Freshman Year

Dates and Breaks

Saturdays were basically worshipped during the summer. Shady Pines did fun summer activities as soon as it warmed up. Sometimes it was a pool trip or water gun fight. Either way everyone loved participating in them. That Saturday was a team water-balloon fight and Elliot wanted Hadley to be his partner for it. Even though she didn't want to, Hadley agreed to be his teammate. They still needed three other members though. Hadley and Elliot both agreed to invite Justin, Audrie and Frankie to play with them.

By 10:15 the group was dressed and ready for the war outside. Audrie gave Hadley an evil glare as they walked downstairs. Even though Audrie and Justin had already admitted they liked each other things got complicated. Nicole was trying her very best to steal him. As soon as they walked downstairs Justin walked over and hugged Audrie not forgetting to give her a kiss on the forehead.

"You two are adorable!" Hadley says with a silly smile. She feels someone grabbing her hand and looks down to see Elliot's hand in hers. "Elliot?"

"What?" He lets out a stupid laugh. He knew exactly what.

"Let go of my hand." Hadley says in an irritated voice. He does as he is told. What he doesn't realize is that Hadley would have preferred to have had an afternoon date. She wasn't glad to be awake before noon.

Their plans were simple enough. They were going to do the water-balloon war then go to the movies. Elliot continuously flirted with Hadley the whole time. Even when Hadley had aggressively attacked him with water-balloons he just laughed it off. It was simply adorable for the rest of their team to watch.

"Yanno, Isaac wanted to come to this. I wouldn't have joined this group if I had known you weren't going to try." Frankie told Elliot who just apologized and told him to stay.

For Hadley the war seemed to drag on. All she wanted was to climb into the so she could watch Dan and Phil with Ellie and Margie. After all Ellie and Hadley were planning on making a YouTube channel for them. They needed to take notes.

"And the Bulletproof Marshmallows won!" One of the teachers announced. Both Hadley and Elliot turned to see Aiden, Josh, Drake, Thea, and Cory celebrating their victory. As soon as Cory registered the news he pulled Thea in for a quick kiss. The two of them sighed watching the people that they both liked kissing.

"You still are in love with Thea aren't you?" Hadley asks him quietly. He doesn't answer; he just nods. "I like Cory." Hadley mumbles. Elliot looks at her and smiles.

"Maybe we shouldn't continue our date." Elliot tells her. As much as she wanted to climb into bed she thought it over.

Shaking her head she said, "No way, Elliot. You already payed for the movie tickets. Don't think of it as a date... more of a hangout session."

"Sounds good to me." His smile spread from ear to ear. Hadley linked arms with him as they walked towards the girls dorms. "Get dressed quickly so we don't miss the bus."

"Alright." Hadley smiles and runs to the elevator. Suddenly her Saturday just got a whole lot better. She would much rather be his friend than his rebound.

•

Ellie waited in the courtyard for twenty minutes waiting for Aiden to get there. He obviously wasn't in any hurry to see her. She had texted him and told him it was urgent, but apparently he didn't care what she needed. In her mind this was just another thing to build up all of her bottled up anger. She knew it wasn't good to keep it all bottled up. How do you even tell your boyfriend what is wrong?

Someone then covered her eyes and told her to guess who it was. Ellie laughed and pulled Aiden's hands off of her eyes. She patted the seat beside her and thought through what she was going to say. She just didn't know how to put it.

"I have something to get off my chest." They both said in sync. Freaky.

"You go first." Ellie told him anxiously.

"I think you are spending too much time with Carter. It is either Carter or me." Aiden says boldly.

"Carter is my best friend. He cares about me more than you- apparently." Ellie says in an angry voice. "I'm not going to stop talking to him because you told me too!"

"Ellie he likes you." Aiden tells her. She knits her eyebrows together. "When I knew he actually was in love with Brooke I didn't mind but now..."

"Now nothing!" Ellie yells. Apparently her new way of handling things was to yell. Aiden was as shocked as she was about her tone. "I don't need this! I don't even want, or need, a boyfriend right now." Ellie says with a very sassy attitude.

"If that is how you feel." Aiden says calmly. He looked so sad and that made Ellie upset, but not more upset than this conversation. "Just tell me one thing, Ellie. Have you been in love with him the whole time we were dating?"

Ellie was at a loss for words. Even though she said nothing Aiden just shook his head and began to walk away. It took everything in Ellie to not to run after him. She had no idea what her answer would have been. Then she always remembered feeling comfortable and safe with Carter. She though that she had the same feelings around Aiden. Apparently it was totally one sided. Ellie just began her walk back to her dorm room. She didn't imagine for one second that she would regret not going after Aiden.

•

Elliot and Hadley got back to school a little later than planned. They ended up getting to the movies really early so they went to the arcade. They actually had missed the first half of the movie because Hadley kept creaming Elliot and he wanted a retry. When they finally got on the bus ride home it was 9:00. After the movie they had went to eat. None of this was apart of the original plan. It was just added on last minute. They both had a lot of fun though.

"So whats the biggest lie you have ever told?" Hadley asked him.

"Um... That I didn't push my brother out of the tree." Elliot says. He didn't even have to think about it.

"Was that recent?" Hadley asked with a laugh.

"Um you asked two questions in a row. Save that for your next turn." He rolled his eyes and thought of a question. "Most fun trip you have ever had?"

"My trip to Kings Island with Hope, Audrie, and Ellie... You don't know hope she is in eighth grade." Hadley tells him. "Last question, do you think we should do this again?"

"I don't know how you would tell... We are just friends." Elliot tells her, a little distracted. Hadley realized that he was, in fact, looking at her lips.

"Should we at least see if there are any sparks?" Hadley asks him. He shrugs and they draw closer to each other their lips brushing against each other. Before their lips connect Elliot jumps back with a disgusted look on his face. Hadley's face mirrored his. "I can't believe I offered to kiss you!"

"I can't believe I wanted to!" Elliot reassured her. They both sat in silence before they reached the school, hugged, and parted ways. "That wasn't too bad..." Elliot mumbled to himself.