t h i r t y t w o


"WHATEVER IT IS, I didn't do it!" I exclaim as I burst through the doors of my art class. It was quiet and empty except for Miss Rowan who sat at her large brown desk in the corner of the room. She remains quiet as she takes a slow and languid sip of her white coffee mug that was covered in multi-coloured paint streaks. 


"Well, hello to you too, Hayden." She remarks calmly and gently places her mug down. She folds her arms, raising a curious eyebrow as the afternoon sun floods in through the window panes behind her, giving her chestnut hair a golden halo, "Why do you think you've done something bad?" 


"Isn't it obvious? I always do dumb shit." I scoff, holding my hands out in question. I then shrug it off, "Plus you've never wanted to talk to me alone before. I got a note from the office aid and everything. Not gonna lie here, I'm slightly terrified." 


She laughs lightly, tilting her head back as she smiles widely, "You truly are an enigma, Miss Jones." 


Miss Rowan always called me that; an enigma. To be honest, I didn't know what the word meant when she first used it but after a quick question to Doctor Google, I was aware. She called me it on the first day after I told her I used to believe I could read minds when I was little but turns out it was just my own voice in my head. 


"So should I start writing my will now or...." I question as I pull a wooden stool from a nearby easel and place it at the end of her desk. I slowly sit down as she smiles at me, extremely amused at my fear and I pull my bag onto my lap. 


"I'm not that scary of a teacher am I?" Miss Rowan ask as I stare at her blankly. She shakes her head, "You know what? Don't answer that. The reason I called you here to talk is because of this." 


She holds up a clean, white envelope and a wide smile spreads over her face. 


"An envelope?" I question monotonously as her smile drops. I take the envelope from her hand and shrug, "Why didn't you talk to me in class this morning?" 


"There were too many people and I wanted to be here when you opened it." She beams, resting her chin on her two fist as she waits. She urges me on, "Open it." 


"I better not get a damn paper cut...." I mumble under my breath as I rip open the card of the envelope. Inside sat a slender, rectangular piece of paper. I pull it out, glancing at the printed ink and my eyes expand to the size of the moon. I splutter, "What the fuck?" 


"Ah, I'm so happy for you Hayden! How much did you get?" She questions, leaning forward trying to take a peak at the cheque that I had gently like it was made of fragile glass. 


I turn it around, "Twelve fucking hundred? Are you serious?" 


There it was. Written in bold and seriously nice handwriting, but that's beside the point. I held $1200 in my very hands, the most money I have ever held in my entire life. Is this what the Kardashians feel like? 


"And just remember that's only a portion. The rest went to charity. " She mutters to herself as she stares at the cheque. I was stunned speechless and in utter disbelief. I then start laughing. 


"Sucks to be him." I say in a high pitch, fanning myself with the cheque as I cross one leg over the other. 


Miss Rowan stares at me with a dead expression, "Hayden, you're an extremely talented artist. I don't understand how you can't get that." 


"Oh no, I get it. Otherwise I would've stopped painting years ago." I nod as I glance down at the cheque, my fingers playing with one corner as my blonde hair slips from behind my ear and creates a curtain over one side of my face, "It's just...I just never thought I could be good enough...especially for this." 


"You're allowed to be proud of yourself." Miss Rowan smiles as she reaches forward, placing her hand over mine, "The amount of times I've seen you in this classroom, after school and before school, painting until your fingers cramp. You deserve this, Hayden." 


I smile and glance up at her, "Thank you." 


After hugging Miss Rowan she lets me leave, knowing how excited I was to shout this news from the rooftops. I wasn't going to do that, although the thought crossed my mind multiple times. Instead, I raced through the halls to the East wing where a collection of science and mathematics classes were located. 


I grab the handle of the door and as I heave it open, I realise a second too late that I had underestimated my momentum and stumble into the classroom. Thankfully, I manage to catch myself before I fall on my ass and instead  pose awkwardly in front of the large swarm of students. 


Mr Michelson, an AP-Calc teacher,  pauses as he sits at his desk. Then, "....Yes, Miss Jones?" 


"Heh." I smile at him sheepishly, my chest heaving from the amount of running my body just endured, "I need to speak to Penelope for a second." 


"Well you've already disturbed my class." He sighs as he stands from his squeaky office chair and glances out over the sea of pupils, "Miss Owens." 


I follow his gaze, watching as the particular red head down shoots out of her chair and quickly makes her way down the aisle. She was smiling at me as she grabs my hand and pulls me towards the door. 


"No more than five minutes, Hayden." Mr Michelson instructs as I glance over my shoulder, still being dragged out of the class, and give him a nod as well as a cheerful thumbs up. 


The door closes behind us as Penn pulls me out of her last period class and into the quiet halls. 


"Thanks for giving me a break. It's so boring in there I was literally two equations away from a good nap." Penn mumbles with a small scoff as she folds her arms around herself. Her eyes lighten up as she turns her attention back to me, "But anyway, what did you want to talk to me about?" 


I pull out the cheque from the pocket of my denim jacket and hold it up to her with a big smile, "This." 


"Oh my god..." Penn splutters as she holds the cheque in her hand, "Holy hell, Hayden. This is amazing! I only got three hundred for mine." 


"Oh shit, Penn I'm sorry. This totally looks like I'm showing off. Let's just pretend I didn't show you this." I laugh it off awkwardly as I attempt to pull the cheque back but Penn pulls it further out of reach. 


"Are you serious? I literally don't care." She grins at me, "I'm so utterly proud of you Hayden. You can show off all you want." 


"Thanks Penn." I smile softly at her as she wraps her arms around my shoulders, pulling me into a tight and warm hug. We end up jumping up and down together, we were that excited. 


"Uhhh, what the fuck is going on?" A voice echoes from behind us as  Penn and I step back from the hug. We both turn around, noticing Levi standing in the middle of the hall glancing at us with the most confused expression on his face. I glance at Penn slowly with a small, mischievous smile on my face before we both run towards him. 


We wrap our arms around him, hugging him as we squeal in delight. 


"I'm going to be fucking rich, Levi!" I cackle as he shakes his head, laughing at me like I was the biggest idiot on this planet. Well, I mean, that's fair. 


♤♤♤♤


I pound up the wooden stairs, to impatient to wait for the elevator and burst through my dorm room. 


"Yo, Everett—!" I exclaim as I stumble over the threshold, my smile slowly fading as I notice a particular bitchy brunette sitting on Chase's bed. She grins sweetly at me as I grumble, "Why the fuck are you here?" 


"This room doesn't belong to you, Hay, Chase can invite whoever he wants." She shrugs as she smooths her manicured hand over the covers of Chase's bed. 


"Of course." I take my denim jacket it off and hang it on the back of my desk chair, "But we have an agreement that this is a bitch-free space so you should be leaving right now." 


She opens her mouth, allowing her repulsive breath to spread throughout the room but instead of her irritating voice the sound of the door opening replaced it. We both glance at the door, watching as Chase enters the room. He glances up from the floor, hazel eyes locking with mine as he smiles. 


His eyes then slowly travel across the room and his smile fades so fast. 


"Hi handsome." Lea greets with a large smile, crossing one leg over the other in a lame attempt to appear sexy. She failed fucking miserably in my opinion. 


"I told you to wait in the common room." Chase sighs with a frown  as he closes the door behind him. 


Lea shrugs, "Common room, dorm room. Same thing." 


"It's really not." I correct with a large, fake smile and fold my arms across my chest.Chase walks to his desk, taking his bag from his shoulders and hanging it on the back of the wooden chair. 


"Go, Lea." Chase says abruptly. He seemed stressed and tired and for fuck knows why, I wanted to hug him. I felt the urge to wrap my arms around him and tell him stupid fucking stories to make him forget and feel better. What the fuck, Hayden? 


Lea sighs, realising it was Chase she was dealing with and was better off not arguing. She stands up and I wave my fingers at her cheekily as she saunters across the room and places her hand on Chase's shoulder. 


"I'll meet you in the common room." She whispers into his ear in a sultry tone and has the fucking audacity to glance over her shoulder at me and wink. I roll my eyes, glancing out the window before I punched her in the face with my desk chair. 


The door closes behind her and the room falls into a pit of awkward silence.


Chase is the first to speak, "There's nothing between us." 


"I don't care Chase." I laugh it off as I glance back at him, "And besides, you don't have to explain yourself to me. You're a big boy." 


He laughs awkwardly, running a hand through his hair as he perches on the end of his bed. Chase then glances up at me, "What did you want to talk about?" He questions, referring to the frantic text I sent him which was literally just a bunch of emojis. 


"Oh!" I exclaim, instantly remembering and shoving my hand into the pocket of my and pulling out the single slip of paper. I hold it up to him with a large smile on my face, "I wanted to show you this." 


He stands up, lightly touching my hand as he lifts it closer to his face. A deep frown had taken over his face as he reads the cheque before his eyebrows raise and he splutters. 


"Seriously?" He asks with a large smile, his gaze locking with mine as I nod. Chase laughs loudly as he wraps his arms around my waist and I squeal in delight. My arms snake around his shoulders as he picks me up off my feet and spins me around in the middle of our dorm room. 


He places me down on my feet and I gaze up on him. We were so damn close to each other and our smiles fade the longer we stared at each other. I wanted to kiss him again, and again, and again. I wanted to do many things to him and not in the murder sense. 


I clear my throat, stepping back as he nervously runs his hand through his hair again. He stumbles back a bit so we were standing a foot apart. 


"That's really fucking cool, Jones." Chase says as he gestures towards the cheque, "And it's all thanks to me." 


I scoff, "Fuck you, it's not." 


"Without my you wouldn't have even talked to him. So I think a thank you is in a order." Chase smirks arrogantly as he folds his arms across his chest proudly. I roll my eyes


"I think a kick to your ass is in order." I raise my eyebrows, trying to seem threatening which I completely failed at. I can never seem intimidating whenever I want to be. Vera says I look like one of those kittens who think they're a lion. 


"Are you thinking about my ass, Jones?" Chase smirks, frowning in fake confusion. I stare at him with the most blank expression in the history of blank expression...if there is one. 


I groan and rub my temples, "Your existence is giving my a fucking headache, please leave." 


"Don't pretend like you don't love it." Chase grins as he walks towards the door. I hold up both middle fingers at him as he chuckles loudly and leaves the dorm. I laugh to myself after he left before sobering up, realising the real reason why he left. 


I can't have a crush on Chase. Fuck no. Nope. Nada. Zilch. 


There's no possibility of ever having a crush on Chase. A crush would imply that I'm always thinking about him during the day, that I'm so happy after classes because it means I get to see him in our room, and it would imply that he's gotten to the one part of me that no one else ever has....


Wait. Oh shit.



howdy


look i know i said i'd start updating more regularly but i say i lot of dumb shit so....


but to make it up to you, this is a double update


so keep on reading partner

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