{3} ✔️

Dahlia's POV

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"S-So if you wanna join science club you can sign the sheet that's being passed around. Science club shirts are being sold from today until September fifteenth and that's basically your way in. They're $15, but we've also got crew necks and hoodies and those are $25. The shirts will come in within the next two weeks but we probably won't get the hoodies and stuff until sometime around October. We'll take a science club group picture around September 25th. Science club is basically just us meeting once every few weeks and we'll have lots of fun little projects and just discuss...science stuff. This club is mainly focused on environmental science this year and we'll be doing a few recycling projects here and there and—" I continued on with my little speech as I watched the sheet make its way around the class, a few students signing it here and there, but most just passing it along without signing.

Seeing as Mrs. Bledgin, the teacher who was running science club this year, couldn't get this class to listen to her to save her soul, she asked me to explain about science club, how to join, what we'd be doing and all that. I'm president of key club, Vice President of Science club and creative writing club, and editor of art guild, so I'm used to speaking in front of big groups of people and telling them what the clubs are about, but today I was nervous.

I could feel Billie staring at the side of my face like her life depended on it. She was sitting in the back near Jacob Wesley once again, dressed in baggy white clothes with all sorts of patterns and tons of jewelry, and her gaze was burning the hell out of my skin.

I was red all over and it was easy to tell, given the fact that I'm pale as shit. I never usually got embarrassed speaking in front of people but...damn, I really didn't wanna do this with her staring at me. I'd have to get used to it though. She's in key club and CW club with me.

I felt underdressed in my black and white Adidas outfit. She was decked out in what looked like ugly yet endearing designer clothes, and here I was wearing hand me down Adidas. I DIY'd the outfit to make it more 'fab' but still, it was nothing compared to what she was wearing.

Why the hell did I care? I never cared what other people were wearing or what they thought of my style.

"Is that it, Doe?" Some guy asked. The blush on my cheeks deepened as I realized I'd drifted off.

"Um... you can sign up for any of the other clubs in the library, the main office, in any of the teacher in charge of that club's room, and in the cafeteria. The deadline for signing up for clubs is September 1st which is closer than it seems so make sure you do that, and try to sign up as soon as you can because there can only be up to fifty people per club and we've been reaching that limit quicker than you'd think in the past few years, especially for the really popular clubs. The signup sheets are checked everyday so...yeah...that's it."

I hurriedly collected the paper once everyone who'd wanted to sign it had signed and handed it to Mrs. Bledgin before taking my seat.

Her thanking me was just background noise as I glanced quickly at Billie who was already staring at me and then turned around to face the front as I spoke to Cadence.

"She thinks we're together, I know it."

"So?"

"So, I Obviously don't want her to think that!" I whispered.

"Whether she thinks that or not, she doesn't seem to care. She stared at you the whole time. She stared at you like you were the last cow on the planet and she wanted a burger."

"Denny mentioned last night that she's vegan."

"You know what the fuck I'm trying to say."

"Everyone was staring at me. I was at the front of the class talking about fucking science club." I mumbled.

"Yes, you were." I let out a small yelp and jumped in my seat as I heard Billie's voice right next to me. She was kneeling beside my desk, her eyes piercing into mine yet again. When the hell had she gotten over here and how much of that had she heard? How'd she get over here so quietly?

"Billie, do you mind?" Mrs. Bledgin's voice shivered as she tried to show some authority. Billie looked at her and shook her head. "No, I don't. You can keep teaching."

She turned back to me and sent me a small smirk. "I'm not joining science club cause that shit sounds mad boring, but I gotta say, you almost made it sound appealing."

"Thanks." I mumbled, looking around the class quickly. Mrs. Bledgin had turned back to the whiteboard, ignoring Billie as it was clear that she wouldn't be going back to her seat until she wanted to, but half the class was staring at us rather than the board. I blushed for the fiftieth time since I'd gotten to school thirty minutes ago.

"You mind?" She turned to question the girl sitting in the desk closest to me. The girl just stared at her blankly, causing her to sigh. "Switch seats with me?" She asked again.

The girl didn't say anything, just looked toward Billie's seat and then back at her. "Switch seats with me." It wasn't a question this time. The girl stood up and grabbed her bag before walking toward Billie's seat. "Don't touch my shit." Billie called after her.

Mrs. Bledgin definitely had to hear that, but she ignored it and continued teaching.

Billie sat down in the seat and scooted it closer to me, quite loudly. She rested her elbows on her knees and leaned toward me, smiling. "You always get that shy when you're talking in front of the class? Or is that a new thing?"

She leaned back in her seat and looked toward the front of the class, finally, and I didn't bother to answer. The way she said it...She already knew what the answer was. I glanced at Cadence who was pretending not to pay attention to us, but she was giggling to herself so I knew she was.

***

Billie only had four classes with me, but I saw her almost all day long. I'm an office aide during my second period, and my job consists mainly of going to get students who need to come up to the office for some reason and listening to Mr. Sandow complain about his wife and kids. A young looking guy had come in a few minutes after second period started and said that he was here to bring Billie her lunch.

I figured that had to be Finneas. He looked a little like her. After writing out the slip so I could go get her, I went to do just that. I can't say I wasn't happy he'd come in. It gave me an excuse to look her name up in the computer system and once I did that, I got to see her whole schedule. I left it up on the computer screen and planned to take a discreet picture of it when I got back to the office. Hopefully, that wouldn't be too creepy.

"What a nice surprise," Billie yelled as she stood up from her table and walked toward the door, not caring that her outburst had gotten the entire class's attention. "Hurry back, Billie." Mrs. Marley said sternly.

Mrs. Marley was a Spanish and creative writing teacher, and everyone loved her despite how strict she could be. Mainly because she's really hot.

I guessed Billie was taking her for creative writing since she was in that club. I was right.

"We were about to get started writing a short story about something bright. Something really...bright. I wasn't paying much attention to what she was saying. Anyways, maybe I'll write that story about you."

She talked as we walked toward the office and I was glad it was a long walk. It was all the way on the other end of the school. I nearly choked on my own spit as she mentioned writing about me though.

"W-What? Why?"

"Neon green. A color you wear often." She walked slowly too, like she was in absolutely no hurry.

I'd worn neon green three times in the past week and a half. I guess you could say I did wear it pretty often. That and neon blue are my favorite colors other than black.

"I see you and I see gray though." I raised my brows at her, wanting her to continue. What the hell did that mean? Gray was plain and boring. Was I plain and boring? "Gray is calm and chill." She shrugged. I am most certainly not calm and chill at any time ever.

"I'm more, ugh...red, green and purple." It was her turn to raise her brows now. "Those don't go very well together. My personality...is weird. I don't mix well with myself?" Fucking words once again not coming out right.

"Purple and green make gray." She grinned.

"Red." I reminded her of that one.

"I don't fucking know, maroon? I don't know what color those three make together." She sounded annoyed but she laughed so I did too.

When we finally got back to the office, I sat down again at my little desk and watched as she thanked the man that brought her food.

"Thanks for the burritos, Finneas. I owe you one!"

So it was her brother.

He rolled his eyes at her before pushing her out of the office and thanking me before disappearing himself.

Third period was health class and I was disappointed to see that upon seeing me sitting at one of the only empty tables left, toward the front of the room, she went to the back and demanded that Jacob Wesley move so she could take his seat. To my surprise, he did, and he came to sit near me. I groaned to myself as he sent me a wink and blew me a kiss. Not only was I not sitting next to Billie, I was forced to sit next to the biggest fuck boy I've ever met. No doubt he'd flirt with me every chance he got and I'd be forced to pretend I was into it since I'm not exactly out yet. Or I could just completely ignore him...Nope, that'd make people skeptical. Apparently, he's irresistible.

I scoffed at the thought.

On the bright side, Kai came in fifteen minutes late and took a seat next to me. At least I could enjoy her company.

"You look gorgeous," she grinned as she patted my thigh and then rubbed it a few times. I looked around quickly to make sure no one saw before smiling and winking at her.

I was happy when she removed her hand though, because I could just feel Billie's stare and I knew she could see us perfectly from her seat.

Home economics, my favorite class seeing as I love to cook. Billie, once again, opted to sit in the back rather than with me, but I figured it was probably just because she liked sitting in the back rather than the front which is where I usually sat. Plus, she'd sat back there all last week, why would she change it up this week?

Well, she did make two people change seats with her in two other periods...

Whatever. She just likes sitting in the back. Kai sat with me during this class too.

Lunch was thirty minutes of me staring at Billie as she sat on top of a table that was a few tables away from me, laughing with all the friends she'd somehow managed to make within her first week of being at this school, one of which was my brother. I was relieved to see Julia sitting on his lap and hanging onto him like he'd fly away if she didn't keep a tight grip. At least I knew that he wasn't dating Billie.

"Can you believe this?" Caden questioned as he stuffed his mouth with his third piece of pizza. "I don't know what the fuck happened but lunch has actually been amazing since we've been back. You know what I think it is? They fired that one lady, The bald headed one? She never could cook."

"She literally died. She had cancer, Caden." Cadence shook her head at him and he stopped chewing, looking down for a moment. "Damn...I feel bad. Not about what I said! She couldn't cook worth a got damn. But she didn't deserve to die."

"Just shut up." She shook her head at him.

"You spend like ten dollars a day on lunch." I laughed, rolling my eyes at him. Lunch is literally only supposed to be a dollar and thirty cents every day, but he always buys a shit ton of extra.

"Mind your business." He mumbled before taking another bite.

"So, Billie was staring at you all during fourth period," Cadence grinned. "What's new, huh?"

She does stare a whole lot.

"She didn't sit with me," I sighed. "She could've."

"I guess she opted to stare at the back of your skull and ask everyone around her who that 'blonde bimbo all over you' was instead." Caden laughed before coughing, having swallowed a big chunk of pizza before he meant to.

My eyes nearly bulged out at the same time as his did, but for a very different reason. "She asked about Kai?"

"Mhm," Cadence hummed, taking a bite of her salad. She put on a funny voice as she mocked Billie. "'Do they know each other well, then? Good friends? Girlfriends? Why's she all over her it's fucking home ec, not live sex show class'...and that was just when she sat too close to you. You should've heard her when she put her hand on your thigh."

I took it all in before shaking my head. "Maybe she just hates PDA?"

"Maybe she's into you and you're stupid." Cadence rolled her eyes before standing up. "If you'll excuse me, I'll be in the gym for the rest of lunch watching the soccer team warm up. I hope Julian Hernandez sweats on me."

Julian had been her crush since the beginning of kindergarten and she'd said close to nothing to him. And yet she talks about me.

"Soccer season doesn't start for a couple months. Why the hell are they warming up now?"

"They haven't won any games in...ever. They should've been warming up the whole summer."

She left after that, leaving just me and Caden to talk, but he was too busy stuffing his face to do that. I chewed on my celery and carrots, eyeing his pizza as I did. I'm on a stupid diet so I can get some of this stupid weight off of my stupid body. I don't know what it is about summer, but I always come back to school at least fifteen pounds heavier than I left the previous year. Maybe it's the fact that instead of swimming or doing anything even remotely physical, I opt to stay in bed and watch Netflix for three months instead.

"Have some," he shoved his plate in my direction and I shook my head. He pulled it back quickly and smiled. "Good."

He hates sharing, but it's sweet of him to offer. "Bunch of us are going bowling this Saturday. You coming?" He asked.

"When you say a bunch of us, do you mean a bunch of us civil, polite, not insane, regular kids who know how to go out, enjoy, and get back in the house by a respectable hour such as, oh, I don't know, ten o'clock? A bunch of us who don't have to drink, smoke weed, hump everything in sight and cause chaos everywhere we go? Or do you mean...Your dumbass football friends?"

"So, I'll be there to pick you up around six. Wear something cool. That bowling alley gets super stuffy."

"And also, your friends like looking at my legs when I wear shorts." I narrowed my eyes at him and he shrugged. "That is also true."

I couldn't say anything smart back because, "I'm going. It'd be cool if you did too."

Where the fuck—How did she always do that?

"Ugh—I might." I squeaked out, sitting up straighter. "I might...I might have plans already so—"

"Cadence is going too. And she's the only person I've seen you really talk to, other than that...girl. Kate?"

"Kai."

"Yeah, okay." She rolled her eyes. "Hope to see you."

And then she was gone as quick as she came.

"She's so into you, dude." Caden sighed as he stared at his last slice of pizza.

"Why the fuck would she be into me though?"

"I don't know."

He was too busy munching on his pizza to care about the conversation at hand. I sighed as I watched her leave the cafeteria. Fuck.

What the hell was going on lately?