*Destiny’s POV*

“Destiny! Wake up!” Mom yelled, yanking the soft grey, with white patterned, curtains, in my room, apart.

Suddenly, a bright piercing stream of light attacked my face, blinded by its brightness, the feeling disgruntled with my sleep, I moaned for more, but the devilish light of the sun begged for justice to win over me.

“Ugh, but it is summer vacation.” I moaned, “Let me sleep.”

“Not anymore, it isn’t. Today is the first day of school.” Mom exclaimed, pulling on my blanket, leaving me defenceless from the cold air.

“Ugh!” I cried, falling off my bed.

“You’re so dramatic. Get up! You’re not the only one struggling, you’re father, and I have to go back to work, today, as well.” Mum said, “Now up!”

“But school is harder.” I cried, still laying on the carpeted floor.

“I’m going to school too, Hun.” Mom declared, reminding me that she got a job at my school, as an English teacher

‘How pleasant, no?’ I thought, mentally groaning

“I am on the ground. I could use some help getting up.” I pleaded.

“Do it yourself,” Mum demanded as she left me on the ground, leaving my room. She seemed to be in a great rush.

“Ugh.” I moaned. I sloughed my way to the bathroom.

Taking a nice cold bath to wake me up, I got dressed in the school uniform – a pleated, navy blue, knee-high skirt, a white button-up shirt, with a black cardigan, which had the school logo sewed to the upper left corner, and black dress shoes. I tied my hair back in a single fishtail braid, applied my favourite nude colour lipstick, and mascara. Throwing in my fresh, new notebooks, and empty binders, into my blue backpack, along with my pencil case and reading glasses, I went downstairs, to the kitchen.

I was greeted with the aroma of bacon sizzling in a pan, and eggs being fried.

“What’s for breakfast?” I asked, settling myself, at the table. My dad was drinking coffee, as he read the daily newspaper.

“Food,” Mom smirked, bring the bacon and eggs to me. I gobbled up them up, then drank down my milk, before I hear June knowing at the door. Bumping my dishes in the dishwasher, I ran to the door and swung it open.

“Ready?” June asked, smiling, her bike by her side.

“Yup!” I nodded, I threw my lunch in my bag and swung it over my back. Grabbing my bike, we raced to school. The distance to school was short, only about four or five blocks away. June had beat me to the bike lockup section.

“Ha! I won.” June exclaimed.

“Pffttt. It is only because I let you.” I giggled, as we locked up our bikes.

Many conversations were going on around us, all consisting of with people speaking in thick British accents, using many terms I wasn’t exactly familiar with. Although I have sort of gotten used to the whole British accent thing, it still took me time to register what some people said to me.

I saw some girl looking over at us. They talked and giggled to one another. I watched their eyes, realising they were staring directly at me.

“Why are those girls giggling at me?” I asked June.

“I guess, Amanda, spread the news that you still being a virgin.” June shrugged, looking around for the other girls.

“Wow. Am I like the only one in the neighbourhood?” I asked.

“Pretty much.” June laughed. “But who cares, right?”

“Yeah,” I said rolling my eyes.

My blue eyes were now trained on the school building in front of me, as for June and I waited for the other girls.

“Hey, girls!” Mabel waved to June and me, as she, Ally and Elizabeth walked over to us.

“Hey,” June exclaimed.

“Hi,” I said shyly.

“Destiny, what’s wrong?” Ally asked.

“This is a huge school!” I say.

“What you don’t have big schools in Canada.” Elizabeth laughed.

“No, we do, but, like, I’ve never, actually, attended any of them,” I explained, peeling my eyes of the building, and looking at my friends.

“Well, then let’s go in. Shall we?” June suggested.

“We shall!” I exclaimed, with a bright smile. We walked into the office, as the girls pulled out their schedules, which they have received in the mail during the summer.

We walked over to the door with the words “Office” plastered over it.

An old lady, behind the counter, spoke in a thick accent. “How may I help you, dears?”

“Hi, Ms Anderson. This is Destiny Baker.” June introduced me.

“Hi.” I smiled at her.

“Oh, hello, dear. What can I do for you?” Ms Anderson smiled warmly. June looked at me, to answer her.

“Well, I need my schedule, please,” I informed her.

“Here you go, sweetheart. Have a good day, now.” Ms Anderson smiled at me, handing me my schedule. June pulled out hers as we joined the other girls again, as we all begun to compare our plans.

“Alright, then. Off to classes!” Mabel exclaimed as the ten-minute bell rang. We started to head in different directions to our various classes. My first class was Literacy, in room 213, with June. When we finally found the classroom, I am pretty sure we walked in late, since the teacher was explaining what she had written on the board.

“Ah, June. And you must be Destiny Baker. I am Mrs Carl. You two quickly find an empty seat.” Mr Carl hurried us, giving our greetings, as well.

The classroom was large, with soft grey coloured walls. A large window, was positioned, on the large wall - opposite to the door. There were three columns of paired desk. As, June and I found two empty seats, at the back, middle column of the classroom, I realised Harry, was seating in the desk, to the left of me.

I pulled out my notebook and tried to copy down what Ms Carl was saying.

As I was scribbling down the notes, on short story basics, I could feel Harry’s star on me. Suddenly, I felt a tap on my should. Looking over my left shoulder, I was met by the familiar, bright green eyes. I jumped a little in my seat, over the two months I’d known him, I never realised how … beautiful they were.

I noticed Harry’s smirk at my jumpiness.

“Guess we have literacy together,” Harry says.

“No, really?” I sarcastically said, is a hushed voice. “I thought we had cooking class together.” Harry laughed, at my sarcastic remarks.

I returned my attention to Mrs Carl, again, trying to tune into her lecture about how we were going to spend the rest of the first semester, and everything we were going to cover. Although, it was so difficult to concentrate, when, out of the corner of the eye, I could see Harry’s eyes trained on me. He hadn’t heard a single thing the teacher said.

Feed up, with 10 minutes of class left, I turned around, and whispered, angrily, for him to pay attention. Harry, only, shook his head in response. Raising an eyebrow, I looked at June or answers, who only gave me a shrug and laugh.

The bell rung to my relief, finally. I said goodbye to June, before I ventured around the school, to my next class – Chemistry.

“Hey, Destiny,” Harry called after me, catching up as he walked by my side.

“Please, don’t tell me you have Chemistry next.” I pleaded.

“No, I don’t. Why, though? Do you not like me?” Harry asked, jokingly sounding offended.

“No. it is just that you stare … A LOT! And it's creepy.” I explained, emphasising on the “a lot”.

“Oh sorry, there was something in your hair. I meant to tell you, but I am like now, it looks like a face. So I let it be for my amusement.” Harry laughed.

“Harry!” I exclaimed, rummaging my hand through my hair, trying to take out whatever was there.

“Calm down.” Harry laughed, taking the piece of paper, out of my hair. “I’ll walk to your class, I got Phys. Ed next door.”

Harry walked me to my Chemistry class before he had left for his. As we walked, talking away, I noticed several girls staring at us. Some giggled, and others gave me dirty looks. All of them were whispering something. If it is about me being a virgin, I swear to god, I am going to burst.

“Harry … what are they talking about?” I asked, feeling insecure.

“Who cares? These people love to stir up drama. They need something to talk about. It doesn’t matter.” Harry assured me. I nodded, as I entered the class, and waved goodbye to him.

I slumped into an empty seat in the second to last row of the room, next to a girl with wild red hair. She turned to me and smiled, “You must be the new girl, Destiny. I’m Melody.”

“Yeah.” I nodded. I’ve got used to people suddenly knowing my name, without me ever telling them or meeting them ever before.

“Where are you from? Clearly, it is not England.” Melody says, with a little laugh.

“Ontario, Canada.”

“Oh cool. You are a Canadian!”

“Yeah.” I chuckled.

“How long have you been here now?” Melody asked.

“Two months.”

“You like England, so far?”

“Yeah, it's pretty nice. I already made a couple of good friends.”

“Oh cool.”

“Meet anyone interesting?” Melody smirked, raising her eyebrow, hinting at a boy.

“Actually …” I began but was interrupted by a man, heavily clearing his throat. Melody and I looked up to see our chemistry teacher, looking over me and shuffled.

‘Wow. How kind of you to introduce yourself, Mr Teacher.’ I commented, to myself.

Melody looked over at me and burst into laughter.

“What … oh my gosh,” I whispered to her, realising something, “Did I say that out loud?”

“Yeah.” She nodded, calming her laughs down.

“Crap,” I swore.

“I like you. You’re funny.” Melody giggles.

“I’m Mr Dave, by the way. You’re chemistry teacher.” The teacher says, with his eyebrow raised up. I heard shuffling of a few footprints behind me, as the people sat down. I didn’t bother to turn around.

“Hello, Mr Dave. Sorry for my comment.” I shyly apologise, looking down at my desk, ashamed, as my cheeks turned bright red.

“Oh, it's alright.” Mr Dave laughed, surprised by my apology. “Shall we begin?”

I replied with a nod, as so did a few other students. Mr Dave began his lesson, explaining the way the school semester was going to work for us. After the brief introduction, he gives us our first project – a group project.

“I’ll be pairing you off, into groups of four. Alright?” Mr Dave explained as he started calling off names. After, going through the whole class, he finally came to me. “Melody, you can be with … the new girl. What’s your name, dear?”

“Destiny. Destiny Baker.” I say, before turning to Melody, “The first person who doesn't know my name. Wow!”

“Oh. Baker. I hope you live up to that name.” Mr Dave says to me.

“Nevermind.” I sighed, slumping into my chair.

“Too soon.” Melody giggled.

“Alright, Melody and Destiny, you will be in a group with …” Mr Dave thought, looking around the room, before landing his eyes on two people behind where Melody and I were seated, “Niall and Zayn.”

The full smile that was gracefully painted upon Melody’s face fell almost immediately upon hearing their names. Just then, someone kicked the back of my seat.

“Hey!” I sneered, whipping my head around to be met by a pair of familiar blue eyes, gleaming down at me.

“Looks like we’ll be together, love,” Niall smirked at me.

“Goodness, Niall!” I say, rolling my eyes, as I hear Melody groan, and rolled her eyes, as well.

“Do you know these idiots?” Melody questioned me.

“Yeah. We met over the summer.” I explained with a nod.

“What’s wrong with you, Melody? Do you not like us?” Zayn quizzed her, with a grin.

“What’s wrong with me?! You have got to be kidding me.” Melody glared at him. “Destiny, don’t talk to them. You should try not to be associated with these jerks.” Her green eyes no longer held that bright light, I had seen earlier.

I nodded, shyly. Apparently knowing the boys all summer, wasn’t enough.

I zoned in on Mr Dave’s explanation of the projects. He explained that we would have to find time, outside of school, to work on these. I was all right with the idea but seemed that Melody hated the very idea.

After the bell had rung, I made my way to my next class – Accounting, which was with Mabel and Ally. I walked with Melody since her next class was just in front of mine.

Along the way, she told me more about herself and her family. She was an only child as well, with a single mum. Her dad had died of cancer when she was ten-years-old. Afterwards, I decided to switch the conversation.

“Why don’t you like Niall and Zayn?” I asked. She tensed at their names.

“Look, they’re horrible people. They aren’t the kind you want around you.” She explained, in much more calm tone.

“Why? I have heard it before, from my friends, but they didn’t say much.”

“They get into fights, always partying, always in trouble. In one year, they had to do summer school, and night school because they were too busy fighting and having sex to show up to class. The number of girls they’ve slept with is countless. Especially their friend, Harry. He is the worst of them all. Most girls love him, they fear but love him. Most guys hate his guts and fear him, so much. He is strong, very strong. Stay away, okay? You’ll end up hurt if you get involved with one of them. Also, don’t even think about falling in love with him. It’ll ruin you, trust me.”

I nodded, as we entered our different rooms, where I met up with Ally and Mabel, for Math class. The class went my smoothly, and pretty uneventful. It only consisted of the teacher talking away about how the semester was going to be for us.

Finally, that class finished, and it was time for lunch. Ally, Mabel, and I walked into the lunchroom and sat down at an empty table, in the corner.

“Hey, guys!” I waved to the girls, as I saw them come towards us.

“Hey, Destiny. How was your first day in this, large, school?” June laughed.

“Great.” I giggled.

“Meet anyone new?” Mabel asked.

“Yeah, this girl named, Melody,” I explained.

“Oh no!” Elizabeth exclaimed, “Stay away from her. That bitch caused a lot of problems for us.”

“What, why? What did she do?” I questioned them.

“You tell her, I am going to get us some food,” June explained.

“I got lunch from home, I am good,” I informed her. June nodded, before disappearing, into the long lineup.

“Melody is the reason why I’m not dating Liam anymore. The reason why Elizabeth is not with Louis. Mabel’s not with Zayn and June is not with Niall.” Ally explained, anger boiling up within her.

“She told me to stay away from Harry and his friends,” I explained.

“Why?” Mabel questioned me.

“I don’t know. She gave me, this whole paragraph on why the boys are horrible and not good news, and what not.” I shrugged.

“Just don’t let her come near us.” Ally tensed, “Or I will rip her head off.”

“And don’t tell her any secrets, or she’ll mess up your entire life,” Elizabeth warned me. I nodded, knowing where my loyalty lay.

“You didn’t tell her anything, right?” Mabel asked.

“No. I just told Melody, about how long I’ve been here, and how I liked the place. I was about to tell her, that I sort of liked Harry, but the teacher interrupted.” I shyly said, shrugging.

“What!!” Elizabeth exclaimed.

“Don’t worry, the teacher interrupted us,” I quickly said, trying to calm her down.

“No. No. You like Harry!” Mabel exclaimed, in a low whisper.

“Oh, um. Yeah, I guess, I don’t know.” I shyly shrugged, giggling.

“Aww! Your first crush!” Elizabeth exclaimed, all dreamily.

“Oh shut up!” I said, throwing a ball of paper at Elizabeth, struggling to hide my smile.

“What happened?” June asked, placing down our food onto the table.

“Destiny found her first crush!” Mabel exclaimed, in awe.

“WHO?!” June cried.

“Harry.” Ally smirked.

“Oh gosh.” June laughed in joy.

“Well, I don’t know if I do. I mean. I probably even don’t.” I quickly added.

“Okay, do you think about him a lot?” Elizabeth questioned me.

“Well, what do you call me wanting to talk to him every night, before going to bed,” I asked.

“Crushies.” Mabel squealed.

“Okay, what else? Why do you think you like him?” June asked.

“Every night, after I finished talking to him. I would lie awake, smiling for like an hour, before I fell asleep. Whenever I see his green eyes, my heart feels like its fluttering. It’s so, weird, but feels so … amazing. And, I don’t know, I just … I just do.” I say, thinking of Harry’s beautiful, green eyes. Thinking about his perfection, gave me goosebumps.

“I think he likes you back.” Ally declares.

“You think?” I questioned her, sounding a little too excited than I should have.

“Oh yeah. Man, the way he looks at you sometimes, it's adorable.” Ally explains.

“Oh my gosh, I’ve seen those looks too, but as soon as he gives them, he'll quickly snap himself out, and pretend that never happened. Like, he was trying not to fall.” Mabel added.

I didn’t know what to say, except smile like the diet I was, and nod. The girls had laughed at my actions before we carried on talking about our first day.

“Mabel, June, Elizabeth, and Ally, can I please speak to you girls?” a teacher called them. They nodded, as they got up to go to the teacher. Before leaving, they all turned to me.

“I'll be all right,” I assured them, motioning for them to go on. I sat at the table alone, sort of feeling weird. Pulling out my phone, I began to play the favourite game, colour switch.

Looking up from my phone, I saw everyone is deep conversations – laughing and chatting away. Suddenly, the room’s dynamic shifted – intent whispers could be heard all around the section of the lunch room, I was in. Studying everyone’s faces, I noticed most of the girls blushing and trying to fix their hair and straighten out their uniform as if they were trying to impress someone. Some of the guys looked afraid, and other seriously angry. Everyone’s eyes seemed to be following something behind me.

‘What the heck was going on?’ I thought, clenching onto my phone.

“Boo!” someone harshly whispered into my ear.

“AAH!!” I screamed, jumping out my seat, as my heart leaps and nearly stops. I whipped around to met by Harry’s emerald eyes, along with the roaring laughter of his friends.

“What the hell is wrong with you?” I exclaimed as the laughing died down, and my breathing was standard, again. The eyes of everyone in the lunchroom seemed to glue on us, as Harry smirked down at me.

“Sorry, love. Didn’t mean to frighten you.” He smirked, winking at me. Harry seemed to be shouting his words as if he wanted everyone to hear, so I decided to play along.

Crossing my arms, and gritting my teeth, I said, “What do you want, Curly?” Harry’s eyes narrowed into mine, his lips twitched, as he tried not to smile at my comment. I heard a few gasps and more whispering.

‘Probably not suppose to call him that, huh?’ I thought to myself.

“You. I want, you.” He says, watching me as if he were expecting me to start jumping around in joy, clapping with excitement. Took me a while to register what he was trying to say, “You can come with me to the party on Friday night.”

‘You have got to be kidding me. Melody wasn’t wrong, I guess. Knowing someone for two months just is not enough.’ I cursed, in my head.

“Harry, who do you think you are? I can come with you? What? Did I win some sort of prize? Are you a prize, Harry? Not very good one, are you now? I would much rather want a garbage can.” I spat out, angry at his actions. More gasps and whispers followed.

“Excuse me?” Harry growled, raising an eyebrow, as he stepped forward. His jaw tensed, and he did not look very pleased, but I could care less at this moment. He has no right to treat me like this.

“What? Did I say something wrong? Goodness, Harry! Whatever happened to, manners and being a gentleman, and asking a girl out politely? Do I look like an object to you? And to think, I thought you were a nice guy.” I continued, rolling my eyes, “Guess I was wrong.”

“Dear God … Destiny.” Elizabeth exclaimed, rushing to my side, pulling me away from Harry, “Let’s go outside, it’s such a beautiful day. Come on.”

Elizabeth and I left the school to the field on the opposite of the school, where Mable, June and Ally had followed us too. Before leaving the lunchroom, I noticed Harry mumble something to Louis before had noticed that everyone was still watching.

“What are you people looking at?!” He roared, throwing his hand into the air. Immediately, everyone turned back to their food and desperately tried to bring up a conversation. Harry stormed out of the room, as Louis and Liam followed behind him.

“Did I make him angry?” I asked, innocently.

“Nooo.” Ally sarcastically says, looking sternly at me, as if I had committed a huge sin.

“Oopsie.” I shrugged, not caring much. Mabel and June looked at me, shook their head, trying to hide their smiles.

“Honestly, what were you thinking?!” Elizabeth exclaimed. “I am pretty sure you know better than to egg some douche bag!”

“Sorry … He had it coming. Harry isn’t allowed to address anyone like that. Clearly, no one else is sticking up for him, so why can’t I? Plus, I guess we all know I don’t like him no more.” I mumbled, looking at my feet, feeling hurt that my best friend was yelling at me.

“Elizabeth, calm down. It's fine, he needed that. His ego is too big.” Ally calmly assured her, as she wrapped her arms around me, to comfort me.

“I know.” Elizabeth sighed, “I just don’t want her to get hurt.”

June and Mabel’s eyes were trained on something behind Ally and me, and begun to tense. Turning around, I see Niall and Zayn standing behind us.

“Hey … Destiny.” Niall nervously chuckled.

“What do you want Niall?!” June angrily exclaimed.

“Oh be quiet honey, I am talking to Destiny,” Niall shooed her off. “Listen, we need to figure out how we are going to work on this project. You and Melody can come over to my house tomorrow right after school. Got it?”

“Sure.” I shrugged, not wanting to make much conversation with them. They are exactly what people say about them … rude, obnoxious and horrible people. I frowned at that thought.

“You already know where I live, if you don’t June does,” Niall smirked, eyeing her.

“You two can go now.” Mabel angrily gritted her teeth.

“Calm down, angel.” Zayn grinned deviously.”By the way, we did not have anything to do with all that. It was all Harry. Trust me.”

“Just leave.” I pleaded.

“Alright. See yeah, then, ladies,” Zayn called back to us as the boys walked away smugly. I let out a sigh before I turned to the girls. Their eyebrows, almost immediately, lifted.

“Explain. Now.” Ally demanded.

“Melody and I were assigned to work on a group project together in chemistry. The teacher put us with Niall and Zayn. We have to work on this outside of school. Also, it is worth a lot of our grade. We can’t switch partners. We tried. Trust me. We tried.” I explained, stressing on the last part.

Notes