Chapter 11 - Good Girls Don't Get Caught

"She's a good girl, straight a student

She's really into all that self-improvement

I swear she lives in that library

But if you ask her she'll say

'That's where you'll find me!'"

Kiara's POV

After class I was supposed to meet Dylan and Ellie near her locker, but instead I found Aiden flirting with her. She was resting against the locker and he had one arm over her head, leaning over her. God, Ellie, didn't I and Dylan warn you? I hated acting all protective, as I didn't know her for that long and I didn't want to act like an annoying older sister, but I also couldn't stand the fact that Aiden was playing with her, like he had played with so many other girls before, like he was trying to play with me. The difference was that I wasn't one to flirt back and I always knew Aiden was up to no good, but Ellie was playing with her hair, twirling it around her finger, clearly having no idea of how the bad boy really was.

Taking a deep breath, I headed towards them, trying to look cool and not too worried. 

"Hi, Ellie." I said, purposely ignoring Aiden. 

"Hello, Kiara!" She answered in her bubbly voice. 

"Well, Kiara, that's not very nice. Are you no longer greeting your old friends?" Aiden asked me, with one eyebrow raised.

"Where's Dylan?" I ignored him again and looked straight to Ellie.

"Oh, I think he got stuck with this girl named Janice." Ellie said back and I gulped. Aiden saw it and started smirking.

"Aiden, don't you have nothing else to do? I don't know, hook up with some chicks or ride your bike or something?" I said, with way too much rage for someone who supposely didn't know about the bet. I forced myself to calm down and then added in a smoother tone. "If you don't mind, I need to talk to Ellie."

Aiden rolled his eyes but then smirked.

"Sure. It's not like I want to hear your girls talk, so, see ya, loves." Aiden turned around and walked out of the hallway.

"Jeez, woman, who are you?" Ellie questioned and I couldn't say if she was angry or amused.

"What?" 

"It's like you have every hot guy in this school in the palm of your hand!" Ellie continued.

"You're hallucinating." I stated.

"You're more like dah! Matthew and Aiden are both interested in you, it's so obvious!" Ellie smiled, now in amusement.

As much as I wanted to, I couldn't tell Ellie about the bet, I had no right of envolving her in this mess. 

"That's probably because they already made up with all the other girls from this school, That's also why they're coming after you, because you're new, and pretty, and a... challenge."

Ellie tilted her head to the side, slightly confused. "Is that why they were flirting with me?"

"Yes, because they want to play with you." I said.

"No." Ellie smiled, shooking her head. "It's because they want to make you jealous. And obviously, it's working."

I sighed in frustration. Ellie was one of those persons that once she had something in her head she didn't rest until she proved her point. But I was like that too.

"It's not working, Ellie, because I have no interest in neither of them, I already told you. And just because they flirt with me, and smirk, and wink, and smile, it doesn't mean I have to like them back. You're not obliged to like someone who likes you."

"I know." Was Ellie answer.

"Good. Because I don't want any scandals of people saying that I have two hot guys after me and I'm just dumb because I don't want them. I have the right to reject them, ok? And honestly, I don't even believe they're really interested in me." 

Of course I knew the only interest they had on me was because of the bet, but I had to keep to my plan and I couldn't tell Ellie. The less people knew, the better. Dylan was my best friend and I trusted him, so I knew he wouldn't tell. Ellie was different, I didn't really know her and I had the suspicion that she was easy to persuade, so it would be too risky and insane telling her something. I couldn't risk having Aiden and Matthew find out I already knew everything because Ellie couldn't keep her mouth shut. 

"I think they are, but fine, I'll get away from them." Ellie looked over my shoulder "Hi, Dylan, did you manage to get away from Janice?"

Dylan glanced at me but then fixed his gaze on somewhere else. 

"Yeah... it was a mistake getting involved with her." He said quietly.

"Oh, guess what, Dylan!" Ellie exclaimed. "You know Matthew and Aiden, right? Well, they're both totally into our friend here!" Ellie popped in my shoulder and winked. I mentally facepalmed myself. Dylan looked enigmatically at me. I shook my head, as I knew he would understand what I was trying to say: that I didn't tell Ellie about the bet. 

"I'm not worried." Dylan said slowly, raising his head and looking straightly at me "I know Kiara knows they are players, she won't fall in their games."

It was easy to understand that Dylan was sending me warnings in an indirect way, but all the things he was telling me I already knew. 

-------------------------

Today at the school canteen the menu consisted in beef with mashed potatoes, an apple and strawberry juice. I grabbed my lunch tray with the food on it and walked to mine and Dylan's table, right at the bottom of the canteen.

It might sound really silly, but our canteen was just like the ones in high school movies: divided by groups. There were the sports guys from the Football Team with the Cheerleaders, aka The Populars. There were the Class Presidents, and the Geeks, and the Goths, and the guys from Clubs (drama, journalism, photograph etc). And then there was mine and Dylan's table, which was known as the Anti-Social Table. There were no Bad Boys Table because they didn't eat at the school's canteen: they either ate outside or at some bar near school.

I headed towards our table and sat, waiting for Dylan. Ellie had gone home for lunch and Dylan had texted me saying he would be late. But that text had arrived ten minutes ago so I thought it would not take long until he appeared.

But, of course, I was alone in the Anti-Social Table. Some of the nerds from the geek table were looking at me. It was the second table I'd probably fit in, despite from the fact that I wasn't really into all the social networks and computers stuff. I was more like a bookworm: I loved to read. 

I checked my phone to see if Dylan had sent me any other text when I noticed something different at the canteen. The normal loudy noise had been replaced by a quiet murmur. I raised my head and immediately noticed everyone looking at me, as Matthew Clarke had grabbed his lunch tray from The Popular Team and was now heading towards me. 

Oh, great! Just my luck.

Matthew sat on my table, right in front of me and the mumbles raised a little: I could almost see the little gears from people's brains starting to work and wondering why the hell was one of the most popular guys in school sitting at The Anti-Social Table with the most anti-social girl in school. 

"Hello, Kiara." He said with a serious face.

"Can I ask why you sat on my table?" I went straight to the point.

Matthew looked a little taken aback by my question. 

"Well, you were alone and I thought..."

"You thought wrong. First, I'm waiting for someone. Second, this is definitely not your table, and third I'm hating all this whispering about me, so could you be a gentleman and lift your ass from your seat and go back to where you belong, Mr. Popular?"

"Is it Ellie you're waiting for?" Matthew asked, clearly ignoring my other points.

"No, it's Dylan." I answered quickly. Matthew frowned. 

"I don't understand why you're always with that guy."

I clenched my fists. Dylan was a very delicate subject for me, especially when people that didn't know him started to make suppositions. And especially when one of the biggest jerks in school started to make fun of him.

"And I don't understand why you're saying that." I simply replied, trying really hard not to argue with Matthew. It wasn't good for my plan, especially if we argued in front of the entire school when all attentions were on us. 

"He just seems so..." Matthew paused, trying to find a word "uninteresting. So not fun. I'm much better. I'm popular, and a football player, and I have loads of friends--"

"That's exactly what makes you uninteresting, Matthew." I stated, my voice raising and the words slipping out of my mouth before I could think about what I was doing. "You're just like every other popular guy. You think you're so cool because you have it all and you think that gives you the right to despise everyone who is not like you. You think you have lots of friends who admire you, but they talk about you behind your back. The truth is you like school because you're popular and you'll never be on top again."

There. I said it. The truths I was holding for so long finally came out, and everyone heard them. I had faced Matthew Clarke. It was not really part of the plan, but it was not like I had everything planned out, I was just improvising most of the time. I knew I couldn't suddenly change my actions and start flirting back with them, as that would certainly raise suspicions, but I also knew I shouldn't be this rough to them, otherwise the plan wouldn't work. But this just slipped out. And, honestly, it felt good saying it.

Matthew was looking at me with his eyes widely open. The school canteen was silent. The only noise that came was from my chair when I got up and walked towards the exit, all eyes on me. 

I sat on a bench outside, pulling my hair into a ponytail. I could feel my cheeks warm and pink. I might be fearless and say the things as they were, but I wasn't used to all the attention. 

I felt the need to walk and to clear my thoughts so I got up from the bench and went inside, walking through the hallways, trying to distract myself. They were empty at lunch time. My phone rang and I checked it: it was Dylan saying he had arrived at the canteen the exact moment I had told Matthew all those things. Dylan was proud. I replied telling him not to go look for me because I needed to be alone. 

I was putting my phone in my pocket when I felt myself being pinched against a wall, two strong arms around me, slamming me against the lockers, one on my left, the other on my right. 

"I saw what you did there, love." I immediately recognised Aiden's voice. Oh this was so cliché. The bad boy pushing the fragile nerd girl against the wall. I just never thought it was going to happen to me. I didn't see myself as fragile.

"Well, did you like it?" I snapped and Aiden smirked.

"That Matty-boy deserved it. I must say I'm proud of you, Kiara."

"Well, thanks." I said sarcastically. "And to tell me that you needed to push me against a wall? I mean, do you have the need to claim your sexist superiority or something?"

Aiden did not smirk this time. Instead, he made a small smile. But a real one, which suprised me a litle. He rarely smiled truly. I noticed how much taller he was from me and how close to each other we were right now.

"No, I just wanted to make you speechless, at least for once. But I guess I didn't." Aiden took his hands from the lockers but stood in front of me anyway.

"You're welcome." This time I was the one to smirk. Aiden leaned closer to me, so close I could smell his perfume scent. It smelled like something spicy, amber or musk.

"You smell like vanilla." Aiden said, which was true. Vanilla was my favourite scent and I always used Dolce & Cabanna The One. "You know, for someone who hates relationships you use a scent that's very attractive to men. Vanilla is aphrodisiac, you know?"

I rolled my eyes.

"I only use it because I like the aroma, not because disgusting men like you are drawn to it."

Aiden leaned even more and whispered in my hear "Deny all you want, love. But you and I both know good girls are the worst."

After that he stopped leaning over me and walked away. I could still smell his spicy scent hovering in the air.

Oh, you have no idea, Aiden, I thought. Good girls really were the worst.

"She said to me, forget what you thought

Cause good girls are bad girls that haven't been caught

So just turn around and forget what you saw

Cause good girls are bad girls that haven't been caught!"

There's a quote in this chapter from 'A Walk To Remember' 2002 movie, which is 'You like school because you're popular and you'll never be on top again.', so credits to the movie. By the way, you should really watch it, it's a really good movie! (poster is on this chapter)

Music is "Good Girls" by 5 Seconds of Summer!