She's the Girl Next Door

Chapter Six

Jen walked over to her car and noticed Matt was already waiting there. She made sure that Owen or Stacy didn't follow her to avoid another confrontation. Once getting in the car Jen realised that she would have to try her best to not make things awkward with Matt. They greeted each other and got in the car.

"So Matt what topic do you think we should do our report on" Jen asked

"well there is the Decloration of Independence"

"we could also do it on the Civil War" Jen pointed out

"yeah s..so which one d..do you think w..we should do" Matt stuttered

"I think the Civil War will be interesting to do"

After agreeing on a topic Jen and Matt didn't speak for the rest of the ride but when Jen pulled up onto Matt's driveway she finally said something,

"If it's okay with you maybe I could come by your house tomorrow after school and we can start our report"

"actually do you want to do it now, I mean it's going to take a while so we miles well just start today"

Jen was shocked that Matt suggested this, she was supposed to be going out with Owen tonight but she didn't want to say no to Matt so she accepted.

Ten minutes later Jen knocked on Matt's front door and he let her in. They spent a while just doing research on their laptops, one good thing was that Matt started to seem more comfortable around Jen which improved their communication with each other.

"The Civil War ended in 1866 right" Matt questioned

"1865" Jen corrected

"right I totally knew that"

Jen let out a little laugh "sure you did"

Jen and Matt both looked at each other and smiled. Jen guessed that the reason they were finally starting to connect was becuase they spent 20 minutes a day in a close proximity for over a week. A door opened and Matt's mum Claire entered the room,

"hey Matt so did you..."

"oh sorry I didn't realise you had company" Claire said with a surprised look on her face

Matt explained that Jen was there for an assignment, Claire was so happy that there was a girl in her dining room. She kept offering Jen food and asking about her mother, Jen answerd all her questions. After Claire left the room Matt appoligised for her

"it's okay, your mum is really nice".

After two hours of work Jen made her way home but when she opened Matt's front door her mum Carol and John were standing right there

"what are you doing here"

"Claire invited us over for dinner" her mum replied

This was the first time that both families have had dinner together, usually Claire would go over to Carol's for drinks or vice versa but that was it. Jen guessed that Claire phoned Carol about her and Matt doing an assignment together and they both got excited that their kids were talking to each other.

Claire made a casserole and everyone was socialising with each other apart from Jen and Matt, it was still slightly awkward between them. At around nine Jen and her family went back to their house,

"mum why did we go over there for, it was awkward"

"well Claire and I always wanted our families to have dinner together and when we saw that you and Matt were becoming friends we thought why not"

"Matt and I had to do an assignment that's why I was over there, we're not exactly friends"

"Well it would be good if you were, you don't exactly hang out with the best people"

Jen knew her mum was right but she couldn't admit that to her, so she just went up to her room without saying anything. Jen realised she forgot to call Owen about canceling their plans, she checked her phone expecting a ton of missed calls from him but there was nothing. Jen got worried and called Owen but he didn't pick up, she was worried he was going to be mad the next day, so she snuck out of her house and drove to his. Owen's parents were away so she knocked on the door but there was no answer, he still wasn't picking up his phone so Jen just went home.

When she saw Owen at school Jen apologised for not going through with their plans, he said it was fine and the reason he didn't pick up his phone was because he and Todd went to see a movie.

When walking to calculus Jen saw Aubrey and caught up with her, they talked for a bit. Aubrey was happy that she was slowly starting to connect more with Liam's friends and Jen talked about the awkward dinner she had the night before. Their conversation was interrupted by Ben,
"Aubrey where's Liam, I can't find him"

"He's not feeling well, so he didn't come to school today"

Ben glanced at Jen "hey Jen" he said in a flirtatious tone
"hi" Jen said

Aubrey rolled her eyes, Ben started walking with them to class even though he didn't have calculus with them,
"Last night I had to go to Todd's house to do our report, and his sister kept flirting with me which was weird" Ben exclaimed

Jen realised something was off, if Ben was with Todd doing their report, where was Owen.

"So Ben, how long were you at Todd's for"

"I went home at like 10, we tried to finish our report in one night but we didn't"

Jen had a very bad feeling, why would Owen lie about where he was and why didn't he call her?