Thanksgiving Plans

"Now I must say, I'm very pleased with all of you," Mr. Waters spoke, setting down the white board marker on his desk and turning around to face the lot of us. "The reports and presentations that you've all done with your respective partners were great - not that I expected anything less from a graduating class."

His calm blue eyes lingered on me far longer than on any other student's before looking away. I let out a sigh of relief, leaning back against my chair. With that gaze he'd just given me, I knew that I was officially off of his blacklist.

"You're welcome," Damien whispered into my ear from the desk behind me. As per usual, I swatted his face away with the back of my hand, hearing him let out a lowly chuckle as he settled back into his chair. He was right though. If it weren't for how surprisingly hard-working and dedicated he'd been toward completing our project on Stalin (more so than me), I would have been landed myself no greater than a C.

"Anyways," Mr. Waters said, noticing the look of boredom set into everyone's features. He cleared his throat. "I wish you all a wonderful Thanksgiving break!"

And right on time, the final bell rang as a wave of excited shouts broke through the classroom. Fellow classmates bolted out of their seats, throwing their already-packed bags over their shoulders and started to make their way out of the History classroom. Mr. Waters smiled and shook hands with the few that stopped to greet him back, although by the tiredness of his form, I could tell he'd been looking forward to the end of this Wednesday just as much, if not more, than the rest of the school.

I stood up and started to pack my bag, throwing in my notebook, pen and textbook into my bag before zipping it up. Nick hummed happily by my left doing the same as I, Leo was talking to Mr. Waters at the front of the class and Damien was busy trying to annoy me as usual, prodding my hip with his finger.

"So, any special plans for the four day weekend ahead?" he asked, continuously poking my hip. I slapped him lightly on his arm, throwing him a glare to tell him to knock it off.

"Yup - I'm going to soak up my time away from Damien Cross. That's the most special thing I've got planned."

Nick laughed at what I said, Damien chose to just poke me harder and I simply tried to ignore the two as we made our way toward Leo who ended whatever conversation he'd been having with Mr. Waters, turning around just in time.

"Is he still bothering you?"

I gave him a look. "Always." Was that answer really necessary?

Ever the hero, Leo swooped in without having to hear my reply and lightly nudged  Damien, instructing him with a single look to stop poking me. Of course, Damien listened. He always listened to Leo. I wondered if Leo was the unofficial leader of the gang, or if he just had a leash solely fixed on Damien. Either way, I was happy when the jabbing at my side stopped, and took the liberty of leading the group out of the school.

As we stepped out of the building and into the open campus of the school, I noticed that most of the students were heading toward the car park, to leave the school premises as fast as possible. Some were still in the academic buildings, others headed to the library - they were probably the studious bunch that couldn't bear the thought of starting break.

"Ahhh!" Damien sighed, stretching his arms up in the air. "It's good to see the sun out again!"

We all nodded, agreeing with him.

"It's still quite chilly though," Nick said, buttoning up his coat. Even Leo wrapped his black scarf tighter around his neck. 

Winter was almost upon us, with temperatures now as low as 35°F. I had heard that January and February would be the harshest months in terms of the cold, but that didn't necessarily mean that December would be easy. Glancing up at the sky, I took a moment to relish the feel of the sun's rays on my face, knowing it would set around 4:30 P.M, which left us just a couple hours. And who knew if God would be kind enough to grant another day of sunshine tomorrow?

"I gotta say I'm happy that today's a half-day," I spoke, descending the steps of the building and making my way toward the school gates. I didn't have to look over my shoulder to know that the guys were following me.

"Who isn't?" Damien said. He caught up to my pace, both him and Nick on my left with Leo on my other side.

"I'm glad that Amy's school lets out early too." Nick smiled, practically bouncing in his steps.

"Is that where you're headed now? To see Amy?"

He bobbed his head along at my question in a happy nod. "She's invited me to spend Thanksgiving with her family this year. It'll be our first Thanksgiving together as a couple so I'm pretty excited."

"Will Lillian be there?" Damien asked, and I couldn't help but notice that he had that look on his face. That look of sinful mischief. This 'Lillian' must be one of his victims.

"Yup. Her mom will be too. I haven't seen Lilly in a while so that's one more reason to look forward to tomorrow evening."

Turning to Leo, I asked him with curiosity in my voice, "Who's Lillian?"

He scratched the back of his head, messing up his blonde hair even more. With the palm of his other hand, he stifled a bored yawn, as if this conversation were of no interest to him. Nevertheless, he met my waiting gaze and answered, "Amy's older brother's girlfriend. She's in college now. Lillian has known their family since they were kids. Nick adores her, kind of looks up to her like the sister he never had."

"What about Damien?" I looked back at the way he kept chatting with Nick about this Lillian-chick. "I bet he's awfully chummy with her."

Leo raised an eyebrow at my words.

"Chummy would be the wrong word to use to describe their relationship. She barely tolerates him."

Huh. That actually made me happy to hear. Knowing that I wasn't the sole female on the planet that found Damien's excessive flirting and 'charisma' totally unappealing made me want to meet this mysterious Lillian and form a club of our own.

"So, what are you doing for Thanksgiving dinner?" I asked, turning my head to look up at Leo. He seemed surprised at my question, that I would be interested in his plans in the first place, but only for a second before he went back to looking indifferent.

"The usual. Big family dinner. You?"

Before I could answer his question, Damien tapped me on the shoulder, interjecting with his words.

"Nick and I are headed that way. Unless you want to get left behind, you should say your goodbyes to Leo," he announced, jerking his head at the sidewalk behind him. It had become a routine of sorts for the three of us to walk home together, my house being the first on the way. Not this time though.

When I started to shake my head 'no', Damien stopped walking backward and frowned. He raised a hand, bringing it down on Nick's shoulder to stop him from continuing and turn him around. I suppressed the urge to roll my eyes, noticing that Damien's frown deepened even further as I uttered the words, "I have other plans."

My words hung in the air, and as if the universe wanted to add dramatic effect, a cold breeze swept by like a scene out of an old Western movie. Damien flinched away, as if I had just punched him in the gut with my words.

"Other...plans?"

Leo let out a huff of breath by my side, bringing one hand up to his forehead then murmured, "You should have told him in advance."

Before I got a chance to react, Damien leaped toward me and grabbed me by my shoulders. "Since when do you have 'other plans'? With who? Why didn't you tell me before?"

Man, this guy knew how to get on my nerves. I gave him one big shove that set me free from his grip. "Since when do I have to report every little thing in my life to you, Damien? I. Have. Other. Plans. Period."

He stumbled backwards, one drawn out step for every word that I had emphasized. Nick caught him by his shoulders and shot me an apologetic grin as if he were apologizing on behalf of Damien's silliness. I shook my head at him, giving him a small smile to let him know it was not his apology that I needed before casting Damien a deathly glare and turning on my heel with a haughty 'hmph'.

"Come on Leo, walk me to my hot date!" I grabbed Leo's wrist and pulled him along forcefully, walking in the opposite direction. He didn't seem to mind one bit, slipping his hand into mine comfortably. In fact, I got the feeling that my little spat with Damien had him feeling entertained. Well, that was fine by me! At least one of us was amused by all this.

"H-hey, wait!" Damien called out from behind me. His footsteps sounded loudly off of the pavement as he started to run after us before stopping all together. I refused to turn my head and look back at whatever was happening, but had a feeling that Nick was restraining him due to the slight sounds of a struggle. "Lemme go, Saunders! I've got a bone to pick with her!"
"Will you stop being a baby and just let her go? It's not like you're her boyfriend!"
Damien stuttered a little bit at that before retorting, "Don't you feel betrayed? She just dropped us like-"

We'd walked far enough away to be out of hearing distance to Damien's racket, cutting off whatever he'd been saying. As Leo and I rounded the corner of the street, I finally let my head fall a little lower, shoulders aching from how high I'd been holding it up in the air. Leo let go of my hand and placed it on top of my head, patting.

"There, there."

I shot him a tired look and sigh, continuing our walk and hoping that Nick had the ability to convince Damien not to follow us. "Why do I put up with that knucklehead's monstrosities?"

Leo let out a chuckle, blue eyes lighting up in amusement. "I think that's pushing it a tad. Where are we headed by the way?"

Leo's question grabbed my attention. I looked up to see an expression of curiosity plastered across his face, then looked back at the street in front of us, unsure of how to answer that question.

"Who's your date with? I think it's hardly necessary for me to take you there as I wouldn't want to be an intrusion."

Was the jealousy I detected in his voice? No. It couldn't be. He just didn't want to get in the way. Leo, ever the gentleman, started to take out his phone and dial a number without even listening to what I had to say.

"I'll just get my driver to take you where you need to go to meet up with this guy-"

I didn't register what he'd said, watching as as he raised his hand to press his phone against his ear. Before he got the chance to do whatever it is he wanted to, I stopped him, grabbing the device and canceling the call he'd been about to make. Leo didn't stop me but if at all, my actions seemed to tease the suspicion that had already been planted.

"Makayla," he warned, drawing out the syllables in my name.

Cracking a smirk at him, I took out the piece of paper I'd tucked into the front pocket of my jeans and grabbed his hand, pressing the folded square onto it. Leo glanced at the paper, then at me before slowly opening it, like it were a bomb that would detonate any second. His eyes scanned over the contents of the page, laughter slowly growing in his eyes.

"This is your hot date?"

When his eyes flickered back to my face, we both grinned at each other like idiots before Leo shrugged and wiped the rare full-smile off of his face. Although he was settling back into serious mode, the amusement in his voice was unmistakable when he said, "Alright, I'm in."

--------------------CHAPTER END---------------------

A/N: Yay another quick update!

So how many of you are annoyed by Damiens reaction? And how many of you find it cute? I'm actually curious to see what you guys think of him at this stage :P ooh and who do you think May's hot date is?

I won't keep you guys hanging for too long. Next chapter will be up soon! ^.^

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