The Bad Girl Persona

7- "Are you two dating?"

This chapter is dedicated to @crazycrayabb for reading my book. Thank you for reading my book and leaving comments <3

Jasper's P.O.V

After the bell rang, I immediately left my seat to catch up with Jake and ask him about his sudden interest in arts but before I could reach him, Mrs. Debrow called me to her desk. She had to discuss about my previous homework.

I nodded to whatever she was saying and got out of the class. I looked around but Jake was no where in sight. I walked out in the grounds to see some girls and boys playing soccer and basketball. I saw Jessica come out from behind a wall with Clara by her side and decided to go from where they had appeared.

Turning around a corner, I found Scarlett and Ashen sitting on the floor with cigarettes between their fingers and smoke in the air. Jake stood in front of them with a disapproving face.

"Scarlett," Jake was saying as I approached them. "Did you...again?" I exchanged a glance with Ashen to see if he understood anything but he gave me a shrug, indicating that he was as clueless as me.

"Yes," She said, butting her cigarette on the floor and standing up. "But...let's talk about it at home. I have Maths now."

"Me too," I said and then glanced at Jake before looking at Scarlett. "Did you know that Jake's interested in arts?"

"What?" She frowned in confusion. "Jake and arts? That's..."

"Paradoxical?" I suggested.

"Yeah, exactly." Scarlett looked at Jake weirdly before walking with me to our Maths class.

We were told to make groups of two and complete a worksheet that we were supposed to hand over before the end of class. I picked up my chair and placed it at Scarlett's desk.

"Do you know where Jake was this morning?" I asked her. "In the first period?"

"I...no," She shook her head. Mrs. Smith came over and handed us a sheet of calculus questions. "I was with Ashen..."

"Smoking yeah," I rolled my eyes. "Anyways, Jake was in arts class."

"What?" She said a little too loudly, making us receive a sharp look from Mrs. Smith. "But Jake hates arts."

"Exactly!" I whispered. The class has quieted down upon our teacher's warning. 

"Suddenly joining a class of a subject you hate is very suspicious," Scarlett said what has already been on my mind.

"What do you reckon we should do?" I asked her and then changed the the topic immediately when Mrs. Smith came to stand by our desk. "How do you differentiate?"

"Mr. Gray," Mrs. Smith said and I looked up at her, acting as if I did not know she was here. "You don't know how to differentiate?"

"Oh, no, miss," I shook my head. "It's just uh question 7 that seems difficult."

"Have you done question 1?" She asked and I exchanged a glance with Scarlett. Upon noticing that she hadn't even taken out her notebook, I pushed mine between us and started solving the first question.

"We have two options," Scarlett leaned closer to me and whispered. "Either we corner Jake and ask him to confess or we investigate and bust him in the action."

"Whatever works," I whispered back, trying not to make it obvious that my heart was thrumming hard in my chest at our close proximity. The loose glass in the open window next to us rattled due to the breeze and Scarlett's hair blew into my face.