Star Riddled Skies

Monday morning's hell, as usual. I wake up late, and just manage to pull on my uniform, scrawl on a bit of eyeliner, tame my mess of chin length brown hair, and run out the door, in a little under fifteen minutes.

When I do get to school I easily find the gang, in the same place as always, in the corner of one of the patio type places, some slumped on the floor, some sat on the old bench we took from somewhere else when we broke the last one.

"Morning all!" I say, hugging Ra, who says a good morning back, and high fiving the rest, except Sam, who somehow turns our high five into a brief hug. I notice Zach stood at the edge of the group, trying to get into a conversation, but failing, so I bound over to him and tap him on the shoulder.

For a moment he stares at me as if I'm a complete stranger, "Ash?" I nod, "Whoa, you look different in your uniform,"

"Ha, yeah," I say, ruffling my hair a little, "I usually look a lot better though, I woke up late this morning,"

"You look fine," He says, smiling a little. There's a silence, just a little one, where I fight to keep the blush from my cheeks.

"So.." I say, "You been round the school yet?" He shakes his head, "Well, I guess I'll have to give you the low down then eh?"

I lead him through the crowds of people, round to the field towards the back of school, "So there's the field, as you can see," He laughs a little, making me smile. We walk around, me showing Zach where to hang, and where not to go near. I tell him we're almost always in our little patio quad place, so hang there. I also tell him who to avoid, including Ms. Queen Bitch and all the gangsters. We're suddenly walking through a deserted area and I link my arm through his, "Did you hear what we were saying yesterday?"

He nods, "Mmm, I did,"

I shrug a little, hanging my head, "Sorry.. I didn’t mean to.. embarrass you or anything.."
Zach opens his mouth to say something, and the breath catches in my throat at what he's going to say. But nothing comes out, since I'm jumped by Ra and Zach's jumped by Sam.

We all fall to the ground and the gang are suddenly there, smiling, laughing. Justin holds his hand out to Ra, and Keek pulls me up. As she pulls me up I hold my hand out to Zach, but Sam slips his hand in mine.

I try not to scowl and pull Sam up, then hold my hand out to Zach, who takes it gratefully. The bell goes as we're all trudging back through the school, and we all separate off, telling each other we'll meet at break. I'm disappointed when Zach dodges into a form room with Sam and Justin, Ra and I carrying on.

I link my arm through Ra's and she smiles, "Justin asked you out yet?" I ask.

She raises her eyebrows at me, "Do you think I would be this calm if he asked me out? I’d be like this," She does a quick impression in the hallway, jumping up and down and waving her hands.

I laugh at her and she laughs too, and by the time we’re in our form room we're in hysterics, but we quickly shut up when the teacher barks at us to. I grumble under my breath at him and Ra and I take our seats nearest the door.

"So what's going on with you and Zach?" she mutters while the teacher calls the register.

I pause to say I'm here when he calls my name, then continue, "Nothing. Why?"

She raises her eyebrows at me, "Seriously. There is so something between you!" I hit her on the arm a little and she whines at me, earning some weird looks from the chavs and preppy kids on the table next to us.

We spend the rest of form talking about random bands, and how my obsession with Enter Shikari's getting worse, until the bell rings and we leg it out of the room, slowing down as soon as we're out of the room, ambling to our first lesson. When we join the queue my heart skips a little when Zach's in the queue, his mp3 in one ear, talking to Justin.

Ra immediately comes up behind Justin and pulls out his earphone, listening to it and resting her chin on his shoulder. She smiles at me and waggles her eyebrows towards Zach.

I come up behind Zach and put my hands over his eyes, "Uhh, its Ash!" he says, turning round and smiling at me. I pull his other earphone from his pocket, and smile when he's listening to Bring Me The Horizon. I mouth along to Oli and Zach smiles at me.

"Fear me dear, for I am death, one more time I whispered in her ear, you better fear me dear for I am death!" There's a shove through the queue and I get squashed into Zach's chest. His arms go round me instinctively and I step on his foot by accident. I blush and mutter I'm sorry, blushing furiously, and step back a little, but just a little.

We all file into the room, the girls pulling down their skirts and everyone tucking their shirts in so we don’t get done for our uniform. Zach, Ra, Justin and me all leg it to the back row and we stand behind our chairs, dropping our bags on the floor. It's Justin at one end, then Ra, then me, then Zach, who I smile at, and who returns it.

The teacher tells us to sit down and we all sink into our chairs. I zone out while he's telling us what to do, and when there's the buzz of 'working' students I hiss at Ra, asking her what to do. She shrugs and Zach whispers at me, telling me what to do with another smile.
I scribble down the few sentences the teacher dictates to us in a bored voice and a few seconds later there's a worksheet dropped onto my desk. I realise, with horror, that its Algebra, and I really can't do Algebra. I glance at Ra, seeing her deep in conversation with Justin, so I lean over to Zach.

"Finish this before the end of the lesson or you've got detention," The teacher barks and I hiss at Zach.

"Zach! Help meee! I can't do Algebra and I want lunch break for once!"

He chuckles a little under his breath and scoots his desk a little closer. He leans and mutters how to do the first problem.

"So I move that to the other side and times it?" I go to write what I just said but Zach puts his hand over mine and stops me. The breath catches in my throat and I look up at him.

"No," he whispers, "No, you keep that there and divide the whole thing," he lets go of my hand so I can write down what he just whispered. My hands shaking slightly.

He explains the next two and all the pieces of the simultaneous equation jigsaw start to slot into place, "I think I get it," I murmur.

Zach smiles, "Good," he leans back to his desk and scribbles down the answers. I get mesmerised by the way he's engrossed in the puzzles, the way his breathing's slowed, the way his eyes flicker across the page.

"Miss Campbell!" the teacher barks and I jump, looking back down at my work and try to figure out the next problem. I manage to finish the sheet, just, by the time the bell rings, and I throw my things into my bag, standing and legging it out of the room.

I wait for a few seconds until Zach, Ra and Justin come out the door. Ra and Justin are having a heated band discussion, and I know Justin's going to loose since Ra always wins arguments over bands, so I talk to Zach instead.

He pulls out his timetable and I find he's in about three quarters of my lessons. So I pull at his spare earphone, put it into my ear, singing along a little. We both walk off to our next lesson, leaving the two lovebirds to stumble into class ten minutes late arm in arm.

By the time it's lunch we're sick of lessons, and we all collapse in the quad with the rest of the gang. We all eat, ending up in a food fight, as usual. When all the food's been eaten or on the floor, we decide it's got boring. So we bring up an old tradition. The bench some are slumped on is old and rickety, and those who were sat on it quickly jump up when Tom throws himself on it, shoulder first. The whole bench slants one way but stays up and Kikii pulls Tom off the bench and keeps hold of his hand.

I slide my bag off my shoulder, "Out the way loves, watch and learn," I take a step back, smiling at Zach, then run and dive onto the bench. It immediately collapses under me and I fall with it, laughing. I hold my hand out, hoping Zach will take it and pull me up. But he doesn't, he tries, but Sam beats him to it. I have to smile at him politely and manage to subtly wriggle out of his grip when he holds me for slightly longer than I'm comfortable with.

"See! I'm an expert," I say to Tom, and he laughs.

"Nah, it's just your weight!" Kikii hits him round the arm and he just smiles at her.

I wander back over to Zach, who's sat on the crowded brick wall. I want to sit next to him and my face falls when I see there's no space. He notices, and smiles, patting his knee. I sit on his knee and he makes me wrap my arms round his neck so I don't fall off, and I'm trying not to smile and spazz out.

I'm glad I finally have an excuse for grinning like a madman, when two guys bring in another bench from somewhere else.

"Where the hell did you get that?" Someone asks and we're all laughing. I can feel Zach's breath on my neck and I'm trying not to turn and kiss him. I'm not sure I can stop myself so I slide off his knee reluctantly, and turn to him and smile. Maybe, probably, it's my imagination, just wishful thinking, when I see him look sad, and his hands linger on my waist.

So we stay like that instead. I'm standing in between Zach's legs, leaning against the wall and we're watching the mayhem and everyone piles onto the new bench, trying to break this one.

And I can't help thinking, as I tell them it's not going to work, that today's been a pretty cool day so far.

Now if I can just survive the afternoon.