Click

I wasn’t very fond of the fact that Blade wanted me to call up Nathaniel, or thought that I should try to meet up with him. It’s not that I didn’t want to meet Nathaniel, but it almost seemed like Blade was either encouraging me to be in a relationship with a guy who I knew next to nothing about—and the only way I knew even the slightest thing about him was from what he told me but then again, it was the internet so deciphering whether or not what he was telling me the truth about himself was yet to be revealed and probably wouldn’t be anyways—and despite how he acted like he had no idea something was up with me besides the PMS excuse for the earlier week, I knew he had some idea. But if he didn’t, than he was a lot thicker than I had originally thought.

Wednesday during first period, I looked up as Preston came into the room and smiled at me. I smiled back at him and he took a seat next to me.

“So what’s up with Nick?” he asked me, stretching his arms out, yawning and crossing one ankle over the other. I tilted my head to the side.

“What do you mean? Don’t you mean David? He’s not usually like that, so I don’t know what that was yesterday.”

Preston’s lips curved up in amusement and he shook his head. “No, not David. That guy’s a freak. I don’t know what’s up with him but he seems pretty cool anyway. But no, Nick.”

I shrugged as my mouth twisted up, confusion easily shown all over my face. “I don’t know. I didn’t see anything wrong with him. Why?”

“Well, it’s not just him. Like, it’s him and that Marcy girl.”

“Marcy? What does she have to do with anything?”

“Oh, you didn’t notice?” he asked, and I shook my head. Preston whistles slowly, closing his eyes. “Man, he couldn’t stop looking at her every time she talked. Does he like her or something? Or does he just have a fetish with her mouth?”

I smirked. “I doubt he had a fetish for anyone’s mouth. He might like her. I just never really looked.”

Preston rolled his shoulders forward, and then rubbed the left one. “Well check it out at lunch. Something’s up with him.”

This was clearly something I needed to look into.



I nudged Blade beside me and he grunted, continuing to copy the note as Mrs. Adams stood at the front of the classroom, explaining what everything on the board meant—like she thought every word we read didn’t process properly in our brains and the only thing up there was air.

When he didn’t respond, I looked at him for a moment and saw him staring intently at the board, his eyes narrowed in concentration and his tongue sticking out the side of his mouth. I nudged him again, but when he simply shifted—didn’t say or do anything else—I nudged again and he growled lowly. I nudged him a fourth time and he practically hissed, turning to look at me with what appeared to be frustration but even at that, I knew he was curious about what I had to say.

“What?!” he whisper-yelled so that the teacher wouldn’t hear us.

“I need you to sit with me at lunch,” I said. “I need a male interpreter.”

Blade opened his mouth, and I guessed he had planned on arguing with me but he closed his mouth as his angered expression softened and he tilted his head to the side. “Why?” he asked, raising his eyebrows.

“Because Preston seems to think that Nick likes Marcy,” I whispered, nodding over my right shoulder.

“Who’s Preston?”

“New guy,” I said with a shrug. Blade nodded slowly as his mouth formed the shape of a perfectly round “O”, and he leaned forward to steal a glance at Nick. He sat on my right side, copying down the note while his head whipped up to look at the board, then whipped down to write down whatever he needed. Blade turned back to look at me.

“So why do you need me?” he asked. “It’s not that difficult of a job, is it?”

I nodded. “It’s not like I can understand what’s going on in a guy’s head. I can barely understand what you’re talking about half the time, let alone Nick. So that’s why I need your help to determine whether or not he likes Marcy. You can understand through their actions. I won’t have a clue.”

“All right, fine,” Blade said with a sigh. “As long as you don’t make me do this again. I don’t like watching guys. It’s creepy.”

“Deal.”

“Ms. Hawthorn and Mr. Donahue!” Mrs. Adams called from the front of the classroom. Both Blade’s head and mine snapped up in her direction, and my face went beat red when all eyes turned on us. “Is there something that you want to share with the rest of the class?”

I hated when teachers said that. There had been countless teachers would say that line whenever they caught to people talking. They could just say their name, but no, they had to embarrass them more than what was necessary.

“No,” Blade and I replied in unison. Mrs. Adams’ eyes narrowed suspiciously and she nodded.

“Very well. Then Blade, you can go sit over there and Christabelle, over there,” she said, pointing to two different ends of the classroom. Blade smirked, trying to hold back his laugh. He lowered his head and his bangs fell in front of his eyes, as he stood up, pushing his chair back and grabbing his binder and pencil case; before walking to the other side of the classroom. He plopped down in one of the chairs by the experiment tables and folded his arms on top of his notes, tilting his head to the side. I quickly grabbed my things and made my way to my right, sitting down opposite of Blade but in the same general area.

Mrs. Adams glared at both of us and then made a “hm” noise once she was satisfied, and turned back to the board. I looked over at Blade from the corner of my eye, and saw him chuckling while he continued to copy down the words written on the black board. I smiled, and did the same, deciding getting in trouble again wasn’t really what I had in mind.



“So how did it go with Mr. Griffin yesterday?” Blade asked me as we sat down at a table in the cafeteria, waiting for everyone else to join us. “Have you got him wrapped around your finger yet?”

I scoffed. “I’m probably never going to have him wrapped around my finger,” I said, and shook my head. “I know seducing a teacher to get answers for a test that isn’t even mine is pretty amusing, but in the end, the whole idea—to me—is just plain stupid. Like, what the hell? I’m going to get caught, and probably suspended just to help a friend who could ask for help all by herself.”

Blade shrugged. “You’re a good friend, Chris. That’s why.”

He put his hand on my shoulder and chuckled when I growled at him. “I know,” I murmured between my teeth. “I hate that.”

“Is Marcy afraid of tutors or something?” he asked, returning his hand and taking a chip from the bag on the table. I shrugged.

“Maybe, but I doubt it. She probably just doesn’t want to get taught how to do something right by students who—for all she knows—could be doing it wrong as well and it would just be a big waste of her time,” I explained.

We were suddenly surrounded by Nick, Preston, David, Marcy and Kayti; all of which were involved in several different conversations with each other. Marcy nudged me with her elbow and I dropped the sandwich I’d just unwrapped onto the floor. I just sat there, staring at it, before turning my cold, hard glare on Marcy. She bit her lip and blushed.

“Sorry.”

“Was that really necessary?”

“I just apologized.”

“You owe me a sandwich,” I snapped, crossing my arms over my chest and frowning childishly. Preston smiled at me and raised his eyebrows, before quickly darting his eyes over to Nick. I looked in said-person’s direction for a while until I noticed him lift his gaze up from his lunch to stare at Marcy. Then it turned to me.
His brows furrowed as he just sat there, staring at me. It was then that I realized Marcy had been speaking to me. My head snapped around in her direction.

“Huh?”

“I said, ‘are you ready for today?’” she repeated.

“What’s today?” I asked.

“The first official day of Operation Seduce Mr. Griffin,” Marcy said obviously, widening her eyes. I hadn’t even remembered that, to be honest. My mind had been elsewhere; focused on the boy sitting beside me.

“Oh right,” I mumbled.

“Oh, I forgot to ask you guys. Are we meeting up at my house before the party on Friday?” Kayti questioned.

“Trix’s party?” asked Nick. Kayti nodded.

“Yeah, are you going?”

Nick shrugged. “I might,” he replied.

“Yo!”

We all jumped when Shane suddenly slid down into the chair at the end of the table, nearly falling right off of it if it weren’t for him quickly grabbing the corner of the table. I smiled and raised my eyebrows at him. “May we help you?”

“Well I heard the topic of Trix’s party. Are we all going together?”

“We haven’t even specified who is going,” Nick said.

“I’m not so fond of how it’s a costume party,” David said. “It’s the Spring. It’s not a Halloween party. What’s the point of it?”

“Oh my God, I have to get a dress,” Marcy said, eyes wide as she held her hands near her ears. I rolled my eyes. I was thankful that the Mr. Griffin topic was out of the way, but talking about parties and dresses or anything related to parties and dresses just bugged me. I’ve never been that type of girl. I’m more of a “find the dress in the mall and then flip out about it” kind of person. Marcy turned to me. “Chris, you know what we should do?”

“Jump in a gully and die?” I put in, shrugging.

Preston snickered but then stopped once Marcy glared at him. Of course, it wasn’t all that much of a serious issue—or one to be glared at over either—but when it came to fashion, partying, or boys; those were topics that Marcy wanted no jokes over. “No,” she snapped haughtily. “After school today, we should go to the mall and look at costumes.”

I shook my head. “No.”

“What? Why?!”

“Because! I have to stay and do that thing with Mr. Griffin and—”

“That sounds nasty,” Blade mumbled. I lifted a hand, telling him not to interrupt me again and continued.

“—and all of my money’s at my house. I wouldn’t have anything to buy a costume with.”

“We’ll get your money,” Kayti said, and Marcy nodded along. “Your dad likes us. We’ll just go to your house, get your purse, and meet you at the mall. Problem solved.”

Truth be told, I just plainly did not want to go today because I wasn’t even sure whether or not I was going to the party. I didn’t want to buy something to wear to the party and then end up staying home. That would just be a big waste of time and money. But with friends like mine, there was no way I’d be able to win this round. I sighed and reached into my pocket, pulled out my house key and handed it to Kayti, who squealed childishly and snatched it from my hands; holding it like it was a cookie and she was a five year old sugar-seeking little boy.

“If Aiden asks what you’re doing, tell him that Christabelle says dad left him a piece of chocolate cake in the fridge. That’ll distract him. Otherwise, whatever your excuse is, he’ll kick you out of the house. Even if you said that there was a demon dog outside and you needed somewhere to hide, it wouldn’t make a difference.”

Marcy smirked. “Thanks Chris.”

“Uh-huh,” I murmured, leaning forward on my chair, putting my elbow on the table and my cheek in my hand.

“So then it’s settled? We’re all going to the party?” Kayti asked, looking around the table. Nick, Blade and Preston put up their hands and slid their chairs back away from us, shaking their heads and saying things that resembled “no”, “are you out of your mind?”, and “what are you smoking?”. I raised my eyebrows at Blade. I had expected him to go, after he put up the big hassle and made up all that crap yesterday about how I needed to go. And I wasn’t going if he wasn’t.

“Wait a second, what do you mean ‘no’?” Marcy asked, rounding her glare on all of them.

“Boys and costume parties do not mix,” Nick said, shaking his head. “Plain and simple. If you ask us to go, we’re going to say no. Unless we’re dating you, it’s not going to happen.”

Kayti’s whole being lit up, and she looked at Nick smirking; batting her eyelashes flirtatiously. He looked right back at her, a confused expression on his face.

“What are you doing?” he asked her, staring at her hand when it was suddenly placed on his left arm.

“Niiiick—"

“No,” he said simply, crossing his arms over his chest and looking away from her. She frowned, admitting defeat.

I turned to Blade and glared.

“No way,” he said obviously, widening his eyes.

“Why not?! After calling me a party-ruiner?!”

“I didn’t call you a party-ruiner.”

“You did so! On the way back to my house! You called me a party-ruiner because I blatantly refused to go to the party.”

The whole table fell silent suddenly.
“Whoa, whoa,” David intervened, putting his hands up to stop us. Blade and I tore our eyes off each other and turned to look at him. “You two were hanging out without us?”

“Yes,” we deadpanned, ending that topic there and resuming the previous one.

“I can’t believe you put up such a fuss to get me to agree to go and then decide that you don’t want to. That just ruins the whole purpose. I have no reason to go now.”

Blade raised his eyebrows at me. “You can go without me. I was just kidding around. You need to get out more. You’re too booky-booky all the time. You need to relax and party.”

“A party is hardly relaxing.”

“You know what I mean.”

“And I am not booky-booky, whatever that means.”

“You are so. When’s the last time you went on a date with a guy?”

“Does that really matter right now?”

“Yes.”

“It doesn’t even relate!”

“It does to me. When’s the last time you studied?”

“Last night, but—”

“And the time before that?”

“The night before.”

“Nerd.”

“Oh, shut up.”

“Just go to the party.”

“Are you going to go as well?”

“Better yet, I’ll be your date.”

“Good!”

“Great!”

I turned and crossed my legs at the ankles shifting in my chair. Marcy, Preston, Kayti, David, Nick, and Shane all stared at us, completely speechless. It was dead silent for a while until Shane coughed into his fist.

“So!” he exclaimed, clapping his hands together. “Parties are fun, eh?!”

The suspense and awkwardness was killing me. I had to get out of there . . . pronto. I looked at him for a quick moment, before standing up. “I should go,” I said. “Marcy, you owe me something to eat. Let’s go.”

I grabbed her arm and yanked her out of her chair, nearly knocking her right off of her feet if it weren’t for my firm grip on her sweater.

“Let’s go, Shane,” I heard Blade say. “We’ve got some stuff to work on in the library.”

“Uhm, we do?”

“We do now.”

I didn’t bother turning to look at him. I just headed right for the cafeteria food lineup. As I waited quietly, Marcy shifted her weight, and I knew she was trying to determine when it was the appropriate time to ask what she wanted to ask.

“So,” she finally decided. I looked over at her calmly, telling her it wasn’t too early and she could go on. “Uhm, Blade’s your date to the party now?”

I shrugged. “Apparently.”

“You are aware he’s got a girlfriend, right?” she reminded me. “She’s going to kill you if she finds out.”

I froze—I knew that Amanda was going to find out before the end of the day and when she did, she would kill me. I was so screwed.

“Dammit.”