"Guess who make you chicken soup!"
"I'm guessing it's my sister who is going to be late for school!"
"Chill out," I mutter. "Mom told me to bring you your soup while I wait for Zander."
"Oh, I thought you were trying to ditch school."
"Me? Ditch? School?" I fake laugh, holding a hand to my chest. "I almost sort of have a perfect attendance."
Wren rolls his eyes and takes the tray with his soup and juice box. "You somehow managed to trick mom into thinking you had chicken pox. You're an expert at faking it."
"Maybe you're tricking all of us with your heart condition."
"Yep. You've figured it out, Nancy Drew!"
"I wink and point my finger towards him. The doorbell rings, and that's my cue to leave. I punch Wren's shoulder before leaving his room and grabbing my backpack for school.
"How is he?" Zander asks, trying to peer inside my house.
I close the door and push him forward to keep him from running upstairs to Wren's room and never leaving. "Don't worry. Your leader is fine."
Sam sits in the passenger's seat with her feet up on the dashboard, her eyes closed. I knock on her window before jumping in the back to scare her. She whacks her hand behind her seat to try to hit me.
"Watch it, Riles," Zander warns. "It's one of those days."
I suck in a breath. "Yikes."
Sam is a firecracker. And on these days, she's a flaming firecracker. What causes these days? Honestly, it could be something as simple as there not being milk for her cereal. If something goes wrong, she blames everyone and everything and it's best if you just avoid her.
"Shut up! I'm not in a bad mood!" she screams.
Zander and I just share a look, both knowing that teasing her will only make her angrier.
"You look pretty today," I compliment.
"Bitch, I look pretty everyday."
I nod and hold back a laugh. "My bad."
We keep quiet the whole drive I school, not wanting to push Sam anymore. Once we park, she is the first one out of the car and is already in the school before I have the chance to get my backpack out of the car.
"What was it this time?" I ask Zander as we walk into school together.
"I..I kind of told her..that I'm.."
"You're..?"
He sighs, pulling his backpack strap up more on his shoulder. "I told her I was team Stelena!"
I press my fingers into both of my tempted, beyond shocked. "How could you be so stupid?"
"I-I just wasn't thinking!"
"Clearly. This is bad, really bad. I'm thinking we give her this whole week off," I decide.
We stop at his locker, the inside decorated with pictures of the three of us. His locker is organized perfectly, due to the amount of organizing boxes and shelves his mother bought him.
Zander rests his head on the door of his locker. "A whole week?"
"You should've thought about it before you said that. This is on you, Zander."
He hangs his head and shuts his locker. Moping all the way back to my locker, Zander tries to defend why he said it in the first place. I just shake my head.
"Have you talked to Asher recently?"
"Not since Friday at school. He didn't answer my calls or texts this weekend," I inform with a sigh. "Did he seem mad when he came to the hospital? I should've at least seen him."
Zander shrugs. "Well, actually, I have to-"
"Yo, Ry, how's your brother?"
I raise my eyebrows at Tucker. "Yo, he's doing better."
"Cool." He pats Zander's back. "Congrats on the win, Zan the man."
Zander scrunches up his face, disgusted and confused all at once.
"Okay, I'll ask the obvious. Why are you being nice?" I squint my eyes. "It's making me uncomfortable."
He laughs. "I can't be nice? I feel bad about being so rude to you guys. Plus, you're Asher's girlfriend and Lainey says he really likes you. I think you're cool anyways."
"Are you high?" Zander asks, his face still scrunched.
I hold up my pointer finger. "Although that sounded like an incredibly rude question, I would also like to know."
Tucker rolls his eyes. "See, this is your problem. You can't believe that I might actually be a decent person just because I do drugs occasionally."
"You were kicked off the football team because you were high at three practices," Zander says slowly.
Tucker holds his hand in front of Zander's face. "That's irrelevant."
"You're irrelevant," Zander mumbles.
Tucker jerks his body towards my friend, causing him to scream and run down the hallway.
I roll my eyes. "Nice going. You scared away a kid who was beat up by a third grader."
He laughs, leaning against the lockers near mine. "Now, I really don't know why you got so pissed when I said he was lame. I mean..."
"Do you ever stop? If you want me to think you're a decent person, then start acting like one."
"Ah, you must have a thing for actors."
I open my mouth to respond but can't decide what I want to say. What exactly does he mean by that? I don't have the chance to ask him because he is already walking down the hallway.
"Tuckin' Tucker," I mutter under my breath.
The warning bell rings for first period, and I gather my books quickly to get to class. On my way, maybe twenty or more people asked me how Wren was doing. I lie and say that he's as happy as can be.
The boy is crushed. He can't play football for the rest of the season, which means that his scholarship could disappear. With his heart condition, he can never play to the same extent as before. He'll be slower, weaker, and not the Wren that was given a full-ride to UCLA.
When I walk into my classroom, Georgia is th first to ask me how he is. I roll my eyes, wanting to just tell her that he would never, ever go on a date with her. I fake a nice smile and tell her that he's fine.
"Oh, good. One more thing," she pauses, "is he single?"
I spin around in my seat, ending my conversation with her and starting one with Dexter. "Hey, do you have something to hide under that hoodie?"
Nothing. He keeps his head in his arms, crossed on the desk. His hoodie is pulled over his head and covers his face.
"Did you forget to remove your Hannah Montana weave? It's okay. We all know your secret," I say and poke his arm.
I'm ignored once again.
My teacher walks in, looking around the classroom for the attendance.
Surprised not, I'm asked how Wren is doing. Wren was probably his worst student, but who cares when he's the star quarterback? He stops at Dexter.
"Mr. Reed, no hoods in class."
Dexter sits up in his seat and pulls his hood down. I cover my mouth when I see the huge black-and-blue mark by his eye. The class errupts in whispers, and Dexter keeps his head low. My teacher moves on with the class, going straight into the lesson for today.
I'm too distracted by the huge bruise on Dexter's eye. Scribbling on a piece of paper, I ask Dexter what happened. When I pass the note, he is quick to rip it in half.
"Damn," I hear Georgia laugh behind me.
This bitch is pushing me.
Today's history class seems unusually long. I keep checking the clock, desperately wanting to ask Dexter what happened.
It's so sad to think that I may be his only friend. He eats lunch alone, he doesn't talk to anyone, and he's always angry. Who knows, maybe it's a life choice.
When the bell rings, I jump from my seat to walk with Dexter. He pretends like I'm not there. At his locker, he nearly slams the door into my face when he opens it.
"Hey," I whine, "I just want to know if you're okay."
"I'm perfectly fine, Riley," he mutters.
"Well, that sure didn't sound fine." I step in front of his locker. "Who did that to you?"
He rolls his eyes. "Move."
"I love California too much to move!" I say, winking.
"I'm going to be late for second period."
"So am I. Now, tell me what happened."
"Okay. I ran into a pole."
"Are you a stripper?" I ask teasingly.
He looks at me with no emotion.
"And I'm not buying that. My brother has gotten into one too many fights for me to know that that's a black-eye from a punch."
"Seriously, Riley, move out of the way. I can't afford being late."
I sigh and step aside. "This isn't over, Reed."
He shuts his locker and walks away. I watch as the crowd of people almost separate to make a path for him.
At lunch, Sam sits at the end of our table in silence. Zander and I talk about random, stupid things as always. I would've sat with Asher, but I couldn't leave Zander by himself with Sam. Also, I happen to have no idea where Asher is.
"Tucker Phillips," Zander muses after our conversation about Pokemon. "What's up with him?"
"What ever do you mean?" I ask, picking at my string of cheese. "He's a brilliant, kind, young man."
"I think he likes you."
I nearly choke on my cheese. "He hates me."
"He's faking it, Riles." He points his finger at his face. "I'm the guy code master."
"You watch too much MTV," I mutter.
"Think about it. He's pushing you away from Asher by making you hate his best friend."
"Which is him? It isn't a good strategy."
"Did I say I was done?" he asks snappily.
"Whoa there, Samantha," I tease.
Sam growls.
"My question for you, Riley, where is Asher? Could it be? Could Tucker Phillips really have managed to separate you two?"
"But-"
"And then his move today." He pauses. "He's amending the broken trust between you two in hopes that you will fall in love with him while you rebound from Asher."
I look to Sam. "Are you buying this?"
"Don't bring my emotionally unstable girlfriend into this!" Zander argues. "Tell me, did you feel like Tucker was flirting with you this morning?"
"Well," I pause, "whatever he was doing, it won't work. I don't like him nor his values."
"What if he changes for you?"
I sigh in annoyance. "Hey, do you want me to be pissed off at you as well this week?"
He holds up his hands in defense. "That was the work of the guy code master. Zander is back."
A football player comes up to our table, sitting next to me and putting his arm over my shoulders. "How are my favorite juniors?"
"What do you want, Mark?" I ask and smack his arm.
Pulling his arm back, Mark points to Zander. "Coach wants to talk to you after school."
"Me?"
"No, Hrris, I'm talking about your girl," he laughs sarcastically.
A carrot smacks him in the face. "I know where you live, Mark Gerard."
He looks at Sam in fear and then lowers his voice when talking to the two of us. "Oh my gosh. She's horrifying."
I laugh. "It's Zander's fault. He said he was on team-"
"Don't even say it!" Sam screams.
The three of us laugh, though I can tell Mark is truly fearing his life. He leaves the table after kissing Zander's head.
"What would coach want to talk to you abou?"
"Who knows."
"Probably just wants to tell you that you're a pussy," Sam mumbles.
Zander's jaw drops, his hand on his heart. "Well, that was uncalled for!"
"So was telling me that you were team Stelena!" Sam screams before standing up and leaving the lunch table.
Zander runs after her, catching the attention of the other lunchers. I laugh and hold my hands up on either side of my body to let everyone know I honestly don't know what's going on.
Since my friends left, I decided to leave the lunchroom as well. Back at my locker, I see that mop of blonde hair.
"Ash," I exasperate and run to hug him."
"We need to talk."
~~
AN:
oh boy huge huge shoutout to @hallelen for sending me the screenshots of chapter 17!
I kind of spent my entire day working on getting these chapters up so
please
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