A/N: Wow… it has been a LONG time since I last updated this story! I can’t believe it took so long, but now that it’s summer, I’m really hoping I can finish this story and get it out before school starts again! More details later. Here’s CHAPTER 6!!

Clash of the Schools

Chapter 6

So Weird

Suck it up, Jess. It really isn’t that big of a deal. This is Damon, the boy that you used to feel was the only person you could truly be yourself around. The boy that was your best friend through junior high. The boy that you never could stop thinking or dreaming about. The boy that you once loved.

“Shut up!” I hissed to myself aloud, causing one of the new kids to turn in their seats and stare at me like I was crazy. I smiled at her stupidly and said, “Isn’t Mr. Clemmings annoying? Wish he’d just… you know, shut up.”

She put on a fake smile and raised her eyebrows before turning back around in her seat. I shrugged and looked down at my composition book where I scribbled a few notes on the board before drifting into my plan to get Damon over my house for the surprise reunion. I figured that I’d have to catch him in the hall before or after lunch--it was the only time I really ever saw him. And, to make things worse, I wasn’t sure if my reason for inviting him over was really plausible. I could only hope it was.

The bell rang and I hurriedly put my things in my bag and headed out of the room. I hoped that my more laidback apparel today would show him that I didn’t always dress like that. I was calming down, and in a simple blue and white polo and jean skirt with flip flops, I looked like most of the girls at the school.

I lingered outside of the cafeteria doors for a little bit, hoping to catch a glimpse of Damon, but he never showed up. Several of my friends and even a couple of strangers asked if I was okay, and I smiled politely at them and explained that I was looking for someone.

When Liz came, I walked over to her and said, “I don’t see him anywhere, Liz.”

She let out a deep breath. “Yeah, I was looking for you about that. I saw him and Blue and a couple of their friends go off campus for lunch. Surfing.”

I let out a defeated sigh. “Well, I’m never going to see him now. We only have one class together, and that’s next period. And he’s never there. I think he made one appearance earlier this week. And he definitely won’t be there if he went surfing. Liz, they’re supposed to all be coming over tomorrow!”

“Calm down, calm down.” She insisted, taking a step closer to put her hands on my shoulders. “Listen to yourself, getting all worked up. This isn’t the only opportunity you’ll have, I promise you that. Now just stay on the lookout, and if I see him, and he hasn’t talked to you, I’ll either send him your way or I’ll talk to him myself. He’ll be there, that’s for sure.”

I nodded, happy that my sister was here to make everything logical. “You’re right, you’re right. It’s just… this is Damon, you know?”

She laughed and put her arm around my shoulder, stirring me inside the cafeteria. “Lunch is almost over. Let’s grab some lunch and eat quickly so we can hurry on to our next class.”

“Where have you been?”

“Working on the paper. Almost done! Fresh copies will be available Monday morning.”

I allowed a grin to creep onto my face. “Monday morning, we should all be reunited and feeling good.”

We grabbed our trays and sat down with Tia, Maria, Andy, and Salvador, all who were laughing hysterically and just having a good time. As I immersed myself in their conversation, thoughts of Damon temporarily disappeared as I remembered what amazing friends I had here whether Damon decided to accept me or not.

Just thinking that made me sad, and I abruptly stood up. “Ugh, I forgot something. Catch you guys later.” Before any of them could respond, I hurried out of the cafeteria and out to the front steps of the school for some fresh air, but not before I heard Andy scream, “YOU FORGOT YOUR TRAY! I’M NOT TAKING IT UP JESS! I…”

I thought about the situation I was in as I leaned against the wall beside the main entrance. Damon didn’t even bother getting to know me again--he just assumed I was like the people I hung with. That was so stupid of him. He wasn’t exactly like Blue or like all of those stoner dudes he hung with. I didn’t care about the people he hung with. I wanted to rekindle our friendship, but he judged me and backed out when we were about to get back on track!

Now I was suddenly pissed off, and couldn’t wait to talk to him. Screw the reunion! I didn’t want him there if he was going to judge me the way he did. Why would I want a friend like that?

Just as I had these thoughts, Damon emerged from the parking lot, hair gleaming in the sun from his time in the ocean. Even angry at him, I couldn’t control my heart as it somersaulted in my chest.

Damn it. I thought to myself. I took a deep breath and decided it was now or never. I marched down the steps and strolled right up to him, much to his surprise. “You know, Damon, you have a lot of nerve.”

He narrowed his eyes and asked cautiously, “Jessica, what are you talking about?”

“I really thought you were different, Damon. I didn’t think that you were like most of the judgmental scum that goes to this school, but you’re just like them. Just because I hang out with Melissa and those girls doesn’t mean we’re exactly alike, Damon. God, you and those guys you hang with aren’t the same people. You have your own personality a--and identity, just like I do. I can’t believe you think you can come back and just assume that I’m this totally horrible person. J--Just because I’m a cheerleader doesn’t necessarily mean I’m a bitch. Stop stereotyping! I never thought you were that person… but apparently I was dead wrong. I used to think that you were the only person that really understood me besides Liz. But now I see I was dead wrong about that too. And you think that I‘ve changed? Please, you‘ve made the biggest change yet, Damon Ross.”

I let out a deep breath as I ended my tirade, and even waited a split second to see if he’d say something back, but he just awkwardly rubbed his hands down his face, staring at his shoes as if he just wanted me to leave. I rolled my eyes. “Since you obviously don’t have anything to say, I’ll be going.”

I stomped up the steps and roughly opened the door, not caring that I was late to class for the second that week. I grabbed my books and stormed into the bathroom to let off some steam so I wouldn’t have to go to class super angry.

When I was calm enough, I went to my photography class and went straight to Mr. Jones. “Hi, sorry I’m late… again. I--”

“Do you have an excuse?”

“Uh, not from a teacher, but--”

“Then you’re officially marked as tardy. Now, I shouldn’t have to do this, so next time you’re late and you miss an assignment, find out what it is on your own time. But the class formed groups of three to work on a collage that is due Monday. You have today, tomorrow, and this weekend to work on it. However, since you came into class so late, you’re stuck with the leftovers.” He pointed to the corner of the room, and my eyes followed his finger back to Salvador and Damon, who were awkwardly just sitting there.

“Ugh, Mr. Jones, can I please join another group. I do not want to work with…”

“Don’t be snooty.” He grumbled. “If you weren’t late, you could’ve had a choice.” He turned away and marked in his attendance book my tardy.

I set my eyebrows in an angry line and headed towards the two. I smiled at Sal and said, “Hola El Salvador.”

He smiled back. “Hola… Jessica.”

I grinned and asked, “Well, at least I get to work with one decent person.”

“Jess, can we talk?” Damon spoke up, looking past Salvador to me.

I did the same and glared at the boy. “No, we can’t talk Damon.”

He smirked. “It looks pretty necessary to do so if we’ll be doing photography.”

“Actually, it won’t be since we’re taking pictures. That doesn’t involve talking.”

“It’ll come in handy for the collage though.”

“Thank goodness we have a middle man, right Salvador?”

He looked at me with a raised brow, blocking my view of Damon. “Uh, Jessica. I don’t know how you and Damon fell out, but me and him definitely don’t hang. So I’m not going to be passing any messages from him to you or vice versa.”

“I understand Sal. I don’t want to speak to that jackass either.”

Damon let out a deep breath. “I’m just going to talk.”

I tried to make myself look busy as he began to speak, even saying something to Salvador, but I couldn’t resist listening to him when I heard him say, “I’m sorry.” Then I had to hear the rest.

“I was thinking I was being righteous by ignoring you for hanging with those… girls, but now I see that I was doing exactly what I accused you of doing. I mean, who am I to judge you? When have I ever cared what other people think, you know? But… it was so weird. When I saw you again, I… I never had that reaction before, ya know?” Salvador stood up at this time, mumbling something about it getting too awkward to listen to. I barely noticed his absence though. “I’m not the most excitable guy, Jess, but when I saw you again, all of our good times came rushing back and I felt like I was jumping ahead of myself, wanting to restart a friendship with you. I mean, I fell out with everybody already. Why should I get cool with you? So, when I saw Melissa and those other girls around you and I remembered the vow I made never to date a chick like that… it was the perfect excuse. But I’m sorry. It was wrong. And I want to… to try to do this friendship thing. And… I have never talked so much to someone in a long time.”

I laughed at his last sentence and chanced a glance at him to see that he was looking at me already. “You mean that, Damon?”

“Never would’ve said it if I didn’t.”

Damn me for being so overly sensitive, I thought as tears actually pricked my eyelids. “I appreciate that. And… I’d like a friendship with you.”

He offered his hand awkwardly, but I grinned nonetheless and shook it as firmly as I could. He raised his brows, extremely impressed. “Wow, you have a strong grip! Got a little testosterone in there, Jess?”

I let a laugh escape my lips as I hit him playfully. “No, you just probably have too much estrogen.”

“Hell no! I’m 150 percent man.”

“Impossible. Gosh, what math do you take?” I teased.

He playfully poked me in my arm, causing me to just grin happily. This was turning out better than I could’ve imagined… but I had to remember my mission. Just as this thought crossed, Salvador came back and said, “Hope you two won’t be having personal conversations right in front of me anymore.”

I grinned at him. “Sorry about that, Sal. Hey, you’re coming over tomorrow to work on the paper with Liz, right?”

“Yep, I am.”

“When you finish, do you think you could stick around a little while so we can get started on this project?”

“The nature collage?” Sal thought about it when his eyes seemed to brighten up. I already knew what that meant. “Uh, sure… Sure! Yeah, I’ll stay over a little while.” A dreamy smile came on his face and I knew he was thinking about my sister.

I looked to Damon and asked, “Can you come over tomorrow?”

He raised a brow. “Isn’t Blue going over to your house?”

Why couldn’t Blue keep his mouth shut? So he was probably a bragger. Not cute. “Yeah, but it’s not anything that requires just me and him. You and Blue could come together to make it convenient. We’re all just friends here, right?” I hope I wasn’t making it too obvious that I was throwing in friends there to make it clear that that’s all Blue and I were.

“Uh…” He rubbed his scratchy beard and shook his head. “I don’t know, Jess.”

“For our grade, Damon.” I said, trying not to sound too whiny.

He eyed me curiously before saying, “I’ll come with Blue. I owe you that.”

I scoffed. “This isn’t payback yet. You owe our grade that.”

He laughed and nodded, eyes never leaving mine and mine never leaving his. Gosh, this felt so right.

Jeremy’s POV

“What do you mean she doesn’t want to go?” I asked Trent as we walked down the steps of the school entrance. Both of our girlfriends had cheerleading practice, and football didn’t start for another twenty minutes so we decided to drive down to the Smoothie Shack and hydrate.

Trent opened the door to his Mustang and looked at me over the hood of the car. “Dude, she doesn’t want to double date if it’s not with you and Jessica. She agreed to do it, but she hates it. She and Jade aren’t the best of friends for some reason.”

I shook my head. “They have a lot in common. You know, they’re cheerleaders and they… they cheer together and whatnot.”

Trent’s eyes widened and he held his hands up as if I had said something brilliant. “Dude, I said the exact same thing! But no, she doesn’t want to go for it.”

“That’s so weird. Why doesn’t she like Jade anyway?”

We got into the car and ripped out of the parking lot. “I wish I knew. She hasn’t said, and I didn’t really ask. I mean, I don’t want her getting mad at me. You know she has a hot temper.”

“I’ve never really seen her mad. She seems very layback and chill.”

“And she usually is… but when she isn’t, she’s like Mount Vesuvius.”

“Damn, that bad?”

He laughed without any humor. “That bad.”

We got our protein shakes and headed back out. “You’re happy with her though, right?”

“Happiest I’ve ever been. If I couldn’t handle her at her worst, I wouldn’t deserve her at her best, you know?”

I stared at my best friend in astonishment. “When did you get so deep? She’s got you sprung, dude.”

He didn’t even deny it like he usually would. “I really am. That’s why, when we go on that double date this weekend, things need to go perfectly. So get ya girl, Jade, okay?”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean… the girl has a little sneaky side, Jeremy. I hate to say it, but you know how nosy she’s always getting, especially with Tia for some reason. Remember the first day back and she was all in her business? Tia gets annoyed by that, and I hate to see her annoyed. But I always like being able to hang out with my girl and my best friend, ya know? So everything needs to go right to prove to Tia that this is working.”

I nodded my head, not bothering to disagree with his assumptions about Jade. She did have a tendency to put her nose in matters that in no way concerned her. Usually it didn’t bother me, but I knew that if it was interfering with Tia and Trent then she would have to cool off.

When we got to the field, we were still early, so, after quickly getting dressed, I rushed over to where Jade was stretching and asked, “Can I talk to you for a sec?”

She quickly hopped up and jumped in my arms, placing a gentle kiss right below my lobe. I got a couple of chills whenever she did that. “Of course you can talk to me. About anything. Anywhere.”

Gosh, how could Trent think she was sneaky. She was so straightforward about almost everything. I grinned at her. “We’ll have that talk another time. This one’s about the double date this weekend.”

She nodded. “Okay. What about it? It couldn’t wait ‘til after practice?”

“Not really, actually.” I admitted. “See, Trent and I are worried that you and Tia aren’t really getting along like we were hoping.”

She narrowed her eyes. “What’re you talking about? We get along just fine.”

“Ugh, I don’t know about that. See, Tia’s not even really into this double dating thing and--”

“Well, I’m not really either. I’m just doing it for you, just like she’s doing it for Trent. But I don’t mind being around her and she doesn’t mind being around me either.” She eyed me suspiciously. “Does she?”

“She doesn’t mind but she… she would prefer not to only because she’s used to it being the dynamic where two best friends are dating two best friends, you see?”

Jade crossed her arms over her chest. “Oh. Jessica.”

I hated bringing up Jessica with Jade--her whole demeanor seemed to change whenever I mentioned the girl. I didn’t want to say she was jealous because she honestly had nothing to be jealous over. But that’s how Jade was--always getting jealous over the most menial things.

“Right. Uh, so Trent and I don’t want any awkwardness, so, and don’t take this the wrong way, but no nosiness, okay? Don’t stick your nose in matters that don’t concern unless Tia approaches you about it first, okay? It’d be for the best.”

“Is Trent having this same little talk with Tia? Because the problem isn’t singularly mine. Why doesn’t she open her mind to a change?”

I nodded. “I totally agree with you. And Trent is going to talk with her”--well, I’d tell him to after practice--“and everything will be good and we’re going to have a kick ass time this weekend.” I wrapped my arms around her waist and enjoyed how it felt when she melted in my embrace. “And after the double date, we can go to my house and have some alone time.”

She rubbed his nose against mine and giggled. “No, we’re going to my place. We’ll never be alone at your place.”

I laughed. “I thought you loved that about my place.”

“And I do. I dig the family atmosphere, totally, but this weekend, I want you all to myself.”

“I like the insinuation.”

“JADE! THIS IS TRY-OUTS, NOT A DATE! GET OVER HERE AND GIVE ME AN EXTRA LAP WHEN WE GET ON THE TRACK!” Tia yelled from her position at the head of the huddle of cheerleaders who were finished stretching.

She released me and narrowed her eyes. “I’m starting to hate her every time I see her.” She squeezed my hand and smiled half-heartedly. “I’ll see you later babe.” She jogged over to the huddle, glancing back at me and blowing me a kiss.

I watched as Tia rolled her eyes at Jade before she continued talking. Tia was acting super hostile toward Jade. Just because she socially didn’t like her didn’t mean she had to let those feelings get in the way of how she treated her on the team.

Now it was my turn to talk to Trent.

I went over to him as he stretched out on the other end of the field. “So,” he started, “how’d it go with Jade? She cool?”

“Yeah, she’s cool. But I’m not.” I admitted, plopping on the ground beside him to do my stretches as well. “Tia’s treating Jade super harsh, dude. I know she doesn’t like her but that doesn’t mean she has to let that get in how much better or worse she treats her on the cheerleading team. And suggest to Tia that she open her mind to change, you know? Things aren’t always going to be the way she wants, like this situation. So… you got some things to talk to her about.”

Trent nodded his agreement. “You’re right. But I must say that you are a very, very lucky man.”

I looked at him curiously. “How?”

“’Cause you’re not going to be there when Mount Vesuvius explodes. Wish me luck.”

I laughed at him and clapped his shoulder. “It’ll be all good, man.”

Ken’s POV

“Babe, I can’t tonight. I have way too much work to do. I have two tests tomorrow and I’m working on the magazine tonight and tomorrow afternoon at Liz’s house. I’m way too busy.” Maria said to me through the phone. I could her ruffling through papers as she spoke.

I leaned against the wall outside of the locker room and sighed heavily. “Maria, you’re always so busy lately. Are we ever going to have any Maria and Ken time? You know, the time that people in relationships spend together?”

She laughed lightly. “Um, yes we will. But not tonight or tomorrow. I’m looking through my planner now and I have some cleaning to do Saturday morning, studying to do in the afternoon, and… Maria and Ken time later that night if you’re up for it.”

I shook my head. “You should not have to schedule Maria and Ken time baby.”

Now she laughed again. “Gosh, you know how big of a neat freak I am. But definitely Saturday we should do something. You want to catch a movie?”

“Sounds perfect.” Boys started rushing out of the locker room, my friends yelling for me to hurry up. “Hey, I’m about to go to Vito’s with some of the boys. So I will talk to you later.”

“Okay honey. Call me tonight.”

“Always. Love you.”

“Love you too.” She hung up and I caught up with my friends.

Will lightly punched my shoulder. “Maria got a leash on you?”

“Ha, not like the electric collar Melissa has tied around your neck. But it’s definitely a leash Maria has on me.” I joked, making the guys laugh.

“It’s natural to let our women put a ‘leash’ around us, though. Makes them thing they have a little control over us, even though we all know what the real deal is.” Will continued just as Melissa came out of the girls locker room. “Uh, HEY babe! I… how was practice.”

She gave him a suspicious look before saying, “Seriously, babe, you’re so weird sometimes.”

We all laughed as Melissa was joined by Cherie, Monica, Lila, and some of her other minions. I was absolutely happy I had a girlfriend who thought for herself and didn’t follow some other girl to be popular. She was comfortable in her own skin, skin that was smooth and beautiful and that I wanted to touch… right at that moment.

But she wasn’t here. She was never here because she was always busy. And no doubt was I happy and proud of her for her accomplishments but I wanted her to myself sometimes, and I never got that opportunity because she’s so academically inclined.

“Dude, your mind still on Maria? I swear, she will be there when you see her next. She’s not going to disappear.” Brian joked as he waved his hand in front of my face. “You were gone for a second, bro.”

I laughed. “That happens when you’re in love.”

A strange look crossed Brian’s face but he recovered and asked, “So who’s going to bum a ride with me? I know somebody will.”

Some of the dudes who didn’t have a ride crowded around Brian, who graciously accepted to take all of them to Vito’s.

As I watched all of the boys and girls mingle with each other, suddenly I wasn’t in the mood for pizza. Whenever these kind of events went down, where all of my friends got together and chilled out with each other and their significant other, I was always left alone by Maria. I mean, I know she didn’t really like my crowd, but I hung with her friends without a problem. Why couldn’t she do that for me?

“You guys go ahead. I’ll catch ya tomorrow.”

“You sure?” Will questioned, looking at me with raised brows.

“Yeah, I’m sure. Later.” I hurried in the opposite direction, though it was longer, and just tried to block out my thoughts of how this relationship with Maria was, despite my true love for the girl, starting to look more and more one-sided.