Adele pulled out her headphones as she approached the bus stop, hurriedly putting them on so she would have an excuse not to talk to anyone. Her headphones were big and heavy; an old pair of her dads that were once top-of-the-line, but were now old and the bass had gone in them. She liked how people wouldn't talk to her when she had them on, though.

Among the people at the bus stop, there was a girl who Adele was familiar with. Anna McAnn. Adele went to primary school with her, but they'd lost touch over the years. They used to say hi to each other in passing, and then the hi's turned into nods. Sometimes there'd be a half-second of eye contact before Adele quickly looked away. At this point, they both mostly just pretended not to see each other. Adele hated being so awkward around her. She'd been good friends with Anna when they were little. She used to call her McAnna. She wondered if people still called her that.

Arianna Grande played in her headphones as the 44 bus came and they all got on. Despite the cold air outside, the bus was so hot it was hard to breathe, and it smelled of McDonald's. Adele would have loved to start her day with a McDonald's breakfast–if she could've afforded it–but lately she'd been promising herself to eat better, to make sure the bit of weight she'd lost would stay off. She'd always seen signs in the things that happened and took her illness over Christmas as a sign she was meant to lose weight. That, and not eat expired yogurt pots.

When some space freed up after a few stops, she brought out her old Android phone and looked through an app for new memes, spending the rest of the journey on her phone.

The courtyard leading up to the main steps of Brentworth Secondary School was filled with kids, either rushing or milling about. Most were in the charcoal-grey uniforms of the school. A part of Adele missed wearing those bland uniforms, as it meant she could blend in better and never had to think about what to wear. It wasn't until last year when she started AS Levels that she got to wear her own clothes, and realised that choosing how to look represented who you were. She noticed the nice dresses and tops that some of the other girls wore, or their in-season shoes and bags. It wasn't until last year that Adele knew what 'in-season' meant. And she was still stuck with a wardrobe mostly of old clothes or even older hand-me-downs from her cousins.

She kept her head down and placed her headphones over her neck - keeping them on had the opposite effect in school and gave some jokers a chance to knock them off or ask what she was listening to.

As she went in through the main double doors of A Block, the blast of heaters over the threshold ruffled her hair and caused her to self-consciously smooth out the damage.

"Heeey!" a voice called out among the roar of people.

Adele looked up and down the hallway for the distinguished voice. Then she saw, clearing a path through a group, her favourite person in the world.

Xena was wearing a bright red tank top and black tights that showed off her curvy figure and big boobs. Her hair was a wild tangle of black and looked amazing flowing around her as she ran up to Adele. She stopped and panted loudly, making a show of having run through the hall. Others looked at her and smiled. Adele knew she liked the attention.

Adele squeezed her in a big hug. "Happy Birthday!"

Xena struck a pose with her hands pointed at herself, like she was in a photoshoot. "What do you think of my badge?"

"Very subtle," Adele said, eyeing the huge badge on Xena's bag strap that said '17' in glitter font. "I love it."

"And I love you," Xena said loudly, throwing her arms up in another big pose.

She was in a great mood today, and she should be. Adele just wished she could have afforded to buy her a present. Xena was always buying her small gifts or drinks.

"You're coming tonight, right?" Xena asked.

"Of course. Wouldn't miss it." Adele had been trying not to think about the party. She wouldn't really know anyone there other than Xena, and the birthday girl would definitely be too distracted by all the attention to spend any time with her.

"Great, great," Xena said. "My mum wanted me to tell you to remind your mum about Saturday too. She can bring whatever she wants for dinner."

"I will. I'm sure she'll make too much as usual."

"Oh, I love your mum." Xena clapped her hands together. "She's the best."

"She's something," Adele said, rolling her eyes. It didn't surprise her that Xena liked her mum so much, as her mum was always really nice to her.

"Oh shush. She's great. Cute top by the way."

Adele regarded the baby blue T-shirt showing under her open coat. One of the hand-me-downs from her cousins. "Thanks."

"Anyway, I gotta go. Ryan Reynolds said he wanted to give me my birthday present before Chemistry."

Adele didn't think Ryan Allcroft looked that much like a younger Ryan Reynolds, but Xena did enough to insist on calling him by his celebrity look-alike.

She gave Xena a big smile, and it was genuine. She was really happy for her, and all the friends Xena was building, and the boys she had started to spend time with lately. She couldn't blame anyone for wanting to spend time with Xena. Adele had often wondered if they would've been friends if it weren't for the fact their mums were old school friends.

They shared a quick hug and double cheek kiss. Xena had a new perfume on; something spicy. Probably a birthday present from her mum and dad. Adele waved goodbye as she turned into another corridor and left Xena to head the other way.

The short burst of Xena-time invigorated Adele, and she walked with her head higher and shoulders more relaxed. She even nodded a hello to a girl from her Media class passing by.

She got to her English Lit class ten minutes early and settled into her usual seat near the back. While the teacher talked about types of lessons that characters learn in novels, Adele mostly spent the two-hour class in her own thoughts. Not having a present for Xena had started to really bother her. She hated not having any money for herself, apart from a small allowance for lunches.

Adele made a promise to herself. She would find a job. A weekend job. That would help get her out of the house on the weekends, at least. She didn't really know what she could do, but she would have a good think about it.

After English, she went to the Library in B Block to finish off her Geography coursework. She had a two-hour free period, which went up to lunch time, so technically had three hours free before Geography. That should be enough time to catch up.

She settled on the corner of a huge wooden table where two other students sat quietly on their laptops. Several tables away, a group of students was giggling and messing around, some trying to loudly shush the others and making them all laugh even more. They looked like they were having a lot of fun. When two of them looked her way, she quickly turned back to her books, wondering if they'd been saying anything about her.

After fifteen minutes of trying to focus on her workbooks, something dropped onto the table in front of her.

Adele blinked and sat up quickly, seeing it was a crumpled piece of paper. She looked around for anyone who would be watching her or trying to hide their laughter. Everyone in the quiet room seemed to be focused on their work, and the giggling group had already left.

She cautiously began to unfurl the ball of paper, careful not to make too much noise and draw attention to herself. Fear began to quicken her heart.

It was probably someone playing a prank and it would be a note saying her hair was a mess or her clothes are ugly, or asking if she'd put on weight. No one had done anything like that to her before, but it was the kind of thing she could imagine some people doing.

The note was simple. It said, 'Don't look to your right'.

Adele turned without thinking and suddenly there was a face right in front of hers, nose to nose. A high-pitched yelp left her as she jumped.

Elliot laughed, settling into the chair next to her.

She was aware of others looking up at her as she held a hand to her chest, trying to control her breathing. Ignoring them all—meeting any of their eyes would only make her feel worse—she turned to Elliot and couldn't help but giggle as she began to relax.

"Should have listened to the note," Elliot said with a few more chuckles.

"I should have recognised your handwriting."

The curly mess of his brown hair was flopped over his forehead as he watched her, big smile shifting his cheeks up towards his eyes. She had always been envious of how smooth and creamy his skin was, from his mum's Filipino side.

"How is Adele today?" he asked, leaning his elbow on the table.

"She's very behind in Geography."

"If only it was History. Then being behind would be a good thing."

She narrowed her eyes, unamused. She'd found it best to not always encourage his jokes, even if she thought they were funny. Elliot could sometimes get too carried away if he thought people liked him making a fool of himself, and then it would become an act for him to keep pleasing others. Adele had seen it many times before. Luckily, he was at his best one-on-one.

"Are you going to Xena's party tonight?" he asked, eagerly.

She sighed, waving a hand over her workbooks. "I want to, but I've really got a lot to do here. And I have my Tuesday Psychology quiz tomorrow. I should really study for that tonight."

"It's just a weekly quiz." He raised a brow, seeming confused they were even having this conversation. "Come on, it's Xena. Think of it this way, you can observe the partying people and consider it Psychology homework. If there's any questions tomorrow about how teenagers act at parties, you'll nail the test."

"I know, I know. I have to go." Adele suspected that Elliot fancied Xena; he was always talking about her.

"If you're worried about not knowing many people there; I'll be there. You can come find me and we'll just hang out."

She gave him a smile, but not a strong one, and quickly turned back to her books. She didn't want to give the impression there would be anything more to her spending time with him.

Elliot brought his phone out, suddenly excited about something. He was giggling as he swiped and tapped. "Check this out."

A video played, showing security camera footage of two men in hoodies, with bricks in their hands. The closest man threw his brick into a shop window. As he turned to walk away, he inadvertently crossed into the path of the second man who was throwing his brick, which smacked into his head with the full force that was meant to break the window. The man dropped and splayed out on the ground, unconscious.

Adele slapped a hand to her mouth. Elliot, who had brought his face closer to hers to watch the screen, started chuckling. He tried to restrain his laughter, but ended up snorting and then bursting out a breathy laugh that made her laugh with him.

Pretty much the only reason she'd managed to become friends with him two years ago was through their mutual love of memes.

"You mind if I sit with you?" Elliot asked, bringing out notebooks from his bag. "I got some work to do too."

"Just behave." She turned back to her own books.

There were very few people Adele would be comfortable spending time with, but for some reason she'd never really minded Elliot's company. He never spoke to her like he was really saying something else, or made any backhanded compliments, or acted like she didn't matter like most other people did. And if he did make any jokes at her expense, she knew it came from a place of harmless humour.

As she settled back into her coursework, she realised that at some point Elliot's knee had brushed up against hers.

She wasn't sure if he'd noticed, or if he was uncomfortable about it at all. After a moment she decided it didn't feel right, so casually shifted her position and moved her leg away. She didn't look up to see what Elliot thought of it, but she thought the air around him had tensed a little. In fact, he turned away from her as he leaned on his elbow, blocking her from his view.

They spent the rest of their time together in silence. 

*****

Thank you for reading!

How was this look at Adele's daily school life?

What did you think of Xena?

What did you think of Elliot?