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evangeline blackwood

The entire school cheered as a body fell to the ground, a harsh echo of his nose breaking shaking the walls. A boy no older than I towers over the seemingly lifeless body, light brown hair sticking to his forehead as the crowd's cheers become louder and louder.

Someone pushes me back as I step forward, trying to reach Logan as his foot meets the lifeless boys face. I flinch back on instinct and freeze.

"Logan!" Miss Janice Carey shouts. The crowd moves away, completely revealing the state of Logan Wildgust's victim. The named boy storms off before our Psychology teacher has the chance to say anymore.

He definitely knows how to make an impression on the first day of term, and my first day back in Sixth Form for over a year.

I push forward towards the victim, my eyes widening once I realise that it is no other than Julian Park. Motherfucker must've been mouthing off again. Logan's and JP's rivalry was infamous amongst the South of London.

Yet not many people know that their troubled past always comes back to me.

"Evangeline Blackwood." I turn to Carey as she speaks to me, "Go after him, he's a timebomb when he's like this."

I do so without arguing, heading straight to the football pitch.

It's fair to say that Sixth Form would not be the same without the weekly boxing match, despite the variety of opponents thrown into the mix. My brother used to tell me all the crazy stories of his year's fights. It's safe to say we've calmed down a bit.

"Lo?" His piercing gunmetal-blue eyes meet mine. His knees are to his chest, with his hands running through his hair. "Speak to me."

"Don't make me repeat what he said, Evan. Please." He signs, closing his eyes.

Oh.

"Again?" My words are light as I swallow the lump in my throat, "I don't want you to get in trouble because of me, Logan."

"I'm not bothered, he needs to learn to shut his mouth." He kisses his teeth, "I swear to God, you better ignore every damned word that leaves his mouth. I'd not even been in College for more than 2 hours and he already mouthing off."

I smile, "No problem with that. I've had practise."

His lips tug up slightly, "You aren't exactly one to take shit, are you Ev?"

"Am I fuck, man." I chuckle, attempting pathetically to remain optimistic. Especially in front of him. "But honestly, he isn't worth it."

His fists clench, "I can't listen to the stuff he says, it's not right."

"Yeah I know," I squeezed his knee, ignoring the way my heart ached. "Ashanti's going to be pissed that she missed your fight."

"Don't remind me," He rolls his eyes, smiling. "That girl doesn't know when to stop."

"She cares about you, we both do."

He places his hand over mine, "Thank you, for always being there." He clarifies after noticing my furrowed brows.

"You know I ain't arsed about the shit he's got to say. If I can ignore it, so can you. Trust me, Lo." I send him a half smile, "We'll come out on top eventually, I promise you."

"Not me, Ev. You know this shit." He closes his eyes, the corner of his lips tugging up slightly.

"Bitch, we're a team. It's me, you and 'Shanti against the world, remember?" I stick my pinky out. Call me immature, but it will always remain a sacred token of my integrity.

"I'd never forget." He laces his finger with mine and grab his arm, tugging us both up.

"What lesson we in?"

"English Lit." I chuckle at his grimace.

That's the thing about college. Logan picked two A Levels to take, following both mine and Ashanti's choice regarding Psychology and English Literature. Yet both Ashanti and I chose a third subject, mine being Biology and hers being Photography.

'Shanti and I have been best mates since Reception and we met Logan in Secondary. We've all been inseparable since.

We make our way to English Lit , just about to walk through the door when our path is blocked by a black haired midget with a bag flying towards our heads.

I duck almost instantly, yet Logan was not as lucky.

"Ow, what the fuck did you do that for?" He moans, clutching his head.

"Everyone's saying you filled in Julian. Stupid bitch, you didn't even wait for me to show." She raises her voice, "You don't even understand the pain I'm going through and now you fucking betray me like that?!"

"The fucks up with you? Costa run out of coffee?" I stifle a laugh, her eyes turn to, and narrow at, me.

"It's Monday morning, I'm awake before 10am and Costa was fucking shut." She looks so done with life. "I hate my life, it's official. Why does God put me through this much pain?" She clutches her temple while Logan still rubs the side of his cheek.

"Logan dropped JP."

"WHAT?!" She cries out, slapping his ear this time. He cries out in pain, again. "The one day that I actually come on time and you put this fucking shit on me?"

"Weren't my fault." Logan shrugs, hesitantly taking a step back to reduce the chance of him getting hit again.

"You know we've got Ali for Lit, don't you?" Ashanti signs, turning back to me. "Mr Adam fucking Ali, mate. Morgan told me that he secretly got bummed off Shakespeare."

Her voice lowers on the last line, as if she wasn't sure who'd be listening. It's that moment when I realise that maybe Literature wasn't the subject for Ashanti.

"Ti, Shakespeare died hundreds, if not thousands, of years ago." I deadpan, "Don't tell me you actually believed him."

"I didn't. I knew that." She shrugs nonchalantly, wholeheartedly giving away that she, in fact, did not know that.

"Yeah yeah, come on." We walk into the classroom, a sign on the board tells us to find our names on the desks and take a seat.

Mr Ali sits at his desk, supposedly checking over some book on his desk.

I find my name on an empty table, with no other name tag beside mine.

Thank fuck for that.

"Mikayla Atkinson."

As the first name on the register is read out, I pretty much keep my gaze fixed on the board. Not quite looking at Logan, but at an angle where I could see if anything was kicking off. Some of Julian's friends were sat near him.

The teacher, Mr Ali, signs heavily. "Evangeline Blackwood."

"Evan." I correct without thinking twice, moving to look at him to already find my already favourite teacher glaring at me. "What?"

"What, Sir?" He corrects, before addressing what seemed to be the issue. "I had your brother." The bitterness in his tone is undeniable and I bite back all the things I want to say. But before I have the chance to react, the door slams open and none other than Morgan Jackson strolls in, a large pizza box in one hand and a bottle of Coke in his other. His thick Manc accent interrupts the sudden deafening silence that his presence evoked, "Hey Bitches," He shouts and then grins at the teacher as though they were long lost friends. "Alright, Ali."

Morgan Jackson- class clown. Moved down to South London from Manchester at the start of Year 7 and made it his mission to break all the girls' hearts and terrorise the teachers.

The kids practically famous for his priceless antics.

"You're late, Jackson."

"I'm a busy, busy man, Adam. Surely you'd understand that." He sits down in the open seat next to me, opening the box and taking a slice of Margarita pizza out of it. "Anyways, I was taking the new students to reception."

"Hey, Evan." He says, gesturing to the pizza. "Want one?"

His brown hair is ruffled as usual, and his long legs struggle to fit under the desk. Jonah used to joke about how Morgan was so small, especially as both Ashanti and I practically towered over him. He wouldn't be laughing now- following Morgan's insane growth spurt in Year 10 made him a staggering 6'4.

"I'm alright, thanks." I laugh at him, glancing at Ali's horrified expression at Morgan's raw rebellion and disregard for the fact we were in an A Level class.

"Is he still staring at me?" Morgan faces me entirely, clearly enjoying his pizza despite the chaos it has evoked.

"Just a little." My lips tug up as he rolls his eyes. Morgan's another kid I've known for what seems like forever. We used to be dead close when we were in High School but College just drives kids apart.

That, and I was home schooled for the first year.

He might seem like a joker but he's different when he's on his own. He's loyal and dead protective, kid's got a heart of gold even though he could probably put any fucker in this place on their ass.

"Who's the new kids?" I ask, curiosity lacing its way into my tone. I drop my guard for a split second without meaning to, letting Morgan see the wariness in my eyes.

"It's none of that lot, don't worry." He reassures, shaking his head. "A couple of my mates from Manchester just moved down here, 2 in our year, 1 year below and other in Year 10."

"There's 4 of them?" I scoff, "God, it took me 3 years to get used to you and your accent faded slightly after a year."

"Fuck off." He laughs, eyes squinting. "I'm Manchester 'til I die, it hasn't got shit to do with how I speak."

"You never did tell me why you came all the way down here." I remark without realising what I was saying. After showing up when we were starting high school, the northern accent was undeniable and heavily contested the southern accent that most of the others held. That and no one knew fuck all about him.

The latter was still true.

"Pops wanted a fresh start." He looks away, grabbing the last slice of pizza slice. "It killed me leaving my mates but they're here now so it's alright."

"What's his problem with you?" I gesture towards the teacher who had began handing books out for people to use.

"He had to cover my science class in Year 11. Hasn't liked me since."

"You didn't." I deadpan. "Morgan, tell me you didn't do it."

He shrugs, "No evidence, no proof."

"Which one was you?"

"The first three." He doesn't elaborate but the hostility suddenly makes sense.

"So let me get this straight. The first was a tampon in his coffee, second was putting super glue on his seat and third was -"

He cuts me off, "I didn't know he was allergic to tequila so that was not my fault."

"Wasn't he covered in hives for about 10 days?"

"11 and a half." He chuckles, "Let's just say I was attempting to break a world record."

"Oh?"

"There's only one person who he hates more than me." Morgan gives me this look and I just know before the words even leave his mouth. "Jonah was a fucking legend round here."

"He said he taught him." I swallow the lump in my throat, fighting back any tears threatening to prick my eyes."I wonder what he did."

"Let's just say he makes me look like an amateur. Some of the shit people say.." He trails off, the corners of his lips tugging up.

"He'll be smirking up there thinking that he's got a legacy for literally pranking the teachers."

"Ali won't ever admit it but he changed after what happened to your brother. All the teachers here know what happened to him, fuckers probably know who did it an all but they're still out there and your brother ain't."

"I just hope starting back here won't be a mistake."

"Nah. You're back with Ashanti and Logan. And me." He adds at the end, "And I can't wait for you to meet my mates, they're crazy."

I snort, "I don't doubt it."

"Your Mums doing alright? And your little bro?"

"They're fine and so is Atlas. It was 4 years ago, it ain't a big deal no more."

I can feel him studying me but I don't falter.

That's how you win. That's how you stay alive.

You don't let anyone see you broken.

"Just like JP ain't a big deal?" His words hit me where it hurts but I make sure he doesn't see that. "Was told on my way in that JP's already at the nurse's office and Logan was the cause. Your shit with JP also started 4 years ago and it still seems like a big deal to me."

"Morgan, you've not spoken to me properly in about a year so please don't try to lecture me on how I look at things." I snapped, "I don't address the rumours or shit because I fully don't care. At the end of the day, people are going to chat about me no matter what. Most of the shit Julian chats about ain't even made up."

"You mean...?" He doesn't finish his sentence, the question didn't need to be spoken aloud for me to know what he was going to say.

"I was 15."

"Ah."

"It's a minor anyways." I write my name on the book handed to me, internally thanking God for the distraction.

"If he keeps staring at me, I'm going to deck him one." Morgan kisses his teeth, eyeing Ali from the corner of his eyes.

I rolled mine, "He has reason."

"Yeah but I ain't going to fucking do out this year. It's exam time innit." He insists, moving the pizza box to the side to show his revision books. "See, I'm dedicated."

"So why bring the pizza?" I question, shaking my head.

"Can't learn on an empty stomach, can you?" He deadpans, "I'm not too bothered about English Lit anyways."

"What else you studying?"

"Double Health and Social Care and I'm working on my diploma to work with kids." He explains.

"What do you want to do?" My eyebrows furrow. I mean this in the nicest way but Morgan doesn't look like the typical person who would want to work with kids.

"Support worker."

"Aw, you'll be sick at that Morgs." I beamed.

He smiles back at me, almost shyly but his phone beeps and he looks down. The grin disappears almost instantly.

"Michael's outside school, I need to go." He grabs his shit before standing up and going to leave.

"Be safe."

That signature smirk aligns his face once again, reminding me why all the other girls fell for him instantly. "Don't be worrying about me, Darlin'. I'll be just fine."

I tut, "Yeah yeah, see you in a bit."

"In a bit." He nods before walking out.

The bell goes not even a second after he leaves. I wait for Ashanti to sort her stuff out and then we catch up with Logan.

"That was so boring." Logan signs, "I don't even understand why I picked it."

'Shanti and I just give each other that look. You know, the one when someone else is being so stupid that you just can't hold back your humour.

"Did I tell you guys about the really peng new kids?" She lowers her voice, "There's two really fit lads about our age. I call dibs on one of them."

"How many of them?"

"4 but at least one is underage. 3 boys, 1 girl."

"I call dibs on the gay one." Logan shrugs.

"What about you, E?"

"They white?" I raise one of my eyebrows.

"Yeah, bu-"

"You have met my dad, haven't you?" I scoff, "His Jamaican ass would kill me for even going near a white boy."

"Logan," 'Shanti stares at me as she addresses the brown haired boy, "How much we putting on it?"

"20 quid on it happens before New Year."

"Fuck that." I kiss my teeth, the bitter taste of regret lingering on my lips as I remember why I don't intend on getting into another relationship.

"Bet you'll like them anyways." Arrogance leeks into her tone, the sort that semi promised me that I might.

"I swear to God I'm going to stab a hoe if they don't have chips for lunch."

Confession: I think I've missed school