"How comes I don't see you around?" Liam asked, and instantly I could notice what all the girls fell for. His hair was as dark as the night sky, thick and messy -but clearly styled to look like that. He had large brown eyes and eyebrows framed them perfectly. His lips were plump and held a mischievous grin that showed straight white teeth. He was definitely an attractive guy and did I mention he clearly worked out?
Anyway, he always fell for the flawless popular girls so he and I would never really work because I'm neither of those things. He's too high profile for someone like me and I probably wouldn't be able to handle the limelight of being his date for those 24 hours either. All the popular girls would be sneering at you and as you sauntered around, they'd be whispering about you behind your back and praying that you messed it all up. Not that it bothered me.

"Well I only moved here at the beginning of the year and I just kept my head down to catch up and make sure I could do my best in my exams." I said shyly. I fiddled with the bottom of my jumper as I spoke to him.

"And how do you think you're doing so far?" He asked, seemingly actually interested in my life - a rarity from popular boys.

"I'm exceeding what I need for university so far." I said with a proud grin. Liam nodded, impressed. I bit my lips together to hold back the excited squeak I wanted to make.

"So now you're having more fun?" He asked, raising an eyebrow as a playful smirk grew on his face. Conor shifted his gaze between me and Liam, his face contorting to anger when he looked at Liam's expression.

"That's the plan!" I responded innocently.

"Well, Leah, I hope to see more of you. Seems Conor's found one of the few decent people in this place. We'll keep you close." He winked at me as he placed his hand on my arm. This guy really did know how to make a girl feel special. My heart was thumping in my chest as I took a deep breath in and out to make it look like I was calm. He turned to Conor quickly, his hand still resting on my arm. "Conor, I'll catch you at lunch, yeah?"

"Yeah, see you then!" He said with a fake smile. Liam nodded at the both of us before waving and making his way down to corridor. Seconds passed before we spoke to each other again; Conor just seem to glare up the corridor to Liam who was now talking to a group of popular girls, propping himself up against the lockers like a stereotypical popular guy did.

"I'd better get to class." I said to break the silence. "It was nice to talk to you both."

"Yeah, you too." Conor said, not paying attention to me. I followed his gaze back to Liam once more before I sighed and made my way to my next class. Art with Rae.

"You." She shouted out as soon as I entered the room, her finger pointed in my direction. I smiled my best Colgate smile as I made my way over to her. "I saw you talking with Liam and Conor before class! I want all the details!"

"Hi Rae, my first class was good thank you, how was yours?" I said, completely ignoring her request for information. She looked over deviously.

"You will tell me before the end of this class." She said confidently, flicking her red hair over her shoulder. Her eyes narrowed at me, her perfect smoky eyeshadow becoming more visible.

"Why don't you just ask Conor? You and him are buddies, right?" I said smarmily, referring to when Conor spoke to us earlier today. She gasped and shook her head.

"Look, we only talk because we got stuck at a party together when our best friends hooked up and left us." She rolled her eyes.

"Who was that?" I quizzed. This must have been before I came along.

"Ah it's no big deal. I replaced her with an upgrade." She said as she patted me on the arm, her signature smile gleaming.

"Why thank-"

"And when she wasn't available, they offered me you." She whipped her hand away from me and laughed. I giggled and shook my head.

"Yes, love you too Rae."

The teacher walked in and quickly told us to carry on with our pieces of art that were going to be submitted for our exam, before excusing herself from the class to make a phone call. Rae and I grabbed our pencils and made our way back to the table.

"So, you and Conor..." she pressed but i pretended not to hear her as I sketched my scene. "Or is it you and Liam?" She carried on. I bit the inside of my cheeks to hide a smile so that she didn't think I was listening but choosing not to answer. "So help me I'll erase all your work if you don't talk to me." I tutted and put my pencil down, looking over to her with my most unimpressed expression.

"I stuck up for Conor when Katelyn was pestering him for a date with Liam. He thanked me as Liam came up and then I met Liam. Nothing major." Her mouth dropped open and she shuffled over to me quickly.

"If you call talking to the most popular guy in school hours before he chooses dates that he may take to our graduation party nothing major! He might put you on the list! And if he doesn't, you could be friends with him  and Conor which is amazing!" She rambled on, clearly a little too excited about the prospect of me having a love interest for once.

"Yeah I suppose it could be beneficial to my popularity just before I leave and go to university and never see any of these people again." I sighed and rolled my eyes, sarcasm lacing my words.

"Alright, I get it. But can't you just be excited about something for once? You've not even spoken to ninety percent of the college and now is your chance to get your face out there!" She grinned as she presented her best speech like it was a marketing sales pitch. Butterflies began to move around in my stomach as she spoke, my mind floating to what my life could be like if I had that amount of popularity and what it would do to my university application to have that on there.

"Alright. Let's just see what happens." I smiled.