Bailey was jealous of me having Calculus, and many other classes, with Spencer. She didn't say so, but the way her face fell a little further with each class I shared with Spencer (and she didn't) when we compared timetables was pretty clear. 

I had a feeling Spencer liked her better, too.

After Spencer and I exiting the cafeteria and we were just the two of us, we didn't talk at all. We pretty much just walked side by side in silence aside from me pointing out the direction every now and then.

He'd find other people to hang with sooner or later. Guys, probably. He wasn't gonna stick around three girls the rest of the year as his only friends. 

For now though, we walked together and I entered the Single Variable Calculus classroom right before Spencer. There weren't many students in there, and if everyone showed up we'd still be only eight people. Nine including our teacher, Mrs. Robinson. 

Not many people voluntarily signed up for an optional, extra math class which was college level. The first time I'd been surprised to see Jem, the football captain, but stereotypes weren't always true, of course. He wasn't just an athlete, he was a brainy athlete. He'd gotten the best of both worlds and sometimes life was unfair like that. You had people who had nothing - not cute and not smart- and then the people like Jem, who had it all and got girlfriends like beautiful Autumn and not girls like me.

There classroom held three groups of four tables and we were allowed to pick where we sat. I was always at the desk closest to the door, together with Benjamin and today, Spencer joined us, too. 

"Hey, you're new, right?" Benjamin greeted Spencer. He stuck out his hand. "I'm Benjamin, but Ben's fine too."

"Spencer." Spencer shook his hand.  

"You're into football too, right? Jem said so. What did you think of the match between--" 

I mentally checked out the moment Ben started talking about team names and scores. I went to the games sometimes to watch Jem play, but I wasn't that into football. Spencer was talking much more animatedly with Benjamin than with Bailey, Farah and I, which confirmed my theory he'd go looking for male friends. Benjamin could be one, he was alright. He wasn't my friend, but we worked together just fine in class.

Jem walked into the classroom and I adopted the same strategy I did with Autumn: I tried my best not to look and tell myself I don't care, but ended up sneaking a glance anyway. 

That glance turned into a stare when Jem didn't walk to his usual place, the centre table, but stopped next to me and took the seat opposite Benjamin's. 

I wasn't the only one staring. I saw Benjamin looking confused, too. He never sat here. He always sat with his kind: brainy and attractive in a nerdy way Tobias, and blonde, amazing with makeup Lilian.

"Yes, football talk!" Jem said, dropping his bag next to the table. "Spencer, are you trying out for our team?"

Spencer was back to the tight wound up ball of anxiety he was when I first met him at the cafeteria. "Oh, I don't know yet," he said, his eyes trained on a random page of his textbook.

"Consider it, okay?" Jem persisted. "We could really use you on the team. It's a lot of fun on our team and yeah, officially the try-outs are over but we'd be willing to make an exception for a player like you."  

"I'll think about it," Spencer said, but I got the feeling he only said that to get the questions to stop. 

"Hey, you play football, too?" Ben mixed himself into the conversation. 

It felt like I was the only one who noticed Spencer didn't want to talk about himself, or at least about his football 'career.' Maybe Jem and Benjamin did notice, but I was the only one who cared. 

Spencer nodded with the same old familiar reluctance. "Yeah." 

"Cool," Benjamin replied. "What was your team's name?"

"The Blue Komodos," Jem answered for Spencer. "We played them last year and got utterly crushed."

Benjamin nodded and turned to Spencer. "Aha, I see. Must be weird, huh? Transferring to another school in senior year and then thinking about playing for a whole other team."

"Yeah," Spencer admitted, and I had to give Benjamin some credit. I hadn't considered that line of thought. My brief moment of admiration for Benjamin's perceptiveness was gone the next moment. 

"How come you transferred?" Benjamin asked. An even more awkward question for Spencer, judging by his reaction. 

Luckily for him, he got saved from having to answer by Mrs. Robinson walking in and clapping her hands. 

"Alright, alright," she said. "Sorry I'm late. Settle down, we have a lot of theory to cover today so no time to lose." 

She didn't exaggerate. Mrs. Robinson literally talked for an hour and there was little room for any private conversations. Good for Spencer, a little less good for me. I'd loved to have talked to Jem a little, joke around. Then again, I'd probably ruin it by being awkward so  it was better for me that we didn't talk too much, too. 

The bell rang and Spencer GTFO'ed, sparing only a moment to thank me for bringing him to this classroom and telling me he'd find his way to the next alone since we didn't share that class anyway. 

After Spencer all but ran out, I sighed and took my sweet time packing. Next up would be P.E. for me. I didn't mind, usually. I was just horrible at ball games and today we had volleyball. The good part was that I had that class with Jem, so the view would be alright. 

"Hey, Celia," Jem said. He already had his bag swung over his shoulder ready to go, but still stood there, apparently waiting for... me? 

I stared for at least three seconds before my brain managed to reach the conclusion he was indeed talking to me because he'd said my name. 

"Hey, Jem. What's up?" I replied, nervously reaching up to tuck a strand of hair behind my ear. So far so good, that wasn't an awkward response, right? Okay, the hair thing was a little awkward. 

Jem smiled. "You have P.E. too now, right? Want to walk together?" 

It took every shred of dignity I had to not let my jaw drop in pure shock. "Yeah, sure," I said, and a few moments later I was walking with Jem freaking Gallagher in the hallway. Was my face burning up? I think it was. 

"So, you're kind of friends with Spencer, right?" Jem asked a few seconds after we left the classroom. I felt his gaze on me, while I kept mine ahead. "You, and Farah and Bailey." 

"Uh, I wouldn't say friends." I shrugged. "But Spencer and I share a lot of our classes and we're on friendly terms, sure." 

"Could you do me a favour?" 

I glanced at Jem, who smiled when he saw me looking. I had a feeling I knew where this was going. "What?"

"Could you try to convince Spencer to join the football team here?" 

I stayed quiet. I didn't want to tell Jem no I can't, but that was the truth. I didn't have enough friendship points with Spencer to ask, without having it be exactly as pushy as it was when Benjamin asked him all these questions. 

"I'm sure he wants to play," Jem went on, taking the meaning of my silence that I needed more info or convincing. "But Ben had a point. I'm sure it's weird and can feel like betrayal to your old team if you have to face them on the field. I'd be so good if we had a better quarterback, however. Together with some more new talents, I think we may really have a shot this year." 

Jem grew increasingly more enthusiastic as he talked football. His hand gestures became wider and blue eyes shone and holy crap I was weak, I couldn't say no to smiling, hopeful Jem. I couldn't say no to Jem, regardless. 

I nodded, unable to keep myself from smiling back at Jem. "Okay, I'll talk to him."

"You're the best. Thanks, Celia!" 

We'd reached the gym, and Jem actually briefly put his arm around me, giving my shoulder a squeeze before disappearing into the locker room. 

If I got that much for only agreeing to try and convince Spencer, imagine his gratitude if I actually made it happen. 

Logically speaking, I knew this wouldn't change anything. He'd be grateful, sure, but he wouldn't suddenly talk to me more or dump Autumn and date me. Still, I just wanted to be the reason he was happy, even for just a moment. 

Spencer would be happy too, right? A football player like him quitting because he needed to transfer schools didn't sound like something he wanted. Who wanted to quit a sport they loved? 

It'd be like two bird with one stone, and I knew just the way to fast-forward into befriending Spencer. I'd go through Bailey, and invite him for a game night.