I completely forgot to include this artwork in the previous chapter so have it now. I call it "Flynn cries into Callie":

Anyhoo....... enjoy the chapter. Didn't proofread. Will do later.

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Next week was the external exams and I was slowly running out of time.

But chances to be alone with Callie were far and few in between.

It was almost as if, since our afternoon in my bedroom, she was actively avoiding situations like that again.

At school, when I reached out to put my arm around her, she actively sidestepped my touch.

In dance practice on Wednesday afternoon, suddenly she felt sick and asked to go to the nurse, leaving me sitting on the edge, watching all of our classmates dancing.

All I had left were our maths lessons, where she sat right by me, leaned over my table as she helped me work through problems.

So on Thursday, as our last maths lesson before external exams began to tick by, that knotting sensation grew in my stomach as I realised it was now or never.

Or now and wait until after exams and chance my luck that in the week we had barely seen each other I would somehow have more of a chance.

As Callie retreated to her side of the desk after helping me with another equation, I took a deep breath and scribbled a note to her before shoving my book across the table.

Brows pulling together, I watched her grey eyes flicker over my words before lifting up and saying 'what?'

Shaking my head, I pulled back my book and added another note under my 'Hey Callie?'

You're supposed to write back, I told her before shoving the book back her way.

With a sigh, she scribbled a response and passed the book back.

Hey Flynn?

Corners of my lips turning up that she was playing along, I quickly scribbled another reply.

Slow and steady, I told myself as my pencil scratched on the page. Lead her into it before setting it up so that you can ask her...

But how should I ask her?

Surely in note form is insensitive.

Maybe I can find a way to get her to meet up with me after school... away from the library.

Maybe I can walk her home...

Maybe—

She shoved the notebook back towards me, her response adorning the page under mine.

Are you going to miss maths classes with me?

Miss school? No.

Corners of my lips turning up, I wrote another message.

But you didn't say you won't miss me.

As her eyes glanced over my words, she looked up from the page with an eye roll before scribbling her response and passing the page back.

We went back and forth like that for a while.

Note after note.

Message after message.

Constantly skirting the edge of making casual chit chat and flirting.

But then finally, unable to know what to say next, caught in a dead spot, I wrote something I probably shouldn't have.

And before I could pass it back to Callie, suddenly a shadow was casting over my page.

And then two hands extended between us, prying my book from my tight grip.

"Miss," I quickly said, turning to face her, heart pounding in my chest that she'd see our personal feelings etched on the paper.

But Miss Fischer barely glanced at it. Instead, she said, "Scribbling notes in class, are we?"

"Sorry Miss," I quickly muttered, shooting Callie a glare that made her apologise as well. "We won't do it again."

"You know, your final exams are really important," Miss Fischer went on.

"We know," I said back.

"And Flynn, you're not in any position to be—"

"He's doing much better, Miss," Callie interrupted.

"Yeah, I have the best tutor," I added, shooting Callie a grin. Her face instantly turned red as she looked anywhere but me.

"Tutor or not, class time is for class work. When I wrote my lesson plan last night, at no point did I include a segment for students to be passing notes. You should be focussing your energy you evidently have for this," Miss Fischer flicked the page back to my actual mathematical equations for today that were in dire straits, "Into this."

"Yes, Miss. I will do that now and all evening and all weekend."

"Mhmm."

"Miss," Zac called out from the back of the class. "What were they even writing to each other that was so important they couldn't wait until lunch?"

Immediately turning in my seat, I shot him a glare across the room.

Drop it, my eyes said.

But the devil was apparently embodying Zac today. "I think the best way to teach them a lesson, Miss, is to air their private conversation to the class."

Shaking my head, I felt relieved knowing Miss Fischer would never do such a thing. She was a moral, responsible teacher who—

"Should I?" she asked.

Callie, who had evidently been smug thinking the same things as me, turned her head in unison with mine to stare at our teacher in worry.

Her brown eyes flickered between us, a coyish gleam starting to appear. Then she said, "I wonder what was so important it couldn't wait until lunch."

"Miss, please," I said. Callie can't have that final statement aired to the class... She can't—

"'Hey Callie', Flynn seems to have written."

Callie's face washed with red and mine was not long after.

""Hey Flynn?' Callie responds. Flynn says back, 'Are you going to miss maths classes with me?'"

The students in the room instantly start to 'ooo'.

"Boy's got game," Zac calls out.

"Shut up!" I hissed at him.

Callie's head had fallen down onto the table now, her hair forming a curtain around her crimson cheeks, her arms making another barrier as she almost died from the embarrassment.

"What did Callie say back, Miss?" Jackson egged her on.

I sent the pair a look that said, You better run when class is over.

"'Miss school? No.' So Flynn writes, 'But you didn't say you won't miss me'."

"Subtle much?" another boy in the room taunted.

"Shut up," I said before turning to our teacher. "Okay, Miss. You've made your point. Can you please—" I had started reaching for the book, ready to yank it out of her hands before Callie and I could be embarrassed further.

But she stepped away, continuing to read it.

"'Miss you?' Callie writes. 'I don't think I will.' Flynn has drawn a sad face in response with the words, 'Why not?' next to it. So Callie says back, 'Missing you implies I won't see you once school ends. Is that what you're planning?' So Flynn says, 'Of course not. I'm always going to be by your side, bugging you, teasing you, doing anything and everything to see that smile of yours.'"

The class went off in hoots at that comment.

And I wished the ground would swallow me whole.

Launching to my feet, I decided the next strategy was to grab that book from Miss Fischer by whatever means necessary.

"Okay, okay," she said, finger marking the page in the book as she lowered it by her side. "Sit back in your seat and I will stop. But this is confiscated."

My heart rate began to calm at the fact she hadn't finished that conversation.

But next I knew, the student sitting right by Miss Fischer yanked the book from her hand and threw it across the room to Zac.

Standing up, Zac cleared his throat as he thumbed through my book, stopping when he found our conversation. "Callie says back, 'My smile? Why? Because I'm laughing at that silly face of yours?' Ooo... Flynn, do you need some ice for that burn."

Glancing back at Callie, she hadn't moved from her slumped position. So I realised I had to do something.

Running across the room, I tried to swipe the book from Zac's hand. But he took measured steps around the desk, narrowly avoiding every attempt to grab the book.

"'Sometimes you can be really mean, Callie,' Flynn said back. I mean, he's not wrong there," Zac laughed. "Callie says back, 'Yeah, well, take it or leave it.' And Flynn says..." He paused, a devilish grin taking hold of his face as his eyes ran ahead reading the line. Then Zac cleared his throat before saying, "'I'll take any of you that you want to give me.'"

"Zac!" I shout, still dancing around the tables with him. "Please, just stop."

"But it's getting so juicy," he said.

I glanced to Miss Fischer for help, but she was seated back by her computer, seemingly amused by what was going on her screen.

Yeah, Miss... I can see you really want us to focus on studying. Thanks, I thought her way.

"Callie writes back to Flynn a mere, 'Yeah... okay'. Oof," Zac says, lowering the book in front of him. "Seems she's not digging you, Flynn."

"Zac," I warned again, as though the same thing had any effect earlier.

But he simply raised the book and kept going. "'Is that you saying yes?' Flynn desperately writes."

"You can't tell it was desperate," I argued, stupidly giving into his game.

But that only egged him on further. "'That's me saying why are you being so weird?' Oh, Callie. Hard to please. Flynn seems to plead back—"

"I wasn't pleading," I interjected, but Zac ignored me.

"'Weird? Is my honesty weird?' Callie writers back, 'Honesty? Where's the honesty in this? You're just being your usual, teasing self.' So Flynn says, 'Perhaps it's my default state. But also... Perhaps I'm hoping I can make your heart flutter with some of the things I say.'" Zac lowered the book again, eyes meeting my venomous ones across the table. "Wow, Flynn. Don't hold back there. I'm feeling my own heart start to flutter."

"Zac," I warned again. But again, the book lifted to his face.

"'Heart flutter?' Callie responds. 'More like my stomach flutter in nausea.'" The whole class lets out an 'Oooooh damn!' as though Callie had hit me hard with that one.

Little did they know, I saw the corners of her lips turning up as she wrote it. I saw her press her hand to her mouth to stifle her laugh as I looked up at her astonished after her comment. I saw the way her eyelashes slowly fluttered and her teeth snagged her bottom lip when her hand lowered, before the pink overtook her cheeks again and she looked away.

"Flynn says back to her, 'You're not an easy woman to impress, Callie, are you?' Callie writes, 'No, I'm not. Problem?' Flynn says, 'Many problems. Because I'm desperate to impress you.' And Callie writes, 'Now just why would you want to do that?'"

My heart was hammering in my chest as I knew the last message she hadn't seen was about to exit his mouth.

In utter desperation, as his eyes flickered over the line, a cunning grin taking his face hostage as he knew what he was about to reveal to the class, I did all I could.

I dove across the table.

Stomach sliding across the veneer top, I glided with ease over the cracks between the desk, hand yanking the book from his hand before I toppled onto the floor.

"Flynn!" Miss Fischer shouted, jumping from her seat, ready to run to my aid.

Now you want to help, woman? I thought as the teacher crouched by my side, asking if I was okay.

"Never better, Miss."

But as I pushed myself back to my feet, a random girl in the class asked, "What did you write next, Flynn?"

"I'm not telling you that!" I retorted. Though as I glanced back Callie's way, wondering how she was fairing in all this, I took a surprised step back.

Head raised, skin going ghostly white, her eyes seemed to glisten where she sat as her eyes looked at me in betrayal.

Is she upset that I won't tell everyone? I wondered.

"Aww, come on!" Jackson jeered. "Tell us how it ended."

"That's just for Callie to hear," I mumbled.

But Callie's head was turning downward again. Her shoulders beginning to slump.

Heaving a sigh, my heart thudded exponentially in my chest. Flames began to lick my cheeks as I knew what my conscience was begging me to do.

Taking slow steps through the room, book clutched in my hand as I neared our desk, I said in a loud, confident (okay, slightly cracking) voice, "The last note said 'Because I want you to go to formal with me'."

Whatever will she say?

Meme: