New chapter! Tell me what you think of it :)

***

"Get up you fugly little creature."

Oh such a lovely thing to hear bright and early in the morning.

A pillow roughly assaulted my drool covered face, making me sit up in annoyance and slight pain.

I mumbled a few incoherent words, warming up my vocal chords after a long night of rest.

"We're leaving soon, so get all your stuff packed up and be ready to go in forty-five minutes or I'm leaving without you." Axle proceeded to make his way to the bathroom, and shut the door once inside. I began to get up out of bed, looking down.

"Damn it."

I needed at least an hour with this hair, and with the cramps I had been experiencing since last night and this morning, it was going to take me longer than I had time for.

I rolled our of bed and made my way to my bag, pulling out my Vampire Weekend t-shirt and some Nike shorts. I grabbed my brush and sighed, hating the process I was oh so familiar with.

By the time Axle had exited the bathroom, I had tamed my wild mane and packed my bag. I folded the bed even though I knew maintenance would come in and redo it. I entered the bathroom; quickly brushing my teeth because I knew the humidity would affect my hair after a while.

We double-checked that we had all of our belongings before exiting our hotel room. We waited for the elevator along with another pair of roommates.

"You kids have fun last night?" One of them said with a smirk. His roomy snickered, understanding what he was implying.

I rolled my eyes at their immaturity, also understanding what they were suggesting at. Axle remained impassive as we entered the elevator. The boys continued to taunt us but neither of us ever responded. We had almost gotten to the lobby when all of a sudden, Axle had the leader of the two pinned up against the elevator wall.

"I dare you to say something else," He threatened, holding the guy up by the scruff of his collar. Henry, I think was his name, still had an ugly sneer on his face as he looked back at Axle.

"Well, I guess I would be embarrassed too if I banged the nerd-"

A crunch was heard, and the next thing I knew, Henry was on the ground, holding his nose and moaning. His friend got down on the floor next to him and tried to help, not really knowing what to do.

I yanked Axle back by his arm, looking at him incredulously. "What is wrong with you?"

"He insulted you!" He yelled at me, in turn adding to my own aggravation.

"So that gives you the right to hit him? If this is going to work, you can't hit every single person that insults me!" I vociferated.

I stood, brooding and took in the sounds of wailing that filled the elevator, a sound that accompanied the awkward classical music until finally the door opened up. I let Axle pick up his bag, and shoved him off, trying to forget about the fiasco.

It is too early for drama.

"Look, I'm not mad at you," I said after a short silent walk. "I just don't want you getting into trouble on my behalf."

Axle gave me a side-glance and continued walking. "I'm already in trouble on your behalf Z." He cracked a smile as his eyes returned to the front, with me at his side.

We grabbed breakfast and sat down, Jacen and his crew along with Joney joined us after a while. We joked and talked about trivial things, which allowed me to feel normal in a sense. It was refreshing to be able to act like a carefree teen again, and not a teen that was forced to be act older than she was in response to harassment.

My eyes trailed over to Jacen, as I watched even him smile and share some laughs. I smiled inadvertently towards him as I watched the normally dour Jacen have a couple of minutes to be regular teen himself. At a quick glance, he didn't look like a guy who had been shown a world that he shouldn't have been apart of at age ten.

A throat cleared uncomfortably close to my ear, and I snapped out of my absentmindedness and looked at Axle, startled by the sudden noise.

"At least try to make it less obvious," he whispered in my ear. An invisible blush illuminated my face, and as I glanced at him, I was very thankful for being black.

"I don't know what you are talking about." I chose to take the evasive route. I grabbed my orange juice and took a few large gulps as Axle continued speaking.

"I'm not dumb Zaph, and neither is he."

"I have no idea what you are trying to imply here Axle," I whispered back to him. I chewed on some eggs that had lost taste somewhere within this conversation and I wasn't as hungry anymore.

"But whatever it is, I think it would do you some good to keep it to yourself." I stood up, and walk to the trash can, discarding the remains of my food.

"Don't get so defensive. Besides, your guy was giving me looks the whole time we were talking, I don't think reciprocated feelings are such a far fetched idea."

"I'm done talking to you," I said, trying to ignore the butterflies in my stomach at the thought of Jacen.

I shook my head. I wasn't even sure what I felt toward him. Everything was just extremely complicated.

"But I'm not done talking to you," he said mischievously. He lashed out and grabbed me yanking me back towards him.

The air was pushed out of my lungs as my back collided with his chest.

"Axle!" I yelled, pushing against his arms to relieve the amount of pressure they had against my stomach.

" Took him long enough," he whispered to himself from behind me.

I wonder if he knew that I could hear still hear him. Unexpectedly, I was thrown to the ground as a blur shouldered into Axle, the blur being Jacen.

The testosterone levels have been off the charts lately.

Even though I ended up on the ground from the velocity of the impact, Axle only faltered.

Jacen shoved him away, a dark look in his eyes. I stood up angrily, partially because I was just roughly thrown onto the ground, and partially because both of them were acting stupid.

"Jacen, what's the matter with you?"

"Sorry to break up your moment," he spat back at me. Taken aback, I shuffled backwards, stepping on my untied shoe lace.

"You're making a scene, Will you please stop?" Jacen looked back and forth at me and at Axle.

"Whatever," Jacen face Axle one last rough jolt and left go of his shirt, walking back to his seat.

A few students who had theirs eyes on us turned back to their respective tables and continued with their conversations.

I laugh bubbled up in my throat as a caught Axle's eyes. "Are you reatarded?" I laughed lightly, despite that fact that nothing was really funny.

"Not far fetched at all Zaph," I rolled my eyes, soon following Jacen's path and returning to my seat.

The heat that radiated off of Axle as he sat next to me, He nudged my arm, making me mistype my text I was trying to send.

"What?" He glanced at Jacen and looked down at his hands. I followed his quick gaze and saw Jacen staring straight at us.

I looked down.

***

"Here are your schedules. You only get one so I suggest you hold onto it people." Mrs. Evans gave everyone an itinerary.

My eyes instantly looked through it once the rough paper hit my fingertips.

"We will be arriving at the hotel in another eight hours, and once we get there you have the rest of the day to yourselves. Tomorrow, we will be visiting the Keys Marine Labratory, so bring some sunscreen, because we might be outside." She say down after that, allowing for us to talk amongst ourselves.

"So uh," Finn started as he turned around towards me with a teasing smile on his face. "What happened back there?"

His eyes went from me to Axle, and then to a brooding Jacen who had his headphones plugged in.

I smacked my head on the bus window and really hoped that this bus ride would fly by.

***

Not that long of a chapter, just a filler, but I hope it is still enjoyable :D

Xoxo,

jean_margaret