heavy eyes;
❛ champagne problems ❜
❝ I, uh, only need to check off one more thing and then I'm officially supposed to get expelled ❞

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Freddie McClair and Isaac Starling have been Chiara's best friends for as long as she could remember. Her mom and Freddie's mom were best friends once upon a time and somehow ended up being roommates in their university with Isaac's mom. That was how the two of them ended up befriending each other in primary school. A few years later, during secondary school, after Freddie's mom died and Chiara's left, the trio fell into the company of James Cook.

And to say that he was a bad influence on all of them would be the understatement of the century.

However, Chiara still loved all three of them (plus JJ, because he was an absolute sweetheart) and despite that, she still hated whenever Freddie was late.

It was their first day of college and, after messing with the papers, they managed to all get into the same grade. They were supposed to meet in front of the fast food truck next to the college but even after Chiara drank almost three cups of beer, Freddie still wasn't there.

Cook groaned in annoyance, clearly getting tired of waiting too so he grabbed his phone from his pocket and started texting Freddie.

Chiara looked over his shoulder to see what he was writing, shamelessly snorting under her breath when she read the message.

captain cook:
Sparking us last spliff

While he wrote, he pulled out the spliff and instead of smoking it himself, he passed it to Chiara who took it with a small smirk on her lips. She grabbed her lighter and lit it up. Then, they sipped their drinks and passed the spliff around the table.

Five minutes, Chiara cringed at the lack of buzz it gave her. James' stuff was always shit.

"McClair!" Isaac called, looking behind her at their best friend.

Both Chiara, Cook and JJ snapped their heads around to see Freddie standing in front of a pickup truck with wide eyes and his skateboard in his hand. Isaac's voice seemed to snap him out of his short daze because he shook his head and then jogged up to them.

"This stuff is fucking rubbish, just so you know." Chiara informed him with a scowl and a deadpan glare the second he came close enough to hear her.

Freddie glared at her but an amused grin still tugged at his lips, "Stop stealing my fucking spliff!" He turned away from her and threw a wink at the three guys next to her, "Morning, gents, you thieving bastards."

He threw his bag off of him, sat down and then snatched the spliff from between Chiara's fingers but, uncharacteristically, she didn't fight him and just rolled her eyes. She was way too tired and it was way too early.

"You're just in time, dipshit." She snapped, leaning her head in the palm of her hand, "Just an hour late."

Cook barked out a laugh and gave Freddie a sly look while passing him the only full cup of beer on the table, "Come on, I got you some breakfast.

Freddie raised an amused eyebrow between him and Chiara, eying the two empty cups and the one half empty one in front of her. "Are they allowed to serve lager at eight in the morning?"

"I had a word..." Cook touched the tip of his nose, making Chiara chuckle in amusement.

The blond next to her perked up like he just remembered something and leaned over her to tap JJ on the shoulder. "JJ's got some interesting thoughts on the benefits of Carlsberg as part of a balanced dietary pattern."

"Yeah?"

JJ nodded hurriedly, "Yes, well... calorifically it's right up there with three hundred and ninety two energy units, which is nothing on the Snickers Duo I'm having which has the additional drawback of twenty-eight grams of fat. Although I can call upon one point two grams of fibre, which doesn't feature in your lager. However, you could argue in some sense that hops constitute one of your five a day."

Chiara looked between Freddie and Cook who were standing on each side of her and landed a kick to their shins while throwing them a glare the second they started laughing.

Their (mostly Cook's) attitude towards JJ always pissed her off. When they met him, he immediately started running after them when Cook even spared a glance in his direction. Chiara was sad to say that he still acts like that around them.

"That'll do me." Cook stated with a grin, brushing Chiara's annoyance off with a wink thrown her way. He chugged down what was left of his beer and the girl rolled her eyes before doing the same.

When she drank everything, she gave Freddie a curious look while biting her bottom lip, "Are you gonna drink that, Freds?"

"That would be her fourth so far." Isaac chimed in, giving Chiara a scolding look which she brushed off with a shrug.

The two always had a sibling type of relationship because of Isaac's protective nature around her. Naturally, she was used to him nagging at her whenever she drank too much and, just because of that, she learned how to ignore him.

It was no secret the dark haired girl could hold her liquor well, nor was the fact that she drank pretty much every single day if she could. Especially the past summer. While she preferred whiskey, she was fine with beer on a daily basis too as long as it wasn't warm.

"C, is that a good idea?" Freddie asked her but he didn't look that bothered by it because he was used to it, "We've college in half an hour."

JJ grinned at her, "You'll be carrying an attention deficit into the day."

"Wouldn't be the first time." Chiara muttered under her breath, hearing Cook snort and then smiling slightly.

The two always had soft spots for each other even if she would never openly admit it just like she wouldn't admit she cares about anyone other than herself. Everyone that really knew them knew how the four of them worked.

Freddie was the moral compass. Cook was the mess. Isaac was the mom friend, JJ was the getaway driver and Chiara was the one that seemed like she wouldn't harm a fly because she was the best liar but it was quite the opposite actually. She was just as bad as Cook and he knew it and was the only one who accepted it which only made their relationship stronger.

Freddie's lips tugged into a small smirk, "Attention deficit? More like itelligence deficit!"

In response, Chiara flipped him off and Cook burped like an animal. Both actions made Isaac snort.

"Pig." A girl passing by threw over her shoulder while walking away, the words making Chiara chuckle under her breath, her shoulders shaking in amusement.

"Well, maybe I won't go then." She smirked at Freddie once her laughter died down, "It's the first day. No one will give a fuck."

"You're going to bunk off your first day?" Freddie asked her, looking unimpressed.

"Freddie!" Cook exclaimed while taking the stiff from his hand, "Mate, the sun is shining. We're bevvied, spliffed and sorted. That feels like the beginning of something. So, I'm waiting."

Chiara threw a confused look his way, "For what?"

"The signal." Cook deadpanned. He waited until Chiara directed her confused gaze to Freddie before he repeatedly nodded towards her with his eyes wide.

Freddie's eyes widened in realization and he scoffed out a chuckle, "We're starting college, Cook."

"No, Freddie, we're waiting." Cook shot back. "Something's gotta happen to start us off."

"You're running a randomised fate model to determine whether you continue in full time education?" JJ asked him with an amused grin.

Cook gave him a dismissive roll of his eyes and then turned to Chiara, meeting her eyes with a coy suggestive smirk, "I need motivation." She shook her head in disbelief and opened her mouth to say something only for him to cut her off, "And it needs to be better than sitting in the sun," he looked between JJ, Isaac and Freddie with narrowed eyes, "with you three, drinking beers and smoking your blow." He turned to the women working in the truck, "Jensie! Have the same again for me and my girl over here? And sling a couple of them cherry shots on top? Cheers, darling." When he turned back to Chiara, she was staring at him with amusement dancing in her eyes and her mouth still gaping. He pointed his finger at her, "Yes. I can feel it. It's got potential, this day. It's pregnant."

"Jesus." Chiara muttered under her breath while laughing along with them.

Cook had a tendency to shamelessly flirt with her which only got worse when he had a few drinks which was almost all the time. She couldn't say she minded though. She loved the attention and often flirted back with full knowledge Cook never had any intention of settling down. He said it himself, multiple times.

The main reason she stopped having a thing for him when they were fifteen and moved on to the trouble that was Tony Stonem. But he was no better than Cook. They were both womanizers, cocky, arrogant and were either high or drunk (or both) more often than not.

Maybe she had a type.

JJ pointed at something across the road over Chiara's shoulder, "Shouldn't someone pick up that bike before it causes an acc──"

The boy cut himself off when a black car ran into the bike that was laying in the middle of the street and then swerved to the side to hit the column right next to their table.

While Cook barked out a laugh, Chiara grimaced, "Yikes."

The driver got out a moment later and started cursing while slamming his car shut. He looked around with an angry expression, clearly trying to look for the bike owner. When he didn't see anyone, he bent down to look at the damage on his car, "Look at it. Look at my fucking car." He turned to a random woman passing by, "You saw that didn't you? Did you? Did you not see it?"

He continued to argue with the woman for no apparent reason but Chiara wasn't paying attention to them because her eyes were locked on the girl sitting and smoking in the passenger seat of the car.

"Oh, you have got to be fucking kidding me." Her mouth instantly twisted into a scowl and her eyes narrowed into a cold glare.

Effy fucking Stonem.

The two were close back when Chiara was still dating Tony. They weren't that close but close enough to have fucking sleepovers every Saturday night when Chiara was not with Tony. They were as close as one could get with a loner like her.

However their friendship came crashing down the same day the Stonem brother broke her heart and Effy chose to ghost her completely as a sign that she was taking her brother's side. A few months later; Tony got hit by a bus.

So, if anyone would ask Chiara if she believed in karma she wouldn't hesitate to answer with an enthusiastic yes.

Before Chiara could even blink, Effy's eyes met her own. She could see the surprise flickering through the blue eyes, almost identical to Tony's, and something inside her sparked like a flame when she saw the brunette look bored not even a second later.

"That girl is looking at Chiara and Freddie." The sound of JJ talking to Cook and Isaac in a not so subtle whisper made her snap out of her gaze.

She threw an annoyed look his way before turning back to Effy, glaring at her angrily and then snapping the glare in Freddie's direction when she heard him let out a happy sigh.

"Yeah." He muttered in a dreamy tone.

"Maybe she's looking at me." JJ said hopefully and with a grin but Freddie didn't hesitate to burn his hopes down.

"She's not looking at you, JJ."

"Okay." A pause, "Nice hair."

Freddie nodded with a dazed look on his face, "Yeah."

Chiara let out a scoff of disbelief but everyone but Cook was obvious to it.

"She's got nice hair and nice eyes." JJ noted, "And nice breasts, probably."

"Shut up, JJ." Chiara snapped with a glare thrown in his direction but it still went ignored.

"Nipples. We'll just imagine her bottom."

"I said shut the fuck up, JJ." Chiara said a little harsher, making both boys look at her, "That's Tony's little sister."

Isaac's mouth fell open in surprise and he blinked, "The little sister? Like, the little bitch that ditched you when you two broke up?"

"Yes, that one." Chiara snapped with a bitter look on her face. She finally turned her gaze towards Cook when he grabbed the bottle of ketchup and squeezed some of it on his hand before smudging it on his face. She furrowed her eyebrows in confusion, "James, what the fuck are you doing?"

He only winked at her in response and then shot up to his feet to walk up to the two adults, purposely stumbling on his step, "What ── what happened?"

Mr. Stonem finally stopped yelling and turned to him with an scowl, "Is that your bike, you fucking idiot?"

"I was signalling..." Cook stuttered, making Chiara bite her bottom lip to mufflle her laughter, "you just kept coming."

"I didn't even see you!" Mr. Stonem yelled back, "You came out of fucking nowhere!"

"I was trying to make you see me. You just kept coming, man!" Cook defended himself.

"No. That's bollocks. No. Listen ── "

Cook glared at him and motioned towards the destroyed bike, "You fucked my bike. You just ran straight through me."

The man shook his head, "That is not right! You haven't got a witness. Nobody saw me knock you off your bike."

"I did." The old woman chimed in, instantly making Chiara snort out a laugh. Her hand flew to her mouth as the angry woman fed into Cook's lie. "It was just like he said. You ran him over, and now he's bleeding."

"Profusely." Cook nodded rapidly, "Perhaps we should call a policeman. I think it's a crime to leave the scene."

"No, no, no." Mr. Stonem shook his head, "There's no need for that. I'm sure we can sort this out." He hurriedly pulled out his wallet, "Let me buy you a new bike. Look, here. Come on, take it, have the lot. Have the whole fucking──" He interrupted himself when he dropped all the change in his wallet to the floor, "Bollocks!" He clenched his jaw and handed Cook everything, "Forgive and forget, okay? Forgive and forget, okay? All right."

"Everything all right, Gran?" A kid asked the woman, walking up to them.

Mr. Stonem nodded, "Oh, yes. Just a slight problem, all sorted out now. Yes."

"He's a pillock, he wrapped his car around that bollard, and he's called me a demented bint." The grandma ranted while Effy got out of the car.

Her movement caused Chiara to finally look back at her, only to see her moving straight towards Cook. She ran her middle finger down the ketchup on his face before licking it and walking off but not before throwing a wink Isaac and Freddie's way.

"Dad says some things are best left to the imagination. But that's not right, is it?" JJ muttered while watching her walk away.

Cook rolled his eyes, looking unfazed, "Your dad's a stupid tosser, JJ."

"Yes." JJ didn't hesitate to nod, "Do you think she's going where we're going?"

"No shit, JJ." Chiara deadpanned and turned to glare at him over her shoulder, "If either one of you actually tries dating her I'm gonna cut your balls off and shove them down her throat. Got it? I call veto."

Cook raises his hands up in mock defense, "Got it, Foxy." he wrapped a loose arm around her neck and nodded towards the college building, "Let's get going."

▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬

Chiara scrunched her nose up as they walked along the halls of the school. She saw about thirty skinny blonde chicks in the five minutes maximum they have been here and the smell inside made her want to throw up.

"She smiled at me." JJ blurted out with a dazed look glued to the back of Effy's head, who was sitting a few rows in front of them at the bleachers off the gym.

"Cool." Freddie said sarcastically, "She, erm, didn't smile at you, JJ."

"I think you'll find she did. Mum was right. A lack of pubic hair isn't necessarily a drawback."

Chiara side eyed him in annoyance, "It's a major drawback, actually."

"Girls are more interested in my character than my cock. And that's just been proven." JJ told her and she squirmed at him but nodded nonetheless.

Isaac shook his head, "She wasn't looking at you, mate. Trust me."

"Yeah," Freddie nodded, "you're just blind."

"On the contrary." JJ retorted, "My eyesight is keen."

"Yeah? How many fingers am I holding up?" Freddie asked while raising the palm of his hand above JJ's head.

"F ── Ow!" JJ exclaimed as Freddie slapped him across the forehead, "Don't do that!"

Chiara laughed into the palm of her hand, "You fall for it every single time."

Cook leaned over her shoulder, his warm breath fanning on her ear as he spoke to her and the others, "I've got so much cock hair I can backcomb it and use it like a lure."

The brunette scrunched her nose up and gave him a blank look.

"Nice." The blonde girl behind them deadpanned and Chiara looked over her shoulder to see her face was scrunched up in disgust.

"Like a Porcupine."

"Right," The girl nodded sarcastically, "you're all prick."

"Toosh."

The blonde raised an unimpressed eyebrow, "You mean touche?"

Cook shrugged, "Probably."

"Tosser."

A grin was slowly making its way to Chiara's face as she pointed at the girl, "You. I like you."

For a second, the girl seemed taken aback before she flashed her a small smile and then sat down.

Their attention soon turned to the front of the gym where a couple of teachers and the headmistress made their way to the center of the room.

Chiara's eyebrows shot up as loud music started blasting and she looked around to see everyone was either laughing or making confused faces.

"Could I have your attention, please? Yes, we are starting." The headmistress called out but ninety percent of the students were talking among each other and not paying her any attention.

Everyone jumped in surprise when they heard a loud whistle sound and Chiara turned her wide eyes towards a man in a suit holding a whistle between his lips. Once everyone stopped talking, he spoke through the megaphone.

"Attention! Pay attention, look you!"

The headmistress gave him a thankful nod before making her way closer to them, "Welcome to Roundview College. We are a designated four star educational establishment under the National We're All In It Together initiative leading to Ultimate Improvement status. Anyone who screws that up will be officially burnt at the stake."

"And expelled."

"Yes, and expelled. God help you all, you're gonna get some qualifications. Any questions?"

In response, there was a loud fart (not from Cook that time) heard from the crowd that made Chiara have to bite her bottom lip to keep the grin off her face.

"Thank you. Now before I turn you over to your form tutors, I'd like to tell you something about the way in which we organise our..." once again, a farting sound filled the room and the headmistress glared between them in obvious annoyance, "Right! Very funny. This is a further education college, not a primary school."

Another fart.

"Stop it!" The woman exclaimed, "Stop it! I'll cut your balls off, you cheeky little turds!" At that, others started to quiet down but there was still a small amused smile barely visible on Chiara's face. "You hear me?"

"I do apologise." The man in the suit behind her started awkwardly, "I think I might be at fault. Too much rhubarb on my Ready Brek. Havoc."

Chiara snorted and started wheezing into the palm off her hand, leaning her head on Cook's shoulder in the process and hearing his laughter grow louder.

The headmistress took in a deep breath before continuing after a few seconds of tense silence, "Last year, we had some intolerable incidents so, I want to make this easy for you. The following will result in instant expulsion; smoking on the premises, setting fire to the premises, consumption of alcohol on the premises, consumption of drugs on the premises, consumption of pornography on the premises, teacher abuse, glue abuse, self abuse, sexual intercourse with any other student, teacher or animal or combination of the above including oral sex and/or use of sex toys, on the premises."

Chiara squeezed her eyes shut at the odd rules, biting her bottom lip painfully hard to keep herself from chuckling in the quiet gym.

"Miss Reedy, our new head of communications." She turned to a short blonde woman in the back who nervously walked forward, "Miss Reedy is joining us from... where are you joining us from?"

Miss Reedy muttered something towards her that Chiara, or anyone really, wasn't able to hear. Her quiet words clearly annoyed the headmistress because her eyes narrowed before she turned away from them and walked towards the back.

"Form BD1, say your name, please, when I..." Miss Reedy stuttered, "put your hands up, please, when I call your, erm, name. Emily Fitch?"

Chiara watched a cute redhead raise her hand from the back and narrowed her eyes at her before smirking to herself slightly and turning back to the front. She caught Isaac looking at her with narrowed eyes and shrugged innocently.

"Katie Fitch?" The identical girl from next to Emily raised her hand with an arrogant smirk that made Chiara want to vomit.

"Jonah, uh, Jeremia Jones?

"JJ. Present." JJ grinned while raising his hand, making Chiara's scowl of distate visibly soften.

"Isaac Starling?"

Isaac casually raised his hand and gave the teacher a small wave.

"James Cook?"

"Yo!" Cook exclaimed, raising his hand in the air and making Chiara flinch at the volume of his voice.

"Elizabeth Stonem?" Chiara scowled once again, "Mavis Jarundi? Dob-ri-sla-wa W... Wieczorek? I'm sorry, you're foreign. Erm, Frederick Mclair?"

Freddie gave her a grin and raised his hand, "Yes."

"Yes." JJ hissed and shared a high five with him before turning to Chiara to do the same with her.

"Denise Adebeyor?"

After sharing high fives with Cook and Isaac, JJ gave Chiara a confident grin, "Yes. The integrity of the unit is preserved." He turned to give Freddie a small frown, "I'm still deeply unhappy with you, mind, on account of the unwarranted violence."

Freddie shook his head, "All right, I said I'm sorry."

"Sia ── Chiara Fox."

In response to her name being called, Chiara raised her hand with a stoic but self confident look on her face, feeling two pairs of eyes burning into the side of her face. However, she refused to meet either of them.

"And Naomi Campbell? Naomi Campbell?"

While everyone started laughing, Chiara pursed her lips and raised an unimpressed eyebrow at the students around her.

"Naomi Campbell!" The teacher with the megaphone spoke, the sound making Chiara clench her jaw to keep herself from flinching again.

The blonde girl sitting behind Chiara hesitatly raised her hand. "Fucking hell."

"Hey, Naomi. Now I get it." Cook snicker, turning to give her a humorous look, "You got anger management issues."

Naomi hummed, "Only when I talk to wankers."

Cook squinted at her, "Cool. You gonna hit me with your shoe now, or? In response, she gave him the middle finger. As always, Cook didn't take the hint and chuckled, turning to Chiara with a grin, "I like her."

After a few more minutes of Cook being annoying and bugging Naomi, the girl raised her hand, "Excuse me."

"Yes? What is it?"

"The boy next to me is acting inappropriately."

Chiara snorted and watched a pissed off expression pass her headmistress' face, "How?"

"He wants to show me his tattoo. And not in a nice way."

Cook chuckled at Naomi's words although his amusement disappeared the second the next words left the women's lips, "Why don't you show us all your pathetic tattoo? We can wonder at its magnificent stupidity."

"I don't think you'd like it." Cook tried to play it off, only for the suit-guy to chime in with his fucking megaphone.

"Right lad! Smartish! You've had an instruction! Show her the tattoo, now!"

Cook rolled his eyes and stood up, "All right."

"Sit the fuck down." Iaaac hissed with a warning glare.

Freddie's eyes widened as Cook started taking his belt off and he shook his head, "No, no, no! Cook, wait, no. Please, please."

"Oh, for fuck's sake." Chiara muttered while rubbing the sides of her head in frustration, all while watching Cook brush them off and take off both his pants and boxers.

Chiara's eyes comidicaly widened at the sight and she bit the inside of her bottom lip when she connected her eyes with his own. He gave her a knowing wink and she felt her face heat up, only regaining her posture when he put his pants back on.

All the teachers started yelling and Cook and Chiara were too busy staring each other down. They only snapped out of the staring contest when another incredibly loud fart filled the room.

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"Did she expel you?" Isaac asked Cook the second he walked out of the headmistress' office with a coy grin on his face.

He tilted his head curiously as they finally got up from the uncomfortable chairs and started making their way down the hall, "For what?"

JJ blinked and looked at him like he was an idiot. "Well, getting your cock out in assembly. I mean, I'm just guessing, but it's possibly frowned upon. Even in the state sector."

"She understood the bind I was in." Cook shrugged, "I was doing what I was told."

Freddie raised an unimpressed eyebrow, "Very accommodating."

"There was something about removing my bollocks with a monkey wrench if she ever saw them again." Cook listed casually, "I think we reached an understanding. Right. To business."

"You mean education?"

"He means women, JJ." Isaac deadpanned, making the curly headed boy blink in confusion again.

"Women? Um... I mean, I feel like we might be... I don't want to sort of run before I can walk."

Cook slung his arm around Chiara just as they rounded the corner and came face to face with a hall full of girls in short skirts and dresses.

An amused smile made its way to the brunette's lips when she saw all blood drain from JJ's face, "Wow. Girls! There's a lot of them."

"Yep."

"So much choice. It's disconcerting."

Letting out a chuckle, Cook gave Chiara a smirk, "No, it's just a matter of sorting out the wheat from the chavs."

Chiara was too busy staring at Cook to notice the way Isaac eyed Effy who was standing down the hall, "Ah, there we are. And the wolf shall lie down with the lamb."

"You think she'd lie down with me?" JJ asked with excitement clear in his voice.

"No." All four of them answered at once.

JJ's face fell at their brutal honesty, "Yeah? Well, that line is wrong and popularly misquoted. It should read: 'The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid, and the lion and the calf together and a little child shall lead them.'."

Chiara blinked, not understanding a word coming out of his mouth.

"Yeah." Freddie frowned, equally confused, "We'll try and pick the bones out of that, J."

"I could show her one of my magic tricks. Dad says it's an ice-breaker."

JJ's words made Chiara's eyebrows raise in surprise. She gave him a nod and said. "Let's try that out. I wanna see one."

"Before we go leaping in, and we can see who gets the fatted calf, right?" Cook spoke up and let go of Chiara, grabbing her shoulders and turning her so she was facing JJ completely.

"Alright, Darling." He spoke right above her ear softly, "He's gonna try his pick-up routine on you. That okay?"

JJ took in a deep breath, "Pack of cards, right? Nothing funny about them. Except one minute they're blue and..." he turned his pack of cards around and Chiara blinked in surprise when he ran the palm of his hand along the back and it switched from blue to red, "red!"

"Wow."

"Does that make you want to give our dear old friend a blowjob?" Cook asked her with a raised eyebrow. He already knew the answer to his own question.

"Nah." Chiara shrugged and gave JJ an apologetic look, "It's great and all but I'm not really a magic type of girl. And I don't think that most girls are."

▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬

Chiara was so over the toxic atmosphere Isaac and Freddie created by trying to make all five of them break all the school rules so one of them could get to fuck Effy. She couldn't believe that they kept traing after she told them multiple times how uncomfortable and angry she got whenever she even thought about the girl.

So, after giving them a disappointed glare she thought no one even picked up on, she ditched them and made her way to class without them.

"Hi." She greeted the girl she remembered being called Emily when she walked down the stairs and saw her standing there and looking out of place, "I'm Chiara."

"I know." Emily responded and then her face fell and she shook her head, "I meant, hi, I'm Emily."

Chiara smiled slightly at the blush covering the red head's cheeks, "I know. Wanna sit with me in class? I don't really have any girl friends here and you don't seem that thrilled to be glued to your twin the entire day."

Emily grinned at her, "Yeah, okay."

With a small but satisfied smile, Chiara linked their hands together and they walked towards the classroom. They were stopped by Katie (Emily's twin) and Effy who were blocking the door.

"Aren't you Effy Stonem? Haven't you got a really cool brother?" Katie asked in a fake nice tone.

"Yeah, he's cool."

"All my friends fancied him. I wasn't so fussed though." Katie gushed and tilted her head, "Didn't he go mental? Anyway, I've got a boyfriend. He plays for Bristol Rover reserves."

"Wow, that's really impressive." Chiara chimed in with a fake bright grin, her hand still tightly linked to Emily's, "But this isn't the secondary school changing room so move your gossip somewhere else and get away from the door. Thanks."

She didn't allow her to finish and simply brushed past her and Effy to get inside the classroom, oblivious to the small smile making its way to Emily's voice.

Chiara was her chance of making some real friends who weren't influenced by her sister. Katie was always much bolder than her and that never bothered her until it came to making friends. People around them always ended up choosing Katie. She was extroverted, fun and bold while Emily was quiet and hesitant. Chiara didn't seem to care.

▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬

An hour later, Chiara's useless best friends finally showed their asses up to class and she had the displeasure of having to give Emily an apologetic look when Cook slided into the seat next to her before the red head could. Emily did not seem too fazed, though. She simply sat down in the seat in front of them.

"Right. Um... now we've gotta... Christ." The professor (Chiara was pretty sure was drunk) muttered from his desk, "Fuck it. Okay. Whatever. We've gotta stand up, say our names and a unique fact about ourselves. Right. I'll start." He got to his feet, "Christ. I'm Kieran and I hate being a fucking teacher. You."

JJ's eyes widened comidicaly before he stood up, "Um... I'm JJ and with regard to mathematic aptitude I'm in the top zero point three percent of the population, which is an interesting demographic statistic because paradoxically my communication, interpersonal and intuitive skills are towards the lower quartiles."

"Yeah. You've stopped me in my fucking tracks there, yeah. You."

"I'm Katie. I've never not had a boyfriend since I was seven."

Chiara let out a snort and a couple of people, including Katie, looked at her curiously. She laughed at Cook because of how attention-seeking she could tell that Katie was. Cook huffed out a laugh from next to her while Katie glared at them.

"Congratulations. You."

"I'm Emily. I've never had a boyfriend."

Lucky bitch. Chiara thought and jumped in her seat a little when she felt a hand graze her leg just above her knee. She look at Cook to give him a confused look, only to see that he was not even look at her. He kept his gaze on their teacher and his hand on her thigh.

"Shit happens. You."

"I'm Naomi. I hate injustice. People tell lies about me."

"You at the back."

Chiara pursed her lips and stood up, the hand finally falling from her leg, "I'm Chiara. I like both boys and girls."

"Interesting. Good. You."

"I'm Max, and both my parents are artists."

"Great. I'm very very happy for you. What about you? With the bling."

"I'm Effy. And I think my mum's having an affair."

The professor cleared his throat awkwardly, "Good one. Shows enterprise. What about you, big man?"

Chiara raised her hand in the air before Freddie could say something, feeling like she was going to explode if Cook kept looking at her like that.

The teacher groaned. "What?"

"I'm pretty sure I got my period. Can I leave?" She lied easily and watched as he waved her off nonchalantly.

"Go on then. I don't really care."

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Chiara took out her lighter and the pack of cigarettes in the pocket of her red leather jacket, only to halt in her movements when the doors of the girl's bathroom slowly opened.

Her shoulders slumped down in relief at the sight of Cook standing in the doorway with a crooked smile on his face, "Hey, gorgeous."

"You finished up your list?" She raised an eyebrow, moving back to light up her cigarette and then putting it between her lips.

To her surprise, he didn't laugh or smirk. His face turned stoick as he closed the door behind him and stepped closer to her, caging her body between his own and the sink, "Well I, uh, only need to check off one more thing and then I'm officially supposed to get expelled."

"Oh, yeah? And what is that?"

"I haven't had sex with anyone in the school yet." He admitted, his hot breath fanning along her lips.

She hummed as one of his hands moved to play with her hair while the other rested against her waist, "I'm really loving your use of yet. You sound pretty confident."

"I thought you liked confident guys?" He asked her and took the cigarette from between her fingers, took a drag from it and then let it fall to the floor, crushing it with his shoe.

"That was my last one." Chiara protested with a small frown.

Cook raised an eyebrow and a small smirk appeared on his face, "I can think of a better activity that requires you using your lips."

Chiara rolled her eyes, getting tired of his teasing and wrapped her legs around his waist to pull him into her.

Their lips were hovering above each other's as she spoke her next words.

"Then why don't you do something about it?"