John's POV

"Hey, Lover Boy, we're back!" Peggy exclaims as she runs up to my locker. 

I chuckle gently. "Lover Boy, huh? How did I earn that title?"

"We heard from Charles Lee about the fight that happened." Eliza chimes in, wiggling her eyebrows at me. 

I tilt my head. "Fight? What fight? You'll have to be a little more specific. This is a public school after all." I say. 

"The one between Jefferson and Hamilton, John. You know what fight we were talking about." Angelica says as she opens her locker - the one conveniently next to mine. 

"And you're trusting Charles Lee because...?" I pause, waiting for them to answer and then continue. "Exactly, he just likes attention. While I think there was a fight between the two of them, I wouldn't know anything about it because I wasn't there."

Peggy puts her hands on her hips. "Yeah, but Charles said he saw you punch Thomas Jefferson square in the nose, and then ran off with Alex." 

I shake my head, "Yeah, wasn't me. It was probably one of his two friends, because you know they'd do the same to you guys if you weren't girls." 

Angelica shrugs. "I don't see why that stops them. Why are we any different than guys?"

"They think we're weaker!" Peggy pouts. 

"Well, they think we can't handle a fight, Pegs." Eliza explains. "But yeah, I see what you mean."

"Listen, most of the time, none of us think you're weak, we just were all taught if you ever hit a girl back, you're screwed. Like, done for." I say, closing my locker. "Come on, let's get to class."

"But your boyfriend hasn't even passed us yet!" Peggy whines. 

I blush gently but shake my head so they don't notice. "Not my boyfriend, Peggy. Far from it." 

"Psh, whatever you say, John." Eliza mutters. 

Angelica closes her locker and we walk to class. I look behind us and see Alex raising an eyebrow curiously as he looks over at our usual spot. I then see him smile gently and I turn back, smiling to myself. 

Timeskip brought to you by the Atlantic Monthly printing Jamie's first chapter.

I sit on the bench I usually do, watching my sister as she played on the playground. My phone buzzes and I pull my phone out to see a text from my dad. 

4:12pm

Henry Hey, I'm staying later at work. I saw you got your grade up in that one class. I don't want to see you getting that close to a B again. Make sure the house is clean, I'll be back closer to midnight.

I smile gently. He wasn't mad at me for nothing today. He must've had a good day at work or something. These days rarely happen, but I enjoy them while they last. 

John Thank you, father. I'll make sure the house is clean before I head to bed. See you later.

"You seem to be in a good mood." I hear someone mumble from behind me. 

I turn around and see Alex standing there. I blush gently. "Oh, yeah...It's been a good day, I guess.."

He hands me my binder and then holds his hand out, waiting for cash. I hand it to him and stare at him a bit longer as he counted it. 

"Hey, do you want to come over again today?" I ask, not even realizing I asked it.

He stares at me in confusion and I blush a bit more. "Why?" He asks.

"I- uh.." I freeze and try to think of an excuse. "I need to apply to Princeton, and was wondering if you'd help?" 

He raises an eyebrow. "I'll pay you extra!" I say, smiling nervously at him. I was hoping he'd say no, believe it or not. I didn't want him thinking I was weird or anything like that. 

"Um...Okay, yeah, if that's what you need help with." He says. 

I smile at him and nod, though internally I was screaming. I'm such an idiot sometimes. No way was I going to make it in law school.

"Okay, cool..Let me just, um, grab my little sister." I say to him and then walk away to the playground, mumbling curse words to myself. I go up to my little sister, who was hanging on the monkey bars, and catch her as she jumps down. 

She giggles. "Time to go home already?" She asks. 

I nod. "Yep, Dad won't be home until later, so I have a friend coming over. Promise me you'll be on your best behavior?" I ask. 

She nods excitedly. "Okay!" 

I chuckle and walk over to Alex, Martha in my arms, and smile. "Alright, Martha, this is Alex. Alex, this is Martha, my little sister." Alex waves at her and she giggles. "Alright, let's get going, then."

We walk to my house and once we enter, Martha runs straight to the livingroom and turns on the TV to watch her favorite show. 

"Um, to my room?" I suggest, hoping he wasn't uncomfortable after last time. 

To be honest, I'm a little uncomfortable, but I can't show that. He wouldn't get it. I'll just have to sit a bit further from him today. 

He nods and says quietly, "Okay." 

We walk up to my room and I grab my laptop, sitting on my bed. I already filled out my application, since I wasn't that stupid, but I pulled up a blank one anyway. 

He looks around the room again. "You know, I'll only help you fill out an application for Princeton if you also apply to an arts school." He says stubbornly. 

I chuckle and shake my head. "Alex, I already told you-"

"Aw, boo. I don't care what you told me, I care that you're an artist. Please at least apply?" He asks. 

"Why do you care so much?" I ask suddenly. "Don't want me going to the same school as you?"

He shakes his head. "Not necessarily. I just...I don't know, I really see you going somewhere with your paintings and such." 

I sigh. "Fine, I'll apply to an arts school. But I'm not going to get accepted, you know." I pull up the one I had been looking into. It was still in New Jersey, because it'd be a little easier to get away with going there rather than Princeton. 

He smiles and sits next to me, and I try and hide my blush. "You already have a school picked out?" He asks, looking over my shoulder. 

"Um, I was looking..They send me emails and stuff, looks like a good school.." I mumble, opening their application file. 

I type in all the basic stuff and once I get to my social security, I chuckle and look at Alex. "Don't go stealing my identity."

He chuckles with me. "While that would be very fun and easy to do, it is still very illegal, and wouldn't look very good, considering I'm going into law." 

I smile and return back to my laptop, filling in information. We start small talking and such as I try and type my essay. The essay was about my personal struggles and how I overcame them. Of course, he couldn't help me much, because he doesn't know that stuff. I wasn't sure I wanted him to, but he had to spell check my essay and make sure it sounded good, so he kind of had to. 

I wrote about my mom, obviously. I wrote about moving on without her, and how I still missed her everyday. I also put in there how she inspired me to keep painting, because the sappier the better I guess. 

I look over at Alex. "You haven't commented on my essay since the first paragraph. I know it's not that good..Why?" I ask. 

He frowned gently and looked up at me, and I could see his eyes glistening a bit. "Uh, sorry..I was focused on reading." He took a deep breath and pointed at the screen. "That should be a period, not a comma."

I fix it and then look at him again. "It's sad, I know, but it was a while ago.." I mumble. I didn't want him pitying me. 

"I'm sorry..What happened?" He asks. 

I sigh and look at the screen. "We were fine.. We were a happy little family.. And then when my mom was having my little sister... Well... There were complications and... Martha made it, but my mom didn't." I say, biting on my lower lip. 

"I'm sorry.." He repeated. "That sounds..Awful..How old were you?"

"I was ten..But it's fine, I don't want you pitying me.." I tell him, going back to typing. I furrow my brows as I try to type and I hear him sigh. 

"It's not pity, it's empathy." He mumbles. 

I stop typing and look over at him. "You..Lost your mom, too?"

He raises an eyebrow. "You guys knew that..It's why you call me 'Bastard Orphan?'" He looks at me with confusion and I stare right back at him. 

"I...I didn't know that...Honestly." I say. "The Schuylers came up with it, I just went along. I never really asked why we called you that. I'm sorry, I didn't know."

He pauses. "I don't understand you, Laurens." He states very plainly. "You seem.. Sweet, nice.. Compassionate. Hell, I'd bet you're not even as dumb as you think you are. But then at school..You act like an arrogant jerk. Why?"

"I-" I pause. "I don't know... The Schuylers take care of me, so I act along with them."

He rolls his eyes. "What could possibly be so great about hanging out with those three?"

"Hey, they may be bullies, but they're still my friends. They've helped me through a lot, and I've helped them through a lot." I say, making sure he knew I loved the Schuyler family, no matter how they acted.

He looks at me a little longer. "Okay, why do you guys pick on me, then? Out of all the people in the school, why me? Do I annoy you that much?"

I think about the answer. "Honestly, I don't know. I always thought of you as a smart ass, up until recently, obviously." 

He tilts his head. "Why is that obvious?"

I blush gently. "You're asking a lot of questions, Hamilton. I'll just do the essay portion later." I say, shutting my laptop. 

"Sorry, I didn't mean to push, I just... You were answering my questions, so I thought I'd ask as many possible.." He says quietly, staring at his lap. 

I smile. "It's okay, no need to be embarrassed over it. I get it, you're inquisi-"

"One more question." He says suddenly, interrupting me. "Why are you being so nice to me now? Why talk to me more and more now, and invite me to your house?"

"I told you, I needed help with my Princeton appl-"

"That application was due a month ago, Laurens. I know that, you know that." He says. "So why invite me over if you didn't really need help with your application?"

I pause. "Wait, if you knew I already turned it in, why did you come over?"

"Hey, you can't dodge my question."

"Didn't you just dodge mine?" I ask back. 

He frowns. "Answer mine first, then I'll answer yours." He crosses his arms. 

"God damn, Alex, you are so stubborn." I scoff into a chuckle, shaking my head at him. 

"I am not!" He pouts. "I just want to know why you asked me to come over."

"Why do you think I asked you to come over?" I ask curiously, hoping he'd get it wrong. 

He starts laughing softly. "Well, my friends seem to think we live in some cheesy romance world and think that you like me." He laughs some more and I blush like crazy, looking away from him. 

"I told them that was absurd, and that there was no way you had a crush on me." He says. "Right?" 

I turn to him and bite my lip nervously. "Um..." I then say the rest under my breath.

He stares at me with a confused look and leans closer to me. "I'm sorry, what?" 

I close my eyes and lean in, pulling him into a kiss. I wasn't sure why I did it, or how I actually forced myself to do it, but I know for a fact that I did it. 

I kissed Alexander Hamilton.

And I didn't regret it. 

2098 Words

Long chapter for you guys. It's spicing up a little bit, don't worry :)