Chapter Thirty Three – The Flare Gun Is Fired

Three confessions. Three guys. Three upcoming tests.

The fantastic rule of threes had struck again. The first two were supposed to be positives, but decision making had never been my strong point and they were taking time from the third.

I had no idea what I was going to say. To any of them. I quickly scanned the yard before bee lining for the lockers. As I passed through the door, I felt a hand tug at my arm. It was Dean.

"Hey. What's up?" I said frantically.

"I feel like acting isn't really the direction you should take for a future career." He let go of my arm. "You're being all weird, and I know exactly why."

I shifted the weight from my right to left leg and grabbed the straps of my bag tighter.

"Look, I'm dating Ella and the last thing I want to do is make things awkward between you and Ella. The thing is, you and I both know that all the cards are on the table now," Dean began. He muttered awkwardly, wrapping his hand around the nape of his neck. "The last time something like this happened was with Carla. They didn't talk to each other for over a month! Give them an answer soon. Don't tear them apart like Carla did."

"Sure," I said. I'll try. Dean grinned and waved as soon as Ella appeared in the doorway. "Okay lovebirds, I don't need to see this," I laughed.

I could deal with the whole 'matters of the heart' things later. For now, the chemistry, physics and maths tests would keep me more than sufficiently occupied, which gave me more than enough reason to keep my head down and my pen moving during each and every class.

It also gave me enough reason to bolt out of the school yard after school. Winter was a pain because it rained, stormed and made me almost freeze to death, but summer was arguably worse. The sun seared my skin, the heat prickling my flesh.

None of this was different when I walked home that afternoon, and I could have sworn it was the hottest afternoon all year.

"You're home early," my mum said as I walked in through the door. "Can you wash the stack of dishes in the sink from last night? I'm exhausted after work and cooking dinner."

"No!" I shrieked, a little louder than I had intended. Sweat was running down my face and I was pissed off enough that Mrs Smith had suddenly added an extra section to the upcoming test. "I'm tired and it's hot!"

Couldn't I catch a break!? "Come back here!" My mum yelled as I stormed off to my room.

I tossed my bag in the corner of the room and headed straight for the bathroom. I got out of my uniform and got into the shower, putting the cold water on full blast. I let the cold stream run down my face, reigniting what was left of the life in me.

After changing into my pyjamas, I dragged my books out from my bag and set them on my wooden study desk. Physics was coming up first, so it was my top priority for now. My eyes were about to drop out of my head after the first two pages on the theory of relativity. If there was anything I hated most, it was trying to understand something that seemed so abstract. Sure, projectile motion; gravity acts on the object causing it to move in a curved path. Time dilation? Length contraction? That was definitely not my speed.

The only thing that stopped me from falling asleep and drooling all over my stuff right then and there was the call from down the hall for dinner.

I hated dinners like these. There was a stony silence and I avoided eye contact. I could tell my mum was angry, and I knew it was my fault. She worked hard, and all I could do after school was give her attitude. But there was no way I was going to apologise or start conversation; I wasn't going to give in. I had a huge and fragile ego.

"Okay, well I'm washing the dishes tonight," my dad said.

I nodded and left after I finished dinner. It usually took a day for all this to blow over. For now, I could just deal with the guilt and continue studying.

Even when I managed to lie down on my bed, my head was swarming. Thoughts flooded my mind – school, guys, stress, anxiety.

I'd been confessed to three times, but everything seemed like a dream, a figment of my imagination. The stress was too real, however. This was what mattered. The upcoming tests and exams. They would determine the course of my life for the near future, and I'd worked hard my entire high school life to get to that point. If I screwed it up now, I wouldn't be able to handle it.

The next morning, as per usual, my mum had left by the time I woke up. My dad had already eaten breakfast was watching the morning news so I quickly grabbed two pieces of bread from the loaf and ate them before brushing my teeth, changing and leaving.

The past few months had gone past faster than I had ever expected and so many things had changed. As far as unexpected events went, there were too many to even count.

"Boo!" Hunter exclaimed, springing out from behind the corner I was about to round, throwing his hands onto my shoulders. I jolted, holding back a shriek.

"What the hell Hunter?" I exclaimed.

"You should've seen your face," he cried, laughing like a hyena. Noticing my silence, he continued talking. "You should really be on guard. Save the whole head in the clouds thing for later. Imagine if I had been a predator!"

"You would've been a horrible one."

"Even a toddler could have kidnapped you in that state."

His shoes crunched against the gravel as he walked beside me. My heart was still pounding from the temporary shock he'd just induced. Perhaps I should take self defence classes after high school was over.

The roundabout was coming up ahead and I knew school was mere minutes away – not that it was ever more than minutes away, quite sad actually.

"Oh no," he mumbled, stopping all of a sudden.

"What?" I replied, turning around.

"This is not good! I completely forgot to bring a pen for the chem test today."

"What!?" I shrieked. I'd clearly remembered the chem test was the day after. I hadn't gone over that last section I'd been avoiding all week. There were still a few things I was getting confused about.

"Do you have a pen?" He mumbled.

"What do you mean the test is today!?"

"She moved it forward a day. Don't you remember?"

I must've been so distracted during class that I hadn't listened. I knew I had forgotten something the other day.

"No!"

I glanced at my watch; there was still twenty minutes until the start of school, giving me hopefully enough time to revise the key points. There were a few classes until chem, but there was little chance of study time in those.

"What? Do you have no pens?"

"No! I didn't study the entire last section! There's only twenty minutes until contact!"

"To the library!" He snatched up my hand and led the way to the library. I alternated between speed walking and sprinting, with Hunter continuously dragging me along, my feet stumbling and tripping over each other. This test was worth 9% of our final grade – one of the largest tests all year. There was really no way I could afford to do badly.

We burst in through the front doors and headed straight for the study booths in the back. I dragged my chemistry textbook from my bag and started reading. Hunter was rummaging through his bag searching for a pen. Some lower school kids were talking and laughing. All of this along with the throbbing in my head was too much to handle. I pulled my earphones out of my bag and stuffed the buds into my ears, softening the intensity of everything around me.

Alkenes

Alkanes

Carboxylic acids

Esters

I scrawled their functional groups and naming rules out next to them on scrap paper, making sure I wouldn't confuse them. The section was three pages long. I had sixteen minutes left.

Page one memorised. Eleven minutes left. Page two memorised. Seven minutes left. Page three memorised. Two minutes left.

I took the earphones out and stretched my arms.

"That was fast," Hunter commented. "And look, I found a pen," he beamed, waving the cracked pen around.

"I do have a spare pen by the way, so you can borrow it," I said.

"Oh no worries, I'll just grab one tonight."

"Hold up. What did you just say?"

"I have pens at home." He grinned.

"The test isn't today is it?"

"Oh well, it was fun while it lasted. You study a lot faster than I expected though," he grinned.

"Did you just give me half a heart attack as a joke?" I snarled.

"Not really. What better way to get you alone in the library?" He smirked. He seemed to realise that his explanation wasn't helping. "You can thank me later," he winked.

"Unbelievable," I muttered.

"Aren't you glad I made you study?"

"Not really."

"You sure?"

"Positive."

The bell rang. He put his bag on and swung mine over one shoulder, getting up. Before I had a chance to protest, he marched out of the library. I laughed at his weirdness and quickly followed after.

"You owe me big time," he said.

"Why on earth would I owe you?"

"I helped you study and I'm carrying your bag."

"I didn't ask you to!"

"I still am, aren't I. So you owe me." He pondered for a moment. "How about a date?"

"D-d-date?" I stuttered, my cheeks flushing red. "Raincheck," I quickly spat out. I went up onto my tiptoes and dragged my bag off his shoulder, slinging it across my back, rushing away.

A date? These things were really taking off. First, Archer, now Hunter. They both had excellent timing. Choose an important time before my exams while I'm flooded with stress and anxiety.

What would dating Hunter be like? I had always thought he would be the kind of guy to a girl to a fair and spend hours trying to win a gigantic soft toy. Then again, there was always the chance he was joking. It was like saying 'we should catch up sometime' to a friend you hadn't seen in six years; it was a social obligation, but you both knew it wasn't going to happen.

School made me feel like ramming my head into a wall, but at least during chemistry, the ramming would be a little gentler. I could almost hear Hunter snickering as I walked past. He knew how seriously I took my academics and still he managed to joke about it.

I hadn't spoken to Archer properly since that night, so as per usual, it was pretty damn awkward as I put my books down on the table and sat next to him.

"Today, we'll be performing an experiment to go over one last time the organic reactions and observations before tomorrow's test," Mrs Smith announced. With the mention of the test, Hunter turned around slightly, a smirk playing on his lips. "Get into groups of three or four and grab your equipment from the front bench."

Hunter looked at me and I mouthed 'no way' to him. He feigned a hurt expression and seeing my distaste for it, grinned. Somehow, I wound up in a group with Ace and Archer.

Not awkward at all, I tried to convince myself as I stood in between them, setting up the equipment. "I'll go grab our safety goggles," Archer said, walking away.

Now it was just me and Ace.

"I hear you're well prepped for the test," Ace commented, obviously knowing about Hunter's joke.

"He nearly gave me a heart attack this morning," I laughed. "But yeah, I guess I'm a little more prepared."

"You're smiling," he said. "I'm glad. You've seemed a bit down lately."

I cleared my throat and bent down a bit, pretending to read the measuring cylinder at eye level. "Just tests and exams. They tend to do that to me," I replied.

"Don't stress. You'll be fine."

Archer came back with the goggles, handing each of us a pair. I hated wearing the safety goggles; they were all scratched up, making it hard to see clearly. "I hate experiments, so you guys can take the reins on this one," I announced.

"So helpful nerd-bird," Ace said, his voice dripping with sarcasm.

"You haven't changed a single bit," Archer mumbled. "Reject the fun part."

I'd known Archer for a long time, and we'd been relatively close, but there was a line we'd never crossed. For a while, I'd liked him, but now I knew that it had ended a long time ago. Maybe if he'd said something a little earlier, something would have been different.

Every piece of logic within me was saying Archer should have been the one, but everything else was saying no, because the sudden entry of the badboys had complicated my life.

Archer measured out the various chemicals while Ace emptied the appropriate ones into test tubes that sat alongside each other on the test tube rack. I scribbled down the observations, double checking that the correct chemicals were being mixed.

Luckily, there wasn't a write up for the experiment, and the only related assessment would be the test – and obviously exam, but I could deal with that later.

We managed to finish cleaning up just as the bell rang.

"Well, I must say our group did a fabulous job," I grinned.

"Oh please nerd-bird. You certainly had a minute contribution," Ace said.

"I'm going to have to agree with Ace here Cathy. Slacking. Tut-tut," Archer jokingly agreed, nodding.

"Okay chemistry experts. I have a class to get to. Bye," I said with a grin before leaving.

As I left chemistry, Hunter pulled me to the side of the hallway. "First weekend after our final exams," he said. "We're going on a date."

Man, he was weird.

The thing was, Hunter could make me forget. Forget the stress, forget the anxiety. He was like a shot of adrenaline to keep me going.

With every thought of the date, something unusual was running through my veins; it was excitement.

This time, I knew I wanted it to be true.

I wanted Hunter to like me.

Because I liked him.

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Well, this update was totally overdue. I hit a massive writer's block, so that would explain the super late update. Anyhoo, I had to get this chapter done and maybe one day I'll get a chance to rewrite it and make it coooooler :)

Hope you guys enjoyed! As usual, thanks for reading and please vote and comment! :'D