[ 34 ] 2013

Harley and Calum reached the classroom just as the bell rang to announce it was time for home class to end. In seconds, the halls were swarmed by students heading off to their first class. Phoenix was the last to emerge from the room, only moment after Luke, with a wide smile on her face. Harley turned towards Luke, who was already disappearing down the hallway with a group of popular kids. They all seemed to be congratulating him about something. Harley could only guess what that was about.

"Luke gave me his phone number." Phoenix announced joyfully.

But Harley wanted to save her friend the unnecessary drama. She began to explain to her as best she could, "Luke already has a girlfriend, her name is Hazel, and she's a good friend of mine. He's only showing all this interest in you because you're a new student." Or so Luke thought.

The smile on Phoenix's face dropped slightly. "You're such a funkill, Harley."

"I know you're not used to all this attention." Harley explained, "But Luke is trouble."

"He's into me." Phoenix insisted.

"He's into getting you into his bed." Harley told her rather bluntly.

Phoenix rolled her eyes at her friend. "You're just jealous that he's not chasing after you anymore."

"Please, Phoebe," Now Harley was the one rolling her eyes. "I'm not interested in Luke." And there had been already a lot of drama with a certain ghost cheerleader because of that mix-up. Why did everyone think she was into Luke Hemmings? Harley didn't understand, she showed no signs of being attracted to him in the slightest. "And I don't want to fight with you over him, so lets go to class." 

Harley linked arms with her bestfriend and walked with her and Calum to the electives hall where her Shakespeare class was located. Their teacher was thrilled to have someone visit his class and didn't ask any questions. He only had Phoebe sit and watch while he had the rest of the class perform scenes from Shakespeare's Romeo & Juliet. When that class ended, they went for their breakfast break which only lasted about a half hour. 

The next class on Harley's schedule was Advanced Placement Government, with the teacher from her home class. She knew she couldn't go with Phoenix there, her teacher wouldn't allow her in. Since Calum was in that class as well, the three decided to skip class. Instead, they went to the abandoned fourth floor where the individual classrooms were. That time, they found one of the private classrooms was unlocked and it was a music room with a grand piano taking up about half of the space in the small room.

They sat in that room for a while until Calum complained, "There's nothing fun to do here. And your friend is cockclocking us, Harley."

Harley shot him a glare.

The amusement was evident on his face as he cleared his throat to get Phoenix's attention. "Hey Phoenix," He called. And when her eyes met with his, he continued, "Would you mind sleeping until lunch time?"

She absently nodded and laid down on the ground, falling asleep almost instantly.

"Calum," Harley scolded, "We agreed we were going to be normal teenagers."

"You're undoing years of elementary school teachings. Don't they always bitch about how you should be yourself?" He raised an eyebrow at her. "I'm being myself, and you surpress me."

"They don't mean you should use your supernatural powers." She argued.

"Well, now that she's asleep, why don't we use this time to have some fun? They say the private music rooms are sound proof, wanna test it out?" Calum winked. 

The blue eyed girl shook her head at his request. "Nice try, but no."

-

Phoenix woke up from her nap seconds before the lunch bell rang. The three teenagers gathered their belongings and left the room. 

They made it to the lunch line before it got too long. That day they were serving cheese ravioli and a salad, which Harley actually liked. They walked up to the front counter to grab their food and from there, at the first table where the populars always sat, Harley spotted Luke and Hazel. It was a warm day in Australia, and when the weather was too warm for the populars, they sat inside. When the weather was nice, they always sat outside. Harley then nudged her friend and gestured to the populars. "See? Hazel and Luke are dating. Hazel is my friend to, so please don't do anything to hurt her. She's very sweet."

Somewhere at one of the back tables, Harley spotted Michael. He was sitting with Dempsey and Paúl. 

Jack was no longer at St. Genevieve's. He had graduated high school in Canada two years prior, but had been forced to pass off as a seventeen year old because Harley needed him. Now that she was doing better, he decided to drop out.

Michael saw Harley standing, looking for a place to sit and waved her over. There was a smile on his face, but Harley noticed in his eyes that he was faking. Something was bothering him

"Who's your friend?" Michael asked as they got closer in the crowded foyer.

Gesturing to Phoenix, Harley offered and introduction. "This is my friend from Perth, where I used to live before I came here. Her name is Phoenix."

"Fénix?" Paúl crinkled up his nose as he said the words in Spanish.

Phoenix nodded, "Its my first and last name combined; Phoebe Nixon." It was about the milionth time she had explained it. 

"Ah, Febe, like the Titan goddess of night." Paúl pointed out, plopping a ravioli square into his mouth.

"My mum named me after her." Phoenix said matter of factly.

"Well, I'm Dempsey Johannsson." The third year student introduced herself, interrupting their conversation. There was a small smile on her face, but as she looked from Paúl to Phoenix, it didn't look all that sincere.

Harley concluded Dempsey was also upset at all the unnecessary attention Phoenix was getting. And she also noticed the way Michael seemed to look towards the populars' table every now and then. No doubt, he was looking out for Hazel. 

Their lunch hour was spent with Paúl mostly talking to them about Greek gods and godesses. Harley thought he was just thrilled to practice on them because the next day, they would be starting a unit in Art History about greek art. When the lunch period ended, the teaching assistant offered to walk Dempsey to her classroom. Calum, Harley and Phoenix all walked together to the maths hall where their pre-calculus classroom was located.

They had five minutes of passing period, and Luke arrived just seconds before the bell rang, announcing for class to start. He had probably gone to drop Hazel off at her last class for the day. A grin appeared on his face when he saw Phoebe was there. Paul arrived a couple of minutes late, but he knew just how to get himself out of trouble. He walked into the classroom with two water bottles and a few snacks. The twenty six year old teacher was absolutely fascinated with her twenty year old assisstant. Harley rolled her eyes at him as the teacher went to the front of the class to begin the lesson and he went to sit at her desk.

Those hunters were smooth, she thought to herself.

The lesson lasted about an hour and a half, and the last half hour of class was left for individual work. That was when the teacher would sit at her desk and Paúl would walk around the room, helping anyone who needed help, which were mostly girls who pretended they didn't understand the lesson just so they could flirt with the teaching assisstant.

Eventually, Paúl found his way over to her and Phoebe. Calum was sitting at the desk behind them. "Hello, girls." He smiled. "Need any help with the math problems?"

"No," Harley shook her head politely, "We're fine, thanks Paúl."

He nodded and walked off to help a girl who had her hand raised.

Leaning into her ear, Phoebe whispered, "You've become so social with boys since you moved here. Teach me your ways."

"I don't have ways." Harley hissed.

Luke, who was the best in the class, had quickly finished his work, and was now on his cellphone. But when he saw Phoebe and Harley, he got up from his seat and went over to them. "Need help with your math problems, girls?" He said girls, but really he was only looking at Phoebe. At least Harley knew Luke was actually good at math, so that he could help her if she actually needed it, while he was flirting with Phoenix. 

Phoenix nodded. And he walked around behind her and leaned in close as he began to explain the material to her. Harley again rolled her eyes. Phoebe didn't need help, she was also very good at math, but Luke didn't know that she was only pretending so that he could help her. He was only thrilled at the opportunity as it presented itself to him.

Harley grabbed her work sheet and got up from her seat, going to sit on the empty seat next to Calum. 

"Do you understand this shit?" Calum asked, scratching the back of his head in confusion as Harley sat by his side.

"Yeah," She told him, but she wasn't so sure. Math always made her brain feel like it was going to crack into a million pieces. She didn't understand how people like Phoenix and Luke did it. "Its pretty simple once you get used to it."

-

As the longest school day Harley had ever experienced ended for the day, she still needed to go to cheerleading practice. Calum went to soccer practice as well, which was on the field right next to where the cheerleaders practiced. 

The two walked out in their physical education uniforms, Harley had let Phoebe borrow one of hers. And the girls were already ont he blue cheerleading mats stretching. Harley joined the rest of the girls while Phoebe went to sit on some bleachers nearby. Her eyes were trained on the soccer team, where Luke was practicing with the rest of the team. 

Cindy, who was the head cheerleader, clapped her hands together joyfully after their stretches. "Do we have a new recruit?" She asked, gesturing to Phoebe who was staring at the boys.

Harley shook her head, "No, she's just waiting for me."

"Who is that?" Hazel wondered.

Harley pulled both Dempsey and Hazel aside, out of earshot. Cindy took that distraction as an opportunity to bring the new student into their team. "That's my friend Phoebe from Perth." Harley began to explain, "She's just a normal human being, so we need to act normal in front of her until she goes back home."

"Okay," Dempsey nodded, "We can do that."

When they conversation ended, they turned to see Cindy approaching them, her arm was linked with Phoenix's. "Guess who I just convinced to join the squad." She grinned.

The other cheerleaders seemed excited. The cheerleaders loved being the center of attention at St. Genevieve's, which was why they liked bringing all new girls into their team, it kept the attention on them as long as the hype of a new student was there. Most of the cheerleaders were part of the popular group as well, which meant they liked to make friends with all the new students first. They had done it with Kylie, with Harley, Andrea, Dempsey, Hazel, and now Phoebe.

Practice was cut short that afternoon, Cindy was going to meet up with Billy for mandatory math tutoring, which her parents had signed her up for. Not that either of them were complaining. Billy got paid for teaching Cindy math, and they got to see each other, though Harley doubted there was a lot of math being taught.

After changing into their regular school uniforms, Dempsey suggested they should have a sleep over at her house, which was a common thing normal girls did. 

They left in Paúl's car, while Harley and Phoenix were dropped off by Calum.

Calum wanted to stay with Harley, but she told them they would have a girls only night. Michael didn't mind and spent the rest of the night in his room, Paúl did as well. 

The girls were sat in the livingroom, watching scary movies in the dark, when the doorbell rang, making them all jump in fear. Paúl was in the kitchen by then, grabbing something to eat, and went to answer it. Harley's eyes were trained on the television screen, but her ears were listening to what was happening at the front door.

"What are you doing here?" Paúl asked the person at the door.

They replied, "Classes at the university ended for the fall semester, so I came to visit my brother, since I have no one in Mexico to spend the holidays with."

Harley ran a hand though her darkened hair. Now there was yet another person added to their group. And she wondered if they would have to pretend to be normal for him too. 

-

sorry this update is sort of filler-ish, but like i said, i thought it would be nice for the squad to be normal for once. but it will start to get dramatic again, most likely in the next chapter. so i hope you like the update. please give it a nice vote, if you like it. thank you so much for your love ad support.

question of the day: what is your favorite fruit? ^.^ i really like grapes, but lately i've been really into pineapples. lame question, i know. but i like seeing your comments!

i hope you have a wonderful day!

-clary xx