Love Triangle

Chapter Thirty-Five

Chapter Thirty-Five

I felt like I dodged the bullet when I walked into Chem class. Ashton, who was more adept to adopting better working methods already had our lab sheets out. I was duly impressed. He was also more accustomed to my complaints. Plus we had an agreement, we're partners so long he doesn't skip any lab classes. So far so good. He has proven to be a trustworthy and steady partner. I was more on edge today because I was anticipating Cook to jump out of nowhere and inquire about my dialing and hanging up fiasco.

When Cook strolled into class though, he seemed tired and uninterested. He didn't glance at me once. He took his seat next to his partner and they started on their labs as well.

***

In English class, things shifted quite a bit.

Cook sat next to me, a bemused smile on his face as Ms. McConnell assigned us to read "The Lord of the Flies." A gloomy dystopian classic that hadn't read yet but was excited to.

"I see you've resorted to prank calling love," Cook remarked.

I refrained from rolling my eyes. What can I say? I don't even know myself why I called him.

"I..." I started.

"Look I could use some help for the next English test. No hard feelings. Just tutoring. I won't be nasty to you again."

I nodded. "Sure."

"Really?" His eyes regarded me with suspicion as if not believing me.

I nodded again.

"Well thats fantastic," he said. Cook smiled, noting the sincerity to my decision.

Then I smiled as well but he was frowning from his outburst of emotion. Was Cook as thrilled as I was relieved?

***

It was lunch time and Katy brought up the topic of Halloween.

"So," she began, disregarding her sandwich, which I kept eyeing suspiciously. "I'll be dressed as Britney Spears from her "Hit Me Baby One More Time" video."

Amanda whistled. "Damn girl. You'll win this year's contest. Hands down."

The Halloween costume contest was no small feat. There was a winner, male and female, for each grade. Six winners in total. This year's theme, orchestrated by the school committee, is late 90s to early 2000s. Everything ranging from Britney Spears pop culture to 90s horror movies.

Katy furrowed her brows. "Thanks. We'll see. What are you girls dressing up as?"