyed at himself for expecting more of the girl. The last time they had worked on their essay, he had almost forgotten who she was but her status and popularity was painfully obvious today. She was still a stuck up rich girl who didn't give a toss about anyone unless it benefitted her in some way. Just because she turned out to be far more intelligent than he could ever have guessed didn't mean she gave a rats ass about some insignificant poor kid like him. And the worst part was that he didn't know why he cared so much. He'd spent years being a loser in high school being put down by people like her, why was he ever dumb enough to think she would be any different than the rest of them?

'Stupid,' he thought with a shake of his head, scrambling in his pocket for his Oyster card as he got the bus home. 'Just bloody stupid of me.'

A/N: hannah's outfit can be seen by clicking on the external link on the right side because polyvore is fun! c: