“Come on, Holly!” Casey cried, yanking on my arm.

Shaking my head, I planted my feet firmly on the ground so she couldn’t pull me closer to the gym door. “No! I’m sick—”

“You were perfectly fine in Mr. Heywood’s class!”

“That’s because… That’s because…”

“What? His penetrating gaze heals you?”

I rolled my eyes as Casey snickered at her own joke. “I really don’t feel good, Casey.”

“Too bad.”

With one vigorous pull, Casey sent me stumbling forwards. She took the advantageous moment to quickly wrench open the gym door, roughly throw me through it, and swiftly close it behind us. Immediately I tried to leave, but Casey stood immobile in front of the door. “You’re not going to make me face the new gym teacher by myself, are you?” she demanded, crossing her arms.

I returned her expression with a miffed one. Instead of telling Casey Jeremy was the new gym teacher, I figured I’d let her find out for herself. My plan was to feign sickness so I wouldn’t have to go. Casey was now ruining that plan.

“Just change,” Casey ordered, pushing me further into the locker room. “I’m sure he or she won’t be that bad.”

Sighing deeply in resignation, I allowed Casey to push me to our lockers. A bunch of girls were already changed and now heading up the stairs, while some were still throwing on t-shirts and gym shorts. Opening my locker, I pulled out my bag of gym clothing, regretting not packing sweatpants for backup. If Jeremy said one word to me, I’d punch him as soon as school was out…

“Hi Holly! Hi Casey!”

I quickly yanked my shirt the rest of the way off my head, turning to see Lexi standing behind me, beaming. “Hey.”

“Do either one of you have a pair of gym pants I can borrow? I didn’t know we had to bring our own…”

As I shook my head, Casey gave her an affirmative answer. Lexi turned her attention to Casey, her smile growing broader. I watched as Casey produced a plain white t-shirt and our school’s black sweatpants. My eyes widened when they landed on them. Casey had sweatpants!

“Casey—”

“Here you go!” Casey chirped, handing off her extra gym clothes to Lexi. “Sorry they’re sweatpants.”

My heart plummeted at once. Scowling, I turned back to my locker to pull out my gym shorts. I should have asked Casey earlier. Lexi could have worn my gym clothing. Reluctantly I stripped out of my jeans and into my gym shorts, now very aware of how short they actually were.

Lexi and Casey started up the stairs first. I followed along slowly, taking my time with each stair, taking extra care not to slip on the dust. Not that there was dust— it was just incase. When I finally pushed open the door to the gym, I braced myself for Jeremy’s smirk and teasing gaze. However, Jeremy was nowhere in sight. The students were running around amuck in the gym. The boys were playing with the mats— doing flips off the bleachers onto them or belly flopping. Lance was one of them. I smiled as he did a belly flop, letting out a loud shout when another student jumped onto him. On the other side of the gym, one student was playing basketball with his shoe, trying to throw it through the hoop.

“Aaron! Aaron over here!” Lexi cried, waving at her twin enthusiastically. “Whose gym clothes did you borrow?”

My eyes followed the young man with pecan colored hair as he slowly started coming towards Lexi, Casey, and myself. His gaze met mine and he smiled mysteriously. I blinked at him, not sure what his smile meant. “Hey, Casey,” he greeted when he grew close enough. “Hi, Holly.”

“Hello,” Casey and I chorused, her tone chipper, my tone wary.

Lexi squinted her eyes at her brother’s gym shirt. “Isn’t that your shirt?”

Once again, Aaron was wearing a shirt from a band I liked. I had to admit, he had great taste in music. He nodded, looking down at it. “I’m not stupid like you and I figured we’d have to bring our own clothes.”

“I’m not stupid,” Lexi protested, crossing her arms.

Casey sent me an amused look and I pressed my lips together to stop myself from laughing.

“Hey Holly,” Aaron started, turning his attention to me. “Can I ask you something?”

For some reason, anxiety filled me. It took me a moment to wet my mouth enough in order to reply. “What?”

“It’s about—”

“Aaron!” Lexi hissed, sending a fist straight into her brother’s chest.

Aaron’s eyes shot open in surprise and he took a step back, wincing. His hand shot up to the spot where Lexi had punched him and he rubbed it. “What the hell was that for?”

“Keep your mouth shut!”

“It’s just a question!”

“A stupid question!”

Aaron gave her an impatient look. “It’s not like asking her is going to get her killed.”

“It’s not worth it,” Lexi snapped. “Just drop it.”

Casey and I exchanged bewildered looks. What were they going on about? What did Aaron want to ask me? The nervous feeling returned again and I gave Aaron an uncomfortable look. He frowned at me, his eyes narrowing slightly.

“I… I’m going to get a drink,” I muttered, moving around Casey towards the edge of the gym.

My heart thudded in my chest as I jogged to the water fountain. Aaron’s words echoed in my mind. It’s not like asking her is going to get her killed. That hit too close to home— especially after the gang thing. Did he know about that or something? What did he want to ask? Part of me was tremendously curious, but the other half figured staying unaware of the question would be safer. Maybe he just wanted to know my favorite color. Or maybe he wanted to know how Shawn ended up in jail…

Shaking my head as if to clear my thoughts, I leaned down to take a drink of water. I was getting way too ahead of myself. Lexi and Aaron didn’t know anything. He was probably just curious about the biology homework or something. Chris wasn’t exactly good at explaining things. The thought brought a smile to my face. At least it was one of his charm points. Even though it made the rest of the class extremely irritated.

Just as I started returning to where Casey, Lexi, and Aaron were, the door from the boys locker room opened. I froze, watching as a familiar young man with blonde hair appeared, dressed in a pair of black sweatpants and a tight-fitting white shirt. Jeremy. Luckily, he didn’t notice I was right behind him. Keeping as quiet as I could, I followed a few steps behind him as he moved towards Casey and the others. The people in the gym quickly began assembling there as well. Jeremy stopped dead in front of Casey.

“Nice,” he commented and Casey’s face flushed.

“You’re hot,” Lexi blurted, her eyes widening in surprise.

Since Jeremy’s back was turned to me, I couldn’t see his reaction, but I figured he looked as surprised as the students in front of them. I stared at Lexi in disbelief. She really did say that to everyone. Casey shot Lexi a frown, but quickly returned her attention to Jeremy and a silly grin came onto her face. I couldn’t help but grin at her. No matter what Chris said, I thought Casey and Jeremy would be cute together.

“Where’s Holly?” Jeremy asked, moving his hands to his hips. “I swear she was going to be in this class.”

Aaron’s eyes snapped to me, a small smirk growing on his face. “I do believe she’s right behind you.”

I sent Aaron a glare just as Jeremy twirled around. A huge grin spread across his face and his eyes swept over me quickly. He made a noise of approval. “Wait until I tell Chris how cute you are—”

“Jeremy!” I hissed, cutting him off. “You can’t say that! Shh!”

He looked offended, but lowered his voice. “I’m just complimenting you.”

“You can’t. You’re a teacher now.”

Jeremy made a face. “That’s no fun.”

“Jeremy, just take attendance, or something,” I suggested, moving around him to join the crowd of students that were on his other side.

Lexi nudged me in the shoulder. “You know him?”

“Kind of,” I admitted.

“Hello class,” Jeremy started, sounding put off. “My name’s Jeremy, but it’s Mr. Ross to all of you. Since I’m your teacher and I have to make you do that.”

Rolling my eyes, I turned away from him. He was so immature. Lance appeared next to me, grinning. “Jeremy, huh?”

“Sadly.”

“Why are all the teachers at this school so hot?” Lexi whispered, her eyes never leaving Jeremy.

I grimaced at her. “Lexi, don’t say that…”

“Why not? It’s just my opinion.”

“Still.”

She smirked at me. “Aw, does someone have a crush?”

My eyes widened. “What? No—”

“Mr. Heywood, huh?” Lexi commented, cutting me off. “I kind of figured. It seems like every girl has a crush on him. Not that I can blame them. He’s cute.”

I stared at her in disbelief. Was I that easy to see through? She caught my look and smiled at me.

“Don’t worry, I won’t say anything to anyone,” she assured me. “Though I doubt anyone would care too much anyway. After all, he’s a teacher and teachers can’t date students.”

“That’s true,” I responded with a nervous laugh. “It’s just a silly infatuation… No big deal.”

Lexi nodded her head. “Right. But if we were talking about our gym teacher, it’s a different story. He’s hot and I highly doubt he’s that much older than us.”

Casey turned towards us now, raising an eyebrow. “He’s still a teacher.”

“I heard he has a girlfriend,” I blurted out.

Both Lexi’s and Casey’s eyes widened. I returned the look, just as surprised as my outburst as them. Hopefully Casey would realize I was lying. After a moment, Casey refocused her attention on Jeremy. Lexi was still staring at me.

“Really?” she asked.

After a second, I nodded. “That’s just what, um… Yeah…”

Lexi furrowed her eyebrows in confusion, but said nothing more. I quickly turned away from her so she wouldn’t be tempted to say anything more. Jeremy was still prattling on about the course outline and expectations, his eyes darting to either Casey or myself every now and again. Frowning, I stared back at him, crossing my arms. Why did Jeremy have to be attractive? Was I being unfair by lying to Lexi? My shoulders sagged and I sighed quietly.

“Alright! Then at Holly’s request, we’ll start by doing three laps around the gym!”     

A groan swept through the class and my head snapped to Jeremy. He grinned at me, jerking his head to the side as a gesture for me to start running. The rest of the class slowly started to jog while I stood in place, scowling at him.

“Nice going, Holly,” James commented, elbowing me as he passed me.

Ignoring him, I waited until everyone had gone ahead to speak. “Jeremy—”

“If you don’t start running I might have to give you double laps,” he sang in a taunting tone. “Chop, chop!”

After giving him an irked look, I started jogging away from him. Jeremy snickered loudly, and I resisted the urge to turn around and punch him. Jogging wasn’t really my forte, so by the time I was finished with my three laps, everyone else had already finished and caught their breath. Huffing, I leaned backwards, placing my hands on my hips.

“Okay,” Jeremy started, clapping his hands together. “The course says we’re supposed to start with baseball, but personally I think that’s boring, so we aren’t starting with that.”

For the first time, I was happy Jeremy was the gym teacher. The only sport that I was worse at than baseball was volleyball.  Shuddering at the memories, I tried to repress them. Definitely some of the most embarrassing times in my life.

“Today I don’t have the equipment for I want to do, so we’ll just play dodge ball,” he continued, making me grow even fonder of him. Dodge ball was practically a free pass out of gym because you could just stand in the back or get yourself out if you didn’t want to play.

“What are we starting tomorrow then?” Lexi spoke up, beaming at him. “Something fun?”

Jeremy grinned. “Oh yes.”

Now curiosity was getting the best of me. “What is it?”

“Something Chris told me that was entertaining,” he told me.

Immediately my heart sank. Someone behind me whispered a question about who Chris was. If Chris was the one who gave Jeremy the suggestion it only meant one thing…

“Starting tomorrow, we’ll be playing volleyball!” Jeremy announced, looking pleased with himself.

A burst of cheers erupted from behind me as I dropped my head. I should have seen it coming. Jeremy being my gym teacher could never be a good thing. This was going to be one long semester.

By the time I arrived in Chris’s classroom fifteen minutes after school ended— a precaution we decided would be best to heed— I was nearly asleep on my feet. Chris was at his desk, focusing intently on the papers in front of him. There was a towering stack of them to his left, and a considerably smaller one to the right. A smile crossed my face as I quietly tiptoed towards his desk, holding my breath tightly. I managed to sneak all the way behind him without being caught. Slowly, I raised my hands up to grab his shoulders.

Without warning he turned in his chair, bringing his arms around my waist, and yanking me towards him. A startled gasp left my lips as I lost my balance and nearly fell over backwards. He chuckled, holding me tighter so I wouldn’t fall over. Blushing furiously, I began to struggle out of his grasp.

“Holly, next time you try to scare me, try opening the classroom door a little more quietly,” he suggested, looking up at me with a smirk.

Embarrassed, I quickly looked away. “I—I’ll try to remember that…”

He laughed again and let me go. “How did gym class go?”

“Well, thanks to you, we’re playing volleyball tomorrow,” I told him, a frown appearing on my face.

He cocked his head to the side, looking at me with a confused expression. “How is that my fault?”

It took me a second to register his words. Chris definitely had the cutest confused expression I’d ever seen. “You told Jeremy stories about me?” I asked, more than stated.

“Oh,” he responded with realization. A smile of amusement passed across his face. “I’m sorry, Holly. But I didn’t have anyone else I could talk to about you.”

“How much did you talk about me?”

Chris abruptly looked away, clearing his throat. “Not much.”

“Well, I’m sure Jeremy would tell me if I asked…”

“Okay,” Chris snapped, turning back to me, an uncomfortable expression on his face. “I talked about you a lot, but that was only because Jeremy would never stop asking me questions about you.”

The smile on my face grew wider and I reached out and ruffled Chris’s hair, much like he would do to me all the time. “Aw, you’re so cute.”

He batted my hand away, shooting me a glare. “Go make me some coffee.”

“Now you’re getting all defensive!”

“No I’m not!”

I raised an eyebrow. “Is that denial?”

“Holly.”

“I think it was,” I commented teasingly, tapping my lips with my finger. “Interesting…”

Chris narrowed his eyes. “If you don’t go make me coffee I’ll give you a fifty on your test.”

“You can’t do that!”

“Watch me.”

After a short glaring match, I huffed in defeat, trudging towards the supply closet. “You’re a jerk.”

“I love you, Holly.”

I paused, thrown off guard by his words. He always managed to surprise me. For a few moments I tried to think of a clever response, but came up blank. “You too,” I finally muttered before quickly slipping into the closet.

As I went about fixing Chris a cup of coffee, I grinned to myself. It was actually kind of cute how defensive he got when he was embarrassed. I didn’t even mind that he ordered me around. When his coffee was done, I brought it to his desk, and set it beside him. “Thank you,” he responded, dragging it closer to him. “Pull up a chair.”

Doing as he ordered, I dragged one of the chairs from the lab tables up to his desk and took a seat next to him. He rolled his eyes, reaching over to drag my seat closer to him. “I won’t bite,” he commented with a grin.

I gave him a disapproving look. “What if someone comes in?”

“They can’t.”

“What do you mean?”

“I locked the door.”

A grimace passed my face. “Are you allowed to do that?”

He shrugged. “Probably not, but it’s safer this way.”

“But—”

“Shh, Holly. I’m trying to focus on correcting these tests.”

Pressing my lips together tightly, I narrowed my eyes at him as he returned to his attention back to the test he was in the middle of correcting, a smug look on his face. His expression soon turned into a serious one as he read the open response questions he’d assigned a few days before, making a face every now and then at something someone wrote. I watched with a small smile, resting my head on my arms on his desk.

Ten minutes later I was finding it hard to stay awake. A yawn escaped my lips and I shut my eyes briefly, letting out a deep sigh. Seconds later I heard the sound of something moving across the desk and then felt something warm against my face. My eyes shot open and I saw Chris raising an eyebrow at me.

“Tired?” he asked rhetorically.

Nodding in response, I looked down at the half-full mug he had pressed against my face. “You want more?”

He shook his head. “You drink it. You need it more.”

I stared at him in surprise, my heart rate increasing the tiniest bit. “Really?”

“There’s your catch phrase again,” he teased, flicking me in my forehead. “Drink it.”

Turning my attention to the mug in front of me, I picked it up with my hands. I stared at it for a moment, my mouth feeling dry. This was the first time Chris allowed me to drink after him. Maybe it didn’t seem like such a huge thing to other people, but to me it was a huge step. Doing my best not to smile, I slowly brought the rim to my lips and took a sip.

“We just had an indirect kiss,” Chris commented, smiling smugly.

Surprised by his comment, I spit out the drink. I blushed as Chris burst out laughing, seemingly unaffected by the fact I spit out coffee on not only him, but also on the test he was in the middle of correcting.

“S-sorry,” I apologized, hanging my head bashfully.

“Don’t worry about it,” he responded casually. “Your reaction was worth it. And this is your test anyway.”

My eyes snapped to the paper and I immediately recognized my clumsy handwriting. All across the front page were drops of brown, staining the white page. I sighed lightly, staring at the mug in front of me.

“Holly.”

Automatically I turned my head up to Chris. My eyes widened when I noticed how close he was to me— only about two inches away. If I just leaned forward in my seat, our lips would touch… A new blush rose to my cheeks as I tried to force away my indecent thoughts. We were still in school. In a locked room… With no one around…

Chris made the first move. He leaned forwards, just gently brushing his lips against mine. Instead of pulling away like I usually would, I brought my hands to his face so he couldn’t move back. After a moment he grinned through the kiss and gripped my hands, removing them from his face.

“You’re the one who said no PDA in school,” he informed me when I pouted at him.

“You’re the one who locked the door.”

He chuckled, mussing with my hair. “I’m sorry, Holly. I really need to finish these tests.”

“Am I distracting you?”

“Kind of,” he admitted.

            “Should I leave?”

            Chris immediately shook his head. “No. If I didn’t want you to be here, I wouldn’t have asked you to stay. I like having you around.”

            I smiled at him, a bubbly feeling erupting in my chest. “Aw, that’s so cu—”

            “Just don’t talk.”

            My smile dropped and I gave him a wry look. He laughed through his nose at my expression before turning back to my test. Letting out another sigh, I left my head fall back on my arms. Chris was lucky I loved him.

_____________________________________

I'm having a hard time trying to choose who should get the upper hand. Aaron or Lexi... It's a hard choice. Upper hand at what, you ask? 'Tis a secret ;D I've got a secrettt, it's on the tip of my tongue it's on the back of my lungs, and I'm gunna keep it. I know something you don't know! Well, actually. I know a lot of things you guys don't know. Oh well. Leave a comment whether you want Lexi or Aaron to have an upper hand!

Facebook in external link. And today's song is going to be Double Vision by 3OH!3 because that song is just so dang catchy. Heyyy! Nanana, hey hey, nananana!