you're my hope ~MILEVEN AU~

iii - the confused girl

Jane tried her best to ignore the slight shake in her breath whenever she saw Mike Wheeler around school and the slight disappointment when there was no knock on the AV room door at lunch time. She figured that it was just a natural body reaction from talking to someone for the first time that she didn't know, just confused little feelings, not anything special. 

But it seemed as if the boy was determined to catch her attention. 

Jane was sat at her dinner table in the cabin, pushing her peas across her plate with a sigh when her dad cleared his throat. She glanced up at him with a raised eyebrow and noticed his slightly tense posture with his boot tapping against the wooden floorboards. 

"What is it?" she questioned with a roll of her eyes, believing that it was another lecture about staying safe or about staying up late reading. 

"Some kid came by for you earlier while you were at work, wanted to talk to you. I told him you'll speak to him at school tomorrow" her dad revealed, watching her reaction carefully. 

She lowered her eyes, clenching her fist around her fork. She knew exactly who it was. 

"Tall, skinny, dark hair..." her dad continued and she sighed, "said his name was Mike...do you know him well?"

"Not really" she mumbled, pushing a curl behind her ear. "Did he say what he wanted to talk about?"

Her dad shook his head and her mind instantly ran through all of the different scenarios that it could be to do with. Her brain sped through the ideas of him needing help with homework, but then concluded that he is probably one of the top kids in the class, then to the idea that he wanted to ask her out which Jane pushed out of her head instantly. 

Stop it, Jane, she scolded her brain. You don't even know him!

"Do you like him?" her dad asked suddenly and she spat out a mouthful of peas. 

"What? No! ew, gross!" Jane shouted and her dad held his hands up in mock surrender, rolling his eyes before luckily dropping the conversation. 

They continued the rest of their meal in a comfortable silence but Jane's mind was busy focusing on finding out why Mike Wheeler was so interested in her all of a sudden. If Jane was like every other girl she could understand why he might be trying to get her attention or even just trying to be kind, but after everything Jane had experienced with people at that school, it was something very unfamiliar to her that someone could simply have innocent intentions. 

When she arrived at the cafe the next day, she swore under her breath. Mike was standing behind the counter in the uniform that she wore for volunteering, grinning at her happily. She walked forward with a glare on her face but he simply held up a hand and awkwardly waved. 

"What are you doing here?" she muttered, slipping behind the counter and grabbing her own apron and barista hat. 

"I wanted to volunteer" Mike smiled at her, gesturing to his matching clothes, "I told Becky that I wanted to volunteer with you to help out."

"And she let you?" Jane directed her cold stare towards Becky, the manager who walked over and set a hand on Jane's shoulder. 

"Oh, come on! Mike here is a sweetheart, you'll work well together. Besides, you know we need all the help that we can get! Can you get him up to speed and show him where everything is?" Becky asked and Mike's face lit up. 

"Fine" Jane sighed, trying to shove her wild curls under her hat. "Follow me."

"Your hair is a bit wild for that, isn't it?" Mike stifled a laugh but his face fell when he saw Jane glare again. "I just- I meant...it isn't a bad thing! Your hair...it's uh-pretty..."