While it's no secret that a certain member of our student body has been the centre of attention for quite some time, it seems as though said student has taken it upon herself to thrust herself into the limelight once more. Maybe it's because she craves the attention, or maybe her life has been particularly drab since the ever so unfortunate events of last Friday, but I'm getting ahead of myself.

Introducing our self-proclaimed 'queen bee.' With high heels constantly clicking down the hall, some say that she basically begs for heads to turn her way. Is it even a surprise that she's currently single and moping, while her boyfriend, sorry, ex-boyfriend is having the time of his life?

"Your name doesn't even flow well," I blurted, desperate to distract myself from the angry words swirling around my mind.

"Excuse me?"

"Finn Radford?" I crinkled my nose, "Why insist to be called something that sounds so... abrupt?" I finished, still unsure about my choice of words. "Finnegan Radford- now that seems to have at least some sort of order," I rambled, "Why don't you like your name?"

"If you're looking for some sort of sob story regarding my name, then boy do I have a surprise for you," he drawled sarcastically. He studied the curiosity displayed on my face before rolling his eyes. "It's too much of a mouthful and I'd rather it be shorter," he added unenthusiastically, so I decided not to reply.

My fingers absentmindedly trailed the rim of my coffee mug while I rapidly blew the remaining steam away. Despite my attempts, the coffee was still too hot to drink. I glanced around the interior of the café, partially annoyed by the dim lighting. My eyes had already been through a triad of agonising tests and I was in no mood to deal with them being on a constant strain.

Sources say that Georgia has been shunned by most of her usual crew. She's sitting alone in classes and almost never seen at lunch.

"Why did you take me here?" One minute we were in Mr Radford's office and the next, I was following him to a random café, far enough that it would not raise unnecessary suspicion at school.

"Isn't it obvious?" he asked dumbfounded, "C'mon you were going to start with the waterworks and I had to distract you."

I was too busy trying to cover up the fact that I sniffled all the way over here to notice that for once, his sentence structure did not seem to come from a person over the age of thirty.

"So since Mr Professional himself is making me skip school, does that mean I won't get in trouble with dad?" I asked sweetly while batting my eyelashes mockingly. His lips tilted slightly as if he were remembering a secret joke.

"Technically-" he glanced at his watch, yet another thing that made him seem like a grandpa, "-it's around lunch and you didn't miss any classes to begin with."

I huffed in exasperation as he swiftly ended my futile attempt at a conversation by taking a large bite of his otherwise untouched sandwich. I quickly snapped a picture of my Christmas-themed coffee mug that seemed to be a few holidays too early and saved it to edit later for my Instagram.

Regrettably, I took a large swig of said coffee to prove my annoyance, forgetting to check the temperature. The liquid scorched the sensitive tip of my tongue and burned its way down my throat.

Grabbing the complimentary glass of water, I plucked the straw out and carelessly stuck my tongue in the cool liquid, welcoming the relief that came almost immediately. I let out an involuntary sigh of relief and opened my eyes that had somehow closed on its own accord.

With me hanging precariously off the edge of my seat to lean halfway across the table, and my tongue carelessly dunked in a glass of water, I could understand the looks of disapproval from the elderly couple a few tables away. I retracted my tongue and tossed them a sheepish smile, sinking further into my seat.

After a quick mental pep talk, I willed my eyes to meet Finn's, who had remained silent throughout the entire ordeal. To my relief, his head was slightly bent and his eyes were focused downwards as he tapped away at his phone. There was no doubt in my mind that he had born witness to my actions, but I was thankful that he had the decency to pretend that he hadn't.

Without the crowd who was Georgia really? "Well, her personality was a mess to begin with. I don't even know if she knew who she was," says an inside source. "One minute she's getting good grades and the other, she can't even score higher than a C average."

I mentally scolded myself for dwelling on the web article. I shook my head as if to permanently cast away the information and studied my current predicament. We were indeed an unlikely pair, me with my school uniform and him, decked out in one of his staple suits. It was no wonder why the elderly couple continued to sneak judgemental glances in our direction. They were probably praying that their granddaughter didn't skip school to meet an older man like they supposed that I had.

Instead of wallowing in self-pity, I relished in the fact that I was currently their centre of discussion. They would go home and anxiously check in on their granddaughter, and would be relieved to hear that she's focused on her education. Of course, this was all speculation on my part, but it filled me with a familiar sense of pride. It bubbled from within me and sparked until it reached the tips of my lips and tightened into a smile. I was back on solid ground, with the outside attention bringing me comfort as it always had post-breakup.

****

Mr Radford was requesting Finn's presence- at least that was what I was told before forced to exit the café. With my now drinkable coffee confined to a Styrofoam take-away cup, I leisurely followed Finn's lead back to school while casually sipping the lukewarm liquid.

"How can you possibly drink that?" Finn crinkled his nose in semi-disgust at the cup between my hands.

"What this?" I asked pointedly, waving the cup in his face, "It's simple. Here let me demonstrate," I cheekily raised the cup to my lips and took a large swig, finishing off the remnants, "See, the trick is to remember to swallow- now that's tricky." I polished off my performance with an award winning smile which was sadly left unreciprocated.

"Amusing," he deadpanned, "I meant the caffeine."

"Oh, you don't like coffee?" I asked bewildered, "I thought you were referring to how I drank it cold, like everyone else does."

"I couldn't care less about your drinking habits to be frank."

"Now that's just rude. But I'll tell you anyway-"

"I'd much prefer if you don't."

"Stop cutting me off," I interjected. "You tend to cut people off a lot and frankly-" I taunted, "It can be quite aggravating."

"You do realise that I can give you a conduct mark, right?" He added, exasperated.

"You can't give those out!" Conduct marks were easy to obtain and difficult to maintain. They acted as disciplinary strikes and were refreshed each term, however if you received three conduct marks in one term, you had to serve vacation detention, which was in short, the most conniving invention ever. You were forced to assist in general school cleanings where the air vents were dusted and the walls were re-painted and sometimes chauffeur the parent teacher meetings.

Finn remained silent, to which I granted myself a silent victory. It was by a miracle alone that I was not granted three conduct marks for the argument between Mr Lachey and I, and I was in no shape to push my luck by adding one to the list.

"Why do you wear suits to school?" the words practically rolled off my tongue without permission. Despite my genuine curiosity, I had tried to hold them back for as long as I could but the silence had become deafening. Male teachers usually stuck to a dress shirt and pants with the school's crest pinned to their collar, effectively labelling Finn as over-dressed for his position.

Finn groaned and lengthened his strides, leaving me trailing behind. We were about a minute away from Radford Prep and I gathered that my question, like many, would be left unanswered. The uncertainty of what was stirring between those walls awakened an all too familiar sense of helplessness that I detested. My mind seemed to be in a constant state of turmoil as of late, and I desperately sought a way to control it.

One. Two. Three.

One. Two. Three.

I counted my footsteps to the beat of one of the current pop tunes that infiltrated my car stereo, a calming method Lauren had introduced to me with the hopes that I would enjoy classical music by her side. Unfortunately, I had laughed and insulted her method thinking that I would never need it, so I was glad that she was unaware that I was using it, albeit tweaked to my taste.

"Can you please stop? It's annoying."

I halted, appalled that I was humming my rendition of Cheerleader out loud, completely given up on trying to sync the counting with the beat.

"You have to admit, it's pretty catchy," I recovered.

"Yeah, okay" he scoffed.

We arrived at the institution's gates, and for the first time since I entered the school did I feel unwelcomed. The standardised brick walls that mimicked old English boarding shcools seemed too harsh; too confining, and I struggled to maintain my confidence.

"Did you- did you read the entire article?" I asked, letting my eyes wander around the perimeter, failing to meet his.

"I did," he paused, and I felt his scepticism towards the subject as he searched for words, "but only because I had to."

"You didn't have to do anything, no one's gotten involved with our website before." I snapped, meeting his eyes defiantly.

"Well, someone should get involved," he stated pointedly.

"It wasn't always like this," I mumbled, "I don't remember them being this harsh." I crossed my arms unconsciously as if ceremoniously shielding myself from the truth.

Maybe it's time she gets a taste of her own medicine.

I involuntarily flinched and blinked away the remainder of the article.

"Anyways, these sorts of things are submitted by the students and then formatted into an article. They're only available for a couple days," I reminded both him and myself, "So again, there's nothing for you to get involved with."

"Too late," he smirked triumphantly.

"Excuse me?" I asked befuddled.

"Starting from tomorrow, you're a member of the website club."

"Excuse me?!"

"Anyways, as I was saying, it's mandatory that every student is involved in at least one extra-curricular activity, and you Georgia, are not."

"You read my files?!" I screeched. I was as open as they came; broadcasts of my personal life had never bothered me, but hearing that Finn had read my confidential files did not sit well with me.

"I was doing a general check on the student population which is part of my job training so don't flatter yourself," he rolled his eyes, "and stop shouting will you?" I could sense the beginning of his agitation through his words, but I could hardly bring myself to care.

"This isn't your decision to make," I stomped my feet in resilience.

"Actually, it is," he countered while lifting his hand to his head before stopping himself. He let his hand fall limp to his side, as if remembering that he would mess up his neatly styled hair.

I took a few deep breaths and allowed myself to digest this information. "Okay, so can I at least choose which club I'd like to join?" I asked calmly.

"Unfortunately that's also a negative," he stated. "The rules are the rules; we're not bending them around you. You had sufficient time- three years to be exact- to join a club or sporting activity, now we get to put you in one."

"This is hardly unfair, I know so many people who aren't involved in extra-curricular activities and I don't see you forcing them into one."

"Please don't forget that I am an authority figure in the school you attend," he stated, his voice heavily controlled.

"Well, it's pretty easy to forget under the circumstances of how we first met," I spat, silently hoping that Finn disregarded my unintentional rhyme. It was, in fact, the truth. Finn seemed to be a paradoxical image, constantly morphing between the guy I met back in the stadium, and the teenager who acts twice his age.

He stood motionless for a short beat, as if meticulously choosing his next words.

"Everyone else who our system conveniently forgot will be accounted for, you are just the first." I silently hoped that this was the end of our conversation as I processed his words and we approached the entrance gates.

We handed our exit passes to the guards and I carelessly scribbled my signature and time stating that I returned to school, my mind still reeling on the fact that I had to join the website club, of all clubs. As far as I knew, the website club was supposedly filled with nerds like Jeffrey Higgins who fed on gossip to sustain them.

"Oh and Georgia, the club meeting is at four. It will be in your best interest to attend," he ordered. His eyes softened for a moment as he spoke his last words, "You may want to pretend that this article never happened, but I can't allow that. We will have to address it eventually."

I was completely content with burying the article with this days end, and the thought of being constantly ordered around by Finn was troubling for me to accept. Thankfully, Finn left marching towards the general office before I could formulate a proper reply.

Where's your perfection now Georgia? Lost it with your confidence?

Well, I thought, ask and you shall receive. I recklessly pushed through the front doors, ready to dive head first back into my post-breakup self.

****

Author's Note:

wattpad. messing up my formatting since 1998. jk. but if you see random double spacing pretend it doesn't exist.

It's been a while- you know, i know. i'm sorry. accept this update as a meek offering of peace.

In case anyone was confused, the words in centre italics are snippets of the article that was posted, i know many of you were excited for it, but i couldn't bare to write the entire thing, so forgive me.

please continue to leave me your wonderful thoughts and suggestions in the comments bc i love to hear from you, it always brightens my day. also, i start form six on wednesday so pray for me, and feel free to remind me to update bc i forget and procrastinate and then this happens so yeah (thank you to my best friend chelsea and my sister for asking me to update it motivated me to write)

this chapter is dedicated to the lovely WinterRains for making me three beautiful covers (i can't figure out how to post multiple images on this updated version so the new cover and the image above are two examples of what she made for me. ps. feel free to send in fan art if you're good at graphic designs bc i'll be eternally happy thank you)

also, do you think because my updates are so scarce that i should include little recaps at the top of each chapter? yes or no? let me know. xx