Secret Red

Chapter 5

Chapter 5

During the second period, Alison sat beside Corey who was sitting in front of Jason and Shane. The class started as soon as Mr. Gregory walked into the room. He gave a group assignment project on World War I which will be due in two weeks' time. Corey and Shane quickly asked Alison to be in their group knowing that she was good in her studies. Hesitantly, Corey asked Jason to join their group as well hoping that he would set aside his differences with Alison and likewise.

"We have football practice today, how about tomorrow after school? We can do it at... my house? Or do you prefer to do it at your place, Ally? You know, since you're the only girl." Corey suggested as soon as the bell rang.

"I can do tomorrow and anywhere is fine by me." She replied packing her bags.

"Alright your place tomorrow. Text us the address alright. Oh, I don't have your number yet. Give me your phone." Corey waited as she placed her phone then passed it to Shane while they missed call their numbers and passed it back to her. Then, surprisingly, Jason lifted his hand with his palm facing upwards towards her gesturing for her phone as well. Hesitantly, she gave him her phone as he typed his phone number, texted himself and left the class without saying a word. Why does he have to be so mysterious and cool like that. Shoot! Did I just say something nice about that guy? No! He's not cool. Damn it! He's Jason, the annoying prick for God's sake! Once the class ended, she had to walk out to their next class with crimson cheeks. Along the way, she saw Anna and walked up to her.

"Hey Anna. We're in history class together." She smiled at Anna who was looking at her in an odd manner.

"Have you gotten a group for the assignment?" She beamed.

"Nope." She replied shortly after briefly glanced at the person who decided to chat with her when almost everyone had been avoiding her for as long as she can remembered.

She deliberated on the ways to help but since her group of four was already finalized with the boys, she could not bail on them by offering her place for Anna, instead she resolved into telling the teacher to help with the group pairing.

"I can talk to Mr. Gregory to help with the pairing if you want." She offered showing her sincere gesture.

"What do you want? What are you trying to do, exactly? Just leave me alone, please." She insisted wondering why on earth someone would be nice to her out of the blue after all these years of loneliness. Overthinking on all the possible reasons, pranks, torture, pretenses but she could not sense any of those things through Alison's ocean blue eyes.

Before she bolted off, Alison held her arm making her turned to look at each other.

"I may not know what you are going through exactly but I understand how it feels to be treated unfairly and how it feels to be alone, I really do. I just want to help you sincerely, I have nothing up my sleeve or anything. I truly wanted to help and let you know that you are not alone. I will be here no matter how much you will try to push me away. I am Alison, by the way." She explained giving her heartfelt smile.

"Why are you doing this?" She asked unable to comprehend why a person would do something willingly without anything in return.

"Let's just say, I owe it to myself. So, I'll inform the teacher to help you with the groupings, alright?" She said cheerfully.

"No, I can tell him myself. Thanks." She replied tentatively, at least it's a start instead of her pushing her away.

During lunch time, Alison was walking with Zoe in the cafeteria when Corey waved at them from his table where Layla, Shane and Jason sat. They walked towards the table just in time as the MIA girls reached in front of their table first.

"See you at football practice, boys. Don't make your coach yells too much, if you please. My coach won't be too happy about it." Mia said teasingly while batting her eyelashes to Jason which was replied with a curt nod. As soon as she turned around, she accidentally bumped into Alison who stood beside her.

"Look where you are going." She scoffed teasingly.

"I'm standing not going, you are." She replied flatly stealing the initial smirk on Mia's face.

"Someone's being saucy. Move aside now." She ordered.

"Only if you ask nicely." She smiled innocently.

"Aren't you the new girl? That's a whole lot of attitude for a new girl, don't you think?" She questioned in irritation.

"Mia, she's-" Layla intervened.

"I just want to get to know the new girl and-" Mia was not finished when Jason interrupted.

"Just leave if you want to leave, Mia. And sit if you're going to sit, Ariel. I'd very much like to eat in peace!" He nodded towards Alison gesturing for her to sit down which surprised not just Alison but everyone at the table including Mia herself.

"Well then, like a good puppy, go sit." She smiled.

"Mia." He retorted.

"I'm teasing. See you around." Mia said and left. Alison was as confused as her friends towards Jason's reaction. Not directly or obviously, but did he just defended her from Mia? Why would he do that when he was the one who kept on annoying her most of the time? What kind of trick is he trying to play on me, now? Why would he do that? Why? Instead of dwelling on her unreasonable questions, she went to sit at the only available seat which happened to be beside Jason and ate her lunch. The rest of lunch was interesting as Corey continued to entertain them with his corny jokes while the others laughed at his silly actions. Jason stayed quiet as he always do, occasionally laughing along accidentally brushing his arms against Alison's which made her a little jittery on every contact.

Alison waved to Zoe and Layla at the parking lot and made her way all the way back to where she parked her car. Walking towards the car, she stopped wondering what the Bratz girls were doing by her car. Yeah Bratz, instead of calling them MIA girls, she had a strong feeling that they're not as nice as they seems, and they seemed more suitable to be the Bratz who are rich and spoilt brats. 

"Hi, you're Alison Brooke. Where are you from?" Mia asked sweetly.

"You knew my name and you knew which is my car, I'm sure you can find that out yourself." She responded.

"True. I just thought to have a little chat with you. You know a two way communication but I see that you're not interested, huh?" Mia furrowed her brows.

"No, I'm not." She resumed to walk towards the door.

"You've got too much attitude for a new student." Ivy pulled her arm forcefully turning her to face towards them but Alison quickly pulled her arm away from the grip and scoffed.

"Ivy. I'm sorry, we didn't mean to upset you. We simply wanted to say hi and get to know you. I apologize if we frightened you." Mia said gently touching her arm where Ivy had just pulled.

"It's fine." Alison replied feeling bad for being rude when she was nice enough to talk to her kindly. Ivy scoffed in disgust beside them, earning their attention.

"This dork is doesn't deserve our attention and I'll not waste any more time on her. Who does she think she is?" Ivy ridiculed, rolling her eyes.

"Nobody asked you to be here." She snapped staring back at her.

"Well, well. We've got some balls around here. Just be very careful how you use them or you might just lose your head. Ariel." Ivy sneered at the nickname that was given by Jason and walked away, Mia and Amber followed her with a slight apologetic nod.  Alison stepped inside her car and drove off. She knew girls like her, the popular, mean girls who seek attention because of their personal low self-esteem. Dealt with people like them most of the time, in fact, she used to be just like them once upon a time.