Gracewood Academy (Hope and Secrets)

Chapter 18- Chemistry

It's been a few days since the football game and everything with Kyle is going great. My suspension is over and I am back to classes which I was thrilled about, until I got to chemistry.

"Chase! Why can't you just do the experiment the way we are meant to?"

"And what would be the fun in that, Carter?" he smirks. Ugh, this boy is infuriating. His nose is still a bit bruised but looks a lot better. Is it bad that his pain makes me feel a little bit better?

"It's chemistry class. It's not meant to be fun. And I don't wanna get a bad grade just because you cannot be bothered to do it properly." After class is over Dr Jordan asks us to stay behind and do some catch up work from when we missed school last week.

"You're still mad at me, aren't you?" Chase whispers. I ignore him and continue with my work. "Look, I am sorry. I just couldn't stand there and let someone treat you like that." I look at him and can see that he means it.

"Fine. I forgive you. But next time I say that I can take care of it, you will stay out of it. Got it?" I whisper back.

He nods. "Yes. Nice right hook by the way. You have improved since the last time you punched me. Well we were five but still." I giggle and Dr Jordan gives me a look telling me to be quiet.

"Well you kind of deserved it that time. You can't just go around pulling little girls hair because you feel like it."

"Maybe I should have pulled on your hair instead." He reaches out and gently pulls my hair, messing it all up.

"Hey!" I gently punch him when Dr Jordan isn't looking. "It took me ages to get my hair this way."

"What, to make it look like this?" he messed up my hair even more. This time I push him hard enough that he falls of his stool. "Ow." Our teacher gives us an evil glare. "Sorry sir, I must have lent back so much that I fell over." Chase looks at me amused.

Chase gets up and sits back down pretending to continue doing the work. "That's what you get for messing up my hair." I try to hold back a laugh.

"Okay, fine. I will stop messing up your beautiful hair." Did he say my hair was beautiful? "But it won't fix your face." Just when I thought he was being sweet again he had to go and say something to ruin it.

"Do you ever shut up? What question are you on?" AP Chemistry is a lot harder here than at my old school. It feels like another language or something.

"Sixteen." How is he got that far already? I am only on question ten. I try to sneakily peer over his arm to see what his answers are. "Hey. Do your own work." He orders when he notices me cheating.

"When did you get so good at chemistry?"

"I've always been good at chemistry. I mean, we have good chemistry don't we?" he flirts.

"Shut up. You might be good at this but your pick-up lines suck. But seriously. How? Cause you always mess up our experiments."

"That's because my experiments are just that. Experiments. It isn't really and experiments if a textbook tells us what to do and what's meant to happen. A real experiment is when you have a go at something, having no idea what it is going to be like and how it is going to end up, but it's worth the risk if you could end up with discovering something great." He is looking at me so intensely that I get the feeling that we are not talking about chemistry anymore.

"I need to head out for a bit. You can both just finish those questions and leave them on my desk when I'm gone." Dr Jordan orders us as he gathers his things and leaves. For a while, I kind of forgot he was there.

"Ugh. This sucks. Can't we just leave the rest blank and leave?" Chase whines. Before I can reply my phone rings. "Kyle?" he looks at my phone curiously.

"No, my mother." I look at the phone confused.

"Hello?" I answer.

"How could you not tell me you were suspended?" Uh oh.

"Mom, it's not as bad as it sounds." I try to calm her down.

"Maybe this whole boarding school thing wasn't the best idea."

"No! I am not leaving Gracewood." Chase looks up from his work alarmed.

"Okay fine. I will let you stay if you come and see me this weekend." That was why she cared so much. It was because of my wellbeing. It was because she needed something to guilt me into going to her stupid interview.

"Mom. Please don't make me do this." I beg.

"You don't have an option. I will get my PA to organise your travel arrangements." I hang up on her, no longer wanting to continue this conversation.

"What's wrong?" Chase looks worried.

"Mom is making me go to her concert this weekend or she will pull me out of Gracewood. It's not the concert that bugs me though. She wants me to do an interview and photoshoot as some publicity stunt."

"But if you do this interview then everyone will know who you are?" I nod. "What are you going to do?"

"I don't know." I shrug. This sucks. There isn't really a way to avoid this. I will just have to go and hope that no one from school finds the article.

***

Who is in the Christmas mood yet? The school is decorated, work is decorated, the town is decorated, all that is left to do is my house!

Please comment and vote! xx