For once West found himself greatful to need to go do the routine of school. New Year's had been a bust for him, emotionally and physically. After walking away from Joao, he should have known that the dog wouldn't leave well enough alone. The next morning West had woken up before his owl of a 'la and cleaned off the toilet paper, eggs and graffiti Joao had tagged their home with. He didn't say anything about it, especially not to his grandmother, but it just added to the foul mood he had brewing. Maddison had probably done exactly as he suggested and erased his number out of her cellphone, because West hadn't received a single message from the spirited red head. His thumb glided over the buttons of his own phone, trying to decide if he should erase her number too, just to eliminate the temptation to text her.
Of course, school presented it's own set of issues too. Romeo slammed West's locker door closed, narrowly missing West's fingers in the process. "Dude what the f***?" West hissed at his best friend.
The Trinidadian glowered at him. "I had a good thing going with ther younger Avery! But I can't very well hook up with little sister when you've just devastated bigger sister and they know we're best friends, now can I?"
West blinked for a moment, understanding making his eyebrow raise. "I didn't know you were still with Siobhan. Sorry man, you guys kept it pretty d*** low key."
Romeo glared death at the Cuban for another minute, then sighed and threw himself back, leaning on the lockers roughly. "Unlike the two of you. Jesus christ almighty you guys are athletic."
West felt a smirk stretch his lips. "Yeah... I'm not even going to lie and apologize for that one."
"I hate you." Romeo stated with a flat stare. "I wonder how Maddison's going to react when she realizes that Siobhan already knew about the age difference and hadn't said anything?"
"S***, I didn't mean to strike up family fighting." West cursed, running a hand through his hair. It was long and waved wildly, always looking styled but never needing effort. He knew girls thought it was so bada** and hot bad boy of him. He didn't care, he just knew Maddison loved how silky it was and liked to grip it when....
"Sick dude, I can tell by the gleam in your eyes that you're being perverted in your head right now. That's not right." Romeo b****ed.
West laughs, good humour temporarily restored by his best friend. "I need to give you the heads up man, sick dog from my past has made his way back into my life." West filled his good natured friend in on the details of the history behind Joao and his animosity while they wandered to class.
When lunch came around and West learned with the rest of the senior students about the newest stipulation for the trip, the GPS locators they were all expected to wear, he cursed out loud for a while in his native tongue. He'd been hoping to use the trip away as a chance to sink into some distracting hedonism. In fact he was planning on dragging the ever tempermental Romeo out to get into a decent piece of trouble every night he could between now and then, just to help get Maddison out of his system.
So you can imagine West's overwhelming surprise when he walks into class after lunch and sees the dance teacher has been replaced with none other than Maddison. The moment his eyes landed on her, he froze on the spot, and she felt the weight of his stare.
Maddison hadn't know that THIS was the highschool West went to. After he had left her in the White Room, Maddison had thought that was the end of things. She'd stood there, in HIS house for almost ten minutes, so confused she couldn't even cry. Yes she was pissed off that he hadn't told her. Yes it weirded her out to think that he was three years younger than she was. Yes it made her feel like a pedo-bear whenever she thought about the fact that the man who made her scream and not because of fear or anger was a HIGHSCHOOLER. But had that meant she was finished with the sultry Cubano? No. But apparently he was more than finished with her. His sisters had found her still standing in the room. The eldest one had made some sort of disparaging remark about West's mental acquity and the youngest, Ophelia had taken Maddison's hand in a comforting grip. She may only be nine or ten years old, but that little girl had the soul of Mother Theresa and Jack the Ripper combined. Some of the less flattering things she said about her brother made even Maddison raise her eyebrows. And then little Ophelia had told Maddison that she was better off without West unless he could learn 'to be a real man and not a walking teenage-ego'.
Mad had gone home, told Siobhan about what had happened and then got to go through another round of emotional beatings. Because Shiv had already known about West because the guy friend Shiv had hooked up with, Romeo, was his best friend! By the end of New Year's, Maddison had cried, eaten a tub of ice cream, gotten so angry she nearly went back to West's sisters and demanded that they help her hunt his a** down so SHE could give some words to HIM, and then passed out after drinking with her sister. It had not been a night she was terribly proud of. The next morning she had decided that he would change his mind and call her back. They had met by accident, met again by accident and then a third time, just to make sure they caught the hint. Maddison wasn't gonig to chase him down. If fate was really determined that she had to have him in her life, then by all that was divine and right in the universe, Maddison swore to make him come to her on her terms. One- that b****** owed her an apology. Two- she got one free smack up the back of his head without him getting mad at her. Three- she hadn't actually gotten there yet though, still too angry to think past requirements one and two.
Of course that hadn't taken into account that fate seemed to have a very wicked sense of humour and definitely NEVER played by anyone's rules. Because now West was staring right at her, as surprised to see her as she was to see him. And Maddison was surprised to realize that it kind of hurt to see him. She'd liked spending time with him, even if it was only via texting. She'd missed his understated sense of humour, and how he took everything she did or said in stride, as if she could never embarass him. He hadn't thought that whatever it was between them was worth figuring out, and that pissed her right off. She knew he'd enjoyed their time together, godd***it, so why had he just walked away?
But she didn't get to satisfy her anger nor her burning curiosity. Instead she had to focus during introduction to the classes she'd be assisting over the next few months. It had been a lucky, mind the pun, break for Maddison. During the early morning she'd work with the troupe from 6 am- noon. Then she'd haul a** to the school for the 1:00-3:00 dance class, staying later to help afterwards for students that need a hand. She had even offered to help tutour Mrs. Moodie's math kids on the weekends. The school was paying her for the work, even the tutouring, and even though it wasn't a lot of money, it was better than nothing so Maddison kept her trap shut on how tired all this was going to leave her.
An even bigger surprise than seeing West was meeting the brilliant mind behind the provocative choreography. Alice Spade was keenly creative and just a little bit heavier than her classmates. Not in a physical way, actually the girl could use a cheeseburger or two, but she seemed burdened with a maturity that was distincly lacking in her peers. West had the same sort of heaviness to him and Maddison was keen enough to realize what it was, a heavy past. Something had marked young Alice, and it was more than just her tattoos.
After Maddison got over the initial shock of meeting Alice, she was quick to take advantage of the young woman's natural talent, unaware of the social dynamic that existed in the class. The class was almost half over before she had her first run in with West. It wasn't like they had avoided each other, more that they had circiled each other until a meeting was tense and unavoidable. None of the other students were within ear shot or cared to listen in. Maddison looked West over and flushed as she felt like and absolute pervert for noticing how good the uniform looked against his dark skin and hair.
West looked down at Maddison and wanted to crash his mouth against hers the moment he saw her blush. She was delicious looking in her barely masked anger. Eyes flashing cold green fire, a pink flush to her cheeks and lips and her jaw clenched, making her face look mean and angry and he wanted to kiss the scrunched up tip of her nose. He sobered up as he saw her heave in an angry breath. Apparently his amusement had been evident.
"You look ready to either tear me to pieces or rip off my clothes and have your way with me. You look wild and untamed and beautiful." West said the words, having opened his mouth merely to say hello. But of course not, his stupid mouth had spat out what he really had wanted to say. It probably sounded horribly corny and made him look like a comple chickie boi.
Maddison felt her face flush and it spread all the way to her ears and down her chest. The hazards of being pale is that when she was reacting in emotion, everyone could tell. West's words had stolen the angry wind right out of her sails. He said she looked ready to rip, and she was. He was also right about her not being 100% sure about what it was she wanted to rip. His head off or his clothes off. Maybe a little bit of both. She hadn't thought she liked the whole uniform thing, that was too Japanese anime and yaoi for her, but here she was trying to keep eye contact because her green peepers just wanted to roam down.
The almost rich navy blue jumper gave his glossy black hair blue hints. The white shirt underneated was definitly not a button down, but instead a tight white t-shirt. He had on charcole gray pants, and unlike half the idiot male population, his pants weren't hanging off his a** like they had on crappy diapers. His trousers fit like tailored slacks should, hinting at the muscle of his thighs and hips, loose enough to move in. The sleeves of his tops were pushed up his forearms, revealing the tight muscles and graceful hands. Maddison had to admit that she was perving on him and it made her feel a little confused and ashamed.
"You can't do that. Not here. I'm Ms. Avery here, you're the student." Maddison stammered out. The student Alice asked for her help and broke the tension between Maddison and West. She saw the smirk on his face and felt her cheeks flush again. The student Alice had walked over to them by this time and West threw his arm over her shoulders, the tall woman fitting under his arm almost even with him. Maddison said nothing as they started to walk away but when a new song suddenly started there was a momentary look of horror on Alice's face as she recognized it.
The blonde student Lexi stood on the stage and every eye turned to her, unsure of what she was up to. "We have in our midst a professional!" Lexi called out. Maddison was getting a bad feeling about this.... "Our dear friend Alice was a stripper not so long ago, and this here is her song. Let's all give her a hand as thank you because she has so kindly agreed to show us what it's like to be so d*** good."
Maddison saw West drop his arm away and make a slight step forwards but then the girl Alice wrapped her fingers around his wrist and stopped him. "Lexi, are you really sure you want this?" Alice asked.
"Excuse me girls, but I don't think this is appropriate...." Maddison called out, reminding everyone that there was an authority figure still in the room.
"Oh not like THAT Ms. Avery. I'm not stripping today. But Lexi has shown such a keen interest in the life of a stripper, I think for the fitness benefit." the tatttooed student tried to sooth. "I know how good of a core workout it is and she has admitted to needing to tighten up." Alice looked back at the now furious blond. "So if you'll start the song again for me Lexi, I'll show you exactly what it is I can do."
Maddison tried to voice more objections, but Lexi's dance troupe friends started to talk over her and then West grabbed her wrist gently, shaking his head slowly. Mad frowned, not understanding when West shrugged. "It's been coming all year. Better to get it out now than closer to the Gala."
She couldn't put her finger on why she listened to West, but a part of her still kind of liked him and that meant trusting him a little. So she watched one student dance around the other, not stripping but still horrifyingly sensuous and devastatingly discomforting. Everyone watched and it was clear to Maddison that the blonde student was almost crying in embarassment. When the tall tattooed student stopped dancing, she hopped off the stage and strode away.
West patted Maddison's hand fondly, then took off after Alice, knowing now why that song made Alice react so powerfully. Part of his mind mused how good she must have looked doing that for real, but now was so not the time or place to remark on that to his friend. A couple of her girlfriends tagged along as well and he gripped Alice's hand so she would know that she wasn't ever alone.
He turned to look at her friends. "Ladies if I could regale you on something...." he heard Alice walk away from them and told the girls about one of his more disasterous pledge runs for Los Santos which involved a goat, a chicken, a trip to a voodoo priest and somehow ended with him naked and fleeing the police. They walked back into class, both girls laughing so hard they had tears in their eyes. West saw Maddison get that pinch lipped look that meant she was feeling jealous. West blinked his eyes a smile slowly stretching across his face as he realized that while she was saying that she wanted him to stay away, she was also doing everything in her power to keep him close. She still wanted him.
Taking a moment to think about his emotionally troubled friend, he text messaged Malcolm a heads up of what happened and then focused on seeing how close he could get to Maddison without her realizing he was doing it on purpose. West texted Romeo something after that, knowing his buddy would understand it.
'The Hunt is on'