Why did I decide to sleep over at my high school for a Wake At Thon and not go to sleep due to the three Cokes I digested and the people I met who I didn't even know went to my school. I'm literally yawning as I typed this by the effect of my sugar crash but hiiiiii!

Chapter Twenty One: "Agitated. Irritated. Annoyed."

"WHERE THE HELL IS Kim?" Octavia asked, looking around as we all sat on the staircase in a certain part of the school. I was holding the lace, pulling it so my hoodie tightened over my head and probably made me look like a purple light bulb.

Mary Anne was sitting on the step below me, leaning her head on my knee. "What are we doing here again? I have homework and our arts are over for today. We can go home Oct."

"Can we just hang here for a half an hour? I don't want to go home yet." Octavia said, stretching her legs out on the ground.

"Honesty, I don't want to go home yet either." Zen admitted, passing the soccer ball to Eduardo at the bottom of the steps.

"So we're just going to chill here? That's it?" I asked.

"Yeah I guess so." Mary Anne said. She looked up at me. "Your mom won't be mad?"

"She's working late and still thinks I'm at practice which is at school. I'm still at school so technically I'm not really lying to her."

"What a rebel." Eduardo smirked, passing the ball back to Zen when suddenly Kim burst through the door.

"Hey guys." She grinned, dropping her bag and taking a seat next to me.

"Where have you been?"

"Around. I just saw your text like three minutes ago." She told her, tying her hair in a short high ponytail and exposing her tattoo.

"Great we're all here," Octavia said, nudging Sarah with her foot to get her attention. "Are you texting Luke again?"

"Kind of."

"Kind of?" All girls asked at the exact same time.

"Don't tell me there's another guy." Mary Anne waited for her to respond and when she didn't is when we all let out a groan at the exact same time.

Sarah was pretty. Like really pretty to the point where you might consider her a short supermodel because of how pretty she was. Sure she wore glasses and made sure her uniform sweater cover over her butt which I knew for a fact that most girls would envy but she attracted attention of people even without trying. It wasn't a surprise if there was another guy that was chasing after her but honestly all of us thought she would go for Luke because of what happened at the showcase.

"What's his name?" Eduardo asked, grabbing the ball and leaning against the wall.

"Cody."

"Wait. That Cody guy in our grade? The one that's in our drama department. Like the 'I want to be on broadway' part of the drama department. With the really good voice?"

"Yeah that Cody."

"Damn." Eduardo and Mary Anne said at the same time.

"When?"

"Week before school started, I-I don't know exactly. I saw him, he saw me. We had classes before and he just ended up giving me his number and we just started talking but I was talking to him at the same time as Luke...I just didn't think I was leading him on."

"So what now? You have to choose between the two?"

Sarah nodded, kind of looking guilty as I watched her shut off her phone and slip it into her pocket. "Yeah. Can we change the subject? I don't want to talk about this."

"Yeah sure...so Sydney..." Octavia had this grin on her face.

I rolled my eyes, holding a hand up to stop her. "Nope, no, we are not talking about me. What about you Octavia?"

"Actually...yeah, what about you Octavia? What happened with the movie deal?" Kim asked.

Octavia frowned and looked uncomfortable. "Um...so I discussed it with my parents then the school and Mrs. Mariano," she looked at me. "She's the head of drama department and then I thought about it."

"What's your choice?" Zen asked her, crossing his arms and waiting.

"I'm going to take it."

No one said anything and I looked at my other friends. They've known each other for a long time, definitely longer than I've known them and literally took me in. They've known Octavia for a long time and I was honestly going to miss her. But them?

Mary Anne's face dropped before she picked herself back up with a smile. Sarah's lips formed a smile but just barely. Eduardo and Zen looked at her with sad faces which kind of surprised me because it was Zen. Kim was smiling widely but she stopped the second she probably realized she wouldn't see her for a long time.

Them what really surprised me was Zen who walked towards her and wrapped her in a hug. "I'm going to miss you witch."

"I'm going to miss you too Goth King." She laughed sadly. "It's only like three to six months. Who knows? It might even end earlier and I'll be back before you know it."

"What about the grade trip to New York?" Mary Anne mentioned.

"I'll find a way to meet up with you guys there."

"Plus we live in a generation where seeing each other is easy. No worries." Zen said, taking Octavia's hood and pulling it up and over her head forcefully.

"ZEN!" She yelled, swatting his hands away and pushing the hood off of her head. "You're so annoying. I take back what I said about missing you."

"That's a lie." He said, giving her another hug.

"When do you leave?' Eduardo asked.

"A couple days before Halloween I go to LA."

"Wow." Sarah sighed.

"Well, you're going to be famous." Kim added.

Octavia waved a hand. "I don't know about that. I'm pretty sure they'll focus on the big stars instead."

"No you know they'll focus on the teenage girl with a big role who gets to be in a movie with people who have won Oscars. Come on Oct, you've got this." Eduardo nudged her.

"Yeah define-"

A sound was heard above us and the sound of footsteps coming down the stairs above us made everyone shut up. I watched the familiar beanie pop up as the person walked down the stairs, scrolling down their phone with their thumb.

Lucas' walk slowed down and as he made his way past all of us, giving a nod of acknowledgement but then again not really paying attention. A smile almost made its way to my face until I noticed the serious look on his face as he made his way past me, walking down the stairs and out the doors to the hallway.

"What was that?' Octavia asked, staring at the door closing.

"I don't know." I mumbled.

"You should go after him." Eduardo said.

"Why should she go after him? It's not like she did anything." Kim said.

"But-"

"I'll go. Be right back." I told them, shoving my hands in my pockets and walking the way Lucas went.

I watched his figure turn into another hallway and I sped up to walk beside him as my duffle bag hit against my back and his eyes were still focused on his phone. "Um...you okay?"

"Yeah." He said. It wasn't just a regular yeah and I'm going to add onto the conversation. It was the type of 'yeah' that was quipped and blunt and cut off.

"You sure Lucas?"

"I'm pretty sure." He muttered.

"You just don't sound it."

He rolled his eyes and when I say rolled his eyes I don't mean the one where he acts like he's joking and has that small smile on his face. When he rolled his eyes it was of what I thought to be pure annoyance and it created a pang in my chest when he looked at me. "I'm completely okay Sydney."

"Okay..."

"Bye." He cut off our conversation completely walking ahead of me in a faster pace and out of my sight.

"Well shit." I muttered before feeling an arm hooking through mine.

"What was that?" Mary Anne asked me.

"I don't know but it sure speaks volumes."

"I'm sure it didn't mean anything."

"It probably did I mean I was kind of considering what you said the other day too."

"What I said about him liking you? Because I was and still am certain about that."

"Well after that I highly doubt it."

"C'mon Sydney."

I sighed, pulling the strings even tighter for my hood, thinking it would hide my face. "I'm going to head home."

"Want me to take the bus with you?" Kim offered. Even though Kin wasn't around a lot, she lived on the same bus route as me and sometimes we took the bus together anytime I was going home.

"Nah I'm good." I offered her a smile before Octavia grasped me in a hug. "What is this for?"

"Maybe because that stupid ass boy doesn't realize what a great person you are and that you deserve to be treated better than horrible answers." She scowled and I gave her a small smile. This was one of the reasons why I would definitely miss Octavia when she leaves.

"I'll see you guys tomorrow." I gave them a grin as I hiked up my duffle bag and turned the opposite hallway, towards the front exit of the school.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I hate those thoughts you just think 'it's not a big deal' like when you embarrass yourself and you play it off but it ends up playing over and over again in your mind because it bothered you. Lucas' one word answers to me yesterday did actually bother me.

But it wasn't even the plain answers. It was his tone. They way he talked to me as if he was agitated. Irritated. Annoyed. I don't know if something happened to him or if he really just didn't want to talk to me.

I mean he didn't message me last night and I didn't bother messaging him either because I figured he didn't want to bothered.

"Sydney...Sydney....SYDNEY!" Wesley yelled through the phone and I rolled my eyes as I got off of the bus.

"Sorry, sorry I was just thinking." I told him, pulling my school sweater tighter around me.

I should've worn a damn jacket today. Ugh. It was getting so cold.

"Are you still thinking about the Lucas thing from yesterday?"

"Yeah kind of." I admitted.

"Come on Sydney. It probably didn't mean anything."

"I'm pretty sure it did but I don't want to make a big deal about it." I told him, walking up the stairs as some guy did a backflip off the top step. Yes because that was completely normal.

At this school I honestly wasn't that surprised anymore because it was normal.

The colored and creative walls and lockers. Other teenagers playing instruments. Groups singing random harmonies. Carrying sketchpads. Dancing out of nowhere to music someone else was blasting. This school screamed creativity.

"Clearly it's a big deal if you can't stop thinking about it."

"Is it my fault that my stupid mind is thinking of a conversation that lasted ten seconds yesterday for no frigging reason or because the guy I like sort of blew me off?"

I heard Wesley shuffling in the background as I saw Mary Anne fall in step with me. 'Wesley?' she mouthed and I nodded.

I felt another presence beside me and tuned to find Octavia walking in step with us. She reached her hand out, gesturing to my phone and I gave it to her. "Hey Wesley!" She exclaimed.

What?

"No," She continued. "I told you yesterday remember?"

"What," I voiced my question. "Since when do you guys talk?"

"Since you gave me the phone weeks ago when he called you at lunch. He's cool." Octavia told me as if I didn't know and I shook my head as she continued talking to him and couldn't help but laugh to myself.

I reached my locker and opened it as Mary Anne leaned against it the one beside it. "So anything happen after yesterday?'

"Nope."

"No messages? No phone calls? No nothing?"

"Nope." I popped the 'p' and started putting my books in my bags.

"And he's not even here this morning. Usually he meets you here around this time and is already hugging you like it's nothing. Didn't he do that yesterday morning?"

"No," I told her. "He was late to school yesterday because he had to convince his little brother Phillip to get out of bed. That's what he told me that night before because Phillip hasn't been wanting to go to school lately."

"What about third? Was everything normal in third?"

"Um...actually I barely got to see him yesterday either because Mrs. Olivera made him help out another teacher in loading things with some other guys in our class."

"You're lying right?"

"Nope." Sarah came out of nowhere. "She didn't get to talk to him yesterday during third."

Just when I was looking over at Sarah, I caught a sight over her head.

Yeah I saw Lucas. It wasn't that big of a surprise that I saw him considering we go to the same school and I was bound to see him eventually. He wasn't wearing his glasses and I knew him well enough now to distinguish the differences between him and Joey beside the beanie on his head.

It was just the girl he was with that made me frown.

She was shorter than I was and definitely a bit shorter than Sarah who was 5'3. Her dark brown hair was layered to the middle of her back and her brown eyes were framed with long eyelashes that were enhanced with mascara. She wore the school uniform skirt with leggings and was currently laughing at something Lucas said, a hand over her mouth to calm her down.

But it was also Lucas' smile that threw me off. Yeah Lucas was a pretty reserved person who like Mary Anne had stated didn't do certain things or was very open to people. But it wasn't just a smile. It was something I could interoperate as a smile he gave to certain people. A smile that could entrance people with dimples and teeth showing and everything.

"Um...who's that?" I asked without thinking.

"That's Jane," Sarah told me. "Jane Gallo. She's part of my department. Art. She's extremely good at painting and specializes in water colors."

Octavia handed me my phone and looked over at the two at the set of lockers down the hallway. I put my phone up to my ear as I shoved my dance bag inside my locker. "Wesley I'll call you tonight."

"Got it. Tell me everything."

"I always do." I told him.

"Love you Sid."

"Love you too Wes." I hung up the phone, shoving it in the pocket where my iPod wasn't in.

"What is Lucas doing?" Octavia asked me as my eyes went back over to the pair who were smiling at each other and talking like no one else was in the hallway with them.

I shrugged, closing my locker and making sure I was wearing my backpack properly.

"It's not like they're together Sydney." Mary Anne told me.

"Actually, no one really knows. Jane was in Italy for a month and missed a lot of school. They're friends. Besides Devin, Jane is Lucas' other friend they've always been close. Like really close. Their families remember?"

"What about their families?" I asked.

"Rich people have connections Sydney. They know each other. Second biggest house in this entire town? Belongs to the Gallo family even though it is nothing compared to the Cahill's house. But back to Jane and Lucas, no one really knows how close they are but apparently people have said that they were together for a brief time or something but I doubt it."

"Don't worry about it." Mary Anne told me.

"I don't know why the hell I'm worrying about it. It's not like I'm even dating him." I said, walking in the opposite direction from Lucas and Jane but not before catching him laugh again and wrap the short girl in a hug that probably said a lot.

Well okay.

"Where's Ed?" I asked, changing the subject from my non-existent love life.

"In Studio D. Regionals is in a couple of weeks right?"

"Yup."

"He's been a little traumatized. I mean you guys always make it past Regionals and every year Eduardo's been on the team, he kind of gets-"

"Kind of?" Octavia asked. "No, no, no, your boyfriend goes ballistic. He starts practicing over and over so that he can perfect everything, sometimes he gets so into a dance he can't even tell if a person enters a room and calls his name over and over again."

"Okay yeah Regionals gets into his head."

"And Nationals." Octavia added. "Remember last year at World Championships and he almost exploded-"

"Forget about that." Mary Anne told Octavia as we slowed down out walk.

I heard the familiar laughter again and turned my head back around as Lucas looked down at that Jane girl, practically hanging off of her every word. They passed by us and Lucas didn't spare a glance at anything except her.

Great now this whole thing was bothering me more than I wanted it to.