Changing The Rules

“Three weeks…alone…with Nick Jonas.”

“Yes”, I said yet again. My friends seemed to really be struggling with this whole detention business. Some were jealous because they thought he was hot and some pitied me. I didn’t really want either.

Sara still held a confused and intrigued look on her face when we came up to my street and I waved her off, before heading to my house with the wind whipping through my hair violently.

After three hours of non stop homework, I heard the front door slam and turned in my seat to see my dad coming home from work.

“Hey Dad”

“Hey darling, how was school?” I groaned and turned around to face him as he approached where I was sitting.

“I got detention, BUT it was not my fault. Some jerk in my class is making my life a living hell so I confronted him and ended up in three weeks detention with him”. There was no way I was planning on telling my mother about my detention; she would pretty much kill me on the spot.

“So your teachers thought it would be a good idea to place two people who absolutely detest each other in the same room, alone for three weeks?” my father asked with a slight smile on his face as I slightly nodded. “Sucks to be you” he said as he patted my shoulder and strolled over to the fridge. I shook my head laughing and headed upstairs to get changed for running, you can probably tell it is like a daily ritual for me. It gives me time to think; I mean really think.

I was 10 minutes into the run when I sighed a relief that Nick was no where to be seen like usual, I was not in the mood for him. The next thing I know, my foot comes into contact with a leg sticking out from behind a tree and my body comes hurdling to the ground. Tears were threatening to fall until I heard that all too familiar cold laughter which made me determined to keep them in.

“You might want to watch where you’re going” Nick said whilst leaning against the tree. I brushed myself down and continued jogging, not once looking at him. The pain I was experiencing was excruciating but I refused to give him the satisfaction of knowing he had affected me. How could he be so heartless?

When I finally reached home, I slammed the door shut and started sobbing softly.

“Oh my gosh honey, what’s wrong?” my mother said as she hurried towards me. I lifted up the legs of my trousers to reveal several deep wounds and blood steadily dripping down my leg. My hands were no better, with pebble outlines in them and grazing all over. My mum took me to the bathroom to clean me up as my father held onto me when I winced and tried to pull away.

“You’ve never done anything like this before on your runs. What happened?” my dad asked whilst rubbing my back.

“I just tripped and” I winced as my mum cleaned one of the deeper wounds which brought more tears to my eyes “and fell pretty bad I guess”. My mum reached into the cabinet and pulled out a bandage which she wrapped around one of my legs which was much worse than the other.

I limped out of the bathroom and eventually reached my room after what felt like 5 minutes of stumbling up the stairs. I changed slowly into my pyjamas and got into bed, pulling out Twilight in the process. After a while my eyes began drooping and I closed the book, turned of the light and tried to get comfortable. As I lay there in silence, I realised that I had subconsciously covered for Nick even though he was the absolute biggest ass I had ever met. I attempted to figure out why I had done it but the land of sleep claimed me to early.

………………………………………………………

“Ok, do not comment on his appearance at all. Don’t make him think you care”. Sara said as some of my other friends nodded in agreement. It was currently lunch time and today was the day my detentions started so I was getting a prep talk on how to deal.

“Oh and as little conversing as possible, you have better things to do” Becky added.

“But I really don’t, I mean its detention…”

“Look Char, do you want him to think you are just like all the other lovesick girls?” Becky asked as I shook me head. Hell no. “Then just do what we say, trust us, we’ve seen it happen a gazillion times before”.

Nick POV

This was the first time I had ever needed a prep talk regarding how to act around a chick, I mean it came naturally but this girl was something else.

“Comment on how curves are in, and that she obviously got the memo. It will drive her nuts!” Mick said whilst laughing, I glanced over at the cheerleaders on our table who were pushing their salad around their plates, thus proving Micks point.

“Yeah and go on about all the girls you have hooked up with ‘man that one is so fun’. And because she appears to be really like headstrong, she’ll think you’re a pig but will be jealous at the same time”.

“Jealous? Why the hell would she be jealous, she hates my guts.” I said whilst looking at the guys suddenly feeling a hand on my leg. I looked up to see Clarissa the head cheerleader, she was a total slut but she was good in bed so I put up with her. Right now though I wasn’t in the mood so I pushed her hand off and turned back to the guys.

“Knowing that you have clearly had loads of girls yet are not interested in her, besides it could lead to some amazing hate sex.” Mick winked and high fived Brad who started laughing. I sighed deeply and buried my face into my hands. I had never had a girl treat me like she does, not throwing herself at me, not staring at my ass and just generally not liking me. Maybe it’s the English way of being friendly…ok maybe not but there must be a decent explanation behind it.

……………………………………

Charlene POV

This has got to have been the first time that I was actually dreading the end of school bell to ring but it came all too soon. Everyone ran out of history as I slowly strolled over to the door, taking up as much time as possible, plus my leg was still extremely painful so I doubt I could have walked any faster. I was staring at the ground when I noticed a pair of sneakers coming my way and brought my head up to see Nick. My glance soon turned into a glare which he was more than happy to return. We reached the door at the exact same time before I pushed it open and walked in. We sat on opposite sides of the room glaring at each other neither of us moving, this was going to be very interesting.