Chapter five

Ashley dragged her up from the bed and pulled her hair angrily. 

"You motherfucker…….I'm gonna teach you a lesson" Ashley fumed, holding on to Claire's hair. 

"Let go of me" Claire tried to free her hair from Ashley's hold to no  avail. 

"Ashley calm down" Annabelle separated them.

"How can you tell me to calm down? Do you know what this bitch did huh?" Ashley yelled, wanting to charge at Claire again, but Annabelle stopped her. 

"She's not worth it Ash, Let her go" Annabelle said just to make sure Ashley doesn't do anything drastic. 

With gritted teeth, Ashley said, "Trust me, I'm gonna get back at you".

***

"It was going well until he came" Alex fumed as he laid flat on his bed. 

Just then, Henry strolled in. Without saying a word, he went to lie on his bed. 

"Hey dude! Mrs Jones gave us an assignment" Sam said.

"Really? Let me have a look" He sat upright. Alex just watched them, his anger boiling the more. 

To avoid any fight with Henry, Alex closed his eyes and soon, he drifted off to sleep. 

"Hey, what's up with the girl huh?" Henry asked Sam curiously. 

"What girl? Oh! That girl...... Well she's one annoying little bitch like Alex said" He said in a whisper and gestured Henry to come closer. 

"She embarrassed him in front of the whole class" He whispered in his ear. Henry pressed his lips together to prevent him from bursting into laughter. 

"Really? I mean a whole Alex... Embarrassed by a girl? Sounds kinda impossible" 

"Hey, lower your voice. I'm not ready for another world war" Sam placed his finger on his lips as he spoke. 

"Alright, Alright..... Let's finish up with this.... I'm sleepy already" Henry whispered. 

***

Annabelle succeeded in calming Ashley. Ashley sat on her bed, glaring at Claire, who has already fallen asleep.

 Her phone blared and her eyes travelled straight to her bag. She grabbed her bag, scattered the content on her bed. There it was, like she thought, in her bag. 

It was her dad calling. She swiped right to receive the call. 

"Hi dad" she mumbled. She was still upset with him. 

"Hello princess" Her dad said over the phone and she rolled her eyes. 

"Cut if off dad, I'm not your princess" She snapped. Her mood was already ruined by Claire and now her dad.

"How do you find your new school?" He asked, ignoring her attitude. 

"You mean the damn school you shipped me to? The one full of assholes rather than students? The one where students bully students? The one where you get ambushed for standing up to the bullies huh!" She blurted, fighting back her tears. 

"You know what? I hate you dad! I hate you for bringing me here!" She spat. This time, she couldn't control her tears. 

"But princess.... " Her dad was saying, but she disconnected the call. She tossed her phone on the bed and wiped the tears already rolling down her cheeks. 

She laid down flat on her bed. Her eyes closed slowly and soon, she fell into a deep sleep. 

***

The alarm clock sounded. "Why is it so loud?" Ashley complained in her mind, half awake. Her hand trailed the bed in search of her phone, her eyes were still closed. Grabbing it, she opened her eyes slowly.

"Damn it! It's just 5am for Godsake" She muttered. She dropped her phone and turned to the other side, hoping to go back to sleep, but Annabelle's voice interrupted her plan. 

"Hey, are you awake?" She asked almost in a whisper. Irritated that her plan was disrupted by Annabelle, she sat upright on her bed, her arms folded on her chest.

"Do you guys really wake up this early?"Ashely asked. 

"Yeah, everyone has to wake up early.... School rules you know" Annabelle answered. 

"I hate school rules" Ashley rolled her eyes. 

"I'll go use the bathroom first" Annabelle stood up. Ashley watched her as she grabbed her towel and plodded into the bathroom. 

Claire and Monica were awake already. Claire was busy with her phone and Monica was in the other bathroom. Bored, Ashley picked up her phone to check for new messages. She smiled inwardly as she scrolled. 

She had new messages from Daniel, Phoebe, Rita, George and Destiny. She clicked on Daniel's message. 

Dan: Hi Ashley! I was quite busy yesterday so I couldn't call you back and I guess you were busy as well since you didn't call back. Well, how do you find your new school? Cool? Nice? Do you have friends? 

She quickly replied his message. 

Ashley: Yeah, you can say I was kinda busy.

My new school sucks and I'm so upset. I hate everything here. Swears, I miss you and Phoebe a lot. Friends? I have one though.... Annabelle, she's okay.... She's the only sane person in my class. 

After replying Daniel's message, she proceeded to check Phoebe's message. 

Phoebe: Hi Ashley! I miss you so much. How are you doing? And how do you find your new school? 

Ashley: Hey... I miss you so much to. I don't even know if I'm fine or not.... At least I'm not dead. My new school? I hate it! I'll give you guys a call later.....  A video call maybe. 

After replying Phoebe's message, she wanted to check out the other messages, but Daniel replied her message already. 

Dan: Take care of yourself.... Gotta prepare for school.... Bye! See yah.

Ashley felt her eyes welling up. Her life was okay before now, maybe not completely okay, but she had great friends. Her parents had to ruin it her almost perfect life. 

"I'm done Ashley" Annabelle's voice interrupted her thoughts. She tossed her phone on her bed. Picking her towel, she plodded into the bathroom, closing the door behind her. 

**

Ashely strolled out of the bathroom, feeling refreshed. Annabelle was dressed up for school. She was busy studying. 

Ashley flung the closet open. She brought out her well ironed uniform, new undies, her body cream, her socks and her shoes. She applied her cream, put on her undies, uniform and then her socks. 

"Are you done with your mathematics assignment?" Annabelle asked her, not taking her eyes away from the textbook she was reading. 

"Yup" Ashley answered. She moved to her reading table and packed her books into her backpack and also making sure that the key to her locker was in her backpack. 

"Hey Nerd! I need you to do that assignment for me..... No, no, Mrs Jones will find out.... Hand me your assignment, I'll copy it" Claire got out of bed. She had not even brushed her teeth, talkless of taking her bath. 

"Come on Claire, you haven't even taken your bath, we're gonna be late" Monica complained as her forehead wrinkled. 

"Hand me your backpack" Ashely said to Annabelle. Not wasting time, Annabelle handed her backpack over to Ashley. 

"The assignment is in it right?" Ashley asked for confirmation. 

"Yeah"

"Great!" She said and turned to Claire. 

"You have to get this backpack from me if you wanna get the assignment" Ashley smirked.

"You this little.... " Claire trailed off. Angrily, she stormed into the bathroom. 

"Hey new girl! You don't know how things are done here so don't get involved.... Just hand over the assignment okay?" Monica sassed. 

"My Name is ASHLEY not new girl.... And trust me, you're not gonna get this assignment from me.... Wait and watch" Ashely sterned. 

"If we don't do the assignment we're gonna have detention" Monica blurted out in frustration

"Then that's good, at least you'll have enough time to pray to God for some sense to be knocked into your empty skull" Ashely said with a smug smile. 

There was a soft knock on the door and Annabelle went to get it. 

"Breakfast!" 

Everyone of them picked their tray of food except Claire, who was still busy taking her bath in the bathroom. 

Breakfast was Toast bread and hot Coffee.

Dropping her tray back into the trolley, Ashley picked up her backpack and her phone. She glanced at her wristwatch. It was 6:45am. 

She slung her backpack over her shoulder and put on her shoes. She opened her closet again to get her headphones which she tossed into her backpack. 

"Wait for me" Annabelle said, dropping her tray into the trolley and collecting her backpack from Ashley. 

They walked to the classroom together. Ashely secretly wished she was sitting beside Annabelle, not Alex. 

Ashley headed straight to her locker to drop her backpack as soon as she strolled into the class with Annabelle. 

Taking her seat, she brought out her phone to reply the messages she could not reply earlier. She was about to reply the last message which was from Rita, but she got distracted by Alex. 

He walked into the class like a king and the girls In the class started cooing at him. 

Feeling irritated, the only thing on Ashley's mind was how to deal with the asshole. Her mouth curved into a mischievous smile as an idea popped in her head.