[ 27 ] 2014

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"Come on then. If you want to fight him so bad, you'll have to fight me first."

-

Harley didn't give much more thought to Ashton's apology. She trusted him completely and she knew he was being sincere, Ashton was like that. And one little lie--that hadn't really been that much of a lie--wasn't going to change that. Soon enough, Friday came around and it was time for the fourth year beach trip for the students of St. Genevieve's. Harley wasn't sure if Calum had gotten his university applications done in time, and since they weren't in the same home class, she wouldn't find out if he was able to go on the trip until they would go out to the front of the school to board the buses. With everything that had happened, she wasn't sure if he would even want to go anyway. Perhaps he would purposefully refuse to get them done just to avoid the beach trip. It seemed perfectly logical to her.

As soon as the first bell rang for home class to begin for the day, Harley took her seat on the opposite side of the room from the popular kids and her teacher stood at the front of the class to take attendance. Then she called forward the students who hadn't gotten their applications in time. In Harley's class there was only one boy, part of the cool kids, who was also on the basketball team with Billy. 

He was warned that he would need to get them done before Monday, or he wouldn't get to play in the basketball game that night either. The boy uncaringly grabbed his belongings and was sent to one of the third year class rooms for the day. Everyone else had gotten their applications done and the teacher had the teens line up by the door like school children, walking them to the lunch area, which was in the center of the main building. 

Already seated at the tables were other fourth year classes, waiting for the rest of the students to arrive. There were six fourth year classes in total and when they were all accounted for, they were led out to the front of the school where there were three waiting school buses. Cindy quickly rushed to Harley's side and linked arms with her. "You'll be my bus, buddy. Right Harley?" She beamed with her perfect smile. Harley couldn't help but think how much being a cheerleader suited her friend Cindy Hemmings. She was always peppy and smiley, so much that sometimes it was rather contagious. She was also the most popular girl in school, and she happened to be blonde, as most stereotypical cheerleaders were. Cindy loved being a cheerleader. She always made sure to wear her uniform on Fridays, which was encouraged by the school for students that were part of sports teams. Harley only wore her cheer bow on non-game days because she used it to hold up her pony tail.

But Cindy was in full gear, red and black clad with St. Genevieve's Academy pride. Her long hair that was in between a platinum and golden blonde was pulled back into a pony tail with her cheer bow that matched with the other cheerleaders, only hers was slightly different because it had a big white C for captain sewn onto it.

Harley bit down on her lip. She really didn't want to hurt Cindy's feelings, but she wanted to sit with someone else. "I'm sorry, Cindy. I was kind of hoping I could sit with Calum on the bus. Why aren't you going to sit with Billy? Are you guys fighting again?"

Cindy gave a shake of her head. "No, we're fine. I love my Billy; he is the best boyfriend I have ever had. But they sit you on the bus by home class, so there's a chance I won't get the same bus as your brother." She was Cindy's second option, but at least Cindy was honest about it. Harley would do the same. If she didn't get the same bus as Calum, she would have to settle for Cindy.

"Sorry, Cin. She'll sit with me." Luke walked up behind the two girls. Harley rolled her eyes in annoyance. She had forgotten Luke was in the same home class as her. Harley sat on the opposite end of the classroom, away from the populars, and it was difficult to know who was there in their group because they all would pile around a four person table. It seemed like all the fourth year populars were in the same home class, which was logically why Harley was put in it. She had gotten the spot that had been Kylie's and Kylie had at one time been the school's queen bee. Her place was left open for a while when she killed herself in the girl's toilets after Luke Hemmings dumped her.

"Get lost, breadstick." His sister teased with a roll of her eyes. Harley said nothing, but stifled a laugh that was threatening to make an appearance. She restrained herself; she didn't know if Luke would take it as an insult if she laughed. Some people were very sensitive.

"Bimbo." He said back, a smile playing on his lips.

"I hate you Lucas." Cindy blew a raspberry at him. It was obvious that she was only joking. She and Luke were very close siblings.

"Harley wants to sit with me, right Harley?" He winked at her.

She let out an inhuman noise, like a grunt, as her response. "You're too damn full of yourself. If I'm sitting with anyone, I'll be sitting with Calum or Cindy."

Luke chuckled, more amused than offended by her words. "Why'd you have to hurt my pride like that? And why Calum? I thought you guys broke up?"

Harley ignored his question and turned her attention back to the principal who was about to assign a bus for the classes. There were three buses and six home classes. That meant there was also a chance she wouldn't get put in the same bus with Calum, if he had even chosen to come. The principal called the first two classes to the first bus. Her classmates climbed in within minutes and they moved onto the second one. Two more classes piled into the second bus and Harley's class, along with another, were left. 

Cindy squealed in delight. "We're sitting in the same bus with Billy's class! I guess you can sit with Luke if Calum's not in this home class." She suggested jokingly, "The school bus seats are big. Maybe you can sit in between Billy and me!" 

Harley crinkled up her nose. "No thanks, Cindy. I see my brother enough at home. You go enjoy his company."

The blonde haired cheerleader raced in search of her boyfriend. Billy and Cindy were the perfect couple, Harley thought, as she saw them in matching sports uniform attire. Her brother had worn his red american football jersey with the black font and numbers on it. It was the one they wore during home games. Billy's problem that morning had been choosing which jersey to wear since it was school spirit Friday every Friday; his basketball one, his american football one, or his cross country sweatshirt. On Club Pride Tuesdays he always sore his science club sweatshirt, and occasionally his math one. He was an all star athlete, and model student, while Harley forcefully had to do cheerleading and had a mediocre grade point average at best. He and Cindy looked more like they were going to a superbowl party rather than the beach. 

Harley was in the middle of deciding whether she should sit with Luke or by herself when she spotted Calum by himself, near the back of the line of his home class. A smile tugged at her lips and she rushed to his side almost as quickly as Cindy had gone to Billy.

She was surprised that instead of the white button up and red school blazer, he was dressed in his red and black soccer jersey with the number seventeen and his last name on the back. "Feeling some school spirit today?" She raised an eyebrow at him.

Calum chuckled, looking down at his soccer jersey. "I'll take every chance I can get to avoid wearing that god awful school uniform." Taking a look at her own school uniform, he added with a wink, "You should have worn your cheerleading uniform so we'd match."

"I'm wearing the bow." She pointed at her head with a smile.

"That doesn't count." He replied to her, a smile still present on his lips.

"So..." Harley started a bit shyly.

But before she could continue, he finished for her. "You wanna be bus buddies, Quinn?"

She grinned at the offer. "I thought you'd never ask."

-

The buses arrived at the beach a half hour later and it was a chilly morning. Harley had asked Calum on the bus ride if he had finished his applications. Though it was obvious because he had been allowed on the beach trip, Calum said he had applied to a bunch of local universities, but that he wasn't too motivated to continue studying. He had only gotten them done because he wanted to go on that beach trip only because Harley was going. They would be at the beach until class time was over at St. Genevieve's and they were allowed to roam within a perimeter set by the school for them. A lot of the boys ran towards the water as soon as they got off the bus, trying to prove they were brave against the cold water of the morning waves. 

Harley felt Calum tense beside her from the moment they parked and the students started piling out of the bus. That nervousness and fear she had seen in him when they were in Brisbane was back, and though he got off the bus with her, he immediately started sweating buckets when he saw the ocean in the distance.

The two stopped in front of the exit of the bus as other students tried to get past them. But Calum wouldn't budge and Harley was in a panic, hoping he wouldn't have a breakdown. It wasn't until Luke Hemmings needed to pass that Calum moved, but it wasn't on his own. Luke had shoved him forward, yelling, "Out of my fucking way, dumbass!" Calum fell on the sandy concrete of the parking lot on his hands and knees while Luke stood over him with a smirk, expecting Calum to get back up and fight him. The two boys had been at each other's throats for the entirety of their high school lives.

Harley stepped in between the two boys. "What the fuck are you doing, Luke?" She snapped at him when she saw that Calum wouldn't get back up.

"He was in my way." The rich boy shrugged his shoulders, that smirk that annoyed Harley to her depths remained on his lips. Her hands balled into fists and she was highly tempted to take a swing at him in an attempt to wipe that smirk clean off. Some of the other students who had taken notice of the incident were beginning to pile in a circle around them.

Without even thinking about it, she slung her backpack off her shoulders and dropped it on the floor by the side of the bus to provide her with more mobility. Bringing her hands up that were still closed into fists, she challenged him, "Come on then. If you want to fight him so bad, you'll have to fight me first." Harley Quinn was dead serious, the look on her face said it all. "Don't you fucking dare touch him again."

Luke laughed at her. A cheerleader was challenging him--a football player--to a fist fight. It was unheard of. Normally the cheerleaders of St. Genevieve's were always encouraging him and on his side. "I'm not gonna fight you, Harley. I'm not fighting a girl."

"Are you afraid I'll beat the shit out of you?-"

Behind her, Calum was just getting back on his feet when he heard what she was about to do. Dusting the sand off himself, he grabbed her by the arm with a firm grip and turned her around to face him. "What the fuck do you think you're doing? I can't let you fight a guy who's taller and stronger than you. Are you fucking insane?" He hissed at her in a whisper. Luke was certainly taller and stronger than her, but she had two advantages over him. For one, he refused to fight her. And also, she had special abilities she could use in her favor.

"She's trying to fight your battles for you, mate." Luke replied for her in amusement, trying to push Calum into agreeing to fight him.

"She doesn't have to." Calum said, his voice low and completely serious. Now he was the one standing in front of Harley protectively.

The two teenage boys were staring each other down now, with the crowd of students around them anxiously waiting for a fight. Everyone knew Calum and Luke hated each other, and had been waiting years to see them go at it again.

Before one of them could throw the first punch, someone else stepped in. This time it was Harley's older brother Billy Quinn. He held Luke back, saying to him, "Don't do it, mate. You'll kill your chances of doing the rest of the fourth year activities. If you really want to fight him, do it in The Alley." St. Genevieve's had a persuasive way of getting the students to attend classes and behave when they were in their last year. 

Missing several days of school, having bad grades, and getting into fights was punished with taking away fourth year activities. No one wanted to lose them, so the students would behave the most during their fourth year. It was the reason the fourth year students took their fights outside the school, in an ally right next to St. Genevieve's. It was a place they called The Alley and everyone knew what happened there was not to be found out by the administration at school.

Billy still was unaware that it had been Luke--his best friend--who had purposefully broken him and Cindy up the first time. And it was because of his being unaware that they were still friends. Harley knew Billy was forgiving and a generally nice person, but what Luke had done was crossing the line; ruining his sister's relationship with his best friend because Phoenix liked Billy and he was jealous.

Harley grabbed Calum's hand and pulled him away from the crowd. At least when he was angry he didn't have the time to think about his fear of the ocean. They were a distance from the dispersing crowd when he stopped in his tracks and narrowed his brown eyes into a glare that was meant for her. "Why would you ever think you can fight someone bigger and stronger than you?" He asked her, jaw clenched, his tone in a scolding mode. "Did you actually think you were going to win? I'm supposed to be the one protecting you."

She rolled her eyes at him. "That sounds like something Ashton would say." It was the one thing she didn't like about Ashton, how he thought that all women were damsels in distress, meant to be saved by a knight in shining armor. But the thing with Ashton was that he was a victim of his times and he had been raised that way. It hadn't been his fault. And it was the one thing about him that seemed to have rubbed off on Calum.

"Well Mirror Boy is right, just this once." He defended himself.

"Whatever, Calum." Harley sighed. She had no desire to argue with him. She would have fought Luke any day in order to defend Calum. 

-

Calum and Harley were sitting on the cold sand, several feet from the waves that were hitting the shore. They were sat on one of the dunes, watching everyone have fun down by the water. Her brother and his popular friends were playing a game of flag football with Cindy and the other cheerleaders cheering them on. The soccer players were having their own little game of soccer, and the rest of them were having fun in the water.

When Calum's anger finally died down was when Harley noticed the way he was sweating again. It was a nervous sweat because it still wasn't hot at the beach, not at that time of day. The sun wasn't nearly at its highest and the air was still chilly.

At one point, he got back on his feet and said to Harley as he tugged on the neck of his soccer jersey, "I'll be right back. I think I forgot my backpack on the bus." 

"I'll go with you." She offered, getting up to follow him.

He was already on his way back to the parking lot, his feet carrying him quickly. Harley hurried to catch up, but he was walking much faster than her, almost at a running speed. She needed to jog to catch up. As they neared the bus, she noticed he had his backpack on. "You didn't leave your backpack on the bus." She said through heavy breathing. It was something of a long way back to the parking lot and she was tired. 

By now he had reached the bus and was banging on the door with his fist. Inside, the startled driver looked out at him, wondering what he wanted. The driver opened the door and asked, "What's wrong?"

Calum didn't reply and stepped onto the first step of the bus and Harley stopped him, grabbing his hand. "Calum, wait. Everything is fine. Let's go back down to the beach." She insisted. 

He shook his head quickly. He wouldn't even look back at the ocean behind them. "I can't."

"Why not?"

"The tide is rising." He told her he told her in something of a panic. They were the same words he had said to her once before, when they were back at the hotel in Brisbane. The sweat was already being soaked into his soccer jersey and he tugged at the collar again as though it were suffocating him. "I can't stay here. I have to get out of here."

It had been a terrible idea for him to go on the beach trip, she realized. 

Calum had a phobia of water.

-

this is the longest chapter i have written so far. but i wanted to update. and i hope you all enjoy reading this new chapter. so we have  alot of things happening. the beach trip, and harley about to fight luke, then calum and his phobia. i wont talk more because i have to go get ready for school.

qotd: what did you think of harley wanting to fight luke to defend calum? i thought it was badass bc i wrote it and because i just love strong female characters. 

anyway, i hope you all have a great day. i know some of these updates have been rather rushed. but i just want this story to end on time so that i don't have to add another book to the series. i love this series, dont get me wrong. but its time for it to come to an end and i want to be able to focus on my new series "wild ones" (the greek gods one). 

thank you loads for reading! have a great week!

-clary xx