CHAPTER 3
~Bitterness is like cancer. It eats upon the host.
But anger is like fire. It burns it all clean.~
:Maya Angelou:
****Samantha’s POV****After we all started settling down in our seats, my friends started sharing their experiences during the summer vacation.
“My family and I went to the states to visit my grandmother, it was fun, but I hate the weather there…” Lucy stated.
Cindy rummaged through her bag and revealed four neatly packaged boxes,
“Chocolates from my dad’s factory!”We started whistling and saying our thanks to Cindy.
“Oooooh! From Uncle Charlie….! Charlie’s Choco Choco Chocolate Factory!” Mark said in a sing-song voice while opening his share.
“My dad’s name is George, Mark… How many times do I have to—”“Oh! Don’t spoil my fun, cupcake.”“Ugh, haha. Anyway, I spent the summer over dad’s factory, hanging out and… eating.” Cindy said sheepishly.
Mark waved his hands,
“No need to be shy too! We know your weight status enough, sister.” 
“Silly bastard.” Cindy jested as she stuck out her tongue,
“How about you Erica?”“Just at home. Gone shopping on weekends. Generally slept during weekdays.” Erica said plainly.
Mark forced a goofy-looking smile.
“How excitiiiing…”I laughed and lightly punched his shoulders,
“Then what did you do over the summer, sugar?””Glad you asked, dear,” he said as he raked through his short blonde-colored hair,
“I met Paris Hiltooooon! And we had a clash; we went shopping, needless to say, we became friends and we started a parteeeey!”We all looked at him with blank expressions on our faces.
He rolled his eyes,
“Okay, okay. I stayed at home, tending to my father, advising me... or more of lecturing me, on and on and on about being…” Mark coughed a little and roughened up his voice,
“…manly again.”I snickered,
“Just as I thought. Well my summer’s just the usual thing, gone out camping with my dad and my brother and the usual bori—”I was cut short since I saw our homeroom teacher’s
bald head popping in and out of the heads of my classmates who were already standing up. I swear his head was undeniably
shiny this day—wait,
sparkling must be the best word!
“Oh my, Mr. Solar is here already…” Mark whispered.
“Take your seats.” Mr. McAllen instructed.
I jokingly rolled my eyes and shrugged continuously in my seat as if to act like I had just sat down—when in truth; I didn’t even stood up in the first place. Mark and the others giggled silently.
Mr. McAllen’s voice boomed,
“As we all know, summer vacation is over, and a new school year is about to start. I know you’re seniors already, but I’ll still round you up guys about the usual rules of the school…”I tried to shut his boring tone off my ears and I successfully did... and that’s when I started daydreaming of…
ice cream. I know that girls usually daydream about boys, but I fantasize of food more than men.
(Food is where Cindy and I mostly agree about, too.)
Out of the blue…*FLASHBACK*
“Do you want to eat?” someone asked—a little boy whose face I can’t make up.
“Eh?”
“Do you want to have ice cream?”
“Why would you want me to eat?”
“You look hungry.” He said plainly.
I giggled while he chuckled a little. “Yup.” I said.
While holding hands, we started running towards this small ice cream shop…
*END OF FLASHBACK*
I bolted up straight.
What was that? I thought.
This was the first time I ever had memories of myself—being a kid.
More than that… who’s that boy?Without finding myself having some sort of a
‘flashback’ again, I gave up and continued to stare off out of the window—but, yes, yes, I had to admit that it bothered me for quite a while.
Surprisingly though, that '
perverted ogre' guy’s face a while ago suddenly popped into the middle of my thoughts. As I recalled that guy’s face, I felt myself flush with extreme irritation—with a mix of shame.
I woke up from my ‘daydreaming’ when I heard girlish shrieks echoing around the room
(Cindy was obviously one of them). I craned my neck so I could see Mr. McAllen’s egg-shaped head.
“As I was saying, we have here a new transfer student. Please introduce yourself, sonny.” Mr. McAllen declared.
I craned my neck more since a lot of my classmates were trying to stand up a little to have a better view of this transfer student. When I finally caught sight of this
“whoever”—my jaw dropped to the floor.
He was the guy who I bumped to earlier!
*dramatic music in background, please* (Wow, I feel like I’m in some sort of show… so cliché…)You could imagine me staring off at this guy, with my mouth half-opened—funny I know, but I was extremely shocked—of all the places to see him again, and it’s in my school? And he’s going to be my new classmate?!
“My name is Luke Richens, and I came from Kingston. I am extremely pleased to meet you all.” The guy gently said as he flashed a… a... okay, okay, he flashed this
adorable smile which sent Mark shrieking like he was in
hysterics.Just as I was about to inform Mark who this Luke was,
I stopped. Kingston? Did he just say Kingston? 
I looked back at Luke and surprisingly, he was looking back at me with this huge grin plastered on his face. I felt my face flush yet again.
Mark who was sitting right in front of me let out a tiny scream. He faced me and exclaimed,
“Luke smiled at me Sam! I’m sure he smiled at me sister! Sister do you hear me? Oh! One home run for Mark, baby….!”Mark started making these
erotic-yet-so-ridiculous dance movements with his hands and I swear I badly wanted to hit his head then and there.
Before I could hush him down, Mr. McAllen said something along the lines of,
“Take a seat somewhere there as you may please Mr. Richens.”My eyes shot wide open and I worryingly looked at the empty seat beside me.
No God, please no….But my plea was too late to even reach the heavens
(I think) because I saw Luke walking up and looking directly at the seat beside me—he was looking at it so intently that it won’t surprise me if he would suddenly eat the desk and the chair.
Once he got up to that seat and settled down, Mr. McAllen started droning on about blah-blah things while Mark kept on batting his eyelashes at Luke. I tried my hardest to keep my head straight, and not look at this… this…
Luke.However, you know those times when you feel as though someone was looking at you? Well I do, and at that moment
I felt it.
I glanced sideways at Luke, and sure enough, he was looking at me with this big 'cutesy' grin again. Gaaaah.
“Yo.” He said.
I couldn’t stop myself.
“What, you pervert?” I silently hissed.
“Nice ‘bumping’ into you, missy... and oh, it’s getting bigger by the minute… That bump… You know, right on your forehead? Hmmm… Want me to heal it for you? Or would you rather want to flash your thighs at me again?” Luke said in a hushed mocking tone, and I blushed (again).
Why this...little hyphy....! “To hell with that!” I hollered, completely forgetting that we were in the middle of class. I looked at Mr. McAllen and to all of my classmates' bemused faces.
Mr. McAllen’s mouth was fully open that I could almost see all of his yellowish teeth.
He must be completely mystified, when I, one of the model students in class, surprisingly a dean’s lister and best behaved student, would suddenly burst out like that. Even Mark has this big bulging eyes looking straight at me.
You see, I always try to keep a ‘
clean record’ in school despite my foolish and weird behavior.
“E-excuse me, Ms. Hayes? Do you have any objection about this trip I’m talking about?” “N-nothing sir! Nothing… I was just…” I immediately racked my almost empty brain for an excuse,
“I was practicing a line for the Harlequin Club… You know it sir, an upcoming play for the school fair… I have to uhhh... sort of practice...”And I did give an excuse—and a lame one at that.
“Oooookay Ms. Hayes, but I advise you not to burst it out during class.” Mr. McAllen said with a disbelieving eye.
My classmates laughed a little, and I joined in. After ‘the’ commotion, I looked at Luke, ready to aim a hardcore-devilish-look at him, but he was innocently looking away.
I felt myself gripping the sides of my chair until my knuckles turned white.
Damn you… 
