Settle Down // Irwin

3

Luke grins at the pair at the locker and strides over to them. Ashton and Michael close behind. Calum edges closer to Jade's side, he sees her as a form of comfort in times like this. That's because she is normally better in confrontational situation when she wants to be.

"Hello there Calum." Luke leans against the locker next to Calum and stares at him. Calum looks straight ahead, not making eye contact.

"H-hello Luke." His breath shakes.

Jade is again unnoticed. She says a silent thank you but sees that Ashton is looking directly at her. She looks back at him briefly but his eyes move so fast that she doesn't make proper eye contact with her and fixes his gaze on Calum. This confuses Jade because she knew he was looking at her. He also offered her a ride home yesterday but today he doesn't seem to be recognizing her presence at all. This kid is ten times more annoying that Jade had originally thought.

"You okay Cal?" Luke mocks concern and puts an arm around Calum's shoulder. He is pretending like they have been buddies or years. "You seem a little nervous."

"I'm fine." Calum say whilst he is showing signs he isn't.

"You sure?" Even though there isn't much of a height difference between Calum and Luke, both are very talk, Luke somehow seems so much bigger than Calum.

Calum just nods his head and Jade wishes she could do something to help but Luke does scare her as much as he scares Calum.

Calum gives Jade a sideways glance. It is as if he is telling her that everything is okay. This little interaction seems to finally make Luke notice Jade and he takes his arm away from Calum's shoulders.

"Hello... Jade? Was it?" Luke must think he is real smooth.

"Yeah, Jade Jones." Michael answers for Jade. He then gives her a genuine smile. "Thanks for telling me the answer for eleven today. I was really lost." How can Michael be so nice to Jade but still beat up Calum? Michael must be one if those people who act differently around other people. He probably only beat up Calum because Luke and Ashton were there, and is totally nice to Jade in math because they aren't. But then again, here he is being really nice to her in front of Luke and Ashton. He is weird, Jade thinks.

"Why have I never noticed you before?" Luke asks and Jade wants to fire back a witty response. Maybe something like because he can't see anything past himself. Or maybe he should step away from the mirror and he might be able to see everything in front of him. But she cant will herself to do it and just shrugs.

Luke's tongue plays with his lip ring. Jade has seen him do this to other girls and have them fall at his feet. Does this mean he wants Jade to fall at his feet. Probably not. She is too plain for him. Even if he does she wouldn't.

Luke's eyes linger on Jade for a moment longer, making her feel incredibly uncomfortable. He then looks at Calum and smirks.

"See you later Cal." He roughly pats Calum's back making Calum wince slightly. Luke smiles at this. "Bye Jade." He coos.

"See you Jade." Michael says cheerfully. He follows after Luke who has already started to walk away.

"Bye." Jade hears Ashton mumble before following his two friends.

Strange how he manages to not only pretend Jade isn't there but also act coldly to her at the same time when just yesterday he was trying to persuade her to get in a car with him.

Calum and Jade let out a collective sigh of relief.

"I hate those guys." Calum tells Jade.

"Me too." Jade replies honestly.

~~~

The last bell rings and Jade is so thankful to finally be release from the slow torture that is American History. They have been studying the Civil War for what seemed like years. It isn't even like their town had a massive part in it. It was too dull for Jade.

"Are you busy tonight?" Calum asks Jade as they walk out of class. "I have a bio test that I need to cram for and you are a genius at biology. Would you like to come over and help me study? My mom can make trifle." Calum knows Jade loves his mom's trifle. Jade just loves Calum's mom to be honest. Everyone seems to.

"I'd love to Calum but I'm helping out some kids that struggle with math after school today and tomorrow. My math teacher asked me." Jade explains. She is excited to be doing this. She doesn't really talk to anyone but Calum, her parents, teachers and occasionally Michael. She doesn't really like talking to people but she could talk to them about math. She's a total nerd but she likes that about herself.

"Really? Human interaction?" Calum jokes before his eyebrows furrow together. "Wait, I'm good at math. Why wasn't I asked to help?"

"Maybe because the teachers already know you do out of school tutoring?" Jade shrugs. Calum was helping out kids on the weekends who wanted tutored. He would help them with any subject. Not just math. Most of these kids went to different schools than Calum and Jade.

"I guess but it would've been nice to be asked." Calum sulks. Jade has always found it funny how Calum would get so worked up about school stuff.

They split off from each other at Jade's locker. Calum was going home and said he would call her later if he needed any help and Jade agreed to answer. She headed up the big wooden stair case to her math class and was ready to begin the lesson.

She opened the door and about half a dozen kids were already seated in the class. She half expected to see Michael there but realized he would probably rather die than agree to go and get real help with math. Instead she saw another face she recognized. It was Ashton.

He was sitting at the front of the class. He already looked like he was hard at work. His head was bent over his desk and looking over a text book.

Jade couldn't quite understand what he was doing here. Obviously he was struggling with math and needed extra help but there is no way he would actually come look for it. Doesn't it disagree with the secret, unspoken cool guy rule that says it's cool to be bad at math?

Ashton lifts his head and his eyes meet Jade's. His face shows a slight look of confusion. Like he is trying to work out why she would be here. He must not know they have asked students to tutor them. Jade knows now that Ashton will be one of the students she will be helping pass math. That's just great for her. She will be helping two of the guys who constantly torture her best friend each day in math. She mentally rolls her eyes because she is too afraid to actually do it, in case Ashton doesn't like it and tries to bother her about it.

She really doesn't want to be here with him but she knows she is here now and there is no way she can get out of it.