They Could Care Less

5: I Hate You Too

When the lesson ended, Thea decided to eat her own lunch made from home out on the school yard since she wanted silence and not to die from her allergies on her first day, she was also starving. So she silently unwrapped her sandwich and plugged her headphones in and ate in silence. She quietly sang along to the song and she was too distracted to notice Jackson walking over to her. Jackson stared at Thea for a while, waiting for her to acknowledge his prescense but when she didn't, he listened to her quietly sing. She sang beautifully, but Jackson would never admit that, instead he yanked her headphones off. Thea looked up, surprised, and immediately felt anger rushing through her body when she saw who it was.

"Hey!" she yelled and snatched her headphones back. She put her phone and headphones back down into her backpack and took a bite of her sandwich, taking her first step towards leaving with her backpack hanging loosely on her shoulder.

"Where do you think you're going?" Jackson asked, surprisingly calm and grabbed her wrist. Thea felt no sort of pressure from his grip, which was also another surprise. Did this guy have a soft side?

"Away from you," Thea cockily answered and instantly regretted the words.

"Still got that tough girl attitude going on, huh?" Jackson muttered and felt slightly irritated.

"What do you want?" Thea asked and took another bite of her sandwich as she pulled her hand back. He didn't fight back, he just let her hand go.

"What is wrong with your food?" Jackson asked who noticed her pale and boring sandwich that in no ways looked appetizing to him. Thea who had no interest in explaining her medical problems to someone like him answered with the same attitude.

"None of your business."

"I want to talk to you as much as you want to talk to me. I only came here for one thing," he said and looked around for people spying on them.

"What? A way to kill me?" Thea asked and the sarcasm was thick.

"Sarcasm," he concluded and smirked. "I was going to yell at you, but since I enjoy your sarcasm, I won't. I came here to talk," he explained and put his hands into his pockets.

"What could we possibly have in common to talk about?" Thea snapped and took a bite of her sandwich, chewed and swallowed.

"I came to make a deal. You forget your absurd plan of bringing me down and I'll grant you popularity and fame at this school," Jackson suggested, and for a second Thea felt like spitting her food out on his face.

"Firstly, this is not high school. Fame and popularity won't get me anywhere here. Give me a good future and I'll consider it." Thea said and he tilted his head with interest glowing in his eyes like a fire. "Secondly, I'm not a marionette that you can simply bribe. And you wouldn't have wanted to make a deal unless you really believed I was capable of doing something," Thea stated with the confidence rising.

"Nonsense," he brushed it off and rolled his eyes. "I really like you, Thea. You're a ambitious person and I was going to make you big at this school, if you only had given up on your stupid plans. But since you've basically declared war on me, I guess we're now enemies," Jackson said without a trace of amusement in his voice.

"I will bring you down, Jackson Meyers, if I so go down with you," Thea whispered into his ear, before she then rapidly left.

Thea heard how Jackson called after her, but she didn't look back. Instead she went back into Holmes' hall and took another bite of the sandwich in her hand, even though there was a strict rule that no one was allowed to eat in the hallways. You were only allowed to eat in the cafeteria and on the school yard, but most people avoided eating outside. Besides, Thea was afraid of seeing Jessica in the cafeteria, and create more drama and potentionally get attacked with more water balloons. Thea took once again a bite of her sandwich that tasted like nothing, but she was used to that now. Thea constantly looked back just to see if Jackson has followed her, but he hadn't - not from what she saw and heard at least -, Thea was on her way to the university president's, Mrs. Gomez's, office. She was going to tell her everything and she had to do something to stop these bold actions. She went up the big stairwell, and then continued into a long corridor. Thea walked with fast and light steps as she walked to the office. She looked around and finally saw the sign she was looking for, 'Mrs. Gomez, University President'.