Rudy the Reindeer~> Haha, what's so funny is I started this chapter in October and now it's being released two days before Christmas!

Hi guys! I'm back! Thanks for all of your support and love whilst I was on my vacay from Wattpad! Haha, I love you guys! Here's another update just for you!

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Chapter Track: "The Greatest"~Sia
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~Jude~

Music blaring. Eyes unfocused. I leaned back in the bus's brown, leather seat and clutched my bag closer to myself. The rapidly changing scenes of the outside world entranced me as I stared at the window, pointedly ignoring the stares and whispers surrounding me, the stranger on the bus.

The bus bumped and shook along the woodsy path leading to school, the roof stereos blasting the same tired tunes from months prior. The odorous smell of cheap cologne, like that of dog urine, and sickeningly sweet flowery lotion was an absolute assault on the senses; unlike the familiar cheap cologne and pine scent at which I had become accustomed to and somewhat fond of. I turned my music up once more as the other riders took to laughing obnoxiously at crude jokes in an overly orthodox and perfunctory attempt at fitting in.

As cheers erupted from in front of me, I focused my attention to the outside world around the bus. But, once a barrage of circular, tan objects trickled against the glass, I shifted my eyes from the window to the disappointing scene taking place. Young adults, future voters, throwing Cheerios and Doritos out of the window and onto the road. And onto the windshields of cars behind us. The staff's cars. The principal's car.

Idiots.

Effectively snapping me out of my judgmental thoughts, my thigh buzzed as I received yet another text from Payton, most likely questioning why I hadn't rode with him to school today like usual. Feeling even less talkative than usual, I ignored the message with a tired sigh.

Soon enough, the journey was over and it was time for me to enter the overly crowded halls of Woodland Summit High, home of the Woodland Reindeer.

Strangely, when I walked through the automatic doors of the school, I wasn't immediately met with the usual sight of bored teenagers, mulling through their morning routine of chugging to-go cups of coffee and cramming for tests they didn't study for; but instead, laughter of onlookers as panicking cheerleaders, donning their traditional red and white uniforms and their not-so-traditional painted noses and brown antlers, rushed around the somewhat humorous scene of Rudy the Reindeer being lifted into a wheelchair and carted to the nurse's office for the sixth time since the school year started. Harsh as it may seem, I chuckled to myself quietly. Due to the incompetent folly of our school's founder, Rudy the Reindeer is insulated with real reindeer fur, with extra fur padding in the hooves. He did this, thinking that it would add to the whole "Reindeer Effect" but instead, due to the Californian heat, the only "effects" it had were rampant heat strokes.

"Ah! Señor Jude, glad to see you're back! Your fellow student artists and I missed you yesterday," Señora Millon, the school's art teacher–or profesora as she liked to be called–announced boisterously as her infamous heels clacked noisily against the polished linoleum floors, drawing unwanted attention to me as I ducked my head with a small wave. She smiled hugely and waved as she pranced by, thankfully taking the attention she drew along with her. Her shoulder-length, black curls bounced behind her as she strutted through the halls with her canary yellow heels, her chin up and her face alight with a youthful glow. Her nails, painted a pale, daffodil yellow, matched her white top well and her black, tight-fitting pencil skirt drew the entire outfit together. She was every teenage boy's wet-dream, well, every straight one's at least. Unfortunately, that also includes Payton and being his best friend meant I had the "honor" of hearing about every one of his dreamland affairs with her, including ones that involved not-so-Pg material.

"Jude?"

Speak of the Devil.

"Hello Payton," I mumbled as he came to stand next to me, much to my annoyance. Even though his flaming red hair looked unkempt and wild as if he had spent hours raking his hands through it and his eyes looked especially tired this morning, I couldn't find it in myself to care as all of the rage from the night before started to boil vehemently within me.

"Fuck, you're angry, aren't you," He questioned as we came to a pause next to my locker and I spared him a sideways glance before undoing my combo lock with precision accuracy acquired over my last three years of school.

"Please explain your assumption for I haven't the slightest hunch as to where you are getting such a misconception."

"Every time you're pissed with something, you start using that dictionary you call a mouth and spout out big words and junk. That's not cool man, you know I don't understand! Talk like a B minus student," He huffed, leaning against the sticker covered locker next to mine with his arms crossed. I sighed quietly and grabbed my grey physics binder before shutting the door once again.

"To answer your question, yes, I am "pissed" as you so eloquently stated. Also, it would be most appreciated if you would leave; I do not desire your presence." And with that, I slung my bag onto my shoulders before swiftly turning away from Payton's pained face, stalking through the Winter Wonderland of a school.

Although it was around mid-October, the Woodland Reindeer already had their halls adorned with fake, shimmering snow placed along the borders of walls, plastic, faintly glowing icicles on every door, and glittering snowflakes hanging from the roof with dainty fairy lights strung alongside them.

Turning onto the science hallway, I groaned as the tune of "Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer," blasted its way through the P.A. system. Grunts of displeasure cut through the grating music as struggling cheerleaders attempted to place a Santa hat and elf ears on a skeleton display and climbed on each other's shoulder's to arrange a pair of mock reindeer antlers on the statue of Sigmund Freud, the unofficial mascot for the Psychology department.

I clutched my physics binder closer to myself as I smelt the telltale smell of jocks; nauseating amounts of Axe body spray and overly active deodorant. I sniffed twice for good measure, knowing that normally the science hall repelled the likes of those meatheads but with the "oh-so-perky" cheerleaders here, I guess it was bound to happen.

I scoffed as the skeleton display's head went soaring through the air before landing in the arm's of a loud blond and was quickly tossed to the next set of waiting arms.

"Woo! Keep away from Claire!"

"Guys! Give it back you fucktards!"

I breathed a heavy sigh of relief as I walked into my Advanced Physics class and settled into my desk, a lovely, polished wooden desk with a softly padded, blue rolling chair. Being in a college class had its perks. Another one of them being that there were only three students in the class, including myself. One kept to himself in the corner, reading Machiavelli's "The Prince," through his thick-rimmed glasses and slurping chocolate milk from his water bottle, whilst the other busied himself with organizing paper clips. One might think that he would do it by size, or maybe color, but no, instead he does it by metal type.

"How'd I miss that? There was a sheet metal clip in my stainless steel pile! Ha, I'm such a scatterbrain sometimes."

I released a small, fake, breathy chuckle and he smiled obliviously, braces blinding me with help from the bright sunlight from the window. Long story short, I'm the coolest one here. And that's saying something.

As the clock began to countdown to the start of class, the overwhelming, and familiar feeling of missing something because of absence started to wash over me. I folded my arms and looked around the class again, nothing seemed to have changed. Same dust gathering in the far left corner, same "Science Rocks!" poster plastered in the front of the room, same lipstick-stained portrait of Isaac Newton sitting on Mrs. Kennsworth's desk, everything unchanged. I scrunched my eyes brows in frustration and sighed again, anxiety buzzing through me like bees in a fallen beehive.

I silently stood from my chair and walked toward the bottle of hand sanitizer the Mrs.K kept on her desk and placed a small puddle in my left hand before rubbing my hands together as I thought. I turned around to face the class once again and that's when I noticed the thing I was missing. A fourth desk stationed behind mine with considerable space separating the two. A cough from my left jerked my attention away from the new piece of furniture and I jumped slightly, turning to see a girl with dark, chestnut hair and piercing, yet toying, cobalt blue eyes smirking back at me.

"You must be Jude, I've heard quite a lot about you."
~~~

DUN DUN DUUUUUUN!

CLIFFHANGER MUAHAHAHA!

Haha it's so great to be back at writing again and I hope you're happy to have me back, *puppy eyes*! My break was awesome but I missed writing so here I am, glad to see that you've all been watching out for updates! Love you guys! Anyway, until next time, Ash out!

Question of the Chapter-
Who's the girl?

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