I never know why. I only know who. (AU)

Chapter 7

John and Clara grew incredibly close after that. They went back to school on the Friday, by which point their relationship had grown ridiculously strong, and they weren't afraid to hide it from anyone, much to the disgust of Clara's friends.

By the time she was back, everyone knew about the death of Ellie and were whispering about it behind Clara's back, but she ignored it as best as she could and stuck with John if she ever felt sad. He was her coping mechanism for getting through the day.

She would of liked to say she had made up with her dad, but they hadn't really spoken much. She went back home Thursday night much to her fathers surprise. They were getting by, but that was it.

But if Clara hadn't already hated Axel enough as it was, he pushed a limit that made her insides cringe and want to die. He found her towards the end of lunch on the Friday she returned. She was on her way to see John when he suddenly grabbed her arm in the hallway and made her face him. She instantly knew who it was, because no-one else would be so cocky in such a move and manage to still make it feel gross.

He looked down at her in his best "sympathetic" face and smiled. "I hear you lost your Mum." He started off by saying. Clara straight away wanted to stick a knife in his gut and she felt her own anger building up, but she wouldn't let it surface. Not for some lame-arse loser like Axel.

"And...you know, I'm here for you." He mumbled, moving his hand to stroke her shoulder. She quickly slapped it away, but he carried on speaking. "And I was wondering...if you will go to prom with me?"

Clara had to laugh at the irony that he would be the only person in the world that was stupid enough to link those two sentences together. "First of all," She began, wanting to smack his face in with a hammer, "Prom isn't until July. Two, how many times do I need to say no before you get it? And three, I already have a boyfriend."

She spoke out her last sentence slowly, making him sound like a baby and making sure that everyone around heard once again. He usually gave up for a while if she hurt his reputation.

"Who?" He asked quickly, leaning back in some kind of offense. Clara looked over her shoulder relieved to see John walking up behind her, curious as to what was going on at the end of the corridor. "Him?" He exclaimed in horror, staring at John who looked more confused than ever before.

"Yes, him." Clara confirmed, waving to John slowly.

Axel shook his head, as if he couldn't accept the fact that it was true. "But...why? I mean, come on Clara, I'm popular, you're popular. I'm beautiful, you're beautiful." Clara scoffed at his last statement, laughing in his face. "We're meant for each other."

Clara didn't even get a chance to reply before John had come up behind her and pulled her into a soft kiss. She had to admit, he really knew when to pull those kind of stunts. She was extremely grateful for his action and took great pleasure in hearing the annoyed groans coming from Axel.

When she pulled back, she simply smiled towards Axel before walking back down the corridor, hand-in-hand with John. From behind, he made big arm movements of annoyance as she walked off with a boy he had never even spoken to before.

Clara didn't allow the idiot to see her face fall as she whispered to John, "Oh thank God for that. I thought that if I had to take any more I would either lash out or cry." She admitted, seeing his small smile drop a little at the sides. He kissed the side of her head softly as they walked, comforting her some more.

Olivia and Louise were not amused when they started having to sit with who they called "losers." But Clara chose to sit with John at lunch time, and they always sat with Clara. But if you could have divided a table in half without physically doing it, those two knew how to make it seem like they didn't even know the people at the other end who Clara was talking to.

They would have liked to have thought they could get by without Clara's popularity, but no-one blinked an eye on what she chose to do, because everyone gave way for her. John very quickly realised that Clara didn't really know just how popular she was. She just accepted how everyone treated her and thanked them all for it.

She didn't see that she could pretty much do what she wanted and say what she wanted without anyone getting mad. Whereas John had to keep to the shadows, not getting in the way of people like her in case they were shoved into a wall.

When John said that to Clara, she had called him stupid and was shocked at the idea that she would ever shove him into a wall, or her friends for that matter. But John and his friends knew otherwise of them and didn't really like the idea of being punching bags for the other guys.

That being said, dating Clara meant that a lot of them left John, Amy and Rory alone. They didn't really want to get on the wrong side of the tiny girl who could kick all of their butts, and they really didn't want to be ridiculed for the rest of the school lives over it.

Clara and John spent a lot of their lunches with Mr Simons, revising for their Chemistry and other sciences to make sure they got A*s.

One time when Sir was out, Clara was moaning about how grateful she was to escape Olivia and Louise for a while. It always confused John why she never wanted to hang around with the girls she called her friends. And that was coming from long before they were even dating.

He finally perked up the courage to ask her about it, hiding behind his textbook slightly in fear of her small temper which she could often get if he said the wrong thing. "Why do you hang around with them if you don't even like them?" He mumbled.

Clara looked to John angrily for a moment before relaxing her stare and thinking over what he had asked. It took her a while before she finally replied, trying to make sense of it all. "I just...I guess they're the people it's assumed I hang around with. And I don't really have anyone else."

John looked at her gently and she shook her head slowly. "Apart from you of course." She laughed, playfully smacking his forearm as he grinned childishly.

"But seriously," He carried on, "Why not find someone better to hang around with?"

Clara thought over it a second before quietly admitting, "Because then I would be a loser." She mumbled, looking away from John. She had never even considered that she was basically the top of the food chain before, but now it hit her she realised that was why she got away with so much.

John felt like he couldn't say much in response, but he understood where she was coming from. No-one wants to live out the years in high school being humiliated. It's everyone's secret dream to control what goes on, and Clara didn't want to be laughed at all the time. Although, John highly doubted she would be as her friends were only really popular because of her, but she didn't know that herself.

So just a short one. Hope you like. It's just a bit of a filler until the next chapter but eh... Oh well. So yeah... Comments would be appreciated😉