"I seriously doubt that. She's the kind of person who would take a megaphone and run around screaming about how much of an awful person I am throughout the whole school," Pete says, as he comes up behind us to join the conversation. 

Sonia rolls her eyes. "That's only towards people who deserve it. Unless you REALLY piss me off- which is something you do on a regular basis- then I won't do it. I may be evil, but I know when to put it to use." 

"Like with those two dudes in middle school," Sophia recalls, with a fond smile on her face. Sonia smirks, as she reminisces about the time she beat up two high school creeps who were hitting on her while she was in middle school. 

"Ah, yes, that was awesome. Now nobody dares to touch me." 

We all laugh at that, and then at that moment, the bell rings, which is basically a signal for us to move our butts and get to class so that we learn something. 

"I'm off. I'll see you guys later!" Sophia says, and Sonia gives me a slight smile and walks along with her. Pete looks at me, and then we start to walk to our next class together. As we're walking, he flashes me a smirk, and says, "YOU WERE TOTALLY BLUSHING. OH MY GOSH, YOU LIKE HER!" 

I groan a little bit, and I know I have to throw in the towel. Now that I've realized it, I can't keep on lying. I hate lying to people, and when it comes to Pete, that's a special case, because Pete is someone who gets really hurt from lying. 

I nod, and say, "Fine, okay, I like her. I admit it. Now will you leave me alone already?" Pete shakes his head. 

"Oh no. This is huge. You finally admit that you like one of your closest friends, after months of bugging. And considering how much Sophia means to you, this is pretty huge. No need to be embarrassed, Ray-Ray." 

I shoot Pete the "I'm so done with you," look. "And there's no need for you to tease me, Peter Aksel." 

Pete groans a little bit, rolls his eyes, and says, "I hate you." He starts to walk faster, which I appreciate, because he's being a pain in the neck. 

*****

One more period to go. Today has felt like someone tied a shoelace to my ankle and drug me through a marathon while walking at snail's pace. I'm walking to my next class, which is arguably one of the most regrettable choices I have ever made in my life. AP Calculus. 

If I thought other classes were a train wreck, then this one is Chernobyl. Combine the hard tests, the excessive amount of homework, plus the brutality of our teacher's grading, then this is the class that should be used as a torture method. 

As I walk to class, I come across Victoria, who looks like she wants to disappear amongst the crowd and go home. When she makes eye contact with me, she just looks down at her books and keeps on walking, like, as Sonia says, Bonnie when it comes to Kai. 

I just brush it off and continue on with my day. I kind of expect Victoria to look like this, because after knowing her for so long, I know exactly how she acts after dealing with things as big as what happened today. 

However, I'm slightly grateful that she decides to keep to herself, because I'm not in the mood to talk to her. Not after everything that she's done. When I get to Ms. Sanders' class, which is my AP Torturous class, I find Sophia standing there, waiting idly for something to happen. 

I walk up to her, and say, "Preparing yourself for today's torture lesson?"

 She turns around, and nods. "Yeah. I don't even want to step into this class after seeing what I got on the first test. I'd much rather go to Taco Bell, thank you very much." 

I nod. "Now I want Taco Bell. Thanks a lot." 

"You're welcome!" 

We both chuckle a little bit, and then our teacher says, "Come in, guys!" I see her walk out the door to welcome us inside. She still looks like she enjoys our pain when it comes to this class. I take a deep breath, knowing how much fun this is going to be. Fun for her, since she's pretty much a sadist.

Once Sophia and I walk inside and sit down, Ms. Sanders comes up to us. "Congratulations to you both, Raymond and Sophia. I can tell you are going to make a great pair when it comes to this year's student council. So don't disappoint me." 

Sophia raises her head a little bit higher, and says, "We won't, Ms. Sanders. I promise." 

Ms. Sanders smiles, and then looks at me. "What about you, Raymond? Will you be a good partner with Sophia? Because she's a very lovely girl. You wouldn't want to disappoint her in any way, would you?" 

I shake my head. "Nope. I wouldn't do that to someone like Sophia." 

Ms. Sanders gives me another smile, and then turns around to go start the lesson. Sophia looks at me a little confused. "That was kind of weird, wasn't it?" 

I nod. "That was beyond weird. She's never like this." 

"I need to ask where she got the cocaine from. Sharing is caring, you know." 

I raise an eyebrow at her, as she starts to snicker. "You are so weird sometimes." 

"You just realized?" 

"Ray, Sophia, enough talking. Pay attention," Ms. Sanders snaps, and we both pay attention to the lesson. To be honest, it's really boring, as is any math class that involves a wack teacher and wack material. I don't think anyone wants to be here because of the fact that everything is just such wack. 

But, here we are, sitting there like our life depends on it, because we don't need our parents to skewer us if we come back with another failed test. Nobody's parents were happy when the class average for the first test was a 64%. My parents sure weren't happy. 

But, after she's done lecturing us about material that makes any other person's head spin, she gives us time to start on our homework. The problem is, nobody does their homework. Everyone just starts socializing or they doodle in their notebook while she just goes on her laptop and does whatever. 

I'm not exempt from the socializing group. Sophia and I like to do our homework at home, so we just talk to each other in the 15-ish minutes she gives for doing homework. We talk about how much of a weirdo Pete is, how scary Sonia can be, or how much we just want to go home and take a nice, long nap. 

After talking about random things for a good 15 minutes, the bell finally rings, dismissing us from the torture so that we can go home and get a chance to kind of relax. I gather my things swiftly, and then throw my backpack over my shoulder, as Sophia gets out her phone. 

"You need anything from your locker?" I ask. 

"No. I have everything already. Let's go." We walk out of the classroom faster than you can say, "Calculus," and then to our cars.

"I'm not surprised. Donaldson is a creep," I say, as we're in the parking lot, ready to go home. Sophia nods. 

"I'm not surprised, either. He just acts so weird around us, especially the girls. Yeah, his class is a joke. I don't even know why I took it, and here we are." 

"You and me both. It's such a waste of time." 

"As are a lot of other things in life." 

We finally get to our cars, and with that, a sharp ringing fills our ears. Sophia takes out her phone, and reads the caller ID. "Oh, it's my grandpa. Can I take this, Ray?" 

I nod. "Yeah, of course. Go for it." 

She smiles, and then answers the call. "Salut, grand-père! Ah, je vais bien, merci! Oui, j'ai gagné! Oui, Ray a gagné aussi. Merci, merci. Je vous parlerai quand je rentre à la maison. À plus!" (Hello, grandpa! I'm well, thanks! Yes, I won! Yes, Ray won also! Thank you! I'll talk to you when I go home. See you soon!) she says, in her perfect French accent, due to her grandfather being French. 

She slides the phone back into her pocket. "I'm off, Ray. Thanks again for everything today. See you later, okay?" 

I smile, and nod. "Yeah, definitely. And you know I'm always going to be there for you when you need it." 

She gives me her signature warm smile. "That's so sweet. Thank you. But, I have to go right now. See you later!" 

She begins to get into her car. I nod, and start to walk to my car. "Definitely. See you soon," I call, as I get into my car and drive home after a long day.

******

"I'm home, Mom!" I call, as I walk into my house. I set my backpack down, and take off my coat. My mom comes through the halls and down the stairs to come and greet me. 

"How was school, Ray? Did you win?" she asks. 

I smile, and nod. "I won! And Sophia is my vice president!" 

Her eyes light up when she hears of my victory. She places her hands on my shoulders in an excited state. "That's amazing, Ray! I'm so proud of you!" she squeals, and I smile. 

"Thanks, Mom. Yeah, I'm stoked. I get to work with Sophia, and I get a say in a lot of what happens in this year. It's pretty awesome," I say, as I walk up to the table with my backpack. 

My mom follows after. "You seem to be pretty excited about working with Sophia. Have you finally decided your feelings?" 

I set it down next to the table, and turn around. "Yeah. Mom, I like her. A lot. But I don't know if I should tell her."

 My mom places a hand on my shoulder. "Ray, never hesitate. It's Sophia. She's a sweetie. When you find the right time, tell her. Because if you get it off of your chest now, it's so much easier later. It'll get rid of all that awkwardness." 

I nod, and then bend down to get my things from my backpack. "I guess you're right. But we'll see." 

She nods. "I guess we will." 

I take my books out of my backpack, only to discover that there's two calculus textbooks. I don't need two calculus textbooks, and we don't have class sets that I could've taken. I open one of the books, to find my name written on the "Property of..." line. Of course, that's expected, so I open the other book to find, "Sophia Smith." written on that line. 

I groan a little bit inside. Not because I have to return it, but because I caused more worrying for Sophia, because without this, she can't do homework, and she's afraid her grade will go to hell. 

I take the book, and call, "I'm going to go return something to Sophia's house. I'll be back within 20 minutes." 

I grab the car keys from the table, while my mom calls, "Be quick!" I take the book, and get out of the house so I can return it.

********

I ring the doorbell and wait patiently for someone to come and open the door. I don't know why, but my heart is beating like anything while I'm waiting. Something about this is nerve wracking. Probably because I'm taking my mom's advice kind of seriously. 

If this is kind of the perfect time to tell her, then I don't know how she'll react. Because she could have a few reactions, and there are some that I don't want to imagine. After standing there for a while, the door opens, and Mrs. Smith is standing there. She has a pleasant look of surprise when she sees me. 

"Ray! What brings you here?" she asks. The smell of fresh eclairs wafts throughout the house, and it's the most comforting smell you can imagine. I just want to make it into a candle so that I can have it in my room to perfume the house. 

"I just had to return something to Sophia," I say, and she moves out of my way. 

"She's in her room. Go ahead." Without another warning, I make a beeline for Sophia's room. I peek in to make sure she's not doing anything that I could distract her from. The door is ajar, and she's got headphones in, probably listening to Ed Sheeran or Christina Perri. 

I knock slightly, and then she says, "Come in!" I push open the door, as she takes out her headphones. 

She notices me, and then also has a look of surprise painted on her face. "Ray! Oh, this is a surprise. What's up?" She gets up from her chair, as I hand the book to her. 

"I took your math book by accident, so I'm sorry about that." I say, kind of awkwardly. 

She smiles, takes it, and places it on her desk. "Thanks. I was wondering where it was." She looks back at me, with a slight smile, as tension layers in the room like a croissant. 

I gulp a little bit, while contemplating whether or not I should tell her. When I look at her, so confident and so understanding, my reasoning comes to an end. I should tell her. Right now. 

Who's going to stop me anyways? I have nothing to lose. 

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hello my dear readers! How did you like the second part of this chapter? Was it as good as the first? I hope it was. Also, I have a little request for you guys. I incorporated French into this chapter. French isn't my first language/mother tongue. I'm learning it currently, and I'm not overly fluent. If any of you guys are fluent in French, then I would greatly appreciate it if you would let me know of any mistakes. Thank you!

Now, for the question. Is this the right time to tell Sophia about his feelings, or should Ray wait for a little bit longer since there was the whole voting mess? Let me know in the comments.

Please vote/comment/follow/message/share if you like my work! I'll see you all on Sunday with another chapter of I Never Imagined! Have a great rest of the week!

Love you guys,

S.V.T.S