Painting Flowers (A Jack Barakat fanfic)

Chapter 6

*Alex's POV*

Kathryn and I climb onto the bus together and head to our seats from the day before. Zack and Rian greet us as Kathryn sits next to me.

"We heard about your escape, Kathryn. Have you already had enough of Alex?" Rian jokes with Kat. She blushes and bites her lip shyly, avoiding eye contact. "It was an accident... I didn't mean to lose him." She mumbles, embarrassed. I chuckle and ruffle her hair a little. "Eh, Rian. Leave her alone." I laugh, punching Rian's arm playfully. "Don't worry about Rian. He's on his period." I joke, turning back to Kat. She giggles a little and nods.

"Hey, Barakat!" Zack shouts suddenly, standing up. I flick my head towards the direction of the doors and notice that familiar blonde streak. He walks over, waving at us before stopping in front of Kat. "You guys replaced me already? With a girl?" He gasps, pretending to be offended. Zack laughs at his stupid question. "She's better looking than you." Rian says. Kat suddenly realizes she's in Jack's seat and stands up. "Oh! I'm sorry! Here, you sit." she says in an apologetic tone. Jack chuckles and shakes his head. "It's cool. Take a seat, Little Red." he says, making her blush a little. Zack and Rian smirk a little. "I'm sure she can sit in your lap, Jack." Rian laughs. Kathryn turns completely pink, but Jack just laughs. "I don't have a problem with that." He jokes. "But seriously, take a seat. I'll just sit on Rian." Jack says. And surely enough, Jack took a seat in Rian's lap. Kat giggles a little and sits back down.

"Oh! Jack, I forgot." I say, remembering they've never met. "Jack, this is my cousin, Kathryn. She moved here from England a couple of weeks ago. Kat, this is Jack. The one we told you about." I say. Kat waves at Jack shyly, making eye contact for a few seconds. "Wow Alex. Your cousin got all the looks and what did she leave you with?" Jack jokes. I laugh and watch Kathryn bite her lip again. "Sheer sexiness." I respond with a smirk. Zack rolls his eyes at our antics. "More like queer sexiness." Jack replies. I roll my eyes and flip him off. "I'm still sexy, aren't I?" I reply in a sassy tone. Rian rolls his eyes just as Zack did. "Now people will think we're homophobic. Would you like that?" he says. We laugh at Rian, who always brings the logical side of things into our jokes. "Shut up, Rian." I say, still laughing. Kathryn is trying to sustain her giggles. "Yeah, shut up, Rian." Jack joins in.

When we arrive at school, Jack and I head to our lockers which happen to be beside each other. "Your cousin's hot." Is the first thing Jack says. I chuckle and shake my head. "You've already got your hands full with Stacey. She was looking for you, so deal with that before you go for my little cousin." I remind him. He looks confused for a moment before his eyes light up with realization. "Oh, Blondy-Bitchy Stacey?" He asks, just to confirm. I smirk at him and nod. "Yeah, forget her. She was expecting some fancy restaurant or dinner at my place, just the two of us." he says, as if that's too much to expect. And of course, from Jack, it is too much to expect. "Well Jack, what do you think a date is?" I say. I stand upright and close my locker, taking my books from it. "Well, I only took her to McDonalds." he says with a shrug, as if getting the chance to take one of the hottest girls in school on a date and then taking her to a fast food restaurant is nothing. I laugh and shake my head at him. "C'mon. I don't wanna be late because of you." I chuckle as he stands upright and closes his locker. "But seriously. Your cousin's hot." he says. I just roll my eyes at him. Typical Jack.

At lunch, I notice Kathryn is already at our table with Rian and Zack. Jack and I make our way over. "Hey princess." he says sweetly. Kathryn blushes and looks up at him.
"U-Um..." she stammers, obviously uncomfortable and unsure of how to respond. "Oh, not you, Little Red. I was talking to Rian." he clarifies. Kathryn takes a sigh of relief but Rian bites his lip and glares at Jack. He laughs and sits down, putting his lunch on the table. I do the same. "So what's been going on? What've we been missing?" I ask, looking around at the cafeteria. "Not much. Coach what's-his-face and one if the biology teachers got fired. Apparently Coach had been cheating with her for about 4 months and nobody said anything until a student walked in on them-" Zack is cut off mid-sentence by Jack suddenly. "Woah! Okay that's enough! We get it they got fired for cheating!" He says, obviously not wanting to know what went down next. Rian and I laugh at Jack and his childishness. "How've you been doing, Kat? You liking it?" I ask my little cousin who is not very talkative. "Alex, nobody likes this hell hole. That's the stupidest question ever." Jack answers for her. I roll my eyes and elbow Jack in the ribs. Kat giggles a little and looks back to me. "It's okay. A lot of the teachers expect me to be louder and a troublemaker." She explains. We all burst into laughter, leaving Kathryn confused. "B-Because you're a Gaskarth!" Rian manages to say. She's still confused. "Alex and Jack are two of the biggest troublemakers in school. Since you've got Alex's last name, you've also got his reputation." Zack explains. Kathryn finally understands, smiling a little.