The Square Root

I told my brothers about what I did at the Abercrombie store with the guy. They busted out laughing, and said that I should’ve been a little nicer. I then argued that it wasn't mean at all. It was actually nicer than my usual ‘Get lost, freak’. Probably because he was pretty damn fine.

*Just give a little twist, little turn,
keep on looking in the right direction baby.
I'm alive with the lights with the lies,
but I kept on building it, stack it up,*

“Shut the fuck up!” I groaned as I buried my head into my pillows, trying to drown out the annoying song. I failed miserably, slamming on the stupid keyboard to turn it off. I was too irritated to go back to sleep, so I ended up getting up doing my morning routine, and getting dressed. I grabbed my phone, my wallet and a college ruled notebook, and placed them into my messenger bag, and proceeded downstairs for breakfast. I groaned wishing that I could just wear sweats to school.

I was sitting in the living room, about to text one of my brothers asking how I was going to get to school when I saw that there was a note on the coffee table.



I raised an eyebrow at the piece of paper and eyed the pair of keys that had been attatched to it. Honda. On the keychain, there was another note attached.



I laughed and made my way outside to see a squeaky clean electrifying blue Honda Si Mugen, full body kit, and looking totally bad ass. I grinned widely, as I inspected the outside.

The emblem had been changed to a matte shade of the same color of the car itself, the rims had been changed into 5-spoke rims. When I was done doing a full 360 around the car, I jumped inside, and on the middle of the steering wheel was a post it note that had an address on it, along with another note.



I laughed at my brothers’ dorkyness, and drove off to school.



The school. One word. Wow.

It was a red brick 2 storey building, and maybe took up maybe a whole block. Fuck, maybe more since I caught a glance of a football field at the back. I parked my car, grabbed my bag and walked to the front of the school. Well, at least I thought it was the front. I was lost. I walked up the steps and in through the doors. It was just as clean as it looks from the outside. The place was covered left to right in Yellow and Purple Lockers.

I found the office right away, thanks to the giant arrow, with “Office, this way” in gigantic letters.

“Hi, Good morning,” I greeted.

“Hello, good morning to you too,” the lady smiled warmly at me. “You must be Hazelyn, correct?” she asked.

“Yes, that’s correct ma’am.”

“DeLuca, Right?” a woman asked when she saw me. I nodded and she gave me a folder. “Have a great first day,” she grinned at me, and returned to her work.

“Thanks,” I said to her and spun on my heel out of the office. Who would be stupid enough to change schools in the middle of the year? Oh, that’s me! Right. I frowned, looking at the front of the folder, which had a schedule stapled onto it, and a smaller piece of paper that had a locker number on it, and I guess that would be the code, also stapled onto the folder, but at the right corner. I was looking through the contents of my folder when I bumped into something. I looked up, and it was a someone. Crap.

There was a girl, probably a whole head taller than me, and boy did she look intimidating. She looked down at me, looking pissed off. Shit. My first day, and I’m already getting in a fight. I internally cursed myself and gulped. “I’m Sooo Sorry,” I apologized quickly.

I was taken aback by her smile and her cheerful voice. “Hey, you’re the new girl!”

“Yeah?” I said. Well, more like asked.

“Are you scared?” she asked. I nodded. “Don’t be, I’m not as scary as I look,” she laughed. “My name’s Alexandra, but that’s a mouth full, so you can call me Alexa or Lex or Lexi, or whatever comes to mind,” she smiled.

“Hazelyn DeLuca,” I said, and held out a hand. She shook it, with a smile. I started to relax.

“Need help looking for your locker?” she asked. I nodded again. “Let me see that,” she said, holding out her hand. I handed her the folder, and she looked at quizzically. “You only have 4 classes,” she stated. “Well, your locker is only down the hallway from mine, so let’s go.”

My locker was on the first floor, thank goodness. “157," she announced and smiled. I nodded and keyed in the code.

“Thanks,” I said to her after I had placed all my things inside, keeping my wallet and phone on me, and of course my schedule.

“You don’t talk much, do you?” she asked. I just smiled at her and she laughed. “Well, welcome to Santa Monica High School,” she said, holding her hands out. “Don’t worry, we don’t have as much drama as what they show in Degrassi,” she chuckled.

“So, how’s this school like? Anybody I should look out for?” I asked her,

“A few, but I’ll let you figure that out,” she grinned cheekily at me.

I heard howling, and hoots, girls going “Oh my Gosh,” whispering and pointing towards the door. “Speaking of the devil,” Alexa muttered. I turned towards it, and I saw a group of 3 guys walking in saying hi to everybody and giving them those guy handshakes. The guy in the middle had the girls crowded around him. I couldn’t see since the light from the sun was behind them.

I gave my attention back to Alexa. “Oh there they are!” she smiled, and waved a couple over. The girl was a redhead, and the guy was carrying a camera with him, maybe around Alexa’s height. “This is Drina, my BFFL. And Michael, her Bestie, aka our personal photographer,” she smiled.

“Don’t I get an introduction?” I heard a voice say, but I couldn’t see their face, since it the door of the locker next to mine was open, and I assumed it was his. His voice was a bit familiar, but that couldn’t be possible, could it?

“And that’s an asshole that doesn’t matter,” Alexa said seriously.

“Now now, no need to be harsh,” he said, closing his locker and- well fuck, just my luck. It’s Abercrombie guy! I raised my eyebrow at him, as he smirked at Alexa. “I might have to tell my brother,” he said to her in a taunting voice.

“Fuck off, Dolciani,” she muttered.

I saw his eyes land on mine, and his grin grew wider. “Perfume girl,” he smiled at me.

“You know each other?” Alexa wondered.

“We got a bit acquainted over the weekend,” he smirked, not taking his eyes off me. “What’s your name perfume girl?”

“What’s it to you?” I asked, having some attitude in my voice.

“Feisty,” he smirked.

“Guys, we gotta get to our locker,” Drina told us.

“Nice to meet you guys,” I said before they walked off.

“Leave her alone, Jay,” Alexa sighed.

“You guys are the ones in front of my locker,” he pointed out. Great. Mine is next to his. That just made my first day a whole lot better. Note the sarcasm? “Did you finally decide to move your locker next to mine Lexie?” he smiled at her.

“Hey Lex,” a guy said, hugging Alexa from behind, stopping her from making a smartass note. I could tell she was full of comebacks.

“Hey John,” she said, and hugged him back.

John’s eyes fell on me. “I’m guessing you’re new?,” he asked in a rather girly tone. I nodded. “And I’m guessing, you’re picking on her?” John asked the nameless gorgeous man next to me. He just glared at him. “Well, I’m going to borrow my best friend for awhile, since I haven’t seen her for two weeks,” he said and pulled Alexa off.

“I’ll see you later,” she called back to me. I just waved back. I sighed and looked up at him, who was scowling at John.

“You don’t like him, do you?” I asked him.

He gave me a surprised look. “H-How’d you know?”

I rolled my eyes. “The way you were just scowling at him 3 seconds ago,” I laughed. He just shook his head and kept staring at me. “What?” I asked him. “Haven’t you heard of ‘staring is inappropriate’?” I laughed.

“You’re pretty,” he simply said. I rolled my eyes.

“And how many girls have you used that line on?” I asked, and walked off to find my class, French 2.

“Just one,” he answered me. I rolled my eyes. “You,” he added.

“Good to know,” I said, only giving him a quarter of my attention.

“You didn’t wear the perfume,” he pointed out, still following me. “I’m disappointed,” he pouted.

“Nobody asked,” I mumbled and was about to walk into the classroom that I’ve found, only to be pulled back. “What?” I hissed.

“I didn’t get your name.”

I smirked. “Figure it out,” I said and skipped into the classroom, taking my seat at the back.

“Good Morning Class,” the teacher said. “Bonjour la classe,”

“Bonjour,” the class said.

“As most of you know, I’m Mr. FitzGerald,” he said, and his eyes landed on me. “So, you must be the new student”, he smiled. I just nodded. “Ms. DeLuca, right?” he asked. I nodded again. “You want to introduce yourself to the class?” I shook my head no. He smiled a genuine smile, “You don’t talk much, do you?” by this time the whole class was looking at me. I just smiled, and the smart man that he is, he got my message. “Well, let’s get started then,” he clapped his hands and started giving us our lesson plan for what we will be learning this semester, and the dates of the tests and stuff.

“Bored?” a girl next to me asked. I nodded. She just smiled and chuckled a little. “Tell me about it. I’m glad it’s my last semester,” she sighed. “Stephanie,” she said holding out her hand.

“Hazelyn,” I said, giving her a genuine smile.

“Girls, is there anything you want to share to the class?” the teacher asked.

“Nothing Mr. Fitz,” Stephanie grinned innocently.

“Then, stop the bickering,” he said and continued on with the lesson.

Stephanie and I looked at each other and chuckled silently. We both basically jumped out of our seats and raced for the door once the bell rang.

“What class do you have next?” Stephanie asked me.

“Econ,” I frowned.

“So do I!” she exclaimed.

“Awesome, so you can keep me awake,” I laughed.

She scoffed. “No, I’d be falling asleep as well,” and we both laughed on the way to the classroom.

Again, the same old boring shit. I was so tempted to jump out of the window. The beautiful weather was taunting me. Especially the clear blue skies and the birds that were chirping. It was cold, no doubt but it was such a beautiful day. A beautiful day to snowboard, not be in a damn classroom listening to a fifty-something year old boring professor talking about the economy. It’s horrible, we get it. Let’s just say, Stephanie and I both fell asleep halfway through class, and woke up when the bell rang. “

That was boring,” I yawned when we got up. It’s very amusing how we got along even though we haven’t known each other for more than three hours.

“Tell me about it,” she said yawning as well.

“I’m gonna go look for my classroom now,” I told her, looking down at my schedule.

“What class?” she asked me.

“Physics,” I mumbled.

“2nd floor, take those stairs,” she said pointing to the staircase that was closest to us.

“Thanks,” I said and scurried off. “I’ll see you later,” I smiled at her, and went off to find my classroom.

This school so fucking clean, it’s creeping me out! I entered the laboratory, and it didn’t smell like chemicals like other schools. It smelled fresh, like the fresh air that blew through the windows. I entered the classroom, and the teacher was seated at the front, on her desk. “Hazelyn DeLuca?” she asked. I simply nodded. “Take a seat over there,” she said pointing to the very back table. There were 3 columns and 3 rows, and she was pointing at the 3rd column’s 3rd row. I nodded and took my seat.

Everybody started piling in, and were also directed to the seats they were assigned to. The bell rang, and everybody went quiet. The door snapped open, which averted everyone’s attention towards it. I just looked down on my notebook, bored out of my mind. But what caught my attention was the teacher saying: “Mr. Dolciani, you’re late. Go take a seat next to Ms. DeLuca,” I looked up and saw Abercrombie guy.

“Hey gorgeous,” he winked as he took a seat. “What’s your name?” he asked.

“None of your business,” I grumbled.

“Unique name,” he chuckled. “Just kidding. I’m Jr Dolciani by the way, but you can call me Jay,” he said holding out his hand, which I just stared at. I looked back up to the talking teacher, and ignored him, giving the teacher my full attention.

“As you can see, I have made seating arrangements. For the first semester I let you have your pick, but for this semester, that’s your assigned seat, and that’s your assigned lab partner,” she said. Well fuck, everything just gets better and better.

“Fuck.” I whisper-yelled.

“Got a problem with it, gorgeous?” Jay asked, smirking at me.

“I’ve got a problem with you,” I said and rested my forehead on my palm.

“I remembered that you had an English accent, what happened to it?” he asked, oblivious to the fact that the teacher was talking at the moment.

I shrugged. “It comes and goes,” I lied. I could speak just fine without it, but sometimes I forget and I slip. It’s good that I don’t speak with British-English vocabulary, it’s so much easier to hide. He just nodded.

“We should play truth,” he suggested.

“In the middle of class? Really?” I asked with an eyebrow raised.

“Why not? The teacher’s just blabbing anyways,” he smiled.

“No thanks, I’d rather not give off a bad first impression,” I said truthfully, and I guess he understood this. Physics seemed to drag on, and the second hand on the clock seemed to take ages to move. Probably because of Jr’s constant staring, which would make me blush, and he’d point it out, or if he’s just bored and would start poking me. “What?!” I whisper-screamed after the millionth time that he had poked my arm.

“What’s your name?” he asked me persistently. “I just want your name, plus I’m bored.”

“You’re not alone,” I mumbled, ignoring his question and propped both my elbows up on the desk

When the bell rang, I got out of my seat right away. “Hey, hold up Perfume girl,” he said catching up to me. Damnit!

I stopped at my locker and keyed in my combination. I put in my books that I got from the teachers, and took out my bag and my wallet, then checked my phone. With my peripheral vision, I saw somebody lean on the other side of my locker-door, with my eyes closed, I gave up and sighed and looked at him.

“What do you want?” I asked Jay.

“Your name,” he coolly said. “So I don’t have to call you ‘Perfume Girl’,”.

“It’s Hazelyn. Now can you leave?” I asked with a sigh.n

“You wanna have lunch with me Haze?”

“Hazelyn,” I corrected.

He rolled his eyes. “So, Hazelyn you wanna go off campus for lunch?” he asked again.

“Don’t harass her Dolciani,” I heard Alexa shout from behind me. Jay mumbled something under his breath, and looked at me.

“I’m not, just wondering if she wanted lunch,” he pouted.

“Fuck off man, just go,” she said and he glared at her.

“Catch you later Haze,” he said and winked.

“You okay Hazelyn?” she asked me.

I glared at the totally hot retreating figure and frowned. “He’s my lab partner,” I growled.

“Lucky ass!”, she said. I looked at her confused. She just told him to fuck off a minute ago, now she’s telling me I'm lucky to be his lab partner? You’re kidding, right? “He’s good at science,” she defended, probably noticing the confused look on my face at the moment. I raised an eyebrow. That’s new, Prince of Santa Monica High School, a smarty? Then again, I shouldn’t be one to judge.

“Oh..,” was the only thing that I could think of saying.

“So, let’s go then?” she asked. I nodded, following her to a neat looking cafeteria. It looked more of a fancy food court than a school café, honestly.

“This is a nice café,” I said in awe.

“Yeah, fortunately we have lots of students that came form wealthy families and they’re nice enough to contribute to the school,” she said. “Like the Dolciani family,” she half smiled.

“What about Jay’s family?” I wondered.

“They own Forbes magazine,” she said. Wow, not only did they own a branch of one of my favorite stores, they owned Forbes magazine too? “His siblings are pretty nice though, I don’t know what happened with him, probably spend too much time with the parents,” she smirked.

“And you know this how?” I wondered.

“I met his parents,” she frowned. I was confused. “His brother and I kind of used to be close, not anymore though, since John doesn’t really get along with anybody,” she frowned.

“Wow,” was the only thing I found myself to say. I didn’t want to offend my only acquaintance in the school by trying to correct her way of thinking about her relationships with people.

She just nodded. “Oh there they are,” she said and walking towards a 6-seater rectangle table.

“Hey guys, this is the new chick, Hazelyn,” Alexa introduced. They all said Hi Or Hi Hazelyn. I just waved.

“That’s Drina and Mike from earlier, the inseparable best friends. Trisha, Drina’s secret lover,” she joked. “And Cameron, Trisha’s twin brother, though he doesn’t really hang out with us much,” she explained, raising an eyebrow at Cameron, who just gave her a sheepish smile, and turned his attention back to his sister, who was frowning, her arms crossed.

“Well I guess he’s asking her for money again,” Alexa chuckled and pulled me towards the line.

“What’s up with you and Jay? You guys seem to be like cats and dogs,” I asked her. Not only did the place have a nice vibe, they turned out to have a good menu too. I got a salad with Thousand Island dressing, then some baked chicken and a small butterscotch cake. Cake, at a school? AWESOME! Then just plain old bottled water. I paid for my food, and waited for Alexa. When she was done, she looked back at me, and started to answer my question.

“He’s an ass, a man whore, a prick, a guy with no manners, with no respect for ladies,” she said, shrugging, then gritted her teeth. “We used to be friends, end of story.”

“Oh, interesting,” I nodded.

“All you need to know is that whoever messes with my friends, messes with me,” she told me. “And you’re lucky you got on my good side,” she beamed.

We got back at the table, and they started telling me about Tristan, yes my brother Tristan. Do you not know how weird this is? I know him really well already.

“You should’ve been here last year,” Trisha said to me, with the daydream look on her face. “Tristan was, wow. He’s so hot. When he was wearing his jersey while playing basketball, you could see his muscular arms,” she continued. I wanted to go ‘ick!’, but I unfortunately can’t. “Can’t believe he graduated last year,” she frowned.

“I know right? He was so nice too. To be the son of the owners of Apple Inc, he’s pretty legit,” Alexa said. I immediately stiffened. Great. Just great. I started looking around and saw Jay sucking face with a slutty looking chick. I rolled my eyes. I was right. He is that kind of guy.

“So, you see the true colors of our school prince,” Trisha smirked. I looked back at her, and I could see pure hatred in her eyes, even more than Lexa’s.

“What do class do you have?” Drina asked, quickly averting the subject to something less intense.

“Performing Arts,” I said

“Don’t you have another subject?” she asked.

I shook my head. “I’m done with English and math, I just needed some foreign language, Physics, Econ, then an elective,” I smiled.

“Damn, you’re smart,” she muttered. Everyone else laughed.

“Where’s the theater?” I asked.

“At the West wing,” Alexa said.

“Oh, thanks. I’ll see you guys later,” I said and walked towards it. I sat down in one of the comfortable theater seats, getting comfortable and waited for the bell to ring while texting my brother. They were excited to hear about my first day, and how it was going so far. Sometimes I wish they could care less, they act like my dads! I already have one, and it’s a headache! Much more adding two more.

“Okay, so everyone, since we have a new student, we can now put everybody in groups of two,” the teacher said. “Today, you’ll be finding out who your partners will be,” he paused when there were groans all around the classroom. “I put half of the class’s names in this hat, and the other half will pick,” he said. He called up names to pick out a name.

“Ryan Jerome Dolciani,” he called out, and from the crowd emerged the school prince, I raised my eyebrow at his name, as he winked at me, taking a piece of paper out of the hat and looked at it.

“Okay now, who did you get?” he asked them one by one. When it got to Jay, he looked at me directly.

“Hazelyn,” he said with a playful grin on his face.

Fuck.