Charlotte

As the clock struck 8 in the morning, and Charlotte's alarm went off, she couldn't help but groan at the incessant, ear-drum murderer sound. Her hand shot out to smack against the one button on top to finally make it stop, a peaceful silence creeping into her room when it did. She wasn't a morning person at all, never was, and she figured that that would never change; which wasn't the worst thing in the world, but it was clearly a hassle for her.

With her eyes still half closed, she slipped out of bed, leaving the warm comfort of her blanket, to paddle into the adjoining bathroom. The apartment she was living in wasn't the biggest, which was understandable considering it was a student building but also not the smallest; her father made sure she got one of the best rooms that were in the building, and he made sure it was as fancy as possible. The building was only for the students from Ravenwood College, it was a residence, even if the school preferred not to call it that.

Stripping off her clothes, she stepped into the shower and spent half an hour under the steaming hot water, washing herself to perfection, before leaving to dry herself up. Blow drying and styling her hair came next, the light make-up she put on quickly following as she sat by her vanity. Putting on her last finishing touches and dabbing some strawberry gloss on her plump lips, she decided it was time to get dressed and leave.

The uniform at Ravenwood depended on many factors, such as whether you were an athlete or not, which grade you were in, which of the two 'houses' you were in, and whether you were an honour student or not; but overall, they all had the same base: a striped tie, a white button up collar shirt, a black V collar sweater, a black blazer with the school's symbol sewn on with a dark navy blue, black pants for men and a black skirt for women; girls also wore long socks that stopped just below the knee when it was cold out.

Since she was an honour student the school's symbol was sewn with gold thread, the stripes on her tie were also gold, and the collar of the sweater was gold as well; and because she was in the Hawk's house the interior of her blazer was crimson red, but why red was the colour chosen was a mystery to her, she would've opted for navy if she was the one making the choice. The honey-eyed girl clipped on the pin that showed she was on the honour roll, it wasn't a very big pin but she prided herself in having it; just a gold raven-shaped pin. She got dressed, made sure no wrinkles were visible on her clothing, and adjusted herself until she was satisfied with the way she looked and the way the fabric clung to her curves.

Charlotte then tidied up her hair, she had 3A curly hair and it was a mess most of the time, it was so frizzy and a strand was always in her face; that was why she rarely let it loose, at least not at school. She decided on a high ponytail since she was completely unable to braid her hair, she had tried but she didn't have the patience.

She had forgotten the time while getting ready, which made her movements rather quick by walking faster than usual to the doors of the school. It was a Monday, abnormally cold for it being only mid-October. The leaves were slowly changing colours and falling to the ground, making beautiful scenery. The school was huge, having one section of the building solely for seniors, where they had all their classes except for art and physical education. Her locker was on the third floor, close to the English class, she had most of her books in her bag, yet she always went to her locker in between classes just to unlock it, stare at it, and then lock it up again.

When the bell finally rang to indicate they had to head to their classes, she threw her bag over her shoulder after placing her books and pencil case inside before heading out of the class. She had math, and she enjoyed it way more than she would ever enjoy science. Science was her least favorite subject, especially physics, and she didn't know why. It wasn't like she was struggling in chemistry, physics, or biology but she did have to put in way more effort than usual when it came to taking exams or homework. Perhaps it was just that the teacher was so bland that she couldn't enjoy the subject, or perhaps she simply found it boring. She couldn't yet find a solid reason for it.

Charlotte was not the greatest at holding proper conversations, but she did manage to get herself a small friend group along with a competitor. Well, he wasn't exactly a 'competitor' but that's what he was to her. She didn't mind being on the same level as him though she could never tolerate being second. However, ever since 10th grade, the two had more and more classes together which led to them helping each other out more often. They weren't enemies, but they weren't friends either; what irritated her the most was that he was the only person who could find a way to annoy her, the sole fact he breathed the same air as her was enough to make her hate him. God knew that if she could just put him in a room full of venomous snakes for half a minute, she would jump to the opportunity with no hesitation whatsoever. Unfortunately, she cared too much about her reputation to do that.

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One thing about the school she attended was that reputation was everything, and that gossip spread around faster than a fire in the middle of a forest. Another important thing was that houses were highly important at school, this came from the fact that the school was made by fusing two schools; making two houses, The Hawks and The Ravens, which every year competed for points to win the title of the year. Because of this rivalry, dating a person not in your 'clan' or 'house' was not well seen, and honestly it hadn't happened often, or at all.

When the curly-haired girl got to the Mathematics classroom, she sat down in her original seat which was on the third row of a total of 5 rows. She hated sitting right in the front and the back hence why she mostly sat down only at the third throw. This was the only class where she didn't have any friends. Mainly due to the fact she never bothered socializing with the others unless she needed to, she always had her nose up in a book or she was busy doing some homework; but there was also the reason that the school required a 90% average in math to take calculus, and the reality of the situation was that only a few in their class had such a high grade.

Before class started, she took both her notebook and pencil case out of her book bag. However, she also pulled out one of her books to secretly read just for the beginning of class, knowing the teacher would just revise what the class had done over the past few days for the first twenty minutes.

As the bell rang, she eyed the almost late student, of course, it had to be him because why would he ever bother to get to class at an appropriate time? Charlotte ignored the boy who was now greeting the teacher and looked straight ahead; she didn't want it to seem like she was giving him attention. Either way, it didn't bother her much seeing as he would probably sit down in the last row, as usual; the next seconds, however, proved she was very very mistaken. Indeed, her competitor, as she called him, sat down right beside her, arms crossed over his chest and his gaze staring straight at the board.

Jackson Power, looking all high and mighty with the arrogant look he always had in his eyes. Why would he sit down next to me? Charlotte thought with a small frown, it couldn't mean anything good. It was a bad idea, she acknowledged it, and the whole class probably already knew it was a bad idea. Heck, maybe even the teachers. She felt a bit insulted at the fact he could casually sit next to her without asking for permission. It was the least he could do and perhaps she'd consider it although she knew her final answer would still be a 'no'.

Charlotte eyed him up and down, detailing him for a minute to try and figure out what he wanted from her. His hair was a wet curly mess, probably from him always having a beanie on his head that wasn't allowed in class or at school; his tie wasn't straight and it wasn't tight enough but that didn't change from the usual, she knew he had gotten various warnings because of it from the teachers; his silver necklace was tucked in his impeccably white but wrinkled shirt whose cuffs were not buttoned; and she didn't even want to get started on the collar of his shirt, it was messy, god would he ever learn to dress properly? It seemed as if he had gotten dressed in under twenty seconds and hadn't looked in the mirror before leaving his dorm, but that wasn't Charlotte's business, although she made it her job to bother him about it every once in a while.

Power was an athlete which meant he had another symbol sewn in his blazer with stated his sport, the biggest difference between that uniform and Charlotte's was that it was of a dark green; indeed, Jackson was in the Raven house. Since he was also an honour student, he had the symbol sewn in with silver thread and his tie had stripes of silver, he also had the same pin as Charlotte but silver.

"It's reserved, Power" She blurted after she was done trying to figure out his intentions, in vain. She made her notebook stand as she opened up her book, 'Lord of the Flies'.

It was a book that she read back in middle school, for fun, and once she did finish it, it somehow became her comfort book. Charlotte herself didn't exactly enjoy reading since she preferred visual references over texts and having to imagine everything. Yet this book managed to find a way to become her comfort book. Whenever she was bored, stressed, or upset, then she'd simply reread it and it gave her the perfect distraction she needed. It wasn't exactly a whole 'happy yay' type of book though it still made her feel better after reading a few pages. It was like she was in another world.

Surprisingly, he hadn't left. Perhaps her lie had been too obvious. Maybe he'd still believe her and get up though currently that wasn't happening which made her irritated. Despite that, she remained calm and civil for the sake of not getting expelled or suspended. She decided it was best to ignore him for the rest of her life unless an emergency came up and she prayed to the universe that it wouldn't happen, ever.

Jackson didn't seem to want to get up, he only moved his gaze toward her "For who? Your imaginary friend Torres?"