ISABELLE'S POV

"Stand still!"

I yelled at Dean who refused to stay in one place for the one millionth time. "I said stand still!"

Dean laughed and I glared at him. "What is wrong with you?" I was trying to finish the painting of the flower vase he was holding and him shaking every second wasn't helping. I could have placed it on the table or somewhere but I wanted to paint his hands with the case and not the case alone.

"I've been in one position for more than thirty minutes, it's not easy!" Dean complained as I made the finishing touches. "You know I could have brought a table outside, you just enjoy making me suffer."

"Dean..." I said his name in a warning tone. "You're distracting me..."

"And I'm tired of standing, come on Isabelle this is punishment!"

"Shut up!"

"Can you be faster?"

About to place one last finishing dot on the painting, Dean loosed his grip on the vase and it fell down, breaking. "Dean!" I yelled.

Dean stepped away from the broken glass. "Sorry."

"Sorry? Seriously!"

Dean walked up to me to take a look at what I did. "You should go to art class." He said.

I ignored what he said and frowned at my unfinished painting. "And you were already done! There's nothing to worry about." Dean said.

"Nothing to worry about? Look at this!" I told him pointing to the empty spot, "One dot! How would I-"

Dean grabbed the paintbrush from my hands. "It's just one dot." He said poking the empty spot. "Oops."

"Oops? Dean...!" I stomped my foot on the floor repeatedly, he put a big dot in the middle of my painting!

"Sorry."

"Sorry?" I grabbed the brush from him wanting to stain his shirt but he quickly stepped back and ran. "No please don't, I said I was sorry!"

"That doesn't fix the problem!" I yelled still running after him, it took only a second for Dean to change his mind and run after me. "What? Leave me alone!" I yelled laughing and practically running for my life.

"Isabelle!" Dean caught up to me wrapped his arms around my waist grabbing me and I burst into hilarious fits of laughter. "Let me go!"

"No!"

I kicked him and Dean fell to the ground pulling me down with him. "Stop!" I laughed and entangled his hands from my waist before standing up.

"But I'm serious Isabelle..." Dean dusted the sand off his shirt and sat comfortably on the floor "...you should change to art class."

"But then we wouldn't be in the same class."

Dean took his time to think of a reply before speaking. "You're not going to school because of me Isabelle."

I thought of another excuse to give. "What will people say if they find out that I switched?"

"Who cares about them? It's none of their business and you're not going to school for them either."

"I still don't want to switch..."

"So you'll stay in science class and fail?"

"You just think I'm stupid." I said.

"No, I think you're talented."

I didn't say anything after that, only smiled. Dean knew that he had won the battle, he's been bothering me about it since but I already had plans for next year, I wanted Dean to be my seat partner but wait- "You're not trying to get rid of me are you?"

"What?" Dean chuckled. "No."

"Well I'll do it if you do something for me." I said ready to ask the question that I've been dying to get an answer to.

"I'll do anything."

"It's more of telling me something."

Dean looked confused but it didn't take no longer than a few seconds for him to figure out what I wanted to ask. "You want to know why I didn't speak to anyone, don't you?"

I nodded. "But it's okay if you don't want to tell me I mean-"

Dean cut me short. "No, no it's okay. It's not that personal, at least not to you..."

"So you'll tell me?"

Dean nodded looking away from me. "Well my dad... It happened in grade four I... me and Kendrix we..."

I sat down close to him hoping that he would feel better. "Kendrix and I caught my dad cheating on my mom with a teacher in our school... Mrs. Reece?"

"Mrs. Reece?" Our English teacher Mrs. Reece? I couldn't believe it.

"I know." Dean ran his hands through his hair frantically and scoffed. "I was nine and I... He told me to shut up... He said that I shouldn't tell me mom but he also noticed how uncomfortable I was whenever he was around, my mom became suspicious too and he..."

Dean refused to complete the sentence. "He what?"

"He left. He couldn't handle the guilt I guess, Sabbath and I kept torturing him with it."

"So your mom didn't know?"

"No, I only told Sabbath."

"Till now?"

Dean nodded.

"You should tell her Dean."

"She wouldn't be able to handle it Isabelle, especially when she finds out that the person she was paying to help me speak was the reason for me not speaking in the first place."

"But Mrs. Reece is married."

Dean nodded. "Yes and so was my dad but also that didn't stop her from messing around with Mr. Robin."

I finally understood why Dean hated Mr. Robin so much, why he never took those therapy classes with Mrs. Reece seriously. And to think that Mrs. Reece was voted for as best teacher for the year, she didn't deserve it.

"So how does this have to do with you not speaking."

Dean smiled. "After what me and Kendrix saw, I didn't speak to him all day, I didn't speak to him the next day either, Kendrix tried to talk to me but I was pissed off and yelled at him to leave me alone, I just wanted to be alone that week."

"And?"

Dean shrugged. "I got used to it I guessed, no one tried speaking to me anymore and I didn't feel like speaking to anyone anymore and there was a time where I got popular for it, people started respecting me for it so I just continued with it." Dean chuckled making light of the situation. "It sounds completely stupid now that I'm actually talking about it."

I smiled placing my head on his shoulder. "It's not stupid."

"This might sound cheesy but when you came to Eastwood High Isabelle, I didn't see the need to continue being silent anymore, you made me want to start talking again."

I looked at up at him, our faces now close. "So you're talking because..."

Dean cut me short. "Because I like you and I don't want to miss the chance of being with you."

I smiled at his cheesy yet charming words and listened to him talk about how annoyed he felt when I first came and how relieved he felt when he spoke again. I loved the fact that I could do something like that, glad that he could think of me in that way.  "Dean?" I cut him short from his story and brought my lips closer to his.

"What?"

"Stop talking."

Author's Note

And the rest is history! I had lots of fun writing this book, special thanks to those who stayed from the beginning to the end like LetUsBeAnonymous  xandra320 sincerelyanony and encouraging people like IfYouSaySo13, poetiic_justiice and also silent eaders, hopefully you'll make yourself known at the end of this!

I love you all! 

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