Homeroom

31: This Means War

[A/N] Song for this chapter is Don't Stop by 5SOS because it's the first song of theirs I fell in love with.

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I wish I could tell you that Luke calmed down after that, but he most definitely did not. Throughout the entire month of November, every band practice I attended he called me ever insulting name in the book. Luckily, my mother didn't come back to our house again, and my dad isn't pressuring me to call her. However, I did notice that her phone number magically appeared on the fridge two weeks ago.

"So Luke likes me?!" Shay squeals as we walk to lunch on the first day of December.

"Yes, we've been over this for an entire month," I laugh, rolling my eyes.

"I know, but I'm so happy!" she smiles, fixing her cheerleading bow in her hair. The basketball team has a game tonight, so the cheerleading squad has to wear their gear to school to show school spirit and spread the word.

"You should ask him out. I'm sure he'd say yes," I suggest.

She shakes her head, confused. "Isn't that his job?"

"Heck no. If you like him, you ask him."

"Okay, I will," she nods as we enter the cafeteria. I watch her strut to his table where he sits with a few of the popular kids. Even though I hate Luke with a passion, I hope it all works out for her. She'd be so happy if he says yes.

I turn away from them and head to the empty table Charlie's at. I take a seat across from him, pulling out a sandwich from my lunch bag. "Hey, Charlie," I greet.

"Hey, Cal," he replies with a faint smile. "What's up?"

"Nothing really," I shrug, "How 'bout you?"

"I officially signed up 4 Days to Jupiter on the Battle of the Bands roster," he gloats, taking a bite of his apple.

My eyes widen as a smile forms on my lips. "So you guys settled on my band name? That's awesome!"

The skin around his eyes crinkle as he laughs. "Just don't tell Luke that you came up with it. He'll be pissed if he finds that out."

I nod and bite once more into my food as I watch Charlie look behind me with a confusion on his expression on his face. "What's Aaron doing here?"

I turn around to see a worried Aaron approaching us with Luke by his side. Something's definitely wrong. "Guys, you have to come see this," he pants.

"Did you run all the way here?" I ask, concerned.

"Yes, now let's go, this is important," he stresses.

Charlie and I follow them both out of the cafeteria. Once we're in the empty halls, Aaron begins to run, and the rest of us follow. By the time we reach the music room, I'm out of breath. Aaron shoves the door open and heads into the small practice room. "I wanted you guys to see it for yourselves," he announces.

"Hey, my bass!" Charlie cries, horrified, as he picks up the instrument. Its strings are cut up, and it looks like someone smashed it on the ground a million times. Al's guitar suffered the same amount of damage as Charlie's bass.

I pick up Al's most prized possession and examine it, sitting down on the piano bench. "Does he know yet?" I ask Aaron.

"No," he replies, eyes scanning over the crushed instrument.

I turn my focus back to the guitar in my hand, flipping it around a couple of times to get a better look at the damage. A piece of folded-up notebook paper falls out of the center of the guitar and onto my lap as I do this. Puzzled, I hesitantly open it up.

Enjoy the little gift I left you all. Remember, Callie: I get what I want.

I gasp, hands shaking as I read the note over a couple of times. I look up at Aaron, watching his eyes scan over the messily written words. "This means war," he eerily seethes, knowing exactly who did this.

Charlie grabs the note out of my hands and reads it aloud so Luke can hear it. "How does this note tell us anything?" he asks, confused.

I roll my eyes. "Zander did this."

"Okay, but what does he want from you?"

I sigh. "He's mad that I won't give him love and affection... if you know what I mean."

"See, I told you she would mess everything up," Luke accuses, huffing. "It's all your fault."

"You're blaming me because some weirdo is obsessed with me?"

"Yes, precisely."

"Luke, shut up, seriously!" Aaron yells, running his hands through his hair.  "Now listen up, I have a plan."

Everybody turns their attention to Aaron, waiting for him to speak. 

"Alright, first of all, we aren't going to blame Callie for anything. Like I said time and time again, she's here to stay. Secondly, I propose that we get him back. There's no way I'm going to sit back and let him do this stuff to us."

Luke surprisingly nods in agreement. "I'm in, and I'm going to go out on a limb here and say Al is, too."

"Yup, I second that," Charlie says.

"Callie?" Aaron asks, nudging me.

"Yeah, I agree."

"Okay, it's settled then," Aaron announces, clapping his hands together. "Let's get him and his band back."

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[A/N] Yay! Stuff is about to go down!