The Bad Boy's Princess

Ch. 34 - First Day Back

"See you later, Princess."

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"Wow, look at us all being present at school at the same time. Rare, and calls for a celebration, don't you think?" Harry put his head down on his backpack, with his sunglasses on. Which meant he was still feeling like shit from this weekend. "Race tracks after school?"

Speaking of race tracks, I haven't seen Diana in forever. Diana was my race car, she was one of a kind, imported from Germany. It was a birthday gift from my dad, who shared my love for the sport surprisingly. Ever since senior year started, I haven't had the time to go racing at all.

"Count me in." Lunch time was awfully crowded and noisy today, even more than usual. Avery was studying in the library with her friends. "I'll see if Avery wants to tag along. If you guys are cool with it."

"The more girls, the merrier." Harry put his thumb up but his head was still on his backpack. "I feel like death so I'm probably going to go home and nap until then."

"You're skipping practice? Coach is going to grill you." Charles smacked Harry on the back of his head and continued to eat his burger. It was beyond me how he could have such an appetite for our cafeteria's food, it was awful. "Since I have nothing better to do anyways, I'll come too."

"If Avery is coming, can I invite Steph too?" Cameron was doing his homework, per usual. He was also the only one not on the team since sports were never his thing even when we were younger.

"If you ask her to be your girlfriend already. My guy, it has been 7 years already. Pop the goddamn question before we all grow old." I shook my head at my best friend, who has always been the more serious and sensitive one of our group. His reasoning was logical, being that he didn't want to ruin their friendship if they didn't end up working out. But what was life without a little risk here and there?

"Quit it, it's not happening alright." Cameron glared at me. And that was my cue to drop the topic. The last time I went too far, he didn't talk to me for days. "Also, college tour next month. Is it going to be our usual group and our plus one's?"

"Actually..." I groaned. "Some chick, Amber Johnson, is going to be joining us. I forgot to invite her to the camping trip and now I'm stuck taking her along, too."

"Amber who?" Charles looked confused.

"Johnson & Co. Their youngest daughter. Her brother was on our football team a few years back. She's your type, Charles. Maybe you'll grow fond of her. Red head." I chuckled at Charles, I knew the dude way too well.

"Say no more. She's coming on the trip with us." Charles snickered. "So, how is it going to work? How are we getting around and where are we staying?"

"We could stay at my townhouse in Boston and just get around from there since the places we said we wanted to check out are nearby." I shrugged. My dad was the one who offered our townhouse in Boston for our college trip. He was big on me trying to figure out which college I wanted to go to, but that really meant that he hoped my choice would be his alma mater, Harvard. Hence the Boston townhouse offering. "We'll take my jet and we'll have cars to take us around locally when we're there."

"Your dad trying to subtly push Harvard on you, I'm assuming?" Cameron chuckled. "Oh, I love that man. If only he could adopt me, too."

Cameron and my dad got along really well, since their personalities were very similar. And Cameron's destination is Harvard, too. They talked about Harvard's interesting facts all the time. But it just wasn't me. From all the times my dad took me to Harvard for alum events or just tour around, I didn't feel like it was for me. I wanted to go to Stanford, they had a just as great business program and it just felt more fitting to me.

"I'm sure he'll be taking applications soon after Ali messes up big time and he would have to disown her somehow." I chucked a fry at Cameron, who caught it with his mouth. Ali didn't want to go to Harvard either, she was NYU all the way because of how much she loved New York from all our trips there. My poor old man was stuck with us two. Maybe the twins would end up at Harvard and make our dad happy.

Avery came to the field after she got off her shift at the pool and waited for me to finish practice. When I met up with her after I had showered and changed, she handed me something. It was a box of her s'mores cookies that I loved. She made me a batch when I picked her up for the lake house party and I finished them all in a few minutes.

"Ave, you're going to make me fluffy at this rate." I took two and and stuffed them in my mouth as we were walking to my car. "So fluffy..."

She giggled and grabbed one for herself. "I think you'll look cute fluffy."

"Also, the guys and I are going racing at the tracks. Would you like to come and cheer me on? You can meet Diana, too." My mouth was completely stuffed, and to make it even more difficult, I was getting distracted by her smile at the same time.

"Who is Diana?" She looked at me confusingly.

"She's my race car, you'll love her."

"Another one? How many cars do you have, Jace?" She shook her head disapprovingly. "Actually, don't answer that. I don't even want to know. I might collapse from shock. But of course I would like to come and cheer you on."

When we were in the car, Avery and I were sharing the box of s'mores cookies and she was singing along to some of the lyrics of the songs and it was hard to stay focused when she was being so cute. I also told Avery about the college visit trip next month.

"If you guys already know where you want to go, why are you guys making a trip to the East Coast?" She fed me another cookie since I was driving and she was adamant of me keeping my hands on the wheel.

"It's really more for Cameron and Charles since they wanted to see the East Coast college environment. And also for me to make my dad happy since he really wants me to go visit Harvard before I decide on Stanford even though I have been there a million times."

"With your test scores, activities, and grades, of course Harvard would love to have you. Why don't you want to go to the best university in the world?" Avery's eyes never left my face as I was talking.

"To be honest, it's because my dad went there. I want to set my own path instead of feeling like I got in because of him. And also because the environment there didn't really fit with my style and what I want." I shrugged. I never told anyone about the real reason I didn't want to go to Harvard until now. Avery just made me comfortable enough to tell her anything, I was grateful for that.

"Wow, I am dating a superstar genius." She laughed softly and fed me another cookie. "I'm proud of you, Jace. Really proud."

And in that moment, I was certain that Avery was the one.