CHAPTER ONE
The New Kids

ARLO SAT DOWN in her seat, her headphones hugging her head nicely as her music blared through. The girl glanced up to see the rest of her class mates filing into the room and she subtly rolled her eyes before taking her book out.

It was no secret that Las Encinas was a school where rich people sent their kids and Arlo was one of them. She wasn't as filthy rich as her classmates, but she was rich enough to not be granted social annihilation. She never tried to hide the fact she came from a privileged family or show any signs of shame of it either. If anything, she was proud her parents had worked so hard to get where they were. She just wished they were around more enough for her to tell them.

As her classmates took their seats, they were all gushing about the club event that took place that weekend and she merely increased the volume of her music. She wasn't necessarily a fan of the party lifestyle everyone around her had adopted, but she didn't judge them for it. She shook her head and continued to complete some last touches to her homework that she didn't even notice the three new kids walk in.

A tapping sound on her headphones suddenly snapped her out of her thoughts and the girl looked to the left to see Lucrecia, the biggest bitch in her year, leaning towards the table with a smirk on her face.

Arlo took her headphones off, adjusting her hair. "What do you want, Lucrecia?"

"Why do you think I want anything?" The girl asked.

"Don't you always?" Arlo countered.

"Well, I'm the best in the class and you're...nearly there." Lu smiled, her voice lowering. "And with the new kids coming in, I just wanna make sure we're on the same page."

Arlo raised an eyebrow. "And that page is?"

"Make sure those poor and dirty kids don't outshine us."

"You forget I'm not as rich as you are."

Lu leaned forward, her smile stretching. "Rich enough." Her hand then moved a strand of Arlo's hair out of her face. "And a piece of advice, honey, your hair looks better tied up."

Arlo glared at the girl before moving her hand away from her face. "Leave me alone."

Lu was unfazed and continued to smile before she made her way to her own desk. Arlo rolled her eyes and moved her gaze back to her book that rested on the desk.

"What did that head case want?" A voice huffed and Arlo laughed.

"You do realise that's your brother's girlfriend, right?" She reminded as she shut her book and turned to her friend who was now sat next to her.

"Fuck buddy." Marina corrected.

Arlo nodded, raising her eyebrows. "Right. Is there even a difference in today's society?"

"Oh, yeah." Marina scoffed. "You're just too oblivious to see it."

"Whatever." Arlo chuckled.

"By the way, the new kids are here." The red head informed jerking her head to the side.

Arlo followed her gaze to see a boy with dark eyes with dark hair to match sitting timidly, rubbing his hands together who looked slightly familiar. She then glanced behind him to see another boy with the sides of his head shaved, man-spreading with a confident smirk on his face while he twisted his pen around his fingers. A girl in a hijab sat next to him, all her belongings placed neatly on the table in front of her as she stared at the front of the classroom, ready for the lesson to start.

"What'd you think?" Marina questioned.

"Harmless." Arlo shrugged.

"Not sure Guzmán is gonna think that."

"That's because your brother is a tool. No offence."

Marina laughed. "None taken."

Arlo looked up to see Guzmán and Lu in the middle of a lip lock. The two pulled away and, the former looking briefly at Arlo who glanced back at the new kid nearest to her the moment the boy made eye contact with her.

"Hey," Arlo called gently to the timid looking new boy as he continued to rub his hands together. "You okay?"

"Yeah," he replied, forcing a smile as he turned to look at her and it was then she realised why he looked so familiar. He was the waiter at the restaurant she and her brother had went to a few weeks ago. "I'm fine. Thank you."

"Hey, it's you. S– Samuel, right?" Arlo asked.

"Yeah," the boy replied, cocking his head to the side in confusion and slight fear, but then it clicked. "Arlo?"

"Yeah." The girl grinned.

Samuel beamed, looking much more relaxed. "How's your little brother?"

"He's good. He's using the crayons you gave him religiously and he keeps bugging me to take him back there so he can get more free ones."

The boy laughed. "I can do that." He then glanced around at the classroom. "It's nice to see a friendly face."

"Don't worry about this lot. Some of them are actually nice. I'll point them out to you later."

"I would like that."

"Good morning class, how is everyone doing today? Please sit down." Martín requested in English as he walked into the room, shutting the door behind him. "Okay. So, as we all know, we have three new students with us today. So, let's meet them. Christian Valera."

"Yes." The other boy replied, looking surprised.

"Do you want to introduce yourself to the class?" Martín asked with a smile.

"Ah, yes!" Christian exclaimed as he stood up. "Um, Uh...Hello. Um...ah. Goodbye?"

A chorus of laughter erupted from the class and Arlo did her best to hide hers, pressing her lips together as she looked down at her lap.

"Okay...great." Martín shrugged.

"Thank you, Mr. teacher." Christian smiled.

"Nadia Shanaa."

The girl stood up with much more confidence than Christian. "Hello, I'm Nadia. I'm 16. My family's from Palestine, but I was born here in Spain. And when I finish my studies, I'd like to be professional diplomat in the United Nations."

"Wow! Impressive." Martín mused before he started to explain to Nadia about the award a student won every year which instantly made Arlo's mood dropped. She would have liked to win the award. She just wasn't smart enough. "Samuel García."

"Hi. My name is Samuel...and I feel like anything I say will be used against me, so it would be better to remain silent." Samuel said as he continued to rub his hands together under the table.

"Don't be afraid. At this school, we teach values." Martín explained. "Manners and respect are paramount. The leaders of tomorrow are at this school."

Samuel nodded. "I know. That's what I'm afraid of."

"What did the waiter say?" Guzmán questioned, looking over at Carla and Polo who both laughed. "He's talking to us."

Arlo bit her lip, wanting to say something, but she held herself back. Instead she slumped down in her seat and kicked at Guzmán's chair, who edged forwards, letting out a small sound in surprise. The girl smirked to herself.

"Guys." Martín scolded.

"Sorry." Guzmán apologised.

"Alright. My names Samuel and I am, as your classmate said, a waiter. Strange as it may seem to you, sometimes waiters get a seat at the table. But you don't need to worry. I'm not here to take anybody's place. You are still the leaders of tomorrow."

Arlo stared in sympathy at the boy before her eyes trailed to Guzmán and Lu in front of her as they mocked him. She couldn't even believe there was a time she was friends with them and she was glad she no longer was.

As the morning went on, Arlo found herself in lunch at a table on her own. The new kids on one table and the rest clustered around two others. It wasn't long before Christian caused some commotion and Arlo knew things wouldn't get any prettier.

Watching as Guzmán tried passively aggressively threatening Christian, while pointing to Nadia, Arlo picked up her homework and sat in the seat between the girl and Samuel.

"Hey, Samuel." She smiled, then looked to Nadia. "I'm Arlo." The girl introduced and noticing Nadia's confusion, she let out a laugh. "My parents thought I was going to be a boy, my dad picked the name, even though technically it is a unisex name. And anyway I'm not as bothered with the fact I have a boy's name as much as I am about the fact that I've been given a name that has widely increased in popularity to name your dog."

Nadia chuckled. "You have a point."

"Bitch." A distant voice coughed. Arlo ignored Lu's comment and continued to talk to Nadia and Samuel like nothing happened as the others watched her. Lu scoffed as she turned to Guzmán and Carla. "What a fucking Saint."

"Lu, shut up." Ander grumbled as he looked at Arlo and winked at her.

The girl grinned back in response before she turned back to Samuel and Nadia. "Ignore them. They get easier to drown out."

"Which ones are the decent ones?" The former questioned.

Arlo pointed around Ander. "And that's about it. Actually–" she then gestured to Carla as they all started to walk away. "She's not so bad. But don't worry, the others in our class are fairly decent. They don't talk much, but at least they don't cause trouble." The girl then glanced at her phone to look at the time, her eyes widening. "Listen, I've gotta go. But I'm sorry your first days been pretty shit so far! I'll see you next period."

Grabbing her belongings, Arlo ran down the hallway and glanced back and forth to make sure no one saw her before she entered the tutoring room. The girl smiled at Rafael, the boy in the year above who had extra tutoring with her.

"Sorry, I'm late." Arlo sighed as she looked at Martín. "I was with the new kids. They're not having a very fun first day."

Rafael laughed. "Makes sense."

Martín shook his head. "Alright, you two. Let's see the assignments I gave you."

          ARLO ARRIVED HOME in a huff, throwing her bag on to the couch as Diego ran straight for the kitchen and Isabela went to her room, on the phone with one her friends.

"Don't eat too much, Diego! You have to leave room for dinner in a few hours!" Arlo called out to the boy.

"Okay!" Diego's voice yelled back, his voice muffled by what Arlo assumed was a mouthful of strawberries.

Arlo ran up to her parents' room to see none of her mother's suitcases inside and the girl sighed. She had already left. In a way, she was glad she was no longer around and she hated herself for feeling that. She didn't need the stress of getting perfect grades. Ignoring their texts was easier, one tap and they were gone but she couldn't do that in real life.

"Is she gone already?" Isabela's voice asked.

Esmerelda had returned home for a while to help the Nunier's about the roof collapse in San Esteban, but Arlo knew her time was limited.

Turning around, Arlo faced her younger sister who was uncharacteristically without her phone. "Yeah. Sorry, Izzy. I know you wanted her to come to your orchestra recital."

Isabela tensed and forced a smile. "It's okay. You're still coming, right?"

"I wouldn't miss it for the world." Arlo grinned.

Isabela let out a small laugh before she returned to her room and Arlo's smile dropped. She loved her parents. But she hated that they never kept their promises. She had gotten used to them flaking all the time to get back to work, but Izzy and Diego hadn't exactly grasped it yet and it killed her whenever one of them was upset.

Arlo marched downstairs and walked into the kitchen to see Diego sitting on a stool by the island, a mouthful of banana in his mouth. The girl smiled at him before she went over and kissed Alma's cheek. "When did mom leave?"

"After you guys left for school. She said it was an emergency and left that for you on the island." Alma informed as she pointed to the box with the brand new phone inside of it. The woman was the Calero household nanny and in many ways was more like a mother to her than Esme.

"Great." Arlo breathed out as she took out the upgraded version of her old phone. "Just...great."

"Something wrong?" Alma wondered.

Arlo shook her head and beamed at the woman. "No. Nothing wrong at all."

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