Ticket Outta Loserville (Trames au)

Chapter 24- Tristan's POV

Obviously, after yesterday's incident that led to him needing to hold my hand, there's no way that James can ignore me anymore. I'm glad we sorted things out, though we didn't discuss it too much- we both just needed to get past it. I really do care about James, and it was horrible seeing him in pain yesterday, especially since all I could do was let him squeeze my hand when it really hurt. I was proud of him for being brave though- he's had a much more difficult time than most people know, and I wish they knew what it was really like for him.

Right now, we're sitting in English class whilst the teacher explains our homework. "You'll be doing a project working with the person sitting next to you." she announces. "You'll be given a novel from my list and make a presentation comparing it to the novel we are currently studying." 

James sighs. "I hate doing presentations." he complains. "I always get so nervous."

I smirk. "You'll just have to be as brave as you were for the nurse yesterday."

James huffs, but I can see him smile. The teacher tells us that she expects the projects in my next Friday, and given James' training schedule, that doesn't leave us with a lot of time. I'm slightly surprised when James says "Do you want to come to mine after school tomorrow to work on it?" he asks.

James has obviously been to my house, but I've never been to his- he always makes his home life sound like hell. Given how his dad treats him, that's understandable. "Sure." I find myself saying. "That works." James smiles, seeming to be genuinely pleased about it. I smile back at him, but it soon fades when I see the novel we've been assigned. "Othello isn't even a book!"

"Never mind." James says, laughing at my outrage. "We're very clever, I'm sure we'll manage."

I roll my eyes. "Yeah, ok. I'll remind you of that and hold you responsible for the F that we're going to get." For the rest of the lesson, we continue to make plans. I'm dying to ask James why he was ignoring me, but I'm happy right now and I don't want to spoil it. 

When the bell rings, I head over to Brad and Connor. I swear they're holding hands, but they move apart quickly when I come over. "You look happy." Brad comments.

I shrug. "I don't know. I have to go to James' tomorrow to work on the English project."

"It's a horrible project." Connor whinges. "We have to do Wuthering Heights." 

I sigh. "At least you have an actual book. We're doing bloody Othello."

"Sounds like fun." says Brad. "Why do you have to go to James'?"

"He has so much practise and stuff that we don't have much time." I explain. "I'm not sure how I feel about going though."

"Why?" asks Connor teasingly. "You should have jumped at the opportunity." Brad giggles, and I pretend to hit them. "Seriously though," Connor asks. "Why?"

I sigh. "It's not really my place to be explain it, but let's just say that his dad isn't very nice to him. He's having quite a hard time."

"That's sad." says Brad. "He doesn't really show it though."

"He's not the nicest of people." Connor points out. "Him and his friends used to be really horrible to us. Not so much anymore though."

"To be fair," I say, "He does try to stop them. Though to be honest, from what I've gathered, they aren't that nice to him. Some of them are, but there's quite a few of them that he's pretty much stuck with."

For the rest of break, we discuss our projects, and neither Brad or Connor bring up the subject of James again. I can tell that they're curious about why I was defending him so much, but to be honest I'm glad they didn't ask because that would have required too much embarrassing explaining. I have a feeling that they know how I really feel about James, regardless of how much I tried to pretend that I hated him. I don't think I ever did really- hate is a strong word, and even though James gave me a hard time, I feel sorry for him. Also, I discovered that he's actually a nice person beneath the tough guy image. 

For once, I'm excited to go to RE, despite what happened last time. I just like spending time with James- it makes me feel like slightly less of a loser. As the bell rings again, I head off in the opposite direction to my friends, for once not having to wish that everything will be ok.

------ 

That was a crap chapter, I'm sorry 😢 Hopefully it will improve. I used the books I hate in this- luckily I'm not doing Wuthering Heights, but I am doing Othello 😫 It's such an annoying play!

I hope you all had a wonderful trismas- what did you get? I got perfume, books, jewellery and some CDs, I'm lucky. Though I did get an Anne frank biography from my grandma (??, maybe because I'm doing a level history?)