You can Bet on Me

Part 6 ~ Poppy Seed Scones

Maddison
"Me? Your partner? For bio?" I nearly choked on my words. "Why? Why not that pretty blonde, or those billion girls who are flirting with you from across the room and trying to catch your attention?"
My words sounded... harsh. If I didn't know better, jealous. It wasn't true – how could I be jealous of someone I didn't love, much less someone I virtually hate? Someone who was polar opposite of me, a Mr Hotshot and Mr Popular? No, it was impossible. Nerds like me never usually got together with popular guys like him. Usually, I found myself reminding me. Usually. But right now is so not usually. Especially since I'm his girlfriend now.
"Not them." He stared at me dead in the eyes. "You. I asked you, not them." His words made my face heat up and I turned away from him.
"Then go ask them." I replied, coming across harsher than I had intended.
"I won't. I don't want to. I wanted to ask you, and that's what I did." His usual playboy side suddenly turned on as he grinned and asked, "jealous?"
"You wish," I snapped.
"Don't worry, you don't have to be jealous," he grinned, ignoring my words. He came closer to me and whispered in my ear, "you don't have to be jealous. I'm all yours."
I felt my face burn and I pushed him away. He laughed, and my face blazed.
"Anyhow, the answer is no." I replied, shielding my face with a worksheet.
"Come on, don't be like that." He said as he sat down beside me. Before I could protest, the teacher burst into the room and said, "we don't have a lot of time today, so everyone write down who your partner is on this paper."
He began to hand out a sheet of paper to everyone and about five billion girls reached out and asked Michael, but he refused all of them. I sneaked a peek at his sheet and he had wrote my name. My name. Not anyone else. Not any other Maddison's name. My name. I was torn between writing his name or just leaving it blank as in I would go solo for whatever project was coming up, but Michael chose for me when he snatched my paper and scrawled down some words on it.
When he gave it back, it had his name in the section where it asked who my partner was. I scowled and tried to erase it, but it was in pen. I thought to scribble it out with a pen, but the professor came around and collected it after seeing that it was filled out.
I let out a frustrated groan and Michael grinned at me as the professor collected his sheet. The class went on and I was forced to partner with a dumbass who had no idea what he was doing for the entire double period. It was excruciating, and I hated it, but deep down, I knew that I was lying.
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I pulled the tray of poppy seed scones out from the oven, their delicious smell wafting into the air and flowing out the kitchen. Placing it down carefully, I took off my mittens and began waving my hands to cool down the scones.
"Mhm!" Abagail burst into the kitchen noisily, her eyes closed and sniffing the air. She opened her eyes as she stopped beside me and said, "is that my dearest sister's delicious baking?"
I rolled my eyes. "Yes, it is. And you only be nice to me when you want something. Let me guess – it's the poppy seed scones."
"Yup," she snatched a scone from the tray and shuffles it around before taking a bite. "Delicious, as always." She murmurs as she eats mores and more until her first is done. Her first is quickly followed by five others until I bat her away to stop her from eating all of them.
"So, what's my dearest sister baking for this early in the morning?" Abagail asked as she eyed the scones. "You aren't one to bake in the morning, much less wake in time for school."
"I know, but I'm baking it for someone who likes my cooking," I was thinking about mentioning Michael, but I figured that she would tease and laugh at me endlessly if I did.
But despite my lack of answer, Abagail had enough braincells to figure it out. "It's for Michael, isn't it? Your not-so-imaginary boyfriend," she snickered. The story behind that was that I had pretended I had a fake boyfriend when I was in grade six, and Abagail and Addison wouldn't let me forget it when I realised how stupid it was and stopped.
"Shut it, bitch." I snapped.
"Language!" mum called out from the laundry room. Mums had this amazing yet strangely specific hearing ability to hear anyone in the house swear.
"Sorry," I called out. Muttering under my breath, I added, "not."
"Mum! Maddison said 'not'!" Abagail was quick to tattletale on me, and walked out of the kitchen before I could stop her. I laughed to myself and packed three scones in a plastic container, instantly heating up the container with the warmth. I quickly put it into my bag and left the rest of the poppy seed scones in the microwave for one of my many family members to find and devour as I went to the door to put my shoes on.
"I'm going!" I called out. "Danielle, Eleanor, anyone who's listening; come down and outside in five minutes and no less otherwise I'm leaving for school without you!"
"Urgh!" I could hear Danielle moan. I smirked at my small victory and stalked to the car, getting in and turning on the cooler. Even in the mornings, summer was absolutely burning hot and those old cranky teachers from maths and bio refused to turn on the AC's classes were absolute torture.
Soon later, Danielle, Eleanor, and Abagail piled into my car that was parked neatly outside our driveway. I raised a brow in question at Abagail, and she was quick to scowl and explain, "papa took away my car for a week."
"Why?" I asked as Danielle yelled, "I call shotgun!" and barged into the front seat. I laughed at her childish competition as Eleanor pouted as she got in the back seat.
"You brat," murmured Abagail as she was forced to sit in the back with Eleanor. "Anyhow, it's none of your business."
"We're family – everything that's your business is my business," I laughed.
"No, everything that's my business is my business and no one else's, so shut up." She snarled as I started the car and drove off.
It didn't take long to get to school, and as soon as I parked, everyone piled out of the car and I was left to lock the car and walk slowly to the classroom. On the way there, I stopped at Michael's locker to see if he was there, holding the container of scones and was slightly disappointed to find that he wasn't. Wait – why was I disappointed? I don't know, and I was sure that I didn't like the feeling. Or did I?
Nothing made sense anymore – not even my own feelings. "What are you doing?" I jumped and turned around as I spotted James.
"Nothing," I replied.
"Come on, you don't think I know when a girl's lying?" he grinned, reminding me of Michael. "So, what are you doing?"
"Nothing," I repeated. He looked down at the container of scones in my hands and smirked. Shit. I shouldn't have held them.
"Let me guess – those are for Michael?" he grinned. "Alright then. I'd better help a damsel in distress, on the condition that you give me one scone. Michael's always talking about how delicious your food is."
He... did? A warm feeling held my heart in its chains and I had no idea why. I found a stupid smile plastered on my face as I replied, "fine. And for the record, I'm not a damsel in distress." I scowled as James grinned.
I opened the container and handed him one. He grinned and shoved it in one hand as he fiddled with Michael's lock. Soon, it clicked open and James said, "ta-da! Magic."
"Ta-da! Stalking," I replied sarcastically as I put the scones in his locker. "What's his code, by the way?"
"Who's the stalker now?" James grinned. "Anyways, its seven, twenty-four, and sixteen. Happy?"
"Thanks," I flashed a smile as I closed Michael's locker and locked it. "And... I mean it." James' grin widened as he walked away and wordlessly waved to me. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~