She Will Be Loved

Lia finally paused outside a class room. But only long enough to yank the door open and then she pulled me in by the death grip on my arm. She suddenly let go with a loud gasp and let go of my arm. She ran at a boy with medium length, dark brown hair covered mostly by a grey beanie that stood by a desk towards the middle of the room. “Devvy!”

The guy turned around just in time to catch Lia who literally threw herself at him. He stumbled backwards, running his butt into the desk he had been standing in front of, but caught himself to stop the two of them from falling to the ground. “Hey Lia.”

I raised an eyebrow as they shared a kiss. The half-full class seemed oblivious to the scene that had just taken place. Alice was by my side in seconds flat which made me silently jump. “I tend to do that a lot.”

“Sneak up on people and scare the shit out of them?” I mocked. Shockingly, she nodded.

“No one ever seems to see me coming,” Alice replied simply with a shrug of her shoulders. Suddenly my hand was grabbed and yanked forward. I just let out a sigh, deciding not to fight it or my arm might pop off. I was pulled to a stop by Lia hugging my arm and forcing me to stare at the guy who stood in front of me, about three inches taller than myself.

“This is my new best friend ever, Koty!” The guy automatically pouted.

“But I thought I was your best friend.”

“My best guy friend slash boyfriend. She’s my best friend,” Lia informed, her nose in the air to him. He leaned down, since she and Alice were the same height as me, and kissed her forehead.

“Whatever you say babe.” He stood straight and smiled to me. My eyes instantly glued to his nose ring. More guys with piercings, cool. Damn it short attention span. “Hello, I’m Lia’s boyfriend Devin Marshall. But most people tend to call me Dev.”

“Hello.” I grinned back. “I’m Dakota Sanders, but most people call me either Koty or Kota.”

“Oh yeah, I forgot you’re in here Devin,” Alice mused. Devin and I both jumped a little.

“Would you stop doing that?!” I exclaimed as she grinned. I think I might start calling her Cheshire. I mean, wide grin, her name’s Alice. It just goes hand in hand.

“I forgot too,” Lia said, her eyes studying the ceiling.

“You forgot your own boyfriend has this class?” I asked with a ‘are you serious?’ kind of face. She giggled and nodded when she met my eyes.

“I feel so unloved today,” Devin sighed dramatically.

“Where’s Jake?”

“So you remember he’s in here?!”

“Quit being a baby and tell me where he is,” Lia sighed. Just as Devin opened his mouth a bell signaled. Alice automatically turned on her heels with a wave over her shoulder as she left.

“I must go. Introduce her to Jake dang it!” Lia gave me a hug and Devin a kiss before skipping out of the room. On the way out she passed a middle aged man with short, black hair.

“Hello again Lia. Going to class?”

“Yes sir, Mr. Waller, sir.” She waved before leaving the room, the door slamming shut behind her. It was then that he caught my eye.

“Oh, you must be the new student.” I nodded as everyone else began to sit in their seats. He motioned me to the front of the room with his hand. I silently obeyed, standing to the side of his desk as he sat back on it from the front. “Class this is Dakota Sanders. Would you like to say anything about yourself?”

“Well, I don’t know what anyone would want to know,” I replied softly, playing with the ends of my sleeves. Just as Mr. Waller was about to say something, the door to the room was opened. In walked a guy with short, brown hair in the back with swoop bangs. He strolled on in as if he were perfectly at home.

“Late again Jake.” This guy, Jake, looked over at our teacher with forged surprise. He then smirked, eyes trailing from Mr. Waller to me. His dark blue eyes looked back at Mr. Waller who seemed annoyed.

“Sorry sir. Got struck in traffic again. People just won’t let a motorcycle between their vehicles anymore,” Jake remarked with a shrug. Mr. Waller looked unamused.

“Detention after school. Show up this time Jake.” He rolled his eyes before heading off to sit at the desk next to Devin. I saw them whisper back and forth for a moment as Mr. Waller had to calm the class down from Jake’s little show. “Alright, alright. Any questions for Dakota?”

I fidgeted as a few people raised their hands. Mr. Waller called on a girl near the front. She had ginger hair and brown eyes. She seemed kind of snobby, especially with her ‘I’m better than you’ tone of voice. “Why are you here?”

“To learn stuff,” I remarked with a smirk. She glared, flipping her hair. I could see a few people cover their mouths to hide their chuckles while some did it openly.

“I mean, what are you doing in Huntington Beach?”

“Living.” Even Mr. Waller had to snicker at that. She let out an exaggerated sigh.

“Mr. Waller!”

“Dakota, please be serious.” I let out a loud sigh, but smiled finally.

“My mother left me with my uncle to live. I just got here about a week ago.” Some guy in the far back of the room’s hand shot up. He started talking before Mr. Waller could even call on him.

“Why did she do that?”

“Chris, you don’t ask people - ” I cut him off and answered with a glare.

“Because she didn’t give two shits about me and drank. Anymore questions, Chris?” He fell silent, along with the rest of the room, and sunk into his seat. It was silent for a few moments before Jake raised his hand.

“Do I even want to try Jake?” Mr. Waller sighed.

“I swear it’s a real question and not rude,” Jake vowed. Mr. Waller sighed and just nodded, silently telling him to go ahead. “What kind of music do you listen to?”

“I guess mostly eighties rock and whatever’s on the radio. I don’t know much about music. I just like I like,” I replied with a shrug.

“How do you not know about music?!” Devin asked, on the edge of hysteria, with wide eyes. I simply replied with a shrug. One last hand shot into the air. Mr. Waller just pointed to him.

“Why do you have an English accent?“ I smirked and pulled out my dramatic English accent that I used only to mock people.

“Well my ‘other was from England. Bloody ‘ell, I thought it was obvious,” I exclaimed. This made everyone in the classroom laugh again causing me to smile. After that no one raised their hands. Mr. Waller stood up straight with a wide smile and a clap of his hands.

“Okay! Kota, please take the empty seat next to Jake.” I nodded and headed down the rows to said desk. As I slid into the seat, placing my backpack on the floor, Mr. Waller continued to talk. “Today we’re going to try balancing chemical equations since I’m sure all of you forgot over the summer.”

Suddenly my phone began to vibrate in my pocket. I made sure Mr. Waller’s back was to the class before flipping open the phone. Jay’s name flashed under the usual announcement of a new text. I clicked ‘read’ and waited patiently for it to load.

’Have a good day at school! (:‘

I had told Jay I was starting school today while we were texting yesterday and had simply laughed at me. Apparently I was ‘lame’ for going to school when I could have chose to be home schooled, as he did. I simply just sent him a smiley face back and shoved my phone in my pocket. Mr. Waller was heading down the isles as he passed out some papers.

“Here you go. If you have any problems Kota just ask Jake. He may look like an idiot, but he’s actually pretty smart,” Mr. Waller said with a wink. Jake turned to glared playfully at him.

“Oh hardy har,” Jake mocked as he pulled a pen from his backpack. I dug into my own bag until I came in contact with a mechanical pencil. I smiled as I looked down at the simple work. As Lia had said, I was an overachiever in math. This was easy for me. I was soon off to work, finishing the fifty question page in ten minutes.

I began to hum softly to myself as the class talked and what not, trying to finish the paper. I think I was humming Metallica, but I can’t really remember anymore. My wondering was interrupted. “Is that Sad But True?”

“Huh?” I turned to look at Jake who was twirling his pen between his fingers. I peeked down at his paper to see everything was done, no scratching out the answers at all. Very similar to mine. “Oh, yeah, I think.”

“Oh yeah, you don’t know much about music,” Jake mused. I smiled bashfully. “So, Dev tells me you befriended Lia and Alice. You’re sort of lucky you got here only on the second week of school. Lia goes insane later in the year. At least you know how she typically is.”

“That’s my girlfriend, ass munch,” Devin warned, leaning forward so I could see the glare poised at Jake.

“And one of my close friends. You know it’s true,” Jake retorted. Devin rolled his eyes before settling back in his seat. Jake turned back to me and crossed his arms over his chest.

“How are you liking Huntington Beach?”

“It’s pretty cool. I’ve mainly only been with my uncle, aunt, and their friends, but it’s still cool.” Jake nodded.

“Well you should totally hangout with us sometime then. You have a phone, right?” I nodded. “Let me see.”

“Okay.” I passed over my phone and he quickly entered in a number. He saved it and typed away before passing it back.

“I sent myself a text so I have your number.”

“Cool.” Suddenly the bell rang over our heads. I placed the paper and my pencil into my bag, since Mr. Waller told us to turn it in tomorrow, and stood to my feet. Seconds later Lia jumped into the room and ran over to us. She gave Devin a quick kiss, Jake a quick hug, and took my hand in hers.

“Come on! I’ll show you how to get to Alice and yours class!”

“How did you get here so soon?!”