We Could Make It Right

“You and Nickelsen, huh?” the familiar male voice spoke, slowly feeling my face flourish. Although I didn’t see the figure, I could tell by the tone of voice used that there was some kind of smirk. Cameron Montgomery I learned over time picked the perfect moments for a conversation that had nothing to do with a particular topic.

From the stable burnt orange chair, I twisted my back to face the boy who in his hands had a pile of 3-4 books.

Of all topics in the syllabus we had for Ancient History, Ms Bennett loved nothing better than Ancient Greece. She claims that this was a successful task since her class from last year got nothing but A’s or B’s. No one got any lower than a B so I’d be lying if I didn’t feel any pressure.

“Because that’s totally related to ancient Greece.”I giggled, taking the pile from him. He took the seat opposite from me and stared profoundly. I looked around like a lost child before my eyes settling.

“What?” I chuckled nervously, catching a glimpse of Garrett & Vee in the corner of my eye. ‘Partner Work’ as Ms Bennett liked to put it. To get us out of comfort zones, to work with people we’d normally avoid; either purposely or unintentionally.
“Your face,” he smirked. “Your face looks like a tomato!”

It was true, on the occasion of talking about guys (mostly thanks to Vee’s continuous and somewhat enjoyable conversations about ‘hot’ guys), turning out somewhat like her got to me, I never thought of myself to be someone who would actually care.

“Shit” I mumbled, leaving Cameron laughing hard enough he got a warning from both librarians and oddly enough the other classes’ teacher -Some of the many joys of having class in the library. I took one look at Cameron with a smile escaping as I opened one of the books and started taking random notes from the book into my own. “You realize staring at me’s going to get you nowhere?”

“Yeah, well it will in the long run,”

“What do you mean?,”

“If there’s something us Montgomery’s like to do, its stir up a bit of trouble every now and then”

I felt my eyebrow raise and my mouth open ajar. “Cameron, I highly doubt you of all people are like that”

“Are you seriously doubting a Montgomery, Katelynn?” he scoffed. His bangs falling in front of this face, ruining that whole feigning hurt look.

“I mean, I understand Josh causing havoc but not sweet and innocent Cameron,”

“You’re so unbelievably funny, you know that?,”

“Almost as funny as the remark you made about me & Garrett,”

He chuckled before swooping his bangs out of his face. “I swear I’m this tempted to cut my bangs” he said bringing his index finger closer to his thumb. “But in all seriousness...Even though I’m a guy, and I’m related to Josh, I can see when a guy’s interested in a girl”
I felt my heart race 100 miles a second. It almost felt like an impulse, to do something you wouldn’t normally do – something out of the ordinary in some cases. Cases like these, if you will.

“Do you seriously think he’s interested though?” the impulse pushed through. “I get it if you won’t answer since you’re a guy and all-”

“It’s fine” he smiled. “After all, this ‘ability’,” he motioned with his fingers , “helped my cousin Nina, I don’t mind answering”

As luck would have it, the bell for next period went off. I grabbed my faded-blue ransack from under the chair and took my wallet out just as I latched it over my shoulder. “I’m gonna borrow these books; see if I could get my part done.”

“Great!” he replied almost too enthusiastically. “My place after school?,”

“If you’re getting the resources, I might as well do my part. Besides, 2 brains are better than 1.”
I gave him a light smile and he automatically took it as an incentive. It was obviously more than enough. “Alri-”

“Awesome, see you then Katelynn” He said moving off to this normal group of friends. Taking a deep sigh, I picked up a few of the books slowly but efficiently. “Here, let me help” Garrett said over my shoulder. He up the remaining books and held them against his chest.

“You didn’t have to do that for me, Gare”

“I wanted to,” he remarked as we started to walk off to the loans desk. In the corner of my eye, seeing Vee walk to her next class alongside Rachael; the girl who I feel terrible for drifting apart with. One minute friends, almost sisters now practically strangers. “Bit a bit of a dick move”

My mouth formed into a bit of a smile. “Who ? What?”

“Cameron just ditching you like that,”

“I’m sure he had his reasons”

“Oh yeah, gym with Ostrosky, it’s actually freaky shit being late for his class”

“..you’re in his class aren’t you ?”

“Yeah” he shrugged. “It doesn’t really matter though, I’ve been late to his class so many times he just doesn’t care anymore”

“Rebellious” I multitasked, handing the librarian my card and the only book Garrett let me hold.
Much like Mr Ostrosky, the librarian didn’t really care; in this case what you spoke about :even if it was about teacher. You could practically say every cuss known to man, according to Jared anyway.

“Damn straight, Garrett Nickelsen’s rebellious” he played along, his deep blue eyes glistening from the ceiling light. Giving a little laugh, I took the next book from the pile and pushed aside the one that was already borrowed. “Looks like you’re going to have a fun afternoon.” He finally said after about 5 seconds of awkward tension.

“Yep,” I replied, still eying the book’s bar-code that was meant to be scanning, but ‘ bar-code error #x03x865’ appeared on the screen every time. “With all due respect to Ms Bennett, I’d rather not be spending my 16th birthday finishing off a presentation”

“Fair enough” he nodded.

“What about you, Gare? What are the infamous six going to do while I’m gone?,”

“God you make it sound like we’re a cult..” his eyes started to shift from left to right. “Which we totally aren’t”

“Let’s go with that. But honestly?”

“Honestly? We’re probably just gonna have another practice or whatever. Trey doesn’t have work so he’s helping us out with some new material”

“That’s awesome” I tried to say as willingly as I possibly could. “Why the frick is this taking so long?”

“Frick? Since when do you say ‘Frick’ ?”

“Since I started to hang out with Pat Kirch .It’s like that’s the only swear the kid knows; besides it’s the first thing that comes to mind now”

“Seriously? Not even fuck or shit?”

“No-”

“Mr Nickelsen” a dominant male voice overpowered. He was wearing the school’s specific staff shirt and a pair of shorts that cut off just above his knees. He had dark hair and matching eyes. To top it off, a face chin full of stubble; that someone that looked his age didn’t do him much justice.

Garrett winced, the books almost falling to the dark carpet full of greens, blues and reds. “M-Mr Ostrosky. What are you doing here, sir?”

“I should be asking you two the same thing,” the 40-something year old man asked eyeing us both. “Same goes with the language, Garrett”

“I’ve got a free period, Mr Ostrosky, sir” I replied just that little bit scared. I down my bag and took out my schedule. Passed it to the man and soon enough retrieved the creased piece of paper.

“You’ve got 10 minutes Garrett. Make sure you’re in the gym by then. Bring a notebook and some pens though, it’s a theory lesson”

And with that, he left the building. The look on Garrett’s face left the impression of more than one thing. Relief and anxiety. After precisely 10 minutes, Garrett was dashing off to the gym while I stayed calmly in the library, pondering about nearly everything that happened in the course of an hour and a half.

**

“The Ancient Greeks were known for many occupations including Agriculture, philosophy , drama and architecture to name a few. ..” Cameron stated as he started to work on his speech. We were working on this task in the Montgomery living room. There we were monitored by the Montgomery safety squad: Josh & Corky.

“You..You don’t look so convinced, Katie”

“Just a bit skeptical over using ‘Ancient Greek’s’ I guess”

“I think it’s something else, but that’s just me” he smirked, making him a spitting image of his brother who was only meters away. Even though Josh was practically in the same room, he really payed no attention to us, he had his earphones in and sat on an exercise ball, at the dinner table, using his macbook.

“What did you mean by your ‘special ability’ earlier?” I jumped straight to the point.

“I knew there was something bothering you” he stated before he continued on with the story of Nina and his special ability. “There really isn’t much to it, I guess but you can see it in the way the two of you look at each other. Talk about cloud fucking nine"

"It's like, you two are the only ones in the room.Is that type of feeling you get ?"

"Kinda.." I said not feeling at all convinced that was what he was trying to say. I needed to try and change the subject, even if it didn't make as much sense as I'd hope. "So why'd you invite me here again?"

"You said you were getting resources..which you did. And besides, any excuse to get a pretty girl in my house" he winked.