Kudos To You, April

Chapter Five - Fire Alarm

CAUTION: THIS CHAPTER IS FULL OF CHEESE LMAO. SO SORRY. 8'D

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"Yeah. Oh, definitely. I am with you on that one," I replied carelessly on the phone, slurping the last of my cereal. I stood up, dumping my bowl into the sink and running upstairs.

Ashley was going on and on about how in love she was with Austin - her date from last night's party. The guy was a complete douche-waffle. I couldn't let her get into this mess but then again, I couldn't completely squash her dreams. I just needed to talk some sense into her.

"Ashley," I started to say, a bit irritated. "Are you sure you're 'in love' with this guy?"

I could tell she was seriously thinking about it because she was taking forever to respond to my question.

"Well, no, but-" She said, confused.

"I don't think he's the best for you, Ashley," I admitted.

"I could say the same thing about you and Jared," She mumbled.

"That's completely different," I sighed, stuffing my textbooks back into my backpack. "In fact, they broke up last night!"

"Who dumped who?" Ashley asked, immediately taking an interest in our conversation.

"Well, I actually have no idea," I mumbled, disappointed. I snatched my backpack off of my bed and ran back downstairs. "I got to go. We'll continue this during math."

I hung up and tossed the phone on the couch, racing out the door.

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I walked cautiously into my first period math class. Jared was sleeping, his arms laying dead-like by his face along with the drool slipping out of his mouth. As for Ally, she was flirting with a guy in our class, hair twirling and all. They were taking the break-up hard.

I'm so blessed to have them both in my class, together.. And I say that with gritted teeth.

"Who died?" Ashley asked from behind me, hitting the bulls-eye. We both looked back and forth from Jared and Ally.

"Hard to tell, isn't it," I mumbled, sitting cautiously in my desk behind Jared. I stared at him, sort of wishing he would cry on my shoulders. But, he just turned around to face me.

"Hey, you going to the game Friday?" He demanded, pointing at finger at me. I didn't even get my notebook out before he blurted that out.

"Hi, April. How are you?" I sarcastically teased, he rolled his eyes, taking my pencil in his hand.

"I was getting to that," He smiled, a smirk leaking out the corner of his mouth.

"Yeah, I am," I replied to his question.

"You say that like it's no big deal," He exclaimed, then added, "We're going against Roosevelt!"

"'We're going against Roosevelt'!" I mimicked him, sticking my tongue out.

With that remark, he messed up my hair. "Retard."

I smiled and snatched my pencil out of his hand as he offered it to me, the handle of it broken off.

Looks like someone pissed in his cornflakes this morning.

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"Question?" Mr. Baker asked Jared, who seemed to be lost in his doodles.

The entire class stared at Jared and I just sat there laughing, it was too funny.

"April here is bothering me," He lied, convincingly. I held my hands up in an angry manner, begging Mr. Baker to not believe this lying..

"A likely story," Mr. Baker laughed, and went back to the lesson. You're the man, Bake!

I stared at the back of Jared's head, when he suddenly turned around. I raised an eyebrow.

Suddenly, the fire alarm went off. "We're going to classroom next door, kiddies."

I carelessly stood up from my seat, following Jared and Ashley into the next door class. All the kids in the classroom were huddled against the wall, talking. I gave Mr. Baker and "where-are-we-supposed-to-sit, on-your-lap?" look. He didn't seem to see me so I just followed Jared.

We sat down in a spot that seemed to have just enough room for us. We were so extremely close that if I set my hand down on the floor, I would be touching his hand. One piece of my hair was even laying on his shoulder. I kept my hands cupped over my kneecaps nervously while Jared's hands were spread out.

"You guys suck," Ashley complained, stomping off to the opposite side of the room. I looked over at Jared, laughing his ass off. I elbowed him, annoyed.

"Shut up, we're going to get in trouble!" I said, holding in my laughter. 

"You know you like it," He winked, snapping his fingers at me. I laughed for a moment, covering my hands with my mouth. I accidentally placed my hand on the floor, forgetting completely about his hands.

"Be quiet!" One of the teachers yelled at us. Jared quickly placed his hand on top of mine and I surprisingly kept it there for a moment. I immediately looked up at him and blushed furiously. As he stared back, his green eyes were twinkling magically under the light in the classroom.

"S-sorry," I mumbled, stuttering a bit and taking my hand from under his. To my surprise, he took my hand and put it back under his.

"What's to be sorry for?" He smiled, holding my hand firmly. I quickly looked away, embarrassed. His hand was so soft and comforting. "Your hand is cold."

"Your hand is warm," I commented, smiling. With that, he took my hand and entangled his fingers into mine in mid-air. 

"Um," I started to say, blushing. I used my other hand and put my red hair behind my ear, trying to stay calm. For some reason, at that moment I felt someone's eyes burning into me.

"I'll warm you up" He responded to my awkwardness, then added, "Better?"

"Oh, definitely," I smiled, then realized I said something completely stupid, my face looking something similar to an apple.

I looked over to see Ally giving me the death glare. Jared looked over at her, as if knowing her stare was bothering me, then tightening his grip. I'd never held his hand before, believe it or not. His hand was so big compared to mine; it was masculine. It was like his hand grew larger just to cover mine.

"My hand is cold now," He admitted, keeping eye contact with me, letting go of my hand. My heart beat thumped heavily against my chest at that moment. Not that it wasn't beating hard before, but it's the way his words curved into a sentence that made me realize it. 

Only he could make my heart beat this fast, and he doesn't even realize it.

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