(Jace Norman Fanfic) From P.A To C.A

20) The Walk and The Project.

"So, how about this? You do all the work and I get an A on the project. Deal?" asks Braydon.

"Ugh," I sigh. "You're just as bad as Jen."

"What's that supposed to mean?!" He suddenly gets really defensive.

"She makes everyone do all the work for her, but everyone still likes her."

"No, she doesn't."

I roll my eyes. "If you say so."

"So," he says awkwardly.

"The project."

"Yes,"

"I was thinking we could do something like um..." I don't really have an idea so I make it up on the spot. "You put your hand into the mitten and 100 million dollars comes out with your hand every time."

"Cool. Let's do it."

"Um...Okay. How about I come over to your house tonight?" I ask. For some reason I am nervous talking to him. Maybe because he's popular and I'm not really. Okay fine. Not at all.

"No. I will come over to your house. What's your address?"

I tell him, and then the bell rings.

I go to my locker and get my folder for chorus. My favorite class. I'm glad it's the last class of the day. It's relaxing, and everyone there wants to sing. Well, accept the back row, but I wont get into that now because it makes me angry and I'm in a good mood right now.

We practice the songs that we will be singing for the concert. The bell rings and everyone runs out the door to go get their stuff to go home. I linger for a while wanting to talk to the teacher, Mr. Wolford, but I don't know how to start the conversation.

"Yes, Rose?" He asks when he sees me awkwardly standing there.

"Um..." I think about what I want to ask. Then, I know."I was wondering about the musical. Like, do you know anything yet?"

"Well, I think we are going to do 'Annie' for middle school, but I have to get the rights to it," he explains.

"What about high school?" I ask.

"Um, I think I will have high school do 'Beauty and the Beast'. Why?"

"I don't know. Just curious, I guess."

"Oh, okay," he says.

"I think I'm going to go get my stuff now. Thanks Mr, Wolford!"

"Sure. Anytime."

He probably thinks I'm weird now. Oh well! I walk out and go to my locker. Jace is waiting there for me. He casually checks his watch.

"Where were you?" He asks when I get there.

"Talking to Mr. Wolford. Why? Am I really late?" I ask slightly concerned.

"Na, not that late. Only like 5 minutes." He checks his watch again.

I grab my stuff and shut my locker. "Let's go."

We get out of the school before I start talking once more.

"I found out about the musical. It's Annie."

"Well, that's ironic," he replies.

"Why?"

"Remember filming, 'Man of the House?'" He raises his eyebrows.

"Oh yeah!" I say remembering. "Kid Danger was supposedly in 'Annie' playing Annie."

"Yeah."

"What if you get the part of Annie. I would die," I laugh.

"I wont get Annie."

"How do you know?"

"Because, I don't do musicals," he retorts, seriously.

"Why not?"

"I was just never that into musicals. I like acting, not singing and acting. Just acting."

"That sucks."

"Yeah, I know." He rolls his eyes and laughs. "It sucks that I don't like singing."

I laugh, too. It is kind of funny, I guess. Why did I think he liked singing?

We walk the rest of the way home making jokes and laughing.

I forgot about Braydon until I saw him sitting on my porch.

"Why is Braydon Delong on your porch?" asks Jace suspiciously.

"Braydon and I are doing that project together? Remember?" I say it like that. Like all of it is a question. Which, I guess, it is. I glance at Jace and he looks so angry. Why on earth would he be angry?

"Oh. Right," he says through clenched teeth. What is that boy trying to do? Oh! I get it , I think. He's trying to make it look like he's smiling. It works for Braydon. He smiles and waves at us. He stands up, and we walk over.

"Hey, Jace. Hey, Rose!" He's not the sharpest knife in the drawer, if you know what I mean.

"Hi," we say in unison.

"Woah. Are you two dating or something?" he asks. Again, not that smart.

"No," we both say in unison, again.

"You sure?"

"Yes," we both answer. We look at each other and smile. I can't see us dating. Which is why i'm smiling. I think it's funny. But, I think Jace is smiling for a different reason. I quickly look away, blushing.

"Braydon, we should get to work. See you later, Jace?" I ask.

"Yeah. See you later, Rose."

Braydon and I head inside and go up to my room without a word. We sit on my bed and Braydon speaks.

"You really should date Jace," he laughs.

"Why?"

"Because I hate both of you!"

I playfully punch him because I don't want to get in trouble. My mom is downstairs. He would probably cry and my mom would yell. Like she did to my dad a lot. Whenever that happened, I went to my room. Too afraid to come out. I wouldn't be able to do that this time, because she would be scolding me, not my dad...

"I brought the mitten," says Braydon snaping my out of my thoughts. He goes to get it. "Here." He flops down on my bed, and hands me the mitten.

The mitten is white. Plain white. Nothing else to it.

"Cool. Okay, so we need to fill out this chart and make a fake One Million Dollar Bill," I remind him.

"Yeah. You fill out the chart and I will make the fake money."

"Fair enough." I realize that Braydon making the fake money is about as much as I will get from him. We have to do this on all of our own time.

Braydon asks me for a marker that was beside me, at some point. I don't remember when.

When he leans over to get the marker, though, he kisses me.

I'm so surprised, I don't know what to do. I just sit there, stunned.

I figure out I'm going to run away, somewhere, when he asks me if I want to be his girlfriend.

Suddenly, I hear ringing in my ears. My palms get sweaty. But, I stumble out one word.

"Yes."