Stonebrook High School

Chapter 12

"Oh, gods, you scared us!" sighed Jesse in relief. The other two also sighed.

"Nothing's fun if you're not scared half to death," Axel said, crossing his arms after remembering Lukas was there. "So what are you guys doing with this chump?"

"Well, to put it simply, we're friends now," Jess said.

"Oh, okay, that's cool- wait, what?"

"You heard her," chuckled Jesse, "we're friends."

Axel opened his mouth to say something and then closed it before opening it again after thinking. "Okay, wait... you're going to have to explain all of this to me in class, Jesse. You're completely losing me."

"Alright, big guy," Jesse laughed as he patted Axel's back. "We should probably split and get to our class. See ya later, Jess, Lukas." He waved and started off towards his class, pulling Axel along.

Both Jess and Lukas waved back. Then the girl turned to Lukas and shrugged. "So... um... shouldn't you be making your way to class by now? Bell's going to ring in a minute."

He shook his head with a small smirk. "Nah, teacher's always late to first period anyway. He takes fifteen minutes before he gets to class."

"Wow. Shouldn't he be on a few warnings or something?"

"We don't tell anyone. Gives all of us more time to do homework or get to class."

She laughed. "I guess that makes sense."

They stood next to each other for a while when the bell rang and Jesse grumbled.

"Where is Olivia? She's never late to class."

Lukas leaned against the wall and pulled out a stick of gum. "Oh, I kinda accidentally bumped into her when I was trying to find you guys. She was with this other girl. I don't know her name, though."

"What did she look like?" Jess started eyeing the gum as he took off the wrapper and put it in his mouth.

"Um, she had brown hair, brown eyes, light skin... also was wearing a flower crown and had pink nails. I think she was Asian." He chewed slowly on the minty gum.

"Oh! Vienna. I know her. She has PE with Jay and I. Olivia was probably helping her find her new classes then."

"Hm. That makes sense." He blew a bubble and it popped.

Jess resisted the urge to look at his gum and stared at the window in front of them. "You probably don't know since this is your first year here, but Vienna is the most popular girl in school. She has a bunch of social media which updates news about school and certain events. Pretty much everyone follows her and admires her because she's really cool."

"Huh. That's nice to know. So how did you guys meet her?"

"We just had classes with her in middle school. Nothing too fancy."

"If only it was that simple when we first met," Lukas chuckled, blowing another bubble.

She laughed. "You know, it's kind of funny. A few hours ago, we were each other's eternal antagonists, and now we're just... chill. Weird how things turn out."

"Yeah." He softly smirked to himself and purposely popped the bubble so he could chew on it again.

"We should probably go. I see my teacher down the hall." She realigned her shirt and waved to Lukas with a smile. "See ya later." Her feet moved and she was about to enter the classroom when Lukas tapped her shoulder and held out a fresh stick of gum.

"Want some?"

She smiled again. "Thanks." Taking the gum, she took off the wrapper and held it between her lips. Then she disappeared inside the classroom, mixed in with all her other classmates.