My Knight in Shining...Ah, Screw It. He's an Egotistical Asshole.

Jacob of course, was still dangling on his last strand of sanity, and was kind of lightheaded when we joined the other students in history. Our teacher was bustling around the room, she was breathing irregularly too, like she was freaking out.

I gave her a questionable glance, before pecking Jacob on the lips and making my way to my seat, which was still between Max and Blaire. Jacob had asked again and again if he and Max could possibly switch seats, but the teacher just laughed at him.

“Hey Girl, you excited for tonight?” Blaire spoke, as soon as my butt made contact with the cold classroom chair.

“Yeah, what do you want to do?” I said, thinking of how much fun my mom will probably have on her date. I’ve met Blaire’s dad multiple times and he honestly seemed like a pretty cool guy.

“We can do crazy makeovers, and take pictures or something. I know it sounds dumb, but believe me you like cry laughing at the way the pictures turn out.” She said, cracking a smile.

“I believe you. Sounds cool. Should we stop by my house to grab some of my makeup?”

“YES! Great Idea, way to be a good sport Toby.” She fake-punched me in the arm, but I just laughed at her. She can be a dork sometimes… well, actually most of the time.

“OH MY! OH MY!” Our teacher yelped as she scattered across the room.

“I CANNOT FIND YOUR TESTS…. I must have left them in the teacher’s lounge. Oh dear, but I’ll be gone for a good amount of time, and you need to be taught something!” She babbled on, and on.

“I can help out with that.” Max said.

Where the hell did he come from?

“Excuse me Mr. Naughtinham?” The teacher looked confused by the look on her face.

“I said, I can help with that. I have a lesson plan we could do. It’s more of a ‘get-to-know-you exercise.”

My face must have looked retarded. Max never sucked up like this. Dang, he really did change in that four-week time.

I looked to Blaire with a when-did-he-have-lesson-plans look. She just shrugged, her face also twisted in confusion.

I glanced at Jacob. He didn’t seem confused; he just seemed skeptical, as if Max’s attempts had a secret motive. But that didn’t register to me, until now. What was Max trying to prove?

“Well, I guess that would be appropriate…” The teacher paused thinking.

“WHAT?” Jacob spoke up. Oh God, Jake. Don’t make a scene…. Don’t make a scene. I kept praying.

The teacher glared at him before he finally shut up, with a stern look on his face. His face turned towards me, and I gave him a pleading look. His features softened a little, but his body was still stiff with anger.

“Alright, Max. You teach, I’ll check the teacher’s lounge. I should be back in twenty minutes to thirty minutes.” She said, smiling at Max. He returned the gesture, and watched her leave the room.

“Ok. The assignment goes like this.”

Assignment? I scoffed, who took over Max’s body and made him an annoying brown-noser?

Blaire leaned into me. “Are you kidding me?” She whispered.

I turned to her and nodded. “I know. What happened to the Max we knew?”

Max cut us glares. “No talking.” He spat. My mouth dropped open.

Ok. Seriously, where’s the little zipper, so I can zip of this ridiculous outfit this imposter has on. This could NOT be Max Naughtingham.

I did a double take…. and did it again, and again. I didn’t find the zipper, and that made me madder.

Max at this point was passing out papers. Blank ones. I snatched mine away, angrily as he passed ours to us. He looked a little hurt, but recovered fast. So fast, I had to think twice if I had actually seen it.

“Now, I want you to think about the one person who has influenced you the most these past couple of weeks. Who means the most, does the most, and shows the most love for you.” Max said, walking across the classroom, explaining. Some students were ignoring him.

“I’ll get the teacher to make this a grade.” Then all the ones ignoring him complained, and bickered and whined before beginning to write.

The room went quiet, expect for the sound of pencils marking on paper, writing away.

I bit my lip. Whenever I received these types of assignments, I always wrote about my mom.

But recently over the past few weeks, she’s been distant; we haven’t talked much at all. I mean, I blame it on my new life of course, but still if I had to think of just one person.

I’d have to be Jake. I feel bad picking him over my mom. But it was only truthful.

I felt someone sit down next to me, as I began the letter.

Dear, Jake

“Hey Beautiful.” I smiled.

“Hey baby.” I replied to my boyfriend.

“Who are you pick-.” But he was interrupted.

“I never said you could move seats, JAKE.” Max said bitterly, using the nickname I gave him.

“Well you weren’t sitting in this one MAX, so I don’t see the problem.”

“I don’t care-.” My turn to interrupt.

“Please… Max.” I begged, looking as innocent as possible. I wanted Jake to see what I was going to write about him.

He looked like he was battling himself, I could see the different emotions fighting themselves in his eyes.

“F-fine.” He spat, and then walked away.

“What is his problem?” I finally asked Jake, when Max was out of hearing distance.

“I don’t know. But I’m going to find out.” He said, before softening up and looking at me.

“Who are you writing about, missy?” He teased.

“Nobody special.” I teased back.

“Oh, really?” He said reaching for my paper.

“NO TALKING!” Max scolded again. I sighed, before grabbing my paper back, and continuing to write on it. I wrote a lot of gooey stuff on how much he meant to me, and how I had felt something between us the moment we met.

I didn’t even notice when another paper was slid under my own.

“Now, class. I want you to write about the person you hate the most, the one who’s affected you in the worst way. Don’t be scared to be mean, get it off your chest.” Max instructed.

I soon finished up my paper on Jacob, deciding it was good enough to describe how I felt about him. I was kind of shocked on how much of my heart I poured onto that paper.

I looked at Jake, but he was already writing away. He was smiling mischievously at Max. Oh boy, I hope Max didn’t freak when he read the papers. He probably shouldn’t have said ‘don’t be afraid to be mean’. Jake obviously took that overboard.

His pencil chiseled away as I knew exactly who I was going to write about.

My father.

Dear, Daddy Dearest.

I began.

I let my pencil fly, as I felt myself almost turn to tears at bringing back so many painful memories. I finished, and didn’t even look at the paper. I looked at my feet, trying to recover my feelings.

Jake must have known something was wrong. He reached for my paper.

I reacted on impulse, knowing no one could know about my dad.

I mean, I could just lie to the teacher and say that my dad was just a cover for someone else in my life or something, but everyone I knew, would know that I couldn’t make all of that up.

So I snapped at Jacob.

“NO!” I screeched. He jumped back in his seat, wonder and pain in his stormy eyes.

“I-I’m s-sorry, I just can’t let anyone read this.” He gave me a skeptical look, but nodded anyways.

I felt Blaire’s hand rub my back. I looked at her, thankfully.

Before I even knew it the bell had rung.

Just about the same time that the teacher returned.

“I’m so sorry about that class, but I went bustling all over this dang school, and still couldn’t find them. I might have to excuse them.” The class cheered.

“Actually,” Max yelled over the class. “I found them on your desk when you were gone.” He said, handing her a stack of test papers.

Did he want everyone to hate him?!

“Oh my, silly me.” She said, but her voice was uncertain.

“Though, I could have sworn I searched every inch of that desk…” She spoke softer, but most of the students were gathering their things and groaning. Some stepping on Max’s shoes on the way out, but he probably deserved that. I even felt like I did poorly on that test.

“Hey, can I see your paper. The first one.” Jake corrected himself. I smiled at his understanding. That was one thing I really appreciated, was the way he didn’t push me to tell him information. He was patient, and it meant a lot.

“Yea, sure.” I said, reaching for my paper. But before I could grab it, someone else did. I was about to grab it back, but I looked up and it was Max.

“No discussing your papers with anyone else. Their private.” He said, shooting Jake a menacing glare. Jake just returned it.

“Are we going to get them back?” I asked him, still wanting Jake to know exactly how I felt, and –not gonna lie- I wanted to know what he wrote about me too.

“Mhmm. Eventually.”

“EVENTUALLY?”

“What kind of answer is that!?” Jake spat.

“It means some might get them before others do…” Was all he said before trailing off.

…. What did that mean?

The class was almost empty now, and Jake tugged on me, filing me out of the room.

“You’re going to be late for your next class, hurry.” He teased, kissing the back of my neck as he pushed me towards the stairs. I could see Adam impatiently tapping his foot near the bottom of them, waiting for me.

Shivers broke out in me, at the feel of his lips in a new place. I giggled like an idiot as he continued to push me near the stairs.

But the butterfly feelings dropped once he had to leave. I pecked him tenderly on the lips.

I didn’t want him to ever leave my side. Therefore, I hated times like these when he actually did.

Hmm… Maybe I could catch him before he leaves. I thought on the way to fourth period.