Monday afternoon I trudged up to the Phys Ed alone. Casey had gone home early because she wasn’t feeling well. That meant I had to deal with Jeremy by myself. With a sigh, I shoved open the gym door, earning a cry of pain from whoever I hit with it. I stared in disbelief as Aaron backed away from the door, rubbing his head.

“Watch it,” he snapped, frowning at me.

“Sorry!” I apologized quickly. “But it’s not my fault you were in front of the door.”

He rolled his eyes. “Yeah, but most people don’t open doors like they’re trying to break them down.”

“I-I wasn’t—”

            “Holly!”

            I turned my head just in time to see Lexi throwing herself at me. Caught off guard, I stumbled backwards as she collided with me. I groaned as my back hit the edge of the gym door that was still open. Lexi immediately pulled away from me. “Sorry!” she apologized, bowing her head. “I just got, um, excited when I saw you…” She narrowed her eyes at Aaron for a brief second before turning back to me. “Look at the far corner of the room. I’m sure you’ll like what you see. Everyone else does.”

            Following her pointed finger, my eyes traveled to the far right corner of the room. I blinked in surprise when I realized I was looking at Chris and Jeremy standing together, talking. They were quite a sight too; nearly all the girls were staring at them. I couldn’t blame them though— they were the two best-looking teachers here. And they were both in dating range.

            “What are Jeremy and Mr. Heywood doing together?” I asked myself, furrowing my eyebrows at them.

            Lexi nudged me in the ribs. “Jeremy?”

            “Er… Mr. Ross.”

            She grinned at me. “You wouldn’t happen to be the girlfriend you claimed Mr. Ross had, would you?”

            I shook my head vehemently. “No! No, I’m definitely not dating him. He’s just my… family friend.”

            “Besides, Holly is interested in someone else.”

            My eyes snapped to Aaron, who was smirking. I watched him warily, feeling my heart rate increase. How could he know? Was he really that perceptive? “No I’m not…”

            He shrugged. “Well soon you’ll be.”

            “With who?”

            “Me,” he responded smugly.

            A frown flitted onto my face. Well that wasn’t what I expected. “I don’t even know you. I… I’m going to talk to Lance.” With that, I hurried away from the twins and towards Lance, who was climbing the rock wall that lined the far side of the gym.

            “Hey Holly,” he greeted, dropping down to the floor as I grew closer.

            “Hi,” I responded, smiling at him. “Do you know why Chris is here?”

            Lance shot me a warning look. “Mr. Heywood, Holly.”

            I made a face. “Crap.”

            “Holly,” Lance started, lowering his voice. “I know you’re all in love with Heywood and everything, but you’re still a student here. If anyone catches you—”

            “I know. I could be expelled,” I interjected, holding up my hand. “I’m very aware of the consequences, Lance.” Very, very, very aware.

            He half-smiled at me. “I’m not trying to be a Debby downer.”

            “I know. It’s just— Ah!” I cried out in surprise as something heavy toppled into my back, nearly knocking me off my feet for the second time in ten minutes. I turned my head to see a familiar blonde grinning at me. “Jeremy? What are you doing?”

            “Saying hi to my best friend!”

            “Get off!” I demanded, shoving him away from me. “Jeremy. You. Are. A. Teacher. You can’t do things like that!”

            He pursed his lips at me. “Why are you so touchy about that?”

            I gave him a flat look.

            He grinned sheepishly. “Right… Well— Don’t hurt me!” Jeremy said, flinching as Chris stepped next to him.

            “I won’t,” Chris responded moodily. “I’d get in trouble if I did.”

            Jeremy looked relieved. “That’s good.”

            “During school at least. After school it’s fine.”

            “Great…”

            Chris switched his gaze to me for a split-second. Just as he looked away I dropped my eyes, feeling blood rush to my face. I hadn’t seen him face-to-face since my mom had walked in on us— during biology he had been at a teacher conference. My head snapped back up when I heard a girly voice greet him. Rachel, a junior in this class, was surrounding him with a flock of her friends.

            “Are you helping out with gym class today?” Rachel prodded, smiling widely at him.

            Chris shook his head, returning her friendly gesture. “No, I’m afraid not. I was just relaying something to Mr. Ross.”

            It felt weird hearing Chris call Jeremy “Mr. Ross.” It made me want to laugh… I paused for a second. Was that how Chris felt when I called him “Mr. Heywood” all the time? My eyes widened. That was beyond awkward.

            “Actually, Mr. Heywood, I could use the help,” Jeremy responded in a teasing tone. “You don’t have a class right now anyway, right?”

            Chris kept his tone light and polite. “But I do have papers to correct.”

            “You can do those later, can’t you?”

            “I have plans.”

            Jeremy crossed his arms. “But all these fine ladies want you to stay and play.”

            “Yeah!” Rachel and her friend, Kate, chorused.

            Chris narrowed his eyes the slightest bit at Jeremy. “I’m sorry ladies, but I am really busy.”

            “Hmm… Without you around, I’ll just have to pick on you-know-who more,” Jeremy commented thoughtfully, slyly turning his body in my direction.

            I shot him another warning look. If he said anything I would murder him.

            “Mr. Ross,” Chris said firmly.

            “Chris,” Jeremy responded considerably more tauntingly.

            Rachel and her friends continued to smile at the pair of men pleasantly, obviously not catching the hostility behind their words. Lance, on the other hand, did, and was trying not to laugh. I could tell Chris was losing his patience with Jeremy. Part of me thought it would be funny for him to blow up in front of everyone, but the other part hoped Jeremy would lay off. After all, Chris still had his reputation to uphold.

            “Well if you really can’t stay, you can leave,” Jeremy finally said in resignation. “Guess I’ll find someone else to come down with me into the locker room to gather the equipment. Where we’ll be alone, with no one around. Come on, Holly.”

            I blanked at him. “What?”

            “I can go,” Chris cut in, shooting Jeremy a dirty look. “Let’s go.”

            Jeremy smirked in triumph, leading Chris back to the boy’s locker room. Lance burst out laughing, ducking his head. “I think I’m actually going to like Mr. Ross,” he commented after he was done.

            “I think Chris might kill himself before the year is over,” I muttered, rolling my eyes at Lance. “Jeremy has an uncanny ability to…” I trailed off when my eyes met a pair of piercing blue-grey ones.

            Aaron was smiling at me in a knowing way again. Like he knew my deepest secrets. Like he could read my every thought. Like he knew Chris and I were secretly dating. Chills went down my spine. Whoever this kid was, he was incredibly unnerving. I definitely had to be careful around him.

            A few minutes later Jeremy and Chris reappeared, both carrying a large sack of volleyballs. My heart dropped at the sight of them. Jeremy really wasn’t kidding when he said we’d be playing that. Jeremy shot Chris a dirty look as he set his bag down in the center of the gymnasium. Chris returned it with a smug smirk. It made me wonder what exactly happened down there.

            “Alright!” Jeremy started, clapping his hands together. “Let’s split off into groups of six!”

            Lance gripped onto my arm immediately. “Come on, let’s ask Lexi,” he urged, dragging me towards the twins.

            “Lance,” I protested, trying to stop him. “I kind of wanted to go with Danielle and James—”

            “They can join us too,” Lance responded in a distracted voice. “Let’s just get Lexi before she decided to join a different team.”

            As it turns out, Lexi apparently wanted to join our team anyway. She bounded over, looking extremely ecstatic. “Can I join your team?” she inquired coming to a dead stop about a foot away from Lance.

            “Of course,” he responded immediately, a goofy grin crossing his face.

            Forcing myself not to roll my eyes at his puppy-love behavior, I turned my attention to Aaron, who was still trudging his way towards us. I silently prayed someone else would ask him to join his or her team before he made it over to us. Unfortunately, fate wasn’t on my side at all. Aaron merged into our group, and a few seconds later two juniors I didn’t know joined as well, filling out our six.

            “Once you have your six, we’ll start out practicing basic movements,” Jeremy called, gaining everyone’s attention. “Split into twos for now.”

            I didn’t even have a chance to speak before Lance asked Lexi to be his partner. That left me with Aaron, seeing as the juniors were obviously going to be together. Once again, he smirked as he came to stand next to me.

            “Are you okay?” he asked, raising an eyebrow. “You look anxious.”

            “I-I’m okay,” I responded, quickly adverting my eyes. His gaze was far too intimate for my liking.

            Jeremy started passing out volleyballs to all the pairs. He tossed Aaron our ball, sending me a grin as he passed. I turned away from him, towards Chris, who was watching us with a frown. When our gazes met, he flashed me a small smile before looking away. I felt a smile of my own growing on my face and I faced Aaron again, feeling refreshed. That is, until I caught the stare he was giving me. My smile dropped at his impish expression.

            “Let’s start practicing serves. Don’t make them too hard, because your partner will only be a few feet in front of you. Mr. Heywood and I will demonstrate,” Jeremy announced, holding the volleyball in his left hand. “Just make a fist… and swing!” He swung his fist up, landing a hard blow to the volleyball.

            A sigh left my lips. Even though I didn’t expect Jeremy to be a good gym teacher, I thought he’d at least be an okay one. This was just… sad. Chris abruptly brought his hands up in a block, hitting the volleyball back to Jeremy with ease. Jeremy caught the ball, looking pleased.

            “So does everyone get it?”

            No one was evil enough to tell Jeremy they didn’t learn anything by his example. Lucky for him, volleyball was a sport required in the regular gym class. Even if some of us sucked at it, we knew how to play.

            “Ready, Holly?”

            Begrudgingly I faced Aaron, nodding my head. “Serve at will.”

            He nodded, giving me a light serve. I caught the ball easily and set it up to serve it back to him. Surprisingly enough, my serve went straight to his outstretched hands. Impressed, I grinned to myself, looking to see if anyone else had seen it. My happiness dampened the tiniest bit when I realized both Chris and Jeremy were preoccupied helping someone serve. The girls they were helping probably didn’t even need the help. They just wanted an excuse to be close with them and— no, I thought firmly to myself. No jealous thoughts.

            “Coming at you,” Aaron warned before hitting the volleyball to me.

            This time when I served it back, it went sailing over his head. He raised an eyebrow and I felt my face flush. “Sorry,” I apologized as he jogged backwards to grab the ball.

            “Don’t worry about it, I’ll serve from here,” he responded, hitting the ball to me.

            Throwing myself forward, I just barely managed to catch it with the tips of my fingers. Aaron jogged back to me, chuckling. I scowled at him, holding the volleyball tightly in my hands. What was so funny?

            “You going to serve?” he demanded, ignoring my disapproving look. “Any day now.”

            After letting out an angry huff of air, I served the ball back to him. He had to throw himself forward in order to catch it. Smiling in a satisfied way, I waited to catch his volley back. An awkward silence passed us now. I waited for Jeremy to say we were finished, but he never did.

            “So,” I started, trying to begin a conversation. “Where did you um, move from…?”

            “California.”

            My eyes widened. “Really?”

            “No, I came from Narnia.”

            I pursed my lips at him. “It must be a strange change, huh? With the snow and all.”

            Aaron shrugged. “Not really.”

            “Oh…”

            More silence.

            “So, um, you have good taste in music.”

            “So do you,” he responded, a small grin now appearing on his face. “You don’t pin me as the type to listen to the kind of music I do.”

            Now it was my turn to shrug. “You don’t judge a book by its cover.”

            “But everyone still does anyway.”

            “True,” I responded, letting out a small laugh. “I’m guilty of that.”

            Aaron’s eyes twinkled mischievously. “I bet you’re more guilty than that.”

            I blanked at his words. What did he mean by that? Nervousness crept over me. Just who was this kid? “What do you mean?” I demanded when I finally found my face again.

            “Oh nothing,” he replied nonchalantly. “Slip of the tongue.”

            “You…”

            He cocked his head to the side innocently. “Me what?”

            Gritting my teeth, I turned away from him. He really irritated me. Even more than the girls hitting on Chris. My eyes drifted to my boyfriend as I thought that, seeing him laughing at something one of the juniors said to him. I felt a pang of jealously immediately. Because we were dating, Chris paid extra careful not to talk to me any more than he talked to the other students. Even though he talked to me much less than everyone else. But it was something I had to live with. I had to just suck up my jealousy.

            Without warning, something hard smacked into the side of my head. Unable to stop myself, I shouted out in pain, squeezing my eyes shut. There was the sound of a volleyball dropping to the ground as I dropped to one of my knees, holding the side of my burning face. I groaned it pain as I moved my jaw, trying to make the ache go away.

            “Holly, are you okay?”

            I opened my eyes to see Aaron squatting by me, not looking the slightest bit worried. He put a hand up to my cheek, touching it gently. I jerked my head away, watching him with a heedful eye. He mouthed something to me that I didn’t quite catch. My ears perked up when I heard the sound of Chris calling my name, but I didn’t turn my head, giving Aaron a questioning look. He rolled his eyes, giving me another complacent look before mouthing the line to me again.

I know your secret.

            It felt like a freight train had mowed me down. Aaron pulled away from me, looking extremely pleased. I stared after him, panic coursing through my veins. What did he mean by that? He knew my secret? There was no way he could know about Chris and myself! It was impossible!

            “Holly, are you okay?” Chris appeared by my side now, giving me a concerned look. However, his jaw was clenched. 

            Our gazes met and I felt my mouth go dry. Now wasn’t the time for him to be so close to me. “I’m fine,” I mumbled, pushing myself off the ground.

            “Maybe you should go to the nurse just in case.”

            “I’m okay.”

            “Holly.”

            I blinked at his suddenly angry tone. “Um, okay. I guess I’ll go to the nurse.”

            “I’ll escort you, just to be safe,” he muttered, earning a smile from me.

            Jeremy jogged over to his side, trying his best not to smirk. “You okay, Holly?”

            “I’m taking her to the nurse,” Chris interjected before I could reply. “You can manage without me for a few seconds, right?”

            “Yeah,” Jeremy responded with a frown. “So are you okay, Holly?”

            “I’m fine.”

            “You sure?”

            “I’m sure,” I stated, offering him a small smile. “I’m just going to the nurse to be safe.”

            Jeremy nodded. “Okay. Careful.”

            Chris began to pull me in the direction of the gymnasium exit. I kept my head straight ahead, doing my best to avoid Aaron’s gaze. For the first time since the gang had been locked up I was scared. No, that wasn’t the appropriate word. I was intimidated… unnerved.

            “That little ass,” Chris growled as soon as we stepped out into the hall. He stopped in the little alcove over the gymnasium door. “He did that on purpose!”

            I looked up at Chris in surprise. “What do you mean?”

            “He served that ball while you weren’t paying attention on purpose. I watched him do it. With that stupid smirk on his face…”

            He did that on purpose? My heart sunk in my chest. What was he up to? Did he want something from me? Why would he do that on purpose?

            A soft hand on my cheek pulled me from my thoughts. Chris gave me a bothered look. “Are you really okay?”

            Smiling, I put my hand on top of his. “I’m okay.”

            “Be careful around Aaron… I don’t trust him,” Chris, moving his hand away from my face, but taking my hand with his.

            “I don’t trust him either,” I murmured, sighing.

            Chris caught my eye and for a moment we stared at each other. An overwhelming urge to kiss him washed over me, but I quickly forced it away. We were in school. People were all around us and could walk by any second. He seemed to be having the same thoughts, for he quickly let go of my hand. I blushed, taking a step back away from him.

            “Do we really need to go to the nurse?”

            Chris shook his head, chuckling. “No. But we can take a walk and say we stopped there.”

            “Sounds like a plan,” I responded, finding a new smile. “Shall we go, Mr. Heywood?”

            “We shall, Ms. Evers.”

            I made a face at him and he laughed again, gently pushing my shoulder. “Just walk.”

_____________________________

Phew! It's 2:24AM and I finally finished! If I have school tomorrow I am so screwed. Eh. If there's school I'm not going, actually. But I hope there's a snow day! Skipping school kind of sucks... And I haven't done my homework :P

Today I filmed my brother playing the scary maze game. His reaction was priceless. It's on my youtube now xD Click the open external link to see it. 

No proof reading.... again xD

Today's song is Dark Blue by Jack's Mannequin!