Not All Hockey Boys Are Bad

Chapter 17

*****

"Someone seems a little moody this morning..." Georgia said poking my side while we sat in Chemistry together.

We were supposed to being doing a lab but I wasn't feeling it today. The other two girls in our group and Georgia worked on without me. I tried to help but when I accidentally spilled a vile of chemicals they booted me to data recorder which I didn't complain about.

"I'm just stressed because I didn't finish my homework and I'll have to rush to get it done during advisory." I say using my homework as an excuse to my behavior."What was the ounces of fluoride you put in again?"

Georgia hummed while she looked back at the vile of fluoride we had set out. "Um about .13 ounces." She answered. I wrote down the number in our data chart.

"So your mood has nothing to do with your Mom?" Georgia inquired.

"Maybe, but I don't want to talk about it." I say.

Georgia nods. She's concentrating on dropping the fluoride into the beaker. I watch her. She looks so sure of herself and confident in what she is doing. It's not even just in Chemistry that she's like this, it's outside of the lab too. I watch as she puts down the dropper and let's Kate, one of the two girls in our group, mix the substance together.

She then turns to me. "What about the subject of Jack, is that safe to talk about?"

"Jack Vella? The hockey player?" Jane our other lab partner asks questioningly. The tone of her voice seems condescending and I blush. I had forgotten that Jack was well known at this school.

Brushing back a strand of my hair I say, "Yeah... That's the one."

Her eyes widened and Kate looks up at me. "Wait... Your talking to Jack Vella?" Kate whispers across the lab table.

"Not just talking..." Georgia muttered under her breath with a smug look on her face. I kick her in the shins and motioned for her to zip it.

Kate and Jane are staring at me now. Was it really that big of a deal for me and Jack to be talking. I avoided their eyes and shaded in some of the letters on our lab report paper. "It's not really a big deal..." I mumbled.

"Um, it kinda is. I've never seen Jack Vella talk to anybody but his teammates and his teachers. My friend Sadie tried to flirt with him last year and he completely blew her off." Jane says dropping the stopwatch onto the table. "It was like she didn't even exist to him."

My heart tightened. If that's true then why is Jack opening up to me? What makes me different than any other girl at this school? It wasn't even like I offered anything great to him. All I seem to do is cause him trouble.

I shook it off. "Can we just finish this Lab already."

*****

Lunchtime came around and I tried to push off my foul mood. It was pizza day in the cafeteria but even that didn't lighten my mood.

"Would turn your frown upside down please, it's making me feel gloomy." Georgia says dropping her tray onto the table. I looked up to her placing a fake smile on my face. "Much better."

I grumbled and took a bite of the greasy pizza. I had no clue why I was acting this way. What my mom does or doesn't do with me shouldn't make me this upset. I'm seventeen. I'm a big girl.

"Hockey boy incoming." Georgia exclaimed looking behind me at the approaching boy.

Without even having to turn around I knew it was him. My heartbeat raced and my breath caught in my throat. I didn't understand my reaction to him. No other guy had this affect on me. The sound of footsteps stopped as he stood right behind me. "Mind if I sit down?" Jack asks already taking a seat beside me.

I look over to him his hair was quiffed up and he wore a navy blue button up with only the top two buttons undone. His appearance appealed to me and I fought the urge to throw myself at him.

"How'd your homework go last night?" He asked but I doubt he really wanted to know about that.

"It went alright, I'll probably fail Calculus but it's no biggie." I joked. Jack smiled and shifted closer to me making our hips touch. My body ignited with the simple movement. What was he doing to me?

I watched as Jack leaned forward, lightly brushing his lips over mine, then hovered his mouth beside my ear. I had forgotten about Georgia and the pizza I had yet to eat. The cafeteria and the people sitting inside of it melted away and all I felt was Jack beside me. "You know." He whispered. I held my breath. "If you need a tutor, I'm always available."

He leaned back away from me and winked. My cheeks heated. "I'll... Um, keep that in mind." I say.

Watching as he stands up, I glance towards Georgia knowing she had seen the whole ordeal. I take another glance around the cafeteria and saw that all eyes were staring at me and Jack. Oh no...

"I have to get back to the team now, but I'll see you around, Rosie." Jack smirks then walks back to the hockey team's table. He doesn't seem to notice all the stares we both were getting, but I doubt that he cared. I, however, did.

"What was the point of that?" I exclaim to Georgia. "I mean it's bad enough he affects me the way he does but now the whole school has seen us talking, and it wasn't even about something important." I rant. Confused and frustrated I push my tray away not even hungry anymore. Georgia chuckled. "What?" I asked her harshly.

"You two dig each other so badly." She says popping a grape into her mouth. I was about to respond but the bell rang.