Chapter 22
"How's the poem coming along?" Mae asked, sitting beside me on the bench while everyone stretched on their own.
"Better than before," I said. "I actually know what I want to say. It's just not procrastinating now."
"Not procrastinating?" she asked. "You do realize the poetry slam is tomorrow, right?"
I sighed. "Don't remind me. I still have to practice and my parents want to come as well. I can just imagine all the teachers going up to them and saying, 'Oh, it is so nice to see you two again. You are definitely better than your son'."
"Ryder, they won't say that," Mae said.
"They won't say it, but they'll think it," I said.
Mae rolled her eyes and peered over my shoulder to look at my poem, but I quickly turned the page over. "Aww, I want to see it," she said.
"You can see it tomorrow," I said. "Well, hear it."
Lilith walked into the studio then, followed by the new girl at school, April. "Can I have your attention?" Lilith asked. When everyone was done talking, she smiled. "Thank you. So, after what happened last week, sorry for bringing it up Ryder, I have been doing a lot of thinking. And if any of you get injured even closer to a competition where you won't be able to dance, we wouldn't be able to do anything. That's why I decided that April here, she's new to the city, is going to be our alternate. She will learn all the dances just in case there's an injury or something else that will prevent any of you from dancing."
April caught my eye and she smiled at me and waved, so I smiled and waved back.
"You know her?" Mae asked in a quiet voice as Lilith introduced everyone.
"Yeah, she's new to the school," I said. "She's in one of my classes. And she helped me take my supplies to that class."
"Oh."
"April, want to show us what you got?" Isla asked with a friendly smile. "Even if you're the alternate, you're still part of the team and we should know your style."
"Okay, sure," April said.
"Great, I'll put a song on," Lilith said.
Once a song was playing through the speaker, April began dancing and I had to admit, she was pretty good.
"She's good," I said to Mae.
"She's not that good," Mae objected, crossing her arms over her chest.
I furrowed my eyebrows. "What are you talking about? She's really good."
Mae scoffed. "And you're an idiot," she said before getting up from the bench and walking over to where everyone else was standing.
Um.
Okay?
I did not understand girls at times. Or people in general.
When April finished dancing, everyone but Mae told her how great she was, which made April smile widely.
Isla then went over to the secondary studio while everyone else went over the other routine with April learning it. While they were doing that, I got back to working on my poem. I was almost finished and I couldn't wait to be done it and to present it tomorrow. I hated stressing out about it.
When I finally finished, I read it over to make sure it was okay before putting it in my backpack. I then watched everyone work on their routine and noticed that Mae was messing up. A lot.
That wasn't like her at all. She almost never messed up and when she did, it wasn't that noticeable.
Lilith noticed as well and stopped the music. "Mae, what's going on?" she asked.
"Nothing," Mae said. "Sorry, I just forgot a move and that messed everything up."
"Okay, we'll try again," Lilith said, starting the music over. But once again, Mae messed up a lot and Lilith stopped the music. "Okay, there's something else going on. Whatever is going on in your head, clear it or you'll have to sit out for the day."
Mae nodded and they started again, but stopped only a few seconds in because Mae messed up yet again. "I'm just going to get some water," Mae said before walking out of the studio.
"Ryder, can you check on her?" Lilith asked.
"Yeah," I said, picking up my crutches and going out of the studio where Mae was. She was leaning against the wall, rubbing her forehead. "Hey, are you okay?"
"I'm fine," Mae said, snapping a bit.
"Are you sure?" I asked. "Because you called me an idiot for no reason, then you messed up the routine a lot."
"Yeah, I get it," she said. "You don't have to remind me."
"Mae, what's wrong?" I asked. "Come on, you can trust me."
"You really are an idiot," she said.
"Okay, I did nothing wrong for you to call me an idiot," I said.
"It's that new girl," Mae said. "She comes along and suddenly...."
"Whoa," I interrupted. "She just helped me carry my things to class when you and I were fighting."
"Did you see the way she smiled at you?" she asked. "And you smiled back."
"So this is a jealousy thing?" I asked. "Mae, I'm a nice guy. I smile when people smile at me. And she probably only smiled at me because I helped her find her class on her first day."
Mae scoffed. "There was more to her smile than that. Do you know how much I hate how girls like you? I know why, because you have an amazing personality and you're extremely good-looking, but they don't seem to care about the fact that you have a girlfriend. A lot of them flirt with you and you don't even know."
"Shouldn't you be thankful that I don't notice?" I asked. "If I don't know that some girl is flirting with me, then you should know it's because I don't care if any other girl likes me except for you. Mae, you're the one I love, not April or any other girl. I love you."
"You....you love me?" Mae asked.
"Yeah, of course I do," I said. "Mae, you're the best thing that's ever happened to me."
Mae gave me a wide smile before wrapping her arms around me. "I love you too. And I'm sorry for getting so jealous. I know you would never flirt with other girls or do anything like that. At least I hope you won't...."
I laughed. "Don't worry, I won't. I come from a loyal family. One time when my parents were in university, my dad was drunk and he wouldn't do anything with my mom because he didn't want to cheat on her."
"So basically, you're dad didn't want to cheat on your mom with....your mom."
"Yup, exactly that," I said. "And I take after my dad a lot, so you don't have to worry about me not being loyal. I love you way too much for that."
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I love jealous Mae. cx
And yay, the confessed their love for each other. cx
Okay, for those who can tell by the cast list that I watch The Next Step, I have something to share. :) You'll only get it if you watched season 2. So yesterday, my school had this dance show that I was in and my dance teacher got a lot of cool dance performances. One of them was this amazing team and you know who was on that team? Zac Vran aka Hunter. No lie. Some people got a picture with him, but I didn't. I should have though....
I saw him last year there too, but only for like, three seconds, when he walked right in front of me. cx
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Ryder the Love Expert | Protector 2.1
Teen Fiction*cover created by hotsforhoran* Ryder Tony Prince has been known as The Love Expert ever since he was three years old and decided to give his father some advice at love. Not to mention Ryder is the son of Grayson and Poppy Prince, also know...
