Believe Me, I'm Lying

:Believe Me, I'm Lying: 32

"So you're back?" Zak grinned at me, leaning halfway across the table towards me. "Like for good?"

"As long as Arden's grandma doesn't hate me."

Melissa cocked her head to the side. "Haven't you met her yet?"

"I guess she over slept, so she's heading in now..."

Tucker snorted. "They sure hired someone more responsible than you, Ms. Allen. You've never been late."

I smiled slightly. "You can call me Harley now."

"I like Ms. Allen," Zak interjected, shrugging his shoulders. "It's going to be kind of hard to switch over."

"You'll get used to it."

He gave me a wry smile. "Come to think of it, since you're not the teacher anymore, you don't have to be polite to us?"

"She might tell us to shut up— oh wait, she has before," Tucker added, a smug smirk slipping onto his face.

I blushed, waving them off. "I still have to be polite. I'm an assistant teacher."

"Assistant to the teacher," Tucker corrected me. "You have to have a degree to be assistant teacher."

"Same thing," I snapped.

Melissa frowned. "If you didn't have a degree in the first place, how did you manage to get the job when you were pretending to be twenty-one?"

"My uncle," I responded truthfully. "He kind of bent the rules. That's why it was such a problem when everyone found out."

"And that's why you were fired, right?"

"Right," I responded, picking up my water bottle. I took a long drink, enjoying the feeling of the cool liquid going down my throat.

"I heard you and Oliver hooked up," Tucker suddenly mentioned, giving me an interested look.

I nearly choked on my water. "Who told you that?" I finally demanded after successfully swallowing the rest of my drink.

Tucker hooked his thumb at Melissa. "Her."

Melissa flushed. "Way to rat me out."

"Anytime."

I turned to Melissa with a frown. "Then who told you?"

"Oliver did."

"He did?"

She nodded. "He really threw me a ball. He kept his feelings hidden well all this time."

"Tell me about it," I muttered, shaking my head. "I would have never guessed he liked me."

"I kind of figured you liked him though," Zak interjected in a thoughtful tone. "Not really by your words, but whenever he was around you kind of held yourself differently. And you always got really flustered."

"I was not!" I denied quickly.

"You still are I bet too."

"No I'm not!"

Tucker tapped his chin thoughtfully. "Come to think about it, you're kinda like that around Arden too. Just not as... girly."

Melissa grinned. "Oliver also told me you liked Arden."

Now it was my turn to flush. I turned my attention to my lunch, picking up a baby carrot, and quickly jamming it into my mouth so I wouldn't have to reply. What was up with everyone telling me I liked Arden? They weren't me. How could they know my feelings when I didn't even know them myself?