Surviving the McLane Boys ('On Hold Still...')

Chapter 16 - Enter Emma

Chapter 16

"Hailey?" someone whispers in my ear. I groan in response. "Can you.... I dunno. Get off maybe?"

My body aches all over due to the uncomfortable bed beneath me... the familiar uncomfortable bed beneath me...

My eyes snap open and I leap up quickly, causing groans to erupt all around me.

My hands fly to my mouth as I look at the boys lying on the ground in pain. "I. Am. So. Sorry!"

Dylan clutches his middle, "God, did you have to get up that quickly? I think you've ruptured my spleen."

"I. Could. Barely. Breath." Tristan says between gasps, "You're arm was blocking off my airways."

The twins and Finn sleep peacefully on, unaffected by my strange custom of sleeping in weird positions...

Jake rolls over with his usual grin, "Well I'm not going to complain since I had a more appealing part of Hailey on me."

Wes raises his arms, "I second that. A+ for keeping those legs in shape."

I chuck pillows at Wes and Jake, glaring at them. Especially the latter. Where did that sweet almost likeable guy from last night go?

Finn suddenly sits up, "Mfjkwhere's the fire?" he says groggily.

I shake my head, "There isn't one." I sigh. "I'm so sorry guys... I just have weird... sleeping habits..."

Seth sits up a bit, leaning back on his elbows, his dark hair a mess of cowlicks on top of his head. He yawns, "S'ok. Used to it."

I wipe my hands down my face, "Well, you guys did force me to sleep down here." I mumble, trying to convince myself more than the guys that I'm not the one at fault.

"It's 8:25." Seth yawns again. I stare at him, wide-eyed. He waves his hand in front of my face, "Uh... are you ok? Are you going through some post-trauma reaction thing because of last night?"

I look down at my rumpled pj's and I can feel my hair twisting into knots as we speak. I get up and bolt towards the stairs, "I'm getting picked up in 5 minutes!"

*

"Bye Hale."

I kiss Linc on the cheek before heading into Geography, "Bye Hippo."

He shakes his head at me and I wink at him before making my way over to Mitch who's already slumped on her desk behind her book.

I nudge her with my foot before sitting down, "You awake?"

Mitch groans in response, "Unfortunately yes."

I try to think of something to cheer her up or distract her at the very least, "You're hair looks nice today. Did you straighten it?"

She props her head up with her hand, "Yeah. My cousin did it for me yesterday. It's totes cute, huh?"

I laugh, "Totes cute Mitch."

I get my books out of my satchel as an old man dressed in high-waisted slacks with suspenders over a horrifically colourful top and shiny, old loafers walks in.

I mentally jump for joy when I realise that Mr Hench is absent and we've got a sub for double Geography. As I assess the appearance of our substitute teacher though, I begin to doubt his capability to actually... teach.

He's ancient, as in he's balding, he's wearing glasses that take up half his face and he has about 5 teeth left. He looks way too old to be teaching still. Dying, sure he could probably manage that, but keeping control of a bunch of hormone-crazy teens? This I've got to see.