Fire and Water

Hot as Fire

Jake sighed.

Just there, across the room, sat Lauren, the girl of his dreams.

Jake is the most popular guy in class, and almost all the girls like him, but not this particularly shy girl.

She doesn't speak to many people, and even when she does, she keeps it short. That is, except for her best friend. Her best friend Catherine and her are always chatting.

Rrrrrrrring!

The bell rang, and Jake put his books and pen in his bag. He sighed and walked out of the classroom to the field out at the back.

His best friend Nathan dashed to catch up to him, "J, dude, don't run so fast!" Jake smiled, "I wasn't even running Nathan, just walking..." He sighed again and looked to the spot in the old oak tree where Lauren and Cath were busy climbing to the top, almost out of his view.

 "Do you think she'll ever even notice me Nathan?" Jake turned to his friend.

Nathan stopped and though for a moment. Then he shrugged and kept walking. "I have no idea, but really, all girls fall for you eventually. But none of them have ever taken this long. Soooo... I have no idea really."

Jake sighed again and dropped his shoulders.

They went to a bench next to a young cherry blossoms tree, which had just started blooming. Some of the small pink flowers fell and got blown around by the wind, eventually landing on the floor.

Jake but down his school bag and took out his orange lunch-box. He saw Nathan do the same and opened his box.

He rolled his eyes, "Moooooooom..." He groaned, "I told you, I don't like peanut butter and jam sandwiches!" Nathan laughed and took a bite of his apple. Jake closed his lunch-box again and put it back in his bag.

A few girls from another group started giggling, and Jake looked up, frustrated. They kept giggling and pointed at him.

He got up, and as he did, a few cherry blossoms showered down in front of his face. The girls burst out laughing, and Jake sighed and sat back down.

Nathan patted him on the back and handed him a piece of cucumber, "Here you go, you can't make tests on an empty stomach!"

"Ehhh... No thanks Nath." He replied, and kicked himself internally for forgetting their maths tests. He grabbed one of his maths books out of his bag opened it on the 'Squared and square roots' page. 

He read a few sentences, and glanced at a maths sum. 

( a + b ) 2 = a 2 + 2 ⁢ a ⁢ b + b 2

Ehhh.... Nope. Jake thought

And then the bell rang.

Jake rushed to put his book back in his bag and picked it up. He dashed after Nathan, who was a few meters ahead of him.

He saw Lauren and Cath jump out of their oak tree, and grab their bags.

They entered the class, Jake still panting a little. He sat down and grabbed his pen, pencil, eraser, and ruler from his bag.

Time for the test.

The teacher put two pages on his desk, one with questions, one blank. Jake took a deep breath, and focussed on the questions.

Why didn't I take more time to study? Jake thought to himself, and glanced at Lauren. She'll probably ace this test! She's smart and... well... shy?

Jake sighed and turned back to his test, "Let's do this..." he whispered.