You Have My Heart | AL Fanfic

Chapter 7

~Joey's POV~

I was leaning against my locker, resting my head on the cool metal, trying to get a few more precious minutes of sleep when I heard a group of boys hooting and laughing approach. I groaned, pushing myself upright just as Alan and Spencer came into view. Rubbing the sleep out of my eyes, I made myself livid.

"Joey, what's up man?" Spencer greeted me, ruffling my hair. Not really up for any messing around, I pushed his hands away and patted it back down into place. I looked bad enough with only 4 hours of sleep already, I didn't need Spencer's help looking anymore worse.

"Joe, no offense, but you look like a zombie," Alan said, looking up from his phone to examined my face. I burst into laughter, doubling over because of how hard I was laughing. I couldn't help it, even I knew it was true. I barely made it to school on time that morning. My mom was this close to dumping cold water on me to wake up. And to top it all off, Kenny actually did dumped the glass of water on me.

With a tiny yawn, I regarded Alan and Spencer wearily. "I was up most of the night finishing my English paper." With very little enthusiasm, I showed them the three paged printed out essay. "Mr. Seazers better appreciate it for the very little sleep I got on my part." Without warning, Spencer yanked it out of my fingers and inspected it. "Dude!" I said as I jumped up from where I was sitting to try to get my homework assignment back from him.

Spencer dodged my flying hands and laughed. "He would appreciate it more if you hadn't spelled your name wrong, bro." I ripped my homework out of his hands and looked at it.

"You're lying," I replied, sounding incredulous. Spencer wordlessly pointed at the top of the first page. I read, 'Jsosehp Stqmpee' and gasped in horror.

"No way," I whispered, gaping at my misspelled name in despair. "Nononono." I stepped back to the locker behind me and slid down it, running my fingers through my hair. How could I have missed something like that when I was proofreading? I rolled up the essay and held it tight in one hand. I didn't even want to think what the others would say. Especially CHad.

Spencer started to chuckle, and I turned my head to face him. "What's so funny Spence?" He struggled to compose himself. "Well, uh, I knew you liked to pee, but why'd you have to put it in your own name?" I bopped him in the shin with the rolled up essay, and rolled my eyes at his comment. "It's okay Joe, just print out another copy. When do you have English?" Alan asked. I groaned, knowing that there was no hope for fixing my stupid error in time.

Taking a deep breath, I shook my head weakly at my best buddies. "I have it first period," I mumbled, rubbing my face with my hands. They fell silent, finally understanding my struggle. All the hours I had spent typing and editing that darn paper, all wasted on a typo. Crossing my arms over my knees, and resting my head on top of them, I hid my face from anyone passing by.

"Here, give it to me and I'll run to the library right now," Spencer offered, holding out his hand to take the essay.

"It's fine," I mumbled, laying down, and using my backpack as a pillow, "I'll just use whiteout or something."

My moping was interrupted by the sound of Chad and Caleb's voices floating up the hallway. From what I was picking up, Caleb was complaining to Chad about something.

"...Oh stop whining," Chad was saying in a bored tone, "I gave you a ride to school, didn't I?"

"Yea, but it's still cold outside," Caleb replied. I could hear the squeaking of their shoes on the wet linoleum as they got nearer. "It's snowing pretty bad out there," Chad told us, finally reaching the group.

"Ummm, what's wrong with Joey?" Caleb asked, kicking my foot with his shoe. Chad took in the sight of me laying down on the ground, eyes half closed, and remarked. "What war did you fight in?"