The Academy of the Elite

Nothing eventful really happened yesterday. I just stood in bed all day, not wanting to see Jack or Max. I just wanted to be left alone, no human contact for me, please and thank you. I still can't believe that in the span of two days I've managed to get back with Max and hurt Jack. I only stepped out when I had to; to eat breakfast and dinner at Menus. I quickly rushed into there and back to my room with my food so I could eat here, and fortunately for me, none of my friends caught me. I did receive some texts yesterday though, but I didn't bother answering them, I didn't want to talk to anyone. Today I am feeling a little better which I take as sign to get out of bed. So I walk into my bathroom and take off my pajamas to get in the shower.

I stand there, letting the hot water run over me, until of course I get over heated. So I change the temperature, clean myself up and get out. I dry off and put on my under garments, then walk over to my closet. I pick out a pink long sleeve plaid button down shirt and a pair of acid washed ripped skinny jeans. I wanted to look nice enough that way people wouldn't ask me why I was MIA yesterday. I put on my black chucks and tie my hair up into a high pony tail as the final touch. I look at myself in the mirror, I look good, better than I feel anyway. It was almost time for breakfast to start, so I decide to start walking to the cafeteria. I slip my phone into my pocket and leave the dorm. It was pretty grey and glum outside, great, it fit my mood. As I reach the doors of the cafeteria, my phone starts to ring. I pause for a second because I really liked my ringtone: Hollywood by Cute Is What We Aim For. I finally take it out of my pocket to see that Max was calling, of course.

"Hey."

"Good morning sunshine," he says affectionately.

I couldn't stop my smile from taking form on my face.

"Good morning. What's up?" I respond.

"Nothing, just wanted to check on you, I didn't see you yesterday."

"Yeah, I stood in my room the whole day."

"Why?"

"I wasn't feeling so great," I sigh, knowing I couldn't really explain to him that Jack kissed me.

"Aww, poor Ally. Well I hope you are feeling better today. I'll see you a few minutes; I’m getting ready for breakfast."

"Okay, I will see you then. Bye."

I hang up and walk into the cafeteria and choose a table to sit at, and end up sitting with everyone even though I really want to be alone. I talk to Liz about how awesome the party tonight is going to be and I even suggest some outfits she could wear. I watch her get up and leave as soon as Vic looks in her direction. So I decided to go too and sit in the same two seat table in the corner from the day before. No use in pretending anymore with Lizzy acting all weird. Vic gave me a weak smile from across the room, I saw Lizzy at the two seat table on the other side of the room. Kellin sitting with her very closely, I wonder if there is anything between them. I shook the thought out of my head and focused on today’s menu. I ordered a blueberry and pomegranate smoothie for myself and a bacon, egg and cheese for Max. I drum my fingers on the table and wait patiently for Max to arrive. He strolls in and immediately spots me. A huge grin stretches across his face as he walks in my direction then takes his seat across from me.

"Hello."

"Hi, I ordered breakfast for you."

"Cool thanks," he replies taking my hand. "Are you coming to the party tonight?"

"Jack's party…?" I felt a lump form in my throat at the thought of being in a room with both him and Max. "I don't know yet."

"Well I'd be really happy if you did." He smiles while playing with my hand.

The waiter comes to our table with our orders and sets them down. I give him a polite smile and then stare down at the wood surface of the table. I take a sip of my smoothie and stir the straw around. I didn't know what to say to that but I was determined not to disappoint Max, I could at least do that much for him.

"I guess I could show face for about an hour or so."

"Great, so I'll pick you up later." He takes a bite of his sandwich and I smile at him. Then comes Jack strolling in with his band and sits at the table next to us. Gabe nods in my direction then sits down at the table. Jack comes up to us last, with a straight face on, and heads towards us. My stomach drops.

"Sup Max," he says while playfully punching him in the shoulder. He looks at me and says hi, which you can tell was forced. I pick at the napkins that the waiter had brought us while Max and Jack have a casual conversation.

"Hold on, I’m going to go get a drink." Max gets up from the table and heads to the fridge section of the room. Jack sits in the seat across from me and stares at me for a second.

"Are you coming tonight?" He asks with a strained tone.

"I don't know, maybe." I look down at my lap, feeling a bit uncomfortable.

"Well I hope you make it," he says getting up. As he goes to sit with the rest of the band, he stops, and turns around.

"You look beautiful with your hair tied back by the way," he says, then turns back around and joins his friends. Great, he isn't going to let this go. Max sits back in his seat with a grin on his face.

"What are you smiling about?" I ask with a bit of irritation in my voice.

"Nothing," he says, picking up his sandwich. I give him a look while he chews, humming at the same time.

"Seriously," I say, poking his arm.

"It's a surprise." He finishes his sandwich then gets up to throw out the wrapper. "Well, I'm heading to the gym to play basketball with some friends, want to join?"

"No thanks," I say getting up and grabbing my smoothie.

"You sure?" He says grabbing my hand.

"Yeah, I'll see you later, okay?"

He pulls me in for a hug then kisses my cheek.

"Alright, I'll see you later." He walks away and for some odd reason, I decide join the guys at their table. I sit down next to the window, with Jesse being on the other side of me.

"What're you doing here?" Gabriel laughs tossing a piece of home fries at me.

"Not in the mood today Gabe," I say putting my head down. I suddenly get sleepy and drift into a light sleep, still aware of my surroundings. After a while, someone taps my shoulder and I jump up.

"You fall asleep really fast," Jack says sitting beside me.

"Yeah," I say getting up.

"Hey look," he says grabbing my wrist. "Don't let what happened yesterday stop us from being friends."

"I'm not, it's just, awkward." I stare at him till he decides to let go of my wrist.

"Well I'm sorry if you feel awkward, but I'm not going to apologize for kissing you-"

"Shh!" I cover his mouth and my eyes dart around to see if there were people left in the cafeteria: no one, just us. "Max and I will soon be announced as couple, I can't just have you talking about last night out in the open." I remove my hand from his mouth and look down at my feet.

"Answer this honestly." He sighs and I shift uncomfortably. "Do you really want to be with Max?" I freeze and think about the question. He grabs my chin and forces me to look at him. "The fact that you didn't answer almost immediately means that you don't."

"That's not true," I defend.

"Well do you?"

"I..I don't know. I mean, we just got into a relationship. There can be something nice ahead of us," I could feel my argument failing. "I really like him, he is very nice."

"It's only been two days, who knows if he'll go messing things up again?"

"Well what if he doesn't?" I shout and cross my arms. He runs his hand through his hair then puts it in his jean pocket. "Why did you set me up with him in the first place?"

"Because I was too stupid to realize that I had feelings for you...I didn't want to." I give him a confused look. "Forget it," he turns to walk out of the cafeteria and I follow him.

"What do you mean you didn't want to?" I ask with a low voice, gaining up to him.

"I don't want to talk about it," he says, still walking away.

"Why not-"

"Because I don't!" He cuts off my question and turns to me, clearly looking angry. "Why don't you go and hang out with your boyfriend? You won't have much time with him anyway. Might as well take advantage of the time you have now." He stood in front of me glaring, and I couldn't take it anymore. I run away from him and to my room. I open my door and slam it shut.

"What a jerk!" I yell at the emptiness of my room.

I pick up the closest thing to me from the desk and throw it across the room. Then I jump into my bed and scream into my pillow. When I'm done throwing a fit, which takes at least 10 minutes, I pick up my phone and call Naomi. She doesn't pick up so I decide to leave a voice-mail.

"Hey Naomi, can you come over when you can? I need some cheering up. Please hurry!"

I hang up and grab the TV remote to switch it on. I put Boy Meets World and stare blankly at it. There's a knock on my door and I assume that it's Naomi. I open the door and find her there with two grocery bags.

"Hey girly," she says hugging me. "Boy problems?"

I pout and nod while she lets herself in. She sits at the desk and I plop myself on the bed.

"Well I picked up some junk food for the occasion."

"Thanks." I bring my legs up on to the bed and Naomi comes over to lay on the other side of the bed.

"I love this show! My favorite character is Shawn, he's so cute." She giggles and nudges me.

"Yeah, he is, isn't he," I say while getting up and walking to the desk. I take out a Häagen-Dazs carton and check my phone. I got a text from Max.

'Hey, so I told Jack that we would help out with the party before everyone gets there, okay? I'll see you later.'

I sigh and slump into the chair. This is going to be a long day. Not only would I be at a party with both of them but now I would be there early to help set up. What a privilege.

After a long junk food and Boy Meets World marathon with Naomi, I went out for lunch with Lizzy, which didn't happen. I saw her cozy with Zac, all smiles and kisses. So I went back to my dorm to wash up a little then change into a more laid back outfit. Oh, how I love sweat pants. I wasn't really in the mood to dress up anyways, what a waste of an outfit. I walk over to Max's dorm since it was almost time to help Jack set up for the party. I knock on his door until he opens it.

"That's really annoy-oh hey Ally," he says while opening the door. "What're you doing here?"

"I was already out so I didn't want to wait for you to pick me up."

"Oh, okay." He moves aside. "Come in."

I walk into his room and sit at his desk, this is the first time I've been in Max's room. I expected Max to be a messy person, but he was surprisingly neat. His walls were painted a cornflower blue with white doors and windows. He had white furniture to match and blue bed sheets to match the walls.

"I like the way your room is set up."

"Thanks, it was my mom's idea." He cringed slightly when he said it.

On his desk was a picture of his family and his laptop, along with some notebooks and a few pens. I open the notebook that was on the top and it was completely empty. So I decide to vandalize the first page. I write "you suck", all in uppercase letters. Then in parenthesis I write "just kidding" and mark a big smiley face. Lastly to fill up some space, I just doodle little stick figures around and sign my name at the bottom of the page. True art. I close it and jump at the sound of something that had fallen. I turn around to see that a trunk had fallen from the top of Max's closet.

"Crap.." He says under his breath.

"Are you okay?"

"Yeah I'm fine," he says picking it up and putting it back on the top shelf in the closet.

"What're you doing anyway?"

"Uh..just looking for an old hat that Jack wanted to borrow."

"Hmm." I spin around in the chair and after getting dizzy, I get up and lay down in the bed.

"There it is." He backs out of the closet and closes the doors to it. He sets the hat down on the desk and lays down beside me.

"I'm tired," he says through a yawn.

"Me too."

"We should take a nap," he says putting his arm around me.

"Ha! I don't think so." I push his arm off and sit up. He sits up too and chuckles.

"We should get going." He gets up and puts his sneakers on. I just noticed that he didn't have them on the whole time.

"Hey, was I suppose to have my shoes off too?"

He raises an eyebrow. "Oh, no it's just a habit I picked up from home."

"Ahh. Alright lets go."

This. Is. Way. Too. Awkward. I'm cooped up in this room with Jack and Max, help me!! Jack won't even look at me unless he has a job for me to do, which involves me to do something out of his sight. Jerk. He wants to treat me like this? Fine, two can play at that game. I glance at his alarm clock and see that it's already 6:43pm so we have to go to dinner soon. I take out my phone and text Naomi to meet me at the cafeteria and get up from the seat I was in.

"Hey Max," I sing.

"Yes babe?" He asks, pausing his task. I walk up to him and wrap my arms around his neck.

"I'm going to go meet up with Naomi for dinner, I'll see you in a little bit, okay?" Then I kiss him for an extra showy display of affection. When I break the kiss, a big smile forms on Max's face.

"Alright, Ally."

I let go of him, and before I walk out of the room I say bye to a jealousy-stricken Jack. Mission accomplished. Now to survive the party and every other day after that. Since soon I will have long class days with Jack. Great, just great.