Chapter 14.

Fourteen years earlier...
Gabriella
We arrive in school and I sigh in frustration since everyday in school is always torture for me. I really hate it when teachers and parents tell us kids that school is fun when it's nothing but a scam.
To me, school just serves as a daily reminder of how sad and lonely my life is. It's like a painful way life helps me reuse and recycle my sadness, if you know what I mean.
Gabrielle struts in sassily in her usual bossy manner and she is quickly joined by those snakes she calls her friends, Mia, Alicia and Tracy. The four of them together are the reason I hate school. Four psychopathic children roaming around a supposedly sane environment and they claim school is a safe place. Liars!
"Hey loser, can you move to the other side? I don't want people staring at us at the same time. It's disgraceful!" Elle taunts and as usual her dumb friends laugh like she'd just said the world's funniest joke. Crazy dimwits.
I stayed quiet and walked away from them as quickly as I could although I could still hear them laughing and calling me names.
I walk straight to my locker and hurriedly take out the books I needed so I could get to class before Gabrielle and her minions catch up to me or even worse get to class before me.
The last time I arrived to class after them, they made sure all the seats were taken so I could sit in front and when I did, my seat kept making embarrassing fart noises that came from the fart machine underneath my chair. I'm pretty sure you can imagine how my classmates reacted even when they knew it wasn't real.
The prank after that one is what earned me the nickname 'period girl' and 'little miss red'.
Elle and her friends had this brilliant idea to smear my seat with red paint so when I sat on it, I'd embarrass myself. That day had to be the worst day of my life since everyone kept ringing the nicknames in my eardrums whenever they saw me and it was stuck on their lips for weeks.
Whilst rushing to class to get a good sit, I clumsily and stupidly bump into someone and from how hard I hit the person, I could tell it was a dude.
"Sorry," I mutter shyly, lacking the courage to look at the person's face just in case I receive a heavy backlash.
I'm about to zoom off like a flash but he's quick to stop me and I mentally cry, thinking I was gonna get screamed at. I stare up at him nervously and my heart literally stops beating for about five seconds but it wasn't out of fear but out of admiration.
He was definitely a senior, judging by his build and his aura and he's a very cute guy, I must say. Beautiful brown eyes, dark hair and well chiseled jaw and cheekbones that I was already jealous of.
I stand there like a dummy waiting for him to embarrass me by yelling at me, but instead, he smiles at me.
"Next time you should apologize properly. I'm also sorry by the way, I wasn't paying attention, so we're both to blame." He says and smiles again and my heart stops.
Firstly, a hot senior just spoke to me politely, a very rare occasion and secondly, it was an apology. I rarely ever speak to any seniors in school and even when they do something wrong to me, they never apologize. I just hope this isn't a dumb prank from that brat Elle or she'll be sorry.
"It's okay and th..thanks," I stutter nervously, getting ready to bolt but he stops me again.
"I'm Martin by the way, and you are?" He asks, still wearing a smile and I deadpan. My throat suddenly went dry and it almost felt like my vocal cords were on mute mode all of a sudden.
After staring like a fool for what seemed like forever, I finally mustered up the courage to speak but I definitely wasn't courageous enough to start any closely related to a conversation.
"I'm Gabriella, bye." With that I run. I mean like, I literally ran off like my whole life depended on it and the worst part is that I don't even know why I'm running. He said nothing wrong but I felt so nervous back there and my insecurities got the best of me.
I find an empty class and lock myself in. I was pretty sure half the school had seen me bolting off like a mad psycho and he was probably telling them how crazy I am.
As much as I'm used to getting called a crazy girl, I couldn't help but wish I hadn't just embarrassed myself like that. I had absolutely no reason to run but yet, I practically ran to the opposite side of the building just to get away from someone I don't even know. How stupid of me!
"I'm definitely screwed this time." I mutter to myself sadly before curling up in a ball to cry my eyes out.