Miles sat next to Jax on a picnic table, strumming the chords on his electric guitar. He could hear small conversations all around him, smiling to himself. It wasn't as loud as it normally was, because he and Jax had gotten to school early.
Out of the corner of his eye, he saw girl with black hair and dark brown eyes walk up to him, and he recognized her as Julie. She walked up to Miles and Jax, raising an eyebrow. "Okay, we have a student council meeting, but why are you guys here so early? School doesn't start for an hour!"
Jax smiled his goofy grin. "Because the chocolate chip muffins here are choice! And they go fast!" Almost as soon as he got done talking, Miles heard a gruff man's voice. "Muffins are up!" it said loudly. "Bam, see that?" Jax said, hopping off the picnic table and running towards the front of the school. "You snooze you lose!"
Julie grinned and sat on top of the table, lightly nudging his feet with her own. "Feet off the table, cake thief!" she exclaimed, her black curls bouncing up and down.
Miles gazed at her and lifted his chin, throwing his hands up in the air in mock defeat. "Yes ma'am!" he sarcastically replied, shifting his position to where his feet were now on the picnic table seat.
He turned to look at Julie, guitar in hand. "So how's the whisper-yell project going?" Miles asked the sophomore.
Julie tapped her feat against the seat of the picnic table. She said, "That's old news, freshman. At this school I'm always moving forward."
Miles smiled. Behind him, Jax poked his arm between Miles and Julie, a muffin in his hand. He let her have a portion of it, and then broke off a piece and stuffed himself.
Julie got up, her purse in tow. She flashed Miles a smile and said, "Later freshies." And almost as quickly as she had arrived, she was gone.
Jax watched after her, and then realization hit his face as he recognized the girl as Julie. He leaned over the table and asked, "Dude. What was that?"
Miles took his guitar off his shoulder and turned around to face Jax. He said, "Nothing."
Jax, muffin in mouth, mumbled, "She is totally into you." He looked so excited for Miles that it almost seemed that Julie was into him, and not Miles.
"Maybe," Miles said softly, looking down at the picnic table.
Jax straightened up in his seat, looking at him with amusement in his brown eyes. "What are you going to do about it?"
"I don't know, ask her out?" Miles said anxiously with a grin on his face. He didn't know for sure if he liked Julie or not, but she was a nice girl. They had been getting together a lot more recently.
Just as he said that, Alya walked up from behind Jax. Ask who out? she thought excitedly to herself.
"Hey guys!" Alya said to Miles and Jax, kneeling down to where she could sit next to the two.
As she sat down, Miles pushed the chocolate chip muffin he had towards her, not hungry anymore. A big smile broke out on Alya's face.
"Aww! Thanks!" she said enthusiastically.
)><(
Miles and Jax walked out of their 3rd period classroom, alongside several of the other students at Keaton. Just to Miles's luck, Julie was standing right in front of the two boys, talking to another girl.
"Dude, she's right there!" Jax exclaimed, nudging Miles excitedly in the shoulder.
Miles rolled his eyes at how silly his friend was being at the moment. "So?" he said sarcastically.
Jax gazed at him straight in the eyes, waving his hands all around in the air. "How are you going to ask out the most intimidating girl in this school?" Jax asked worriedly.
Miles shrugged his shoulders. "Julie's not that intimidating, once you get to know her."
Jax shook his head, utterly confused. "So are you just going to walk up to her and ask her out?" he asked.
Miles face broke out into a goofy grin. "Pretty much!" he exclaimed.
He was about to walk over to Julie before Jax stopped him, smiling. "Woah! Julie's not going to fall for you just because you have pretty eyes and cool guy hair!"
Miles laughed. "Aww, thanks man!" he said jokingly.
"Seriously," Jax said, "you'll need a grand gesture to impress a girl like Julie Meslany!" He said, shoving Miles.
Miles glanced at Jax, and then back at Julie. "Watch and learn," he said mockingly, turning around and then walking towards Julie. He walked over there, pausing and opening his mouth without a sound. Scratching his neck, he walked back over to a laughing Jax.
Jax started clapping his hands. "Wow, that was very educational," he said in a funny tone, snickering.
"You're right, I need to give this some thought," Miles said, walking to another classroom. "Uh, yeah," said Jax, following close behind him.
Alya was at her locker and spotted Jax walking behind Miles. Right as he was about to get past her, she stopped him. "Hey, what's up with him?" she asked, barely able to contain the smile forming on her face.
Jax turned around to face her, snickering. "He's got a crush on someone, that's what. And before you ask I am not at liberty to say who. But she is way out of his league," he said, turning around to catch up with Miles.
Alya felt a tingle up her spine. She was sure that Jax was talking about her!
)><(
Soon Miles and Jax were sitting at the picnic table they were sitting at earlier that morning. "Is it done?" Miles asked, leaning over to look at Jax's computer.
Jax looked around the area anxiously, then back to his computer. "I'm hacking another person's computer. This takes time."
Miles shifted around uncomfortably. "Why am I so nervous?" he asked Jax.
Jax looked at Miles like he was clueless. "Because this is kind of illegal!"
Jax typed a few things on his computer, and then looked back up at Miles. "Okay. I'm done," he said, glancing over to where Julie sat, with her computer. "I am now going to press enter."
Miles nodded his head confidently. "Do it," he said.
He looked over to where Julie sat. "Oh no, not again. No no no no no, please don't freeze!" She looked shocked as her computer started playing music that she didn't have saved in her files. She then became to smile as some words popped up on her screen:
"Julie Meslany, will you go out with me?"
She giggled. "Aww, this is so incredibly sweet," she gushed.
More words were typed onto the screen. "P.S. This is Miles."
Julie looked at the people around her. "Who's Miles?" she asked.
Miles, seeing her reaction, looked down into his lap, twiddling his thumbs. Jax looked shocked, but didn't say anything as he put his hand on Miles's shoulder.
Miles had expected things to go wrong, but not like this!
)><(
Miles walked down the crowded hallways of Keaton, his head low,
by himself. Seizing the opportunity, Alya ran up to him and grabbed him by the shoulder.
"So," she said, out of breath by jogging up to him, "I heard about what happened."
Alya went on, thinking that she was the girl that Miles liked, not Julie. "I get it. Rejection totally sucks."
Miles thought angrily, Great. Does the whole school know about how I messed up with Julie?
Alya said, "But you don't need to worry about.. about rejection."
Miles confused, looked at Alya with a strange look in his eyes.
"I don't?"
Alya smiled. "No."
Still not getting it, Miles flashed Alya a grin. "Okay!"
Alya took a deep breath. "Because I would love to go on a date with you."
Miles wondered about it for a moment, then shrugged the nagging thought at the back of his mind away. Why not go on a date with Alya?
"Sure," he said to her.
Still completely in shock, Alya said, "Great." Nothing could make this day better than that!
)><(
Alya stood by her locker, waiting for Miles. She couldn't wait another second for the two to go on a date. It was like she was dreaming!
Miles walked up to her, grinning. "Hey!" he said.
"Hey! So I was thinking we could catch that new Chris Hemsworth movie-" she began.
Miles said, "Well, I was thinking that we could skip the movie and just go eat," Miles said, closing his hand around hers, making Alya scream in delight inside of her mind.
Then Alya heard a voice: Julie Meslany's, by the sound of it. "Cake Thief!" she exclaimed, running up to Miles. "I'm sorry it took me all afternoon to say this, but thank you, for the song."
Miles awkwardly raised his gaze to meet Julie's. "Oh, uh, how did you-"
"I figured it out. That's the sweetest thing anyone's ever done for me, minus the part where you hashed my computer," she laughed.
"That's uh," Miles said, "that's all good."
Julie said, "Look, I'm so super flattered, and I would love to hang out sometime, and things are pretty crazy right now, but maybe after mid-terms?" she asked, batting her eyelashes.
Miles smiled. "Okay, sure!"
Alya had thought that this was going to be the best day of her life.
But really it was the day when her whole world shattered.