Touch of Hellfire (Original Version)

☕️66☕️

"Ow," I whined. "It hurts!"

"Then you shouldn't have slept like that," Andrea said ever so helpfully.

I started looking at my shelves to find one of my folders gone. "Crap," I got out my phone and I called Mom.

"Hello?"

"Hey did I leave my green folder with the orange cat there?"

"Why? Do you need it?"

"Not for today but for tomorrow," I told her. rubbing the back of my neck.

"What is she looking for?"

I frowned once I heard a different voice in the background. "She's looking for her notes," Mom told him.

"Is that Luke?" I asked her. "It's pretty early in the morning for him to be there unless he woke up there."

"Well he did," Mom laughed.

"Stop talking about me," I heard Luke grumble.

"It's a little weird," I said to Mom. "Picturing Luke running around naked in the kitchen."

"He's not running, he's sitting at the table and yes, he's naked," Mom told me.

"Don't tell her that! I'm not naked!"

"He sounds naked," I pointed out. "Well Luke tried to make me breakfast, naked," Mom laughed.

"Alright let me know if you find it," I mumbled. "I will, bye!"

"Bye."

***

I got my Oreos from the vending machine and I walked into the lecture hall and I sat down waiting for it to begin.

My new thing was to tape the lectures with my Walkman, in case I fall asleep.

Once the lecture was over, I went over to the computer room to continue editing my footage.

I looked to see Cole standing behind me, looking at the computer.

"Dude! I said I'd show you when I'm done!"

"You filmed that?" he asked me, pointing at the screen. "Yes, I did," I told him.

"How?" he was astonished and intrigued.

"Well I strapped a camera to my chest and head," I muttered.

"Very ambitious," he told me. I gave him the headphones and he watched it.

"Wow, this is great," he told me. "It is?" I raised my eyebrow. "It's like a video blog, I like it, and the timing of the sound effects is perfect.."

I kind of zoned out as I was staring right at him. "Yo! Quit staring at me," Cole laughed.

"I'm not staring at you," I told him. "I'm staring at the spider in your hair."

"What?!" he started shaking his head, messing up his dark hair. I unplugged my flash drive and put it in my bag. "Psych!" I yelled before leaving.

Am I crushing on Cole?

Is Cole crushing on me?

My phone ringing derailed my train of thought and I answered it. "Hello?"

"Hey, can you get work off tomorrow?" Mom asked me.

"Probably, why?" I asked her. "I need you and Rory here. it's the town selectman elections and we're desperate," she told me. "Hold on...someone is actually running against Taylor?!" I gasped.

"Jackson," she told me. "Then I'll be there," I told her. "So how's school?"

"Good, I got my first assignment on why stunt doubles are necessary in movies," I told her. "And Cole finally got that footage out of me."

"Ooh, Cole," Mom teased me. "He caught me staring at him, so I told him there was a spider in his hair," I said. "Evil, I love it," Mom laughed.

"I'd better call Risa, I'll see you tomorrow, if I can, bye."

"Bye."

I hung up and rang Risa. "Hello?"

"Hey Risa, it's Heather Gilmore, can I take tomorrow off for a family thing?"

"As long as you don't show up the next day pissing drunk, then yes," she said. "Okay, thank you."

I hung up the phone and walked across campus

***

"Are you done yet?" Mom asked me as I ticked Jackson's name. "This is Connecticut, you do not harass voters," Rory told her.

I dropped my vote in and I took a sticker. I noticed Rory looking down. "Okay, something is up, spill."

She sighed. "Dean accused me of parading our relationship around, sticking it to Lindsay."

"That jerk!" I exclaimed.

We walked into the square and Rory took my hand and led me to the very front of the stage. "Rory! Heather!" Lane cheered. "If you need to stage dive, we'll be here," I joked.

"Hold on are you serious?" Rory looked at me. "I don't know, am I?" I wiggled my eyebrows and smirked.

The band started playing and me and Rory were dancing and we were cheering loudly.

The two of us were literally jumping up and down. "I'm going to jump on your back!" Rory told me.

"Okay! Go!"

Rory jumped on my back and I boosted her up as I held her legs. She pumped her fist into the air.

Once the song was finished I ran to the gazebo, still giving my twin a piggy back and I stopped at the gazebo. "You're a lot lighter than I thought you'd be."

We sat down in the gazebo together and we were drinking lemonade from red solo cups.

Jackson had won the election, meaning no one was living under the iron fist of Taylor anymore.

"Is it bad that I could be into someone else?" I asked Rory. "Bad?" she wondered. "Cole," I told her. "I think I like him as more than a friend but I wasn't sure if this would be too soon after Jess."

"You and Jess broke up months ago, I can personally assure you that it gets to that time where you eye other boys," Rory told me.

"So, you saw the guy I chicken fought with on spring break?" I wondered. "Yeah, Finn," she told me. "He was with the guy Tessa chicken fought with and some other guy."

"Ooh other guy," I laughed. "Rich guy," Rory told me. We clinked our cups together and sat in the gazebo.