Harmless Things (Jean Hobbs AU)

Part six

"Hey cutie!" Georgia did some stupid fake giggle and covered her mouth; it was something she did when she tried to act cute in front of guys and I always hated it when she did that. "Jack, are you jealous?" 

"No!" 

"Aww, Jack's in love with Dean!" 

"I am not, shut up!" 

"Georgia Smith! Stop flirting and give out the textbooks!" 

"Yes sir," she sighed and I felt myself smirk as she passed us. 

"I am not in love with you Dean," I said turning to him. 

"I know, don't worry about it," he reached for the textbook and flicked through. "Um, what page is it?" 

"I wasn't listening. Sir!" I called out in no particular direction. 

"It's page 394, Mr Howard." 

"How did he...?" I started. 

"I don't know," Dean laughed. He opened the page then moved it to the centre of the desk and started the work. I stared blankly at the questions that were laid out in front of me trying to work out how to answer them in my head but was unsuccessful. I glanced over at Dean's book to see he was almost halfway through them already, and as if he could read my mind he looked up at me. "Do you want me to explain again?" 

"Yeah, please." 

"You should really start listening to the teacher," he said shaking his head, a smile touching his lips. 

"You teach better than he does," I shrugged and Dean blushed slightly at the comment. 

For the next five minutes I listened to him talk, pretending to follow what he was saying when he tried to explain for the first three times, then paid attention on the forth time and grasped the concept of it all quickly. 

"Oh, I get it now, thanks Dean," he opened his mouth to speak but the words never left his mouth as Felix interrupted and he looked down at the table. I suppose he wasn't completely comfortable around me and my friends yet. 

"Hey Jack." 

"Hey." 

"Want to hang out with me the others after school?" 

"Sure. Dean, wanna come?" He lifted his head up, looking a bit scared when he saw Felix but tried to sound confident. 

"Uhh, yeah." 

"Right, well, we meet up by the traffic lights outside school," Felix told him since he didn't know the drill. 

"Felix, go back to your seat," sighed Mr Ledley. I could tell he was on his last nerve with Felix, he had been telling him off for different things all lesson. Felix wasn't often a trouble maker, but when he was he could be hell to the teachers. 

"Okay dearest!" He grinned and skipped back to his seat, knocking over a tray of pencils as did so. I zoned out as the teacher started shouting, threatening to give out detentions to anyone who laughed. 

"Do you really want to hang out with us today?" I questioned Dean, eyeing him curiously. Why would he want to if he didn't like Felix and didn't know me that well? 

"Well sure, why not? We can become best buddies Jack!" Dean said in an excited high-pitched voice. 

"Really?!" I replied, adapting the same tone.

"Yes! And we can bake cakes and sing songs together!" 

"No way! I've been looking forward to this my whole life!" I squealed. 

"You guys are so weird," said Harvey from the table behind us. Dean and I looked at each other then burst out laughing, causing heads to turn in our direction. 

"Jack, do I need to move you again?" 

"No sir!" Dean muffled his laughs by putting a hand over his mouth and I bit my tongue as hard as I could. When I was sure I had control over myself, I looked at Dean and grinned. "Dean Dobbs, we're going to get along just fine." 

* * * 

I tapped my foot impatiently watching the clock on the wall. When it finally hit 2:45pm, I jumped out my seat and put my book in the box and threw on my bag, ignoring the teacher that was saying something about what we had to do for homework. I raced myself down the stairs, too excited to see Dean for words. When I got to the front of the school, my heart skipped a beat as I saw him already standing by the tree talking to what looked like a spitting image of him, only this version was much smaller. I walked towards them catching the last of what he was saying. 

"Will you be okay on your own? I can always walk you home first," Dean asked.

"No, it's fine, Jared lives near us anyway and he said I can walk with him. See, he's over there!" 

"Okay, text me when you get home though or I'll worry." 

"Dean, you worry too much, I'll be fine!" The younger one of the two hugged Dean then ran off. Dean watched him, running a hand through his hair nervously. 

"Dean!" I called out. He looked up at me and smiled; when I reached him we walked towards the traffic lights together. "Was that your brother?" 

"Y-yeah. He's in Year 7." 

"He looks exactly like you!" 

"I get that a lot," he laughed. 

"Do you want to ditch the rest of the guys so it can just be us two?" 

"Sure. Won't they be mad at you though?" 

"It won't matter, I do it often enough anyway. We'll walk with them for a bit then when you get my signal, we'll run." 

"What's the signal?" 

"You'll know," I stopped talking as Felix approached us, shortly followed by Matt and Jason and then Lyle and Sebastian. "Hey guys, this is Dean. Dean, that's Felix, Matt, Jason, Lyle and Sebastian," they all muttered something that classed as a hello and Dean smiled back, playing with the collar of his shirt. 

"He's a bit short, isn't he?"

"Shut up Lyle!" I hit him playfully on the back of his head and he rolled his eyes. 

"Lets get going then," I tagged behind them with Dean at my side who stayed quiet as they all discussed Match of the Day, something that I missed because I was too occupied thinking about my smaller companion next to me. 

After ten minutes of walking we were reaching the end of the road. 

"Ready?" I whispered to Dean who nodded eagerly. When the road was clear and the five of them I started to cross, I gripped onto Dean's hand and whisper-shouted "now!" instead of crossing I  turned left  and ran down a quieter street, Dean running close behind me but not letting go. We started laughing when we heard them shout our names behind us, but kept running for a few minutes until we were certain we had lost them and we got to a park. 

I led us to one of the bigger trees and sat underneath it, leaning against the trunk, still in hysterical laughter. Dean tore his hand away from mine and reached for his phone in his pocket. 

"I think we should mark this moment Jack," he turned on the camera and stuck his arm out and pointed it towards us, giving us a moment to pose before taking a photo. 

"This is the start of a beautiful friendship," I commented and Dean smiled as put his phone away. When his hand was free again I entwined our fingers, for no other reason than it felt like it should be there.