Damned If I Do Ya.... So I'll Do Ya (Jack Barakat story)

The One Thats Jealous?

"Hey Lee, pass the dictionary?" Rian asked from the table in front of me in French. Without looking up from the passage I had been writing, I felt around for the dictionary beside me and lobbed it at him. Thankfully I'm pretty good at aiming, and I assume that since there was no cries of protest, he had caught it.

"Wow Lee, you really want to do well on this one! You realise it's still our first day back, right?" Jack asked from beside me, nudging me slightly. He was the only one that could draw my attention away from everything. Everyone else could try, but he succeeded every time. Looking up at him, I smiled.

"I know, but French is my best subject, and I kinda want to do it well!" I replied, shrugging, before looking at what he had written. I noticed that where mine was nearly half a page, his was barely more than 2 sentences. I rolled my eyes at him.

"Well I'm sorry Mrs Perfect, but I don't know if you realised that we can't all be up to your level!" I rolled my eyes for a second time at him calling me Mrs Perfect. I don't know where this all came from, usually he was fake insulting me, left, right and centre.

"But you're part god, surely there's a god somewhere who is French?" I asked, leaning on my arm. Rian, who had clearly been listening in, turned around, grinning.

"Yeah, Asterix!" He replied, rather seriously. I rolled my eyes for the third time in 2 minutes, before slapping my hand over my eyes. I heard Jack chuckle softly beside me as he threw an eraser at Rian's head. I've always loved his laugh, it was so contagious.

"I dunno what you're laughing at!" I said, thumping his arm. "He may be obsessed with Asterix, but you have made me watch Home Alone with you so many times that it's unbelievable!" This caused him to stop laughing, and start frowning.

"But that, my dear, is because Home Alone is the greatest film. Ever! No denying! And I swear, if you deny it, you're not my friend!" I groaned.

"Don't call me 'dear'! I'll start thinking you've turned into your mother! And fine, it is the greatest movie ever, happy?" He grinned before kissing me on the cheek.

"Very! Now help me with my essay?" He asked, looking down at me with puppy-dog eyes. I was about to roll my eyes again when I stopped myself.

"Oh alright!" I said, before working on his essay, completely forgetting mine. After about 25 minutes, the teacher told us to pack up, telling us to make sure we have written at least a page by tomorrow. I groaned again. Because I had helped Jack, his was over a page already, but mine had only changed slightly from before.

"Oi, Barakat! You owe an essay!" I called out as Jack headed to the door. The bell hadn't even rang yet and he was already starting towards lunch. He looked at me before loping back. As soon as my essay was in my bag, he threw it over his shoulder and took me by the other arm.

"Well, Madam, how 'bout, seeing as I am that bad at French, instead of an essay you can have one of the bacon rolls my mother always packs for me?" Laughing, I nodded and cuddled up against him. Almost like fate, as soon as we reached the door, the bell rang, so we were free to head to lunch.

Sitting down at our normal table, we waited for the other guys. Seeing as we were clever, we brought packed lunches, but the other guys all ate cafeteria food. Just as we were getting ours out, Alex sat down with his tray.

"'Sup guys?" He asked, which got a reply of us mumbling 'nothing much', as usual. It was good to see we were getting into our old routine from before summer.

Before I could open the tupperware box my mother always put my sandwiches in, a bacon roll was placed on top of it. I looked sideways at Jack and we just grinned at each other for a while. Eventually, my stomach rumbled, so I dug into the roll. It wasn't long after that, that Rian and our other friend Matt joined us.