Threat Level: Teacup

Molly
“I can’t believe you went to his party!” Amber hissed, grabbing me by the arm and forcefully dragging me to my locker. She was absolutely repulsed. I groaned and shut my eyes, rubbing my temples. I didn’t need this right now. “It wasn’t his party. I just went with him,” I could have left that part out, but I felt as though she’d rip my throat out if I said anything remotely out of place. Thankfully, it didn’t look like Michael was at school yet, so he wouldn’t have to sit and listen to this. “I can’t believe you. And inviting Jackson and not me? What’s that all about?”
“Jackson’s supportive and doesn’t act psycho when I talk to different people.”
“Yeah? Well he’s mad at you, too. You ditched him to go off with Michael. Of all people you could have chosen to screw!”
“What the hell, Amber? All he did was show me a guitar. He was going to play for me.”
“Save it.” If there had been a conveniently open locker near us, she’d have slammed it, but there wasn’t so she chose to storm away instead. Jackson had been fine in the car; was he really mad at me? I needed to find him.

Standing outside my music classroom, I was utterly miserable. I hadn’t managed to catch up with Jackson but, when I had seen him, he’d been with Amber, who glared at me every time I walked past. I sighed and rummaged around in my bag. Had I even put my folder in there, this morning? Between trying to find something to eat, enduring one of Ollie’s mood swings and trying to get my ears to stop ringing from mum’s constant yelling, I’d probably forgotten to bring it with me. I groaned as the teacher opened the door and we all started to file into the classroom, Calum popping up behind me with a grin on his face. “We’re in groups for the project this year,” He said, brightly. I was too tired for his enthusiasm, today. I nodded and smiled as he rambled, excitedly, and waited for the teacher to tell us we could sit down. “But anyway, what I’m trying to as is… will you be my partner?” His rambling wasn’t as irrelevant as I’d thought.

With Calum as my partner, I was going to absolutely ace this term’s coursework. Not only was he a better guitar player than me, he could play bass and sing, too. I’d worked with him before and, honestly, working with him again would probably turn out to be the best decision of my life. I smiled at his enthusiasm, finally happy about his positivity, and listened to our assignment brief. We were to write and record a song of any genre and present it to the rest of the class during the last couple of lessons of the term. “We’ll cheat, it’s fine,” Calum whispered, his lisp showing through a little. I loved that you could literally see the lisp as well as you could hear it, his little tongue pressing against his teeth – how on Earth was he single? “How do you cheat without being charged with plagiarism?”
“My band. Luke’s the best.” Hemmings?
“Mr Hood, do you have something that you’d like to share with the rest of the group?” Calum’s dark skin flushed from his neck to his cheeks, making him look even younger than he already did, with his chubby face and baby fat. He looked about thirteen. Maybe that’s why he was single. “Uhm, no thank you, sir.”

Song writing was a lot harder than I’d expected. “Calum, we haven’t gotten anything done,” I said, plugging my headphones into the keyboard’s audio jack and pressing a few keys, despite the fact that I didn’t know how to play piano (except for a chord-less version of twinkle twinkle little star). “I’m working on it. Aren’t you meant to be good at English? Write a poem.”
“I’m terrible at poetry. You’re the aspiring musician. Write a song.”
“I need the others.”
“The others aren’t here,” I pointed out, scanning the room. Come to think of it, I didn’t really know many of the people in this room. It was only a small group, totalling about fifteen people at most, and I knew the names of roughly six of them. I needed to get out more. “Yes, I see that.” We were both tired and we were both frustrated. “This isn’t meant to be this hard,”
“You think I don’t know that?” I groaned, hitting my head on the keys of the electronic keyboard, blasting feedback into my ears. “Should we just give up?” Calum nodded, drumming his fingers over the acoustic guitar that laid over his lap. He looked like he wanted nothing more than to just go back to bed, which I could definitely relate to. “Do you want to sit with us at lunch? We can talk to the guys and you can make Michael feel guilty about all your bruises,” He chuckled as he spoke, gesturing to my forehead and my arms. My upper left arm was bruises from being slammed into a wall by the door Michael had hit me and the angry red and purple bruise from the locker door hadn’t even began to fade, yet. “Very funny. But, yes please. I had a fight with Amber.”
“It’s alright, Molly. Sit with us! We’re way cooler than Amber and Jackson are. Have you met Ashton yet?” I nodded and smiled. Maybe today wouldn’t be totally insufferable, after all.

After music, I didn’t even bother trying to look for Amber and Jackson. Calum and I stopped by my locker (funnily enough, Michael was nowhere to be seen) to get my lunch and we headed straight towards the front gates of the school. “Are we leaving? We didn’t get cards on the way out.” Calum shook his head as his cheeks heated and reddened. He seemed to be a lot shyer than he usually let on, which was rather cute, in all honesty. It was a refreshing break from Amber’s noisy arrogance. “There was an incident. We’re not allowed out anymore. We’re going to go sit at the gate.” I nodded as we approached three boys sitting in a loosely formed ‘circle’. I spotted Ashton’s brushed out curls, immediately. He didn’t even go here. I chose not to mention it and carried on walking. “Luke, this is Molly.” Calum said, sitting down and pulling me with him. Luke Hemmings looked up at us through his fringe, stabbing a plastic fork into what looked like pasta – it didn’t look very appetising at all. “I know who Molly is, you tit.”
“Don’t call me a tit!” Calum wailed, reaching over the circle to swat his friend across the side of the head. Ashton flashed his dimples and flicked non-existent hair from his eyes. Maybe it was a habit. “Hi,” Michael said, smiling and leaning a little closer to me and away from Luke and Calum’s scuffle, leaving Ashton to try splitting them up. “Where’s your boyfriend?” I scrunched up my face. What?
“I don’t have a boyfriend, Michael.” His eyes widened and his lips parted.
“Jackson?”
“Just a friend.” His shoulders slumped and he let out a long breath. What was this kid’s deal? I crossed my legs and pulled my little blue lunch box from my satchel bag. I was an overly fussy eater, so my lunch usually consisted of crackers and fruit. I wasn’t obsessed with being thin or anything; trust me, I’d make up for it with much more substantial food when I got home. “Good to know. Either way, where is he?”
“I had a fight with Amber. He’s stayed with her.” I muttered, aggressively assaulting an innocent chunk of pineapple with my fork. I didn’t want to talk about Amber and her possessiveness; I wanted to talk about the music project that Calum and I were never going to finish. “We’re better than them anyway,”
“I know. Calum already said.”
“Why were you even with Calum anyway?” Calum perked up at the mention of his name, removing himself from Luke’s grasp and placing himself back between myself and Ashton, tucking his legs underneath himself like I had. “He’s my partner in music.”
“You poor girl.” Calum reached over me to lash out at his friend but only ended up stumbling into my lap, his belly across my thighs and his arms and legs flailing. I laughed and pushed him onto the gravel. Why hadn’t we done this months ago?

Upon deciding to meet up at Luke’s house on Saturday to discuss Calum and I’s music project, Ashton left to get back to his school and we all split off to get to our classes, mine and Michael’s being English. He’d given me a pep talk about how I didn’t really need Amber and Jackson outside of the classroom, to prepare me for having to walk past her on my way to the back of the room, and I honestly believed him. Spending the day with Calum and his friends had been the best idea – it was the least stressful lunch time I’d had in my entire educational career – despite the fact that Calum was the only one I properly knew, from working with him in music so many times. “Don’t even look at her,” Michael whispered, breathing on my neck. He was closer than he really needed to be, but I didn’t mind. I nodded and forced a smile. I didn’t want to lose Amber, and I definitely didn’t want to lose Jackson and absolutely not over something as ridiculous as going to a party. The teacher opened the door and we all started to file into the room, Michael right on my heels. Him and his friends and let me forget about Amber for a while, even if they were the reason we’d been fighting in the first instance. It was nice. Half way to my desk, my foot hit something and I stumbled, plummeting to the floor, landing with one leg sprawled and the other with a collision to the knee. My hands connected with the floor in attempt to save me, but I hit down with a hard thud, dropping my chin to my chest and groaning before sitting and tucking my knees into myself. Why did this always happen to me? “What the hell?” I heard Michael hiss as he placed a hand under my elbow and pulled me to my feet before ushering me to our desk at the back. My face was burning as the majority of the class hard started laughing at me, including Amber. I squeezed my eyes shut and clenched my fists. I wanted to go home. Michael slowly pushed me to my seat and rubbed my arm as he pulled it out for me. “They’re not worth it,” He told me, quietly, sitting himself down.

Michael
Why were teenage girls such bitches? “Alright class, settle down. Are you alright, Miss Milling?” Molly shook a little it as she nodded her head and I hoped she hadn’t noticed that she’d fallen over Amber’s bag and not her own feet. Hopefully I’d be able to just pass it off as clumsiness, if she asked what had happened. “Alright, good. Let’s get started.” I rolled my eyes and rubbed my hand up and down Molly’s little arms. Had the argument really been that bad? I mean, it had to have been, right? She’d had to sit with my friends and I at lunch (courtesy of Calum), and now her friends were plotting against her. From what I could gather, she didn’t really deserve it at all. It was only my third day of really knowing Molly, but I already felt somewhat protective over her. “Are you okay? Really?”
“No, I want to go home.”
“We’ll blow off next period then, yeah?” While not seeming to be the type to skip school, Molly nodded her head and pulled her anthology from her bag.