Being Ashlyn

Chapter 25

"I'm surprise you two actually showed up and didn't run away from your punishment like you did the last time." Mr Harrison gave Ashlyn and Max a pointed look.

"Sorry about that." Max muttered while Ashlyn tried to stifle a laugh.

Mr Harrison threw an annoyed glance at Ashlyn before continuing. "Since both of you left someone else to clean up your mess, it's only fair if you clean up someone else's mess. Now follow me." He said and walked out of his office.

Max and Ashlyn exchange confused looks before following him. They followed their teacher in silence until they found themselves in the school cafeteria.

"Something tells me we're not here to have lunch." Ashlyn sighed, bracing herself for the worse.

"You got that right, Ms Miller. Both of you are going to be peeling off chewing gums from under all the tables." Mr Harrison said smugly, clearly enjoying the horror on his students' face. "Now better get started. You only have an hour after all."

"I hate him." Ashlyn said flatly, watching Mr Harrison walk out of the cafeteria.

"We deserve it, Ash." Max said, already lying under a table and scraping a piece of gum with a screwdriver that their teacher handed to them earlier on.

"Well, I still hate him!" She snapped before lying beside Max. Her eyes scanned the different coloured chewing gums. They were green, pink, blue and colours that Ashlyn didn't even knew was possible for a chewing gum to be. She doesn't even want know how long they had been stuck there.

"Just start scraping, Ash. It could actually be kind of fun." Max spoke.

"Fun?" Ashlyn snorted. "Yeah right. I can't even get this gum off!" She whined, jabbing a pink gum with her screwdriver.

"That's because you're doing it all wrong. You can't just poke it. This is the right way to do it." He spoke softly, placing his hands on top of Ashlyn's hand and guiding the screwdriver under the gum smoothly. The pink gum instantly dropped. "See? Wasn't that easy?"

"Definitely." Ashlyn nodded, eyeing Max's hand. "Errmm...Max?"

"Mhmm?"

"Get your freaking hand off of mine."

"Huh?" Max eyebrows furrowed before he realised what he was doing. "Oh right! Yeah, sorry about that." He cleared his throat uncomfortably.

"It's okay." She glanced sideways and saw Max's ears turning the same shade as the gum she had just scraped. "You're weird."

"Shut up." He mumbled.

Ashlyn laughed. "So tell me how is this fun?"

"Treat it like a game. We'll have a contest on who can scrape the fastest. You'll scrape the pink and red while I scrape the other colours. Whoever finish it first, wins. Got it?" Max nudged her shoulder with his.

"Alright, got it." She nodded. "Starting from...now!"

The cafeteria was deserted other than both of them, amplifying the scraping noises they're making as they dug their screwdrivers under their respective gums in a rapid pace.

"I won!" Max claimed, crawling out from under the table.

Ashlyn followed him out and punched his arm. "No. you didn't! It wasn't a fair match. There were more red and pink gums compared to your pile!"

"Hey! If you're not satisfied, we have tons of tables left to have a rematch." Max gestured his hands toward the rest of the tables in the cafeteria. "Unless, of course, you're afraid of losing." He teased.