The warmth that surrounds me when I wake up makes me want to go back to sleep, warm enough to almost drown out the annoying alarm blaring from Maggie's phone, almost.
Peeling my eyes open I realize why I'm so warm. It's not the blankets, that stop at my waist, it's the person, the angel, lying beside me. Her arm subconsciously thrown around my waist, cheek lying flat against the pillow, hair sprayed out across it, legs tangled in the sheets.
She's gorgeous, more gorgeous than ever. The morning sun shines through the cracks of the curtain lighting her face up.
"Wake up girls come on!" Maggie shouts coming out the bathroom.
Jasmine groans and turns over. I immediately miss the warmth of her arm around me.
Heaving a sigh I get up, grab my stuff and go in the bathroom. I take a 15 minute shower, the fastest shower I've ever taken, and wet my hair.
When I step out I braid my hair back and pull on my light blue jeans, and black tee.
After brushing my teeth and washing my face I leave out," bathrooms all yours."
Jasmine jumps up and goes in.
I notice Maggie looking at me, eyebrow raised, as I step into my timberlands.
"What Maggie?" My arms crossed I face her.
A wicked grin is spread across her face as she shows me her phone.
Right there on the screen is me and Jasmine. I'm not sure how long ago she took the photo but it's us lying down. Jasmine's arm is wrapped around my waist, face buried in the crook of my neck and my arm is around her shoulders, head resting on top of hers.
"Maggie what the hell?"
She chuckles," you two are so cute."
"We're also just friends so delete it before it accidentally gets out." I whisper yell.
Waving her hand at me she pockets her phone and grabs her purse," don't overreact."
I shake my head, gather my things, and pull my green bomber jacket on before Jasmine comes out the bathroom. She's clad in blue lace underwear with a matching bra.
My eyes travel down her caramel skin, long legs putting thoughts in my head that shouldn't be there. To top it off: she pulls her hair out of the ponytail and shakes it loose.She looks like a fucking commercial as her long brown hair tumbles down her shoulders in waves.
God I'm a goner.
"I'll uh," my thumb points behind me to the door," I'm gonna go to the canteen um Vince is probably down there waiting for us."
Not waiting for a reply I grab up my bag and leave out. I stop by my room and swap my overnight bag for my camera bag.
I leave out the room then out the building and head over to the canteen. To my surprise Vincent is there waiting for us.
"Sup dude," he nods to me," where are the other two?"
I scratch the back of my neck," I left them in the room."
"What why?"
Sighing I slide into the seat next to him and whisper," as I'm sure you know I like Jasmine blah blah, anyway, this morning after the sleepover Jasmine comes out the bathroom in nothing but her, extremely sexy, blue underwear and I froze up then left."
"Wooow," he says before falling into a fit of laughter.
I roll my eyes," haha real funny."
With that I stand and head over to the line. Vincent walks over to me, still calming down.
"Sorry it's just funny, why not tell her?" He asks.
"Not that simple." I say grabbing a tray and handing him one.
"Hand me another for Maggie's food," he pauses," you might as well get your girl something, her favorite is blueberry pancakes, eggs, and bacon, as I'm sure you know."
I did in fact know that.
Shrugging I grab another tray for her food. I get us both pancakes, eggs, and bacon, I put blueberries on her pancakes and chocolate chips on mine. I grab my orange juice and her milk then walk over to the table with Vincent where the girls have just arrived.
"Hey baby." Vincent beams kissing Maggie in greeting as per usual.
Her smile is just as large as his, growing in the slightest when she sees the food.
"Blueberry pancakes right?" I ask Jasmine setting the tray down at her spot.
She smiles at me," yeah, thanks so much you're the best," she says hugging me briefly before sitting.
"You're welcome," a cocky smile on my face I sit and start to eat.
I see Maggie pull her phone out and of course she shows Vincent the picture. I know because he looks right up at me with wide eyes and a gaping mouth though I see the smile playing there as well.
Before he says anything I simply shake my head.
Like usual we chat briefly as we eat but as soon as we finish we head out and over to the office building where the buses wait.
Mr.Rose is standing by the door of the first bus, Mrs.Matthews, the health teacher, is standing by the other. A few other senior teachers stand around.
We get in the line forming by Mr.Rose and it slowly dwindles down as he assigns buddies.
"Ms.Stratton you are with," his finger finds my name on the paper then moves over," Ms.Law."
Is he sure about that? I'm not that lucky.
"Yay!" Jasmine cheers.
Jasmine Law. My crush. Figures.
"Let's go get on." He gestured for us to get on the bus before speaking with Maggie and Vincent.
They're sent over to the second bus.
Jasmine makes her way to a free seat in the middle," this cool?" She asks.
"Mhm."
With that she sits down and then I sit next to her. The seats on the bus were not made for full grown people. From mine and Jasmine's shoulders down to our knees we're pressed together.
Don't get me wrong I am not complaining about being so close to her but considering how hard I'm crushing and lusting on her this wasn't the best position.
As the bus starts to move Jasmine pulls out her headphones and a much smaller chord.
"Want to listen to music with me?" She asks holding up the little chord.
Looking at it closer I notice that it's the chord that allows two sets of headphones.
I nod and pull my headphones out.
She plugs hers in and then mine then scrolls through her music before playing something.
A chuckle slips through my lips as the song plays.
Chillin Like a Villain from the Descendants 2 movie.
"Really?" I ask a smile still on my face.
She smiles back," you got a better song?"
I nod and she hands me her phone. Luckily she has Apple Music so I search the song and play it.
Ain't it Fun by Paramore.
This being one of my favorite songs I sing along.
I don't mind
Letting you down easy but just give it time
If it don't hurt now, but just wait, just wait a while
You're not the big fish in the pond no more
You are what they're feeding on
Jasmine joins as well.
So what are you gonna do
When the world don't orbit around you
So what are you gonna do
When the world don't orbit around you
Ain't it fun
Living in the real world
Ain't it good
Being all alone
We sing the rest of the song and she plays one. That's how we spend the ride going back and forth playing songs.
The last song that plays before we stop is I Think of You by Jeremiah and Chris Brown, my pick.
Mr.Rose gets off the bus to go check in and find out tour guides.
"You have great taste in music Emerson." She tells me as we wait to exit the bus.
Smiling I say," yeah you too."
The bus doors open and Mr.Rose steps on looking at us," alright let's go."
With a wave he steps down and we all get off the buses. Everyone from the second bus joins us as we head in.
Once inside we're broken into 5 groups of about 30 of us, Maggie, Vincent, Joy, and Jacob being apart of our group, and assigned a tour guide.
Yay for me! The guy who is crushing on me who I've rejected and the girl I'm crushing on who doesn't like me all in the same group.
"Hi guys I'm Cara your tour guide, you all are scheduled for a planetarium visit first so that's where we'll head." The honey blonde haired girl says, a smile stretching across her face.
She's very pretty but the bright orange shirt and khaki pants don't do her justice.
Along with the other groups she leads us to the planetarium.
"Hey beautiful." Jacob greets walking on my left.
I sigh," hi Jacob."
"Emerson are you mad at me?" He asks leaning forward a little to look at my face," I know my asking you out wasn't the best timing or the best scenario but I promise if you say yes the actual date will be better than the asking."
At this point I wasn't listening to him, I heard him but I wasn't listening, I was looking at the posters about space. I wasn't interested in the posters but it was better than hearing Jacob ignore my rejection.
I don't want to be rude about rejecting him but it might come to it if he continues to think I'm into him.
"Hi Jacob." Jasmine leans forward and smiles at him.
My attention is now back on the conversation. It makes sense that they would know each other but I didn't know they were cool with each other.
"Hey Jasmine, how've you been?" He asks.
She nods," good," then she moves around me to walk beside him.
Wow. Really?
Heaving a sigh I block out their conversation again.
Am I hurt that she moved over there to talk to him? Absolutely. Am I going to voice that? Hell no.
We arrive in the planetarium we take our seats, Jasmine on my right and Jacob next to her.
"You okay?" Maggie leans over and asks, probably noting my salty expression and crossed arms.
"Since when have Jasmine and Jacob been cool?" I ask.
She shrugs," they had classes together last year but that was one class and they weren't close."
Sighing I sit back as a guy stands at the front and speaks, telling us to keep our phones off as the lights can mess up the image before the show starts.
It goes dark then the dome shaped room is lit up by every star imaginable.
I'm immediately fascinated by everything being projected. That fascination disappears however as I look beside me and I see Jacob point out some constellation to Jasmine, she looks at it and her eyes twinkle with excitement, smiles taking over both their faces.
Subconsciously I bite my bottom lip and look to the other side.
Despite my now bad mood, driven by my jealousy which is driven by my jumping to conclusions, I'm mesmerized by the projections.
This is as close to space as I'll ever be, unless I become an astronaut but that's not my dream.
Photography. It's the one thing I've always been sure about. I'm unsure of myself half the time but despite who I am, who I'm with, or where I am Photography is an absolute. At least I've found myself in that aspect.
The show ends and we're given a tour of the Astronomical Museum of Space and Time.
My favorite part is walking through planets. Large colored holographic models of the planets sit in a darkened room. A panel holds the information on the planet.
"I've always loved Mercury."
Jasmine steps up beside me as I stand in the middle of the holographic planet.
"Yeah fascinating." There's a very sarcastic comment in my mind but I don't voice it.
She nods.
"We know the least about Mercury. As advanced as we are our space probes aren't nearly fast enough to keep up with Mercury's orbit nor can they stay afloat because of its low gravity. That being said we can't learn anything about it . . . not yet at least." I say eyes trained on the hologram.
Jasmine is silent so I turn to look at her and her eyes hold so much fascination in them. Her eyes are like space, I see every star in the galaxy when I look in them.
Losing myself in them is the easy thing ever. How could you not lose yourself in the most mesmerizing things in the world.
"Since when are you so into astronomy?" She asks.
My shoulders shrug," since I started taking Astrology I guess."
The tour ends soon after and we head over to Apple Bees. To my surprise everyone behaves properly, apart from the three guys who get a little too loud while joking around.
Maggie leans over," you still jealous of Jacob over there?"
"Who said-"
"Cut the shit Emerson a blind man could see you were jealous that Jasmine was talking so animatedly with him."
I sigh and eat a cheese stick," I'm over it. There's nothing to be jealous of, she's not mine." I mumble.
Maggie puts a hand on my shoulder," she could be."
"What we talkin about?" Jasmine leans forward and asks.
My eyes widen a fraction," the tour and the show, Maggie was telling me her favorite part."
Good cover up Stratton. I mentally hi-five myself.
"Yeah I loved the planetarium show. Seeing the galaxy so closely was awesome."
"I know right!" Jasmine exclaims," Jacob was pointing out all these constellations he knew."
My eyes roll. I know constellations: Cassiopeia, Cancer, Lyra, Orion . . . that's all I know but I know some.
Maggie nods," sounds cool, how many did he know?"
"12."
Oh the fuck?! 12 out of the like 80 something constellations? I bet they were the astrological birth constellations: Cancer, Capricorn, Libra, Aries. Anyone knows that shit.
Bet he couldn't tell her the origin story of Cassiopeia.
Maggie nudges my arm and I snap out of my head," cut the jealous look out. It's written all over your face."
I nod and go back to eating.
It's night fall by the time we get to the Observatory. Mr.Rose signs us in and we're told to go in five at a time to prevent crowding and so everyone gets a turn.
Of course Jacob tags along with us when we go inside, much to my dismay.
I see him speaking with Jasmine again and jealousy runs hot through my veins once again.
Think Stratton think.
She's fascinated by the constellations. It's late fall, the best time to see Cassiopeia.
Please be visible.
Stepping up to the telescope I look through and search the sky.
"Jasmine come check this out," I call to her.
Her head snaps up and she makes her way over to me then looking into the telescope.
"What am I looking for?" She asks.
Leaning closer, my hand on the small of her back I whisper to her," there's a constellation, Cassiopeia, shaped like a wide W. If you look left of the moon you should find it."
She's quiet for a moment before sucking in a gasp," I see it."
"It's beautiful." She whispers.
I stand up," want to know the origin story?"
She stands up straight, grabbing my hand, and nodding eagerly.
I lead us away from the telescope so that others could use it before telling the story.
"Cassiopeia was the wife of King Cepheus of Ethiopia. She gloated that she was more beautiful than the Nereids who were the 50 sea nymphs fathered by the Titan Nereus, one of these Nymphs was married to Poseidon and asked that he punish Cassiopeia, to which he did. He sent Cetus, a sea monster represented by the constellation Cetus, to ravage the coast of Cepheus' kingdom. Cepheus turned to an oracle for help and the oracle told him that, in order to appease Poseidon, he and Cassiopeia had to sacrifice their daughter Andromeda to the sea monster."
Her eyes turn sad.
"So reluctantly they did but instead of killed she was found by Perseus and they were later married. At the wedding, one of her former suitors, named Phineus, appeared and claimed that he was the only one who had the right to marry Andromeda. A fight took place and Perseus used the head of Medusa to win against his enemies, turning them into stone. However, Cassiopeia and King Cepheus didn't look away and were killed."
Her eyes sparkle with fascination at the story.
"Poseidon put Cassiopeia and Cepheus in the sky. Cassiopeia was condemned to circle the celestial pole forever, and spends half the year upside down in the sky as punishment for her vanity." I end.
Her mouth is in a small O-shape, shocked at the story yet equally as entertained.
"Tell me more tell me more!" She jumps up and down childishly.
I chuckle," another time, I'll tell you about Orion."
She nods and spends the rest of the field trip holding on to me and enthusiastically talking about space.
When we get back to the school I'm exhausted. For dinner I eat chicken strips and fries before getting ready to leave.
Jasmine stands with me, finished with her lunch and walks over to the dorms with me.
"I'm glad you were assigned as my buddy, you made the whole trip amazing." She smiles at me.
I shrug, unsure what to say.
"Don't forget to tell me about Orion sometime."
"Of course not."
Leaning forward she kisses my cheek, causing it to turn bright red," goodnight Emerson."
"Night." I murmur as she walks off.