Hear Me Out

Chapter 14

Chapter 14

       The day came of the most random field trip that didn't make any sense for art class; a scavenger hunt in a forest.

       You know what kind of field trip would make sense? A museum. Or seeing a world famous statue. Or maybe look at some murals or art work.

       Literally everything would make sense for an art class except for a scavenger hunt. 

       The only reason why I was okay with going on the field trip was that it was getting me out of all my other classes, including one where the teacher was constantly trying to get me to speak up in class.

       Even though I couldn't.

       And it made my mental state a lot worse to have everyone's eyes on me while my teacher waited for an answer.

       They would probably stare at me a lot longer if Karen wasn't an amazing cousin and answered the question for me.

        Even if she didn't know the answer. She would just say something random to get the attention off of me.

       While my art class was getting on the school bus to head to the field trip location, I was expecting to sit alone on the bus. However, as soon as I sat down, Katie sat down beside me. 

       "No Massey?" I asked.

       "She's sitting beside Brad," Katie said. "Which I don't get since she has been trying her best to convince me to date him."

       "Maybe she decided she should date him instead," I said.

       "I wish," Katie said, leaning back into the seat. "I get that she's my best friend and everything but it's annoying when she's constantly trying to get me to date someone. I just want to find someone by myself."

       "I get that," I said. "Having someone trying to get you to date someone when you're not attracted to them at all is just annoying."

       "Yeah, it is," Katie said.

       To be honest, I was glad Katie didn't want to date Brad. I mean, I didn't know much about Brad since I never talked to him so for all I know, he could be a very sweet guy.

       But I would get extremely jealous. Extremely.

       I hated that I liked Katie because one, I didn't know if she liked me back and two, she was Massey's best friend. Would Massey even be okay if something happened between me and Katie?

       Not that anything would.

       And I had a feeling Massey wouldn't be okay with it considering she was a very dramatic person and overreacted over the most simplest things.

       Before the bus left, Mrs. Jeffrey took attendance to make sure we were all on the bus. Afterwards, we began driving to the location where the most random and confusing field trip was going to happen.

       It didn't take long to get there. Once the bus stopped, we all got off and Mrs. Jeffrey and a teacher assisting her on the field trip led us to a large grass field with various picnic tables. She told us to all find a seat before she explained how the scavenger hunt was going to work.

       "This is going to happen in pairs," Mrs. Jeffrey said. "But I want it to be with someone you weren't with for the sculpture project." Some people started to find a partner but Mrs. Jeffrey cut them off. "Just wait until I'm done my instructions. Each pair will get one sketchbook and pencil from this bag." She held up a cloth bag. "I'll assign each pair a colour flag and that's the colour you'll need to find. You'll also get a compass and instructions to find each flag. When you find one, I want you to do a quick sketch of the location it's at before grabbing it."

       And there was the art aspect of the field trip.

       "And, of course, there is a prize for the first team back," Mrs. Jeffrey said. "But that will be a surprise. Now, partner up and come see me for the supplies."

       Once everyone began finding a partner, Katie turned to face me. "Want to be my partner?"

       "You don't want to be with Massey?" I asked. "You weren't with her for the sculpting project."

       "Yeah, but you were with her and I'm the only other person in this class you feel comfortable talking to," Katie said. "Besides, I think she's partnering with Brad."

       Katie and I looked at Massey, who was looking at the two of us and gesturing that she was going to go with Brad.

       "Then I guess I'll partner up with you," I said.

       "You guess?" Katie asked.

       "Oh, you know what I meant," I said.

       Katie smiled. "I know. I was kidding."

       Katie and I went to Mrs. Jeffrey to get our supplies. She assigned us to the orange and black flags, then gave us the supplies for the scavenger hunt.

       We had to wait until everyone else had theirs and once they did, the scavenger hunt began. Most pairs immediately ran into the forest, wanting to be the first one done to get whatever the prize was.

       Katie and I just walked into the forest. We both didn't really care about the prize, and I would rather not be with the huge group of people.

       Katie was really good with directions so she was the one in charge of the compass. It didn't take us too long to find the first flag and once we did, we sat down so I could do a quick sketch of the location.

       "This is fun," Katie said.

       "I can't tell if you're being sarcastic or not," I said. "Because I wouldn't really call it fun."

       "Awe, but it is fun," Katie said. "Just walking in the forest. Missing classes. Getting fresh air."

       "Okay, fair enough," I said. "It's not really my definition of fun but it's not boring either. And I would rather be doing this than going to school."

       "Is Mr. Jacobs still being a buttface?" Katie asked.

       I furrowed my eyebrows. "I haven't heard anyone call someone else a buttface since I was in elementary school. Well, Zoey calls Massey a buttface all the time but that's Zoey for you."

       "In my defence, Mr. Jacobs is very much a buttface," Katie said.

       "Well... You're not wrong," I said. "It just gets annoying with him trying to get me to talk in class when I can't. He has a doctor's note from me and he's still choosing to ignore it."

       "Exactly why he's a buttface," Katie said before looking at the sketchbook. "Dang, you sketch fast."

       "Well, Mrs. Jeffrey did say it just has to be a quick sketch," I said.

       "No need for that sass, Jeremy," Katie said.

       "That... wasn't sass," I said. "I'm not the sassy one. Massey is the sassy one."

       "I don't know," Katie said. "I think you can be pretty sassy at times." She stood up and grabbed the flag. "Ready to go to our next location, partner?"

       "Ready as I'll ever be," I said before standing up.

       Even though I wasn't too excited about this field trip, I have to say I ended up enjoying myself. Katie stuck with me the whole time, even after the scavenger hunt was over and we were spending out time by the picnic tables and being free to explore around.

       We never really hung out this long before with just the two of us and... this definitely made me like her a lot more.

       And I didn't know what to do about it.

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it's okay jeremy you can date me if it doesn't work out with katie

jk jk i'm too in love with jerome rn <3

and you're probably tired of hearing this but sorry for the long update between chapters :(