•~♥ 2 ♥~•

Angus fervently kissed another girl, and that girl was Penny Romanov, his chemistry lab partner he kept insisting was just a friend. It always hurt when the ex you thought you loved gets over you quickly, but it hurt more when the person that ex gets over you with is the complete opposite of you. Penny was stunning, fairly liked by people, and sweet as a papaya —an average highschool boy's dream. Of course Angus would choose her over Cecilia.

Disgust ran through Cecilia's veins, as she watched Angus and Penny lock lips. Angus' hand slipped dangerously below Penny's waistline, and she leaned closer to him, even though Cecilia doubted it was possible for her to get any closer. Honestly, the two looked far too comfortable to be a recent couple.

The realization hit Cecilia like a falling boulder; Angus had been seeing Penny even when they'd been together. It was the perfect explanation. Now that she thought about it, there had been times when Angus couldn't meet her because he was busy, or wouldn't text her for days —too many times for a newborn relationship. He could have been with Penny all that time.

Was she really not that good enough?

A tear rolled down Cecilia's face, but she hastily wiped it away. She couldn't  continue observing her ex boyfriend and his new toy. For all she knew, those two were planning to skip class. Her, on the other hand, was supposed to have been in maths class 15 minutes ago. Making a U-turn, she ran to class.

•~♥~•

The school day passed by far too slowly. Cecilia didn't see Angus in study hall, or Penny during English, so she assumed she had been right about them playing hookey. That saved her the trouble of having to face them. Very soon, she would be back home, in the comforting embrace of her pillow. She just had to jump one more hurdle, cheer leading practice.

    "Yo Cissie." A tall and thick black girl walked up to Cecilia.

    "Hey Charlie." Cecilia smiled at Charlotte, one of the few friends she kept at school.

    "You have to see this." Charlotte thrusted her phone in front of Cecilia. "Programming club couldn't get more lit."

On screen was a video game. The game characters, a sci-fi robot and a green alien battled each other with almost tangible bloodlust. Cecilia didn't play video games, but she knew enough about them to know this game was of high quality graphics and animation.

    "Whoa! You guys made this?" She asked, impressed.

    "You got that right. The entire club has been working on this for over a year, but glitches just kept popping up. I finally figured out what was wrong this morning. They gonna do a flip dance 'cause of this." Charlotte explained proudly, making Cecilia smile.

Ever since Cecilia had known her, Charlotte had been obsessed with programming. It was surprising Charlotte was unsure of taking up software developing as a career, because she was good at it. Cecilia supposed that when you are as brainy as Charlotte, you have many career options spread before you, and it becomes difficult choosing.

In reality, Charlotte didn't look the part of a genius. To be precise, she didn't look smart at all. Charlotte often wore street fashion. She looked more like a graffiti artist than a nerd. Her hair was just as tough as Cecilia's, but she wasn't ashamed to wear it in a wild afro. Charlotte couldn't care less about fashion, but no one ever bullied her. Cecilia attributed that to her confidence. Nobody in Hill Crest High bit the fierce tiger of the programming club and got away with it, so troublemakers often avoided her. Her boldness was what Cecilia loved about her.

    "I have to head over to cheer leading practice. I can't be late." Cecilia said, remembering she had somewhere to be.

Charlotte groaned. "Not again. How do you survive those bunch."

    "It's only one hour a day, I manage." Cecilia replied, shrugging.

    "Holler at me when you get tired of the mental abuse and want to try out programming." Charlotte walked away.

    "For sure!"

After changing into her ridiculously short cheer leading uniform, Cecilia ran to the school field. At one side of the large field, the school soccer team ran laps with the coach, while at the other side, the cheer leading team practiced their dance moves.

Cecilia ran to her regular position at the back, joining the sync, and when the time came to form the pyramid, she was pushed to the bottom —as usual. Today, Cecilia particularly found it difficult to keep up with the other girls, and she kept making silly mistakes. She just couldn't concentrate, that, and her limbs felt too heavy.

    "Okay girls! That's all for today. Don't forget to practice that last formation at home. It's the best part of our routine, and I should know, because I made it up." Coco, the blond leader of Hill Crest High's cheerleaders squad said.

    "As for you...!"

Looking down at Cecilia, who was sitting at the bleachers, Coco pointed an accusing finger at her.

    "We all know you're useless, but you can't be that useless. Hill Crest High has the best cheer leading squad in the state, and I'm not going to let my squad loose the number one spot because of a nincompoop like you." She berated Cecilia.

Cecilia knew she had fallen behind, but that didn't warrant the insult she was receiving, and especially not from someone her age. That said, there was nothing she could do about it. Fighting back was not an option. Coco's father was a major benefactor of the school. If Cecilia reported Coco to the principal, he might be on her side, but Coco won't be punished. That would give Coco the chance to strike back.

Coco Walden, in truth, thought she ruled the school. Most of her pride came from the fact that she was the first non senior year student to become the captain of the cheerleaders squad, and her father was stinkingly rich. However, that was the only thing Coco had going for her. She wasn't very pretty, so she made up for that with plenty makeup and expensive cloths. Her grades were always low, barely enough to be promoted to the next grade, and she had no true friends.

Her life was practically miserable, and she made others suffer for it. Cecilia was a common scapegoat she vented her anger on.

    "By the way, what in the world are those shoes?"

Wearing her favorite sneakers had been a bad idea, Cecilia knew, but she hadn't cared much, until now. She looked down at the shoes, and realized how bad they really were. They had once been light blue, but the demin was now so faded from constant use, it was almost white. Right in the front part of the left shoe was a large oil stain, caused by her six year old brother, Cyril. Cecilia had been so furious about the stain, it had taken Barbara threatening to seize her phone to get her to calm down.

    "Let her be Coco."

A handsome boy walked up to them. He was tall, with broad shoulders and an athletic physique. He was Phil Boyce, the senior year captain of the soccer team, and a very dreamy guy. On reaching them, he smiled at Cecilia.

"She can wear whatever she wants." He said nicely.

"Not when what she wants is an abomination. What if someone sees her going out the gate? What will they think of our school?" Coco said, sniggering.

"Speaking on the gate, I just saw your driver in the parking lot. You should get going. Don't wanna keep daddy waiting."

If looks could kill, the scowl Coco gave Phil would have put him six feet under. Still, she swerved away and sashayed out the field. Phil placed his hands in the pockets of his shorts, and turned to Cecilia.

"Ignore her. She isn't worth the anger." He said.

"I know. I try to." Cecilia said.

"I'll be going now. See you around Cissie."

As Phil walked away, Cecilia stared at his retreating figure, stunned. This was the first time both of them had talked; they operated in very different social circles, but he somehow knew her name. Cecilia lips curved into a bashful smile —Phil Boyce had noticed her.

Five minutes later, Cecilia had also begun heading out. She strolled out the school gate and continued parallel the fence. The joy she had felt from talking to Phil had now faded away, and she was once again depressed. A flyer, which was pasted on the school fence, attracted her attention.

"Flyers aren't allowed here." She tore it off from the fence, and read it.

The flyer was poorly designed, with way too many color combination, it hurt the eyes. It read,

Visit the one place that can solve all your

love issues

LOVE AND MAGIC CLINIC

Come now! We are expecting you

TEASER: INSIDE THE LOVE AND MAGIC CLINIC