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Chapter 2: Ex's and Oh's

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“Take your seats class, class is about to begin.”

The first thing I hear is that woman’s screech of a voice when I walk into room 3A. Mrs. Aand is her name, the immigrant from India who wears brightly colored clothing, rather exquisite jewelry, and head scarves that doesn’t mind stressing the fact that she misses her home country. She sometimes tells us little pointless stories about her adventures in India and the first time she found love, but most times she keeps to herself and only speaks to us when she has to. Did I mention she has this red dot in the middle of her forehead that looks like an infected zit?

“Jelly! Sav!” I looked past Ms. Aand to see my other BFF, Tory, sitting in her assigned lab seat waving dramatically at me and Savannah. I grinned and waved back as I made my way to the strawberry blonde as Savannah told us she'll chat later.

Tory Spellman, or as we call her, Tore, is a sixteen year old junior with gorgeous looks, natural blonde hair, green eyes, and a pretty nice figure- though a little on the plus size- that as the dreams and aspirations of being Las Vegas’ top showgirl. Forget college, education, and all morality your parents established in you from birth, go straight to showing your breast to horny middle-aged men who would pay thousands to sleep with you. Yep, that’s my BFF Tory and she is not ashamed of anything.

“Hey.” I breathed out and set my stack of colossal sized books down on her table. “You seem full of energy.”

“I’m always my perkiest after gym; you know that.”

That is right. Tory is incredibly hyped and overly energetic after she had her ‘adrenaline rushing’ fifty-minute period of physical education. I think she drinks too much mocha in the morning but she insists gym is her caffeine for the day. One time, she played dodge ball for two hours straight because the game kept going into ‘over time’. For someone who wants to do nothing but dance, sing, and be naked in the city of sin, she sure has to body, energy, and time to become a professional athlete.

“I won a game of volleyball today.” she beamed proudly as she folded her slender arms over her protruding chest. I smiled and shook my head slowly. She always wins. Teams fight over who will have her on their side just for the simple fact that she’s a valuable asset. “It was six to twenty-eight.”

“Congrats then, Tore. Did you injure eight people again?”

“Nope.” she shook her head and giggled softly. I forgot to tell you, she is also very violent when playing sports. I advise to stay clear. “Just two.”

Poor them then. I wonder what injury it was this time. Last week she broke someone’s arm from a tackle in football. Strong girl, considering the arm she broke belonged to a boy.

“Seats! Seats! Seats!” Mrs. Aand repeated loudly with a clap of her hand. “Class is beginning.”

I moaned and began my hike back up the damn classroom to get in my assigned seat. Considering how large the room was, it’s a serious work out just going back and forth between the two poles of the room. I didn’t feel like sitting in the front of the room, but Mrs. Aand insisted that her star pupils were the one’s who adored center attention. I assumed she referred to Finister and not me. I think she has a thing for him. Rumor has it that she is into younger men.

Now, here’s the hard part. The gorgeous orange haired Adonis is sitting in his usual seat- next to me by the way, don’t forget that- and he’s reading a Physics book; an ADVANCED PLACEMENT Physics book. Just the sight of him makes my heart race as my palms go sweaty. I could have sworn my knees buckled and the heels I suddenly regretted wearing began to grow heavy. I just have to be calm…

He looked up and smiled. “Hi, Angelica.”

“Shut it Finister and get back to reading!” I gasped and took my seat next to my Adonis. I didn’t mean to come off as mean or harsh, but it’s natural reaction due to conditioning over the years. I am naturally supposed to be vicious to the dumb ‘babies’ and not fall in love with them. It’s twisted and confusing.

He sighed and shook his head. His hair was spiked, as usual, and those thin purple frames seemed brighter than normal; He must’ve polished them. His attire was also very nice by the way. His Abercrombie and Fitch button up clung nicely to his slightly muscular form as his denim Levi’s made him look mysterious. The Chuck Taylor’s he wore also looked very appealing due to how the colors on the sides and back soles coordinated with his shirt. I wasn’t quite sure of his socks because he turned to me and gave me a perplexed look that read ‘WTF?’. I held my breath and turned to face Mrs. Aand. I didn’t want to get caught staring ….again.

“Alright, class. Today, we will be learning about Figure and Ground in a photograph. The figure is the main centerpiece that catches your eye and the ground is everything behind it. Think of a back drop and you standing in front of it. The figure is….”

“Me?” Amber Ming, the smartest person in the class besides Chuckie, of course, answered in a squeak. The teacher smiled and I yawned. I’m getting bored already.

“Correct. Now, the background must be the…”

“Back drop.” Chuckie answered nonchalantly. I started to shake and had to cross my legs from making it noticeable. He was so intelligent.

“Wonderful. Now, we will practice this technique with the sets of camera and backdrops I have stationed in the back of the classroom. I want each group to take at least twenty photos- ten for each person- while vouging. We discussed Vouging last week so you all should know what it is. I want lovely pictures I can display before the parent meeting, understood? Wonderful, get to it.”

Like I said, she only talks to us when she has to. I think she spends too much time on AIM because she is so anti-social at times.

“Okay.” Chuckie broke the silence and turned to look at me. God he was so beautiful. “I want to snap you first to give me time to think on my poses; that okay?”

“Yeah, whatever.” I snapped as I stood to walk to the back of the classroom where the stations were set up and ready for use. “Get good pictures and not any candid shots this time.”

Last time he snapped me eating a Snickers bar for our project. It made me miserable due to two weeks of constant humiliation from my peers. I could have killed him if I didn’t like him.

“Whatever you say.” he sighed as he picked up and prepared the camera. He knew how to clean a good lens.

Our station was right in between Lizzie McGuire- No relation to Hilary Duff- and her partner Shane Williams, and Megan Wilson and the Bitch- Ella Thomas. I never talked to her, worked with her, hell, I just found out who she was a year ago at the sophomore winter fest. I just don’t like her for the simple fact that she is Chuckie’s Ex-Girlfriend; thus indicating that they were dating before! I heard, just heard mind you, that they were really close Freshman year, but broke it off Sophomore year, then got back together Junior year, only to break up again this year. Stupid cunt. I wish I could just…

“Hi, Charles.” Her voice was sweet and angelic like a harp playing in a warm summer’s breeze. Her smile she plastered on her face accented her sheer MAC lip gloss quite nicely, the rosy shaded blush her cheeks wore growing darker. She was getting flustered over Chuckie!

Chuckie stopped wiping the camera lens clean with the soft white cloth provided to look up and smile. “Hey, Ella. You look really nice today.”

She giggled and flipped her wave of raven tendrils from in front of her face. She was an exquisite Asian beauty with almond shaped eyes and hazel pupils to match. Her skin was porcelain cream and her figure was slender yet curvaceous. Its safe to say Ms. Ella had a nice set of breasts as well, her hips matching in form as she had an ‘hour glass’ body. She wore a pink Victoria Secret Cardigan with tan corridor pants and matching boots. She, I hate to say it, was certainly a stunning beauty.

“You too, Charles. I see you and Tommy went to Abercrombie this weekend.”

“Yeah.” he chuckled and set the camera down on a nearby stool; shoving his hands in his pants pocket nervously. “My dad got angry I spent 200 dollars on just jeans.”

She laughed and flipped her hair back again. It was growing annoying. “I hear you. So, you are working with….umm….”

Did this bitch forget my name!?

“Angelica.” Chuckie finished off. He smiled as he glanced over at me slightly “We sit together.”

“Right, Angelica Pickles. Samantha’s friend.”

She faked a smile and extended a small hand I immediately rejected with a ‘you ugly’ look. You know the one where a girl looks at you up and down like she’s examining you. Yes, Samantha and I call it the ‘you ugly’ look. Despite her beauty, I convinced myself she was not attractive at all.

“Yeah, nice to meet you.” I lied and flipped my wave of hair. My intention was to piss her off and make her jealous of me, and by judging from her disgusted look she gave me, it worked. “I would love to stay and chat with you, but Chuckie and I have a project to do.”

She eyed me maliciously as she glanced over at Chuckie- who was now looking more interested in his shoes- and then at me. “Right, of course. We have one as well that needs our attention.”

“Better get to it then.” I coyly smiled as I took my place in front of the pink and black back drop Mrs. Aand had given us. “Time is ticking.”

“Yes, I am aware of the time Angelica. I am far from ignorant.”

“You sure? Could have fooled me.”

“Excuse me?”

“Okay!” Chuckie suddenly erupted. “Can we get to our own projects please?”

Ella glanced at me and I glanced at her. I don’t know how long we stared at one another, but it seemed like time had stopped. I couldn’t have Chuckie’s ex try and make another pass at him. I was determined to let Finster know how I felt before the parent meeting- or sometime before the semester ended. With college applications, scholarship papers, and college tours, I rarely saw Chuckie outside of school. I had to tell him and judging by Ella’s angry eyes, she still had feelings for Chuckie and had small hints that I was blocking her from doing what she really wanted to do.

“Please?” Chuckie begged as he grabbed my hand and looked me square in the eye. I felt my cheeks grow hot as I diverted my gaze down to the terry cloth covered floor boards. His hands felt smooth and feather-like, almost surreal and heavenly. “Angelica.”

“Fine, but let go of my damn hand!” I shouted and pulled away quickly. I cleared my throat. “And make sure your ex doesn’t say anything to me.”

“Don’t worry.” she interrupted with a small giggle and another flip of her hair. She slowly sashayed over to the orange haired boy and kissed him lightly on the lips. All I could do was look on in masked hatred. “Save a photo for me, okay?”

My inner mind theater played a showing of me chocking and killing that Asian beauty as I ran off into the sunset with Finster; but reality played what was really being acted out. The girl just trumped Angelica Pickles, diva extraordinaire, and I let it happen. Not a good day.

A/N: I’m back. Sorry it took so long. School, finals, and all that jazz occupied my time. Hope all had a happy new year and a merry Christmas.

Thanks for the reviews and love from the readers. I know Chuckie is younger than Angelica, but I just have a weird obsession for older men so I wanted him to be a bit older- though I will keep them the same age and say Angelica’s birthday was late. Sorry about that little twist in the accurate details.