I was running late again, and what was worse, I was running late for Mr Pierre's lesson. And he was absolutely anal about timing. The smell of cleaning powder from last night still lingered in my nose after cleaning for five hours the entire ballroom.

I jogged down the long corridor, with various school labs blurring past. Next thing I knew, my right foot abruptly halted as I stepped on my shoe lace with my left one. My nose collided with the wooden door and was squashed into it like an accordion. My hands flew to my face and I cursing and wincing, nursed what was left of my nose. After few deep breaths I looked at the door number. 14.

Well, at least it was the right door. Wiping away the moisture around the rims of my eyes I angrily pushed the door open and twenty people simultaneously turned around to stare at me. There was a wave of chuckling and snickering.

"Miss Cahill. I'm grateful that you didn't smash your head through my door. Take a seat now," Mr. Pierre snipped bitterly. Another wave of laughter rang through the classroom. My blushing put a tomato to shame and as quietly as possible, I sat in the back of the classroom. A French manicured, tanned hand went up in the air indolently. I knew that hand far too well. On many occasions, I wanted to break it.

"Mr. Pierre," Natalie Kabra, drawled impishly, "Amy has been late almost everyday of this week, shouldn't she get a detention?" she asked. Mr. Pierre blinked for a moment and pushed his glasses up his crooked nose. Did you get that? The part about Natalie Kabra being in the same school as I? Yeah, well I'm afraid that is correct. I got a scholarship… to the same school where the Kabras go. Oh, and we're in the same class because the stupid school just decided to randomly mix the year twelve students and eleven students together in their classes.

Screw. My. Life.

"I don't believe I've given you permission to speak, Miss Kabra. And what should or shouldn't happen to Amy is none of your concern," he said evenly. Natalie scowled and her hand fell limply on her desk. Although Mr. Pierre loved to terrorize his students, I respected him for terrorizing all of us, regardless of whether one was a royalty or not, considering this Academy held many powerful members of aristocracy. I wrinkled my nose a few times to check if my nose was broken and took out my books.

The lesson was painfully slow, because it was equally boring. I loved science but it was physics particularly I couldn't get my head around. Biology and Chemistry was okay, but Mr. Pierre's physics class was a torture for my mind. Was I more terrified of the teacher or the lesson? It was a vicious cycle actually- I didn't understand physics and for this, Mr. Pierre hated me, and because he hated me, I didn't understand physics.

The long awaited school bell rung and I dashed for the door.

"Not so fast Amy Cahill," Mr. Pierre said crossing his arms. The rest of the crowd brutally pushed past me to get out of the lesson. Natalie flicked her black, straw-like hair and smirked giving a little wave.

"Sir, I'm really sorry, I just had to finish some things at home and I-"

"I'm hearing the same thing over and over again," he said sternly. I stood there frozen. "Next time I will have to give you a detention."

"I know sir, sorry again."

"Go." he commanded.

"Amelia, you were late again?" Jaqi piped, "I can't believe that bitch is making you do chores in the morning as well."

Being my closest friend, she was full of motherly concern. "I'm so tired," I mumbled and pushed away the lunch tray. I was too tired to talk, or to self-pity or to stay angry. Anger was such a draining emotion. And so is love apparently, but in a good way. Not that I know, I've never been in love. Placing my head on Jaqi's shoulder I closed my eyes.

"You're going to enjoy life so much more when you break free from that family," Gus said chewing down his multi-layered sandwich. I smiled at the thought of freedom. I couldn't wait to get away from the Kabra mansion. The house that I once called my home became my prison.

"I decided once I leave that family, I'm going to change my name to Amelia straight away," I announced proudly.

"Well that's not much of a change for us since we call you Amelia already," Gus pointed out.

"I'm going to change my last name too," I continued dreamily, "and the new me will be called Amelia Marie. Isn't that nice?"

"Yeah... I actually see you more as Amelia Marie now," Jaqi positively said.

"Oh God, how can Ian eat so much?" Gus asked in disgust, looking past Jaqi and me. This was coming from Gus- who'd choose food over oxygen. Her and I followed Gus' gaze and saw Ian Kabra- the ruler of the school and captain of the rugby team. I told you lady luck had something against me. He was wolfing down a lot of food. My face immediately soured at the sight of him.

"Er… hello? All he does is work out and eat, eat and work out. That guy is a live example of a 'meat head'," Jaqi said with distaste.

"Actually, that's not true. He's surprisingly good in maths, believe it or not, he also studies Further Mathematics outside school," Gus pointed out as-matter-of-factly, "but of course he'll never beat me in math challenge". Jaqi rolled her eyes and flicked a piece of lettuce at Gus.

"Whatever, it still doesn't change the fact that he's a big ass," Jaqi retorted, ducking a piece lettuce thrown back at her. "I mean, you have a huge ass Gus, but he is a huge ass. Is there some sort of correlation between maths and ass? Oh look, it rhymes as well."

Gus held up his chubby but proud middle finger at Jaqi's face. He then looked at his watch and frowned. "Oh crap."

"What is it?" I asked stabbing my lettuce with the fork. I wasn't much of salad girl. My stomach growled for more dessert.

"We're going to be late for P.E," he mumbled in despair.

"Games aren't that bad" I said as all three of us stood up to put away our trays.

"Aren't bad? You don't have Ian Kabra threatening you every time you fail to do three laps. Mr Puck will probably resign soon, and I empathize with the poor teacher. Why don't you drop a word? Tell Ian his tactics are barbarous and highly unnecessary. Because I swear one day he will eat me," he huffed. Jaqi frowned at Gus.

"Oh honey, it'll take three Ian Kabra's to eat you. And beside, like she can do anything about it! How can you say that? And what's more, three laps are good for you! When was the last time you saw your feet?" she scolded him mercilessly. Gus' face fell and I could've sworn he shrank under her commanding presence. Jaqi always made Gus lose weight because it was medically unhealthy. She used the carrot-and-stick method. Some days she would be sweet, and encouraging and helpful with him, but on other days she'd shout at him like there's no tomorrow. We both knew that it was out of concern. And no one except for her or I made fun of his...roundness.

"No it's fine, I'll tell him, that's not a problem. The problem really is whether he'll actually listen to me," I explained hesitantly. For Jaqi this was some kind of revelation.

"Really? Well then, while you're at it can you tell him to stop calling me lesbian? I mean I do have a short haircut, and I do hang out with a beautiful girl such as yourself, but I still like guys," she clarified bluntly.

"Charming. Wait, he called you a lesbian?"

I always believed Ian wasn't even aware of Jaqi's and Gus' existence. Anger and frustration began to stir inside me.

"When did he call you that?" I questioned fumingly. Jaqi began regretting for revealing this.

"Oh it doesn't matter. I'm kind of used to it by now I-"

"Why didn't you tell me sooner? He's constantly calling you that?" I interrogated further.

We were now making our way to our changing rooms and Gus seemed to clear away from the conversation completely by trailing slowly behind us, bending his head trying to catch a glimpse of his feet. As the crowds moved around and shuffled amongst themselves, the star rugby players of the school came into the main hall and began throwing the ball amongst each other. The other insignificant members of the school began to scatter, intimidated by the dominating machos. Everyone dodged the rugby ball, probably more afraid of angering the players rather than parting with their heads.

"I didn't want to bother you with that. You have enough on your plate already. God, I'm regretting that I told you this, so badly right now," she said exasperatedly gripping her pixie hair for a dramatic effect.

"Okay fine, I won't pester you, just next time please let me know. I hate being ignorant. I will definitely have a chat with him tonight..." I mumbled angrily.

I heard someone shout a 'heads up' but a force hitting the side of my neck made me jolt forwards. I stumbled both pain and instant shock. I ended up crouching on the floor, holding my neck. I glared at the rugby ball through my blurred vision. I wondered if my injured nose from this morning fell off my face from this impact. There was once again the same old snickering, whispering, giggling and most of all, appalled staring. Jaqi jumped to my side, giving me enough support to stand up. I tried to smile and laugh it off. The attention was embarrassing. I wanted everyone to walk away and pretend that nothing happened. I wanted to disappear. Wasn't I humiliated enough already? Out of all the people, the rugby ball just had to smash into me. I looked up to see Ian making his way towards me. A crowd formed a neat circle around me. I couldn't read his face. But did it really matter? This was just another average day of my somewhat pathetic life.

Hi.

Okay, we've gone through the greetings, so let's just get straight to the point now. This story is basically a twisted Cinderella version, and will not have anything to do with the 39 Clues hunt. It's just about Ian and Amy. Capiche? Great!

I don't own anything that doesn't belong to me.