New In Town

I didn't understand it. This should be making things easier, not harder! But being ignored by Oliver just made me miss him more. What is wrong with me? "I mean, he's really lovely and every thing but... I don't know. I just get the impression that he's getting bored of me or something." Alice said as we sat down at a table in front of the school before the bell rung.

"Don't worry about it too much, Alice. If he dumps you because he got bored of you, then he's a twat." I mumbled, fiddling with the corner of my battered notebook.

"How nicely put." She grumbled before placing her arms on the table between us and hiding herself behind them. "What about you? How are things going with Ol- Kevin?" Her voice was muffled by her arms.

"Things are... I dunno. I don't like him like I like- um, like I've liked... other guys." My attention quickly left our conversation when an all too familiar car pulled up a couple of meters away from our table. I watched a little too closely as Oliver stepped out of his car and walked around it to the passenger seat, opening the door to reveal Valery who smirked as soon as we made eye contact.

"Why don't you just forgive him?" Alice asked hesitantly when she realised what, or rather who, all of my attention was now focused on.

"I... I don't want to be hurt again." I mumbled.

"You won't. You don't have to get back together with him, just... forgive him. Maybe be friends?"

I contemplated her idea for a moment until the bell rang. I couldn't find a reason not to forgive him. He had been really nice to me ever since everything came out, even before. Even if he was a bastard, he never acted that way with me, the bet was really the only bad thing he had done to me. 'I mean, one little thing like a bet is a pretty stupid basis for breaking up...

No, I shouldn't of been thinking like that. If he had cheated on me, I would've dumped him, a bet like that isn't any different. It's the betrayal, not the actual bet-'

"Vee! Jesus, what's wrong? Didn't you hear the bell ring?" Alice asked, looking confused by my little day dream.

"Hm? Oh, the bell, yeah I was just about to get up."

"Right..." She didn't believe. I didn't blame her, I didn't even sound convincing to myself. "Well, I'll see you in English class... If you ever get to it." She mumbled the last part, still intending for me to hear it.

I frowned at her retreating back and stood up to make my way to class. Valery was in my first class, although ever since our little falling out or whatever it was, she had requested to change places and was no longer sitting next to me but behind me with her so-called friends. It was an optimum position for gossiping about me and making sure I heard every single snide comment and trashy insult. Safe to say, I was used to their bitching by now.

Not even two minutes after the bell had rung signaling the beginning if class, I heard the high pitched fake giggle of Oliver's cousin. She would usually laugh like that to catch my attention before saying something about the beautiful girl Oliver had had over on the weekend before or about how happy he was with being single.

"Yeah, so Oliver" Emphasis on 'Oliver' "went over to Rick's place on Saturday and they came up with this plan, they're gonna humiliate the new freak" My new nickname "by making it seem like Oliver wants to get back together with her!" She squealed quietly at the end.

As usual, I ignored her. I knew everything that came out of her mouth in this class was complete bullshit so there was no point in getting worked up about it. I had done that the first couple of times she had made up some of these kinds of stories but now they were just old news.

[XxX]

Oliver's POV:

I hadn't seen Viv at lunch so I was quite nervous as I made my way to Physics class, it was time to test out this plan of Will's. I had already stopped calling her and going around to her apartment and now I had to act nice but not care too much. And I wasn't exactly one hundred percent sure about how I was going to do it.

I walked into the lab and she was already sat at our desk in the back, Physics book laid open in front of her as she studied it carefully. I took a deep breath before walking around the first desk in the front of the room and making my way toward her.

"Hey, Vee." I greeted her and sat down. I didn't expect to get any sort of reply so when I heard her voice saying "Hi, Oliver." I was pleasantly surprised.

"Good weekend?" I turned to her and flashed her a big smile.

"Uh, I guess." The bell rang and the teacher stood to start his lesson of the day.

Throughout the lesson, I kept sneaking glances at her, sometimes catching her eye for a split second before she quickly refocused on the teacher. It was funny being this close to her, I mean, we've been sitting next to each other all this time but when we were together I never really noticed and when we were enemies she was always giving me the cold shoulder. Hard be close to someone doing that. And to think, only when we were-

"Stop staring at me!" I quickly brought my attention back to the world around me to see Vivienne glaring at me out of the corner of her eye. I looked around the room, making sure that only Vee and I were aware of our conversation before looking back at her and smiling.

"Sorry, I'll stop now." She stared at me as if I had just vomited and started to lick it up again off of the table.

"Uh, thanks..."

[XxX]

I walked up to the blond boy and slammed his locker door in his face. "Your stupid idea doesn't work!" I accused, annoyed. "She looked at me as if I were some sort of freak."

"Jesus, what the hell did you say?" He asked trying to get his locker opened again, it seemed to be stuck... I may have broken it.

"I said 'hello', she said 'hello' back. I asked how her weekend was and she answered. And... that's it!"

"Well she probably just wasn't expecting that you would be charming and polite for once. It's understandable." He answered, still battling with his locker door.

"Yeah... Do you think it also could of been that I kind of zoned out while looking at her?"

"Oh, yeah. That was probably it, she probably didn't appreciate the freak sitting next to her staring holes into the side of her head."

"You know, you really do have a nice way of putting things." I grumbled sarcastically. "And you should probably get the janitor to fix that, you probably pulled on it too hard at some point." I finished and walked off leaving Will glaring at my back.