I think fate is trying to play Snakes and Ladders game with my life.

Jay appears to be right behind me. So when I turn back, I get startled and accidentally drop all the solution on his shirt.

Luckily, I don't drop the beaker to the ground but I gape at him in horror. "I'm so sorry, I'm so very sorry." I apologise him and try to rub the purple stains on his shirt.

Jay looks surprised and he tries to dry it off. "It's fine, Emma. It's okay."

I set the beaker at the table beside me. "No it's not okay, It's my fault. I should have been more careful," I start getting anxious.

Kevin and my friends immediately run towards me. "Emma are you okay?" He asks me.

"What the hell is wrong with you?!" Jonah, the overprotective best friend of Jay rushes beside him, along with his other friends Dylan and Natasha. He glowers at me, "Are you blind?"

I open my mouth but Jay beats me to it. "Jonah, it's not her fault, it was mine. I was behind her."

"Still, she should have been careful. Thank god this solution was a base." He looks towards me, fire glazing in his eyes, "What would you do if it was an acid that fell on his shirt? Would you take the responsibility?"

I shudder under his gaze. I'm too afraid to say something but Kevin steps in to defend me. "Hey watch your mouth, okay? It's my best friend you are talking to."

Natasha, the other best friend who is also beside Jay, jumps in the quarrel. "Seems that your 'best friend' finds her way to mess with my best friend."

Before someone could say something, the teacher comes towards us with a stern look on his face. "What's done is done. They both said that it's each other's fault. Now get back to your places."

But Dawn doesn't stop from playing the role of a protective friend. "Your best friend said himself that it wasn't her fault, so stop pinning the blame on her, you twat," she retorts.

Dylan doesn't hesitate to join in banter and throws insults at Dawn. "And you stop being a bitch."

Mason steps in front of me and grabs the collar of Dylan's shirt with his fingers. "Don't you dare say another thing about her," he spits out his anger at him.

"Maybe you should learn how to respect a girl first, you asshole!" Zach supports Mason, gritting his teeth.

This is getting out of hand. Someone needs to stop it, but seems like every student in our class is more invested in filming this fight with their cellphone cameras than their experiment.

I want to do something about this, but I'm a little scared about confrontations. I don't have the strength in me to stand up for myself. I get paralysed, too shocked to say anything when someone confronts me.

And the same goes for Sophia too. A reason why I'm best friends with her.

"Boys, I want you to stop it, if not all of you are going to get detention," Mr.Wilson warns them, but they don't let it pass through their thick heads.

I notice a flick of change in Jay's eyes before he releases the grip of Mason's fingers from Jonah's shirt, and stands high in front of him and Zach. "That is not the way you talk with my friends, asshole," Jay replies with a slow yet a threatening voice.

Whoa, what?! Did he just...talk to my friends in that way?

Nobody. I say nobody will talk to my best friends like that. They are the most spectacular earthlings on this planet with whom I think that life is worth living it. Nobody insults them. I won't stand it. And I won't spare anyone who thinks that it's okay to talk and insult MY FRIENDS and watch them simply walk away.

Not even the golden boy of this school. Not even my crush.

I move to stand in front of Jay with my friends beside me. "And that is not the way you behave with my friends," I narrow my eyes at him. For the first time, I look into his coral green eyes without getting flustered. I stand my ground and I feel the adrenaline rush through my veins. We both have a stare of and our eyes reflect the same emotions. A strong emotion to stand up for our friends.

"That's it. All of you. Detention."

What the damn hell!

All if our heads snap to the direction where Mr.Wilson is standing with his hands resting on his hips, looking angst.

"But I didn't involve in this chaos, Mr.Wilson, why will you give me detention." Sophia worries.

The man who wears a wig over his head shouts at us in discreet. "I don't care if you are involved in this chaos or not. I warned you all. You've done this for yourselves. Now get back to your seats."

We disperse to our seats, before glaring daggers at the other group.

Specifically at Jay Evans.

____________________

"Is it time?"

"Nope."

"Okay...is it an hour yet?"

"Soph! We just got here. It's only been like 10 minutes, baby."

"Feels like an hour though," Sophia nervously taps her knee beneath her desk.

"If you won't stop it, I'm going to cut off your legs," Dylan whisper-shouts at her.

"If you cut off her legs, I will cut off your hands," Zach glares at him.

"If you cut off his hands, I will cut you!" Jonah glowers.

"Could you all stop with your childish insults? They are annoying," Dawn whispers, slouching in her seat.

"More like your presence in this room?" Natasha scoffs.

I look up from my book upon hearing the comeback and immediately jump in. "And you will be doing a huge favour for all of us if you just erased off your existence from this world."

"Nice!" Mason high five's me.

"Silence!" The booming voice of the sub teacher who is sitting behind his desk fill the silence of the room.

Due to the disturbance caused by me and my shenanigans, alongside Jay and his bandit, we are being put to torture by punishing us to stay an extra hour after school, while the other students enjoying their freedom.

Except the nerds like my brother.

When I waved the detention slip in front of his face, he was more than content to stay back in the library and finish off his homework.

Such a supportive asshole.

The teacher looks at us for another 5 minutes and gets back to his work. When I know that it's safe, I look down and continue reading my novel that's been safely secured with the giant History text book.

As I am spell casted by the black lettered words that has been firmly set on the white pages, I recall the discussion I had with my friends before entering the detention room.

"I cannot believe that we are walking to the room where all the criminals and motorbikers call it as their second home," Sophia shudders.

"Chill, Soph, It's just a detention room. They are only taking away an hour of freedom from us. No big deal." Mason reassures her sarcastically.

"Also, we get to spend our time with the Jerky Jerkfaces. Jackpot!" Dawn rolls in, following the trail of sarcasm.

"But wh-"

"Zach, could you please shut her up?" Kevin pleads him.

"Okay," Zach shrugs nonchalantly, and pulls his girlfriend into his arms. He captures her lips with his firm ones and kisses her gently. When they pull back, Zach smiles at her warmly and Sophia blushes.

"That ought to do it," I comment.

"Speaking of Jerkfaces, you stood up for yourself, Emma. How phenomenal was that?" Kevin asks me astounded.

My face beams with pride. "Correction. I stood up for my 'friends'."

"Also, you told off Mr.Lover Boy, when you can't even form an appropriate sentence whenever he is 10 feet away from you." Zach tells me.

"He and his friends were being mean to my friends. No one gets to insult them, except me." I tell them meaning every word coming out of my mouth. "Not even my crush."

"Aww, we love you too." Sophia and Dawn hug me.

"Look at you all grown up," Kevin wipes fake tears, but still feeling proud.

I snap back into reality and put my head down to read my novel, but my train of thoughts doesn't come to a halt.

Did I do the right thing? I don't regret a bit defending my friends. They always come first. But the only thing I'm worried about is all the gossip that's gonna travel around the school. People love to exaggerate the said incident and make up scenarios just to spice up the drama.

I'm not thinking about loosing my reputation. Me and my friends are the normal ones who come to school, attend the classes regularly, have the best time with each other, and go home. We don't have some ridiculous label stuck on our foreheads. We are not the popular kids who enjoys the spotlight and attention. Nor the stone cold goths, and the dangerous delinquents.

Then what can we call ourselves, when we don't fall in any category? What label do we get?

Is being normal overrated or underrated?

I realise that my mind took me to the English assignment that I worked on last year. I got a B- and I was merely satisfied. My teacher complimented me and told me that I could still do better.

"Psst."

The fog of thoughts immediately disappear when I put two and two together. Wow, procrastination at it's finest.

I hear the sound again and turn towards my right. Kevin and Mason wear matching mischievous grins and I smile immediately, making me contagious to their creepy grins. They lift their mobile phones from their textbooks and I look at the screen to see two men wearing helmets and holding guns in their arms.

They are playing PUBG?!

I arch my brows in surprise. Didn't the sub teacher confiscate our mobiles? I speak when I realise what they did. "You gave your duplicate phones in the place of real ones," I narrow my eyes at them, keeping my tone down.

They both nod in delight. "What are you doing?" Kevin asks me. I lift my History textbook in my hands to show them, securing the novel carefully.

"What are you really doing?" Mason whispers accusingly. I sheepishly smile and slowly take out the novel from my textbook and flash them the cover of 'Everything, Everything' at them. They shake their heads and simply smile, expecting it.

After the most dreadful hour, we hear the sweet melody of our school bell and we don't waste a millisecond to scurry off to our seats, collect our phones from the basket, and get out to the parking lot, tasting the sweetness of freedom.

Dawn exhales deeply. "Remind me to never misbehave again."

"We did remind you a month ago when you assaulted that poor girl in the girl's washroom. The Principal gave you a one week detention. Remember?" Mason 'reminds' our ferocious friend, amusement visible in his face.

Dawn gasps. "She was talking shit about Shawn Peter Raul Mendes, with her friends who have fake noses. She went on and on about how Shawn doesn't have talent, but appreciated his hard rock chest. Also, it wasn't an assault, it was barely a tackle."

"Then how do you explain the 4 stitches on her face?" I ask her.

Dawn shrugs, picking at her nails, "She was asking for it."

We laugh out loud and tease each other when we hear another boisterous laughs in distant. We all turn around to see the other gang who sat with us in detention. They all stumble out of the doors and when they see us they stop in their tracks.

"If it isn't the girl and her puppets who took away an hour of freedom and spoiled our rep," Jonah directs his words to me, venom spilling in them.

"If it isn't the boy and his minions who seems to blame the others when he was the reason behind this detention," Kevin retorts back.

I groan internally. I just want to go home. I don't want anymore fights to happen between us.

"Guys, I'm done with this. Let's just go home." I turn and leave. They obey my words and do the same before giving a one last look to the other group.

But my curiosity wins the battle and I turn around to see Jay walking to his car. As if sensing that I'm looking at him, he turns around. His eyes gaze into mine and it takes all the strength in me to not look away. He has the same neutral expression on his face but  if I'm not wrong, I can see a wave of emotions swimming in his irises even from the distance.

A wave of sadness.

Phew! I finally updated.

I promised myself that I will keep the chapters as readable as possible, but I always tend to break my promises.

I couldn't contain myself, hence a lengthy one.

Anyways, did you like the chapter?

Vote and comment, peeps!