Conflicted Emotions

Chapter 32: Yeah, right, you'll catch me.

Yeah, lots of crappy chapters recently...hope you don't mind...by the way, ** means forwards in time and *** means backwards. So yeah, onwards...

School had started again, and I was bored out of my mind in PE. Thankfully the gym wasn't as cold now, for it was the end of April and the weather was warmer. But gymnastics was never fun, and anyway, I thought PE was about getting up and doing stuff, not listening to a strict teacher go on about fluency and precision.

Thankfully, she was nearing the end of her lecture, and read out the list of names on the Trampolining course. I was in there, and so was Lucy, and...Spencer. Jesus, does the world hate me that much?! I don't want to be stuck with him; he annoys the crap out of me!!

I followed Nina and Steph to a piece of gymnastics apparatus, whining all the time about Spencer, and how I seemed to be cursed with his presence almost everywhere I went. I could tell they were both still relieved that my old distaste for him had returned, my slight obsession over.

We couldn't be bothered to participate in this lesson, so we just sat around, sitting on the gym table all lesson which no one wanted anyway. Occasionally, when the teacher came round, we would look like we were doing something, but otherwise we caught up in the latest gossip, and Steph and I interrogated Nina on her and Max.

"You like him," Steph mused, blinking lazily at Nina as she sprawled over the bench.

"I do not,"

"Then why does your face light up every time someone mentions him?" I pointed out, stretching my legs out in front of me, crossing my ankles and resting my elbows on the bench beside Steph.

"It does not,"

"So why do you sit next to him at every opportunity? It seems to me like you're doing it on purpose..." goaded Steph.

"I am not,"

"But you always manage to find an excuse to talk to him when neither of you are talking to anyone else," I noted.

"I do not,"

"And you often steal him away from Forest, Martin and Chris," observed Steph.

"I do not,"

"OK, that comeback is getting old," complained Steph, and Nina smirked.

"It is not," she said, and she and I laughed as Steph sighed, knowing the argument was lost.

We tried pestering her a bit more, but she refused to say whether or not she fancied Max. We both knew she did, but we needed to hear her admit it - which was going to be difficult. As a result, the lesson was fun, even though we weren't doing PE.

Soon enough, though, the bell went, and we were late as usual. We joined the large group of people attempting to get through the doors to the changing rooms, crowding through the doors and spilling into the corridor. We went into the changing rooms and got changed back into our normal clothes, shoving our tracksuits or shorts or whatever in our bags.

Giggling and laughing, we ran the way to Maths, knowing we were really late. We didn't especially care about being late for the most boring subject ever invented, but Mrs Cole would give us something to do other than fun things in our free time if we were late, so we had to hurry.

Luckily, we weren't the last to arrive in the classroom - it was only about half-full. Or half empty, whichever way you want to look at it. We took our seats, ignoring Mrs Cole's hawk-like glare. I gloomily pulled my stuff out of my bag and slid down in my chair, glaring at the desk. Steph erupted into a fit of giggles at my expression, soon silenced by Mrs Cole, but found it difficult to keep it in.