CHAPTER TWO

IVY

With my head slightly bowed and hastened steps, I made it a few minutes late into Mr. Sanchester’s class. He was the English teacher.

Luckily for me, he hadn’t started lectures. I hurried to my desk and slumped into my seat. Sophia sat next to me.

I sighed. Call me lucky.

Carefully arranging my textbooks and writing materials, a warm satisfied smile spread across my face.

Barely five minutes into the lecture, the class was interrupted. My eyes widened and my mouth fell open as I saw who walked into the classroom. My stomach jolted, I almost fell off my seat as I watched them, in fact the entire class watched their every move.

They were the A-listers, as we call them, headed by Liam.

The once quiet and coordinated class became rowdy, filled with hummed murmurs.

What were they doing here? I groaned, a trail of sweat painfully made it’s was down my back. I was tensed.

Liam looked around the classroom with a bored expression like he didn’t care. His eyes finally settled on me. I sucked in a nervous breath, praying he would look away.

His eyes stayed on mine for five seconds—yes, I counted. It actually felt longer than that. He eventually looked away but started walking in my direction.

My chest constricted, I was almost hyperventilating at this point. I gripped my chair as hard as I could.

Please, walk away, I silently pleaded.

I didn’t want any attention on me. I loved my boring life as it was, and being under the scrutiny of an A-lister was going to weigh heavily on me.

It would only bring unwanted attention. I loathed the thought of that.

He kept walking closer, my heart raced, everywhere became hazy as my vision clouded, I could clearly hear the sound of my heart beating. I slumped down in my seat trying to make myself as invisible as possible.

With the distance between us drastically reducing. I readied myself for his approach, mentally prepare myself.

My chest—God, it felt tight. Too tight. I shifted, fingers digging into the seat, the fabric rough under my grip. Breathe. Just breathe My knee wouldn’t stop bouncing. Damn it. I sucked in a breath, slow and deep, but it didn’t do a thing. Instead, I just sank lower into the chair, eyes shutting fast, like maybe that would make it all disappear.

Just a little longer. Just breathe

Nothing happened.

My eyes slid open. I expected to see Liam standing right in front of me, but I was met with nothing. He wasn’t there.

Exhaling sharply, my shoulders relaxed. My body slightly sunk into the chair.

What a mighty God!

I turned to see where he was and saw him seated at the back of the class, five rows away.

I faced the class again, my mouth forming a smile. I placed a hand on my still racing chest.

“What had I been thinking?”

I silently laughed at myself. ‘My thoughts was really spiraling out of control’.

As soon as the bell rang, I picked up my school bag, said a quick goodbye to Sophia, barely hearing her response, I slipped out of the classroom to avoid running into Liam.

At my locker, I looked around the hallway. Seeing none of the A-listers, I took a deep breath.

“Thank goodness I didn’t run into any of them.”

At least I was safe here. There was no chance of me coming in contact with them. Or so I thought.

As I swapped books for my next class, Claire and her friends walked up to me.

“Hey, Ivy”, she greeted.

“Hi”, I timidly responded.

The girls standing beside Claire giggled at my response before waving back at me.

I forced a smile, confused as hell.

“Hey, Ivy, uh… wanna sit with us at lunch?” Claire asked.

My books slipped from my hands, and I stumbled back against my locker.

Was this a trick?

She saw me with Liam this morning. I knew there were rumors about her dating Liam, which he hadn’t refuted.

I looked around for help, I had no idea what to say.

Their eyes were on me, waiting, expecting. My throat tightened. I had nothing to give them.

I swallowed hard. Didn’t help. That damn lump was still there, stuck like glue. My fingers twitched—restless, useless. Say something. Anything. But the words wouldn’t come.

I swallowed hard, trying to push down the emotion. When I felt a familiar presence beside me. Sophia flung her hands over my shoulders, pulling me close, saving me from further embarrassment.

“Ivy’s busy. We have something going on,”she said. “Maybe some other time.”

Closing my eyes and leaning back into Sophia, I almost cried. I wanted to tell her how much I loved her in every language I knew.

Claire’s smile slipped, before she got a hold of herself. She forced a smile, and spoke with a pinched mouth. “No problem, maybe next time.”

They walked away, I sighed, turned around, and pulled Sophia into a tight hug.

“Thank you, Soph.”

“You’re very welcome, munchkin,”she replied, rubbing my back gently.

Gripping her arms, i muttered in a soft voice. “I hate this Soph. I don’t understand why any of this, why they keep coming to me. I don’t like this at all.” I looked up to her, desperate for some kind of explanation.

Sophia snorted, her eyes lit up. She was clearly enjoying the whole thing. “Looks like you’re now parts of Claire’s drama club”, she said, her grin widening. “Congrats babygirl”.

I shook my head in strong disagreement. “Not me, never”, I said loudly. Clubs, dramas, chaos, dramas, I wanted none of it. All I wanted was some peace and quiet.

First was the weird encounter with Liam this morning, and now this?

I didn’t know what the heck was going on, and I didn’t care. All I knew, one hundred percent, was that i wasn’t a part of any of that.