Two worlds

Chapter 1: Arriving

Chapter 1

Emma

"Julia!" I say happily.

People are looking at me as I run down the hallway in my blue heels. Guys are undressing me with their eyes. God, they’re disgusting.

"Hey Emma", she says and hugs me.

"When are we going to see a kiss?" Lucas asks excitedly.

"Would you really want me to kiss your girl?" I ask slyly.

"Hell yeah!" He says even more excited.

"All in good time my love", Julia giggles and strokes Lucas under his chin.

He looks disappointed and I laugh as I hook my arm around Julia’s and start walking towards our first class of the day.

Lucas is walking on Julia's other side. Arms crossed over his chest, being grumpy. People are looking at us as we pass them. We're popular. Our group that is. Hah the popular kids, though we haven’t exactly made it happen, it’s just always been that way.

Outside the classroom, we meet the rest of the gang.

"Why is he so grumpy?" Gavin asks, looking at Lucas.

"He got the big disappointment of the day", I laugh, patting Lucas on top of his head.

"Humpf", he scuffs.

"He wanted to see you kiss again didn't he?" Sophia says sneaky, trying to hold back her laugh.

"Yah", I laugh.

I look around after the teacher. Where is she? We have homeroom now, so it's not that important but Ms. Plank is never late. Like never.

Suddenly she comes running on her heels and she's got a big folder in her arm.

"I'm sorry my little mockingbirds, I'm sorry, I was caught up with the principal", she says and opens the door.

The class walks in and take their places. I sit by myself because Julia is sitting with Lucas, Sophia with Chris, Mia with Gavin, and Belle with Isaac. I'm the only single in our group but I really don't mind it at all. I'm not looking to be in a relationship. I like being single, not attached to anyone. That’s not really my style.

Ms. Plank straightens her light-yellow dress and fixes her ruffled hair. I lean my chair backward to talk to Julia, who's sitting at the desk behind me.

"Why do you think she's all woooo, today?" I ask making circles at the side of my head.

"I don't know", she giggles. "Isn't she always like this though?"

"Yeah but she seems extra tense today", I say.

"Yah".

"Okay class, I know I was late but there's no need to talk so loudly", Ms. Plank says. "I was caught up at the principal’s office with your new classmate".

I lean back to my desk but look back at Julia. She shrugs her shoulders. We haven't heard anything about a new classmate.

"We haven't heard of this", Chris points out.

"And that's because we couldn't tell you, to avoid complications", Ms. Plank says. What? "You see, your new classmate is..." There's a knock on the door. "...is here", she says, and walks to open up the door. "Welcome".

When she moves to let the person come in, I see who it is. It's...

"Omg! John Carter?" A girl in the room shouts.

I raise my eyebrow. Beside Ms. Plank, stands an ashy blond boy with messy hair, he has big ocean blue eyes. He has black tight jeans and an orange t-shirt that seems to be licked against his torso and a black leather jacket, which is unzipped. He has green converse on his feet and is pretty tall. Yeah, he’s hot. Clearly.

"I knew this would happen, Mr. Carter don’t care about that outburst, and Ms. Ward, he's a student just like you, so talk to him like you talk to your friends", Ms. Plank says strictly. "Mr. Carter just take a seat at the only empty chair".

And I realize that the empty seat beside me is the only empty seat in this classroom. Carter nods and sits down beside me. Ms. Plank puts his schedule on the table in front of him. I glance unnoticeable at his schedule and notice that it's identical to mine and the rest of the group. I hold back a sigh.

"Hello", John says quietly.

"Hi", I say looking forward.

I ignore him for the rest of the class. When we're dismissed I stand up. "Um... Ms.?" I feel a tap on my shoulder.

I turn around and see Carter.

"Emma", I say.

"Oh, Emma, um where is the art classroom?"

"Why don't we show you?" Lucas says, appearing beside me.

"I don't think he wants that Luke", I say glancing at him.

"Actually, that would be kind of great, since I'm new and all", Carter says.

Lucas walks together with Carter out of the classroom.

"Why so cold Emma?" Julia asks. "Any girl on this school would go crazy if John Carter asked them to show them around".

We start walking out of the classroom. "Well I'm not like the other girls in this school if you haven't noticed", I say. "He's a celebrity, and I bet he's a shallow obnoxious rude celeb who thinks he's better than the rest of us, I'm not falling for he's sugars sweet attitude in the beginning".

"You know he may not be like that", Julia says.

"You don't know that Jules", I say.

"Neither do you", Mia points out.

"Whatever", I say as we head to art class.

I don't care what they say. I'm not falling for Carter's false attitude. I'm smarter than that. I don't get all these girls. Why drool over a boy? I mean sure he's good-looking but, why seem so desperate? That's just pathetic.

We enter the art classroom and sit by the easels. When I finally look around, I see that I'm sitting beside Carter. I see that he has already started to work on something. He’s sketching with a pencil on the canvas, and I can barely see what it is. I think it's a body, a human, but I don't know. Don't really care either. So why do I keep looking?

I force myself to look away just as the teacher walks through the door. "Okay class, just paint the first thing that comes into your mind while looking at the canvas", Mr. Raves says.

Hm.

I look at my canvas and close my eyes. I open my eyes and start painting. At the end of the class, my canvas is a sunset. I glance over to Carter but he's not there anymore. He's standing beside Mr. Raves.

Mr. Raves gives Carter, what seems to be a sheet. Carter covers his canvas with it and shakes hands with him. I dislike myself for being curious as to what he actually painted.

Carter walks back to his easel and I quickly look down on my canvas. I put down the pencil on the little table beside me with the paint and a cup of water. I look disappointed at my painting. I suck at painting. Ugh. I never seem to get better at this. It looks like a three-year-old has painted this sunset.

Carter puts his covered canvas on the easel and walks up beside me and looks down at my canvas. His eyes widen. I'm ready to hit back if he says something bad about my painting. Even though it sucks.

"I love sunsets", he says smiling.

I raise my right eyebrow, looking at him.

"Well this sunset suck, thanks for noticing", I say.

"No, it doesn't", he says. "It's unique".

"Pfft go play the happy game with Lucas, I'm not interested", I say looking down at the canvas.

I take a small brush, dip it in the black paint, and start writing my name at the bottom of this ugly painting. It’s seriously the ugliest painting I’ve ever seen. But as long as I paint something, I can't fail the class, thank god.

Mr. Raves is on his last walk through the class to look at the paintings. He comes up to me. "You've been in this class for three years Ms. Adams, three years", he sighs. He knows all too well that I'm not good at painting.

"I know I know, but I'm here, I paint, I want my grade", I say putting down the brush.

Mr. Raves laughs. "Yah", he says. "Maybe Mr. Carter here can teach you how to paint if I can't".

"Excuse me?" I ask.

"I don't know..." Carter says.

"I was kidding", Mr. Raves says. “I’m a good teacher”. He is. I roll my eyes. The bell rings and I stand up. Mr. Raves always collects the canvases after the end of each class, that's why we have to put our names on them.

"Hey John, do you want to sit with us at lunch?" Lucas asks as we walk out of the classroom.

Please say no, please say no please say...

"Yeah, that would be cool", Carter says.

Why oh why? I hold back my sigh as we head to the cafeteria. The rest of this day is going to go really slow.