chapter 3

Isaac POV:

I checked the clock again.

8:58.

It hadn't even been 5 minutes since I had checked it before.

Mrs Madison droned on about something to do with trigonometry, which I already knew. My eyes started to droop involuntarily, sleep almost taking over when the door opened.

Immediately, everybody perked up, eager to see the saviour who had interrupted the most boring lesson.

"Ah you must be Harrison." Mrs Madison ushered him fully into the classroom.

He nodded, scanning the classroom and meeting everyone's beady eyes.

"Students, this is your new classmate called Harrison. He's new to the school so make sure you be kind to him. Harrison, you can go take a seat next to Gemma." She instructed him.

I looked at Gemma, expecting to see an annoyed reaction since she hated having to talk to new classmates, but instead, she was staring at him with love struck eyes. My eyes surveyed around the classroom to see nearly all the girls eyeing him up.

Maybe I had missed something.

I looked back at him, trying to understand.

His eyes were a deep, earthy brown, and his jet-black hair a contrast to his white skin. He must've felt my eyes on him and turned to the side, meeting mine. He simply smiled at me, surprising me so instead of smiling back, I looked down at my sheets of paper.

As Mrs Madison continued droning on, I let myself zone out again, hoping that this lesson would be over soon and lunch would come quick.

***

"I thought you liked girls?" Jax asked Gemma for what felt like the 100th time.

Gemma had decided all by herself to invite the new guy to sit at our table. Apparently he was a 'funny guy who she had a lot of things in common with.'

"I'm pan Jax." She gave him a deadpanned expression.

"Pan? But-"

Gemma looked up to see Harrison entering the canteen. "Shut up, he's coming. Be nice." She cut Jax off then glared at me. "Especially you, grumpy."

What was it with people giving me nicknames? My name wasn't that hard to say... right?

We watched as Harrison made his way across the canteen after spotting us. Suddenly, he was pulled aside by Bella, her whispering something in his ear followed by him shaking his head.

"What the fuck is she saying now?" Gemma growled, sending glares towards her. Harrison looked at her, then back at us before nodding his head and coming to our table. Since Jax and I were sitting next to each other, he sat opposite me, next to Gemma.

"That girl.. uhh Ella? Is that her name?" He had a confused look on his face, waiting for someone to correct him. I snorted at him forgetting Bella's name, but didn't say anything.

"What did she say to you?" Gemma's nosey ass asked straight away.

"She just asked if I wanted to sit with her but I said no." He nonchalantly replied, eating his fries.

"Of course she did. " Gemma muttered under her breath. "Anyways, this is Jax." She pointed to Jax who waved. "And this is Isaac." I just nodded.

"I'm Harrison but you guys can call me Harry." He grinned, showing off his scarily white teeth.

He was dodgy.

"So Harrison, what school did you used to go to?" I very politely asked, ignoring Gemma's glare.

"I actually went to an international school in South Korea so it's cool being in an actual American high school." He looked around the busy canteen.

"Okay." I bluntly responded, I didn't ask for a 8-mark question on what school he went to, a name would've been enough.

"Did you do any sports?"

"Not much... but I did like soccer a bit." Gemma immediately smiled at his answer, staring expectantly at me.

"Well Isaac here loves playing soccer, don't you?" She forcefully asked, baiting me out in a conversation I'd rather not be in.

I put on a fake smile and nodded at him, not saying anything more. Gemma knew I wasn't going to say anything else so she started a new conversation with Jax popping in and saying the weirdest suggestions, while I was more focussed on the fact I only got 4 chicken nuggets instead of 6 and also trying to ignore the heated stare I felt on me coming from Harrison.

I simply pretended like he wasn't there.

Great solution. 9/10 recommend.

"I'm free after school, we can all hang out at my house then." Gemma spoke up.

"Hang out...what?" I zoned back into the conversation. I wouldn't call myself an introvert, but I knew I was definitely not an extrovert. It was cool hanging out with friends and all but the effort was sometimes not worth it.

Gemma had a disappointed look on her face as Harrison explained, "Gemma was just inviting us all to her house after school."

"Oh lovely." I prodded my salad that I would save for later, or just throw it away. Most likely the second option.

Their conversation carried on again until Gemma checked the time to see we had 5 minutes until next class.

"What do you have next Isaac?"

"Spanish... why?" I answered, unsure of why she was asking.

My fears were confirmed when she beamed, "That's great, you can walk with Harry." I looked at Harrison to already see him looking at me with a small smile. I groaned inwardly; this meant awkward small talk.

"Is it okay if we go now?" He nervously asked, waiting for my response.

What a try hard, going early to classes... But since I was so nice, I nodded and got up with him and said goodbye to Jax and Gemma.

"Gemma mentioned something about your knee, what happened?"

20 seconds.

20 seconds was how long the silence had stayed before he started the small talk.

"Soccer practise, this guy called Zavier purposefully tripped me up." I responded, getting my books out my locker.

"Wait... Why on purpose?" His brows furrowed at my words. I forgot he had the privilege of not knowing who Zavier was yet.

"Him and I don't get on that well to sum it up." I summarised, closing my locker and leading the way to Spanish class.

Aside from the awkward pauses, I did learn a bit about him.

I learnt that he had a twin sister but she was the grade below us because she had to stay back a year. His dad got a job here so that was why they moved. In return, I told him a bit about my family.

He was an okay guy, I decided.

***

We were all in Gemma's living room, watching a movie on her TV. I sat on a couch by myself, Jax deciding to sit on the floor and Gemma and Harrison sat next to each other on the other couch.

"I'm gonna get some snacks." I got up, opening the door to the kitchen and closing it behind me.

Gemma usually had the best snacks, it was only her and her dad, but her dad was one of the coolest people I'd ever met. I opened the cupboards, finding some popcorn and poured it into a bowl whilst humming to myself, feeling like a greedy pig since I was rummaging her shelves for more food.

"Having fun?" I jumped at the sudden voice, turning quickly to see it was only Harrison. He could've given me a heart attack, Jesus.

"You scared the shit out of me."

He chuckled, making his way to stand in front of me.

"So, are you and Gemma just friends?" He fidgeted with his fingers, putting his focus on the ground.

Ahh, so new guy had a crush on Gemma. I bet Gemma would be thrilled to hear that. "Yeah, we've been friends since sixth grade." I replied. "You like her?"

He looked up at me, his face one of confusion. Did I say something wrong? Or did I think out loud? I hoped not because that would be very embarrassing.

"I don't l-" Harrison started to say, but never got to finish.

"HURRY UP WITH THE SNACKS, I'M STARVING GUYS!" Jax screamed from the living room.

"You don't what?" I picked up the snacks, getting ready to go back to the living room.

Biting his lip, he murmured, "Don't worry." then sullenly walked out, leaving me alone, wondering what I had said wrong.

I tried to shrug off my thoughts, walking back into the living room and passing the snacks around, but Harrison looked kind of dejected. His eyes were on the TV screen, but it was clear he wasn't taking in anything that was happening in the movie. Gemma shuffled closer to him, cautiously leaning herself against him, and seeing him not react, she took it as encouragement, relaxing herself.

At least she was enjoying herself. I put my attention back on the movie, trying to ignore the concerned thoughts that swarmed around my mind.

A/N: endings r so hard for me to write LMAO. uh anyways enjoy reading