Jack is played by Jake Short and Ace is played by Bradley Steven Perry.
"For the last time Jack, man up and go ask her out!" My best friend, Ace, exclaims. "You've been crushing on her since the sixth grade!"
"I have not!" I blush, glancing back at where the blonde was, who was currently at her locker, talking to her friend.
"You're probably just concerned that she's a LESBIAN." Ace snorts, rolling his eyes as he shoves his books into the mess of his locker.
"You know, you should really clean out that locker of yours." I say, getting a mere wave of a hand as a response from Ace.
"She does hang out with that other girl all the time. Whatever her name was. Rooley?" Ace comments, glancing at where the two girls were. "Look, they're even holding hands."
"I-I'm sure they're just best friends. Isn't that what girls do all the time? Hold each other's hand?" I say, sounding like I was trying to convince myself more than I was trying to convince Ace.
Ace raises an eyebrow in disbelief. "And you seriously believe that?"
"Hey, from what I know, the two of them have known each other their whole life! Of course they're going to be close!" I snap in defense, slamming my locker shut.
"You keep telling yourself that." Ace mutters. "Now come on, let's get to class before we're late."
We make our way down the hall. All seems to go smoothly until Ace decides to be the spawn of Satan once again. He purposely pushes me into Maya, making all of our things fall and scatter all over the place on the floor.
"Hey!" Maya snarls. "Watch where you're going!"
"S-Sorry!" I stutter, quickly picking up all her books and handing them back to her, our fingers brushing while doing so. I flush even redder (if that was even possible). Out of the corner of my eye, I see Ace trying to hold his laughter in.
"Maya, apologize!" The brunette that was always with her, Riley, says.
"For what!? He bumped into me!" Maya snaps.
"He obviously didn't mean to!" Riley exclaims. She then does this puppy dog eyes thing and right away, Maya melts.
"I'm sorry for yelling at you." She says.
"See Peaches! Now that wasn't so hard, was it?" Riley smiles.
"Whatever." Maya says.
The two walk away, leaving me standing there like an idiot in the hallway, staring at where I last saw Maya's luscious curls.
Ace finally bursts out laughing.
"Dude! You couldn't even get a single word out!" He chuckles.
"Shut up, Ace! This was all your fault anyways! Now she probably thinks I'm some sort of klutz!" I shout.
"Would it matter? From what it looked like, Maya is totally whipped." Ace says. "There's no way those two are just friends."
"FOR THE LAST TIME, THEY'RE JUST FRIENDS! THEY HAVE TO BE!" I scream way louder than I had meant to, causing everyone else in the hallway to pause and stare at me.
"Okay, okay! They're just friends!" Ace raises his hands in the air, surrendering. "Now would you calm down? You're causing a scene!"
"Ace, I swear. You better shut your mouth right now or else I will rip your-"
"Okay! Yeesh!"
Linebreak
"These chemicals look like they'll make a cool color, let's mix them!" Ace exclaims, picking up the beakers.
I pull my goggles back, immediately lunging forward to stop him from doing anything stupid. "No! Those two chemicals are highly explosive! If you mix them together, it'll only create a huge explosion!"
"Cool!" Ace exclaims.
"Not cool!" I scoff. "I would like to keep my eyebrows, thank you very much!"
"Someone's cranky today. Is it because you embarrassed yourself in front of your crush?" Ace says in an obnoxious baby voice.
"I did not embarrass myself!" I protest.
"You stood there like an idiot, just staring at her." Ace states in a monotone voice. "Jack, you need to stop with this. Either ask her out or just give up and move on. You can't pine over her forever."
"I'll ask her when the time is right." I say, glancing over to my left, where Maya and Riley were currently working on the lab. Well, Riley was. Maya was just drawing in her sketchbook. But the light was hitting her in just the right way, making her practically glow like a goddess.
Without even paying attention to what I was doing, I grab a random beaker and pour it into our mixture.
"Uh, Jack, wait." Ace says.
His words were deaf on me and I dump all of the chemical in.
"Jack, didn't you say that..." Ace says, watching my every move. "Jack!" He shouts, shaking my shoulder and snapping me out of it.
"Huh?" I say stupidly.
"You just mixed the chemical you told me not to like five minutes ago." Ace says.
"Wait, what!?" I look back at the solution just in time to see it frothing up.
"CRAP! ACE, DUCK!"
The two of us duck under the table just in time. The solution explodes, sending glass shards flying everywhere. Everyone else in the room stops what they were doing and looks up at us. Ace and I slowly get up, surveying the damage.
"Boys!" Mr. Norton exclaims, rushing over to us. "Are you okay!?"
"We're good." Ace answers, shaking his hair to get rid of the traces of glass.
Aware of Maya's stare on me, I try to play it cool. "Yeah, no big deal. This is nothing compared to some other accidents I've been in." I say, my voice way lower than my normal voice is.
Ace quirks an eyebrow. "Okay then, Mr. Macho Man."
I look back at Maya, starting to get frustrated when I see her attention is back on Riley once again. She holds up the drawing she was working on, revealing that she was drawing Riley this whole time.
Oh come on! What does it have to take for her to pay attention to me!?
Riley smiles at the drawing (which could be mistaken for a picture, Maya has some great art skills) and thanks her with a kiss on the cheek, causing a huge, dopey grin to spread on the blonde's face, one that I thought only Smiley Riley would be capable of doing.
I take a deep breath in, trying to tone down my raging jealousy. It was okay, it was just a simple kiss on the cheek. They were just being friendly, not a big deal.
"That was the gayest thing I've ever seen." Ace comments.
"You're not helping!" I snap.
Linebreak
"What is it gonna take for her to notice me!?" I exclaim, pacing back and forth in my room. "Oh great, now I'm talking to myself! I'm going crazy!"
School was in an hour and I still had no idea what I was going to do.
I pause, an idea forming in my head. "Girls always like bad boys, right?"
I push the thought that Maya might not even like boys out of my mind, grabbing a leather jacket and my dad's pair of sunglasses. I head inside the bathroom, changing into my new outfit and topping it all off with gelling my hair for the first time ever.
I stare at my reflection in the mirror, satisfied with my new look. I practice a half smile, half smirk until I'm finally content with it.
"Abigail Adams High, get ready for the new Jack Montresor."
When Ace picks me up for school, he does a spit take all over his car. "Dude!? What the heck are you wearing!?"
"Meet the new and improved Jack." I grin, hopping in the car.
"Man, seriously, this is getting out of hand. You shouldn't have to change yourself to get a girl." Ace says, starting his car up and pulling on the road.
"I'm not changing myself, I'm just...trying something new." I say.
"Sure you are." Ace snorts.
The rest of the car ride is spent sitting in silence. When we make it to school, I try to cause as much attention as possible, making a big deal of getting out of the car and nodding at the jocks that were staring at me. I do a little spin move for the ladies (which caused Ace to face palm).
"This is working!" I shout gleefully once we're at our lockers. "Oh, there's Maya! I'm gonna go talk to her!"
"Good luck, you'll need it." Ace mutters.
"Heard that." I roll my eyes, doing a 'swag walk' over to Maya. "Sup." I say, leaning on the lockers, smirking at her.
Maya raises an eyebrow at my appearance. "Aren't you the guy who caused that explosion in Chemistry yesterday?"
My heart nearly exploded in my chest. She remembers me! "Yeah, that's right. We have chemistry." I say, then blush when I realize just what I said. "I-I-I didn't mean it like that! I meant that we have chemistry together! A-A-As a class!"
"Okay then..." Maya says.
I'm about to say something else when I'm interrupting by a loud cackle. "Sounds like Missy." I joke.
"I think that is Missy." Maya frowns.
We walk to the source of the noise to find a crowd already gathering around in a circle. In the center of it was Missy and Riley.
"Nobody likes you. You're always happy all the time. You don't deserve to be happy." Missy sneers.
Maya's eyes darken and the next thing I know, Missy is slammed into the lockers.
"Do you want to say that again to my face?" Maya snarls.
I can't imagine being in Missy's position. Maya already looked so scary from the point of view of a bystander but to be directed by her glare full on, I shudder.
"Nobody. Likes. Riley." Missy says, pausing on each word, not even slightly fazed by Maya.
Before Maya could even raise her fist, Riley wraps her arms around the blonde, pulling her off of Missy.
"Riley, let me go! She has to pay for what she said!" Maya says, still glaring at Missy.
"Peaches, it's okay." Riley murmurs, loosening her grip on Maya.
"But-"
Before Maya could protest any further, Riley shuts her up.
With a kiss.
In the middle of the hallway.
With everyone watching.
And my heart breaking.
I felt a hand on my shoulder and turn to look at Ace.
"I'm sorry man. I know you really liked her." Ace says.
"It's okay." I say quietly. "Besides, it was obvious they loved each other in retrospect."
"Yeah..." Ace trails off. "I told you so."
My mouth drops open at his words.
"Kidding!" Ace chuckles. "After school, let's get some ice cream to cheer you up. It's on me."
And with one last look at the girls who were still passionately kissing each other, I head to class with Ace.
I should've known. I should've noticed the looks the two gave each other, ones of true, pure love. Whenever one enters the room, the other one lights up. How affectionate they were with each other.
It was completely dumb and idiotic for me to fall for Maya Hart in the first place. She only had her eyes on one girl: Riley Matthews.
Only fools fall for her. Only fools do what I do.