Ad Lib

1 | @ad-lib

Beep, beep, beep.

Jemma groaned. It couldn't be time to get up yet, could it? She pulled the white duvet over her head, in a futile attempt to hide from the noise. It was useless - the alarm continued to sneak its way into her reluctant ears.

Beep, beep, beep.

Her left hand stretched out from underneath the covers and fumbled for the off switch. After too many long seconds, she finally found it, and the room was bathed in silence. She breathed a sigh of relief.

Jemma glanced at the lock screen of her phone, which read 7:41 AM in bold text. She couldn't remember hitting the snooze button (although that was hardly surprising), but the facts were clear: she was late. As per usual. She leaped out of bed and felt a shiver run down her body. The weather had definitely dropped a couple of degrees since yesterday; winter was well on its way. After pulling on the warmest clothes she could find, Jemma raced out the door and towards the bathroom.

The door was locked.

"Amy!" She shouted after a couple minutes' wait. "Hurry up, or we'll both be late!"

"Yeah, yeah," her thirteen year-old sister replied, "I'm coming."

Jemma huffed, knowing there was no way to force her sister out of the bathroom in the mornings. Amy was still in middle school, and their first bell didn't ring until nine. Jemma, on the other hand, was a sophomore in high school. And her classes started in eighteen minutes.

Seven of those minutes passed before Amy left the bathroom. Jemma managed to fix her hair into an explosive, frizzy ponytail in another minute, then used two to brush her teeth. Ignoring her mother's scolding, she downed a mouthful of chocolate milk for breakfast, straight from the carton, and flew out the door.

7:52 AM.

She was in such a hurry that she didn't notice her neighbour, Luke, leaning on his propped-up bike and watching her. A slight smirk played on his lips, and tufts of his ginger hair strayed out from his cycle helmet.

"Took you long enough."

Jemma was still breathing heavy from the morning's rush. "You don't have to wait for me every morning, you know."

He shrugged. "It's nice to have company on the way to school."

"Yeah, well, I've made you late," she said.

"Never bothered me before."

Jemma smiled and mounted her bike, which had been carelessly discarded on the ground in front of her door. Luke followed, pedalling fast to catch up with his friend. They were supposed to ride in single file, but with the frosty roads and such a small amount of traffic in the first place, Jemma and Luke supposed that they could bend the rules - just a little bit, of course.

There was no time for their usual laid-back chatter while riding. Jemma knew that if they didn't hurry up, they were both going to be seriously late.

"Come on," she said to Luke, who was currently on her left side. "We have to go faster. I don't want to be marked tardy."

Luke laughed in response, knowing that they were going to be late either way.

"You might laugh now," she warned, "but you'll be sorry when you get detention."

"I'll race you, then," he teased. "Three, two—"

Jemma had already zoomed past him, grinning cheekily. She zoomed around the first corner and skidded a little on the morning ice, but she didn't lose her balance. Left at the second corner; right at the third. Then it was a straight road all the way down to school. Jemma pushed the pedals around as fast as she could as she heard Luke close behind her. They were on a slight slope now, one that slowly got steeper and steeper until it delivered them to their destination at the bottom. Jemma felt her smile widen as the wind whipped against her warm cheeks, the twenty-second adrenaline rush turning her morning from frenzied into fun.

She turned the final corner into the parking lot, riding all the way to the back and leaping off of her bicycle. Luke came seconds later, his lips turned upwards in a smile.

"Having fun?"

Both teens turned around to meet another one of their friends, Grace, who had obviously been waiting for them. In appearance, Grace and Jemma were polar opposites. Grace had fair skin as a result of her Japanese heritage and straight, black hair: a stark contrast to Jemma's dark skin and frizzy locks. But they had much more similarities than they appeared to – a sense of humor that sometimes stretched a bit too far, a love for cheesy romance-comedy movies, and an appetite that rivalled that of an elephant.

"Are we late?" Luke asked her as he unbuckled his helmet.

Grace glanced at the watch on her wrist. "You've got about a minute until the bell." She sent a smile in Luke's direction, and then turned to Jemma. "Cameron Jones was looking for you."

Jemma's cheeks grew warm, and she saw Luke smirk in her peripheral vision. After playfully elbowing him in the ribs, she raised her eyebrows at Grace. "You serious?"

"You bet," she replied. "He asked me personally."

"Seriously?"

"Yes! Stop asking, and believe it already! He totally likes you, Jem," Grace said matter-of-factly.

Jemma giggled. "He probably was just going to ask me about our chemistry homework or something."

Jemma secretly hoped that he was asking her about something else, but she knew better. Her and Cameron were lab partners, and he always forgot to do his homework. Like, every freaking time. He was smart, but Cameron sure had a bad memory.

"What have you got first, Jemma?" Luke asked, changing the subject.

She looked at her timetable for the day, which she'd written on her left forearm. History, Physics, double English, French, Chemistry. She was in for one heck of a long day. And she wouldn't see Cameron until sixth period! Jemma already knew that she was going to spend the whole day wondering what he wanted to ask her.

"History," she told him. "What about you?"

"We've got Drama first," Grace answered for him. Jemma sighed, silently wishing that her parents had allowed her to choose more interesting subjects this year. It always seemed like Luke and Grace were off to Drama or Art or Film Studies or something like that, while she was stuck with the generic getting-into-law-school subjects.

The bell sounded across the grounds then, and Jemma had to wave a goodbye to her friends. She looked back and watched them as they walked, noticing that they seemed to be walking closer to each other than they usually did. Jemma shook her head, wondering if she was just seeing things. A pang of jealously hit her from out of nowhere, and she tried to ignore it. She liked Cameron, didn't she?

Jemma pushed the thoughts out of her head and tried to focus on getting to History class, but there was still a nagging in the back of her mind for the remainder of the day.