Amy Yates

my emergency alarm chimed at 7.40, much to my dismay, which gave me a solid twenty minutes to get ready and leave the house.

Katie and the kids had already left I had guessed, due to the fact I couldn't hear any of them, and so I got started on getting ready whilst multitasking and making myself some toast.

Which I burnt.

For fucks sake.

The first shirt I put on had a stain on it, the second had a hole at the seam and the third was deacons, so I resorted to a pair of leggings and a sweater, sprinting back upstairs to throw on some makeup and attempting to render myself presentable.

My eyes were practically still shut as I sprawled the very nearly empty contents of a concealer tube against my under eyes, the bare brush scratching at my face slightly.

Despite heavily indulging in the hours of sleep I had gained, I was still completely and utterly exhausted, which happened to be the catalyst for me forgetting literally everything I needed for the school day.

by the time I crawled through the door, I looked okay, but it didn't cross my mind that my backpack was empty.

something that would've been helpful if I had noticed at a valuable time, like just after leaving the house.

instead, I noticed when I arrived in biology and was asked to get out my weekend assignment.

I pulled the zipper, my bag felt noticeably lighter, but not enough for me to worry.

I should've worried.

"shit." I spat out, my mouth once again looming power over my mind, and suddenly all the eyes in the room looked to mine.

"Care to share, Miss Yates?" my professor beckoned, and I felt my cheeks turn red involuntarily.

Gulp.

"No, I'm sorry miss." I smiled, looking as apologetic as I could muster.

"Anyways, where is your assignment, Amelia?" she asked, fuck. fuck. fuck.

"I.. well I did do it, I was in a rush and-" she cut me off.

"You can't pull the wool over my eyes as easy as that, detention."

My dad was going to kill me.

The rest of the morning seemed to flutter by seamlessly until it got to lunch period, which painstakingly reminded me that not only had I not made myself lunch, but I also didn't bring any lunch money, and so my lunch for today was a honey and oat granola bar found in one of the crevices of my backpack.

bon appetite my ass.

I pulled the wrapper back, the noise of the plastic crinkling sending a shiver along me.

All day, I had been awfully aware of every sound, smell and feeling around me, a feeling which although I faced an awful lot, made me feel so confused and overwhelmed I wanted to die.

Despite knowing nobody else cared that my bra strap was slightly too tight, that I had forgotten my lunch, and that there was one piece of my hair that wasn't parted correctly down my head, I couldn't help but shake the feeling that they were all staring at me for those reasons.

On round four of my every-five-minute look around, I noticed however that someone actually was staring at me.

I met his eyes, and he smiled, and I'm not gonna lie, my heart fluttered a little more than I would have liked it to.

His hair was messy and wavy the way it always was untameable but gorgeous nonetheless.

I scoped in every inch of him, he wore Adidas sambas, and a pair of baggy blue jeans, which fit him perfectly, as well as a white t-shirt which emerged ever so slightly beyond the collar of his navy blue and grey hoodie, customised to his position on the football team.

It was at that moment that I realised my eyes had been burning into him a little too long, and when he noticed that I had noticed, both of our cheeks stained a deep reddish colour, embarrassment suffocating the both of us.

But in all honesty, he had been doing the same exact thing to me.

I have no clue why though, I looked like literal shit, not to mention the fact I felt it too.

One of the guys standing next to him shoved his shoulder slightly, and he returned to his boisterous position with them, tossing a football around as they all made fun of each other.

I watched them carefully, inspecting his mannerisms, especially from my position on the bleachers, fading out into a world of unicorns and rainbows and Josh mother fucking foster.

"Ugh, hey?" I was being tapped on the shoulder, and I was dragged shamefully from my spot admiring the back of the football teams tight end, and into reality.

"Raya, hi!" I smiled, but she rolled her eyes before giggling at me, settling down next to me, and placing her tote bag on her lap.

She was wearing a pair of black ripped jeans and some sort of t-shirt from a band I had never heard of, a pair of bashed-up vans on her feet which had been shamelessly coloured in with a marker.

her hair was in two long braids which began at the base of her scalp, and despite looking minimal effort, she was stunning.

"Falling for the football player, how cliche are you Mia?" she smiled, a toothy grin meeting eyes.

Mia.

It was different, something I had never heard before, but I sorta loved it.

"Hey, hey, don't hold me to it!" I laughed back.

Over the last couple of weeks, we had started hanging out a lot more, and something drew me to Raya that I couldn't explain, but she felt like home, as if I was meant to know her.

As she hummed a tune into the cool air, I returned my eyes to Josh, taking the chocolate bar Raya offered me and eating it, not taking my eyes off of him, much to her displeasure.

In detention

I strolled into detention, the first and hopefully last one I would ever have to be in.

It was a place I had never been before, I had always been completely and utterly horrified at the idea of being in trouble, but the other people in the room walked in and found their chairs almost as if it was second nature.

Out of all of the people in the room, there were only four that I recognised.

Raya, the girl who sits ahead of me in English, one of the football guys, and him.

Josh.

He was everywhere I went.

Inescapable.

Raya was here most nights I think, it was better than going home for her.

Her parents were lovely, I had met them a couple of times, but she was an only child, and they worked for a corporation in the city, so the majority of her time was spent alone.

I decided to have fun with this, to test myself and see how long I could stop myself from looking at him.

which seemed almost impossible, but I was up for the challenge.

The elderly teacher walked out after a couple of minutes, and the rest of the students broke out into a frenzy, but I stayed still.

so did he.

I could feel his eyes burning into the back of my skull.

he didn't move, because I didn't, but his eyes stayed on me.