WHEN Aiden Jackson walked to school, he did not expect to get covered in water.
No, it wasn't the rain. Quite the contrary, the sun was bright, the sky blue, and there wasn't a cloud in sight. So no, not the rain. It was bloody Frigg Evans. He just knew it.
But the worst part of it? He fell in the hundred years old 'bucket on the door' trick. That was fucking embarrassing. She was so dead.
Now that he thought of it, he should've expected this. They'd had this whole war going on since they were seven. Every morning, she would surprise him with something. And he was never kind with his revenge.
"You know," John said with an amused look. "I'm pretty sure you put that bucket there yourself."
Aiden gave him an unamused glance. "Why in the world would I do that?"
Lucas nodded seriously. "To be able to strip. Duh," he replied easily. Aiden rolled his eyes. He wasn't even striping. Only taking off his wet shirt.
"Nah," John poured in. "I think he only needed a reason to talk to Frigg."
Jai raised an eyebrow. "Are you stupid? He wanted people to notice him, that's all."
"Or," Lucas said, "He wants to give Frigg a detention too, so he finally gets a date with her."
What a bunch of idiots. Aiden rolled his eyes, but he felt his lips curl up slightly. He mentally ran over his to do list for the day.
Kill Frigg.
Find friends who have brains, which would be an update to the present ones.
Kill Frigg.
And, maybe put a dry shirt on.
"You said you had clothes in your locker," he said to Reece. Reece always got extra clothes with him for in case someone (cough-Lucas and John-cough) started a food fight during lunch. He was the last person who'd take part of a food fight, and that made of him the first person people (cough- Lucas and John-cough) would want to throw food at. The last thing Reece wanted was to walk around in dirty clothes, explaining why he took his precautions.
"I do." The small group walked to the lockers and Reece handed him a white shirt. "You're lucky I got it."
"Thanks. Now, where the hell is she?"
"Where is who?" Azalea asked, appearing out of no where. Jai opened his mouth to answer his girlfriend's question but she raised her hands to tell them all to shut up. "Wait, Aiden's angry, covered of water and wants to find a girl. Of course we're talking about Frigg Evans."
See? Those kind of scenarios happen way to many times. "But I'm afraid, Addy Poo," the girl with silver dyed hair continued, "that our dear little prankster's in music class right now."
Aiden groaned. "How'd you know?"
She shrugged. "We share this class." Aiden shouldn't be surprised she was playing truant. When they got to the classroom, she kissed Jai on the cheek quickly, and disappeared in the hallway.
"I'm way to single," Lucas sighed. "Jai got Azalea, Reece got Chloe and Aiden got Frigg."
While Reece didn't raise his head from his phone's screen to correct him, Aiden raised an eyebrow. He'd heard quite a bunch of stupidities in his life, but Lucas somehow always managed to surprise him. "What do you mean I got Frigg?"
Jai gave him a look. "You guys have been teasing and flirting with one another for years."
Aiden grimaced. "It's not teasing! Nor flirting! It's just her being fucking annoying!"
The teacher looked at him from her desk with a 'language, please' look on her face. The bell rang and she stood up. "Prenez votre cahier d'exercices page trente-deux, s'il vous plaît."
Aiden sighed and did as told. Next to him, Lucas muttered something and looked at him with hope. "She said she wants us to take our exercise book page thirty-two," Aiden translated.
Lucas nodded. "I hate french."
"Trust me, I know."
Aiden spent the class thinking about what he could do to Frigg. Accidentally break her leg? Open her locker (the code was 0201, The Office's amount of episodes, she was like so predictable) and put spiders in it?
Uh... that would mean finding, transporting and then putting spiders there. Nope. Not going to happen.
Then he knew. He was going to do the thing she hated the most. He was going to do the thing that made her explode. He was going to eat her food. Steal it and then eat it in front of her.
"You do know how unhealthy all of this pranking and fake-hating is, right?" Azalea wondered when they were waiting in the hallways for the others to get their books. "I mean, you're not stupid -not to that point, you know you like her."
"I don't like her! Why do you keep saying that!" Sure he thought she was pretty –he wasn't blind– but nobody's looks is ever worth the potential shit they might do, or how much of a pain in the arse they are. He couldn't start liking her again, not now that he had finally cut out those feelings.
"Why do you think everyone keeps believing you two are dating? Because you pay your undivided attention, all the time. She's like the only thing on your mind, you mention her every two seconds in every conversation!"
"I just..." That was all the convincing argument he could find. "Ah, here comes Chloe!"
Chloe was trotting her way to them, wearing one of her pun-themed tops (a green pea wearing a cap and shades was leaving its pod, with the caption 'Peas out!') and a purple cargo. Auden couldn't help but notice how Reece rose his head from his phone when she trotted past him, and actually followed her to them, as she smiled at Azalea.
"You will never guess what happened today," she grinned happily. "I actually convinced Reece to come with for the next karaoke night! Isn't that marvellous! I'm the best, I must have a superpower or something, because he usually only mutters and denies! Of course he hasn't agreed to sing or dance," she shot him a mildly annoyed look, "but if I play my cards right I might change his mind!"
"Karaoke night, huh?" Aiden repeated, looking at his best friend with a teasing glint. Reece just stared at him blankly.
Azalea narrowed her eyes at Reece, protectively, and she rose an eyebrow. It wasn't a secret that Reece was softening for Chloe, and taking her role of best friend very seriously, Azalea had started to harden for him.
"Yeah! Karaoke night," Chloe nodded obliviously. "That's still on, right?"
"Sure," Azalea nodded. "This weekend, no?"
"Yeah!" She jumped up and down excitedly. "The twins and I have already prepared a whole list of songs and snacks, and we were thinking we could also play Mario Kart on their GIANT screen, and-"
"I gotta go," Aiden cut her off when he noticed Frigg was done heating up her meal, and was heading towards the tables. He couldn't have her finishing the meal before he got to steal it. "Pranking doesn't wait."
Chloe let out a giggle. "What are you going to do to Frigg now?" She asked in a nothing-but-smooth voice. Aiden had learned from Reece that she was 'hardcore shipping them', as she apparently had put it. She wasn't good at hiding it.
He blinked innocently, "Nothing..."
His friends walked to their usual table as he got to Frigg's. Her back was facing him, so she hasn't seen him yet. She was sitting with her three friends: Annie, Bellary and Roy. Since none of them seemed to have noticed him, Aiden slowed down to listen to their conversation.
Bellary almost fell off her chair as she ungraciously laughed. "It was hilarious, I swear," she breathed out between two snorts. "He just fell for it."
Ah, so they were talking about him...
"I wish I was there to see it," Roy sighed. "You are a wicked little devil." That she was.
Frigg smiled proudly. "I learned from the best."
Annie shook her head. "You are so mean. What did he even do to you?" Precisely! He knew he liked Annie for a reason!
Bellary sighed. "Annie, this isn't about what he did to her, this is abou-" she stopped in the middle of her sentence, her eyes meeting his, and he felt the beginning of a smirk draw to his face.
Roy put his sandwiches on the table and turned around to look at what Bellary had seen, and when they crossed his, they widened. "Uh, Frigg? You won't like this."
Frigg sighed, grabbing her fork mechanically. There weren't many things that could get such reactions on her friends, and she was a clever girl, so Aiden wasn't surprised when she said: "What did that Birdbrain do now?"
The strawberry blond haired boy tilted his head. "Well... You should see for yourself..."
Wanting to get the advantage, Aiden put a hand on the table on each side of her, locking her between his arms as he leaned down to align his mouth to her ear. "Birdbrain," she saluted, not even looking at him, before he could say anything.
"Freya." He straightened, sat on the chair next to hers and put his head in his hand, looking at her.
"Your hair looks wet, what happened?" She asked innocently.
He didn't flinch, because that comment didn't deserve any reaction. Instead he watched as she stabbed her fork in a nugget. He knew it had to be vegetarian (they both had been on a vegetarian diet for a while now), so he didn't need to worry it was chicken. It must be one of those fake industrial soy nuggets she loved so much for a reason he couldn't get.
She was about to lift it to her mouth, but stopped in her tracks when he put his hand on the fork, over hers, and directed it directly to his own.
She blinked blankly as he ate it, and then moved her hand between the box and his mouth until there was no one left. He couldn't believe he was still alive. She looked in shock at her friends. Bellary was trying not to laugh while Roy and Annie sat there, frozen.
Aiden let go her hand and stood up. Time to go, before she would stab and eat him instead. He put his hand on her chin, directing her head on the right so she would look at him, and his lips curled with satisfaction. He leaned in until his lips brushed against her ear. "Next time, it'll be worse."
She sat there, frozen. He couldn't help but worry that he had officially broken her.
He was walking away to his own table, when he heard her chair move, and her hand grabbed his shoulder and forced him around. He held her gaze, his gold eyes piercing into her blue ones. "You Birdbrain, you are so-"
He walked away before she could finish. "Don't you dare walk away while I'm still talking!" She screamed, obviously not caring if the whole cafeteria could hear her. He ignored her and she groaned loudly, stabbing her fork on the table. Several times.
"Hey!" Aiden heard Roy cry out. "That was my lunch, Frigg!"
Jai shook his head as Aiden sat down in his own chair. "You are so mean, what will she eat now?"
"I'm sure she'll figure it out, she's a smart girl," Aiden shrugged at his friend, grabbing his own lunch from his bag. He had already eaten the sandwich earlier, because he'd had to miss breakfast to leave before his dad, but there was a bag of crisps left.
"This is pathetic of you," Azalea commented, happily sipping her own juice box.
"She started it!" He mustered out like a five-year-old with no pride.
The conversation was cut short when Frigg arrived out of nowhere and sat down on the table, next to him. He tried to ignore her, still watching Azalea as she rose an eyebrow. Then, not able to restrain himself, Aiden turned to look at the brunette with suspicion.
When she reached for his crisps, he quickly grabbed her arm. "What do you think you're doing?"
She looked at him innocently. "What do you mean?"
"Are you trying to steal my food?"
She smiled a little bit. "No. Not trying. Succeeding."
With that, she disengaged her arm and walked away, opening the bag. "Sour cream and onion, it's almost like you bought them for me!" She yelled behind her, and he had to let her leave, mostly because at least she wouldn't be starving now. He was too kind.
Aiden answered by giving her the finger, and she stuck out her tongue at him.
"Like you said, she figured it out," Azalea nodded her head as Jai snicked something about karma.