new chapter, yay!
and also, follow me on twitter @thisisme_polly! :)
check out the video that SallySale made for this story! youtube link on the side :)
and also, thank you to daniellex13 for making the book cover on the side :)
AND ALSO, i picked out a cast for this story. IF YOU DON'T WANT TO KNOW AND PREFER MAKING UP YOUR OWN CHARACTERS, DON'T LOOK AT IT! fair warning.
okay, i'll shut up now :)
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I stand awkwardly by the doorway for a few seconds and Ms. Lewinski looks at me oddly.
“Well? Take a seat.”
Snapping out of my trance, I mutter a sorry and hurry towards the far end of the classroom. Jace takes a different route and end up beside Ms. Lewinski and starts whispering something about sleeping in because he was too wrapped up in a novel she had recommended. Yeah, right. Unsurprisingly, he receives a beaming smile and a nod. How he gets away with everything so flawlessly is a mystery to me.
When Jace starts making his way towards our row, Ms. Lewinski turns her attention back to the class.
“Okay guys, like I already said, this is Josh and he’s going to be with us ‘til the rest of the year,” she said impatiently. “Josh, go take a seat and we can get started with our lesson that was delayed by some certain”—glare at me—“events.”
Because Jace is taking his sweet time, not a care in the world, getting to his seat, Josh looks at the empty chair beside me and starts walking towards it. Unacceptable. There is absolute no – freaking – way that I’m going to let him sit beside me. I never imagined that I would say this but I would rather sit beside Jace for the rest of my life. Why?
Let me tell you something about Josh. First of all, he’s a jerk – complete disregard for everyone’s feelings other than his own. Second of all, he’s a jerk – thinks that the universe revolves around him. And, third of all, he’s a jerk – undependable and unreliable, unless you rely on him to be a jerk.
They both reach my desk at the same time and before Josh can sit down, Jace tosses his books on the table and gives him a quizzical look. Obviously Josh wouldn’t get the message, so he just stands there. I roll my eyes.
“Hey, Jace? I didn’t really get the 3rd question we got for homework. Can I see your paper?” I ask, glancing at him and ignoring the other one.
Jace looks confused be obliges anyways, sitting down cautiously as if I’m going to bite his head off any moment. Whatever. He should be glad I’m being nice to him. When Josh finally gets it, he nods his head at me and turns away, sitting in the empty spot in front of Cameron a minute later. I smile in victory and pretend to flip through Jace’s homework – a blank page.
“You do realize that I didn’t do my homework, right?” Jace whispers amusedly.
“Mm-hmm,” I reply, distracted.
He leans over to peek his notebook. “So what are you doing then…?”
I smirk and swat his head away. “Don’t worry about it.”
Focusing back to the lesson, I keep the smile on my face. If there ever was an upside to me fooling around (not that kind of fooling around, but you know what I mean) then this is it. I can do whatever I need to do while thwarting off Josh and his…whatever at the same time. And that is a very settling thought.
The bell for the end of first period rings exactly at 10:15 and shuffling of bags and paper fills the classroom. With my lightening quick speed, I catch up with Cameron just before he reaches the door.
“Why,” I hiss at him, “didn’t you tell me before?”
“I was trying to find the right time!” he replies apologetically.
“The right time? So this morning in my downstairs bathroom was the right time?”
Cameron looks away sheepishly. “Well….”
“How long have you known?”
“Since the uh – since a few days before Octoberfest.”
“Since a few days before Octoberfest?!” My loud outburst earns a couple of looks from people passing by in the hallway and I remind myself to keep my voice down. “How did you find out?”
Cameron’s tone is indifferent. “He called me.”
“I thought you guys don’t talk anymore.”
“Well I couldn’t exactly just hang up on him, you know.”
“Uh, yes, you could’ve,” I tell him bluntly. How hard is it to hang up on someone? Not very.
From behind, Josh’s voice called out to Cameron.
“Look Stella, what happened between you guys was…I don’t even know how to describe it, but I don’t want to get caught in the middle, okay?” Cameron says cautiously, like he was scared of my reaction. He should me.
I stop walking and cross my arms. “So you’re taking his side?”
“That’s not what I meant!”
“That’s exactly what you meant!”
“No. What I meant was that I’m not taking sides.”
I roll my eyes. “You know, when you say that, to me, it means you’re taking his side.
“Stella—
Josh catches up quickly (and I do admit it’s my fault for stopping) and interrupts Cameron. “Hey guys. What’s up?”
I open my mouth to say something snarky but Cameron just shakes his head. Glaring at him, I grind my teeth together and spit out a “Nothing” before turning on my heel and stalking the other way.
It’s only after I turn the corner that I realize how I’ve turn the completely wrong way and now have to resort to walking around the entire school or look stupid by walking by Cameron and Josh again. Any settling thought that I had from this morning is gone and I huff in anger while making my way to my next class.
By the time lunch rolls around, I’m furious at just about everything and anything I see. Rachel stands nervously beside me in the cafeteria line.
“Seriously, Stella. You’re sure that you’re okay,” she says, eyeing me worriedly.
“I’m fine. Never been better,” I mutter.
“Cause you know, if you want to talk about—
“Nah, I’m good.”
“I know it was a long time ago but—
“Which is why we should move on,” I tell her in a tone that says I-don’t-want-to-talk-about-it-anymore and thankfully, she shuts up.
After we pay for our food, we head back into the lunchroom to sit with Connie and Tina. They obviously don’t have a clue about me and Josh’s history; so naturally, they’re only talking about how hot he is.
“…I mean can you believe it? Two hot guys in our year now,” Connie gushes.
I set my tray down and roll my eyes. “We have plenty of hot guys.”
“Wow Stella, coming from you, that’s really something. But have you seen what’s his name—
“Josh,” I finish for her.
“—yeah, Josh! Have you seen him? I mean, if Jacky wasn’t so gorgeous, I would’ve already—
Rachel covers her ears. “Enough!”
I can’t help but laugh as Rachel goes on about the ruining of her innocence and the blushing reaction of Connie. This is sometimes why I like hanging out with these girls better than with Cameron or whatever. Rachel, Connie and Tina never try to get in my pants.
“What’s Rachel going on about this time?”
All four of us turn around to see Michael Lee smiling knowingly at us. Beside him ,Cameron, Jace, Kevin and sadly, Josh stand casually, all with trays in their hands.
“Just something Connie said,” Tina explains. “Do you guys want to sit?”
“No!” I blurt out before I can stop myself. Before I know it, all 8 pairs of eyes are on me. “I mean – it’s just that – well – there’s hardly any space here!”
Cameron looks amused and sits down on an empty chair. Jace follows him and soon they’re all sitting down around the big round table. Turns out there are just enough chairs for the 5 boys. Just my luck. It’s also just my luck that Josh picks the seat beside me and decides to sit uncomfortably close. I swear, some people have never heard to personal space before. I cringe and shuffle closer to Rachel, almost pressed up against her. Across from me, Jace raises an eyebrow.
“So, what was Rachel ranting about?” Michael Lee asks, smiling. Even though they’ve only been going out for two weeks, he knows her surprisingly well.
“I was just saying how Connie needs to keep her conversations rated PG-13,” Rachel explains seriously.
Connie giggles and the blush on her face reddens. “Well, I was just saying!”
“Next time, say something other than hot guys, okay?” Rachel says.
“I wasn’t even the one who brought up the topic! Stella did!”
At that, Cameron, Jace, Michael Lee, Kevin and Josh all turn to look at me with amused, surprised and mocking expressions.
“Did she now?” Jace smirks. “And what did she say?”
“She said that—ow!” Connie stops and picks up a piece of dressing-covered salad off her face. “You threw a lettuce at me!”
I try to hid my smile and shrug. “My hand slipped.”
“Sure. Okay, so, Stella said that—ow! Stop throwing lettuce at me!”
“If you stop talking I will,” I tell her smugly, purposely twirling a piece of lettuce around on my fork. I ignore the confused glances from the guys.
“Fine,” she says, crossing her arms angrily. And just when I think that I’ve won, she opens her mouth again. “Stellasaidthatwehavealotofhotguysinourgrade!”
“Is that so?” Kevin says, amused expression back on his face, as with the rest.
Connie looks pleased with herself until I shoot her a death glare, telling her that I’m planning her murder in my head right now. Tina is sipping her juice slowly, trying to conceal her smile and Rachel is coughing into her napkin, obviously disguising her laugh.
It is so like them to gang up on me.
“That’s a first,” says Cameron who has the biggest smirk on his face. I want to wipe it right off his face.
“Shut up Cameron,” I snap, ducking my head.
He doesn’t. “You know it’s weird how you suddenly became interested in guys after Jac—
My head whips up and I throw my fork at him. “Cameron shut up.”
I don’t fail to notice Josh staring at me with an unreadable expression, and, of course, Jace smirking.
“—after Jace shows up,” Cameron finishes.
Evidently, he doesn’t care if he doesn’t wake up tomorrow morning, if you know what I mean.
Kevin laughs. “You know, I’ve been wondering about that exact same thing.”
Connie, Tina and Rachel stop smiling and look at me worriedly; they know how touchy I am about this. Too bad the others don’t.
Jace smiles. “What can I say? I’m irresistible.”
This is the last straw for me and I roll my eyes, pushing myself up from my chair. “You know what? I think this conversation is over.”
Picking up my tray, I turn around and walk away, quickly followed by Rachel, Tina and Connie.
“You made my girlfriend leave the table,” Michael Lee says grudgingly.
“Yeah dude. I think you pushed her too far,” says Kevin.
I can just picture Cameron rolling his eyes. “Shut up. You guys did it too.”
The rest of their conversation ends because I walk out of hearing range. When the cafeteria doors close behind me, I let out a deep sigh.
Tina rubs my shoulder. “Don’t worry, they’re only doing it to annoy you.”
I grit my teeth and think of all the excellent comebacks I could have said, but didn’t because I just came up with them.
“Well, it’s working.”
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i actually really like this chapter. hope you do too!
vote/comment! they're always appreciated.
love, me :)
AND NOW FOR A PRETTY LONG AUTHOR'S NOTE (you can skip if you like):
1. CAN I JUST SAY HOW MUCH I LOVE YOU GUYS. I DON'T THINK I'VE EVER SAID IT BEFORE. EVEN WHEN I'M A LAZY SLOTH AND NEVER UPDATE FOR LIKE A BAJILLION YEARS, Y'ALL ARE STILL HERE. le creys.
and not only that, THANK YOU for messaging me about harry potter when i asked! i know i didn't reply to all of you. i might have missed some, or wasn't on, or didn't get to it yet, but i love how so many of you guys share my love.
QUESTION: has anyone registered for pottermore yet?
2. RANT: one of the reasons why i didn't upload sooner was because i felt very disencouraged by something that happened with my other story. can i make this very clear right now? : i am NOT a firm believer in happy endings. in fact, i think love at first sight is stupid and i roll my eyes at people who say they love each other even though they've only been going out for 2 weeks.
what happened with my other story was that there wasn't a happy ending (some of you guys might know what i'm talking about) and i got some pretty immature comments. honestly, i accepted the negative ones because i knew the ending was pretty crud and of course, i'm always open to criticism. and like, i'm not sitting here complaing that not everyone loves my stories because i know they don't, but i would appreciate it if you don't talk me, or anyone else, for that matter about it. i can proudly say that i have never sent hate over the internet before, not anonymously or anything like that and maybe saying stupid things about my story isn't really cyber-bullying or whatever, but still. it's pretty rude. i don't go around telling people their stories suck. most people don't go around telling people their stories suck. nobody should be going around telling people their stories suck. if the saying "if you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all" was ever relevant, this is it. if you don't like something, kindly say it, or don't say anything at all. life is hard enough without immature people making it harder.
3. in case anyone is wondering, because i know that everyone loves happy endings, THIS STORY WILL HAVE A HAPPY ENDING. this isn't even a spoiler alert or anything like that. i'm just telling you straight up because i mean, it's pretty obvious already.
anyways, that's basically it. if you're reading this sentence right now, give yourself a pat on the back because that seriously was a long author's note, haha.
anyways, hope everyone had a wonderful start to their august and happy reading! <3