All The Small Things

Despite my little run in with Jack earlier, my day went on pretty normal. Wait, who am I kidding? It was a nightmare! From first to third period, everyone's eyes and whispers were directed towards me. Apparently someone had witnessed our little "run-in" this morning which was already beginning to mix with the rumors already spreading around about what Jack and I could possibly have been doing at my house.

It all got worse in my fourth period art class when someone new came and sat down next to me at my table. The guy had been in my class all year, we just never actually acknowledged each other before in any way other than to ask to borrow paints or pencils or other things of the sort.

"Hey Cameron." He smirked at me once I looked up at him for the first time since he sat down.

"Uh, hi." I said awkwardly. I could tell I was giving him a weird look, but I couldn't quite control it because I had absolutely no idea who he was or how he had learned my name.

"I'm Alex, but you probably know that already." He said rather proudly as his friends at his old table giggled.

"Sorry, I didn't." I shook my head and spoke rather coldly towards him, "Is there any reason you're sitting here?"

"I just thought I would make a new friends today, that's all." He said with a faux innocence that I could easily tell wasn't legitimate. He was definitely up to something.

"Don't you have enough friends over there?" I asked as I pointed to the small group of people who quickly pretended that they weren't listening to us at all.

"I'll let you in on a secret," He whispered as he leaned in closer to me, "All those people are assholes."

"And what exactly makes you any different?" I refrained from rolling my eyes at him no matter how hard it was. His smug attitude was already starting to bother me and we hadn't even been talking for more than ten minutes.

"Lots of things, I guess." He merely shrugged as we both got our drawings out to work on for the class period.

For the next twenty minutes, Alex was actually quiet. I would be lying if I said that it didn't shock me, because believe me, it did. In class, Alex's table was always the loudest and most obnoxious with Alex being at the head of all the commotion.

"You're really good at art." He commented as I finished working on my drawing of a forest.

"Thanks." I smiled faintly at him. Art was one of the main things that I was proud of in my life, mainly because I was so damn good at it. But I really did appreciate compliments here and there.

"Do you think that you could help me draw a nose on this person?" He asked as he lifted up his sketchbook to show me a very deformed looking face. I quickly clasped my hands over my mouth as a giggle escaped through my lips.

"I'm not very good at drawing people, okay!" He shouted defensively as I continued to laugh at his attempt to draw.

"It looks more like a monster than a human. Have you ever heard of proportions?" I asked sarcastically.

"No need for sarcasm, I just need help drawing a nose." He motioned to his drawing again, "I'm a much better musician than I am a drawer."

"Let's hope so." I smirked as I quickly erased the nose he had attempted to draw and sketched him a new one, "There you go!"

"Thanks." He smiled at me as the bell rang. We had been so busy trying to fix his artwork that we hadn't heard the teacher tell everyone to clean up. Alex hurriedly put away both of our drawings as I put away all of the pencils as we tried to get out of the room before the late bell would ring.

"So where are you going to now?" Alex asked as we left the room five minutes later.

"I'm going to lunch, and yourself?" I asked as I watched him mess with his hair over and over again. Alex was a peculiar boy, he really had me confused.

"Me too!" He exclaimed as he reached out and grabbed my wrist, "C'mon, you're sitting with me today."

"But, my friends..." I trailed off as Erica and my other friend William stared at us as we walked straight past my usual table. I stared at them as they exchanged a couple of words before they both gave me the thumbs up.

Alex looked over at them and then back to me before he shrugged, "It looks okay to them that you're sitting with me today."

"Fine." I groaned in defeat .

"Don't sound too excited, Cam." He smirked as we reached the table. I watched as he sat down and propped his feet up in the next seat over as if he owned the place which made me laugh to myself.

"Oh, our friendship has already reached the nickname-giving-level, Lex?" I questioned as I sat down across from his at the nearly empty lunch table.

"Apparently so," He grinned cockily at me as I stood up again, "Wait, where are you going?"

"I have to go and buy my lunch?" I said as I pointed towards the lunch line.

"Here, just take mine. It's better than school food and I'm not very hungry today." He pulled out a brown paper bag that had 'I love you' written on it.

"Your mom still writes on your lunch bags?" I giggled as I opened it and peeked inside, "Oh! Grilled cheese is my favorite!"

"What, your mom doesn't?" He scowled playfully as a girl sat down next to him and kissed his cheek lovingly.

"Who is this?" She asked as she smiled at me.

"Lisa this is Cameron." He gave her a look and she made an 'O' shape with her mouth when she thought I wasn't looking, "Cameron, this is my girlfriend Lisa."

"It's lovely to meet you, Cameron." She smiled warmly, "I love that bracelet you have on."

"Oh, thanks." I blushed as I looked down at the silver charm bracelet decorating my dainty wrist. It was the last gift my father ever gave me before he walked out on us when I was nine. I don't know why I still wear it, but I do.

"Hey Jack!" Alex smirked as Jack took the open seat next to me, "You remember Cameron. Don't you?"

Jack looked between the two of us a few times with a perplexed look on his face before he responded slowly, "Yeah... I do... How do you know Cameron, Alex?"

"She's my new art friend!" Alex exclaimed a little too excitedly if you asked me. Just as he said it, another guy came and sat down next to me and a girl sat down across from him. They both looked at me confused before the girl spoke up.

"Hi, I'm Kara. Who are you?" She smiled wholeheartedly at me which made me relax a little bit. At least all of these new people were accepting me instead of ostracizing me like I thought they would.

"I'm Cameron." I smiled at her.

"I'm Rian," The guy sitting next to me grinned, "It's nice to finally meet you Cameron." He winced as Jack reached over and punched him in the arm and then smiled at me sheepishly as his face turned pink.

"So Jack," Alex said, stopping any type of casual introduction conversation that normally would have preceded, "Cameron here is a really good artist. I think she should design our next album cover."

"You're in a band?" I asked Alex and Jack curiously as I chewed on my bottom lip, a nervous habit I had picked up years ago.

"You know absolutely nothing about the people in this school, do you?" Jack laughed, "Yeah, we're in a band. We have an EP out already."

"That's cool, what do you play?" I asked Jack specifically. I could see Alex smirking at us out of the corner of my eye which made me feel slightly uncomfortable.

"I play guitar and so does Alex." Jack jerked his head in Alex's direction across the table.

"And I play drums! Don't forget me!" Rian exclaimed as he stuck out his tongue at Jack.

"Shut up, Rian. You're fat and ugly." Jack laughed which caused Rian to throw his half eaten sandwich at him. Unfortunately for me, it missed and landed all in my hair instead.

"Oh shit, I am so sorry Cameron." Rian hurried to apologize and wouldn't stop as he picked chunks of ham and cheese out of my hair.

"It's fine, it's okay." I assured him, "I'm just going to go to the bathroom and get cleaned up, no big deal." I smiled at them before I made my way towards the bathroom. After that incident, I couldn't help but to feel as if they were playing some kind of drawn out joke on me to make me look like a fool to the whole school. I mean, what kind of popular seniors would want to hang out with the loser sophomore girl?

"Cameron, wait up!" Someone called out behind me once I had reached the bathroom. I turned around to see Lisa and Kara walking up behind me.

"Sorry about them, they're just..." She paused as she searched for a word in her head to describe them, "C'mon Lis, help me out here."

"Savages." Lisa finished as she chuckled.

"Aren't all guys?" I laughed as I pulled lettuce and a pickle out of my shirt.

"Yeah, but they're worse." Lisa rolled her eyes and smiled as she picked the small pieces of lettuce out of my hair.

"Much worse." Kara agreed as she brushed the rest of the cheese off of my blouse, "This is a cute shirt by the way. I may need to borrow it sometime."

"Sure." I forced a smile as I looked in the mirror to make sure I got all of the food off of me.

"Cool!" She squealed, "Can I come pick it up from your house tomorrow? Or better yet, I could give you a ride home today. But I hope you don't mind, we usually have a pretty full car."

"I usually walk home with my friends." I paused as we walked out of the bathroom and passed their table. They both gave me confused looks but I merely smiled at them and shrugged, "But I'm sure this one time would be okay, especially since I am giving you my shirt to borrow and all."

"Awesome! I cannot wait to wear it on a hot date with Rian." She winked with a glint of excitement in her eyes.

"And what does a hot date with Rian consist of? Him showing you his new card trick?" Lisa giggled as Kara scowled at her, "Besides Kar, he's already seen Cameron in that shirt."

"He won't even notice, Lis." Kara waved her away as we sat back down.

"There you guys are! What took you so long?" Jack asked as he looked around at all of us.

"It's a lot harder to get every piece of lettuce out of your hair than you would think." Kara said as she shot a glare in Rian's direction.

"I said I was sorry!" Rian shouted, "Cameron, I'm really sorry."

"I know, it's okay." I laughed.

"Cameron is going home with us today." Lisa smiled at Alex who had just put his arm around her waist.

"Are you sure there is enough room?" Rian raised an eyebrow and looked around at all of his friends expressions.

"We'll make room, dammit!" Jack grinned, "We all know we have before." Everyone started to laugh at some memory that I wasn't there for, which made me feel a little left out and awkward. Needless to say, I was extremely grateful when the bell for sixth period rang.

"Thanks for lunch Alex.' I smiled as I gathered my belongings to walk to class.

"Anytime Babe." He winked as he grabbed Lisa's hand and walked down the hall together. They sure were a cute couple. I wish I could act all cute and couple-y with someone.

"Where are you headed to?" Jack asked which took me out of my thoughts and back to reality. I looked around and realized that we were the last two standing there alone.

"Chemistry." I answered with an eye-roll to show my distaste.

"Oh gross, I almost failed that class." Jack chuckled, "Do you mind if I walk with you there? I have to head that way anyway."

"No, not at all." I said as we headed down a side hallway. "I'm not going to make you walk alone when we're headed in the same direction."

Jack laughed as we rounded the corner, "Yeah that would just suck. So... have you heard the rumors going around about us?"

I shook my head, "Vaguely, but not all of them I'm assuming. I tend not to get into all of that shit."

"I see." Jack muttered as he nodded his head.

"Why? What are people saying?" I asked him, suddenly extremely curious as to what people thought they knew about me. I could see him smirk a little underneath his whole head of hair.

"Oh, nothing." He sang as he walked into my classroom with me.

"Uh, Jack?" I said as I put my stuff down at my desk.

"Yeah?" He asked completely ignoring the fact that the entire class was staring at us him. I felt pretty uncomfortable with all the attention, but Jack didn't seem to be phased in the slightest.

"This isn't your classroom." I giggled nervously.

"I know." He shrugged, "I just wanted to make sure you got here safely. Well, you're here and you're safe. It looks like my work is done. I guess I'll see you later." He grinned and walked out the door, stopping to wave at me as the teacher walked past him and gave him a dirty look.

Once he was gone, Will turned and looked at me with a confused expression on his face, "Cammie, what the fuck was that?"

"What was what?" I blushed. For once, I didn't even mind that the class was still staring at me. From what I could tell, Jack was just being Jack so I would have to get used to it if we were going to be friends.

"He is so fucking into you it's not even funny." Will whispered as our teacher put up the lab assignment on the board.

"No he's not." I shook my head defensively as we headed over to our lab stations and got out the chemicals needed for the experiment.

"Yes he is, Cam. I'm a guy, I would know." He shook his head and laughed, "Either you are just that oblivious, or you're in denial."

Will's statement caught me off guard, and for a moment I actually considered it to be the latter of the two statements, but I quickly shook those thoughts away, "No Will, you're reading into things all wrong. We've only known each other a few days, there is no way he likes me."

"Please, Cammie. Erica and I were watching you two today and we saw the way he kept looking at you when you weren't looking. And when you went to the bathroom? Damn, he looked like he was ready to pounce on you right there and rip your clothes off!"

I laughed softly as I poured the chemical solution I had been mixing into a beaker and began to heat it up on the hot plate. "Yeah sure, whatever you say William. Oh, and by the way I am not walking home with you two today."

"Why not?" Will pouted as he took a measurement, finally working on the actual assignment.

"Kara wants to give me a ride home since I have to give her something of mine." I said.

I watched as Will's eyes grew wide with shock and excitement, "Kara Diakoulas? She is the hottest girl in the 12th grade!" He shouted. I chuckled as Mrs. Hayes glared at him and he talked a little quieter, "I'd kill to be in that car."

"I'm sure you would have to kill something." I laughed at my sexual innuendo as Will stuck out his tongue.

"Don't talk about my man parts like that." He gasped, almost knocking down a few jars filled with chemicals as he dramatically flailed his arms around.

"I think it's about time we clean up, don't you?" I laughed as I dumped the unused chemicals down the sink and brought our finished product to the kill jar to throw out. Will was already making too much of a mess and we didn't need any broken glass everywhere.

"You're just hurrying to clean up so you can go meet Jack Barakat." He winked suggestively.

"I am not." I blushed furiously and almost dropped the glass beaker I was washing out.

"You are too!" He cried as he scrubbed out one of our test tubes, "You like him, and he likes you... Oh my God, Cameron is going to get her second boyfriend!"

"Shut up, Will!" I laughed as I covered his mouth with my hands. There was no doubt that the rest of the class was still listening in on our conversation and I didn't want that sort of information getting around school, "I don't really know him well enough to say that I like him. And you hardly count as my first boyfriend, you idiot."

"We dated all of freshman year!" He retorted, "It definitely counts."

"And you didn't even kiss me for the first three months." I laughed, "You were so scared."

"Well look at me now," He gloated, "I am certainly over that little phase. I've had three girlfriends so far this year, and I've been with way more girls than that."

"Because sleeping around is really something to be proud of William." I rolled my eyes.

"Excuse me, Miss Virgin. It just means I am experienced in that department." He stuck out his tongue playfully.

"Experienced in getting STD's maybe, but that isn't what determines how good in bed you are." I rolled my eyes as the bell rang, "I'll see you tomorrow; tell Erica that I'll talk to her later."

"Bye Cameron." He sang, "Have fun with the new boy toy!"

I flicked him off as I hurried out the door of the classroom and I was surprised to see Jack standing there waiting for me.

"I realized that you didn't know where we meet up to go home everyday." He chuckled nervously, "I just thought I would take you. Do you need help carrying that?" He pointed at my book bag that I was struggling to hoist over my shoulder.

"No..." I huffed, "I've... got it." I said as he snatched it out of my hands and put it on top of his own book bag, "...Or you've got it. Thanks."

"It's no problem, Cameron." He smirked, "I may look scrawny, but I've got some muscle hidden under there somewhere." He laughed as he held the school door open for me. I sort of wished that Jack had walked outside first though, because the moment I did, Alex jumped on top of me.

"Cam! I've missed you!" He grinned as he picked me up and spun me around a couple of times before setting me down gently, "How's my favorite sophomore doing?"

"How is it that you know so much about me before I tell you, Alex?" I asked him with a soft chuckle.

"I have my sources." He winked mischievously.

From behind us Jack cleared his throat loudly, "We should probably head over to Kara's car now. I'm sure Lisa would be pretty pissed if we were late."

"Oh, right, Lisa, yeah." Alex nodded his head and took off running, "ONWARD!"

I couldn't help but to laugh as I followed far behind the two boys who had begun running and screaming in the direction of a small group of people that had formed near a small silver Honda.

"Kara, you weren't kidding when you said we would have to squeeze in this car." I gasped when I realized just how small it really was.

"I told you so." She giggled as she wrapped her arms around Rian and kissed his cheek lovingly.

"Shotgun!" Rian suddenly shouted and took off running to the passenger seat of the car.

"No fair, Rian!" Alex pouted as he opened the back door and sat down, pulling Lisa into his lap and wrapping his arms around her waist.

"The boyfriend always gets shotgun privileges." Rian smirked as he turned on the radio. I couldn't help but to laugh at them all as I stood outside the car awkwardly, waiting for Jack to finish putting our stuff in the trunk. Once he was done, he simply walked over to the car door and got in, looking at me expectantly.

"You coming?" He asked as he tried to scoot over and make enough room for me.

"There's absolutely no room." I bit my lip as I tried to figure out what I was going to do.

"Just sit on Jack's lap, Cameron." Lisa chirped before Alex planted a kiss on her lips. I felt my face heat up as Jack patted his lap and opened his arms motioning for me to come and sit. I couldn't help but to blush as I sat down and he wrapped his arms around my waist just as Alex had to Lisa and put his head on my shoulder.

"You're comfy." He mumbled as he nuzzled closer to me.

"Well you're not." I giggled nervously.

"Excuse me?" He raised an eyebrow at me in a way that I couldn't help but to laugh.

"It's just that you're so bony! It's like I am sitting on a pile of rocks." I exclaimed.

"Which way to your house, Cameron?" Kara asked, stopping our little conversation.

"Turn left." Jack and I both said at the same time. Everyone, including myself, turned to look at Jack with confused expressions. It was kind of weird that he remembered where I lived so well.

"What?" Jack wrinkled his nose, "I have to go over there sometimes to pick up Kyle!" He squealed and pulled me closer to hide his face in my shoulder.

"It's true, he does." I agreed, "Well, I at least know that he did once."

After a little while more of driving and singing to songs on the radio, we finally made it to my house. "That's it right there!" Jack bounced up and down in his seat causing me to flail all over the place.This boy sure was a hyper one. As soon as the car was shut off and in park, he opened the car door and carried me bridal style all the way to the front door where in one swift movement I pulled out my keys and unlocked the front door.

"We're going to go make babies now!" Jack shouted as he carried me upstairs while everyone else just clambered in after us. Before anyone could respond, he already had me in my room and he had shut the door.

"What now?" I asked, still in his arms. I had to admit, it sure did feel nice up there.

"We make babies, obviously." He smirked as he placed me down on my bed. I watched as he looked curiously around my bright red bedroom with a grin on his face, "I like your room, Cameron. It's very... you."

"How can you come to that conclusion when you barely know me?" I asked as I walked over to my closer to find a new shirt to wear since I was going to let Kara borrow the one that I was wearing.

"What are you doing?" Jack asked as he came and stood right behind me. I could feel his chest touching my back which made my heart beat a little faster.

"I have to find another shirt to put on so I can give this one to Kara." I giggled nervously, "Now turn around and close your eyes, I have to change."

"Yes Ma'am!" He exclaimed as he put his hands over his eyes and turned around. I had made sure to face him so I could be certain he didn't turn back around to look at me, but when I had my shirt over my head, he must have turned back around because when I saw him, he was grinning furiously.

"You peeked!" I squealed as I ran over to him and jumped on his back.

"I did no such thing!" He exclaimed as he opened the door and carried me all the way back downstairs. Everyone must have been snooping around because when we got back to the kitchen they all froze with guilty smiles etched onto their faces.

"The lovebirds are back!" Alex sang with a mouthful of chocolate chip cookie.

"Yeah, we made like fifty babies up there, so we thought it was about time to join you all back down here again." Jack joked as he set me down on one of the counters.

"Here is the shirt you wanted Kara." I smiled and handed it to her.

"Oh thank you so much!" Kara gushed, "Would you mind if Lisa and I went upstairs and raided your closet? You have really cute clothes."

"Thanks." I blushed slightly. I wasn't used to so many compliments in one day. Erica never compliments me, she just expects me to compliment her instead. And Will never pays enough attention to detail to compliment anyone ever, "My room is the only red one upstairs, you'll find it pretty fast."

"Red room, got it." Lisa repeated before they both disappeared upstairs together.

"You make really good cookies." Rian said as he grabbed what appeared to be his fourth or fifth cookie.

"Hey, there's one magic trick you're good at, making cookies disappear." Alex quipped as Rian glared at him.

"Thanks, but I didn't make them. My step-dad did, he owns a bakery in Baltimore." I commented as I picked one up for myself.

"Cool! Do you think that he could make me some lemon bars sometime? I really love those." Jack said as he stole a bite of my cookie.

"Get your own," I scolded as I shooed him away from me, "And I guess he could. I'll ask him later. You'd have to come over again to get them, because those are messy and I'm not bringing them to school."

"Well, that won't be too hard considering that we've already decided to make your house the new hangout house." Alex smirked.

"Yeah, your basement is fucking awesome!" Rian added, "That flat screen TV is huge!"

"You guys went down to my basement?" I furrowed my brow in confusion.

"Well you and Jack were gone for a long time and we had nothing else to do, okay?" Rian crossed his arms defensively, "But seriously, do you have an Xbox hooked up to that thing?"

"Hey guys, Zack just texted me." Lisa said as she came back into the kitchen with a few shirts in her arms, "He wants to know if we want to go and get a burger or something."

"I say we go. I am in need of some decent food." Kara grinned as she put her pile of about twenty clothing items down on my kitchen table.

"Geeze Kara, you want to borrow all of that?" I eyed the pile of clothing on the table in front of me.

"Oh come off it, Cam. You have tons of clothes in there with the price tags still on them! I checked!" She rolled her eyes playfully and I laughed because it was true. My step-dad really loved to dote on me. I kind of always assumed it was because he felt sorry for me since my father walked out on me and my mother had recently become an alcoholic, but I was thankful that he cared enough to buy me things, I guess.

"So are you going to come with us?" Jack asked me hopefully as everyone started to get ready to go, "You can meet our bass player, Zack."

I smiled, "I mean, if you want me to go sure I will."

"Of course we want you to go!" Alex exclaimed as he grabbed my clothes from Lisa's arms and pulled her close. Damn, they were cute together. Sometimes I really wanted someone to be cute with like that. Suddenly, I felt a warm hand grasp mine and I looked up to see Jack smiling down at me cheekily as he entwined our fingers and led me out of the house.