Chasing The Good Girl

He's Back

I walked down the flight of stairs carefully, my stomach grumbling for food.

The smell of croissants and tartine greeted my nose from the hallway and my stomach wailed loudly, begging for a taste of Mama's baking.

Apart from owning a church, my mum owned a large bakery, a couple of restaurants in Paris and a catering service for events. She was also an event planner and was a whiz at the hospitality business.

I wanted to be a part of it all one day.

It was my dream, to take over and spread our name across the country.

That was why I had familiarized myself with cookery books and learning how to cook like mum on weekends. I also want to major in Business in College and hopefully, make my parents proud.

Maybe settle down after that but I really didn't care about boys.

My life was all God, books, family and mum's business.

The rest could come later.

"Bonjour maman( good morning mum)" I chirped, my eyes on those mouthwatering croissants.

"Comment vas tu ce matin( how are you this morning?" She smiled, flashing me her pearly whites.

"I'm fine mum, but I'll be better if I have that amazing buttery goodness in my mouth" I smiled playfully at her.

My mother is like my best friend and role model.

Despite her being strict, she is kind, sweet and understanding.

She is pretty tall and has amazing strawberry blonde hair and blue eyes. Despite the fact she is progressing her fifties, she is incredibly good looking.

I wish I was more like her.

I stood at 5'4 and was slim, barely having the curves mum possessed. I had mum's hair but my eyes were light brown and boring.

Again, I wish I was like her.

"Always a sweet talker" my mother shook her head, before grabbing her muffins and checking the oven for the tartines.

"Definitely not sweeter than me" Rayan my brother added, entering the kitchen.

"Good morning to you too" I mumbled under my breathe, earning a glare from my mom.

"Where's dad?" Rayan asked, moving towards the coffee machine and making one for himself.

My brother was the lucky one.

He was heir to the Vanpelt industries, had dad's jet black hair, mum's blue eyes and was a good foot taller than me.

Might I add he was annoying.

He was a couple years older than me at 25 years old and has a girlfriend who everyone adores.

Rayan does not w***e around mostly because mum will slit his throat if she finds out. He believes that it isn't fair to treat women like tampons and that they should be respected.

I wish my future husband would have that kind of mentality.

"Went to work early. Now eat up or you'll be late for school and work." She said, dropping our plates in front of us.

I poured myself a glass of orange juice and Rayan tried to pick from my plate but I slapped his hand away.

"We haven't even prayed yet" Mum and I chorused, glaring at him.

"I'm sorry" he rose his hands up in the air in surrender.

I smiled as I prayed, thanking God for our food and asking him to bless it.

I also prayed that we should remember to put him first in our lives and not our stomachs.

Rayan was fuming after that.

"Reeva!" My mother scolded.

Whenever mum called my middle name, it only meant trouble.

"Stop using prayers to get back at your older brother"

I smiled sweetly at Rayan and he rolled his eyes before eating.

As if it's not my job to be the annoying younger sister.

"How's Marinette?" I asked Rayan, trying to bring up a conversation.

"She's fine. And no. She's not coming for the weekend so you can steal her away from me" he shook his head, trying to sound annoyed.

"Are you?" Mum asked Rayan.

"I'm not so sure. I have loads of work on my desk presently and I might go to the country side to do an inspection on the factories" he said.

"No home made food for me" he put his hand to his chest dramatically.

"You're not adopting Emmaly and neither is Marinette moving in with you. Have fun with your take aways!" Mum chuckled, knowing where the discussion was headed.

"It was worth the try" he mumbled, checking the time on his wristwatch.

"Emmz we're running late."

I picked up my bag, kissed mum on the cheek and scurried to the garage, muttering greetings to the household staff on my way.

I hummed some songs by Hill Songs, glad to be in school after the Christmas break. I was in Senior year and I had a few more months before I graduate and go to college.

The decision between Stanford and Ens Paris Saclay was still baffling me, but I was sure I was going to work it out.

Besides, I might not get accepted into both universities but I wasn't putting my eggs in one basket.

Parking my Audi at the parking lot, I grabbed my bag and walked into school, excited to meet some of my friends.

Zènith High was one of the elites school in Paris, with hundreds of aristocratic families sending their children to the school.

The school worked hard on training us to be the best of ourselves, shaping our future with the values they instill in us. It trained us into becoming the model next generation of leaders, future barons in businesses and being the best in whatever field you found yourself to be.

I loved the school and the standards gave me more motivation to prove myself to the world. People would like to call me an overachiever because I was student body president of our year and despite having an IQ that wasn't as high as the other top students, I had straight As.

I read my head off to be top in my class so I couldn't afford to have any distractions.

Zènith High was so serious we even wore uniforms throughout the week but surely, some students decided to change the uniform to what they want it to be.

Some boys add chains to their slacks and wear much tighter ones while girls wear skirts three sizes smaller. It was mostly the popular girls and wannabes that did that.

Popular girls like Aimee.

And sadly for me, Aimee is walking towards me right now.

I pretended to search my empty locker for something, hoping the annoying pest would leave me alone.

Sometimes I get tired of asking God for forgiveness anytime I rain insults on Aimee because I find myself doing it again and again.

"Virgin Mary" her high pitched voice started, making me groan under my breathe.

"What do you want?" I sighed while she slammed my locker, leaned against it and smacked her stupid bubble gum in my face.

"I wanted to ask if you prayed for me. Yesterday was a Sunday" she snickered, her minions behind her.

"Prayers aren't restricted to Sundays" I stated calmly, trying to walk away.

"Is that why Saint Emmaly is preaching to me?" She said, sliding down my bag from my arm and letting it drop to the floor.

"Oops" giggled the Annoying leggy brunette, her friends joining in as well.

Why wouldn't Aimee just leave me alone?

"Aimee!" A familiar voice barked, making me sigh in relief because God just sent my good Samaritan.

"If you ever come at my b***h like that again amma kick yo ass!" My best friend Mercedes glared at Aimee.

And now you're probably asking why I have such a loud mouthy girl for a best friend.

Mercedes is Hispanic American and it's not exactly everyday you'd see that kind of person in France.

She has this total Cardi B vibe that intrigues me and she's quite hot headed but when you get to know her, you'll know she's a very nice person.

"We were only talking drama queen" Aimee rolled her eyes.

"You was only talking? Then why are your houseflies surrounding Emmaly like that?" Mercedes hissed, her eyes flashing dangerously.

Said houseflies glared but she flipped them off, concentrating on Aimee.

"Look here girl-who's-gotten-in-everyone's pants! You better leave her alone because you do not want to get in my bad books this semester. You know what happens" Mercedes grinned, a wicked promise in her words.

Aimee huffed and disappeared with her minions, knowing she couldn't stand up to her.

"Stupid ass b***h" she rolled her eyes.

"Mercedes language" I shook my head, a small smile stretching on my lips as I picked my bag.

"Jeez you're welcome" she scoffed.

"I really missed you this break" I turned towards her, bringing her down for her a hug.

Mercedes is tall and like her ancestors(as she says) she's very curvy, with pretty light brown skin and grey eyes.

She's really that pretty.

"Me too shortie. I almost died without you at California" She wailed as we walked down to our class.

"What trouble did you get into?" I rolled my eyes.

Mercedes' parents love me because I always put a rein on her behavior. Without me, she'd be getting Three hours detention.

"I may or may not have crashed mum's car" she chatted, picking at her nails.

My eyes widened and I whipped my head towards her, wondering where she was coming from.

The Hispanic beauty grinned at me and went on with her gist.

"It was an accident! I spent my Christmas in the hospital" she sniffed, looking sad.

"By spending your Christmas break at the hospital you mean you were checking on the poor driver you crashed into" a familiar voice said from behind.

"Jeez babe" Mercedes muttered, looking unamused.

"I love you too" Othniel chuckled, kissing her cheek.

"Hey Othniel" I smiled at my other best friend.

Jordan's replacement.....

"Don't hey me if you didn't bring the cake you promised to bake for me" he snorted, an amused look on his face.

"Es-tu serieux?( Are you serious?)" I rolled my eyes at him playfully.

"Yeah I think we're both serious" Mercedes said.

"So when's the date?" She grinned at me.

"Get over your stomachs" I rolled my eyes.

We said our goodbyes to Othniel because he had a different schedule with us.

We settled down in the middle row, sitting opposite each other and waiting for the teacher in our classroom.

I took out my pen and notepad, so I could take down our scheme of work as did Mercedes.

The teacher entered and I tuned everyone out, concentrating on him and scowling at Aimee's friends who couldn't do much but talk about how they did it with complete strangers.

Why didn't people respect their bodies?

Then it happened.

With a not too quiet swing of the door, a student emerged.

"You're late" the teacher scolded.

"I was lost" he deadpanned, glaring at the teacher.

On hearing his voice, I looked up. Then my lips parted as I stared at the eye candy in front of me.

He was taller than most boys at our school at 6'3, his muscles rippling under his uniform but he was still lean in a way.

He had jet black hair that was kinda wavy and swept neatly to the side, tendrils falling on his forehead. His amazing aquamarine eyes were narrowed but alert, obviously like he was pissed. He had a straight nose and a firm jaw that was constantly ticking and yet I found it sexy-

Wait what?

What's wrong with me?

I looked down on my desk and wondered why I was so affected by the new boy, my heart thumping loudly in my chest.

But why were those eyes so familiar....

I shook my head, trying to stop giving excuses for shamelessly checking him out like that.

I wasn't one to lust over boys and the biological reaction from my body was giving me a cause to worry.

"So why don't you introduce yourself to the class?" The teacher said politely.

"Jordan" he muttered.

I looked up, my poor heart taking a different irregular rhythm.

"Jordan Aziel Bancroft"

Then he locked eyes with me.