High School Has Its Perks

AJ tried to concentrate on his work but it was hard to pay attention. AJ bit at his pen repeatedly. Aiden looked up from his work to look at AJ.

"You ok?" Aiden asked. AJ put his pen down.

"Sorry"

"No it's ok...are you ok?"

"I saw Rory over the weekend" AJ said immediately. "I miss her a lot"

"How's she doing?" Aiden asked.

"Great" AJ faked a smile. "Uh, yeah, she really likes Bridgewater"

"That's great. I hear some people have a hard time adjusting. Did you hear about Sohee? she got wasted over the weekend. Oh, and someone told me Holly's like a completely different person"

"Yeah" AJ said.

"Well what's wrong?"

"I think I have to break up with her" he said. Aiden was confused and shocked and surprised. Over the summer AJ and Rory were absolutely in love, and now AJ was doubting it?

"Why?" Aiden asked simply. "You love her" AJ nodded.

"I do...I do love her" he said sadly. "But...I'm just too jealous"

"Jealous of what?" Aiden asked. "She's not cheating, is she?"

"She claims she's not"

"She claims?" Aiden asked. "So you don't believe her"

"No! It's not that, I do believe her its just..."

"Well your wording suggests you don't, and your body language shows you don't feel bad about this" Aiden said. "You want to break up so the paranoia goes away, don't you?"

"Yeah"

"Well what the fuck are you going to tell Rory?" Aiden asked. "You need something better than that"

...

Shay sat in her room after school trying to focus on doing homework but so much was on her mind. Her sister was off the rails, she had to ask her ex-scum boyfriend for help and worst, a guy she liked asked her out and she said no for no good reason.

She picked up her cell phone and called Sohee. "Hey, what's up?

"Not much. What's going on with you?"

"I have a problem"

"And I'm the wise older sister that solves all your problems, what do you need help with?"

"...Uh...um...This guy I liked asked me out" she said.

"Well that's great!" Sohee exclaimed. "Who's this kid?"

"Gary...you know him, he plays trombone in the band"

"Ah, Gary, he's a sweet kid. I want all the deets on your first date!"

"Uh, that's the problem...I said no"

"Why the fuck did you say no! Gary's such a nice kid...are you not over Nick? You told me you were!"

"I am" she said. "I just said no for no reason...like it was an automatic response"

"Well, that's what I call closing the front door" Sohee said. "Two failed relationships and now your preventing more heartbreak. I've seen this case before"

"What do you mean case?" Shay asked. "You're not a psychologist" she chuckled.

"I had it, Holly had it, we've all had it...You're trying to protect yourself. But you need to let new people in" she said. "Because once you do it's so worth it"

"But I don't want to get hurt again..."

"How do you know you will?"

"It's just happened too many times before..."

"You're young" Sohee told her baby sister. "This is just the beginning. You can't stop dating at 15 just because you got hurt too many times. You'll be alone forever"

"Yeah...Ash, I'm going to call you back later"

"OK" Shay hung up her phone and called Gary.

"Hey, what's up?" Shay smiled. "Yeah, yeah, Haggerty's a real bitch. I was wondering, I told you I couldn't go out with you...can I change my answer?" Shay smiled at his excited reaction. "Uh, well we have nothing for Marching band this weekend, why not Saturday? That sounds great...see you in school tomorrow...bye"

...

Karo looked up at Bryan's house. She leaned against Leena's car and just looked at his house. She could see the gang sitting around a table, probably eating a ton of fast food if she had to guess.

"Yeah I'm having surgery Friday" Joe said. "The doctors seem pretty confident they'll get it"

"All of it?" Bryan asked.

"I'm assuming so"

"Friday?" Ross asked. "Great, I asked Sam out for then"

"Well, go" Joe said. "I'll still be alive when your done"

"No, no, I want to be at the hospital" Ross said. "I'll have to cancel"

"Ok, am I far enough away?" Sean asked. Sean stood in the kitchen while the gang was in the living room.

"Ok, throw" Leena opened her mouth, Sean threw a french fry about 10 feet into Leena's mouth.

"SCOOREE!" Bryan exclaimed.

They heard knocks at the door. "Who the fuck is that?" Joe asked.

"I don't know" Bryan got up to answer the door. Ross grabbed the closest weapon which was a metal rod used for the fireplace. They waited on the top of the stairs while Bryan looked through the peep hole. "It's Karo" he said.

"I almost killed her" Ross joked. He put the metal down. Bryan opened the door.

"Hey" he said. "Come in, we ordered a 50 McDonalds french fries, we could use more mouths" he said.

"Uh no...I just have to say something real quick" she said.

"Ok..."

"I'm the one who put the drugs in your locker"

"What?" Leena nodded at her.

"It was me...Stephen told me to do it, I don't know why and I'm really sorry. I'm going to go to Sanders in school and tell her what I did. You'll get cleared completely" she turned around and walked back towards her car. Bryan slowly closed the door. He turned to the rest of the gang who was just as confused as he was.