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"Seriously, Will, you're not gonna say anything about the new guy?" Liv asked Will during the lunch break. The group was spread out on the grassy hill on the side of the oval, all trying to soak up a little bit of the sun. While it was still the start of February, they all wanted to enjoy as much of the Australian summer as they could before it ended. 

Will laid on his back, arm over his eyes to block out the sun, trying to pretend that he didn't hear Liv's question.

That was until he felt something hit his cheek.

"What the hell was that?!" he asked, slightly irritated, as he sat himself up and gave Liv an irritated glare.

"One of my grapes," she replied casually with a small shrug and a smirk on her face, popping a grape in her mouth, before switching to an unamused expression.

"What?"

"C'mon, tell us what you think of the new guy!" Kimi said, leaving out the obvious Duh! and took a bite out of her sushi roll.

"I have no opinion on the guy. I haven't spoken to him and I only saw him this morning," Will replied, reaching for one of the sushi rolls but had his hand slapped away by Kimi, who gave him an unimpressed look. "What?"

"Oh, c'mon!" Cash said, rolling her eyes at him. "I've just been brutally dumped and I'm considering rebounding off him, if you catch my drift."

"Yeah! Seriously, Will, is that all you have to say about him?" Liv jumped in. "I'd totally be up for anything he suggested, I mean, if I wasn't already dating Tyler."

"Wait, wait, wait, hold up, you're dating Tyler?" Will said in shock.

Tyler was Liv's best friend before she joined the little group, but he still stuck around her every opportunity he got. He was never really happy that she'd moved away from him and their old group of friends, and was especially not happy when he was replaced by Will in the best friend role. It was blatantly obvious that Tyler had a huge crush on Liv, almost to the point you could say he was in love with her, but Liv always played it off, not seeing what everyone else did.

"Oh my god, this is such a surprise," Emmie chimed in, shock plastered on her face.

"Oh shut it Emmie, I told you this morning," Liv replied dismissively. "Good acting shocked, though," Liv complimented, Emmie smiling proudly in return before going back to eating her lunch.

"How the hell did that happen? When the hell did that happen?" Will asked, still thoroughly confused.

"It's nothing too serious, We both agreed that if it didn't work out, we'd break it off and just go back to being good friends and pretend it never happened," she answered nonchalantly. "It's not a big deal, Will. And you didn't answer us! What do you think of the new guy?"

Will frowned, really wanting to speak his mind but realised it probably wasn't going to help any. "Fine. He's hot, I'll give him that. But that's all. He's the classic 'blond hair, blue eyed beauty'. He's an Aryan dream. But there's nothing special about him," Will admitted in defeat, returning to lying on his back and looking at the few clouds in the sky.

"How boring of you, Will," Kimi sighed. 

Will's only response was to flip her off.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Lunch shortly finished after that, Will and Liv splitting off from the others as they headed towards the 'Dungeon' - the nickname for a brick hallway with very little natural light and a musty scent, located in a far-off section of the school that most students didn't go.

"Tell me how you convinced me to do Philosophy?" Will asked Liv as walked down the hallway.

"It'll be fun, and besides, it's apparently an easy A since the teacher is such a pushover," she said, giving him a cheeky smile as they entered one of the classrooms. As they entered, they saw a few other students sitting there, none of whom they ever talked to. Only two people caught Will and Liv's eye, Shayla Smith and James Kennerley.

Shayla and James K were the nicely named 'Jesus Freaks' – Liv liked to call them the 'Christian Cunts' – who were really into their Christianity, obviously, and lived the stereotype down to every last detail. The two hadn't received Will's coming out very warmly, never missing a moment to tell Will of God's retribution for his 'sinful ways' that he would suffer through once he died. Shayla was the main instigator in harassing Will while James followed her around like a lost puppy dog. Liv and Shayla had a massive rivalry. Liv didn't take kindly to Shayla and her bigotry.

Will just ignored the disgusted glances they were sending his way, sitting down on the other side of the small room. Liv, however, was one to never back down, and gave Shayla the finger, saying, "take a picture, bitch, it'll last longer," before sitting down next to Will.

Will frowned, not really wanting to start anything, and luckily Shayla just decided to act offended and ignore Liv. "That was a bit 2000s teen movie cliché of you to say, Liv," he whispered to his friend as she opened her textbook.

Liv shrugged, not all that bothered. "Well, if they're going to act like a Christian cliché, I might as well only talk to them in clichés since that's obviously the only way they're going to understand me," she replied loudly, obviously wanting Shayla to hear her. Will sighed once he heard Shayla huff, knowing something was about to start.

"Burn in hell, you fag hag whore!" Shayla exclaimed, standing up quickly out of her seat. 0-100 real fast.

"Gladly if I didn't have to spend eternity in heaven with a psychotic bitch like you!" Liv retorted, jumping out of her seat too.

The other people in the room watched the fight, completely captivated, as the insults began flying back and forth. Will and James both stood up and tried to get the two girls to stop. 

But to no avail.

Will sighed in defeat, knowing the fight would die out in time, and sat back down in his seat.

"What's happening here?" Will heard someone quietly whisper next to him.

Will didn't even spare the voice a glance as he replied, "you don't even want to know."

The person next to him was quiet for a moment before saying, "I'm Oliver, and you were in my homeroom this morning, right?"

Will stopped breathing for a moment as he realised why the voice sounded sort of familiar. He slowly turning to look at the blonde guy sitting next to him, giving him that polite, awkward smile he always seemed to have.

Will was at a loss for words, unsure what he should say as he remembered the weird eye contact thing they had that morning. "Oh right yeah, Hughsey? I'm, uhh, Will. You're the new kid, aren't you?" he asked stupidly. Will wanted to hit himself in the face for asking something so stupidly obvious.

Oliver gave a small, polite laugh that made Will feel a little less stupid. "Yeah, I am. Though I think we both know that," Oliver teased, giving Will a wink. "But seriously, what's happening here? Why's the girl you were sitting next to this morning having a fight with Shayla?"

"You know Shayla?" Will asked, not really wanting to explain the situation.

"Yeah, Stacey gave me a quick rundown on who I should and shouldn't talk to. Shayla was at the top of Stacey's 'avoid' list. But seriously, why are they fighting?" Oliver said, nudging Will to answer him. Will wasn't too sure how he felt with Oliver getting chummy and nudging him.

"Liv and Shayla just really don't like each other since -" Will started but was quickly interrupted by Liv, who had now stopped her fight with Shayla and tuned back to Will and the new guy sitting next to him.

"Since Shayla is a bigoted bitch who needs to learn how much of an idiot she is," Liv said viciously, sitting back down in her seat. "Hi there, I'm Liv," she finished, her tone turning into a polite one as she extending her hand towards Oliver for him to shake.

"Oliver," he replied politely, giving her hand a quick shake. "Yeah, I was warned about Shayla and her... ways, I guess I should say. Stacey said I should definitely steer clear from her and I can kinda see why," he added with a small laugh.

"So Stacey is your girlfriend, hey?" Liv asked, showing off her absence of a filter again. Will nudged her hard, not-so-subtly informing her that she shouldn't have asked that question. "Owww, Will, what the fuck!" Liv exclaimed, rubbing her side with a frown. "It was just a bloody question."

"Ahh, no, Stacey isn't my girlfriend," Oliver replied with an awkward cough.

"But you'd want her to be," Liv spouted out again. How this girl had survived this long, Will would never know. Will went to nudge her again but she'd caught on, hands ready to stop his elbow. "Seriously, Will, what the hell is your problem?"

"Show some tact, Liv. Jesus," Will scolded. Shayla gasped, mouth opening to say something stupid but Will beat her to the punch. "I swear, Shayla, if you start telling me off for using the Lord's name in vain or some shit like that, I will come over there and pull you mangy-ass hair so hard, you're gonna need a wig," Will threatened, giving Shayla a death stare. Shayla's mouth opened and closed several times as she assessed her options before deciding to let it go, huffing in her chair. 

Will rolled his eyes before returning his attention back to Liv and Oliver. "Sorry about that."

"Wow," Oliver said, looking a bit shocked. "So I obviously shouldn't get on the wrong side of you then," he added, back to his playful attitude and nudging Will again.

Will was about to tell him to stop when he was interrupted by the 80 year old teacher entering the small classroom, one of the priests that lived at the school, Fr. Harries. Will turned to look at Liv as he entered, giving her a Seriously... look. She just shrugged in reply before returning her attention back to the priest who had just started his overview of what they would be doing that year in Philosophy.

This'll be interesting...

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

A/N: Hope you're enjoying it, sorry that it's sort of a slow start // 2019 edit: looking back over this almost four years since I wrote it and wanted to add in location info. Originally, I wanted to be vague about where this story is set as some sort of weird stylistic choice but now I'll officially say that this story (and its sequels) are set in Australia. Thank you all for reading, the response I've gotten for this series has been astounding and I hope you enjoy, no matter how this thing turns out xx

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