Try and Stop It

redemption: [ri-demp-shuh n]; noun; an act of redeeming or atoning for a fault or mistake, or the state of being redeemed.

    Felix was especially done with being in the same class as the complete set of douchebags from the popular crowd for the entirety of his sixth period every day at school.

    It had been two weeks since his ill-fated appearance on Jessica Anastos' doorstep, and things certainly weren't looking up. He had avoided conversations with her except for when they were absolutely necessary, in classes such as Psychology, where Ethan and Nova chatted for an absurd amount of time and left Jessica and Felix with practically nothing to do but offer awkward small talk.

    He just wished she would be rude to him.

    Jessica Anastos was famous for being rude to the people she didn't like, and she didn't like anyone who was more than two tiers below her on the social chain. If she didn't like you, she let you know, and there was honestly nothing you could do to change her mind.

    Jessica Anastos had been rude to Felix since he was a freshman. He had gotten used to the abuse from that entire crowd, and at this point it didn't surprise him anymore. He had been shocked when and Jessica had begun to get along, and even more shocked when he had started to stop hating her, and develop actual feelings for the Queen Bee of Capital High School.

    He had been so stupid.

    She wouldn't go for someone like him. There was no way, there was no way possible, for her to be into him. There was no way. And yet, even after he had run away from her house, she wasn't being rude to him; just vaguely standoffish in most of their classes together.

    English class was a whole different story.

    She had Sasha by her side, and the support of every popular person in the class. She had everything she needed to be fueled by them.

    Class began with little commotion, until Mr. Hunter announced that today would be another discussion day, which Felix had figured out was just code for Mr. Hunter not having enough time to write his novel the night before.

    "Today's topic is the pros and cons of Romeo and Juliet's relationship." The whole class began to whisper their excitement; there was nothing high schoolers enjoyed more than talking about characters in a book they had only pretended to read.

    "Quiet down, quiet down." Mr. Hunter shouted over everyone. "Who wants to start to discussion?"

    The class was silent for a second before Sasha Corrian raised her hand.

    "I would, Mr. Hunter!"
    "Miss Corrian, the floor is yours." Mr. Hunter nodded before going back to his desk and typing furiously.

    "I think that they were stupid for not coming clean right away." The second-in-command started off with, "I mean, if they had just told everyone about their relationship right away, there wouldn't have been so much, or any, bloodshed. Everyone could have gotten over it within a few days and they could have stayed together, instead of dying and all that crap."

    "Language, Miss Corrian." Mr. Hunter called idly from his desk.

    "Sorry." Sasha rolled her eyes and continued. "I mean, I know it was a big deal and their families hated each other, but in the long run, it would have been better for everyone."

    "I agree." Caleb Halpon butted into the conversation. "They could have come clean early on. There would have been no death, no misery, and all for the cost of simply dealing with angry parents for a little while. Everything would have ended up better."

    The class nodded its general consensus, whispering among themselves about their own opinions. The only thing that they didn't seem to be whispering about was what had struck Felix as incredibly odd from the moment Caleb Halpon had started talking: he had agreed with Sasha Corrian. There was something that had shifted in the air between the cheerleaders and the basketball players; Felix had noticed that Jessica actually said a few kind words to Ethan Meek during Psychology that morning, and his response had been civil, if not friendly.

    Perhaps he had been the only one to not receive the memo about actually liking everyone in the school again.

    "I disagree." Felix spoke next, and the entire class turned to look at him just as they had looked at Nova in the first discussion of the year: like he was completely and utterly insane. No one disagreed with Jessica Anastos or Sasha Corrian, that was law, but what was even more taboo was disagreeing with both a cheerleader and a basketball player who were siding together.

    For once in his life, Felix didn't care.

    "Continue, Mr. Brannon." Mr. Hunter said as the students' frantic whispers died down. "Why do you disagree?"

    "They were smart to hide a relationship that wouldn't be approved of." He could feel the eyes of the entire class on him, but most importantly, he could feel Jessica Anastos' eyes staring at him, unblinking. "Their parents had control over them; they were young teenagers. They had no idea what they really wanted for themselves, and the fact that they wanted someone who was "wrong" for them shows that they lacked maturity and wisdom. The only smart thing that they did in the entire play was hide their relationship from the people around them; otherwise they could have ended up dead far before they did."

    "Interesting idea, Mr. Brannon." Mr. Hunter nodded. "Anyone else have any thoughts?"

    A few more kids spoke up, all in favor of Sasha and Caleb's argument, and all trying their hardest to prove Felix wrong. As the last person spoke, a basketball player who Felix quite honestly didn't know the name of, he noticed movement from the corner of his eye and turned his head.

    Jessica Anastos was standing quietly, her eyes red and her hands shaking as she picked up her phone and books. She whispered something to Mr. Hunter before leaving the class quickly, slamming the door behind her.

    Sasha Corrian, Caleb Halpon, and Ethan Meek all looked at each other with confusion in their eyes as they looked back at the closed door, and Sasha shrugged in an effort to say that she had no idea where her best friend had gone. Felix stared at the door until the bell rang to dismiss class, unsure of why he couldn't just tell the girl who had slammed it just how hard he was falling for her.

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    "Jessica! Dinner!"

    Jessica ignored her mother's voice and continued to look through her Trigonometry textbook, determined to pass the test she had the next day.

    "Jessica!" her mother called again after receiving no response.

    "I'm not hungry, Mother!" Jessica called back down, ignoring the wonderful smells that were wafting up from the kitchen. "I'm studying!"

    There was no response, so Jessica assumed that her mother had stopped caring whether or not she ate dinner with the family. It was alright, because Jessica wasn't sure whether she would have been able to get through a meal with any group of people without screaming.

    She had walked straight out of the English class and gone out to her car, driving away while in a daze, ignoring the fact that she would easily get a cut slip for her last period Trigonometry class. Only after she arrived home had she remembered about the test on Thursday, and realized that she missed the review.

    She had stayed in her room for the remainder of the day, going back and forth between Trigonometry notes, her phone, and her TV, eating all she wanted and knowing that she would have to hit the gym multiple times the next day. She could probably manage to get up around 4:30 and squeeze a workout in before school as well as after.

    Jessica was completely torn about what to do with herself. She had tried to get rid of the feelings and it had come to nothing. The past two weeks since Felix had run away from her house and driven off, she had been in a constant cycle of feeling terrible about herself and then acting like she felt completely normal to everyone around her. There was nothing she could do; she didn't know how to acknowledge what she felt.

    And Felix thinking that everyone who liked someone they shouldn't was better off hiding it did nothing to help.

    She stayed in her room for the next hour, ignoring her mother and father coming through on the intercom and letting her know that they would be out of the house for the remainder of the night. She ended up on the couch, watching TV and forcing herself not to eat any more junk food than she already had.

    Ding-dong.

    "Can someone get that?" Jessica called, not feeling like talking to anyone. She received no answer and once again wondered why they paid people to help out around their house.

    She stood, hoping that it was someone delivering food that was standing outside her door and not Sasha asking why she had completely left school.

    Jessica swung open the door and stared at the person on the other side, her heart starting to pound.

    "Are you going to run away again?" She asked after standing in silence for a few moments.

    Felix Brannon shook his head.

    "No." He responded before stepping into the mansion and pulling Jessica towards him. His face was inches from her when he spoke next.

    "Not this time."

    And he kissed her.

Hope you guys enjoyed the chapter! Sorry that I didn't upload anything for Rediscovering Olivia White this past weekend, but I will try to do it next weekend!

-Katherine