Just a Scratch

Chapter Eight

"Why are your eyes bloodshot?" I asked Alexa as we blew up balloons.

"I stayed up all night watching Korean dramas," she said with a yawn. I snorted and Emilee rolled her eyes. "What?" Alexa said defensively, "I had to know which guy she'd end up with!"

I threw my balloon at Alexa which she pretended to pop before Rosa came over, "if you guys are done blowing up a balloon then put it in the pile. We don't need you to be messing around." As she walked away I stuck out my tongue and Alexa threw a balloon at her.

"What a bitch," she mumbled.

Our school was really into the whole student council thing, so every year they held a little party banquet thing before a Friday football game where they announced the new student council leaders and then at the football game they announced it to the whole school. We were helping to decorate the gym along with a bunch of student council people, including Rosa and her friend.

And Will.

After we finished most of our project on Monday, he left and we hadn't really talked the past two days. I wasn't complaining, although we did need to finish the project by Monday which meant we'd probably have to get together over the weekend.

"Um, Lilah?" Emilee waved her hand in front of my face.

"What?" I snapped out of my thoughts.

"You were creepily staring at Will so we wanted to stop you before it got too weird." Alexa said.

I explained my English project situation to them and was met with a round of condolences. Deciding to change the subject, I brought up the school funds plan, "I was thinking I could sneak off to the office and see if they have any papers in the filing cabinets that talk about their budget."

"Lilah!" Emilee said in shock, "I thought you weren't serious about that! You could get into so much trouble!"

"I say do it," Alexa had a sneaky smile on and wiggled her eyebrows.

"Alexa! Don't encourage her!"

I laughed at my two friends, "I said I'll do it so I'll do it. Besides, there's like, no one in the school right now." It was a couple hours after school had ended and now seemed like as good a time as any to find out if they had enough money to fix up the old baseball field.

"It's already Thursday and voting's tomorrow morning so there's actually no point," Emilee tried to reason.

"Well if I blow up another balloon then I'm gonna pass out, so it'll give me a chance to stretch my legs." I stood up.

"I'd go with you but I don't want to," Alexa said as I walked away. I flipped her off and I left the gym.

The hallways were completely empty as I made my way to the front office and it was kind of creepy, like I was in a horror game and the evil maniac teachers were just waiting to jump out and murder me.

But I tried to keep that out of my mind...

I stalked over to the office and slowly opened up the door which led into a dark room with no one in it. I decided to keep the lights off and carefully snuck behind the receptionist's desk to where there was a row of filing cabinets. I loved snooping cause it made me feel like Nancy Drew, like there was going to be some giant mystery that I was going to solve.

In reality though, it was just me being an idiot. Same, same.

There were tons of papers that made no sense to me, but then I found a file with what I assumed were important emails that were printed out. I scanned each page and I felt like I was seriously invading someone's privacy, but then my eyes caught something.

I pulled out the piece of paper and it basically said that a large portion of the student budget that usually goes to sports was being given to "Assisted Learning" this year. I tried to figure out what "Assisted Learning" meant but then it clicked.

They were going to give money for a program for students with learning disabilities! My heart leapt in joy and suddenly I didn't hate this school as much as usual! It looked like they were going to hire some people to work with the learning disabled and give them a whole office! I was completely ecstatic!

"Sooo, can I ask why you're stealing papers or...?"

I spun around with the email gripped tightly in my hand and saw Will standing in the entrance of the office. "Why the fuck are you here?" I said without thinking.

"Geez, you're so aggressive," he moved over to where I was and tried to get a look at the paper in my hand. I quickly stuffed it back in its folder and slammed the cabinet shut.

"So what are you doing?" He asked skeptically. "Should I report you?"

"None of your business." I crossed my arms in defiance. What was he gonna do? Report me? Oh wait...

"I don't think you get to say that in this situation. I'm the one who has the upper hand."

I frowned and searched his face for any signal that he'd actually tell on me but it was like studying a statue. The best course of action would probably be just to admit my mistake, so that's what I did.

"Okay," I sighed, "I was trying to see what the school budget was like to see if they had money to fix up the old baseball field."

There was a beat but then Will scoffed, "that's it? I thought you might be trying to do something more exciting than that. You're so boring."

I rolled my eyes and tried to walk passed him but he stopped me before I could leave.

"We still need to finish the English project, by the way."

"Right," I said, "this Saturday?"

"Sure. I'll give you my address and we can work on it at my house," he said.

"Your house?" I was shocked. Wasn't he the one that didn't want me to know where he lives??

"Yeah. I know I said we couldn't work on it there but I guess it's only fair. I don't want to be a hassle to your family either." He shoved his hand in his pocket and handed me his phone, "give me your number and then I'll text you the address and time."

"O-okay," I took the phone from his hand and gave him a weird look.

"I still don't like you," he said as a reminder.

"For fuck's sake," I whispered and quickly inputted my number. As I handed him back the phone, there was the sound of movement coming from the front of the office. We both turned around to see Rosa looking at us intently.

"What are you doing?" She asked.

I suddenly realized that the position we were in was definitely compromising. We were in an empty room with the lights off, which could make someone's imagination run wild.

"I just came to grab the attendance sheet," Will said and swiped a paper off the front desk before walking past his girlfriend, leaving the two of us alone.

She was a tall and regal looking girl. Her face looked like she never smiled, which I'm not sure she did. She was the kind of girl that just ends up popular, she doesn't climb the social ladder because she's already at the top.

I slowly moved across the room to escape but she stepped in front of me.

"Will's my boyfriend, so you better stay away from him." He arms were crossed and the light from the hallway backlit her, making her look even more intimidating.

"Yo, you can have him to yourself. I'm not interested."

She just studied me without saying anything and then slowly dropped her arms, turning around and walking away from me.

If there was one thing I most certainly didn't need, it was Rosa as an enemy.

For fuck's sake.

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