Through-out the next week, I kept my eyes out for any sign of Caden. I knew that since he knew we went to the same school, something terrible was going to happen.

I could only pray I wouldn’t pass him in the halls.

Thankfully, most of my classes were in the sophomore wing, which meant I only ventured out to the rest of the school for three period.

Lunch.

Gym.

And Child Development. Child Development only occurred once a week, Friday.

That was the day I was worrying the most about.

Today.

I managed to avoid him all four days. I crossed my fingers, hoping that my luck held out for just one more day.

I was jumpy the entire day. I didn’t explain to anyone why either. I bullshitted some excuse about a huge test in Child Development. That was a class I walked to alone. No one to protect me.

As the period dawned nearer, I became a nervous wreck. I sat in English, the class before, practically shaking in my seat.

I was so sure I was going to run into him.

I wasn’t afraid to see him, I was afraid of what people would think if they saw me with him. Call me stupid, but I was very sensitive about what my status was in

school. If any rumors started because I was with Caden for a few minutes, I knew I would be screwed.

“Joey, you ok?” Kasey asked as the bell rang.

“What?” I asked, not catching what she said at first. “Oh yeah. No just the uh.. test next period. Nerves”

“I’ve never seen you this nervous for a test before” She said, eyeing me suspiciously “It must be pretty bad”

I nodded “You wouldn’t believe it”

“Alright, well, good luck. I’m sure you’ll do fine. You were breezing through the class before” She said, trying to give me encouragement. “I leave you here”

I gave a weak smile, waving “Okay. See you after school”

Kasey smiled at me before turning and walking in the opposite direction. I took in a deep breath before making my way down to Child Development.

I wouldn’t be so worried about this if I didn’t have to cut straight through the senior wing to get there. There was no other way. Trust me, I’d checked.

I kept my head down, not looking at anyone as I walked by. I kept my pace quick, hoping maybe I wouldn’t be visible.

I turned out the hallway of the sophomores, down the stairs and to a right.

Straight into hell.

The seniors towered over me. Even though I was at a pretty good height, I still felt short compared to the six foot boys walking around. I could hear the laughter and

joking surrounding me as people procrastinated getting to class.

Seniors were always late to class. Lazy-asses.

“Hey look who it is!”

I froze in my tracks for a second, ice setting in. I gritted my teeth, forcing my feet to move faster.

“Yo! Joanna! Wait up!” Caden called.

“It’s Joey!” I hissed under my breath as I nearly sprinted away.

I felt a hand on my shoulder, holding me back. I stumbled, surprised at how he managed to keep me still.

I spun around, giving him my pissed off look. “What do you want.”

He grinned innocently down at me “Just wanted to say ‘hi’.”

I rolled my eyes “Well you did. Now can you please let me go to my class?”

“I’ll walk you there” He smirked. I clenched my hands into fists.

“Don’t you have anything better to do than annoy me?”

He thought for a moment “Nope. Nothing at all”

I groaned, storming away from him. He followed, keeping up with my fast pace. I could almost see my classroom door at the end of the hallway.

“Can’t believe I haven’t seen you at all this year.” He commented “Not surprising, you blend in with the other guys”

I tried to ignore him.

“I’ll be over again tonight, you know”

I tightened my fist.

“Hey Joanna c—”

That was the last straw.

I spun around, snapping my pencil in two. My mechanical pencil. “It’s Joey you fucking idiot!”

He raised his eyebrows, an amused expression on my face.

“What’s so fucking funny?! You like pissing off people younger than you?” I snapped. I knew I was causing a scene. I could see people looking out of my peripheral

vision.

“Nothing. Jeesh, calm down Joanna!”

“Oh my freaking God!” I half screamed “Why can’t you just call me Joey like everyone else?!”

He smirked, opening his mouth to say something. I cut him off, not wanting to hear his answer.

“You know what? Save it for someone who cares. I have to get to class. Get the fuck away from me” I hissed loud enough for everyone in the silent hall to hear. With

that I turned around, storming away to my class.

I felt a small bubble of victory fill inside of me at my exit from that fight. I thought I did a pretty good job.

“See you tonight, Joanna” Caden called, his voice piercing the silence.

I bit my lip to hold back a round of cuss words. I took a deep breath and kept walking away, focusing on breathing.

In.

Out.

In.

Out.

I made it to class just as the bell rang.

~*~

“Yeah that’s the one. She just freaked out on him”

“She’s such a little spazz”

“Oh no! Everyone out of her way! Here she comes!”

“Little bitch thinks she owns the school”

I kept hearing that as I walked out of the school that day. Even though there had only been two periods left in the day, somehow, everyone found out about my little

episode in the senior wing.

Everyone in every grade said things about me. I didn’t realize how popular Caden was with the school. Or how badly the rumors were.

Some said that I cussed him out.

Some said that I booked him.

Some said that I had a mental break-down.

Some said that I punched him.

Some said that I got pulled away by the teachers.

Of course, none of them were true. I didn’t know if any of the teachers even knew about what was going on. I’m sure they did, but they didn’t seem to care in the

slightest.

As I got on the bus, I plugged in my ipod and drowned out the dirty looks. After a few minutes of being ignored, everyone went back to their normal selves.

I didn’t realize how bad this was going to be.

Maybe they’d forget Monday.

Probably not.

When my stop finally came to, someone tripped me as I got off the bus. I don’t know who, but I do know my fall earned laughter all throughout the bus.

I bit my lip.

I didn’t realize at the time that it was going to be this bad. I mean, it hadn’t even been a day and I was hated by almost everyone at school.

As I walked into my house, I almost forgot that Caden was coming over. For whatever reason, Mom was going out on a Friday. She usually didn’t. But I had no

intentions of speaking to anyone tonight.

So I didn’t really care for once.

I knew Jason would be thrilled to hear about this. And he still wanted me to introduce him to Caden.

I said a hello to my mom, giving Mason a kiss on the head. I grabbed a pack of gummies and made my way to my bedroom.

I dialed Jason’s number and counted the rings.

Four before he answered.

“Hey Joey!” He said, sounding thrilled.

“Hey Jase” I said, not hiding my feelings.

“What’s wrong?” He asked

“Rumors at school and shit. Caden’s coming over tonight”

I heard a sharp exhale of breath on the other end “Wonderful. Just stay away from him. You don’t sound like you’re in the mood to be pissed off.”

I laughed once “Thanks”

“Want to tell me what the rumors were about?”

“Not really”

“Alright. I won’t push you”

“I want to ask you something”

“Go ahead”

“Can you come over tonight? I really don’t want to be alone”

“You have Mason, don’t you?”

“Mason loves Caden. I don’t really want to leave my room either”

“What about your mom?”

“What she doesn’t know won’t hurt her”

He groaned. That wasn’t a good sign “Look, Joey, I really wish I could be there. I feel horrible but I’ve got to work tonight. I’ll call you as soon as I get off if you want, but

that’ll be around midnight”

I sighed “Its alright. You don’t have to”

“Awh come on, Joey. Don’t be like that”

“Like what?” I frowned

“Making me feel bad that I can’t be there. You know I would in a heartbeat”

“I’m sorry. I’m not trying to. Forget about it. I’ll just stay in my room tonight. Maybe call Sierra up or something”

Jason grunted “Ew”

I laughed. He didn’t like any of my friends. They adored him, but he found them annoying. “Don’t be mean. She’s my friend”

“I don’t like your friends, Joey”

“And I don’t like your work schedule”

“Guess we’re even”

“Nah, I think you’re schedule’s a little bit worse than my friends”

“Shut the fuck up. It is not!” He laughed.

“Is too!”

We laughed for a few moments, settling into a comfortable silence.

“Alright, Joey, I really have to go.”

I groaned “Fine. I’ll just go to homework or something”

“Get a social life”

“Guess I probably should now that I don’t have to take care of Mason anymore…”

“You should’ve had one from the start” Jason muttered “Bye, Joey. Have fun.”

“See you”

We hung up.

I sighed, collapsing back down on my bed. I could feel a headache coming on. This wasn’t going to be fun.

I closed my eyes, replaying my encounter with Caden in my head. I began to lose grasp of what actually happened and what was a huge exaggeration on my mind.

I could feel sleep calling on me. My breathing steadied out slowly.

Just as I was about to fall asleep, a thought popped into my head.

He hadn’t called me ‘pumpkin’.

I was thankful for that. I’d rather be called Joanna than Pumpkin. At least by him.

**** Author's Note:  Follow me on twitter(: http://twitter.com/KissmyoopsZ  or as me something on formspring: http://www.formspring.me/Kissmyoops  *****