Linger

S I X T Y - T W O

"Should I just ask him to prom or start with something smaller?" Kelsey tilted her head.

Sasha turned to her. "Ask who?"

"Mr. Hayden!" 

"You can't just ask Mr. Hayden to prom." Chelsea shook her head.

"Why not? I already have detention. It's pretty much a first date." 

"Let me know how it goes," I told her with a smile. 

"I will!" she replied eagerly. 

Sasha nudged my side. 

"What?" I turned to her. 

"Aren't you jealous?"

"Of what? Her getting detention? Yeah. So jealous," I said dryly before letting out a laugh. 

"You know that's not what I mean."

"Then what do you mean?"

Kelsey suddenly gasped. "I love that song!" 

Sasha and I looked up at her. "What?"

"When you nod your head yes, but you wanna say no," Brooke, Sophia, and Kelsey sang quietly. 

"Ladies," Daniel called, causing us to look up at him. "I will separate you." 

"If you guys ruin this date for me, I swear . . ." Kelsey lowered her gaze at Brooke and Sophia.

"Relax. We're already planning your wedding," Sophia teased her with a smile. 

"Yeah." Brooke nodded along. "Were you thinking summer or winter?"

We all burst into laughter, catching Daniel's attention and he walked over. 

"Shh!!!" Kelsey hushed us, waving her hands. "Shhhh! Shh! Shh!" 

"Ladies--"

"It was all my fault!" Kelsey burst out. "I'm sorry. Give me detention, not them. They didn't do anything." She held her hand out at us, shaking her head. 

"Wow," Sasha muttered. "Obvious much?"

Daniel eyed her inquisitively as he stood beside my seat. "I'd prefer not to give you any of you detention, actually." 

"What?!" Kelsey screeched. "Why??"

Daniel let out a chuckle in disbelief. "I don't think you'd like to be here longer than you have to, do you?"

Chelsea looked up at him with a sigh. "You'd be surprised." 

Daniel shook his head. "Hurry up and complete your tests. You have ten minutes until the bell."  He tapped our table before heading back to his desk.

"Ugh, he smells so good." Kelsey threw her head back. 

"He literally just stood you up." Sasha pointed her pencil at her.

Kelsey lowered her head to look at her. "What?"

"He said he'd rather leave early than stay in detention with you." 

Kelsey's face fell. "But--"

"I don't think he meant it like that . . ." I shook my head.

"Come on, you know that's what he meant," Sasha argued. "And you know why." 

"Guys? Hello?" Chelsea held her test up. "There's less than ten minutes left and we still have a test to finish." 

We immediately turned to our tests, and between assigning a page to each one of us and exchanging answers, we managed to finish the test in record time.