I rummage through the contents of my backpack, quickly flipping all the books inside in a hurry. Just when I thought I had packed everything I needed for today's school, I forgot one important notebook. My pocket notebook.

How did I miss that?

I write almost all my emotions on that. If someone reads it, they will know me completely well. They can even pretend as me. That's just how important that book is. And I managed to mess everything up.

I play with my hair in frustration and chew my inner cheek in anxiety. My eyes scan around the room in a haste as I plot all the outcomes if someone had stolen my book. Thankfully there is still a good ten minutes before class begins. But it's not like I can just find my diary within that time.

I can stand up and announce everyone to publicly search for my book or at least search around their seats. But I don't. It just has never been in me to be that extremely loud and outspoken person that gets things done. I was and always have been the girl that keeps her thoughts to herself knowing that it's all my responsibility either way.

It's hard to break my behaviour in a minute.

I don't cry but I feel my heart beat increase as worries overburden me. Just as I am about to go completely insane, a soft pat on my back sends me whirring back to reality.

"Searching for this?" a familiar face asks. I slightly raise my brows up in recognition as Aaron shrinks under my gaze. He awkwardly rubs the back of his neck and hands me the all–too–known notebook.

That's what you get for reading other people's diaries.

I slowly take the notebook from him and open the front cover. Checking hrough the pages to see if everything is alright and checking for his reaction, I clear my throat hesitantly.

"Did you read anything?"

Aaron furrows his brows before realization kicks in and he begins to shake his head  wildly. 

"Dude, I didn't read anything. I couldn't even understand most of the words you used," he says, chuckling slightly and pulling a chair to sit besides me. I slightly scoot away on instincts. He immediately slouches back on the chair. His lean muscles slightly twitch under the fitting polo shirt. He shuts his eyes and I immediately take note of how long his eyelashes are. He opens them again.

"But I read the first poem."

I freeze in spot as I repeat his sentence over and over again. Did he read something important? I clench my fists as I try not to scream out aloud and instead fastly flip through the random pages of doodle to find the first page of poem I had written.

Dance of the wind

I exhaled loudly as I finally get some air to breathe. The first poem I ever wrote is something on nature. It's not even related to me or my feelings and so it is just a simple and meaningless poem—according to me at least.

I notice his curious expression from the corner of my eye but instead of looking at him, I begin pressing the bridge of my nose. Closing my eyes and easing the once-occured tension, I look back at the brunet.

"Where did you get it from?"

He immediately stops playing with the lining of his shirt and looks up at me as though I've grown a new horn.

"What?"

I sigh and ask again, already fed up of speaking with any of them.

"Where did you get my book?"

His jaw immediately clenches and for a second, I doubt that he is the one who stole it. It's been lost for two days. Anyone could've read the whole book within that time frame.

"I found it next to a locker," he says, looking into my eyes just to further prove his innocence. I firmly hold my gaze on him, noticing if he has any reaction to my suspicion. He instead shrugs and just leans on the table.

"You know something?" he asks, removing his eyes from me and looking straight ahead. I don't say anything and instead put the book in my bag. The only thought that runs in my head is to never bring the book to school again.

"You didn't even thank me," he pouts, shaking his head and feigning hurt. Some locks of his hair fall on his face in the process. He quickly swats it away.

Familiar.

The vision of Chester flashes in my brain. He used to have the same brown locks. The familiar scent of forest wood is hard to miss. I remember every little detail. Just the thought of him sends my body paralyzed. I should have never done that.

"Ella?" he quickly asks, offended that I didn't thank him even then. I immediately halt my thoughts and look at him, opening my mouth in protest. I don't want to speak to him but the fact that he messed up my name, even after all this is just kind of unacceptable.

"It's Eline," I grunt, getting up from my seat and pushing the chair in. Swinging my bag over my shoulders, I search for some other place to sit. I don't want to associate myself with any of them. Even if I lied about them to Jayden, even if I hurt their feelings a bit, I know that there is something weird going on.

They seem to know my former friends more than I do, they seem to hide many secrets and go out of their way to speak to me. I was just being naive, thinking that the only reason they would want to speak with me is to get some work done. As far as I know, Emma herself is quite a genius. There is not much reasoning behind my previous theory.

So the best way is to just avoid them. I walk around to search for some more seats but instead, find none empty to my surprise. When was physics class this full?

I groan as some more eyes hover over my face, everyone thinking what I was doing with Aaron even after the fight. Not wanting to glare at any of them, I start heading toward my previous place, slightly feeling awkward.

He will just assume that I got up for no reason. Shaking my head, I sit down on my place, huffing out some air from my mouth as I do so.

"I don't think I am that repelling, am I?" he asks, wiggling his brows.

"No." I hear some students sighing in front of us and giggling a while later. I don't react and instead open my physics textbook.

"Gosh, Eline! I don't know why you're so silent!" he exclaim, throwing his hands up in the air. I tuck a hair strand behind my ears and instead focus on the book.

"After all, you lied about us being rude to you. And still, here I am, tying to start a conversation," he mutters the last sentence, zipping open his bag and taking out his materials.

I bite my tongue to not reply anything. I might've had the courage to seak back to Avi. But that's just because I've known her for so long. I don't even know this guy. How can I just speak back?

"Darn this whole-" he stops as he notices my presence and ends his sentence, "school..."

I raise my brows at him, knowing that he was just about to spill something important. He immediately stiffens.

"What?" he groans, not bothering to talk to me anymore and instead reading from his textbook.

"Nothing," I say for no reason as I resume doing my work.

*

The teacher hands out our papers to us, one we had done some days ago. An uneasy feeling settles in my stomach as I prepare myself for the worst. I didn't even learn for the test properly. With all the drama going on, I couldn't let my brain concentrate on my test. Instead, all I could do was replay the events in my life over and over again, thinking if I could have done something to prevent all of this.

My breath gets hitched in my throat as the teacher hand the paper to me in silence, not smiling as she always does. I grip the paper and immediately fold it, not wanting to look at the marks at all.

I find all eyes on me again from the time I received my paper. Silence falls on the class as they wait for me to unfold the sheet and proclaim my marks. That's just how this school works.

Fame only comes with education.

Forcing my heart to calm down, I chant prayers and unfold the paper. I immediately feel sick as I glance at my marks again and again.

50/100

I lost fifty marks. I lost fifty freaking marks. As everyone gets fustrated in not knowing my marks, some start to gather around my place.

They are gonna get disappointed.

I feel everyone gasping around me and I hear someone screaming aloud that Kayla got 96.

Kayla.

I should've never underestimated her. I was the one that used to help her. Now, she has gotten more than me. Has gotten sixteen marks more than I did.

Another paper flies to my desk, now being handed out by the math teacher.

30/100

WORK HARDER.

People look at my paper. I sit frozen in my spot, numb to even Aaron calling my name again and again.

I messed up the whole test.

This is the first time I lost to someone.

I feel envy seeping into my veins and when the students begin speaking loudly about my marks, I get up abruptly.

"Oh my gosh, are you serious?"

"That's so unlikely of Eline."

"Guys, there might be some correction error. There is no way in hell that hat would happen."

I start walking fastly towards the door, ignoring their chatters.

"Guys, stop! It's not like you get the same marks every freaking time," I hear a fading familiar voice echo as the person yells my name. I storm out and run towards my favourite spot in the whole school.

The library.