Camila's POV
Dinah and Shawn were laughing their asses off. Apparently, it was funny to them that I got stuck on a date with Lucy. This wasn't the reason I told them about it, I needed their help, I didn't want them to laugh at me. Sitting in the driver's seat, I waited for them to stop laughing. I looked at my wrist, examining the time on my nonexistent watch.
"Are you guys done yet?" My eyebrows furrowed.
"No," Dinah was lying on the back seat, while Shawn sat in the passenger seat, and put his seat back. Oh sure, get more comfortable while laughing at my problem. It's not a big deal.
"We'll... finish in like... ten more minutes," Shawn said between his laughter. His hands held his stomach, I guess it was hurting from how much he was laughing. "I can't... breathe," He gasped for air. It would've helped if he didn't laugh anymore.
"Okay, okay," Dinah was getting herself put together. "Shawn, let's stop." Finally, she decided to be a real friend, supporting me. That's what I needed right now.
"Yeah, or you can walk home." I threatened.
Instantly, Shawn's smile and laugh faded. Wow, that was impressive; how was he able to look so serious within seconds? He had skills. If it were me, I would've still been struggling with the laughing. He had to teach me how to do that.
"Okay then," Shawn actually looked like a mature, decent guy now. "So what do you want us to do?" He cracked his knuckles, getting ready for solutions.
I had something in mind already.
"From you, nothing." I looked over my seat to direct my full attention to Dinah. "From you, everything." Shh sat up as if willing to do whatever I wanted. "Ask Lucy out so she can forget about me," I grinned like it was no big deal.
"Um?" Her eyebrows arched in shock and confusion.
Holy shit. No, that couldn't happen; Vero liked Dinah, I couldn't do that to her. Well there went my simple solution. That was not an option anymore. I brought my hand to my forehead, feeling helpless. There had to be another way out. I couldn't think of anything at the moment.
"Just kidding," I played it off, and she puffed out a sigh of relief.
"What do you have in mind though?" She wondered. Nothing now.
"I don't know," I shrugged and slouched in the driver's seat.
I just looked out the car window, watching people walk out of school. We were still in the parking lot, just parked. We were supposed to leave a few minutes ago, but we were waiting in case Vero showed up. Even though she had her own car, we wanted to make sure she had left already. It would've been messed up just to leave, especially since the three of us were all together, minus her. Minus, oh, that reminded me of math, which reminded me of Lauren. Lauren! I really wanted and needed her.
"Hey, do we really have to talk about this right now?" Shawn sounded bored. "Can we talk about how hot Miss Jauregui is instead?" He sounded pretty interested in that topic. He looked up as if imagining something, probably a fantasy. Oh wow.
"Get over it," I murmured.
"She's like a goddess." Dinah went back to laying down. "With piercing green eyes. Ughhh." Dinah whined.
"Yeah, but there's something wrong with you too," Shawn replied. "You never want to talk about Miss Jauregui. Is it too weird for you because she's your teacher? Does it disturb you to think of her as hot?" He assumed that was the problem. If only he knew. Well good thing that's what he thought. It was better than having him believe anything else.
"Yeah that's why." I went with it.
"Oh sorry," He apologized seeming sincere. "So Miss Jauregui has the cutest booty ever," He was actually imagining. His eyes were glowing. His sincerity went out the window, along with a gum wrapper that I just threw out. I threw the gum in my mouth and began chewing. "Her ass looks so firm," He went on and on.
"Okay Shawn. You need to stop." I murmured.
"Fine," he was pretending to be hurt. His lips pouted, making him look really cute. He folded his hands behind his head, getting comfortable in the car. "Maybe Vero already left, let's go," He was getting frustrated, especially because the sunlight was shining in his eyes. His eyes squinted while putting down the sun visor.
"I agree," Dinah yawned, covering her face with a sweater that I had in the back seat.
It didn't feel right to just leave like that, but maybe they were right. Vero probably left us without realizing. After all, we weren't exactly paying attention, just conversing. And where did that take us? Nowhere. It was useless; nothing came out of it.
"Okay, let's go." I turned on the engine and they buckled up.
Pulling out of the parking spot, I kept my eyes open for Vero, but she was nowhere to be seen.
______________________________________________________________________________
The next day in class, Lauren was behaving a lot more different than usual. Almost distracted. She was making mistakes throughout the lesson. To get her more on her toes, I kept raising my hand and correcting her. That was really getting to her because when she was feeling uneasy, her lips would press together.
We were graphing at the moment.
"And next, you go up two," she demonstrated. Immediately, I stared at her, realizing there was a mistake. I raised my hand, which she tried ignoring, but I was waving it like a maniac in the air. "Yes Camila?" Ha, she had to call me, teachers couldn't ignore students.
"You were supposed to go down, not up," I corrected.
"I had already realized that," she claimed. Well she did, but I wanted to pretend like I didn't know. Turning away from me, she erased the mistake, and wrote it down correctly. "We'll be having a small quiz right now." She informed, causing us to put our heads down in distress.
"How many questions?" Someone asked.
"Ten," She replied. She stepped aside and asked, "Did everyone write everything down?" Once everyone was done, she erased the board. "Okay, put everything away, just have a pencil out." She instructed.
Lauren walked to her desk, looking through a pile of papers. Seeing that she was handing out the quiz desk by desk, I decided to make small talk with Lucy. Only to make Lauren jealous. From her distraction in class today, she was clearly focusing on us. That's why she was messing up here and there.
"Hey, did you understand the lesson?" I started the conversation.
Her hand made a somewhat motion, "Sort of. It was a bit confusing because of all the mistakes that were being made." She excused; I nodded my head. I agreed with her. "I hope I do okay on the quiz." She hoped, biting on the tip of her thumb.
"You will, don't worry," I leaned over to her, scooting my chair closer to her desk. I put my hand over hers when I saw that Lauren neared our desks.
Lucy smiled, "Thank you Camila, you're so nice." She commented. "And beautiful," She complimented and blushed. Okay, that was nice of her? By the way, Lauren heard that.
"Lucy, do you have a pencil out?" She asked in a monotone voice. That was unlike how she talked to the other students. Lucy shook her head and went to search for a pencil immediately. Lauren laid the quiz on her desk. She walked over to my desk and didn't make eye contact with me. She just placed the quiz in front me. "Miss Cabello, take a pencil out," oh, she was being firm with me. Why was I not surprised.
Lauren was truly confusing. One moment she was ignoring me, being serious, and then next, she was being gentle and welcoming my touch. She had problems.
Once Lauren had moved along, I turned to Lucy again, "Good luck." My hand was on hers again.
"Camila, back to your seat," Lauren commanded.
"I am in my seat," I retorted being a smartass.
"I mean scoot your chair back to your desk," She rephrased. "Don't make me repeat myself," She warned. Ah feisty. God, she was so sexy when she was in this mood.
Doing as commanded, I scooted back to my desk and started my quiz. The graphing was easy. After graphing, was the last five, which were simple. They were < or > type of questions. These were a piece of cake. I answered them all, wrote my name on the top with a heart.
I was about to turn it in, but then a I got a really mischievous idea. Aha, this would either stress Lauren out, or entertain her. Whatever it was, it was going to be good.
I erased my last five answers and wrote or as the answer for them. Well I felt like being a smartass, especially in this class. Just to tease Lauren. Uh-uh, she wasn't going to get rid of me that easy.
Now I was ready to turn it in. Feeling confident, I walked to Lauren and handed her my quiz. She looked up meeting my eyes.
"Done already?" She was surprised.
"Well yeah, I'm the smartest in the class," I joked by polishing my nails on my shoulder.
She rolled her eyes playfully, "Go take a seat," She instructed, now in a nice manner. I looked over my shoulder to glance at her, and that's when I realized that she was staring at me while sitting back in her chair. Finally catching a break from class.
Lucy was answering the last problem on the quiz, she chose the wrong answer. I would've told her, but that would have been cheating. I didn't really care, but I had to pretend like I didn't know. Too bad. It would've been nice to help her get a better score.
Lucy looked up with a smile directed at me. I returned the gesture, and from the corner of my eyes, I could feel Lauren's stare. I looked up at her, and noticed that she was chewing on the inside of her cheek.
Come on, I was so close to getting her to break. This had to work. It just had to. Jealousy was the key.
After a few more minutes, the whole class had completed the quiz.
"That was easy, I'm sure I got them all right," Lucy stated confidently. Eh, no you didn't Luce. I already knew that she got at least one wrong.
"That's good." I replied instead.
"Class," Lauren spoke loudly. She didn't have to be so loud in order to get our attention. Of course, she was looking at the back row. Oh no wonder. "I'm going to give everyone someone else's quiz, and we'll correct them together."
"Ugh why?" A guy looked embarrassed. Oh, it was Austin Mahone, he was, well, not exactly the smartest person in the class. I felt for him.
Wait, that meant that Lauren wasn't going to see what I did. Someone else was! Holy shit, did my mischievous plan just backfire? Uh-uh, I wasn't about to let that happen. Hopefully, whoever was correcting my quiz was going to point it out to the whole class.
After everyone had a quiz, Lauren started going over it. I anxiously waited for the last five problems to be read. I kept an eye out trying to see who had mine. Without luck, I couldn't find the person who had mine. I tried focusing on the correcting process. The person whose quiz I was correcting, was practically getting them all wrong. Wow, this quiz was so easy, how could they possibly do so bad?
My eyes searched for the name. No wonder, it belonged to Austin.
Finally, we approached the last five problems. Lauren started off with the first one. And continued to the second one, followed by the third, and then the fourth. What the hell, no one was saying anything about my answers. My mischievous action was worthless.
Until...
"Miss Jauregui, Camila wrote or as the last five answers," Yes! Finally someone said something.
The class laughed while turning around to look at me, I grinned with a innocent shrug.
"Camila, why would you do that?" Lauren stifled her laugh.
"Well it was one of the answer options," I replied simply.
Her head shook in disbelief, but with a hint of amusement, "No, you misread it." The class was still laughing at me.
"My bad," I gave an apologetic expression.
"See me after class," she requested. Hell yes! I knew this would work in a way. I nodded.
"You dummy," Lucy leaned towards me.
"Lucy, would you like to give me the answer to the last problem?" Lauren singled her out. God, when she was jealous, it sent chills down my spine. It was such a turn on. Uh-oh, Lucy got the last one wrong, she was going to make a fool out of herself right now. Mainly because she was so confident about her answer.
"Easy," Lucy stated her answer, ">"
"Incorrect," Lauren was quick to point out. She went on, demonstrating the correct answer, and how she got it.
After finishing, we gave them back Lauren.
Now I had to wait for class to be over to talk to Lauren.
*****
The bell just rang. There were a few people packing up their things, others were already leaving. Lauren was at her desk, watching as everyone made their way out. Some said goodbye to her, as usual, just being flirty.
I waited for everyone to leave. There were three guys who were staying behind, whispering to each other while looking at Lauren. Ah, they were idiots. They heard when Lauren asked me to stay after class, were they dumb enough to stay in here right now? Lauren needed to kick them out, or else I was going to. They were taking up our valuable time.
"Guys, can you please leave? Class ended," Lauren showed them the way out. She held the door open while they walked out in disappointment. Just when she was about to close it, others came jogging.
"Wait, we want to come in," One of them tried squeezing through the door.
"No, I have to speak with a student," Lauren blocked the entrance.
How annoying was that? Apparently everyday, students came in her during her brunch, just to see Lauren; to check her out. This was supposed to be Lauren's break as well, she didn't need them to come and bother her,
Just like she didn't need me to make things more difficult...
God, I felt terrible for doing this now. At least I was doing it out of love right? I did not just say that!
When Lauren finally finished keeping everyone out, she locked the door.
"Students love you huh?" I chuckled. "You're the cool teacher," I added.
"Every school has the cool teacher," She air quoted. "I never thought that it would be me," She stated.
My eyes flickered, "Really?" It was really hard to believe. Everything pointed out to the fact that she was going to be the most beloved teacher in school. She was young, she was beyond gorgeous, and her teaching techniques made learning easy. "You're not conceited at all," My eyes shifted down to her lips, desperately wanting to kiss them.
'Thank you," She smiled looking down at the ground. "Well, I just wanted to talk to you about the quiz," she stated the main purpose of me being here. I sat down, letting her go on. She sat on the desk, although it wasn't in a seductive manner,I still thought it was pretty hot. "I know for sure that you know this stuff, why were you joking with your answers?" She asked curiously.
"Because of you," I grabbed her hand, intertwining our fingers.
She tried to pull away, but I held her tightly.
"Camila, let it go," She demanded. I shook my head. "I'm not playing," she added, still pulling away, yet she remained seated on the desk.
"Me neither," I held her hand in mine again. "Just talk," I rushed her.
Her eyes narrowed down to our hands, thinking about it. "Fine, but don't try anything."
"Is that a challenge?" I smirked, and then bit my bottom lip.
"Camila," SHe was being whiny. Aw, that was absolutely adorable. "Please stop. And stop biting your damn lip!" She pleaded. "I'm trying to be professional about this," She stated. Well her actions from earlier with Lucy weren't supporting it. She practically picked on her whenever she saw us talking, especially during the quiz corrections.
"Okay, I'm sorry," I gave a sincere apologetic expression. "Go on," I motioned for her to continue talking.
"Please answer my previous question," she requested, actually expecting an honest and serious answer this time.
"Because of you," I repeated. She sighed. "Wait, I'm serious. I promise." I quickly tried to clarify what I was saying. Lauren's eyes squinted, staring at me skeptically. "I wanted to get your attention," I spoke truthfully. "Honestly, I didn't know the class was going to correct it," I explained.
"Just to get my attention?" Her brows came together. I nodded, well that's what I said. "Camila," she massaged her temples. "You have an A+ so far, why would you ruin that just to get my attention?" She questioned, seeming to not understand. It was pretty obvious to understand though. "That's terrible," she stated.
"Well, you left me no other choice," I excused.
She gasped, feeling offended. "Are you blaming me for it?" She chuckled suspiciously.
"Of course not, well not per se," I looked elsewhere, avoiding the eye contact. Her nail then dug into my skin, "Oww!" I yanked my hand away quickly. That really hurt. Fuck, she got her way. Immediately I grabbed her hand again, and intertwined our fingers back together.
She then scolded me, "Stop blaming me," She demanded.
"I'm not exactly blaming you," I retorted.
She sighed, "Why do you even want my attention? You're over me right?" She spoke with attitude laced in it. "You've moved onto Lucy," She stated.
"Oh shut up," I rested my chin on our hands. "Don't talk about her right now." I brushed it off.
"Fine, but I just want you to stop acting up in class. Okay?" I scratched the back of my head, not really knowing whether I would stop or not.
"Maybe, I can't promise you anything though," I raised my hands in defense, still not letting go of her hand.
"I'm not even going to argue with you about that," she gave up on that.
"So, wanna be my girlfriend now?" I popped the question.
She puffed in disbelief, "Will you stop that?"
"No," I shook my head and brought her hand up to my lips, giving it a light kiss. "I really want us to be together," I gave her hand more kisses.
"Ah, so that's why you accepted the date with Lucy?"
Still giving her hand kisses, I ignored what she just said, "I want you," I assured. "Why do you have to be so fuckin' afraid?" I questioned, looking into her beautiful eyes.
Lauren stayed quiet, seeming to be thinking. Her eyes then showed sadness. They narrowed down while her lips pressed together. Her eyes closed, as if trying to stop the tears from coming. When her eyes opened again, the were a bright green, and very watery. I wasn't expecting her to be so easily overwhelmed.
"Camila," she spoke so softly. "I'm going to be completely honest with you, and hopefully this will help you understand me," she added. "I'll admit, I'm scared of being caught and all, but that's not my main reason why I'm staying away from you," she stated. Woah... What was she talking about? Was there anything worse?
I blocked out everything else and focused.
"What is it?" I worried.
"The main reason is you," she said calmly. My eyes flickered, not fully understanding. "Listen, you're a senior and I don't want you to miss out on this wonderful school year because of me. I also don't want you to miss out on anything in life, like dating and going to parties," she added. I was starting to get it, but not fully.
"Can you explain?"
"If you and I date, we'll always have to be hidden, we wouldn't be able to go out to dinner, or to the movies like normal couples. Who would you go to the school dances with? What about Prom? You would always have to be hiding, or always have to be careful." I understand more now. "You don't realize it now, but keeping it a secret could eventually affect you," she held my other hand. "You don't know how horrible it feel to deny a loved one," a tear formed in her eye and cascaded down her cheek. "I wouldn't ever want to deny you to anyone," she lifted my chin, so that I was looking at her.
Instead of meeting her eyes, I kept my line of vision on the ground.
"I see," is all I was able to say. "Maybe we can overcome it though," I still had hope.
"No. I won't allow this to hurt you, and to keep it that way, we have to stay away from each other," she stated.
"It's worth a shot," I couldn't give up, I just couldn't. My heart wouldn't let me give up.
A smile crept onto her lips, "Camila," she released my hand to caress my face. "Just know that you matter to me; much more than you could possibly imagine," she kissed my forehead. It was inevitable, butterflies were swarming my stomach. My heart was aching, it was so upsetting how we liked each other, but couldn't act on it.
All this time, Lauren had been watching out for me. Stayed away just so I wouldn't be hurt. And to think she was starting to get on my nerves because of her rejection.
Now my feelings had grown much more. I adored her.
"I know that you're trying to protect me and all, but I still want us together." That hadn't changed, and I don't think it ever would.
The tip of her fingers caressed the structure of my face, leading down to my chin.
"I told you, I won't put you through that," she restated. "You mean too much to me, I wouldn't want to be the cause of your pain," she looked me in the eyes while holding my chin between her fingers. "I want you to live a normal life, to enjoy high school like a normal senior would," she elaborated. "Being with me would be like being a bird in a cage," she gave me an example.
"I don't care if we have to hide, I don't care about going out in public. I just care about you." I felt a knot in the back of my throat.
"That's what you're saying now, but trust me, you'll start to feel trapped," she kept giving excuses. "It's best not to start anything," she finalized. "What about when you see your friends with their boyfriends or girlfriends? You'll have the urge of wanting to be out in public too," that was a really good way of putting it, but still. I didn't care.
I stood on my feet while she remained seated on the desk.
"I still want to be with you though," I cupped her face.
"Trust me, if I knew this wouldn't affect you, I would be with you within a heartbeat." She held my hands, bringing them down from her face. "I wouldn't even care if it would affect me, that wouldn't matter to me," she gave my hands a gentle squeeze.
"Lauren, if you really don't want to see me in pain, then please be with me," that was literally the only way. All these days, I had been different. I was barely able to enjoy anything anymore, and it was all because of her rejection. "I want to know that you're mine and only mine. You seriously don't know what if feels like to see all these other students talking to you. It makes me really jealous." I told her as tears were strolling down my cheeks/
She couldn't contain it either. Tear were coming down her cheeks as well.
"Oh trust me, I know. It makes me really jealous to see everyone talking to you without a problem," Um, I thought it was different for her. "In my other classes," she paused to wipe tears from her face while more came. "I've heard other students talking about you, about how they would like to date you," she informed. "It makes me want to claim you as mine," her grip on my hands tightened tremendously.
"You could," I replied.
"No," she still refused. "Camila, this is for your own good," she repeated. "I swear, if I weren't your teacher, I would have asked you to be my girlfriend," she assured. Did she not understand that this was causing me pain. It was actually encouraging me to keep trying. My heart was aching though.
"Fine then, I'll go to Lucy." I decided to go on with the plan. This had to put pressure on her.
"Do what you have to do." She then released me. Ending this right here, I walked to the door. When I was about to open it, Lauren spoke to me. "Camila." I looked over my shoulder. "Last week, you asked me if I saw you as a student, or as the girl from the zoo," she reminded me. "I want to answer that now," She inhaled and exhaled then spoke, "To me, you're the girl from the zoo. One hundred percent. That won't ever change," a small smile appeared on her lips, though it seemed like she wanted to cry. "When I see you, student doesn't come to my mind. Only when I'm trying to convince myself of it," she finalized.
"I thought so," I replied in a whisper.
Before opening the door, I smiled and wiped the tears off my face and put the hoodie over my head. I then walked out.
A/N: THE END! Jk babes, I love you guys too much to end it here :)
Well now you guys know why Lauren is staying away from Camila. It's to protect her. Thank you guys so much for reading and giving the story a chance; even though it's not all my work, I appreciate all of you that read and vote for it!