Chapter 6

002

• 𝐈’𝐦 𝐒𝐭𝐞𝐥𝐥𝐚 •

─────✧･ﾟ: *✧･

☄. *. ⋆ When Stella woke up the next morning, she was finally officially ungrounded. She had heard rumors that there was going to be someone new at school, but she quickly switched her mind to the test she had, going over what she studied about in her head.

The Harrington girl did everything she had to do to get ready, and left her room. She passed by Steve’s room to see that he was still asleep and she slammed her hand against the door as she walked by.

“Get up, Steve!” She shouted as she made her way down the stairs. “I’m leaving early! Test!” She added, now yelling from the kitchen as she opened the fridge doors. She stared into the refrigerator for a moment before shutting the doors and just grabbing a Pop Tart.

–

☄. *. ⋆ Stella arrived at school to see that none of her friends were there yet. She parked her bike before walking over to the trash can and throwing the Pop Tart wrapper away. The brunette started to make her way over to a bench, only to be stopped by Ava Evergreen, one of the other popular girls who called Stella her friend, even though she didn’t truly know the Harrington.

“Hey, What’s up, Stella!?”

Ava was a jerk, but she sucked up to Stella in order to maintain her popularity.

“Oh, hey, Ava…” Stella greeted with a forced smile. She just wanted to study for her test. “I was just gonna go over my notes for the math test, so I kinda gotta—”

“Okay, cool! I just had to tell you some tea that happened yesterday with Martin B. And I, because—”

“Yeah, Ava, I need to—”

“We were playing spin the bottle at a party—” Stella cringed for a split second before stopping herself, “—and when he spun it, it was, like, so close to landing on me!”

Stella faked a shocked smile. “Oh, that’s— so exciting, Ava! I do need to go over my notes though, so—”

“Yeah, and then he was, like, staring at me the whole time,” Ava gushed. Stella rose her eyebrows, looking down at the girl with a tight-lipped smile. “Oh, wow, Ava, that’s— really cool. I—”

“I know!”

Stella always tried to have a conversation with the girl and listen to what she had to say, but it was never really a conversation, it was more of Ava saying something, Stella trying to reply, and Ava interrupting her, never listening to the Harrington.

“Listen, I need to go over my notes, but I’ll talk to you later, alright?” Stella walked off to a bench beside the school before Ava could reply.

–

☄. *. ⋆ Stella sat at her desk, waiting for class to start. She got there a few minutes early, so there were only a few people there besides her and the teacher.

Once everyone was settled in, the class quieted down a bit, and the teacher started speaking. “Alright, so before we begin our test, I would like to introduce our new student, Maxine.”

“It’s Max,” a voice spoke from the back of the classroom. It was oddly familiar to Stella. Like she’d heard it before, but not enough for it to be identifiable. Stella turned to look at who spoke from her seat at the front of the class, finding herself looking at the same redhead she had seen at the arcade the night before. She had a skateboard leaning against her desk, something Stella hadn’t noticed at the arcade, but the girl very well could’ve had.

The girl — Max — looked over at Stella, feeling the gaze on her, and the two’s eyes met. Stella’s face heated up and she snapped her head back to the teacher as her stomach fluttered.

“I’m sure you’ll all make her feel very welcome,” the teacher smiled, Stella trying to ignore her red face and focus on the class. “Now, Maxine—”

“Max,” the girl corrected once again, this time Stella held back another glance at the redhead.

“Right. My apologies. Now, Max, I understand that you’re new, and this is your first day, so if you’d like, you may choose to read instead of taking the test,” their teacher spoke as Stella shut her eyes, internally scolding herself for swooning over the girl’s looks.

–

☄. *. ⋆ Stella finished the final question before standing up, walking over to the teacher and handing in her paper with a sweet smile.

She found herself glancing at Max again as she made her way back to her seat.

–

☄. *. ⋆ The bell rang, signaling the end of first period. Stella left the classroom to head towards her locker to see Max, who had taken the available locker beside hers.

“Hey,” Stella greeted as she approached her locker, reminding herself not to let her brain short-circuit or let herself become a flustered, embarrassed mess. She started unlocking her locker, and looked at the skateboard in Max’s hand as she swung her locker door open. “Cool skateboard.”

“Oh, thanks,” Max said. “Um, I’m Max,” she introduced herself as she shut her locker and turned to Stella.

“I know,” Stella told her, shutting her locker. “We have first period together.”

“Oh, yeah. Right,” Max shook her head.

“I’m Stella,” the brunette said, pausing to lock her locker. “Well, Estelle, but nobody calls me that. Most people call me Stella.”

Max looked Stella up and down, squinting in consideration, the action of Max’s eyes trailing up and down Stella made the room suddenly feel a bit hotter. The brunette shifted in her stance, collecting herself. “I’m gonna call you Ess,” the redhead told her.

“Cool,” Stella put her ‘cool and confident’ façade back on and shrugged nonchalantly, pushing off of her locker, which she had been leaning on. “I like it,” she said, swinging her bag over her shoulder. “Where are you from, Max?”

“Oh. Uh, California,” the redhead informed her.

“California? Jeez, you came a long way.”

Max spotted the bandage wrapped around Stella’s hand. “What happened?” The redhead asked. Stella followed Max’s gaze to her hand. “It’s a long story. I’ll see you around then, Cali.”

“Yeah…” Max trailed off as Stella was already walking away.

Stella squeezed her eyes shut and smiled, rolling her lips in her mouth as she walked.

Nailed it.

–

☄. *. ⋆ Stella entered her third period: science. The rest of her day after first period was just a usual day, but she was kind of upset that Max wasn’t in any of her other classes so far.

She took her seat at the front of the class, to Dustin’s left. The curly headed boy turned to her. “We have something to tell you at lunch,” he whispered, causing the girl to furrow her eyebrows in confusion.

When everyone quieted down, their teacher, Mr. Clarke placed a model of a brain on his desk. “Meet the human brain. I know, it’s not much. A little gross, even. But think about this: there a hundred billion cells in here, working together as one,” he told them as Stella listened intently.

“No, I did not misspeak. No, I did not stutter. One hundred billion.”

Stella’s gaze quickly switched to the door when it swung open, and into the room came Max, with the principal behind her.

“Ah, this must be our new student,” Mr. Clarke said.

“Indeed, it is. All yours,” the principal confirmed before seeing himself out and shutting the door behind him. Max tried to take her seat at the back of the class, but only for Mr. Clarke to stop her. “Hold up now, you don’t get away that easy. Come on up, don’t be shy,” he looked at Dustin. “Dustin, drum roll.”

The curly-headed boy closed his book and tapped on the cover, imitating a drum roll.

“Class, please welcome… All the way from sunny California… The latest passenger to join us on our curiosity voyage… Maxine!” Mr. Clarke introduced.

“It’s Max,” the redhead corrected, getting a “Sorry?” From Mr. Clarke.

“Nobody calls me ‘Maxine‘. It’s Max.”

“Ah. Well, all aboard, Max!”

And at that, Max found her spot at the back of the class. Dustin, Will, Mike, Lucas, however, turned to stare at the redhead. Stella just rolled her eyes at the boys and turned her head back to the front of the class.

─────✧･ﾟ: *✧･

hiii

so how are you liking this story so far? 🙂

im gonna be updating every friday!!