Jed nudges me with his arm. I look at him, confused. He doesn’t look at me: just points ahead. I follow his finger to see where he’s pointing and it leads me directly to an annoyed looking Miss Odell.

She raises her eyebrows. “Well, Pablo?”

Shit. She’s picked on me to answer a question and I wasn’t even listening.

“Sorry, Miss. I can’t hear you that well from here. Could you repeat that?” I ask innocently.

Miss Odell rolls her eyes and sighs. “Clearly you weren’t paying attention, Pablo,” She tuts. “Daydreaming,” She shakes her head. “So tell me Pablo, what exactly where you day dreaming about? Because its obviously much more important then learning how to write an essay for GCSEs.”

“I was thinking about a-“ I begin.

“Girl? Were you thinking about a girl Pablo?” Miss Odell interrupts. The class sniggers.

"No," I correct her. “I was actually thinking about a-“

“Pablo. Are you sure you weren’t thinking about a girl? Because I’m pretty certain you were. And I know exactly who.” Miss Odell yet again interrupts me.

“Miss. I wasn’t thinking about a girl. I was thinking about a football match I had yesterday.” I say.

“Oh,” Miss Odell frowns. “I thought you were thinking about Haley Thirwall.”

The class laughs, and I look at Jed, embarrassed. But Jed is slouched forward onto the desk, shaking with laughter. Prick.

I look around the room at Haley. There’s a look of disgust on her face and she’s bright pink.  “Eww! You thought Pablo liked me?” She squeals.

“I’m pretty certain he’s liked you a few times before.” Miss Odell frowns.

“I’ve never liked Haley!” I exclaim. Which is the complete truth. Haley breaks hearts: boys’ and girls’. Why girls’? Because she stops being friends with them.

**************************************************

Let’s start with telling you a few things about my life. So, as I’m probably sure you’ve figured out by now, Jed is one of my friends. Actually, he’s my best friend. I’ve known him since year five. Another, I definitely do not like Haley Thirlwall. I hope I’ve made that clear.

Thirdly, my school is messed up. Especially Miss Odell. She likes to think she’s the age of the kids in her class (with my class, either fourteen or fifteen) but in reality, she’s at least fifty. I also love sport, but I mainly do football. I like running as well.

School’s alright I guess, but it’s just a bit boring at the moment. I kinda like it when a new person arrives, because then you can decide if you should try to be their friend or not. We haven’t had a new person in ages. 

“Hey, Pabs, pass me a fork will ya?” Jed asks me.

I have no idea why he calls me Pabs. Like, you literally can’t change “Pablo” without it sounding weird.

I pass him a fork as well as getting myself one.

“Ay, wass for lunch today?” Jed nudges me.

I stand on my tiptoes to look over the heads of the people in front of me. “Pizza.” I tell him.

He pulls a face. For some reason, Jed doesn’t like pizza. He is so weird. “Anything else?” He asks.

I try to stand higher. “There’s macaroni cheese for vegetarian. And shepherd’s pie. Oh, and a lonely cheese sandwich.”

Jed sighs. “This school is unbelievable.” He mutters.

**************************************************

Once I get my food, I find a spare table near the back. Soon, Jed joins me. A blue bag appears on the table diagonal to me and Haley sits down. Straight after, Haley’s friend Effie sits down opposite me. Effie glares at me with her brown eyes. I dunno what’s her problem.

None of Haley’s friends seem to like me. Neither does Haley. But yet Haley manages to find her way onto the table I’m sitting on.

I ignore them and continue eating my pizza. When I’m just about to take my second slice, Haley points her fork at me. I stop and frown at her.

“Do you like Natalia?” She asks curiously.

Natalia’s another of Haley’s friends. She has false silver nails and a Chihuahua named Princess. It’s pathetic.

“No I don’t. And neither as a friend.” I reply.

Haley nods, but I can tell she’s got something up her sleeve. I watch her for a moment, but she doesn’t do anything more.

**************************************************

When I arrive at school the next day, Jed immediately comes over to me. “Have you seen her?” He asks.

I frown. “Seen who?”

“The new girl,” Jed replies. “She won’t tell me her name. I already asked. She told me to fuck off. But she’s peng!"

I roll my eyes. “Jed, you think every girl is peng.”

“Nah man! That ain’t true!” Jed protests.

“It really is.” I argue.

“Look, I’ll tell you who’s peng." He goes on to list like half the girls in our year.

I sigh impatiently and roll my eyes.

“But you seriously need to see this girl - everyone’s talking ‘bout her!” Jed exclaims.

My eyes sweep over the room and land on a new face. She’s got long wavy brown hair, and she seems pretty nervous.

She’s sitting next to another girl with long, wavy ash-blonde hair. Her eyes are greenish blue. God, she's goregeous.

“You didn’t tell me there’s two new girls!” I say to Jed.

He suddenly clocks. “There are two!” Jed exclaims.

“Which one’s the one that swore at you?” I ask.

Jed frowns, trying to remember. “The blonde one I think. Yeah, definitely the blonde one.” 

“Do you think they could be sisters?” I ask, trying to tear my eyes away from the blonde girl.

Jed shrugs. “I dunno. Could be. Ask ‘em."

I look at him reluctantly. “Do I have to?”

“They’re not gonna reply if I ask ‘em. Just do it.” Jed says.

He walks over with me to the two girls. The blonde one looks up at me but keeps talking to the other one. Jesus, she's even more beautiful up close.

“Hi.” I say awkwardly.

They both look up at me. “What do you want?” The blonde asks rudely, raising her eyebrow and sharing a look with the other girl.

I blush, rubbing the back of my neck nervously. Stay cool, man. Keep it together. “Are you sisters?” I ask.

“Twins.” The blonde replies.

I nod.  “And... Your names?” I ask.

The blonde scowls at me.

“She’s Aspen. I’m Ava.” I look over at the brown haired girl who had just spoken. I then look to Jed. His mouth is hanging open and he seems pretty shocked.

“Now you know our names, I would like to ask the same question,” Aspen says, tucking some of her blonde hair behind her ear.

“I’m Pablo and this is Jed,” I reply, gesturing to Jed: who still has his mouth hanging open like a demented goldfish.”