Authors: Isabelle Rae
I laughed and rolled my eyes, gripping the back of his head
and pulling his mouth down to mine. We spent another couple of hours in his
bed, just lost in each other’s bodies, talking, laughing, and fooling around.
It was the best morning of my life.
Later that afternoon, we were sat in his lounge doing Erika’s
assignments. I had three to do in total, one of them Will wanted to do on his
own with no help from me. He kept laughing to himself as he wrote an original
poem for her English class. I didn’t ask what he was doing; he said he’d tell
me when he was done, so I just focused on her history and biology ones
instead. I made sure I got almost everything completely wrong. In her history
assignment I linked everything to the wrong period and used examples from
sources that I knew were unreliable and had been proven untrue. There was no
way she would get a B for that one, she’d be lucky if she didn’t fail
altogether.
For her Biology assignment, I used Will’s suggestion of
adding a cuss word to it. Every couple of sentences I would throw in a random
swear word then just carry on as if nothing had happened. I laughed to myself
as I read it over; she was literally going to kill me for that.
When I was done, I sat back and watched Will chewing on his
pen, still working furiously over the poem that she was supposed to write.
Finally, after another ten minutes, he was done and looked extremely proud of
himself. I smiled and raised one eyebrow curiously, wondering what he’d been up
to.
He grinned and passed me the paper. At first I just didn’t
get it. He’d actually made a pretty decent job of it, the poem was great. I
looked at him curiously, waiting for an explanation. He laughed wickedly.
“Symbolism.” Was all he said.
I read it again and noticed that he’d actually written a
poem about a penis. Every line referred to it but never mentioned the word at
all, if the teacher read into this properly like she was supposed to then Erika
was going to get into some deep trouble for it. I laughed at his skills; he was
obviously an evil genius like his brother.
“Maybe you missed your calling, you should be doing penis
poetry,” I joked.
He laughed. “It’s acrostic too.”
Acrostic? Doesn’t that mean when the first letter of each
line forms a word or phrase vertically as the poem goes on?
He pointed out
the first letters of each line, and I burst out laughing when I noticed that
he’d spelled out ‘I read erotica for fun’ vertically down the page using the
first letter of each sentence.
I shook my head at his inventiveness and wrapped my arms
around him tightly. “You, Mr Morris, are a very gifted poet,” I teased.
He smiled and nodded, laying me onto my back, settling
himself on top of me. “And you, Miss Henderson, are the most beautiful girl
I’ve ever seen,” he countered, kissing me lightly.
By the time Monday morning came I was so excited I could
barely keep still. Will had dropped me off at the corner store as usual. I was
with Nick tonight, studying, so I wouldn’t see Will again until tomorrow
morning so we had a pretty heated make out session before I left the car.
As I walked into the school, I imagined a brown haired Erika
driving to school in her rotten meat smelling car. I laughed quietly to myself,
but in reality, I knew it probably wouldn’t smell yet; it would take a few days
before that would start to take effect.
When I actually got into the school and over to my locker, I
was a little disappointed to see Erika was still her usual brilliant blonde.
She was standing in her barely there skirt, and low cut top, flirting with
another football player - Kevin was obviously last week’s obsession, this week
she’d moved onto the running back instead.
I watched her curiously. Had her hair darkened slightly or
was that just wishful thinking? I didn’t think the hair dye payback was
working, I was pretty sure it wouldn’t because the shampoo would probably just
strip the dye from the hair straight away.
Oh well, it was worth a try
anyway!
Erika was flirting furiously with the poor little running back, her
hand on his arm as she laughed enthusiastically at something that he said.
Suddenly she shifted from one foot to the other, one of her feet twitching
slightly as if she was uncomfortable.
I felt the grin stretch across my face as my eyes widened. I
flicked my eyes down to her shoes. They were one of the ones that I ‘cleaned’
on Saturday. I choked on my laughter and put a hand over my mouth to stifle the
sound as she wriggled her foot again.
Oh God, Sam is just too funny! I
really hope that she doesn’t have another pair to change into and has to wear
those all day. That would make my whole year!
Nick and Amy came wandering over to me then. “Morning,
guys!” I chirped happily.
Nick frowned and threw his arm around my shoulder, pulling
me closer to him. “What’s got you in such a good mood this morning?” he
inquired.
Hmm, now let me see, it could either be that my boyfriend
is incredible, or it could be that my sworn enemy is having trouble with itching
powder that I put in her shoes!
I couldn’t tell him either of those things
though, so I just shrugged. “Woke up on the right side of the bed?” I
suggested. That wasn’t strictly true, I’d woken in my bed this morning, the
‘right’ side of the bed would be waking up with Will, but I guess that couldn’t
happen two days in a row.
Nick looked at me curiously, obviously knowing something
else was going on, but letting it go anyway. “Okay, whatever. You still coming
over tonight? I’m in the mood for enchiladas,” he said, giving me the puppy dog
face.
“Stop with the face, you know I’ll cook you whatever you
want,” I teased, poking him in the ribs with one finger, making him jump back
laughing. Nick was very ticklish, something I’d discovered when we were dating.
He sighed. “You know, I’m gonna miss you girls so much when
school finishes and we all go to college.” He slipped an arm around both me and
Amy and hugged us tightly, kissing the top of my head.
I frowned. I didn’t even want to start thinking about
college, even though there were only a few months left at school. I actually
needed to start applying to colleges soon. Before Will, everything was so easy.
Amy and I planned on going to the same school, it was always something that we
dreamed of, moving to New York together, renting an apartment together. I guess
that couldn’t happen now. There was no way I was moving that far away from
Will, not a chance in hell. I would just have to choose something more local so
I could still see him every day.
I knew people would think I was stupid, giving up my dream
for a guy, but I would still get to do the same course, I would still get to
get the same qualification at the end, just from a different school to what I
had planned for the last few years. I had no idea how I was going to break the
news to Amy though, but that was something for another day, I didn’t want to
think about it yet. Maybe she’d be the one to pull out first, maybe she’d tell
me that she didn’t want to move to New York because of Ryan and then there
would be no problem. One could only hope.
“We have months left yet,” I told Nick, trying to appear
unconcerned.
He sighed and nodded. Nick wanted to stay here and go to a
local college; he didn’t want to leave his dad on his own, so he planned on
sticking around for him. He thought Amy and I were both leaving him, I guess
he’d be happy when I told him about the change of plan.
“We have meetings with the school guidance counsellor in a
couple of weeks, to talk about our options,” Amy added, shrugging.
I opened my mouth to speak, but I was interrupted by someone
clearing their throat loudly. I looked up to see Erika sneering at me. “Sorry
to interrupt this little threesome, freak gathering,” she stated, looking us
over slowly.
“Oh go bleach some more brain cells, Erika,” Nick scoffed,
waving his hand dismissively.
I smiled and tightened my arm on his waist. I loved Nick; he
always looked out for me and Amy. He was probably the only guy in the school to
actually hate Erika Dennison. All other guys fell at her feet, but not Nick, he
hated the way she was towards us.
Erika frowned, looking hurt for a split second before she
rearranged her expression into the bitchy one. “Shut up, Nick!” she retorted.
He laughed. “Great come back, darlin’,” he mocked, winking
at her.
Her face flushed, and her eyes seemed to darken as her fist
clenched - but instead of directing her anger at him for his comment, it seemed
to be directed at me. “I want a word, Ice Princess,” she hissed, nodding her
head off to one side.
Nick’s arm tightened on me, holding me in place. “Just go
socialise with your own kind, Erika. The airheads are over there,” he stated,
pointing to the group of her friends who were giggling hysterically off to one
side.
She made what sounded like a growling sound and flicked her
hair over her shoulder. I could see the angry retort that was about to burst
from her lips. I didn’t want her to say anything about me and Will and our
‘deal’ so I quickly pushed Nick’s arm off of me and shook my head, signalling
that it was fine.
“It’s okay; I need to speak to Erika about our History
project anyway. We got partnered on Friday,” I lied, smiling at Nick
reassuringly. He frowned but nodded, letting his arm drop down to his side.
Erika turned and walked off without saying anything, so I
grabbed my bag and followed her down the hallway. She stopped after a little
while and turned to me, her eyes flicked over my shoulder and I knew that she
was probably looking at Nick and Amy who no doubt were watching this exchange.
“Why does he have such a problem with me?” she asked, frowning angrily.
I shrugged. “Probably because you’re always such a bitch to
me and Amy,” I answered casually.
Her frown deepened as she looked back at me. “My
assignments?” she requested coldly, holding out her hand for them, obviously
deciding to ignore my comment about Nick.
I suddenly wondered why she was so bothered about little old
Nick anyway.
She can’t have a crush on Nick, can she?
I studied her face
for a couple of seconds trying to see something there.
No, no way. Erika
Dennison, daddy’s girl, spoiled brat, and head cheerleader, could not have a
crush on one of my best friends…
Nick was very cute though, and a great guy, he undoubtedly
had a lot of appeal, a lot of girls in the school thought so, but he wasn’t one
of the popular crowd because he didn’t want to be. He really wasn’t Erika’s
type either. For one thing, he wasn’t a jock, sure he played basketball for the
school, but he wasn’t that into it and your typical jock stereotype that Erika
usually went for.
Hmm, if she does like him though then that would explain
why she hates me and Amy so much.
I decided not to entertain that crazy
thought any longer. I was wrong; there was no chance of her liking Nick. And
besides, even if she did like him, she had no chance with him whatsoever. He
hated her with a passion the same as I did.
I handed her the assignments and prayed that she didn’t look
at them too much, she did a quick scan of them then shoved them in her bag,
none the wiser to any of the ‘additions’ that I’d put on there. I bit back a
laugh thinking about her handing them in. Hopefully she’d into trouble for
them, I’d find out in a couple of days no doubt.
“So, you can buy me lunch today. I want a baked potato,
plain, and some salad on the side.” She picked at her nails as she laid out her
orders for today. I smiled and nodded so she continued, “I’ll meet you here at
the end of the day and give you my assignments that I get today, don’t be
late.”
I nodded and raked my eyes over her hair, trying to see a
slight difference in the shade of it. It still looked the same so I assume that
it either wasn’t working, or that it needed a bit of time to build up and make
a difference.
I spotted Will walking down the corridor, talking to a
freshman about some math theorem that I just didn’t even want to try and understand.
He smiled discreetly at me, and I couldn’t help but smile back, it was like an
automated response, my body just responded to him without any conscious thought
being involved.
“So anyway, I need you to come over to my place on Wednesday
at six and drive me to my chiropractor’s appointment, and then drive me home
again,” she stated. I came out of the daze I was in and shook my head, trying
to focus on what she was talking about rather than replaying memories of Will
and I on Saturday night and Sunday daytime.
“Um… Erika, I can’t drive you, I don’t have a car,” I
admitted.
She looked at me like I was stupid. “You don’t have a car?
How can you not have a car? That’s just stupid!”
I shrugged. My parents couldn’t afford to buy me a car, but
I wasn’t that bothered anyway because Amy and I were usually together and she
had a car, which meant I didn’t need one.
She snorted and rolled her eyes. “Fine, I’ll get someone
else to drive me then.”
She turned on her heel, flicking her hair over her shoulder,
which actually whipped me in the face.
Did she do that on purpose? Stupid
bitch!
I watched her walk up the hallway and stop with her friends.
She was shifting uncomfortably on her feet still. I giggled wickedly. I skipped
back to Amy and Nick, slinging my arm around Nick’s waist as he put his arm
around my shoulder.
“You got partnered with her? That sucks!” he complained,
looking at Erika distastefully. I loved how Nick saw past her obvious beauty
that every other guy in the school was besotted with.
I shrugged. “I know, but at least it’s almost done now, the
project ends in a couple of days,” I lied, hoping my voice wouldn’t betray me.
I was pretty sure that, in a couple of days, Erika would discover that I wasn’t
playing her game anymore. Once that happened I wouldn’t have to have anything
to do with her ever again.