Project Popular (A James Mcvey Fanfic)

Chapter 6

"He was such a jerk!" I moaned, rolling my eyes as James passed us.

"I cant believe he made you walk home in the rain!" Hope snapped, throwing the biggest dirty look his way as he glanced over at us. I continued to explain about what had happened last night, and each of my friends gave me the same response, 'you knew he was a jerk so you should have expected it'.

"El, please, stop." Danni begged, pulling her hair to the side and fluffing it up.

"What?" I asked, securing my bag on my back.

"Talking about James, that's all you've done since you got here. We understand he was a jerk, can you just drop it now?" I nodded slightly, ignoring the bitchiness in her voice. The bell rang and we made our way to PE, this was probably the worst lesson I wanted to be in. We had a set PE kit, which was shorts, and we had to wear them. We poured into the changing rooms and found our usual spot, I slipped off my skirt and tights and replaced them with my shorts. I unbuttoned my blouse, revealing my PE top before slipping my hair up into a pony tail, once again another PE rule.

"Right girls, we've got a treat for you guys today." Miss Wood, our physical education teacher said entering the changing rooms. We all took seats on the benches and turned to her,

"We are having a huge dodgeball game!" All the girls faces lit up and we cheered, dodgeball was one of our favourite games to play.

"BUT," She began,

"We are playing it with the boys too!" The reaction from the girls was mixed, many cheered but there were a far few who groaned, including me.

"Looks like we'll be playing with your little lover boy." Danni sneered as we made our way to the gym, I rolled my eyes and tightened my bobble.

"He's not my lover boy, he's a-"

"Jerk yes we know." We entered the gym and I immediately spotted James down the other end, he was racing round with a bright pink dodgeball in his hand chasing Tristan. He threw it and it bounced off the blonde boys head, causing James to erupt into laughter. I chuckled a little too but soon stopped when Danni glared at me, she had a serious problem today.

"Okay class, I'm going to do the register and then we'll get started." We leant against the walls and she called our names out one by one, each of us murmuring a 'Yes miss' or 'Here miss'.

"The rules are pretty obvious, if you get hit by the ball you are out. Somebody has to catch the ball for you to get back in, if you catch the ball the other team are throwing then the person who threw it is out. Boys against girls, take your place at the walls." Everybody ran to the walls and placed one hand on it, Miss Wood placed the pink dodgeballs on the cones in the middle and stepped back.

"3..2..1..GO!" The whole gym filled with the noise of people's feet pounding across the floor to get the balls, I stayed back because I knew I wasn't quick enough to get the ball before the boys. Everywhere I turned a ball flew past, skimming girl's heads and bodies causing them to shriek. I jogged forward and caught one of the balls that the boys had threw, I smirked as Matty stormed off to the side because I had caught him out.

When my eyes returned to the game I noticed James grinning at me, clutching two of the dodgeballs in his hands. I clicked on to his plan pretty quick and began racing around the gym, he followed me until I had to stand still. He threw the ball but I hit it away with the one I was holding, he shook his head and laughed. I dodged a few other balls that came my way before throwing mine at James, I had to admit it was a pretty good throw. It just missed his left leg, he bit his lip and watched my movement carefully. I ran to the left, then to the right. Trying my best to put him off, however he was eyeing me pretty well. He threw the ball with an almighty force and to my surprise I caught it, Miss Wood ordered James off and he pulled a shocked face at me.

I laughed at him as he mouthed 'I'll get you back', I continued the game. Hitting the odd person and dodging their throws, but my fun soon stopped when Brad caught one of the balls that Milly had thrown. She scurried off to the side and James ran back onto the 'court', Tristan passed him one of the dodgeballs and I knew he was going for me. There was seven girls left on my team and five on his, he began throwing the balls as quickly as he could. I managed to dodge them but he hit other girls on my team, there were three of us left and two of them. I watched carefully as one of our girls got out, however as she got out we hit their other boy who hit our other girl.

All the girls began shouting to me as I realised I was the only girl left and James was the only boy, the look in his eyes made me know that he didn't want to lose.

"Just me and you then El." He smirked, picking up one of the dodgeballs from the side of him. I quickly picked one up too and nodded, we both stepped back and forth, debating on who should throw first. I took a chance and threw it, missing him completely. He threw one at me, just missing my shoulder.

The rest of our classmates were amazed that nobody was out yet, we both quickly dropped to the floor to pick a ball up but I wasn't quick enough. He threw the ball and it bounced off my bum, he doubled over in laughter and the boys cheered. We got close to winning, the teacher got us to tidy up before we walked out of the gym. I felt a presence behind me and frowned when I felt them touch my lower back, I looked over my shoulder to see James smiling away.

"You put up a pretty good fight then, too bad you lost. Are you coming over tonight?" He asked as we continued walking, not removing his hand.

"If you want me to, but I'd prefer if you weren't a jerk tonight." He whispered a rough 'sorry' in my ear before dashing off to his changing rooms, I turned to see Hope raising her eyebrow at me.

"What was that?" She asked as we entered the changing room,

"What?" I asked, changing back into my uniform.

"That whole thing there with James." I frowned as I put my shoes on.

"Nothing happened." I said in defence, she puffed her hair up and sat down next to me.

"You and him were basically playing your own game of dodgeball, then it actually happened. He hit your bum, then had his hand on your back and you just left us behind. We trailed behind you both as you walked down, chatting away. Then he got pretty close to your ear, of course that's nothing." I rolled my eyes at her and removed my bottle, letting it fall free before combing through it.

"He was asking me if I was going over tonight," She raised her eyebrow once again,

"Not for that, to study. I said that I would if he wasn't a jerk." She nodded slightly,

"If that's what you want to call studying then okay." She smirked, picking her bag up. I shoved her and stood up too, waiting for the bell to go.