"Now I know I've said it before, but I'll say it again. Mr Howard belongs in the deepest, darkest pits of hell."

Mitch rolled his eyes. "Well you're mistaken, 'cause those were Angelo's words."

I smirked. "Guilty."

"Oh." A sheepish grin came over Seth's face, but soon after he whined, "Still though! You were a hundred percent right! I mean, what kind of teacher gives the first test of the week on a Wednesday?"

"You know, you wouldn't be worried about this if you studied," Mitch pointed out.

Groaning, Seth dropped his head into the table. "But that's the thing, I didn't study!"

"Well that's not his fault though."

Seth's rose his head up to glare at Mitch. "Really not helping right now! Jeez, at least offer me advice on what to do!"

"I know what you can do," I said.

His head swivelled round to face me. "Ugh thank you Lord, 'cause I'm open to any suggestion right now!"

"Well then, you'll be happy to hear that you always have the option to fail with pride."

Seth gave an exaggerated groan again, but shortly after his shoulders sunk. "At this point, that might actually be my only option!"

In spite of how dramatic he was being, I did understand why Seth was reacting in such a manner. After all, no other teacher had decided to give us a test that week apart from Howling Howard. Not to mention the fact that the only heads up he'd given us about the test was a brief mention of it about two weeks earlier.

Luckily for me, I was ahead of the class anyways. Seth wasn't, but I guess that's pretty easy for you to figure out.

Patting his back, Hans said, "Don't worry bro, I got you."

Seth's brows furrowed for a bit, then his eyes widened as he gasped. "Wait, do you mean-"

"Shhh." Grinning, Hans winked at him.

Mitch shook his head. "To think it has come to this."

"Fuck off Neutron, not everyone has your fucking brain!"

"It doesn't take too much brain power to know Howard has the eyes of a haw-"

Sticking his hands in his ears, Hans exclaimed, "Hell nah, I'm not listening to your discouraging words! Enemy of progress!"

Grinning, Mitch shrugged. "Hey, it's your ass that'd be sitting in detention, not mi-"

"Oh wait, are you saying something?"

"Hi, boys!"

I looked away from the comedic scene and turned to Miss Delane, who was looking down at me.

"Good afternoon. Is there something you want?"

"Indeed there is. From you, to be specific."

I frowned as I heard that. Of course, it wasn't the first time I was meeting with her during long break, but it was certainly the first time when she'd ever come to meet me.

"Oh? What for?"

"I actually wanted to meet with you earlier today, but I've just been so busy-"

"Wait, I think we should go somewhere more private to discuss this."

She paused, then nodded. "Alright."

We had barely gotten outside the cafeteria before she whirled round to face me and exclaimed, "Aimee told me that you're both done with the play!"

Those words knocked the breath out of me.

I had to take few moments to steady myself before replying, "I guess. We finished reading it yesterday. However-"

"Great! Then you're ready to start rehearsals!"

"Wait-"

"Normally we'd start today, but sadly I have a meeting right now-"

"But-"

"So meet me after school. Come with your script and Aimee!"

Cleching my fists, I growled, "Can you just let me fuc-"

But Miss Delane was already walking away from me, glancing at her watch as she did so. "I'm so sorry Angelo, but I'm already late for my meeting. But I'd hear whatever you have to say after school!"

As much as I felt like throwing my shoe after her, I realized that Miss Delane's meeting was more of a blessing for me. After all, it gave me time to come up with a good enough excuse to postpone rehearsals to a later date.

Because I sure as hell knew I wasn't ready for rehearsals of any kind. The speed my heart beat at anytime the thought even crossed into my mind could attest to that.
. . .

When I got back to the table, the first thing I was told was, "Alright Angelo, let's be honest with each other. We both know you're having an affair with Miss Delane."

Guess who made that statement?

If you thought Seth, then ding ding ding!

I stared at him speechlessly for a few seconds, then shook my head. "Wow, Seth. Just...wow. I- honestly, I don't even know what to say."

"What? It's a pretty valid question! It's not like Miss Delane is married!"

"I'd still hit that even if she is."

Mitch rolled his eyes at Andy. "You'd stick your dick in anything that moves."

Grinning, Andy replied, "Correction: I'd stick my dick in anything hot that moves."

"That certainly explains why you all but have STDs written all over your future," I added.

Andy's face flushed as laughter broke out across the table.
. . .

I nearly failed my math test that day, and it's all thanks to Miss Delane.

Well to be fair, the fact I was writing it in the last class of the day might have played a part as well. However, other times I had done so, I'd at least managed to finish about ten minutes before time was up.

That afternoon I found myself alternating between solving math problems and trying to figure out how to solve my own problems. The constant whispering I could hear going on between Seth and Hans, who were not too far to the left of me, was definitely not helping matters.

And they weren't even softly whispering. Their whispers were so noticeable that I'm pretty sure the only reason why Mr Howard hadn't noticed their cheating was because he was too focused on me.

"2B!"

Well there was no way that was slipping past him.

Simultaneously, all heads turned to Seth.

Mr Howard's frosty voice cut through the silence. "Seth, would you care to repeat what you said again."

Seth's face flushed. "I was just- I mean-"

Seth stopped speaking, letting out only the occasional splutter.

"No no, go on! Let's all know why you felt you had to talk! Hans, do you care to answer for him?"

Hans face tightened. Shortly after, he replied, "He was asking for my calculator."

"Oh really?"

"Y-yes sir," Seth said.

"So, you're telling me you didn't have the common sense to bring along a calculator when coming for a math test?"

Several people sniggered at that, which caused Seth's face to redden even more.

"I...I brought it to school, but I forgot it."

"Oh, you forgot it? So in other words, you're telling me that you not only lack common sense, but also the ability to hold on to your possessions?"

Poor Seth practically had rivulets of sweat running down his face by then, as he struggled to come up with a response.

Sighing, I said, "I have an extra-"

"NOT ANOTHER WORD, MR SMITH!"

I whirled round and was met by Mr Howard's eyes, which were practically spitting fire at me.

I struggled to keep a straight face as I replied, "But Mr Howard, he'll fail if-"

"IF I HEAR YOU SAY ANOTHER WORD, YOU'LL BE THE ONE FAILING!"

Smirking, I rose up my hands in a gesture of surrender, then mimicked zipping my mouth shut.

A vein throbbed on Mr Howard's forehead as he glared on at me, but I simply went back to working on my test.

Strangely enough, I was able to work a lot better after that incident.
. . .

"Ow!"

"Shut the fuck up! You're lucky I'm not kicking your ass for what happened!"

"It was an accident! I didn't expect my voice to rise like that," Seth whined as he rubbed the back off his head.

Hans glared at him. "You know what, I don't even care. All I know is that that's the last time I'm ever helping you!"

"Woah, let's not make any drastic decisions, okay? I mean, look on the bright side, at least we didn't get punished. Howard even borrowed me his calculator!"

"Thanks to me," I added.

It's actually pretty ironic how we were all casually discussing cheating when we hadn't even gone up to a metre past Howling Howard's class.

"Yeah." Looking at me, Hans let out a breath. "Thanks man. Lord knows we'll probably be sitting in Prickleberry's office right now if Howard didn't get distracted by you."

"Yeah thanks," Seth agreed, then his shoulders slumped. "Though I probably failed those last few questions."

"Oh boohoo," Hans snapped. "Next time, study at home."

Mitch, who had just been observing silently until then, rose an eyebrow at him. "Weren't you getting your formulas off a piece of paper you had hidden up your sleeve?"

Hans frowned at him. "Come on man, you didn't have to expose me like that!"

"Oh, I think we all saw you."

When we turned round, we realised it was Aimee who had shoved herself into our conversation.

"Aimee, what-"

Before I could finish speaking, she grabbed my hand and began dragging me away from the others.

When I got over the initial surprise of it all, I quickly yanked my hand away from hers.

Rubbing my wrist, I hissed, "What are you doing?"

"Trying to make sure you don't just run home! We have a meeting with Miss Delane."

"Well duh, of course I remember!"

I really hadn't.

Aimee crossed her arms. "Really?"

"Yes. Matter of fact, I was just going to grab my bag from my locker."

"Well since that's the case, don't worry about that. I already got it for you."

"Well that's...grea- Wait, how did you? It was in my locker!"

"I know."

"But how did you even know my passcode?"

"I-"

My eyes widened as her face flushed. Not too long after, a smirk spread across my face as I understood the meaning behind her sudden embarrassment.

"Really, Aimee? Has your stalking reached this level?"

"Sh- shutup! It's not like you try to open your locker discreetly! I'll be surprised if the whole school doesn't know your passcode!"

She turned and began marching to Miss Delane's class, most likely to hide her darkening face. Of course, I followed her, all the while cackling in my head.

"So, do you stalk me all day, or only after my classes?"

"Angelo, I swear-"

"Sorry, stupid question. You obviously watch me all day!"

Stopping when we reached Miss Delane's class, Aimee glared at me. "I swear, one more word about this and I'm going to ensure that you don't have to worry about this meeting. You'll be too busy worrying about how you're going to get to the nurse's office, after I've beaten you up with your backpack and shoved it up your ass!"

Still smirking, I backed away. "Alright, calm down, jeez! I promise I wouldn't say anything about it again."

"Good!"

"For now."

Aimee rolled her eyes, but didn't reply as she opened the door, only to end up shrieking and falling backwards immediately after.

Instinctively, I launched forward and caught her before she hit the ground (keyword: instinctively).

Miss Delane, who stood on the other side of the doorway, gasped. "Oh my goodness, I'm so sorry dear!"

"No, it's fine." Resting a hand on my shoulder, Aimee propped herself up. "We just came to see you about the play."

"Hmm? Oh, I'm so sorry dears, I forgot I have a meeting with Principal Brickleberry! How about we meet at long break tomorrow?"

Annoyance sparked in me. "Are you sure you don't have another meeting then? Maybe with the mayor instead?"

But I might have as well been talking to myself because Miss Delane rushed past us and began walking quickly towards Prickleberry's office.

Come to think of it, it's a good thing she'd done so. I don't know why on earth I'd been so bummed about the meeting being postponed when I hadn't even come up with a good excuse at the time.
. . .

Sorry this update is coming almost a week after the last. I hope you enjoyed it though!

Oh yeah, and without saying too much, I'm really excited for the next few chapters ;)

Please don't forget to vote if you like this chapter, and let me know your thoughts on it!

Till next time!