Chapter 7

When I walked through the door of our house that night, I rushed upstairs and stripped myself of my wet clothing. A soaking wet skirt and tight tank top weren’t exactly comfortable to wear, so I decided to change out of my soaking clothes and slip into a pair of pajamas I had just bought.

Since I didn’t exactly know we were moving here until our car pulled into the driveway, I simply packed up all of my clothes, which didn’t include all that much summer clothes. A couple days after we arrived I had gone shopping with my mom to get a bunch of clothes that I could wear here, and I loved some of the pajamas that had ended up in my shopping bags.

Before pulling on a pair of thin polka dot pajama shorts and a baggy white t-shirt, I jumped into the shower quickly to scrub off all of the chlorine that had soaked into my skin and hair when Cason threw me into the pool.

Once I was dressed, I decided to go downstairs and find my mom. I knew she probably had some questions floating around in her head about Cason, and I just wanted to set her straight.

Heading downstairs I found my mom under a thin blanket on the sofa with the television turned onto a re-run of Gilmore Girls.

“You have room for one more?” I asked as I nodded down to the empty seat beside her on the couch.

My mom, turning her gaze away from the TV, smiled at me and nodded, lifting her blanket up slightly so I could slide underneath it with her.

For the first couple of minutes we just sat there quietly and watched the events of the re-run play out however, once a commercial came on my mom reached for the remote and muted the television.

 "So honey, how did you like dinner tonight?” my mom asked with a nervous smile.

I rested my head against the back of the couch as I turned my head to look at her. “Well, Diana is really nice and she’s an amazing cook. The meal was delicious.”  I replied with as much honesty as I could, telling her what she wanted to hear.

“Now, how did you find the night excluding the food?” she asked, giving me a pointed look that told me she knew what I was trying to do.

I sighed. “Honestly mom, it was kind of awkward.” I replied before continuing. “At some points I could talk to Cason and he wouldn’t tease me, but other time, like when he threw me in the pool and when he told you we were friends, it seemed as though he was just looking for ways to push my buttons. I’ve barely even spoken to him at all besides the odd word or two in English, and then tonight he just started to piss me off without any reason.”

After I had finished my explanation, my mom let out a slight chuckle as she brought her arms around me in a comforting hug. “You know, they always say that boys make fun of girls and tease them when they want to hide their true feelings.” she stated in a motherly voice, although her tone also seemed to be laced with an ounce of amusement.

Pulling back slightly, I raising my eyebrows at my mother’s ludicrous idea.  “I’m pretty sure they say that when they boy and girl are both in kindergarten or primary school, not high school mom.” I replied dryly.

“You never know sweetie, sometimes people surprise you.” she said with a serene expression gracing her face.

I shook my head. “Apparently Cason’s known as a bad boy around the town.” I stated. “I’m not judging him because I haven’t seen anything that would give him that reputation, but based on the way he acted tonight, I would say that he’s just showing his true colours, not trying to get my attention.”

“If he’s known as a bad boy, why didn’t you tell me?” my mom asked curiously.

“I know what rumours and untrue statements do to the people's minds mom. They make them believe things that aren’t true and make a small mistake seem like a terrorist attack. I wasn’t judging Cason, and neither should you.” I replied. “Plus, with a mom like Diana, he can’t be all bad.”

“So what are you saying?”

“I’m saying that I’m going to get back at him for throwing me into the pool, but after that I’ll go about my normal business and if he wants to keep picking on me, then I’ll be able to see his true colours.” I explained.

My mom nodded in understanding before hugging me again. “When did my little Jessalyn become such a beautiful and smart young women?”

I smiled into my mom’s chest. “I don’t know, but I’ll always be your little girl mom.”

 "Your father would be so proud of you Jessalyn, well maybe not about the fact that a guy is getting on your nerves, but he’d definitely be proud of how mature you’re acting now.” my mom stated, a few tear drops running down from her eyes as she remembered the love she had recently lost.

Choking back my own sobs at the thought of my deceased father, I was able to comfort my mom. “Thanks mom, I love you.”

“I love you too sweetie.” she replied, unmuting the television as we spent the rest of the night watching television, sharing each other’s comfort.

That night, we both fell asleep on the couch together, and awakening on Saturday morning, we spent the rest of the weekend together as she helped me with my homework or walked with me around the town.

Monday morning I woke up after a relaxing weekend with my mom ready for school. I had straightened my hair the night before and I chose one of my new outfits to wear the night before. Once I was dressed in a pair of jean shorts and a white tank top that had lace on the top, I clipped a simple feather necklace around my neck and grabbed my bag before heading downstairs to have breakfast.

Like always, my mom was dressed in her work clothes however, instead of going over her plans for the day, she was at the stove cooking.

“Mom?” I asked, slightly confused. Usually I would be the one to make a quick breakfast, but for some reason, today my mom had taken up the role of the breakfast chef.

Turning around after turning the heat on the stove down, my mom smiled at me. “Morning honey, did you have a good sleep?” she asked, before turning back to the stove and flipping what looked like pancakes in a pan.

“Umm.. yea, but mom, why are you cooking breakfast?” I asked, sitting down at the table.

As she took her pan off of the stove, she set three freshly cooked blueberry pancakes on a plate in front of me while sliding the maple syrup and butter across the table.

"Well,” she started, setting a couple more pancakes on the stove for herself before turning to look at me, “I guess after our relaxing weekend I felt that I should make you a nice breakfast. You always spend some time in the morning making both of us a good meal, but I wanted you to be relaxed this morning.”

I appreciated her thoughtfulness as I drenched my pancakes in syrup before digging into my breakfast. Since my dad was a culinary chef, my mom didn’t have the chance to cook all that often however, when she did, it was always a treat because it was simple and comforting food that still managed to taste delicious.

After a minute or two, my mom joined me at the table for breakfast and followed my lead, drowning her own stack of pancakes with syrup.

Once breakfast was over and I had downed a glass of milk, I placed my dishes in the sink before saying a quick goodbye to my mom. As always, she offered me a ride to school but I declined, preferring to get my daily exercise and fresh air on my walk to and from school.

Olivia had texted me before first class started informing me that her mom had booked her a dentist appointment in the morning, asking me if I could collect her homework while telling me she would still meet me for lunch near the picnic tables at the back of the school.

When lunch rolled around, the bell rang and I walked out of my chemistry class with my books tucked tightly to my chest. It didn’t matter that I was in a new place because old habits die hard, and sometimes I still felt as though the jocks and cheerleaders would come up behind me and knock my books to the ground.

Heading to my locker quickly, I weaved in and out of the different people talking at their lockers before reaching it. Opening the lock quickly, I threw my books on the top shelf before grabbing the bag that contained my lunch and closing my locker.

Looking down the hallway, I saw Olivia walking towards me from where her locker was located across the school, and waited in front of my locker so she could catch up to me.

“Hey Jessalyn.” she greeted as she adjusted her bag, stopping her steps beside me.

I smiled at her as we fell into step together heading towards the courtyard in the back of the school. She was holding true to her quirky style today as she had on a pair of jean short overalls with a white and black striped t-shirt under them. Like always, the outfit made her look younger than her true age. but it also made her look cute somehow.

“Hey Olivia, how was the dentist?” I asked as we opened the back doors of the school.

The sun was shining bright today however, the humidity was low and the temperature wasn’t all that high, making for a perfect day to eat outside.

Olivia scrunched up her nose at my question and shook her head slightly before replying. “Ugh, I hate the dentist.” she stated. “All they do is poke around your mouth and tell you what you’re doing wrong when it comes to hygiene. I bet half of them actually have worse teeth than us, but they’re still the ones with the criticism."

Giggling quietly at her rant, I sat down across from her as we reached our usual picnic table. It was half sheltered by the shade of a tree so on days when it got really hot we’d be able to slide down to the other end of the table however, today we were seated in the sun.

“It’s just a part of life Olivia, we all have to go to the dentist once or twice a year and deal with the evil people that want to scrape and clean our teeth.” I said sarcastically as I opened my up my lunch and unwrapped a chicken salad sandwich I had made the night before.

Olivia, giving me a fake glare, replied with just as much sarcasm. “Oh I’m sorry if I’m a little bit afraid when people I don’t know stick pointy objects in my mouth.”

Rolling my eyes, I took a bite of my sandwich, enjoying the delicious taste that hit my taste buds immediately before taking our topic of conversation in a completely different direction.

“So, how was your weekend away with your family?” I asked, genuinely interested in how her weekend had gone.

However, I knew that her Friday night couldn’t have possibly been as interesting as mine.

“Well,” she started as she swallowed a bite of the pasta salad she had brought in her lunch, “After school on Friday, my mom, dad and I all headed about forty-five minutes out of town to visit my grandmother, but you already know that. Anyways, on Friday night we just ate supper as a family and had a bon-fire in the backyard to catch up. The rest of the weekend was really just spent roaming around the town with my grandmother doing errands, shopping and relaxing. It was good to have a weekend away, but I like living here better than in the city - it’s more peaceful here and there’s a lot less people here.”

I nodded, realizing that we both had a pretty relaxing weekend spent with our families, which was good once and a while.

“So what about you?” she asked, taking another bite of her pasta salad. “How’d you spend your weekend?”

I shrugged my shoulders however; I was smirking on the inside. “I spent my Saturday and Sunday with my mom. We basically just watched movies, baked a couple of things and walked around the town. It was a relaxing weekend and just what I needed.” I answered.

“Okay, so what about Friday?” Olivia asked, raising her eyebrow questioningly.

‘So she had caught that I left that part out’ I thought while smiling at her.

“You won’t believe me if I told you.”

“Now I’m interested.” she stated, putting her fork down and giving me her undivided attention.

I bit my lip shyly and replied. “Well, I spent my Friday with Cason.” I replied vaguely.

As soon as the words left my mouth, I knew the exact moment when they had registered in Olivia’s mind because, when they did, her eyes turned the size of soccer balls and her jaw went slack as her mouth opened wide with shock.

She shook her head after a couple of seconds, getting herself out of whatever trance she was in and replied. “I’m sorry; my ears must not be working. I thought you said you had spent Friday with Cason.”

“Umm… that’s because that's what I said.” I replied.

“Cason?” she asked, and I nodded shyly in reply. “Cason Michaels? The Cason Michaels that is supposed to be the bad boy Cason Michaels!” she continued in disbelief, but my only reply was to continue nodding with slight embarrassment.

“Umm, okay, and would you mind explaining to me just how you and Cason spent Friday night together?” she asked, as if she needed proof.

“Trust me, it definitely wasn’t my choice.” I grumbled, finishing off the last of my sandwich.

“Now you’ve lost me.” Olivia replied, looking thoroughly confused.

I sighed before launching into the tale of how my mom had told me were going to have dinner with a co-worker and her son. Skipping over the parts on where I was wary about going over, I went straight to the part where we arrived there and I was shocked to see that Diana’s son was Cason, that we were neighbours. I briefly talked about how awkward it was watching TV with him, and told her how good the food had been before adding more detail when he had brought me to the backyard.

“And then without any warning at all he just picked me up effortlessly and tossed me into his pool fully clothed. I was so mad that I swam to the side of the pool, climbed out, and chased him through his house soaking wet.” I finished, grimacing at the not-so-distant memory.

By the end of my story, Olivia had obviously found my tale quite amusing because she had burst out in laughter the second I stopped talking.

“Oh ha ha, I’ll just sit here while you laugh at my horrible experiences.” I stated sarcastically, crossing my arms over my chest.

It took Olivia a couple of minutes to cool down, and by the time she had stopped laughing I had already finished eating my granola bar and was half way done my yogurt cup.

“Sounds like you definitely enjoyed your Friday night.” she stated, wiping a stray tear from her eye that had escaped in result of her laughter.

I rolled my eyes at her, putting my yogurt cup down on the picnic table. “Yea, I definitely didn’t enjoy that night all that much.”

Olivia shrugged, taking a sip from her juice box before replying. “What I don’t understand is how you got Cason to talk to you.” she stated. “No offense to you or anything, but I’ve never seen him talk to anyone besides Evan and suddenly you’re telling me he talked to you without a problem on Friday night.”

“Non-taken however, that night he did say that we were stuck together for the time being so we might as well suck it up and talk instead of making it awkward.” I explained, repeating what he had told me that night. “And I think you made a mistake… he did talk to me, but there was definitely some problems.”

At my response we both started to laugh at my expense, but it didn’t matter. This wasn’t the type of laughter I received from my old classmates; this was a genuine laughter because what had happened to me had been unfortunate but truly comedic.

Wiping tears from my eyes that had escaped when I was laughing, my eyes unconsciously directed themselves towards the side of the school where Cason and Evan were normally seen hanging out.

Without surprise, there was Cason, resting against the school wall as he and Evan talked about whatever it is that they talked about. Girls, booze, school… who knows.

Before I could avert my gaze, Cason’s eyes found their way to mine and our gaze met. Instead of pulling my eyes away in an embarrassed fashion, I simply glared at him, in which he replied with a smirk.

Shaking my head, I took my eyes off of him and focused on what remained of my lunch. Opening the container of juice that I packed for myself, I brought it up to my mouth to quench my thirst and as I swallowed, I quickly looked in Cason’s direction again.

It was a good thing I had already swallowed my juice because I would’ve done a spit take if I hadn’t. Instead of resting up against the side of the school like he previously was, Cason and Evan were strolling towards our table, and Cason definitely had a smirk plastered on his face.

“Shit.” I mumbled, moving some of my hair in front of my face.

“Hey, what’s wrong Jessalyn?” Olivia asked, concerned at my actions.

Nodding my head discreetly in Cason’s direction and Olivia turned her head to see what I was talking about. When she saw the scene that was playing out, she whipped her head back around to me and ducked her head. “Why the hell are they coming over here?” she asked quietly, panic seeping into her voice.

“I have no idea, but I have a feeling we're about to find out.” I answered in the same hushed tone she had used.

A couple seconds later, I noticed that the sun rays hitting our table had been blocked by something in their way, and I knew exactly what it was - or should I say who.

Turning my head to the side, I sent a glare up to the smirking Cason. “What the hell are you doing over here?” I asked with slight anger behind my voice.

Not dropping the smirk from his face, he replied. “Well, I just wanted to say hello to my newest  little friend.” he replied.

I rolled my eyes. “I’m pretty sure after Friday night I’m in no mood to be your friend.” I stated, bringing my head up and crossing my arms across my chest.

“What are you talking about? Friday night was a blast - the most fun I’ve had in a long time.” he said, his smirk still very much present on his face.

“Oh yeah, because drenching me with water and lying to both of our mothers is just so much fun.” I said sarcastically.

“Exactly, and it looks as though you’ve dried off since then.”

“Of course I have, I changed as soon as I got home you idiot.”

“Wait a second,” Evan said, butting into mine and Cason’s conversation, “This is the girl you were talking about this weekend? The one you tossed in the pool?”

“Unfortunately.” I muttered in reply.

“Well it looks like things are about to get interesting.” he stated, confusing me slightly before he continued. “Hey, I’m Evan, this guy’s best friend.”

“Jessalyn.” I replied, introducing myself to him with a small smile. “And this is my friend Olivia.” I continued, nodding to Olivia who seemed to be staying quiet.

At the sound of her name, Olivia’s head snapped up and she looked at me nervously before turning to the two boys in front of us.  “Yea… hi.” she replied shyly.

“Oh, you’re that really smart girl in our year, aren’t you?” Evan asked Olivia.

“Umm… yea, I guess.” she replied nervously, probably unsure of why Evan was even talking with her as she drew random patterns on the picnic table with her finger.

“Anyways, I just wanted to come over here and say hi to my new best buddy and see how the rest of your weekend played out.” Cason stated, directing his voice towards me.

Rolling my eyes, I replied. “First off all, we're not friends and you came over here to annoy me. Second of all, why in the world would I tell you how I spent the rest of my weekend?” I asked, getting a little annoyed.

“Oh come on Jessa, you know if you put that little pool incident behind us we can get along just fine.” he said.

“Don’t call me Jessa.” I replied quickly, as my anger and annoyance level rose when he used that nickname for me.

I had warned him at his house about calling me Jessa but now, after begging him to call me something else, he still insisted on doing so.

“I don’t see why I can’t call you Jessa. Once you give me an explanation on why the nickname is so cursed, I’ll see if I want to stop using it or not, but probably not.” he replied cockily.

Before I could bother with a reply, the bell that signalled the end of the lunch period rang and the sound was heard throughout the courtyard.

Looking around, I saw that most people that had been out here at the beginning of lunch had already vacated inside for class but, that wasn’t the only thing I noticed. I could also clearly make out the glares of several girls and they were all directed towards me. Great, not only had Cason succeeded in annoying me, he probably also succeeded in making all of the girls jealous because he was talking to me.

Packing up my lunch quickly with Olivia, I was trying to get out of this uncomfortable situation as fast as possible.

“It’s been real nice, but I have to get to class and get far away from you.” I stated, standing up with Olivia as we hurriedly made our way towards the back entrance to the school.

“Jessa, you do realize that I sit right beside you in your next class right.” Cason stated, loud enough so that me and the rest of the courtyard could hear him clearly.

Halting my steps, I realized that I had actually forgotten about that small fact.

‘Now, instead of a silent Cason in English class, I have to deal with an annoying Cason for the rest of the semester.’ I thought as I continued on my path to English, slightly more angry than I had been before.

This semester just got a whole lot more difficult.

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Chapter 7 is complete and I hope you all enjoy it! Remember to vote and comment your opinions below!

Sorry that it’s a bit late but, while writing this I got off track a lot and instead of the usual three hours, I’ve been in front of my laptop for the past six hours or so. Hopefully it all paid off though :)

Also, remember to check the website for this story to see when the next update will be!

P.S. If you see any mistakes or awkward wording within the chapter, please don't hesitate to tell me x