Something to Prove

Chapter 11: Making Plans? Yes Please!

My eyes fluttered closed, when I felt a sharp jab on the back of my hand. "Ouch! What the...?" said, rubbing my hand. Carly sat across from me, a fork poised in her hand and a stern look on her face.

"You were about to fall alseep. Your welcome for keeping you awake." Okay, so maybe I was a little sleepy still. I stared down at my cereal and forced myself to eat some. "How late were you up, anyway?" Carly asked, concerned.

"I don't know; two, maybe three in the morning." I stifled a yawn. Giving up on my breakfast, I pulled a steaming mug of coffee towards me. "But I got all my homework finished, so it was worth it." Across the caf, I noticed Heather glaring at me. Weird. What was that girl's problem? "I have a feeling today's gonna be a looong day."

Carly nodded in agreement. "So, because you don't seem to be fully functioning this morning, what's your plan for when you see Jason in Advanced English? I don't want you to embarrass yourself," she teased.

I gave her a mocking smirk. "Your concern is so touching. But honestly? I have no clue what to say to Jason. Do I wait for him to say something first? Or do I start the conversation?"

"I think you should just walk in there and do whatever you'd normally do. Change tends to throw guys off," Carly advised.

"Thanks, I think I'll head to class now. See you at lunch?"

"Def. I'm going to need details of English class!"

I smoothed on more of my fave lipgloss, Country Peach by Liplicious, and tried to look awake. I'm sure I looked like I'd just rolled out of bed. I wore dark blue skinny jeans, black hightop sneakers, and a plum coloured hoodie, and my hair was pulled up in a messy bun. Passing a window, I snuck a glance at my reflection. Black eyeliner made my green eyes stand out in my pale face, but I thankfully didn't look too tired. I turned my attention back to where I was walking, only to find that I was about to smack into someone.

"Ohmigosh, I'm so sorr..." I collided with the person in front of me, and let my apology trail off as I saw who it was. Surprise, surprise, it was Jason. Great, just great. I never stopped embarrassing myself in front of him! I bit my lip and averted my gaze. "Sorry. A little out of it this morning."

"No problem," Jason said. "...Wanna walk the rest of the way to English together?" He looked at me hopefully, expectantly.

"Sure! I'd love to." I fell in step beside him and scrambled madly for something to say. "Such a gorgeous morning," I said lamely. Beside me, Jason smiled. "I mean, like, this is the perfect weather for riding outside."

"That's right, you're a rider. Do you have lessons every day?"

"Yup. Alternating morning and afternoon lessons."

"Wow, that sounds like a lot of work."

"It is. But it's totally worth the time and effort to ride for Canterwood's intermediate team." Finally! A guy who didn't think riding was just an easy little hobby!

"That's so cool. I might just have to watch one of your lessons some time." ! OMG!

"Yeah, that'd be great," I said as calmly and casually as I could. We had reached our class already, which unfortunately put an end to our conversation. For now. It took all my willpower to concentrate on the lesson, and not on the boy sitting next to me.

...

"You. Will. Not. Believe. This!" I squeeled as I sat down with Carly for lunch.

"What?! Tell me!" Carly swiped my tray away from me. "No eating until you tell me what happened," she said, only half joking.

"Okay, well, I ran into Jason while I was on my way to English. And I mean literally ran into him. It was so embarrassing! But then we got talking, and he asked me about my riding! Like, he was actually interested! Then he said that he wanted to see one of my lessons!"

"Omg, Aspen! That's so exciting! See, he likes you. No doubt about it now." Carly pushed my lunch tray back towards me. "Now it's my turn." She smiled slyly. "Let's just say I had quite the morning."

"Spill it. Now," I demanded. For the rest of our lunch period, I listened to Carly give me a play-by-play of her morning. We laughed over the stupidest details until our sides were sore, then had to run to make sure we weren't late for our next classes. After that, I didn't have a spare moment to think about anything besides school work. Which was probably a good thing, in the end. I had more than enough on my mind these days.