Chapter Ten Part Two - Heat

"Remember that all those in a group will share the same mark, but you will get individual comments. I'll hand those out now," Mrs Smith announced, picking up the stack of papers. I waited in anticipation, wondering how it had all played out. I didn't think I had done that bad and I didn't think that Ace had done bad either. Now, all I needed was to find out what we got.

"Well done Cathy," she smiled, passing me the marking key.
"Ace, I'm surprised," she said as she got up to Ace. "Pleasantly surprised, that is."

My eyes nearly boggled out of my head. Sure, I thought we did good, but not that good. I glanced over to see Ace's reaction. As per usual, not much of a reaction. He looked like he got marks like that everyday. When obviously, he didn't.

"Hunter, Dylan, Dean, see me after class," she said sternly.

We spent the class studying, but I couldn't get much done next to a childishly seething Hunter. I couldn't study at school or around people anyway. I got up and left as soon as we were dismissed to avoid being annoyed by Hunter.

However, Archer caught up on the way out. "Are you buying recess?" he asked.
"Um nope, I've got to get changed for sport," I replied. "I'm buying lunch though," I added for no reason whatsoever.
"Great. What class do you have before lunch?"
I thought back to my timetable. "Lit," I answered.
"We're in the same class then. We should just take our stuff with us to the canteen." I nodded in agreement and we parted ways.

I unlocked my locker and shoved my books inside. I had the feeling someone was behind me. It was just that sort of a feeling, so I turned around.
"Boo!" Ella exclaimed.
"You are so lame," I said, rolling my eyes.
"The guys asked me if we were going to the show, so I said 'yes'," Ella notified.
"What guys?"
"The badboys. Duh."
"You did what?"
"Hunter seemed a bit ticked off though. What happened?"
"He's being unreasonable."

"How was I being unreasonable?" Hunter said out of nowhere.
"What happened?" Ella asked.
"I told her to come with me to the annual show. And she said 'no'," Hunter replied childishly.
"I'm pretty sure you're supposed to ask for those things. You don't tell me to come and go," I scowled. Ella looked from me to Hunter and back again continuously

"You guys act like three year olds!" she laughed. "Seriously. Okay so Cathy is going to the show. We're all going as a group, why don't you guys just tag along?"
"Are you telling me to tag along?" he seemed slightly offended "I don't 'tag along', I set the date and time."
"Yeah, no, I'm definitely not going with you," I said.

I went on my tip toes, grabbed a five dollar note from my bag and shut the locker, turning and heading out of the science wing.
"Oi, where are you going?" Ella asked.
"Canteen," I answered.

I didn't turn around, but I had a strange feeling Hunter was following me. I risked a glance over my shoulder; he wasn't there. However, Archer was.
"I told you to wait didn't I?" he said, jogging up to where I was.
"Oh yeah, sorry about that," I replied, recalling what he had said earlier.
"What do you usually get? I've been her for weeks and the menu here doesn't seem to change."
"It doesn't."
"I see." We joined the end of the year twelve line and waited patiently as it crawled forward. The canteen ladies had never been really efficient workers.

There was a strong shove and two guys shoved past me, snickering as though it were an amazing accomplishment.
"Jeez. I hate people who push in line," I mumbled quietly to Archer.

He looked past my shoulder to the two guys who had just passed and squeezed himself past as well. I watched, curious of what he was going to do.
"Don't you think it's a tad rude to push past a girl in line?" I heard him say. There were a few laughs and sneers. One of them pushed him and just as I was about to go up and tell him to drop it, he said something that stunned both of them.

All of a sudden, they didn't look so confident. The second however managed a week sneer. Archer tilted his head and stared at the sneering face for a moment before grabbing his collar and dragging him to the back of the line.

His friend looked a tad afraid but followed behind. Somehow this had garnered quite a decent amount of attention and I tried to look uninvolved, which became rather difficult considering the fact that Archer had returned in line and stood next to me where he was before.
"What was that for?" I asked.
"Didn't you say you hated line cutters?" he replied.
"What did you say to them?"
"Do you really want to know?"
"Uh...yeah?"
"My name."
"What?"
"My name. Apparently there are some weird rumours floating around so I have a reputation as a very dangerous person."
"What an inaccurate rumour," I laughed.
"Are you doubting me?" I nodded and continued laughing.

"I am dangerous. In various ways," he said.
"I don't take you seriously at all," I replied, struggling to contain my laughter. Finally, it was our turn. We both bought sausage rolls.
"When are you going to start studying for your exams?" he asked. My laughter was no longer difficult to contain. It was the tears that I had to stop from pouring out of my eyeballs.
"This week. Hopefully. I always plan to study earlier so I can totally own everyone but that never really works out," I sighed.
"How does group study sound?" he asked. Wait. Group study as in me and him? or group study as in me, him and some other people? Because those two group studies were very different.

"You're looking at me really weirdly. What?" Archer asked, looking at me strangely. I hadn't paid attention to what I was doing with my face, but it was probably along the lines of a gape with eyes widening and staring blankly into the distance. Creepy.
"Uh, nothing."
"So, group study. Yes or no?"
"Um..." I pondered for a moment.

There was an arm swung around my shoulder and my neck shrunk into my shoulders as though I were a turtle. I wasn't a fan of contact. At all. I looked over at the perpetrator, prepared to yell at them.

"I'm sorry, but Cathy here will be tutoring me," Hunter said, glancing down at me with a smirk.
"Get your arm off me!" I snapped, weaving out from under. Just as I had gotten free an was ready to make my escape, Ace grabbed my arm.
"Sincere apologies, Cathy will be helping us," Ace said, grinning at me.

"When did you decide to join the bandwagon to make me miserable?" I grumbled to Ace.
"Not enjoying the special treatment?" He teased. "On the bright side, at least I didn't hug you or swing my arm around you."
"Of course that's the bright side."
"Of course, the best part about this is that you can have assistance from me for study."
"Assistance...from you?" I scoffed. "There is no way I am going to group study with you."
"Rude."
"Besides, where do you propose we group study?"
"My house?" My mind flashed back to the night I spent at his house.
"Hell no!" I exclaimed. "What? Girls don't just casually go to guys' houses. Especially shady ones!"
"You've done it before," he said quietly in a sing-song voice.

Archer looked over at me and I stiffened, despite having no obligation to report my whereabouts nor any reason to care what he thought about me.
"That doesn't count!" I protested. "It was either your house or the streets. I ran an equal risk, but at least it was more comfortable than the pavement. That was the first and the last time I am ever doing that."
"It's not like I had fun. I spent the night on the ground," Ace replied.

Somehow we ended up folding our arms while having a staring competition. Thanks a lot Ace. Now everyone - yes the 'everyone' referred to the meagre two people around us - had weird thoughts about me.

"Eat with us today?" Hunter asked.
"No thanks." I replied promptly. I walked past Hunter and Ace to Archer. "O-kay. Let's go," I said to him.

Archer glanced at the other two one last time before departing. "Are you busy this weekend?" He asked as we walked back to Ella and Jenny.
"Yeah, lots of studying to do. The sad part is, I'll spend my whole weekend at home and get nothing done," I sighed.
"Great!" He said.
"How is that great?" I asked immediately after.
"Wait, let me finish what I was saying," he laughed. "Wanna go watch a movie to relieve stress before study?"
"That sounds cool. Have you asked Ella yet?"
"Uh."
"What?"
"I was thinking maybe we could go together..." He said slowly.
"Oh." My face was going into overdrive again and the burning sensation was, well, truly burning. "Sure," I answered, despite my clear embarrassment.

"Hey, what are you two doing? Little miss tomato?" Ella asked mischievously as she walked up to us.

School days came and went, and then weekend came. We had organised to meet up at the cinema at two o'clock to see an action movie. Earlier we had discussed what type of movie to watch. I figured watching a romance would be too awkward, watching a thriller or horror would make me jump and potentially do strange things and comedy could make me laugh way too hard and also lead to potentially embarrassing things.

"It's a date!" Ella exclaimed over the phone. "What are you thinking? Wearing jeans and a coat!"
"It's cold. Also, my jeans are nice and my coat is nice." Ella had insisted on coming over to help me get ready for the 'date' but I had managed to convince her to settle for a phone call.
"It's a date woman!" She screeched. "Although I'm sure Archer is infatuated with you, being too conservative is just boring."
"It's not a date!" I retorted.

It was unusual for me to have spent many nights pondering about today. Was it really a date? After a while, and after much 'evidence' from Ella, I couldn't deny that I had a strange feeling that he might possibly like me.

"It's cold you moron! Besides, I've been waiting for ages until it was cold enough to wear this coat! I love this coat!" I exclaimed. Ella remained silent, which was rather unexpected.
"Hey Cathy, did you purposely choose clothes you like?"
"Uh, yeah?"
"Do they look good on you?"
"They look alright on me?" I answered unsurely.
"Cathy...do you like Archer?" She asked slowly.

"What?" I replied.
"I mean, you chose nice clothes specifically for this. Isn't it possible that you like him?" She explained. "Last time you went tutoring, you wore jeans and a shirt. That is what you wear when you're too lazy to care about how you look! If you chose nice clothes, that means you care, which obviously means you like him," she elaborated.
"If only you put this much effort into school work," I joked. "Besides, didn't you ask me if I liked Hunter a while ago?"
"This is different!" She exclaimed. "I realised it just now how you're more easily embarrassed around Archer. Also, he is your first love! I'm sure the embers of your romance have rekindled!" She continued dramatically.

"For the millionth time, he is not my first love!" I screeched, possibly a little too loud for comfort. Just after, I remembered that my mum was in the house and well, she was against the idea of liking boys while in highschool. Therefore, it would not be in my favour to get her worked up about this topic.
"You're in denial again," Ella sang.
"I'm going to hang up on you."
"But -" I hung up and put my phone on the bed as I changed into a pair of dark blue skinny jeans and a white long-sleeved chiffon shirt. I pulled my treasured red coat out of the closet and put it on. It was a snug fit and instantly warmed me. Oh boy it was so beautiful. Of course, on most people it stopped mid-thigh, but for me it stopped only a tad above the knee; it was one of the woes of being part of the shorter population.

I left the house at one thirty and caught the bus to the shopping centre. The cinema stood proudly at the west end of the centre with people walking in and out constantly. The smell of fresh popcorn wafted into my nose. I liked smelling popcorn more than eating it.

I sat down on one of the benches outside to wait for Archer. I swung my legs aimlessly, watching my feet go up and down. Yes, I was bored. I thought about what Ella had said. Did I actually like him? I did look nice though and today was the first time I was wearing my beloved red coat. I looked up, unprepared for what I was about to see.

"Oi, it's your turn to take out the trash," a guy around my age said. I looked over to see who he was talking to. He handed a black bag to a tall guy with hair so dark it was almost black.
"Of course you choose the weekends to make me take out the trash," the tall guy laughed.
"You can't blame me," the other replied. "The girls come on weekends," he added.
"Yeah, with their boyfriends." The tall guy dragged the bag of trash towards the bin which happened to be next to the bench where I was sitting.

I accidentally made eye contact. I froze. He froze.

"Cathy!" Archer exclaimed from the steps of the cinema. I gave one last glance back before getting up to walk towards him.
"Hey," I replied.
"Were you waiting out here all this time?" He asked. I nodded. "I was inside," he laughed. "Let's go buy popcorn."