"Stuck In The Friend-Zone Again and Again"

"Back At School"

The next morning was a bit difficult to manage; I woke up at 6:30 and ran into the bathroom to have a shower.

The problem with the tour bus bathroom was that it was too small to get dressed in, which wasn't an issue for the guys, but it was a bit problematic for a 15-year-old girl surrounded by 4 guys.
Of course, Luke was the only one awake.

I left my clothes for the day on my bed, and then darted into the bathroom to shower.
Once done, I wrapped a towel tightly around my body and peeked my head out.
"Close your eyes!" I whisper-yelled to Luke.
He obliged quickly, squeezing his eyes shut.

You could always trust Luke to do the right thing.

I dropped my towel and dressed quickly, alerting Luke when he was able to look.
"You look nice," he complimented.
I laughed a bit; I was wearing plain jean shorts and a flowy white cotton tank top with the Twenty Øne Pilots Blurryface cover on it.
"Your definition of nice is slightly off-putting," I giggled, pulling my hair out of its towel and beginning to brush it.
"You do look nice," he insisted.
I hurriedly put my hair into a haphazard French braid, tying it off with a red hair elastic.
"I'm going to run in and get breakfast!" I told Luke, hinting that he should wake the boys. He nodded in understanding and I ran into the house, grabbed a package of juice boxes and two dozen muffins that I had baked the day before for today's breakfast.
I returned to the bus to find the boys in various stages of awake-ness; Luke was wide awake, Michael seemed to be almost still asleep, Calum was looking semi-aware, and Ashton looked awake but in need of some caffeine.
I set the muffins on the table and gave each boy a juice box, taking one for myself.
I snatched 2 muffins before the boys could totally demolish them, and began munching.
"What are you guys gonna do for half of today?" I asked, once I had polished off one muffin.
"Can we come to school with you?" Calum asked through a mouthful of muffin (so it sounded more like "fan fee vume foo vool fith foo?")
I shrugged. "I don't know what you're gonna do when I'm in exams."
"We could hang out... Somewhere..." Ashton said.
"Like where?" I asked.
"Don't you have a band room or something?" Michael asked.
"Well yeah, but fangirls," I said.
Calum shrugged. "We can handle them."
"I don't know..." I said, unsure.
"Pleeeeeaaaaaaase!" Luke begged.
"Yeah! Pleeeeeeeeaaaaaase!" The other boys joined in.
"Fine," I conceded.
"YAY!" They cheered.
"Yeah yeah yeah well get your butts ready we're gonna have to drive," I said, rushing them.
"M-Kay!" Michael said, through the muffin he had just shoved into his mouth almost whole.

The boys got ready really quickly, not even having showers, just getting dressed and doing their hair (*cough cough* Luke *cough cough*).

We were in the car by 8:00, Ashton driving, since school started at 8:25.
I had two exams today, History and Science. Of course nerves were chewing my stomach, so I made up for lost studying time in the car.

"You don't need to study anymore!" Michael whined, trying to tug the Science book from my hands.
"I only studied Science for 4 hours this weekend!" I protested, reburying my nose in the textbook.
"5 hours?" Michael asked incredulously.
"Yeah, I studied History for 5 1/2!" I said.
"You are in-sane," Ashton stated.
"Yeah, what's your average in science, out of curiosity?"
"Um 95%..." I said, trailing off.
"Exactly, you don't need to study any more Science," Calum said, snatching my Marauders Map canvas backpack from my lap.
"What about History?!" I begged, trying to grab it back.
"Nuh-uh! What's your average in History?" Calum prodded.
"97%..." I said quietly.
"No more studying," Michael said firmly.
"But I-" I started, my nerves spiking. If I couldn't study...
Luke suddenly plucked the bag and book from Calum's lap and dropping them into mine. "Here."
Long arms come in handy, I guess.
"Thanks," I said, relieved, re-opening my science textbook.
"Dude!" Calum complained, gesturing between the two of us. "She doesn't need to study anymore, and you know it!"
"If she wants to study, she can study!" Luke said loudly.
I smiled down at my book. "Thanks, Luke."
Luke shrugged. "If it makes you feel better, than you should be able to do it."
I smiled wider, still not looking up.
I heard a scuffling from behind me, and I had no idea what the source was, but I heard Luke say clearly "Shut up, Calum! Quit it, Michael! No!"
I had absolutely no clue what they were talking about.
I decided to ignore them.

**********************************

Soon enough we were at school, and I snuck the guys in the back door.
I hurried them through the halls, and into the band room.
"Stay here! The first bell will ring in 5 minutes, and I will write my first exam. Then another bell will sound about an hour and a half later and I'll start my History exam," I began.
(idk how long they are or anything, I've never taken an exam😂)
"Don't leave here until I come and get you after the second bell. No one really comes in here other than at band time besides my friends and a couple of other people that we hang around with sometimes. They might fangirl obsessively, since they're not in my league of hiding their excitement. Don't panic, they won't tell anyone," I said quickly, needing to get to my science classroom.
They nodded.
"I'm serious!" I warned them. "Now I've gotta go. Stay out of trouble!"
I hurried out of the door, clutching my backpack straps so hard my knuckles we white.