Millie~

I buried my head further beneath the covers as my alarm clock beeped loudly. I felt like it was one of those rainy afternoons when a practice fire drill had been scheduled. The noise was high and I definitely did not want to get out. I'm happy just to burn, thank you very much; but only in the comfort of my king sized bed with what seemed like a million and one pillows and blankets. Snapping my arm out from the covers like a Venus fly trap catching its prey, my hand clamped down on the snooze button, making the bleeping stop immediately. I sighed and snuggled myself back under the covers. My contentment was short-lived because immediately my alarm clock started itself back up again. Groaning, I slapped my hand down on it once again and swung the covers off me before climbing out of bed.

I delayed my shower for an extra couple of minutes and let the warm water run down my back. For a moment, I thought about the consequences of having Nick Wright as a tutor. Was it really a good idea? If somebody found out, it could literally be the end of the world for me. On the other hand, all I had to do was lie and say I was being tutored by some nerd and watch their expressions when I showed them my immaculate grade card. I didn't even have to tell them that I was being tutored. At East Side High, I could get away with having my grade boosted by asking the teacher, so they didn't know my Maths was appalling. 

I quickly got changed into black skinny jeans and a red tartan top. I did my usual makeup before drying my hair and straightening it. I added some dainty gold rings, a small gold necklace and my Michael Kors gold watch. Finally, I slipped on my black ankle boots and my black leather jacket to complete the look. With a glance in the mirror, I smiled and headed downstairs. Brent, Tom and James were in the kitchen finishing their breakfast so I grabbed a cereal bar before we headed to the garage, hopping into Tom's car. Soon enough we were pulling into the school car park.

"Motherfucking Wrights took our spot again!" Tom growled as we pulled into a parking spot further away from the best spaces in the lot. The Wrights stood around their two cars; Ivy and Islay, the twins, were talking to each other, and one, I'm not sure which, was filing her nails. Holden, Seth, Ethan and Nick were talking amongst themselves. Sliding on my Ray Bans, I stepped out of the car, looking square at the Wrights as we exchanged icy glares. 

The morning went by quickly and fortunately I did not have Maths. By lunchtime the fog that had hung low over Central High School in the morning had lifted and the sun was shining brightly. We grabbed our lunch from the canteen and headed out onto the school field. Many other students were also soaking up the sun on the field but we sat down in a group in the middle of the field. I took off my leather jacket and leant back letting the sun warm my face and arms. 

I was beginning to enjoy the sunshine when a shadow fell across my face. My eyes shot open in search for the culprit who had just wrecked my tanning session. Tom stood in front of me, a sly grin playing on his lips and his arms folded across his chest smugly. 

"Do you not understand the concept of tanning, Thomas?" I asked, calling him by his full first name mockingly. He narrowed his eyes slightly, his shoulders slouching forwards.

"Yes but it's boring," he groaned, dragging out the word 'boring' in annoyance. I sat up since the sun was hidden by Tom's body, crossing my legs over on another.  

"Fine, what would you suggest that isn't boring," I asked, folding my arms over my chest, a smile playing on the corners of my mouth. Tom opened his mouth to say something when he was hit on the back of the head by a football. I chuckled as Brent jogged over from behind him, laughing. Tom's hand shot to his head.

"Dude!" he exclaimed, wheeling around to face Brent, who picked up the brown football from where it had landed on the grass, having rebounded off Tom's skull.

"Sorry cuz, I was practicing my throws," Brent apologised, a smirk playing on his lips.

"Yeah, well your aim is shit," Tom exclaimed as I pushed myself up from the floor and brushed myself off, making sure that there was no grass left on me.

"No man, my aim's perfect," Brent winked, making me laugh. Tom ran towards a hysterical Brent, planning on tackling him to the ground. Brent chucked the ball at me and I caught it cleanly. Tom dived at Brent, but he dodged and did a forward roll to get away. This made me laugh even more and I threw the ball at Tom, who was lying on the ground. It bounced off his back and Brent caught it cleverly on the rebound.

Tom turned over and pushed himself up, a ginormous grin plastered across his face as he ran away. I ran past him, cartwheeling and finishing with a front somersault. After landing I turned around and smirked at Tom who was rolling up his sleeves.

"It's on, big sis," he said as things turned into a full blown tumbling war. Tom ran forwards and did a round off into a layout, landing it and grinning at me, before gesturing for me to go ahead. Smirking, I looked towards Brent who was twirling the football around in his hands, before focusing ahead. I ran, gathering power, before launching into a round-off, back handspring and finally a back flip. I landed smoothly, and winked at Tom as I caught the swift ball Brent had thrown for me. 

I threw my head back, laughing uncontrollably, and hurled the ball into the air, unconscious of where it was headed for. It's funny actually, no matter how much fun you're having, things always manage to fuck themselves up. What's also funny is the fact that it happens so frequently now. I watched the ball cut through the air, my mouth widened in a smile. That soon faded. The other thing that's, quite frankly, hilarious, is the way it all happens so quickly. One moment everything's happy, the next, you've got a face full of Wright.

Brent and Tom's hands had balled into fists as their defensive fronts went up. I looked to them and shook my head as I walked slowly towards the circle of Wrights. They had all jumped up and were standing in a group together, watching me. Holden was rubbing the back of his head and Seth was throwing the ball between each of his hands. Ivy and Islay, the twins, were stood next to each other, one with her hand on her hip, the other with her arms folded across her chest.

Nick stood in the middle of them and motioned for the ball. Seth passed it to him and he began walking towards me. My arms clenched against my sides and glued themselves there. We stopped about two meters away from each other and Nick reached out his arm, the ball held firmly in his hand.

"Ball," I said, quietly but defensively as I reached out my own arm. Nick raised an eyebrow and withdrew the ball twirling it around in his hands.

"Don't dick about, Wright. Everybody's watching us," I growled through gritted teeth, my eyes flickering sideways to the groups of people watching our confrontation like hawks. He glanced around too before throwing the ball at me, hoping to catch me off guard. My hand shot out and I snatched the ball from the air cleanly, never breaking eye contact with Nick. With a satisfied smirk, I turned away and headed back to my family, watching Brent's face closely to make sure Nick wasn't planning on doing anything else. I threw the ball back to Brent as the rest of the people on the field resumed whatever they had been doing before the disruption.

Soon I was in Geography class and slumped down in my seat next to Cindy. If people hadn't seen themselves what had happened on the field that lunch, they had easily found out. Why they found it so interesting, I'll never understand.

"I saw what you did on the field," Cindy started. Surprised, I raised my eyebrow. Cindy was one of the few people who didn't seem to care about the whole Wards vs. Wrights situation.

"No, no. Not that," she said, removing my previous thoughts. "I'm talking about your acrobatics!" Once again I raised my eyebrow. Acrobatics?

"You performed flips and twists that even I couldn't do. It was amazing. All of you actually! That's why we need you. Imagine how awesome our routines would be if you were on the squad and then we could - " Cindy rambled on while I sat there frozen, my eyelids blinking rapidly.

"Whoa Cindy," I interrupted her, "What are you talking about?!"

She stopped quickly, sitting upright slightly, her mouth forming a small 'o' shape.

"Well," she began nervously, "I'm deputy captain this year on the cheer squad ," I raised an eyebrow at this revelation. I would never have put Cindy down as a cheerleader.

"Like I said, with you on the squad we would be amazing!" she finished, her face brightening up.

"Wait a second," I began, "You want me to try out for the cheer leading team?!" I asked, unsure if she was serious or not.

"I know what you're thinking. A load of judgmental barbies waiting to steal your man and stab you in the back," she began aggressively, "But really, they're not," she finished, nodding her head enthusiastically. I raised an eyebrow and shot her a skeptical look.

"Please," she pleaded, "Tryouts are in a week. Just come along and see how it goes." Before I could reply with an excuse, the teacher walked in. I sighed as I looked at Cindy's hopeful expression.

"Maybe," I said quietly, which seemed to delight Cindy since she grinned widely before opening her notebook as the lesson began.

It was the end of the day and the halls were pretty much deserted as I walked to the maths classroom. I stood outside squeezing my eyes shut. I really didn't want to do this. Slowly I opened the door a little and peeked through. Nick was leaning back in a chair behind one of the desks, his legs crossed over one another.

"You're late," he said monotonously, not looking at me. I walked over, throwing my books loudly down onto the desk in front of him. 

"Nope, you're just early. Eager to see me, are we?" I replied, trying to keep my cool as I pulled out the chair opposite him and sat down. 

"Even if you were the last person on the planet who could save me from a cold and painful death, I still wouldn't be eager to see you," he said, his voice dangerously low. 

"I'm pretty sure you were eager to see me the last time I saved you," I taunted, leaning forward slightly in my seat, a smirk on my face. His eyes narrowed and his jaw clenched as he looked about ready to explode.

"I don't need anybody to save me," he spat, copying my actions and leaning forward too, "I especially don't need you, so stop acting like you're a fucking hero, Ward, because you're far from it,"

 "I never said I was a hero, Wright. Then again, I also wasn't the one doing business with one of the city's biggest gangs," I replied nonchalantly, leaning back in my seat, my expression serious.

"You have no idea what I was doing," he snapped, his eyes darkening.

"Care to enlighten me, tough guy," I replied mockingly, leaning forward slightly. In that moment his expression changed. He smirked, crossing his arms over his chest, eyeing me up slowly.

'Wouldn't you like to know," he replied, his eyes not leaving my own. Smirking, he grabbed the textbook, opening it and shoving it in front of me.

"Question 6," he said, sitting back in his chair and folding his arms across his chest. Narrowing my eyes at him one last time, I turned my attention to the question. It was similar to the one he had set me last time and fortunately I had actually learnt the method for it. 

With a little bit of brain power and determination, I scribbled out the answer, turning the paper around and sliding it towards his side of the desk. He snapped up the white sheet and quickly read it through. 

"Fair play, Ward," he finally let out as he handed the paper back to me. I grinned in satisfaction. "Don't get too happy though," he added, flipping the page of the textbook and pointing at another question. My face fell and begrudgingly picking up my pen, I read the question. Unlike the last, this one wasn't the same as before.

"What's the matter," he smirked patronisingly as I stared at the book. Slowly I lifted my gaze to glare at him. He raised an eyebrow expectantly, awaiting an answer but I wasn't going to give him the satisfaction of admitting I couldn't do it. I slammed my pen down on the desk, leaned back in my seat and folded my arms, narrowing my eyes at him. After looking at me strangely for a few seconds he sighed quietly and leaned over the book. 

"What if I said you could make this part into a right angle triangle," he said, drawing a line across a diagram he had drawn. Slowly, I leaned forwards to look at the diagram.

"Oh, can't you do-" I was about to say Pythagoras, but somebody twisting the handle of the door to the classroom stole my thunder. 

"Fuck!" Nick mumbled as we both jumped up from our chairs. Looking around I saw the door to the store room a few meters away. However, before I could do anything myself, my arm had already been grabbed as Nick pulled me inside behind him, clamping his hand over my mouth. The sound of a voice made me freeze and my intentions of kneeing him where the sun doesn't shine and getting away from him were forgotten.

"Mr. Ryans?" a voice called out. Not a muscle moved in my body, as I tensed to the maximum, Nick's hand still covering my mouth. "That's funny, I could have sworn someone was in here," the voice spoke again, a little softer this time as he talked to himself. The guy must have got the idea and left because soon I heard the door open and close again.

"Will you get your hands off me," I said after a few minutes of silence, shoving his arm away from me, "Who knows where they've been,"

"I could show you," he replied, winking at me. I froze for a second, shocked. Quickly regaining my composure, I shoved him away from me.

"You disgust me," I sneered before storming out of the store room. I heard him chuckle faintly before he walked out behind me. I grabbed my books and my bag, swinging it over my shoulder.

"We aren't finished," he said, his eyes narrowing as he walked closer to me.

"We almost got discovered. I think we're done for the day," I said, placing a hand on my hip before turning around to leave. I heard Nick blow out a low breath behind me. 

"Okay, but Mr Ryans won't be happy," he said quietly, although loud enough for me to hear him clearly. That's when the alarm bells went off in my head. I squeezed my eyes shut. The little shit. Gritting my teeth, I wheeled around, marched back to the desk and dumped my things back down on the table. Yes, I sounded like a moody kid, but let's be honest, I was one when things weren't going the way I liked them to.