Don't Bet On It

Chapter 11 - Mother Doesn't Always Know Best

Here's Chapter 11, sorry for any mistakes. I hope you enjoy reading it.

The song for the chapter playlist is 'I Know You Know Me' by The Tease.

The picture on the side is Pete.

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"Wait . . . Wait you quit the soccer team, because of me?" I sat bolt upright from the lying position I'd been in, we were on the top of Twin Peaks - the highest point in the city. We'd driven here straight from school, I wanted to know exactly what had happened with Principal Hollins.

"Not just because of you," He sighed and sat up next to me. " I've been thinking of quitting for a while actually. There's more important things in life; friends, family, the band, you. Plus it means I don't have to pretend I like those guys anymore, I mean a few are okay like Greg and obviously Pete and Olly."

"But the rest are all clones of Nick Arnold." He'd told me Coach Eisenstein had given him and Nick the choice to get on and play soccer together or neither of them could be on the team, so Noah took his chance and quit.

I still couldn't believe it, he was giving up his popularity and status in school without a second thought.

"But Nick and the rest of the team are going to ruin your life and probably mine too. I'm used to it, three years is a long enough time to build up a resistance. You though, I'm not sure you can take it, you've always been part of the 'in-crowd'. Welcome to the real world, it sucks!"

I looked out over the city smiling, Noah was right, the view really is amazing.

"You watch 'Friends'?" Turning my head, I looked at Noah and nodded. "I love that show, 'Welcome to the real world, it sucks! You're gonna love it! From the pilot." He smiled.

"Yeah, it's one of my favourite shows." We spent the next half an hour chatting about the show and comparing our favourite episodes, we ended up laughing the whole time.

"I still can't believe we got partnered together for this English project." He turned to me looking tired, I'd never seen him this worn down before, it wasn't right. I brought my knees up and hugged them, it had turned chilly.

"I know it's crazy. What do you think we should do? We need something different, two groups who hate each other." Shivering slightly, I thought of some ideas but nothing original came to mind, just opponents in war and that was boring.

"Here." He passed me the dark blue hoodie he'd been wearing, I put arms down the sleeves and instantly felt his warmth in it. "What about 1960s England, Mods and Rockers?"

"Like 'Quadrophenia'. That's a great idea, we could have the fight between Romeo and Tybalt with flick knives and have a scooter/motorcycle race." I turned to face him and crossed my legs, he twisted round and I saw the glint return to his eyes as he thought about our idea excitedly.

"They could meet at a club, then find out who the other is at a street race or something." We discussed our idea until we'd got a basic outline of what we wanted to do, then we both went home. I didn't realise I was still wearing his jacket until I got home and my mum noticed it.

When I took it off I discovered my clothes smelt like Noah, not that I'd noticed he had a specific smell. Fezzik seemed to like the hoodie aswell, when I placed it on my bed he immediately moved onto it and snuggled into it. If he wasn't so cute I'd have tipped him off, but I just couldn't bring myself to disturb him. Noah would just have to have a hairy jumper.

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"I had an idea about our project, we could create a soundtrack to go along with our presentation. We could have The Who, The Jam even The Rolling Stones playing in the background or on a video or something."