The rest of the weekend consisted of homework, but thats alright. After Saturday night, my weekend was set. Monday morning seemed to come almost instantly. I rolled out of bed as my alarm clock beeped ever so loudly. I took a quick shower, changed into my usual type of attire, and braided my long brown hair. The plan was to let it dry and then unbraid it later on in the day. You know, no-heat waves.
I grabbed an apple to eat in the car and hoped in my mother's mini van. As we drove, my mother asked me about my date on saturday.
"Was at the office all day yesterday and I didn't ask you!" she said happily. "How was your date?"
I smiled. "It was amazing," I said. I decided to tell her. "I had my first kiss."
"Brooke!" she said.
"Is that bad?!" I asked. Crap.
"No no its fine! Congrats!" my mother assured. "I'm glad you didn't waste it on someone you didn't like."
I relaxed, and gave her more and more details about the date until we pulled up to Palo Verde.
"Thanks mom!" I said behind my shoulder as I closed the car door. I walked into the courtyard and realized I was really early. I looked around until I saw a broad shouldered football player. Nick. I quickly walked until I was behind him. I tapped his shoulder playfully and he turned around from the friends he was talking to. A smile instantly spread across his face. "Hey!" he said happily as he gave me a hug. I felt his a hand slide down my back and I pulled away. There were people around.
"Hey, I wanted to ask you something." Nick said.
"Sure whats up?" I asked.
"Well, this Saturday's Halloween, and I was wondering if you wanted to come to my halloween party. Me and my older brother always throw one every year. Its huge."
I thought about that for a second. I totally forgot this Saturday was Halloween. I didn't have any plans anyways, but I have never been to a "party" before. My thoughts were interrupted by the sound of Jessie's voice.
"Aww ya'll are so cute!" She said happily to me and Nick. I blushed and gave her a little push.
"Your friends can come too!" Nick said.
"Come to where?" Jessie asked. Then her face lit up. "Oh! Your Halloween party-thing you always have?"
Nick nodded and Jessie looked extremely happy. "YES oh yes we have to go!" she said to me. I turned to Nick and smiled.
"We would love to go!" I said. Nick's eyes beamed and he gave a little "woohoo!", which was very cute. The bell rang and I said goodbye to Jessie and Nick and headed to 1st period. Art. I sat down in my seat and waited for the res tof the class to file into theirs. The bell rang and Ashton wasn't there. I didn't care, but I was amused at the amount of times he's been late/absent.
Ms. Hullen greeted the class and took out her roll-call chart. Suddenly the door opened and in walked Ashton. He wore the usual: black skinny jeans. But, for a change, he wasn't wearing hoodie. He wore a grey t-shirt. I noticed then how big his biceps were and how badly he could probably hurt someone. She instantly looked up and sighed. "Mr. Irwin, late again." she said to herself.
"Good morning to you too." Ashton said sarcastically. He sat down across from me. I looked over to him, our eyes meeting for an awkard half a second. Ms. Hullen continued with roll call, and jumped right into the lesson.
"Alright class," she said. "Today we're going to be working with pastels."
I heard a quiet "Fuck yes." from across from me. I looked over to Ashton. His eyse met mine again and he looked away, embarrased. A chuckle escaped me and I turned back to Ms. Hullen. "One of the great things about pastels is that they're great for blending." She went on with the lesson.
"I'm assigning a partner assignment." Her words made my heart flutter. I wasn't sure if it was a good flutter or disappointed flutter. "And yes, you can choose your partners."
I saw about 20 heads turn to other people in the room all at once, as if they were establishing who their partner was going to be. "Pst." I heard from acrosse from the table. My eyes shifted over to Ashton, who raised his eyebrows at me. I nodded, agreeing to be his partner.
That can't be that bad, can it? Its just a school project. I said to myself.
She told us she wanted us to find something, anything, and recreate it on a single canvas. But, we could only use pastels and we could only blend. I thought about it, and I couldn't think of anything that would work for that. I looked over to Ashton, who didn't seem to be paying attention. I sighed and kept thinking.
...
Art soon ended, and Ashton didn't say anything to me as the class walked out. I shrugged to myself and made my way to 2nd period. The rest of the day went by fast, especially because the classes were only one hour on mondays. Before I knew it, the lunch bell rang.
*Ashton's POV*
I prayed to fucking god that Leila wouldn't find me today. I remembered Sunday morning, and how I had woken up, regretting that I hooked up with her. I don't even remember what we did. Obviously, nothing too... I don't know, serious. Hopefully she didn't remember, either.
I walked out to the tree on the west side of Palo's courtyard, trying not to get annoyed with all the idiots bumping into me. I could tell I scared the shit out of all the freshman it made me internally satisfied. I kept walking until I saw the bright pink hair of my best friend.
"Did I ever tell you how dumb your hair is?" I joked as I took his water bottle from him. Knowing Michael I knew it was vodka.
"Yes you have." Michael joked back. More of our friends showed up, along with the bleach haired head of Leila. I looked over to Michael who tried not to laugh.
"Hey." She said, taking Michael's bottle from me.
"Fuck can you not take my shit?" Michael said, snatching the bottle back.
"Hello." I said casually.
"What happened Saturday night? I was way too wasted to remember a single thing." Leila asked.
"Uhhh we just got high at Mike's house." I lied. She seemed to believe me, becuase she nodded her head and walked off.
"She's such a bitch." Michael said.
"I know." I laughed. Oh, the amazing things alcohol can do to a person.
*Brooke's POV*
"Hellooo!" I said to my friends as I walked up to them.
"We're going to a party?!" Annie said excitingly, her pony tail bobbing up and down. She was a pretty adorable person.
I laughed and told her, Abby, and Amanda about Nick's party. They seemed thrilled.
"We were never invited to theses kinds of things before," Abby laughed. "But ah! I'm so excited!"
We talked about it some more until the bell rang. Time for chemistry with Nick! I said goodbye to my friends and excitedly made my way over to my chem class. I looked down at my phone to reply to a text from on OC friend, when I felt myself bump into another body.
"Oops, sorry Brooke." A familiar voice said. A hand grazed my arm, as if the person I had bumped into was making sure I was alright. I turned around to see none other than Ashton walking away. I turned back and kept walking, trying to get that situation out of my head.
I made it to my chem class to see Nick sitting down already. I smiled and sat down next to him.
"So, what holiday is it today?" I joked.
"Quanza!" Nick laughed as he handed me a textbook he had grabbed for me. I giggled and excepted it from him. His phone sat on the lab counter. It vibrated and my eyes wandered down to look at the screen. He had a text from some person named Stephanie.
Class was how it usually was: go over homework, take notes, do an experiment. It was never boring with Nick as my partner. I was sad when the bell rang. "Your next class is Enlgish, right?" Nick asked as we walked out of class. I nodded and he offered to walk me over, which I gladly accepted. We walked and talked about the chemistry lesson until we made it to Mr. Perkins' classroom. I saw Jessie near the door, and Ashton on his phone not too far away.
"Text me later?" I asked. He nodded and gave me a hug. I wrapped my arms around his neck. My eyes went over to Jessie, who smiled ever so brightly. For some reason, my eyes also wandered over to Ashton, to see him staring right at me. I let go of Nick and said goodbye. I looked over to Ashton as Jessie and I walked into class; I couldn't quite read his facial expression.
"Good afternoon, class." Mr. Perkins said once the bell rang and we were all in our seats. He took roll and then got straight into a class discussion.
"So by now, we should be on the 3rd chapter of 'The Great Gatsby'?" He said. The class nodded. "Are there any thoughts so far?"
No one did anything, except one person. A hand shot up in the air from the the back of the classroom. It was Ashton. "Yes, Ashton?" Mr. Perkins said, obviously surpised by Ashton's sudden burtst of participation.
"I hate Daisy." He said blaintly, letting his raised hand fall down and hit the desk top. I could tell the atmoshpere in the room had shifted uncomfortably. He sounded pretty angry and I didn't know why.
"Why is that?" Mr. Perkins asked.
"Because she's a moron and she obviously doesn't understand what the hell she's doing with her life-"
"Please," Mr. Perkins interrupted. "Don't spoil the story, we havent even gotten to know that character yet. And don't swear, either. Man, you're lucky your grade in this class is higher than anyone else's, or else I really wouldn't like you."
"But she just-"
"Not now," Mr Perkins interrupted again. "We'll touch back on this again as we get futher into the story, alright?"
"Damn, Mr. Perkins is sassy today." Jessie whispered and a laugh escaped me. I relxaed my tensed muscles and sat in silence the rest of the class. My eyes darted to Ashton every now and then. I notced how the pissed-off look on his face never left. Why was he so angry?