"Holy fuck!" Shirley whispered but her gasped was heard by each one of them as it was not a common thing you get to see every day. Not even the princess of genovia, Mia from the princess diaries got such a makeover. From hair to eyes, to mouth, everything about Roman looked breathtaking. The wobbling, shy Roman Lockhart gave goosebumps to anyone who was able to recognize him. Noah and Jack, too, were petrified at their spot, and none of them uttered a word.

It was a shock. Super-duper-shock.

"Yes! It's me, bitches!" The not so new guy who turned out be Roman said to them. Everyone was still gaping at him, completely dumbstruck, "I've had enough of your shits for the past two years. So if anyone came around begging for my friendship, then prepare yourself about what I will do to you. And no gender discrimination!" He gave them a tough and cautious look before turning his full attention at Amy, "And you Miss Clark," he stepped closer and threw back the small tool which Amy caught it effortlessly, "Good luck with your bike, too." Saying so, a smugly smile appeared upon his face. He looped his backpack on his shoulders and stalked away from the group.

"Did I just heard the infamous Roman Lockhart saying a sentence without faltering," gaped Shirley while everyone's eyes were stuck at the direction Roman had gone. He soon disappeared from the ground to the building, "and that too, 40 words all in one go. What on earth am I?"

"You didn't really count his words, did you?" Said Noah.

Amy gritted her teeth. "That scarecrow-"

"Scarecrow?" Interrupted Scott," I think you meant hotty. I would fuck him in a heartbeat."

"Keep your gay hormones in control, Scott," snapped Amy while looking at her deflate the tire, "That bloody fucking scarecrow punctured my tire."

"Well, technically you started it first." Replied Scott, unaffected with Amy's deafening voice. She again shot him a pointed look and then said with a little composed voice, "Not helping." The second warning bell rang alerting them once again that classes had been started.

Without wasting another second, they ran and reached the threshold of the building. Storming in to get their attendance done, they parted for their respective classes. Shirley, Jack, and Scott for their Math 1 while Amy and Noah for their Spanish. Whatever had happened, no one said further, only promised to see each other at lunch and then trailed off.

"Have you thought how you're gonna go back home?" Noah asked while they were walking toward their class.

"I will after I planned to murder Roman."

Noah smiled at the thought. Surely Amy said to calm herself but thinking about murdering him will be a piece of great news. Roman wasn't a public figure like a politician or businessman, but his popularity wasn't any less. Even the girls of their rival High school with whom they compete for an annual musical dance show were also Roman's admirer. Just touching a single strand of his hair would result in a war of nails between girls.

When they were about ten steps away from their class, Noah picked his pace. It wasn't the fact he loved world literature but he had a crush on his classmate Margaret Winget and to his extreme happiness, she shared the first class with her. He was adoring her since last year when she joined the school on transfer at the mid-semester.

Boom!

And the class laughed. Noah was so occupied in searching Margaret that he didn't realize when he entered the class in a hurry and failed to see the bunch of pens scattered on the floor. He fell and everyone was laughing at him. Even Amy couldn't control herself. Falling was an inevitable routine of Noah's life. Once or twice in a week, he would fall. Either he wasn't paying attention at the path or he was trying to pay attention but eventually failed to avoid the happening. His friends believed that it has something to do with his genes.

The girl whose pens were accidentally fallen apologized to him and picked them back.

"Mr. Whitmore! Can't you walk properly without falling." Barked Mr. Kenny, the English teacher, when Mrs. Gabby must be present to teach Spanish.

Noah got up embarrassed. His face was beetroot red; unable to look at any student or teacher, especially Margaret. His eyes darted to the red board by the window. A poster was pinned on it. It says: Falling is the first step toward success.

To give an impressive comeback, he spoke shimmery. "Falling is the first step toward success, sir."

"That's a failure, Mr. Whitmore," he shouted and once again the class laughed. Noah mentally hit himself and then fell his head down, "even to cheat you need brains." Mr. Kenny looked at the source, the poster which was pinned for about a year. He then pointed at it and yelled, " an idiot like you wrote it wrong. Someone take it down, NOW!"

Hearing the squeaking orders from Mr. Kenny, a student sitting on the first bench got up and tear down the poster. He crumbled it into the ball and discarded into the dustbin.

Seeing the situation getting bad for Noah, Amy clutched his arm and bring him at the last seat.

"Don't come late from now on." Warned Mr. Kenny and Amy replied. "Yes, sir!"

Both of them sat on the last seat as Mr. Kenny announced that Mrs. Gabby was absent so he was the substitute teacher for the first day.

Amy saw that Noah's head was still down with humiliation while he was scratching the desk with his nails.

"She was laughing at me, wasn't she?" Noah's whispered but Amy realized that he was on the verge of crying.

"She wasn't. Actually, she was smiling at you," Amy answered him. It was indeed true. She saw Margaret silently gasped when Noah fell while the rest of the class was laughing at him. Her eyes were permanently fixed on him and when he quoted the wrong phrase and Mr. Kenny later corrected it, she smiled. Amy and the rest of the group knew that Margaret was fully aware of the fact that Noah was crushing on him but Noah was not ready to accept it. They sometimes push him to ask her out but he, due to fear of speaking with new girls couldn't do that. Another reason was that Margaret was taller than Noah. And if they stood together just for once, everyone would consider them brother and sister. Returning back to the present, Amy said, "and I think she finds you cute."

Noah was surprised. "Cute?" He said aloud and few heads turn back at them. Luckily Mr. Kenny was busy answering some question of a girl on English rather than teaching Spanish as he did not know about it.

"Yes," chuckled Amy confidently and then gave him a friendly arm push, "So now chill out."