The Bad Boy Sweetheart

Tessa blinked her a hundred and one times before finding lifting her eyelashes that seemed extra heavy that morning. She groaned as she pulled herself out of bed. The wall clock on the locker beside her read a few minutes past 5am and Tessa sighed softly while walking towards the bathroom.

There was only one reason why Tessa woke up as early as 5am on school days. So that she could get to school early and find somewhere to hide before she became the butt of their jokes r even bullied in itself.

She stared at herself in the mirror in front of her while brushing her teeth. The dye of her hair was beginning of wear off and she mentally reminded herself to either wash the dye off or re-dye her hair. Re-dying her hair seemed to appeal more to her and within minutes, Tessa was done washing her teeth. She ran her hands through her hair and she finally got a good look at herself in the mirror.

There were dark circles underneath her eyes from sleeping late and waking up early, lack of sleep. Her coffee brown eyes were slightly sunken in and her straight nose seemed to have an edge. She pursed her small pouty lips against herself in the mirror before shaking her head.

She looked way too easy and that was why she was always bullied. She didn't have the confidence or the energy to fight back either so instead of allowing them to constantly bully her all the time, Tessa found another option.

Avoiding them.

And for the past two to three months, she had been able to flawlessly avoid these bullies. She always arrived very early to school and hid somewhere; she never came out unless the classes had started and somehow she was able to escape their radar like that.

As it had been working for the past two months, Tessa planned to continue like that, she didn't have any other plans in order to escape their bullying so she had to continue with this one.

By few minutes to 7 am, Tessa was already making her way down the streets towards the bus stop. There were already few people at the bus stop waiting for the 7am bus. The woman with the crying child, the sophisticated lady who was all dressed up for work, the woman with two super naughty kids and a few other people.

Tessa realized that for the past two months, she never failed to see these particular people while waiting for the 7am bus. She gave a nod in greeting and it was the just the women with kids that replied her. The other sophisticated lady was busy glancing at her watch from time to time. As soon as the bus arrived, everyone filed in a straight line and got on the bus while sliding their bus cards st the door.

Tessa slid her hands into the pockets of her hoodie with her other hand dangling beside her. There was soon a problem, the mother of the two naughty children was having a hard time sliding her bus card. The counter showed red each time she slid it across. There was not enough card in the card to go round.

"I re-filled it yesterday" the woman complained while wearing a distressed face. She couldn't afford to come down from the bus, she was going to be late for work and her children were going to be late for school as well. She looked towards the person in front of her for help but the latter didn't say anything before walking towards her seat.

Tessa swallowed her saliva as she smiled at the woman and slid her card "For all of us she muttered quietly and everyone turned to her immediately. The woman had tears in her eyes as she grabbed Tessa's hand and thanked her.

"Thank you so much" she said and Tessa nodded before walking to the end of the bus and finding her usual seat beside the window. She plopped down on the chair while looking outside at the cars that moved with the early morning clouds.

As expected, very few students were in the school as Tess walked into the school compound, she rolled her eyes at the huge blocked inscription beside the walls of the school compound. MACPHERSON HIGH SCHOOL.

Macpherson High School was the school for the rich of the rich, it was owned by the Macpherson family, one of the biggest and most popular family in America and its environs. As much as it was only rich kids that attended Macpherson, there was still hierarchy and societal status. And it was the societal status and hierarchy that left the slightly unsocial Tessa at the bottom of the food chain where she can easily be bullied.

She easily slipped into the school building murmuring the lyrics of a song she was yet to know the artiste as she found her way to the rooftop. The rooftop of the Sophomores had been Tessa's haven for a while now; when she had found the place, it was dusty and dirty and signs of human lives couldn't be found there. It greatly surprised Tessa as these were places where the cool kids would usually hang out but then Macpherson had a lot of cooler places than a rooftop to hang out.

She had quietly cleaned the place up and fixed the chairs there, there was a resting place where she could catch up on her sleep whenever she slept really late. Sometimes she sat near the railings and watched as other students trailed into school chatting happily and gossiping about parties that happened the night before, parties that Tessa had never gotten an opportunity to attend in her entire life.

She dropped her bag on the floor while trying to fish out her ear pods from the pocket of her bag. She yawned lightly as she climbed into the resting chair she had made for herself and opened her phone while tapping on the Netflix app. She fixed her ear pods in her ears while resuming the series she had slept off while watching the night before.

She was so engrossed in her movie that she didn't realize that uproar that was going on at the school that present moment. It wasn't until her alarm went off that Tessa jumped to her feet and carried her bag while hurrying down the stairs and avoiding attention. She cursed inwardly as she tried to squeeze herself through the horde of students in the hallway.

She had forgotten that today was Thursday and on Thursdays, she was supposed to set her alarm to ring at least ten minutes earlier. She had Ethnics class and a not so Mr Friendly Gordon taught them. he was strict and well overly dramatic, any student that entered class after him got detention.

Everyone hated detention so they did always make up to come extra early on Thursdays, even the wannabe queens and cheerleaders always made sure they came early but somehow this particular Thursday, fate wasn't on Tessa's side. Her phone buzzed in her hands again and Tessa's face instantly morphed into that of irritation and annoyance pushing past the students while ignoring the ones that were yelling at her.

She was already three minutes late and she started praying inwardly for something to hold Mr Gordon down but by the time she arrived at the door of the class, she already knew that God didn't answer her so not worthy prayer.

The man in the class stopped teaching and turned to Tessa with his usual stoic and friendless face. Tessa sighed inwardly, she should have known that prayers wouldn't work on someone like Mr Gordon, he was never late to class.

Ever.

"Miss Tessa, do you care to tell the class why are you coming to class at five minutes past 9?" Mr Gordon asked and Tessa swallowed her saliva trying to think of an excuse that wouldn't get her into detention.

She obviously couldn't say she had been in school since few minutes past 7am and because she was trying to avoid bullies, she had to hide in a rooftop till classes started. Tessa knew the slightly older man would just snort at her and send her straight into the detention.

"I woke up late" Tessa replied dropping her head and trying not to make contact with the Mr Gordon's eyes.

"This is your first time and for saying the truth, I won't give you detention. You just have to listen well in this class, make a note out of it, print them and send them to everyone in the class. we'll have a test on that next week" Mr Gordon replied and the class started murmuring.

Grateful for the not so heavy punishment; Tessa quickly nodded her head at him.

"Thank you Mr Gordon" Tessa replied as she walked into the class and flew towards her seat.

"You must be nuts!"

Tessa bent her head to laugh at the curse word the guy seated beside her threw at her. He glared at her and then turned back to whatever Mr Gordon was teaching them. Tessa immediately brought out her notepad writing and scribbling in it as Mr Gordon continued teaching.

Even years after they became best friends, Tessa didn't know why Blaine Bentley became agreed to be her best friend.

Blaine Bentley, that name definitely wasn't a name nobody wouldn't recognize if they heard it. A superhot dude with killer looks that could send any girl to their graves and more, he was one of the key members of the school basketball team. He was everything a girl wanted in a guy.

Back then, Blaine was the first to seat down on the same table with her at the cafeteria while others stayed away from her, it was more funny because a lot of girls had been looking at Blaine and wanting to seat down with him and of every table, Blaine had to seat down beside her.

Even Tessa herself was taken aback and was curious about why Blaine had chosen to seat down opposite her.

FLASHBACK

"Hey" Tessa called and Blaine raised his head to meet her coffee brown ones.

"Huh?" he asked and Tessa uncomfortably looked around the numerous eyes on them.

"I think you are on the wrong table" Tessa replied and Blaine looked around as well before turning back to Tessa.

"No I don't think so" he replied while Tessa shook her head.

"Why are you seating down on this table? Can't you see everyone is avoiding this table?" Tessa asked in reply while Blaine nodded.

"Yes, I can see that everyone is avoiding this table" Blaine replied making Tessa raise her eyebrows at him. If he knew why was he seating down on the table, then?

"Why are you seating down here then?" she asked curious.

"I'm curious" Blaine replied while Tessa raised her eyebrows.

"You are curious?" she asked while Blaine nodded his head.

"Curious as to why there's nobody seating down here. They are squeezing themselves son other tables when there's a lot of space here" Blaine replied and Tessa stared at him in shock in surprise before chuckling lightly.

"I'm dressed weirdly and I look weird. Is that enough reason for you?" Tessa asked while Blaine stared at her like he she had just said gibberish.

"Who said you looked weird?" he asked and Tessa chuckled again.

"There's really no need to seat down here. Everyone is boring holes into my head and my body" Tessa replied and Blaine shrugged.

"What does that have to do with me?" he asked and Tessa realized that Blaine was seating down there intentionally.

"In summary, no matter what I say today you are going to seat down there" Tessa said and Blaine nodded.

"Yes. There's a lot of space" Blaine replied and Tessa shook her head as she continued eating.

"What's your name weird girl?" He asked and Tessa raised her head chuckling.

"I thought you said I wasn't weird" Tessa replied as Blaine furrowed his brows.

"Did I say that?" Blaine asked and Tessa stared at him incredulously.

"Didn't you say who said you looked weird?" Tessa asked and Blaine nodded.

"Yes, I did say so" Blaine replied while Tessa folded her arms.

"So?" she asked.

"I was asking to agree with whoever had said so, you look weird" Blaine replied and Tessa froze for a minute before bursting into laughter,

This dude was a circus clown.

"Tessa" Tessa said after a while and Blaine raised his head to face Tessa.

"My name is Tessa O'Bailey" Tessa repeated with a small smile.

"Blaine Bentley" Blaine replied and Tessa snickered.

"Well nice to meet you jerk Blake" Tessa said bursting into laughter.

"Same here weird Tessa" Blaine replied as they both burst into laughter.

FLASHBACK OFF

Even though that was over three years ago, the memory always made Tessa smile and laugh each time she remembered it. There were already signs of how cool Blaine was going to be back then and how they grew older, he kept getting cooler and cooler, popular and more popular. At a point, Tessa thought he was going to stop talking to her and they would stop being best friends but they never stopped being best friends.

Blaine had a lot of popular and cool friends but he didn't stop being friends with her even when a lot of students frowned at it but Blaine had never been the one to mind other people so he never minded or even cared.

He was and is always her best friend.

Till the end of Mr Gordon's class, Tessa made sure to listen carefully and well and by the time the man was done with his class, Tessa had two pages full.

"Miss Tessa, make sure I see those handouts before you pass them around" he said and Tessa nodded.

"Yes Mr Gordon" Tessa replied and watched as the other man packed his books and walked out of the class. The class became rowdy barely a second later.

"Are you crazy?" Blaine asked as he turned to Tessa who turned to him and gave him a weird smile.

"Don't look at me like that" Blaine said glaring at Tessa.

"What were you thinking? Coming late to Gordon's classes, you must have sold your head the night before" Blaine continued and Tessa laughed.

"Don't get so worked up, he left me off, didn't he?" Tessa asked and Blaine shrugged.

"He won't the next time" Blaine replied as Tessa pouted.

"You think there's going to be a next time?" Tessa asked and Blaine glared at her without saying anything.

"Grab your bag, breakfast is on you today" Blaine grumbled and Tessa laughed again.

"You'll have to go without me, I need to get these done with" Tessa replied raising up the two sheets in her hands.

"I forgot about that already" Blaine replied and then someone yelled his name the next minute.

"Let's go grab breakfast"

"A minute" Blaine yelled as he turned to Tessa.

"Would you be fine?" he asked and Tessa stared at him weirdly.

"Are you treating me like a two-year-old right now?" Tessa asked and Blaine glared at her playfully before shooting to his seat.

"Fine. Suit yourself" he threw at her before walking away with Tessa's laughter in his ears.

Tessa sighed softly as she packed her bags. Seeing the girls standing at the entrance and chattering loudly; she regretted sending Blaine off on his own, she should have at least used that opportunity to escape from the class.

She had been able to avoid them well for the past two months and now, she had to face them. all her efforts in the past days have been fruitless all of a sudden. Tessa sighed softly as she grabbed her bag

It was just this once, she was going to let herself be pushed her around, she was so lucky to have avoided them in the past months. Everything was going to be kay as long as they didn't drag her to the restroom.

And that was almost impossible.

Sucking in her breadth and taking it out, she slung her bag over her shoulders as she walked towards the door as slowly as ever. There was suddenly a commotion in the hallway and everyone rushed out. Seeing as the girls at the door had disappeared; Tessa ran out of the class, there were lot of students crowding at the entrance of the hallway and Tessa didn't have an idea why, she didn't want to know why either.

The fact that she was safe was more prominent to her and she quickly made her to the library. She would have to type everything she had written, read over, edit out some parts till they were perfect, print and then go and show it to Mr Gordon before making multiple copies and then giving them to everyone and then sending it to their mail.

Tessa looked at her post its note and everything she had written down nodding her head and sighing softly. She leaned against the wall and sighed again. Seeing those girls at the door that brought back the fear that Tessa thought she had abandoned in the past few months.

Seeing them had reminded her that she hadn't abandoned the fear at all, it had only gone into seclusion because she hadn't seen them for a long time. She rubbed her forehead bringing out the bottle of water in her bag and taking a few gulps.

It was so pitiful being at the bottom of the social ladder.

She smiled at the librarian as she walked into the library while the older woman offered her a smile in reply before returning her focus to her phone. Tessa didn't have to look at the reflection on the woman's glasses to know that she was watching a BTS concert video.

Tessa ignored her phone that was buzzing quietly on the table beside her as she worked. She knew it was from the school forum notifications. She hadn't bothered to wait to even know what was going on.

By the time Tessa opened her phone to see what was going on, she wished she had waited.

TWO YEARS LATER.

Tessa couldn't really describe what and how it had happened. How the bullies had stopped bullying her, how they had glared at her each time they saw her but didn't make a move, how they never bothered her again after that day, she had no idea or why they never did it again.

But from then on, Tessa knew peace, true peace and happiness, the freedom to wake up at whatever time she wanted, and that if she woke up early it wasn't because of bullies but because she didn't want to miss her of her classes.

Especially as Mr Gordon had made it his hobby to have her write handouts and give it to the rest of the class. After realizing how meticulous and concise she was in the first handout she submitted years ago, he made it a point of necessity to make her write handouts even when she didn't come to class late and so some of the students had given her a new nickname.

Mr Gordon's pet.

Tessa rolled her eyes at the thought as she pulled her hoodie over her head and walked out of the room, her bag trailing after her.

"Tessa O'Bailey! How many times would I tell you not to drag your backpack on the floor?" her mom yelled and Tessa quickly flung her bag upwards catching it and flung it over her shoulders.

"Good morning Mom" Tessa greeted dropping a small kiss on the cheeks of the older woman arranging food on the dining table.

"Good morning sweetheart, did you sleep well?" she asked and Tessa nodded her head grabbing one of the toast and bringing it to her lips.

"Why are you standing and eating?" her mom chided as she pulled out a chair for her to seat down while Tessa shook her head munching on the bread in her mouth faster so she could talk.

"I don't need to seat down; I am already late. I need to hurry to school" Tessa replied and her mom turned to the digital clock on the drawer in the seating room.

"It's just a few minutes past 8am" her mom replied and Tessa nodded.

"Exactly, I have P.E this morning, anyone who comes late would have to run round the filed fifteen times, I'm not about to become the marathon race runner this morning" Tessa replied as her mom burst into laughter.

"Then, take more toast" she said pouring tea into a glass of cup while offering it to her daughter.

"Drink this, it will give you a lot of energy" she said while Tessa chuckled before collecting the cup and draining it into her stomach in one go. she dropped the cup and grabbed two more toasted bread before dropping another kiss on her mom's cheek.

"Have a great day" she echoed as hurried out of the house. The driver was already waiting for her and Tessa slammed the door after her the moment she stepped into the car.

"Please step on it" she told the driver while relaxing back into her seat and munching on her toast.

Her parents, both medical doctors, surgeons to be precise were almost never at home and their relationship with Tessa fell apart. Her elder brother who was studying in Africa was the only one who Tessa talked to once in a while. The latter was always busy with his projects and trips so he almost never called home, Tessa was the one who always did the calling.

After she and her parents had a huge fight and Tessa poured out all her feelings, they as well realized that they hadn't been given her daughter time and Tessa also realized how important her parent's jobs were, she hadn't been patient with them nor had she cut them some slack.

Both parties decided to work on their relationships and with both parties putting in a lot of efforts, in less than two months, they were a family with bonds stronger than before and this Tessa was very much grateful for. On the days, her parents couldn't come home, she would make some food, pack it and go and deliver them herself at the hospital.

She sometimes slept over at the hospital and rush back the next day to prepare for school. As it was her final year at high school, she had to start making preparations for college. Their Guidance and counselling teacher had called them all for the school they wanted to go and what was their course of study.

Tessa would never forget the blank look on the woman's face when Tessa told her that's he hadn't decided and she even didn't know yet. She wasn't interested in Medicine and Surgery even though she knew that if she picked it, she would do excellently well but she no interests or passion or whatnot towards it.

Even Tessa herself found it weird that she didn't have anything that she wanted to do. This is what happens to you when you are good at everything and nothing interests you. Tessa had even gone online searching for courses she wanted to do but nothing she saw online seems to interest her. Her life as well lacked any fun or any vie as well.

Blaine had planned to use his basketball skills to get into a prestigious university with a scholarship. Most of the basketball boys also had the same idea so they had been practicing really hard for their matches even though they were the best in the state; that made Blaine almost never have time for her.

Except she went to the court to cheer for him or get him his lunch and got and look for him, she almost never saw him. It was fun to watch the boys run around the court, making die-hard efforts in achieving their goals. Tessa knew that they were definitely all going to get into dream schools. They were all too good.

The driver turned to drive into the school was immediately stopped by Tessa, who pulled her bag with her and got down from the car. Muttering a word of thanks to the driver, she ran into the school building, apologizing as she darted in between the school students.

Her final year timetable had to be one of the timetable she had had in her entire life as a student, all the strict classes with strict classes were put in the morning so she had to wake up early to go school virtually every day.

Tessa put in the combination of her locker as she shoved her bag into the locker and pulled out the bag containing her P.E clothes darting straight to the locker room to change. Seeing that there was no one in the locker room, Tessa knew she was done for, she was quick to change her clothes and rushed into the hall where the students had formed a circle; muttering apologies to whoever it was she squeezed into the line.

"You are lucky" the person said and Tessa turned to see the person that had spoken. Her eyes widened as she soon as she recognized who she was standing beside. She had squeezed in between Lola Coker and...... Tessa didn't have to turn before she knowing who was on her left hand side.

"I'm sorry, I'll find somewhere else" Tessa muttered but before she could move, the other girl stopped here.

"Where are you going to go?" she asked.

"In between Stephie and Mara?" she asked again and Tessa slowly turned to the girl on her left side trying not to laugh.

Frieda Tyrell. Cheerleader captain. A physical explanation of beauty and brains.

Frieda Tyrell was that one girl who everyone wanted to be friends with. She wasn't a bully but she was so far on the social ladder that just being friends with her could carry you far above on the social ladder. But being friends with Frieda Tyrell was harder than making sure you didn't get into trouble with Gordon Miles.

She was a figure that demanded respect from everyone, even the jocks respected her because she was a tough nut to crack. Nobody could mess with her and go scot free, whatever gave you the courage to mess with her in the first place had already guaranteed you your doom.

She was good at cheerleading and in her books, she also had over four hundred thousand followers on the gram. Nah, if you asked anyone in Macpherson about Frieda Tyrell, they would tell you she was perfect.

Maybe God's most perfect creation.

That was why Tessa was flabbergasted by the fact that Frieda had taken the initiative to get closer to her. It was already a mistake that's he had squeezed in between Lola and Frieda who were best friends. Others would start thinking that's he had done it on purpose to get their attention, that was why she had wanted to leave immediately.

But was Frieda asking her to stay?