And Then it Happened

10

Weeks had passed by since Homecoming and everything had pretty much gone back to normal. Cameron was back to being annoying and was still dating Sydney; we hadn't mentioned anything about the kiss in the Janitor's closet that had occurred the night of Homecoming, and everyone was prepping for the end of the semester.

It was now the middle of November and the days were getting chillier. The leaves on the trees were decorated in gorgeous shades of red, yellow, orange and brown. Leaves were scattered along the ground and scarves and boots were back in fashion. Pumpkin-spiced everything was all the rage this time of year. Pretty soon, all the leaves would be bare and pumpkin-spiced lattes would be replaced with peppermint mochas.

I was currently sitting at the lunch table with my friends: Sydney, Lily, Ashlyn and Makayla. They were all laughing at something Lily had said, whereas I had been zoning out, not paying too much attention to anything the last few minutes. My eyes were trained on my lunch tray that was currently filled with a small salad, some – questionable – chicken nuggets, and a bag of potato chips. I played around with my salad, stabbing some pieces of romaine with my plastic fork.

"Rach, you okay?" Makayla inquired, causing me to look up and see her gaze on me.

I nodded, "yeah, yeah I'm okay" I mumble. "Just stressed about final projects and all the tests that are going to be coming in the next few weeks."

This wasn't a lie; I really was stressed. I had always been the kind of girl who cared about grades; although, I never tried too hard. I still had a social life, I didn't read all the textbook chapters that were assigned, and I procrastinated probably too much. But I had never made anything below a B as a final grade in a class – until maybe now. I currently had a C in statistics and it was kicking my ass. Math had never been my strong suit, and this was my first statistics course I had ever taken. Honestly, I had no clue what I was doing. I knew I was going to have to study hard for the final exam that was in 3 weeks.

"Don't remind me!" Sydney exclaimed, placing her hands on her head dramatically. "I'm so worried about my calculus grade."

Ashlyn scoffed. "Please, you're so smart. What do you have to be worried about? I bet you have a 98 in the class."

That was true. Out of all my friends, Sydney was by far the smartest. She had always gotten A's in all her classes and had a 4.0 GPA. I wouldn't be surprised if she got accepted into one of the Ivy League schools at this point.

"No, but I do have a 93" Sydney responded, giggling.

"Shut up!" Makayla shouted playfully, throwing a fry at Sydney. "You have nothing to worry about, I have a 62 in English that I somehow have to get up to a C in 3 weeks!" Makayla groaned, making the rest of us laugh.

My laughter stopped when an all-too familiar face showed up.

"Hey ladies," Cameron stated, setting himself down in a seat next to Sydney and wrapping his arm around her waist. His eyes then met mine before he added "...and Rachel," insinuating that I wasn't a lady.

As much as I hated him and his stupid comments, I was grateful that we could go back to this, instead of it being awkward from what happened during Homecoming. Sydney still hadn't realized that Cameron had kissed me that night, and I was planning to keep it that way. What she didn't know, wouldn't hurt her. It was a one-time thing and both Cameron and I agreed it would never happen again.

"Hi Neanderthal," I responded curtly, my lips curled up slightly into a smug grin.

Sydney groaned. "When will you guys stop with the fighting?"

I cocked my head to the side, pretending to ponder her question. "Mm... never," I respond. Cameron's eyes seemed to dim slightly when I said this, but I paid no mind. It was probably just a trick of the light reflecting in his eye.