Hateful Saint by Ivy Blake
Chapter Six
Ava
Thank fuck I’d drank enough water and avoided a hangover. The same couldn’t be said for Megan, though, when she showed up at the house to take me to school. She was even more quiet than usual and both Lola and Sophie also seemed kind of out of it, which meant that I didn’t feel pressured to speak too much. Sophie asked how the party was and I told her it was okay. There was no way I was going into all the shit with Ross, especially when Lola and Megan were here.
After the three of us parted ways, the day seemed to fly by in a blur. I wasn’t getting as many stares as I had the day before, which meant that I was starting to lose my mystique as the old-but-kind-of-new-girl at Valley High. I was absolutely fine with that because it meant that everyone would leave me alone. Even though I felt like I was moving as if I was on autopilot as I walked down the grand hallways and between the massive campus buildings, I couldn’t help but feel like I was on edge.
Every time I rounded a corner, I worried about Ross being there. Any time I saw a tall guy or someone with a buzz cut, I was ready for him to turn around and shout at me again. But clearly the universe was taunting me and Ross was nowhere to be seen.
“Hey, you wanna go to the beach with us this weekend?” Sophie nudged me. I snapped back to reality and turned to her, a sandwich in my hand.
“Sure, who’s going?” I asked, slowly setting the sandwich down and trading it for a bowl of spaghetti carbonara.
“Some of my bandmates, Megan, maybe Lola and whoever shows up, really.” Me and Sophie sat down at the table, the first ones there again. Everyone else must have been running late.
“As long as the weather is good, I’m in.” I dove into my pasta and nearly moaned with pleasure at how good it tasted. Valley High really knew how to throw it down in the kitchen. No offense to my mom, but if I could eat all my meals here, I would.
Sophie started talking to me about some band drama between two girls fighting over first chair. I think they both played violin. Or maybe it was the flute? She spoke so quickly that the details escaped me. I even tried to chew my food more quietly so that I could hear her better. I wanted to follow along in case she asked me any questions.
That was until he showed up.
It was like there was a magnetic force drawing my eyes to him. I knew he had entered the room before I’d even caught his eye. Ross was walking with Austin and Nate to their table opposite us. They looked unstoppable with their tall, hulking bodies and the way they moved around as if they owned this place. From what Sophie had told me, they did.
As if he could sense that I was looking at him, Ross made eye contact with me once he’d sat in his seat. I swallowed the food in my mouth and maintained eye contact. I wasn’t scared of him. He narrowed his eyes at me, and I followed suit.
He wasn’t the only angry one here.
Austin and Nate continued talking to each other, oblivious that their friend had entered into another staring competition with his ex-friend halfway across the room.
“Earth to Ava?” Sophie snapped her fingers, and I tore my eyes away from Ross’s, momentarily annoyed that she made me forfeit the game.
“Yes?” I asked her, my attention back on my food as if I hadn’t just been staring like a weirdo.
“What was going on there with you and Ross?” she asked, a confused expression on her face.
“What do you mean?” I asked, feigning innocence.
“You’re not just gonna pretend that you weren’t staring each other down, are you? That’s boring, babe. Just fess up.”
“There’s nothing to ‘fess up’,” I forced a laugh. I was grateful when Megan and Ruby from band came to join us.
“Hey, are you guys going to this beach thing on Saturday?” asked Ruby.
“Wouldn’t miss it!” said Sophie. I was relieved that the attention had gone onto our plans this weekend and that I was free from her scrutiny. As we chatted about Saturday, where and when we’d meet and what everyone would be wearing, I allowed my eyes to slide over to Ross’s table occasionally. When he wasn’t taunting the freshman boys on the table in front of them or flirting with the sophomore girls behind him, his eyes were on me, watching my every move. I caught Austin and Nate looking at me a couple of times and couldn’t help but wonder what they thought of me. It’s not like I cared about being accepted or liked by the popular boys, but being curious didn’t hurt anyone.
Ross’s looks quickly started to piss me off.
What the fuck did he want?
One minute he was telling me to get out of his way and that I was his biggest problem and yet he couldn’t stop staring at me. I decided that it was time for phase two. I would ice him out and pretend he wasn’t there. That would show him.
For the rest of lunch, I made sure to focus on the girls at my table, even though I was tempted to look at the devil in the corner. Again, it was like he could sense my lack of interest. I could hear this voice growing louder. Maybe I was crazy to think that he was doing it to get my attention. But I didn’t think I was.
My phone buzzed a few times in my pocket. I took it out and quickly checked the screen as discreetly as I could before sliding it back into my blazer pocket.
“Who’s blowing your phone up?” asked Sophie. Clearly, I hadn’t been as discreet as I’d hoped. As if it was taunting me, my phone buzzed a few more times. What did he want? And why was he texting me so much now? He knew I had school.
“Spill the tea,” Megan teased, her attention back on me.
“Ooh, what tea?” Ruby chimed in.
“There’s no tea,” I said more firmly than I intended. I made a show of looking at the massive watch hanging up on the back wall. “Don’t we have to get to class?” I was a master at deflecting questions.
“Shit, you’re right? You have geography next, don’t you?” asked Sophie.
“Fuck, I do,” I groaned. We put our plates and trays away together and left the dining room. I couldn’t stand geography, I just found it so boring and pointless. Sophie walked me across campus to my classroom, before going to her history class down the hallway.
Lucky me, I was the first one here, like an eager nerd. I looked into the classroom and even the teacher hadn’t arrived. Fantastic.
I couldn’t be the first one in, so instead I leaned against the lockers opposite my class and went on my phone instead, hoping that I wouldn’t draw too much attention to myself. As expected, the messages I’d been sent during lunch were all stacked on top of each other, demanding me to open and answer them. But it wasn’t the right time or place. I made a note in the back of my head to call Harrison after school, before Mom came back from work. Surely that would make up for me going quiet all of a sudden.
“Do you have geography with Miss Wilson?” I looked up at the sound of an unfamiliar accent. A girl with poker straight black hair was standing in front of me. I noticed that she had multiple piercings in her ears and a ring in her nose. I didn’t think the school rules allowed them, but here she was showing me otherwise.
“I do,” I said, tucking my phone away. “I’m Ava, by the way.”
“I know who you are,” she said quickly. For a moment, I felt dumb, but quickly shook the feeling away. Before I could say anything, the girl was talking again. “I’m Abi and I’m German.” She smiled at me, clearly having anticipated my question.
“Cool,” I said. We walked into the classroom together where a group of girls had situated themselves at the front. I followed Abi to the back row where I hoped I could get away with drifting off to sleep when things got inevitably boring.
“She sets a lot of homework by the way, so be warned,” said Abi. I groaned while I got my notebook and pens out. I was already not in the mood to do work, but having extra shit to do at home? Not my favourite pastime. Oh, the joys of being a senior.
“Afternoon, everyone. Please take your seats. Pass back these worksheets too.”
Miss Wilson, a stern looking young lady, finally came into the room followed by some other students who looked just as bored as I felt. From the quiet in the room, I got the sense that Miss Wilson wasn’t a fan of talking and I wasn’t in the mood to piss her off. Besides, my hearty meal at lunch was threatening to send me into a food coma any moment from now. I waited patiently for the sheets to be passed to me when the door opened at such speed that it nearly flew off its hinges.
“Ross, do you always have to make an entrance?” Miss Wilson asked, sounding wholly unimpressed. My head snapped to the door without my permission and I wanted to cry out in annoyance. Before I looked away, I glimpsed Ross’s smirk as he made his way through the desks.
“In fact, I do, Miss,” he said coolly. Out of the corner of my eye I watched him high five some guy in the third row.
“Stop being a nuisance and find a seat,” said Miss Wilson, her voice growing more annoyed. She wasn’t the only one. Of all the classes Ross could be in, it had to be mine. Fucking brilliant. The pile of worksheets landed on my desk.
“Here you go,” whispered Abi. I gave her a grateful smile, too scared that Miss Wilson would shout at me if she saw my lips moving. Separating a sheet for myself, I arranged the papers neatly before turning to pass them along.
“Thanks, Ava,” Ross purred from the seat beside me. My throat tightened at the sight of his pale eyes looking at me smugly. I tossed the worksheets on his table, then turned back in my chair so I was facing forward. I hoped that if I couldn’t see him, he would simply disappear. However, I could still see him out of the corner of my eye, messing around with the papers as he teased the student beside him.
“Anyway, today we’re going to be learning about how countries are formed…” there was a collective sigh. Miss Wilson turned to the board and started writing words in whiteboard pen. I was relieved because Miss Wilson hadn’t forced me to do an introduction like the other teachers I’d had today. Whether she’d noticed me or not or simply couldn’t be bothered, I couldn’t tell.
“I know you’re trying really hard to ignore me, but it’s not gonna work, ” Ross muttered under his breath.
I gripped onto my pen tightly and scribbled in my notebook. The harsh lines evidenced my annoyance and anger.
I just had to stay strong and stay quiet. Just until the end of the lesson.
I don’t know what was worse, the mean Ross or this one who was adamant to get my attention and to get me in trouble.
I continued staring at the board and jotting down notes that I felt were important. My desk started to wobble, which jogged my hand and made my pen go all funny on the page. I looked down, annoyed to see Ross’s foot kicking at one of the legs of my desk. Dickhead.
I wanted to retaliate, but every time that Miss Wilson turned around, I felt like her eyes were scanning the room for any student that was acting out of line. And yet every time she turned her back, Ross got another kick or nudge in.
I turned to my right and scowled at him, his stupid face betraying too much joy for my liking. “Fuck off,” I mouthed before returning to my work.
“Not a chance,” Ross murmured.
“Whoever’s chatting in the back row, stop,” Miss Wilson said, her back still facing us while she continued writing on the board. I glared at Ross and he stuck his tongue out at me. Great to see that he still embraced his childish ways.
I suddenly grew conscious of the fact that Abi was probably watching this strange interaction between us and vowed to stay focused on my work for the rest of the lesson. Ross was bound to get caught acting up, eventually.
“So, for the project, I need you all to pair up with someone. Remember, choose wisely, it counts for half of your grade.” I’d zoned out when Miss Wilson had started talking about the project, but now that everyone in the class had erupted into a fit of hushed whispers, I realised that I needed to make a decision and fast. I had no clue what anyone’s work ethic was like or how well they were doing at geography. Abi was nice and seemed like a safe bet, so I turned to her, about to ask her to be my partner, when Ross’s hand clamped on mine, nearly startling me out of my skin.
“Ava’s my partner!” he proclaimed loudly, holding my arm up in the air.
“That’s fine Ross, but you don’t need to shout it out to the class,” Miss Wilson retorted.
“No, I’m not his partner,” I protested, tearing my hand out of his grasp.
“What was that?” asked Miss Wilson.
“I said-”
“Ava said she’s looking forward to getting started on the project!” Ross said, cutting me off. He shot me a warning glare, but I refused to back off.
“I don’t want to be your damn partner!” I said. I was almost shouting. Clearly, my tone had caught Miss Wilson off guard, but it had also earned a few giggles from my classmates who were enjoying the scene.
“Ava, you need to calm down. I know you’re new in my class, but here we use inside voices and we don’t swear.” She sounded so patronising. I wanted to rip her glasses off and shove them down her throat.
“It’s not like Ross has been following those rules, has he?” I shot back. This was extremely unfair. Fine, if all the rules applied to everyone equally, but I wasn’t going to just agree with everything this woman had to say, especially when Ross had been dicking around all lesson with no consequences.
Miss Wilson stared down her glasses at me, and I could tell that I had riled her up.
“It would be in your best interest to not get on my bad side,” she said through gritted teeth. I felt heat rise to my cheeks from both embarrassment and anger. “Ava, you’ll partner up with Ross. Abi will partner up with Maddy, no questions asked.”
“But-”
“No questions asked, unless you want to spend Saturday in detention with me?”
I glanced at Abi who was looking at me apologetically before flitting my gaze to Ross who was enjoying this far too much for my liking. I sighed and slumped back in my seat.
“Fine,” I said.
“Good, now for the assignment.” As Miss Wilson described the project, all I could see was red. We had a month to get it done and were expected to consult our partner every step of the way.
Whoopty fucking do for me. As if things couldn’t get impossibly worse.
When we were finally dismissed from class, I couldn’t get away quickly enough. I wanted to talk to Abi, because she seemed like a pretty cool girl, but I couldn’t risk Ross cornering me again. I gave Abi a rushed goodbye before pushing past Ross and making a beeline for the door.
Who said you couldn’t run from your problems? Because right now, that sounded like the best possible solution.
