4

"Partners? In what particularly?" Sean asked.

"Chemistry , basically." She started "Your schedules are going to be changed. Ms. Blue will have either of you in her periods."

No.

No way at all.

"But why?"

"Ms. Blue, I have clearly reasoned out why I am doing this. Teaming you up would not only improve your grades but would control the pranks in the campus and the rates of injuries."

She didn't stop, yet.

"You three are few of the students we have with good potential and I don't, at any cost, want you three to fall down in your percentages. We are going to apply for universities and we want the best universities to offer to our students. Teaming you up, will make this work."

I sighed.

It feels like I was made to abandon Nutella for the rest of the year. Well, I meant to compare Nutella to my freedom.

"Anything else?" She asked.

I shook my head.

"You may leave then. Collect your schedules from the office tomorrow."

With that, I understood that I was over.

Nah, just kidding. It's just mentioned to get a dramatic effect.

***

"Hey baby doll, aren't you tired? Because you've been running on my mind all night."

I glared at him and looked away in annoyance.

This won't work.

This won't work at all.

"Hey baby doll, cheer up, I heard you are good at algebra, can you replace my X without asking Y?"

I could feel the edges of my lip curl slightly against my wishes. I tried to suppress my smile, but I was failing miserably. I had been mad at Brett for the past half hour but he waspractically telling me all the pick-up lines he knew and I could not help but smile.

"Argh!" He said, when something hard hit him on the jaw. And when I roamed my eyes over his neatly damaged jaw, I could see that a coke tin had been shot to it.

As I looked back, I found Sean glaring at Brett from a small distance.

"That's a patient you are dealing with." The doctor hissed. "First thing, you aren't supposed to get food in here and second, we can report you to the authorities if you harm the patient."

Sean just shrugged it off.

I glared at him and shook my head.

"What?" He mouthed to me.

I came closer to him and propelled down on the chair.

If you haven't guessed by now, then let me tell you, I have had the grace to visit the 2nd place in my do-not-visit-even-if-you-get-free-food list. Yes, we are in an hospital.

When we could finally get out of the office room, Brett caught hold of his jaw and started yelping in pain. Sean, being just Sean, said he was pretending but when I could see that Brett was actually in pain, I persuaded Sean to go to the hospital with him. But when Brett had told me to come along, I had to consider the situation. I usually never skip my classes and I had just skipped one today and I can't afford another one.

But Brett just looked at me with puppy eyes and muttered the six words that made my heart melt.

"Are you leaving me, Baby doll?"

And I had to give in.

Pretending or not, I could not say no to that face.

And when I finally reached the hospital, ignoring the beautiful aesthetic vibes it was giving me - note the sarcasm - I finally made him get a treatment.

And to my utter dismay, Sean was right again and Brett had fooled us. What enrages me even more is the fact that he wouldn't leave any freaking nurse alone without flirting.

Once he told the doctor, "Playing doctor is for kids, let's play gynaecologist."

I almost choked on my own saliva.

But wait, the show isn't over yet.

The doctor was nothing near angry or mad, in fact she smirked and said,

"I need to check your temperature, you seem to be hot."

Yes. That's what has happened.

"Baby doll, you cannot stay mad at me for ever." Brett pouted.

"Call her baby doll again and I am going to hang you up there." Sean said, pointing his index finger to the fan.

"Oh, I'm scared." Brett gasped dramatically.

I rolled my eyes.

"Seriously guys? This is how it's going to work? You think I have the patience to deal with this mess for an entire semester? This might be a joke to you but it is not for me. I need grades and guys with brains."

"Well, I definitely passed my chemistry last year." Sean teased me.

"You said you won't bring it up." I glared.

And he just smiled and looked away. Now that I was just 15 centimetres away from his face, I had the chance to notice it better than before. He had dark grey irises, appreciating his deep eyes. His structured jaw and messy dark brown hair couldn't help but add to his appeal. However mad I might be, I had to admit that he looks...um… handsome?

He smirked. "You know, I wasn't kidding really." he started out of nowhere.

I turned my face to my side to face Sean. "Kidding as in?"

"What I meant today. It wasn't a prank. I genuinely wanted to come and talk to you and... it wasn't part of any prank."

I said nothing.

"I really wanted to know... If you... uh... would want to be friends with me?" He asked, his hesistant eyes looking for me.

And first time after a really long time today, I smiled.

"Well, I haven't been friends with guys before..." I trailed off, expecting him to know the reason why I hadn’t been able to make guy friends in the past. It’s not that a lot of guys wanted to be my friends anyway, most of them just looked for opportunities to bully me. To be honest, I can’t remember the last time a guy with good intentions wanted to hang out with me. They have always disappointed me in the past. And surprisingly, Sean is asking to be the friend I always wanted but never had. But do I know for sure that he wouldn’t disappoint me? How can I trust him? I was yet to find to out.

"It's not a problem really." Sean said. "I just... forget it. Okay, so do you take me as a friend?"

"I will have to think about it" I said.

I can't believe it, really. He is the first guy who ever had the guts to talk to me after my secret admirer went violent on the guys who spoke shit to me.

"You surely know how to make me desperate."

"I guess it's just weird. I haven't talked to any guy before seriously-"

"Are you lost Ma'am? Because heaven is a long way from here."

I heard Brett speak to the nurse. And the nurse, might I add, is freaking blushing.

I look at Sean and then steer my glance back to Brett.

God, how did I manage to meet a dimwit and a dick head on the first day of my school?

When I was sure Brett had exchanged his numbers with almost all the nurses that tended to him, we dropped him off at his place. He was pretty reluctant to let go of the hospital bed since he could get regular doses of witnessing beauties - his words not mine – so he couldn't just leave the bed until the doctor had to kick him out.

Brett's jaw was a little swollen but he said he'd managed and his mother wouldn't notice it. And then, when it was time, Sean dropped me home.

The drive back to my home was silent mostly. I just went through the playlist of Sean's and surprisingly he did have a good set of songs in there.

He merely drove around and didn't complain about anything. When we reached home, he just looked at me and said,

"Maybe we can try what I said earlier."

"I have to see if you actually have a chance of consideration."

"Don't test my patience, Sapphire."

I smirked and hopped out of the car.

"Hope you'll find your way back, Lanter."

"Until then..." he sighed.

"Good bye." I mocked his sigh and left.

Whatever Juliette said about interesting, I surely met a few of such people today.

****

I reached the front door and turned the door handle. When I got inside, the very unusual silence hit me. I could sense the tension.

Something's not nice.

In fact, something's really fishy.

I walked in and went to the kitchen to grab myself something to eat. After everything that has happened today, I deserved a great stomach-filling.

As I entered the kitchen, I could see Juliette staring at the pan while the eggs were left to burn.

I quickly went to the stove and took the pan away from there.

"Earth to Juliette!" I said, before carefully holding the pan out of my reach and putting under the tap.

As the water ran down the pan, hot air rushed from the pan to my hand.

I moved my eyes and looked at Juliette and saw her cleaning the mess she made. Usually, she doesn't let these things happen.

It's be a miracle to see our house silent. Generally, When I'm back from school, Juliette would be yelling from the kitchen, little Jack would try to sneak out of his daddy's hands, who would be trying very hard to make him wear a diaper.

Jacob being Jacob, doesn't even know how to properly wrap a diaper around his son. 18 months of being a father clearly did him no good.

But, the issue here is not of Jacob's skills in managing infants but about Juliette being silent.

It usually never happened. Even in the tired and unhappy times, she's thought me to hide the pain behind a smile. Was she trying to do the same now? But she wasn’t doing a great job at it since I could clearly see that something is wrong.

"Juliette, what's the matter?" I asked.

She avoided my gaze. "Huh? Nothing..."

I held her by her forearm and forced her to turn to my side. "I know when you lie, Juliette."

She heaved a sigh and looked at me in the eye. "It's about... Jacob."

"What, about Jacob?"

"You told me he's been checking my texts, right? Well, I was pretty mad. I wasn't actually, but I sort of did it in a playful manner. It was playful and fun until I received a message from… Reginald."

"Reginald texted you?"

Reginald was my sister's ex-boyfriend, who also happened to be Jacob's ex-best friend back in school.

Let's just say, things were pretty bad between the three of them.

"Yes, I am in touch with him for a month now. He says he's sorry for what's happened and he feels guilty. He wants me, I mean, he wants us to forgive him and give him a chance."

I glared at her. "And you forgave him?"

"I haven't. I just said he doesn't have to be sorry for anything and I don't want any strings attached to the past but... He doesn't listen. He wants me to fix things back and he wants to be friends with us again and Jacob thinks, I'm still into him."

"What?"

"He got a completely different idea from those texts he's read and he... doesn't want to listen to me explain."

"Juliette..."

She forced a smile, "It's fine. Don't worry. We'll work it out. He's just a little upset. He'll be fine by tomorrow."

"Juliette, you don't have to-"

I was interupted by a shrill cry of a baby.

Jack.

"I'll get him." She said, before leaving me alone in the kitchen.

This can't just happen.

And it wouldn't have, if I just had the common sense of shutting my mouth in unnecessary situations.

Dammit!

Only if I shut my mouth that time, only if I didn't plan on teasing Jacob, things would've been different.

****