Two hours of sitting next to Zac was pain. I endured him for so long. How I was going to work with him for the next three months, was beyond me.

Mr Wilson explained the basis of the project. This was going to be proven quite difficult. We had the task to work together, to come up with a new business idea and present it as if we were on Dragons Den. Although the idea excited me, working with Zac was a major downer.

Once the bell rang, Zac was gone like lightening. He didn't bother saying anything, not that I wanted him to. I waited for the rest of the class to leave, and I wearingly approached Mr Wilson.

"Whoever you're paired up with is the final decision." He sternly said, without taking his eyes off the papers in front of him.

I let out a disappointing sigh. "But Sir, Please! You know Zac and I don't get along, and I need to do well in this project."

He finally lifted his head, and took his glasses off, nodding his head disapprovingly. "I'm sorry Hannah, it's all final, you can't change who you're working with. You're just going have to learn to work with him."

"But-"

"Hannah, it's break time, go before the bell rings." Mr Wilson interjected, ignoring me.

A frustrated grunt escaped my mouth, and I turned on my heels marching out of the classroom. Ruby approached me, as it seemed like she was waiting for me.

"What were you doing in there?" She chirped, hooking her arm into mine, as we make our way to our art class.

"Begging." I plainly said.

Ruby abruptly stopped, lifting her brows for me to explain.

"Guess who's my partner for the coursework project."

It took a while for it to sink in, till Ruby let a loud gasp, gaping her mouth wide open, and her eyes almost popping out.

"No! Don't tell me it's Zac?" She exclaimed.

I nodded my head, showing the predicament I was forced into. Before I could say anything, the bell ruptured over the wave of students talking and laughing. Both Ruby and I sighed, we made our way to our art class.

As sat down in my allocated seat, the shrilling laugh of Melissa made its way to my ears as she entered the classroom. I turned my head to roll my eyes at Ruby, indicting that I was ready for Melissa's endless taunts.

Marching in, swaying her hips side to side as if she was the queen bee of the school. Her straight blonde hair bobbed as she howled with laughter. Her piercing blue eyes looked me up and down, and then on to my artwork that was situated in front of me.

"Looks like shit." She muttered under her breath, just as she passed me.

Clenching my jaw as anger bubbled inside of me. I shot up from my seat.

"What is your problem?" I jabbed at her, causing her to turn around and irk her lips at me.

"There's no problem, I was just stating the obvious, your work looks like shit." She sneered back at me.

A flash of irritation zoomed into me, I started to grit my teeth, walking over to Melissa.

"You clearly have a problem. You're always making stupid remarks, what is it? Are you jealous?" I bit back back.

Melissa huffed and laughed at my response. "Jealous of you? Yeah right."

Just as I was about to respond with a flurry of anger, Ruby caught onto my arm, shaking her head. Even though she didn't say anything, I knew to leave it. Melissa wasn't worth getting frustrated over.

I sat back down to where I was, with the feeling of Melissa's stare burning in the back of my skull. I forced myself to ignore it, and prayed that I was able to endure yet another lesson with someone I despised.

***

After what felt like an eternity, it was finally lunch, Ruby and I scattered all the way to the dining hall. We got past the buzz of all the students trying to get their food, and managed to find place to sit.

"You know, I really enjoyed the Christmas holidays, away from all this bullshit." I said, stuffing my mouth with bland pasta.

"Tell me about it-"

Ruby cut her response short as she looked far into the distance, as if something was distracting her. I shook her arm to get a response. Turning my head to follow what she was looking at, I could see in the far corner of the dining hall, vast amount of students huddled around.

"What's going on?" I asked, stretching my neck to see what the commotion was.

Ruby narrowed her eyes, almost squinting, pointing in the direction we were looking towards. "Is that Ava and Lexi fighting?"

The mention of my sisters name, caused me to shoot up from my seat and storm over. Getting closer to where a load of students where gathered, I heard a familiar voice bickering.

Pushing past the bodies, I finally got to the centre and saw Ava, flinging her arms around shouting a range of words towards Lexi. I rolled my eyes at the situation, as Ava is once again in another argument with Zac's 'precious' sister.

"Guys! Guys! What's going on?" I shouted trying to get their attention. I tugged on to Ava, as she was still full of rage and ready to go batshit crazy.

"It's her," Ava exclaimed. "She thinks she can just cut in the queue and act like she owns the place-"

"Me?" Lexi shrieked interrupting. "It's you! You clearly have a problem with me."

I closed my eyes for a split second, drowning out the words coming from the bickering girls. Internally I was screaming as this reminded me of the altercations I have with Melissa.

I let out a grand sigh, as I tried to put a stop, as all the students around us were fully invested. "Guys! This is ridiculous! Just stop fighting-"

"What's it to you? Why don't you just fuck off and stay out of it, this ain't even your problem." Lexi's snide and foul mouth echoed over me.

My mouth hung wide open at the sheer rudeness coming from her. I scanned my eyes over her, her arms folded, hips pointed out as if she had no care in the world.

"Well when you're shouting the odds at my sister, it becomes my problem." I snapped back.

Just as I was about to drag Ava away from all this, Zac strode into the circle, acting like the hotshot big brother. His cocky smile and demeanour waved around us and I felt like screaming.

"What's going on?" Zac asked the question that I already tried to suss out.

"You might want to teach your sister how to speak to others with respect, and leave my sister alone." I said in a sharp tone, narrowing my eyes towards Zac.

I didn't allow for Zac to respond, I grabbed onto Ava's arm dragging her out of the circus of people around us. Just as I was about to storm away from it all, Zac called out from behind.

"Yeah that's right, run away and put your sister back on her leash."

A wave of gasps echoed around the room, some were laughing, some were stood shocked waiting for me to retaliate. All I could see was red. Rage gripped onto me and flowed through me like lava. An exaggerated sigh escaped my mouth as I turned around. Without thinking, I grabbed the nearest cup full of drink and splashed it over Zac. He was now dripping and wet of the liquid I poured over him. Loud gasps and laughter ruptures around us.

"Miss Woodville!" A stern voice called out to me.

I was brought back to reality and realised what I had done. Zac beamed a cocky smile at me getting caught. Turning around, one of the teachers, Mrs Reed, stood there tapping her foot and peering at me over her glasses.

"I think it's best you come with me." She said wavering her finger.

A flash of irritation consumed me as I walk past, embarrassed at my stupidity. Ava and Ruby tried to get my attention, but I waved them off as I followed Mrs Reed.

Once we entered the office, my head of year, Mr Johnson, was called. I was now at the end of two teachers words jabbing at me. I stayed silent thinking how I ended up as the one in trouble.

"Hannah this isn't like you?" Mr Johnson sighed. "You're a bright student and I'm disappointed in the way you acted."

"Sorry." Is all I let out in a low tone. There was no point in arguing my case as it was always the teachers that were never prepared to listen.

"I'm giving you your first warning, you get two more warnings I'll have to give you a temporary exclusion. You wouldn't want that as this is your final year before university." Mr Johnson cautioned.

I nodded my head, as it was bowed down towards the ground. Both Mr Johnson and Mrs Reed usher me to leave. Without saying anything I left the office and noticed Ava and Ruby anxiously waiting for me.

"Just leave it, I don't want to talk about it." I quickly said, putting my hand up towards them.

I couldn't help but think that this was all Zac's fault. If he had never made that comment, I would have not been blind with rage and acted so stupid. With him as my partner for our business project, this was going to be impossible working with him. I didn't even want to be in the same room as him, with a constant anger swirling in me every time I saw him.

And now I received my first warning because of him. Business studies was the one subject I needed to excel in, and this was out of my reach being partnered up with the 'amazing' Zac.

The pressure of school was mounting over me. Climbing to the top was going to be a lot harder than I thought.

A/N

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Love _xxAMxx