"Good job at dodge ball yesterday (Y/N)," Lawrence told me at breakfast, as he enjoyed a meaty stew, "Ethan was just telling me how you managed to defeat our rival jocks." Ethan nodded at me while he ate his breakfast which mainly consisted of bulgogi.

"Oh, um, I don't think I did that much," I said shyly.

"Are you friggen kidding me!? 'I will avenge you!' is trending on the school's twitter, you totally bossed it!" grinned Zion, Scarlett glared at me. Oh God, she seriously is crazy. Is this an example of me 'stealing' Zion? I almost want to do it just to annoy her.

"Anyway, as for today's agenda, at lunch today football is on, so we need to make sure to one-up the opposing jocks. Guys, I need your utmost concentration. Girls, I need your best cheering."

"Can I not join you guys?" I asked, "I'm actually alright at football," I said, not liking the idea of playing cheerleader.

"The way you took a football to the face yesterday doesn't really inspire much confidence," muttered Eugene.

"Hmm," said Lawrence, ignoring him, "I suppose the opposing team does have a couple girls playing with them. It would up our popularity in terms of equality regulation... okay, I don't see why not."

"Just don't slow us down," said Eugene.

"Try not to trip over the ball," added Zion.

"Don't listen to them (Y/N), I'm sure you'll do a great job," said Harry encouragingly. I smiled at him, determined to try my best.

On the pitch, I was quickly given the guy's positions by Lawrence. Eugene was the goalie, with Ethan and Harry acting as defenders. Zion was the striker, and Lawrence, naturally, was the referee. I was put on the striker team with Zion.

Lawrence blew the whistle. A flash of red flew past me. Zion had the ball. I had to sprint after him to keep up. The other side seemed equally as stunned. He effortlessly scored the first goal, punching a fist into the sky as he did so.

"Woo! Go Zion!" yelled Scarlett from the sidelines.

"Well done Zion!" shouted Judy, as Sue cheered in the background. The girl with the muddy green hair, who I had learned was called Hailey, was cheering quietly too. The only person in our clique not cheering was also the only guy not playing football, the brunette with a red coat – Jay – just seemed to be grumpy, though he always seems grumpy.

Lawrence blew his whistle. I steeled my gaze, determined to keep up with Zion this time. Zion nabbed the ball again, but, this time, it was quickly tackled from him by a girl who dashed to our side of the pitch, only to be quickly stopped by Ethan. That boy is a human wall. Ethan quickly sent the ball hurtling my way. I tensed but managed to stop it and quickly sprinted up the field, dodging a couple guys who were trying to tackle me and then sent it Zion who gave me a quick grin before scoring another goal.

"Not bad kid!" he yelled at me.

"Who are you calling a kid!" I yelled back with a smile.

"You pipsqueak! You're smaller than Eugene!"

"Hey!" yelled Eugene from the goal while I giggled.

When Lawrence blew the whistle, the same girl as last time managed to get the ball. This time, she managed to get past Harry and sent a pretty fearsome shot Eugene's way. Eugene looked pretty bored as he effortlessly stopped the ball and sent it flying back in my direction. It felt like he was testing me. I wasn't going to give him another reason to mock me.

I dipped and dodged around the opposing players, but was eventually forced to send it to Zion when three of them surrounded me. I ran up the field, keeping pace with Zion in case he needed my help. To my surprise, he passed the ball to me. This was my shot. I eyed the goalie determinedly and kicked the ball as hard as I could. Although I scored a goal, the move did make me fall over.

Zion laughed as he gave me a hand up. "Good shot kid, you're a bit of a clutz though, aren't you? But a fast clutz at least."

When the game ended, we had won five goals to one, I myself managing to score two of them. Zion was ecstatic. "Man, we totally bossed out there! I always want you on our team (Y/N)!" I grinned at him.

"I can't believe I let that one goal in," muttered Eugene.

"Bro, are you kidding?! You did awesome as well! You saved three goals!" exclaimed Zion, ruffling Eugene's hair, who blushed and tried to pull his baseball cap further down to hide his hair. Scarlett was trying to figure out if she should be glaring harder at me or Eugene.

Xxx

"Man, poetry is officially stupid," said Zion, glaring at the poem in front of him as he sat next to me in English.

"Has the great Zion been defeated by a couple lines on a page?" I teased.

He grinned at me, "That's big talk coming from the kid defeated by a football to the face."

"You're never going to let me live that down, are you?"

"Nope!" he said with a grin.

"Do you want some help?" I queried.

"I don't need your help nerd!" he then glared at the poem for another second. "Okay, maybe I do need some help..." he admitted.

"Do you see how the last sentence is way longer than the others? That indicates that the poet doesn't want the story to end – she was hanging onto her lover for as long as she could until he left her."

"But, what if that sentence just ended up being longer than the others? How can you be sure, how can you prove that that's what the author meant? Maybe she just wanted to put a semicolon there instead of a full stop just for the lols."

I giggled at him. "Well, I can't prove it. But that's the fun of poetry or literature in general. We all take away different meanings from literature because we've had different life experiences, and then analysis of literature is about trying to prove your meaning."

"So, you're saying that I can just decide what the author meant, and no one can say I'm wrong?"

"Well, there kinda has to be logic behind your reasoning, but yes!"

"Thanks (Y/N), that's awesome! It's like being some kinda poetry detective!"

"Who's the poetry nerd now?" I asked with an eyebrow raised.

"When I get higher marks on the poetry quiz than you next week we'll see who's laughing!"

"Do you really wanna tango with the poetry Queen? It's on!" I declared, and the two of us collapsed into laughter until the teacher told us to shut up.

Xxx

Maths was decidedly a less enjoyable experience than English. Differentiation may be the end of me. The fact that Eugene was gloatingly humming next to me was definitely not helping matters.

"You're seriously still on question 3 woman? I finished question 8 like ten minutes ago," he said with a smirk.

I glared at him. "If you're so smart, then why don't you help me?"

"Hmm, maybe if you ask nicely."

After glaring at him for a couple more seconds, I sighed and asked, "Please?" Staring at him with big eyes, and fluttering eyelashes. Eugene looked a little taken back, glanced away and blushed. I smirked, if you can't handle the bull don't ask for the horns!

He took a couple seconds to look over my work. "Ah, look, you're adding one to the power instead of taking it away, see?" he said, pointing at my work.

"Wait, you're not meant to do that?"

"No," he told me, "give me your notes," he demanded. I complied and he proceeded to point at an example, "See? You've got to times the power with the coefficient and then take away one from the power."

"Oh! So you do the multiplication first?"

"Yes."

"But why?"

"Woman, I don't know! The less you question maths the more it makes sense." I laughed a little at that. Eugene then proceeded to go over some other examples, answered all my annoying questions, and even helped me with integration.

"Thanks Eugene! That makes so much more sense now!" I said with a beaming smile.

"It's whatever," he grumbled, pulling his hood and hat further over his face and moving his mask up to hide his blush. I just giggled at him while he crossed his arms in annoyance.

Xxx

After lunch, I had Chemistry, which obviously meant more of me keeping an eye on Lawrence to check he wasn't trying to burn the lab down.

"I hear from the guys that you're integrating well into the group."

"Don't use the word integration around me," I said shivering, having maths flashbacks.

Lawrence just chuckled, "Right, I mean you're settling in well. Even Eugene is warming up to you."

"Really?" I said, half in shock.

"Well, he was implying it... I think," admitted Lawrence. "Oh! Tie your hair back!" he instructed, sounding a little alarmed.

"Oh, right! Thanks," I said with a smile, as I tied back my hair. We were right next to a Bunsen burner after all.

The two of us proceeded to set up our practical experiment; today we were meant to be carrying out an esterification, however, something went really, really wrong and we ended up with something that smelled really, really bad.

I stared in dismay at the test tube, "Wasn't it meant to smell like pears?" I despaired as Lawrence disposed of our disaster. It had taken forever to create as well. I could see the teacher, wrinkling her nose and glancing disapprovingly at us. Oh no, what if she gives us a failing grade?!

"Hey, it's okay. We can just redo the experiment," soothed Lawrence, probably reading the visible panic on my face.

"But, class is just about to end," I stated.

"Yes, but I'll just ask the teacher if we can stay late," he said calmly. I stood in shock as he sauntered over to the lady who in my eyes was essentially a dragon.

Lawrence returned smiling, "She says she's happy to let us stay – she has paperwork to catch up on here anyway. And she likes our dedication." I blinked at him in shock. Whenever I try to talk to that lady, she basically eats me. I guess there's no one he can't charm. I smile at him, there's a reason he's our leader, and he leads us well.