you will find me ↬ zach dempsey

six ;

chapter six: the pictures

i reach first period a few minutes late, running all the way from the other side of the parking lot where my dad dropped me off. yes, what a surprise. dad stayed home at sunday and declared he would be taking me to and from school this week until it becomes a habit. i know that it won't last for a week. something will eventually come up and he'll ask me to ride with wren or jeff again.

"this is the third time you're late, miss emerson." mrs. bradley prompts, giving me a knowing look.

i sigh through gritted teeth, mimicking her voice and her exact same words. " 'the moment you have 5 lates in my class, you'll go straight to mr. bolan,' I know, I know."

the class laughs and i take my assigned seat, right next to clay.

he examines my irritated frown and probes, "what's wrong? you look frustrated."

sheri, who's sat opposite to me, leans forward and whispers, "let me guess, this has got something to do with your uncle and his lack of skills in the kitchen?"

i run my hand through my hair, pulling it back into a messy bun. "yes! he made me wait. i never got to eat breakfast because of him, he's convinced that he can toast a bread and every single time they end up singed. and dad didn't want me to go to school for the hundredth time with an empty stomach so he insist he would make bagels for me."

clay and sheri chuckles and we hear a lot of phones dinging, one by one. a phone dings after the other until I feel my phone buzz and clay's chimes. we share a puzzled look before pulling out our phone to see what caught everyone's attention.

i raise my eyebrows in astonishment as i see the photo sent by justin.

hannah. laughing. in the middle of sliding down the playground's slide. her underwear showing.

i get a text from sam, with hannah's photo attached to it, saying; someone's been a bad girl.

i look up at where justin's sitting, shooting him a 'seriously?!' look, he looks away. my eyes drifts to the person sitting next to him, wearing plain white shirt underneath a grey jacket.

i mouth, you and i need to talk. lunch time.

he smiles and mouths back, about what?

i shake my head, glaring at him. you'll find out. it's about hannah.

the smile on his face drops and he looks bewildered but nods anyway.

sheri frowns at her phone, "okay. scandalous."

I turn my attention back to clay, who's avoiding hannah's gaze. i move my chair closer to him, noting the unreadable expression on his face. I whisper, "you alright, clay?"

clay shakes his head lightly, stuffing his phone back to his pocket. "yeah, yeah. I mean, why wouldn't I be? if justin's such a great boyfriend, why would he send this?"

"don't worry, i'll try to clean up this mess, cl—"

"miss emerson, please stop bothering clay and listen to today's discussion or else—"

i roll my eyes and cut her off, "—you'll send me to mr. bolan, i know, mrs. bradley."

⇢ ⇢ ⇢

i have algebra with wren for 4th period. mr. travis gave us a pop quiz about last week's lesson and judging the way almost the entire class cursed and groaned, i'm guessing i'm not the only one who doesn't remember the lesson.

wren is sat right in front of me and when she came over last saturday, she brought her math lectures to study because she has a gut feeling that mr. travis is planning an evil scheme of laying out a pop quiz. and she was right.

she passes me notes when mr. travis' not looking, listing down her answers and telling me to change some of them to make sure mr. travis won't notice. she even wrote down her solutions from the back of the paper, including her explanation.

i was at the middle of finishing my explanation at the last equation when i hear the bell ringing, indicating that it's lunch.

"okay, everybody raise their pens and pass their papers to the front." mr. travis announced, the sound of papers rustling and chairs screeching back filled the room.

"fuck, mr. travis, five more minutes, i didn't get to answer the last two equations." i hear pratters whining at the back.

mr. travis shrugs, "i gave you exactly one hour to accomplish the test, mr. pratters."

pratters complained, "that's because you started late, mr. travis."

"no, mr. pratters. you walked in late." mr. travis corrected, shaking his head at pratters, used to him always complaining about everything.

wren and I walk out of the room with our arms linked, gushing about how she was right. when we turn to the right where everyone is headed, to the cafeteria, I see zach leaning at the lockers.

he holds eye contact with me and I tell wren to go on without me, saying i'll use the bathroom.

i walk up to zach and he frowns, he places a hand on my back leading me to an empty hallway. "what did you want to talk about? what's wrong?"

"no, no, it's not about me." i denied, craning my head back to maintain eye contact. "it's about Hannah."

zach looks away, "oh. what about hannah?"

"did you know justin sent that photo? i mean, i thought he liked hannah. why would he do that? does he know how that kind of photos ruin someone's reputation and be labelled as something bad?" I rambled.

zach clears his throat and avoids my gaze, "it was bryce who sent it. justin tried to stop him, though."

"oh." I say. "did you try to stop bryce as well?"

he doesn't say anything and I take that as a no. i look at him in disbelief and stormed off. "wow, dempsey. i can't believe you."

i hear him call out but he doesn't come after me, "no—gabriella, wait!"

i barged in the cafeteria, doing a quick-scan for a wild, curly hair before seeing her standing up from a table and walking out.

"hannah, wait!" I holler, quickening my pace.

hannah fires back, her voice wavering. "no, I don't wanna talk to you right now, clay."

i look at her amusedly, "whoa, i didn't know i sound like clay doh."

she turns to me in surprise and she tries to hide the pained expression on her face. i speak, "it wasn't justin who sent it, it was bryce. he tried to stop him but it was too late. whatever, he's still an asshole, he shouldn't have showed those pictures. did he apologize to you already?"

hannah shook her head, giving me a tight-lipped smile. "nope. asshole gives me the cold shoulder, what a fucking dick."

"that jerk!" I exclaim, startling hannah. I smile at her and bump my hips against hers, "don't worry, I don't think you're a slut. i don't believe everything they say. you're still hannah baker."

hannah lets out a laugh and my smile widens, she nods her head at the direction of the cafeteria. "you should probably go back. i hear jeff's been looking for you, been screaming your name for minutes now. by the way, thank you... you kind of made me feel better, gabriella."

"you can always rely on me, hannah, every time."