A hopeless romantic

"Outta my way, fucking nerd!"

Xander was harshly pushed out of one of his bully's path and landed on the ground with a face first loud thud and cracked his glasses in the process, alerting the students all around to turn to him and laugh without bothering to help. The funny thing was how the school hall was big enough for himself and this bulky bully to walk pass and they weren't many students lounging around at the hall. But still, because he was an easy target, he was roughly pushed away so him and several other students could have a good laugh.

Today was the first day of another long and hellish school year for Xander Woods and he was already being attacked just like other years of high school.

Xander's life was fairly normal, very normal if you thought about it. The only things he had really going on for him was school, no actual friends and bullying. And Xander was alright with that, he never really wished for a different life where he felt relevant. But he sometimes hoped it came to pass, he wished mostly to be strong enough to scare off his bullies for good.

But this year would be different, he had spent the entire school break at the gym. Trying his best to build up some body mass, he still didn't have much of that in his body. But at least he no longer was that much of a bag of bones as he'd been last year. This year he might put up a small fight to make his bullies notice it might be harder for him to get attacked so easily after school.

If the school refused to punish those bullies who took their sweet time to torment him for four years straight no matter how much he and his mom reported, he would have to take matters into his own hands.

He got up and slowly began picking up the books that had fallen from his grip when he was pushed, already used to the laughter and ridicule of the students that go to Crestwood Heights Academy to even feel a thing when they laughed at him. Before it used to add salt to the wound, but now he just didn't care all that much.

When he got into his class he caught sight of the girl who never failed to make his stomach do a flip and his heart flutter for two years straight so much to the point that Xander feared he might not just have a crush on this popular, charismatic, incredibly smart beauty who stood at her tippy toes wiping the board, he feared that he could really be hopelessly in love with her.

A very scary thought that was, honestly.

When she turned and caught sight of him standing still like a lovestruck creep in the doorway, her expression darkened as her forest green eyes narrowed.

There was a problem though, she hated him.

Another problem, she was one of the bullies who dedicated their time to making his life hell. Unlike the tall, bulky male bullies, she didn't use violence against him. She never pushed him, never punched him until a bruise was formed, never forced him to spend his mother's hard earned money to buy his lunch for their cigarettes, never forced him to leave school in the middle of the day to buy alcohol and nearly get arrested.

Iris Nolan used her words against him, and somehow that felt even more upsetting, but despite her painful and harsh words, he still couldn't find himself hating her as well.

God, he was such a simp!

He wished there was an off switch for feelings and stuff like that. Xander was still holding on to that Iris from freshman year, who smiled to him as she borrowed him her pencil to write a test, asked him to put her through a biology topic she missed when she was sick at home and was just nice to him when all the girls avoided him like the plague.

He wasn't really sure when she started treating him like he was nothing more than trash though, he wasn't even sure when his feelings for her started exactly.

Iris stared at him for a solid minute in silence until she scoffed and returned her focus back to the green chalkboard. They were the only ones in the class and the fact that she barely acknowledged him made him sigh and go over to his desk and wait for the teacher and other students to arrive.

Xander adjusted his now ruined glasses as he got out his books and pencils like the good little boy he was and opened his notebook to finish up with the multitude of homework given to him to do over the summer break. From his peripheral vision, he caught sight of Iris, reaching up to wipe the row of letters written almost at the top of the board. He saw her short green plaid uniform skirt ride up her light brown thighs as she stood on her tippy toes to reach those words and he immediately forgot all about his own work he had to do.

All of a sudden she turned around and seeing as he was staring, she glared at him. "What are you looking at, you creep?"

Xander spluttered, "I…I'm sorry, I didn't mean to stare."

Iris glared at him for a moment and continued her work, today must have been his lucky day. The last time this happened last year, Iris had grabbed Xander by the collar of his white uniform shirt and threatened him in front of all her friends. She called him all sorts of names especially 'pervert.' She wasn't really lying, Xander was a pervert, at least to a small degree. That's why his eyes seemed to linger on her exposed skin and plump lips every so often, when it was Iris, he lost self control.

You'd never see him staring at other girls in the school like that, which led to everyone pretty much knowing about the hopeless crush he had on her, which also led to the endless teasing and additional reasons to bully him. How could some one as pathetic as Xander, be with someone as beautiful, popular and smart as Iris?

Xander forced himself to focus on his remaining homework as one by one, students began coming into the classroom. He let out a sigh once the history teacher came in once the class was filled and began his long boring lesson.