Head spinning around. I immediately sat up when I realized that I’m in a very awkward position with somebody. He’s the one lying on the floor while I’m on top of him. I scattered all of my books on the floor. Ugh! This is so embarrassing. Just when I prayed, things would go smoothly today. Class hasn't even started yet and now I’m in this kind of situation with somebody.

I bowed down and apologized. “Oh, my gosh! I am so sorry! I didn’t mean it!”

“Fuck it! Hey! Are you blind?! Watch where you’re going!”

I took a glance at the person I’m sitting on and immediately stood up before somebody would see us and get the wrong idea. For Pete’s sake, I didn’t even know this guy. Yet one thing’s for sure, he’s not a student of Parkstones. He’s not wearing a uniform, and he looks cranky and mean. Probably a new staff member or maybe a transferee.

He stands up and shakes the dust on his jacket before he walks away. “Wait a minute, I even apologized to him. What’s with that shitty attitude? Aish, forget about it. Who's not looking?! How rude!” That’s vulgar of him! Just who the hell does he think he is to talk to me that way? I’m already stressed with schoolwork. And this time bomb of a guy adds up to my problems. He’s handsome, but his attitude?! This must be a joke. Nevermind, I should get going. Even if I had the strength to punch that guy for being mean, I couldn’t. We bumped into each other in front of the principal’s office.

I’m already inside the classroom and my head’s pretty chill now. Popping on my earphones and listening to music. We’re already in our second subject and we’re all waiting for our teacher in Literature class. Celine is just on my left, scrolling through her Instagram like the usual. The classroom is so noisy. Even if I turned my volume to the highest level, I can still hear the back seaters trash talking to each other and the front seaters with their girl talks that were started by Dave. It was until the classroom turned silent. I thought the Literature teacher came, but it was our class adviser, Miss Jiang.

“Ahem, good morning class,” she greeted.

We all stood up to greet her. “Good morning, Miss Jiang.”

With her arms crossed, she walked around. The sound of her heels echoing the whole classroom.

“Since Ma’am Gozon is absent, I’d like you all to be in your best behaviour today. Just because there wasn’t a teacher doesn’t mean that you can all act recklessly in this class. Respect the other students studying and don’t be noisy. What do you think this place is? The bar? Now settle down.” Then she sighed as she rubbed her temples. “By the way, you have a new classmate that’ll be joining you today. Be nice to him.”

She beckoned someone outside, standing at the doorway. “Please come in and introduce yourself.”

I stared at Celine and gave her the ‘what-the-hell-is-going-on’ kind of look. She just shrugged and told me to look at the board. I widened my eyes in shock when I saw the person standing next to our teacher. It was the guy who I bumped into earlier. Here’s the catch. Our first encounter was terrible. Just who does he think he is?. The son of the owner of the school or something? Still, how can he ever be so rude? Guys like him make me so mad! They’re being guys and then they’d act as if they have the entire world under their feet.

Before he can even introduce himself, the classroom filled with screams of excitement. Especially Dave’s group. Oh boy, I want to squeal to, in pure horror. So he’s the transferee they’re talking about?!

“Holy shit, it’s Richard Park?! He was the one in The Strange World and Love And Letter series, right?”

“Oh my gosh, so he’s the transferee?! I’m excited!”

“Yes, my dear! The one and only! I can’t believe that he’s actually going to be our classmate! I now have the chance to marry him!”

“Shut up, Dave, you don’t have a uterus.”

What the actual—Who would’ve thought? Oh god, my only wish for this moment is to disappear like a puff of smoke or for the earth to split open and swallow me whole.

Wait, I must remain calm. I already have a lot of problems in my life and I will not let him be my problem.

“Based on your reactions, I supposed that most of you already know my name. But allow me to introduce myself to the people at the back.” He then glanced at me as he emphasized the last word. Shit, he knows.

“Richard Neal Park. Please, just call me Neal for short.” He smiled and waved, leaving everyone in awe, except for me, of course. I winced. Ew, I want to freak out so bad, he’s so cringe! I can feel the ick and it makes me puke. He looks so fake, god.

I didn’t realize that Celine was tapping on my shoulder until she pinched me in my arms. “Ouch! What’s going?”

“Girl, you were spacing out. Are you okay, Cubs? You look pale?”

“Ah, this is nothing. I was just thinking about something.” I laughed slightly. Could this day get any worse? Like, it’s only the second subject. What else could go wrong? I might sound like I’m overreacting, but I don’t care. I just couldn’t believe that the rude guy from earlier is my classmate! Also, he is a Park. He’s probably related to the owner of Parkstones. No wonder why he seems to be a self-centered brat.

“Okay Mr. Park, you can sit beside Miss Wei on the third row, second to the last seat on the right.”

I cursed, internally, of course. I don’t want to be thrown to the guidance office and risk my clean record just because of how I felt towards some privileged jerk. Not to mention, he’s a stuck-up, arrogant jerk. Whoever his lover is, poor girl.

Thirty minutes have passed ever since that unfortunate second encounter and I can’t have my space. Jeez, it’s expected that my seatmate is a girl magnet too. Everyone is circling us and I can barely breathe because everyone is squeezing their way just to talk to him.

“Ladies, calm down. One by one.” He chuckled. Give me a break! I don’t want to waste this precious break because of him. Oh please, I wouldn’t be affected that much if only I was sitting at the front, or if beside Celine. Anywhere as long as it's not beside him.

I don’t know what happened, but then the girls are back in their usual places and I wasn’t paying much attention since I was listening to music and was trying to sleep. I sleep during break times; you know.

“So you’re in this class as well. Who would’ve thought.” He chuckled, and I heard it. I just had to ignore him till class was over. I still have to study for the quiz.

“Why? Do you have a problem with it?”

“Look, I want to apologize to you, Miss Wei. I was in a bad mood earlier.”

“Huh.” I scoffed. I don’t have the energy to talk. All the things that happened a while ago, all of my energy got wasted because of that. Now, I’m feeling like a zombie.

I face him and take off my earphones. “Neal, I don’t care who you are, your background and everything. Can you please just stop bothering me for like the next few minutes?”

He clicked his tongue and smirked at me. “Why so? I think you should be thankful that you have someone like me for a classmate.” Oh god, I think I just found a Mr. Collins wannabe. First he was rude, and now he’s being conceited. Argh! Forget about him. I should text Ricky if he’s doing well and not playing video games.I hope he’s doing fine.

“You know what? I don’t care if you’re a huge celebrity or whatever your social status is. Your reason is not a valid excuse to treat somebody rudely.” I blurted out, and he just ignored me.

“Ugh! This jerk!” I hissed under my breath. He leaned closer to me and frowned. “Did you say something?”

I smiled sarcastically and replied, “Um, no.”

“Hm, good.”

Dear god, please give me enough patience to handle this annoying seatmate of mine. Gosh! The atmosphere feels suffocating that I can barely breathe. Almost all of them are staring in our direction.

Our morning classes ended, which it felt like forever. Celine and I are currently at the cafeteria eating our lunches. We rarely go here for lunch. If Ricky’s here, we’d be eating at one of the school gardens near the Parks’ rest-house, which is a restricted area. We can only go there if we have Ricky with us, since the guards in that area knew Ricky and they seem to be close. It used to be the four of us, but ever since Anton became the leader of the soccer team, it’s now only the three of us most of the time.

Ever since that weirdo transferred here today, the mood felt different. Everyone’s looking at him in awe, like he’s Adonis, the mortal lover of Aphrodite.

“Cubs.” I called Celine, who’s currently chewing on her eggplant omelette.

“Hm?”

“There’s something weird about the transferee… ”

“What’s with him?” She asked before she took a sip from her water bottle.

I sighed as I shrugged my own thoughts. “Nevermind, Wanna drop by at Ricky’s after school? He texted me this morning that he’s sick.”.

“That’s who you’re calling sick?” She then pointed behind me as she pouted with her lips, telling me to look behind. There, I saw Ricky running in our direction, carrying his laptop bag. Celine said that she’s just going to buy some spring rolls and will be back in a sec.

I waved at him. “Ricky!”

He smiled at me as he waved back. “Via!” He pulled out a chair and sat beside me. “So how are you? I just heard about the new transferee in your class that everyone was talking about. How was meeting with him?”

I breathed in, trying to stop my mouth from saying blunt words, “To tell you the truth…” I want to forget everything that happened in the entire morning session. We’re permanent seatmates till the entire school year’s over and he keeps on bothering me! Then if it’s not him, it would be our classmates! Damn it.

“Hm?” He tilted his head, looking interested at the topic we’re in and expecting an answer.

“He’s not bad.”

He squinted his eyes and pouted. “Via, I know that you’re lying.” Well, damn, he knows me too well.

“Okay, okay! Fine! I don’t like that arrogant, narcissistic jerk! He bothers me, like a lot! Did you know who I literally bumped into this morning? It was him. He was the one who crashed me first, and he didn’t even bother to help me, nor did he even apologize. How rude! Just because he’s an actor and everyone loves him doesn’t give him the right to mistreat somebody!”

He went silent for a few seconds, probably shocked at my sudden outburst. It was then when Celine put a cold can of cola on my cheek.

“Boy, no wonder why you’re acting moody since the first period. You were frowning constantly, like you’re brooding over something deeply. Ricky, this girl kept on sighing and she never told me what the problem was.” She gave us the cans of soda that she bought. “Here. Via, calm down.” I opened the can as it let out a fizzing sound that feels like music to my ears.

“Hm, I see.” He uttered.

“Oh gosh. If only you’ve seen how our seat was flocked with women a few hours ago just because he’s my seatmate. It was break time, and I barely made the most of it! I could’ve slept the whole period, darn.” I complained.

Ricky chortled slightly, which made my heart tingle a little. “Wait, you still sleep during breaks Via? I thought you’re over that already?”

I nodded and laughed. “Well, of course. Just when class is over or when there’s enough time to sleep.” I can hear Celine stifling her giggle. Oh shit! I can feel my heartbeat racing.

Celine pinched my cheek in amusement. “But you’re the only one who sleeps in class and you almost got in trouble for it.”

Eventually, we started walking back to our classrooms, and then Ricky parted ways with us. He also told us that his stomach was hurting, and that's why he was absent. I hated to see him go. But I despise being late for my classes. Priorities baby, priorities.