Chapter 6

"I don't care." Nicole told me bitterly as we neared room 203. "The cold sucks. It hurts my face to go outside. You're defending a thing that hurts my face."

I grinned at her. "Now you're just thinking up my reasons for me to love winter!"

She punched me playfully in the arm as we took our seats, joining the rest of Student Council. Shortly after, Phil entered the room and cleared his throat.

"Great, everyone's here!" He commented happily. "Alright guys, listen up..."

That was my cue to stop listening until my name was called. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed being part of student council, but weirdly, the meetings, which was 95% of being in student council, were the most boring and insufferable part. Before long, my eyes wandered, looking at everything yet nothing in particular, until something responded.

That something was Megan, waving cheerfully as soon as she noticed that I was looking at her.

"Hey!" she cheerfully whispered, trying not to alert Phil.

"Hi." I responded, admittedly less warmly. "How was your weekend?"

She shrugged. "Y'know ... I didn't do anything. It was kind of lonely."

I never quite knew if Megan, ever since she confessed she liked me, was trying to guilt-trip me, or if she legitimately was a sad person who happened to like me. "Oh," was the only thing I could think to respond.

"Yeah." she said awkwardly, before waiting a few seconds then asking, "How was yours?"

Oh, just fine. My crush is going out with my best male friend, my best friend's brother died via an overdose, and she responded to me finding that out by freaking out my dad then screwing me. "The usual," I told her flatly.

"Adam." Phil barked. "Do you have anything you'd like to say to add?"

I whirled around to face him. Well, crap. I felt like an ass, and debated either sinking back in my chair or trying to look like I was paying attention. My eyes fluttered in a panic from person to person until they settled on Nicole, my god damn savior.

She looked me straight in the eyes, and mouthed 'Spirit days - up the ante.'

I have no clue how I did, but I caught her drift immediately. I turned back to Phil. "I dunno, honestly." I started. "I feel like everyone does that already. If we want people to really show school spirit, I feel like it should be bigger."

The nerdy guy behind Phil spoke up. "The dude ain't wrong." he said in a jock-y fashion that completely contrasted his look. "I mean, wearing stripes to support the school is cool 'n all, but people do that anyway. We wanna find things that people don't normally do."

"Sorry, but what even is the point of wearing stuff to show support?" Nicole piped up. "Like, shouldn't we be finding things to do that can ACTUALLY support the school? I get the whole morale thing, but we should find reasons to get students to like the school to begin with, instead of telling students to show that they like this school? We should let them show their own ways to support the school, instead of just telling them."

Her actually good point aside, I saw what Nicole was doing. She was stirring the pot, diverting the topic away from me not paying attention. Naturally, it worked like clockwork - before long most of the council was debating ways to get students to like the school to begin with. Amidst the chaos, Nicole turned to me and winked.

I wasn't the only one that noticed the wink. Megan noticed Nicole winking at me and her face fell instantly. She turned to me and asked, with some sort of desperation in her voice, "Why is she winking at you?"

Thinking fast, I replied, "I gave her that very idea a few days ago, about the whole let students find their own reason thing." A complete lie, but whatever.

"Oh." her face didn't brighten up. "So you two talk a lot, huh?"

I sighed internally. I pitied Megan, I really did. "Yeah." I replied. "She's really cool, actually."

Megan looked distraught at this point, so as much as I really didn't want to, I continued. "She and Phil are really close too. They danced together at the Halloween dance."

Just as I suspected, her face brightened somewhat, even though she was trying to hide it. "Do you think she likes him?"

I put on my best politician smile for her and added, "I hope they end up together."

Megan smiled back. Internally, I was putting my face in my hands. I really hoped that I wouldn't have to put up with this all year.

The council was over before long, even though it felt like it went on forever. Eventually, everyone was filing out, leaving just Nicole and myself in the room.

"Thanks for saving me." I said to her as she filled her backpack.

"Don't mention it, squirt." she replied as she took her camera off from around her neck. I never noticed it before, but May was right - unless we were in her room, Nicole took that camera with her EVERYWHERE.

"Besides..." she added slyly, walking up to me, "How could I resist saving an ass as cute as yours?" She ran up to me and looped her arms around me, squeezing my ass.

"Woah there!" I said, backing up. "First off, uncharted territory."

Nicole giggled.

"Secondly, we're in the school building right now."

"Oh, come on." Nicole protested. "Everyone else left. I don't expect you to bone me, but you've gotta admit, doing something in the council room would be hot, doncha think?"

Oh my god, she was serious. "You can't wait for the car?!" I protested.

Nicole pretended to think for a second. "Hmm ... Nope!" she concluded. She pressed herself up to me again, locking lips with mine, wasting no time. Her tongue licked away at my lips before I could even register what was happening, and was inside my mouth without me even being aware I allowed her access.

I broke the kiss. "The ... the door..." I managed, pointing to the wide-open door.

Nicole sighed loudly. "You are SO squeamish." She complained. She walked over to the lights and turned them off, then to the door. She started to close it, but then, teasingly, left it open a crack.

I started to protest, but she cut me off by holding up her hand. "Nothing's gonna happen, squirt. Now roll with it." Shamelessly, she took off her sweater, then her t-shirt to reveal her big, beautiful breasts.

"Maybe if you wore a bra during the winter, you wouldn't be so bitter about the cold." I joked.

"The truth?" she asked. I nodded. "I don't even know if I own a bra." She started laughing like an idiot, and I joined in somewhat. Before long, though, the laughing was over and she had her back up against a table, feet on the floor, my mouth on her nipples, moaning up to the heavens.

"I think..." Nicole said in between moans. "You're becoming ... the best guy ... I've been with at this..."

I ground myself up against her pelvis, making her squeal, and asked, "What's that supposed to mean?"

"It means you're a fast learner, stupid." She retaliated, standing up and unzipping my fly. With one motion, the threw my pants to the ground, then, keeping her eyes locked on mine, travelled downwards until she was on her knees. She took my now-erect cock in her hands and began to slowly stroke me, licking sensuously at the base of my dick. Shamelessly, she even started to use her tongue on my balls, still jacking me all the while. It felt good, but besides that, I didn't know what to make of it.

Her love of tradition won her over eventually as she stuck my dick in her mouth and began to suck my dick for all its worth, playing with my head with her tongue while she was at it. I leaned back against a table and my hands moved to the back of her head, coaxing her to take more of me in as a felt the sensations spread all across my body.

I heard some clothes rustling and opened my eyes to see Nicole taking her pants off (which was impressive considering she was on her knees), opening her knees, and inserting two fingers into herself, making contact with her clit using her thumb. Before long the two of us were a mess of moaning, squirming and bucking. Nicole, surprisingly, came first - even though I couldn't hear it, it was obvious with the way she picked up speed then stopped suddenly. Plus, I could see her juices faintly running down her legs.

I came next, getting used to not even bothering to warn her (since she seemed to know every time) as I spurted right down her throat. Nicole, of course, swallowed it all.

After we stood there in post-orgasmic bliss for a while, Nicole took me out of her mouth, wiped her own mouth, and stood up, putting her clothes back on. "Oh dear God, I forgot my water." She complained.

"Another crisis that could have been averted if you just waited until we went home." I quipped.

"Oh shut up, dweeb." she playfully scolded, throwing her shirt at me. I was tempted to run out of the room with it, but knowing her, she'd just shamelessly run after me.

Unbeknownst to us, we were not the only ones who knew of our risky session that day. Just outside the door, peering through the crack, was perhaps one of the people I least wanted to see us: Megan. We hadn't seen her, but her eyes were wide, her mouth was open and there was a hole in her heart. Her head was reeling, and her brain was filled with a mixture of shock, sadness, slight anger, and perhaps even a twinge of jealousy.

I know Nicole was wild and crazy, but she really should have closed the door.

Of course, she didn't stick around the door by the time Nicole and I exited the student council room.

"It's not going to be locked." I warned her, still nervous, once we exited Room 203. "Someone's going to notice that. Then come the questions."

"Right, because I didn't swipe Phil's key before thinking doing this was a good idea." Nicole replied, taking the key out of her pocket and rolling her eyes. "You worry too much, hotshot."

As she locked the door, I thought I heard someone behind us, and veered around. "Is someone there?!" I asked nervously.

Nicole chuckled. "Nobody's here, squirt. They've all gone home. I thought blowing you would make you LESS pent up."

I didn't know it at the time, but I was absolutely right to be nervous. Tucked into the indented doorway of the next room, thanking her lucky stars she pulled back into the indent when I veered around, stood Megan, head pounding and hands shaking, still listening to us.

"Alright, are we ready to go?" Asked Nicole, slinging the camera around her neck.

"Yeah, let's get out of here." I hastily agreed, still nervous but calming down at this point. Megan peered back over to us just in time to catch me reaching my hand out and grabbing Nicole's in mine.

" ... What are you doing?" She asked me seriously.

"I don't know." I honestly answered. "I just figure since we do everything else and there's no one around, like you said..."

Nicole laughed. "Yeah, but we're not a couple, squirt." She playfully slapped my hand away from hers. "That ain't how this works. I'm a no-"

"Strings attached, I know." I finished.

"Well if you know, then don't be doing coupley things with me!" She said flatly. She seemed serious, like me holding her hand offended her or something. "It feels weird. It's not my fault that when I blow you, you get feelings for me..."

"Oh, ha ha." I replied sarcastically. "Because that's totally how it works."

Megan heard everything, and at this point, her eyebrows were at her hairline. At this point, her mind was made up. She knew who she wanted, but this changed everything. Now she knew how she could get who she wanted too.

For a guy that was getting as much unexpected sex as a nerdy, shy guy could get, I was pretty happy with having at least a little bit of routine in my life. Unlike everyone else in my classes, I was invested. For my teachers, this meant I was a joy to teach, although with teachers like Mr. Graves, it was hard to tell if he even knew what a 'joy' was.

Despite knowing that Carson and May were basically together, it was hard to get me to stop staring at May in English and Science (during drama, I had other things to distract me). Once or twice she'd catch me staring, but thanks to my new friendships in high school my confidence was actually building. Instead of looking away and suppressing yet another panic attack like my old self would have surely done, I'd seize the opportunity and flash her a smile and a friendly wave hello. Each time, she'd give one back, without any hesitancy or other signs she thinks I'm a creep in her eyes. We would barely talk, except in drama.

Drama usually was business talk. We were usually paired up for a makeshift scene or even an improv duo. Improv still wasn't my style, especially since it was hammered into the class' heads that improv needed to be funny. At one point in drama class we were playing 'Strangers on a Train, ' which is apparently a classic improv game. I never heard of it. All I knew was that if you were in the center, there was someone on your left and someone on your right, and if you were talking to one person, you'd have to keep your hand on the other person's leg without knowing it. Most people took this in funny ways, making the situation bizarre or sexual. In fact, usually sexual.

However, on Tuesday's class, I decided to play a blind man. I didn't exactly want to even be on stage, but Salvador called for me to be in the middle. I guess he noticed I hadn't participated yet. Once I was onstage, May was on my left, and the guy with the goatee, Callum, was on my right.

There were a few giggles in anticipation of what hilarity would ensue, but once the scene started, I just sat staring up. Eventually, I realized I had to start the scene and grumpily called out, "Ethel."

No one said anything. No laughter came from the audience, except for one distinct chuckle, which I think was still in preparation. I called out louder, a little more desperate. "Ethel."

I could see May sneaking a glance to Callum behind me, confused. "Ethel, are you there?" I called out in a slight panic. I began to breathe more loudly, more erratically.

May recognized that breathing, and thinking it was a panic attack, whispered to me, "Adam, are you okay?" She gingerly touched my shoulder with her hand. Her touch felt electric and amazing, and made me happier just from feeling her warmth, but I wanted to focus on my scene.

"Who's there?!" I said in a panic, turning to her. My arms went out and moved around, indicating that I couldn't see. Eventually, my hand found Callum's leg. I pawed at it for a second, trying to make sense of what I was touching as the character.

"What the..." Callum as his character called out. He looked at me and cleared his throat. "Sir, could you please get your hand off my leg?"

May caught on in the nick of time. She turned to Callum. "I think he's blind."

"That's right, kid, but I ain't deaf." I snapped back in a raspy voice. "Have you seen my wife?"

Over the course of the scene, which lasted much longer than it was supposed to, there was no laughter. Just either boredom or attention. I found out that Callum was a great actor from working with him in this scene, particularly when he added the twist that 'Ethel, ' the character's wife, had been dead for a few years and I was on this train purely due to my dementia. His reactions to me and to May were incredibly real, and he really carried the two of us through the scene.

"Good." called Mr. Salvador after our scene had, apparently, passed its climax. "You may sit down."

After we seated, Mr. Salvador glanced at the audience. "Adam's taught us something about improv: you don't always have to be funny. This scene was by far the most meaningful."

I sat back in my chair and enjoyed the sensation of my ego inflating. Knowing Mr. Salvador, I should not have savored it for as long as I did.

"He also taught himself something along the way. If your piece has meaning, you need substance to back it up." He turned to me. "If Callum wasn't in that scene with you, your idea would have fallen flat. If you're going to make a decision, don't do it half-heartedly. Commit to it."

Ooooof course. I hated how Mr. Salvador always had something to say to me, that he couldn't ever just let me win. It wouldn't have killed me to hear his criticisms if he weren't always right.

"Callum, you're showing great progress with being a versatile actor. I'm impressed." Mr. Salvador continued.

Oh, come ON.

"What made you make it all serious?" May asked me after the bell rang.

I shrugged. "I don't know. I guess I'm not really funny, so I decided to make it serious."

May giggled. "Well, I think you're funny." she told me. "I thought it was cool! You think all different. It's really cool."

I shot her a sarcastic look. "Yeah, right. You probably just watch Doctor Who and Wes Anderson movies and think I'm quirky and weird."

May's expression turned serious as we began to walk out of the aud. "Wait, how'd you know I like those things?"

I thought about it, and realized myself I don't know. I thought back to how effortlessly Nicole explained herself.

"I know a few grade 11s." I answered her.

"What does that have to do with this?" She asked me.

"I don't really know myself." I told her, shaking my head.

May giggled again. "You're weird." she replied, as we neared the doors.

"Bye, Mr. Salvador!" I called out as we exited the aud, expecting not to hear a response from him.

"He doesn't care, you know." She commented a tad bitterly as we walked down the halls. "You heard what he said to you. He's just a dick."

"Well, I don't like to admit it, but he's not wrong." I said gingerly.

"Whatever." She replied as she approached her locker. "Do you need something from your locker?"

"Hmm?" I realized I was just standing beside her. "Oh, um, sorry. No, I was just enjoying talking to you."

She turned back to me and gave me a warm smile. "I'm enjoying it too." she said, before turning back to her locker. "Although I won't be here for long. I've got to go in a bit."

"Oh yeah? Why?" I asked her, still awkwardly standing behind her.

She smiled slightly and blushed. "I've actually got a date in a bit." She told me quietly.

Ah yes, joy. That. Still, I had to keep up appearances. I acted shocked. "No way! Who with?"

"His name is Carson Carter. You know him?"

Sure freakin' did. "Sure do!" I replied enthusiastically. "Well that's cute. I hope you enjoy yourself!"

May was all too enthusiastic to respond. "Oh, I totally will. He seems like a really cool guy. First off, he's really into weight-lifting and stuff, so he looks really good."

That one stung. I could only picture my skinny self standing in the hallway as she continued. "Plus he likes weird things like Marvel movies, he knows how to fence, one of his cousins is a bartender and taught him how to mix drinks and stuff, and he's just got a way with words that makes me..."

There was a pause. "Makes you... ?" I asked her.

Her blushing increased. "Never mind." She told me as she shut her locker door. She looked at me and smiled. "Thanks for talking to me. Hopefully we can do this again sometime? I enjoy having a friend like you."

Was this what the friend zone was like? Man, did it suck. "Yeah, I'd like that." I smiled. I wouldn't have minded our conversation nearly as much if it didn't center on Carson, but whatever. At least she was happy, or so I kept repeating to myself.

I checked my watch, and realized I should head for the bus soon. And prepare for my night alone. It's not like I could hang with Nicole tonight, she was apparently busy with some big class project.

Oh well, could be worse, I thought to myself as I got on the bus. After a few minutes, I could hear my phone vibrating amidst the loud humming of the bus moving. I took my phone out of my pocket to see I got a text from Megan.

hey, could u help me put up posters for the xmas spirit week tomorrow?

Putting up posters wasn't exactly a Herculean task, which led me to believe this was just Megan making some sort of excuse to hang out. Although, I reasoned with myself, I actually enjoyed hanging out with her when the 'I like Adam' tension wasn't making it weird, so I agreed.

Yeah, sure! I replied. Immediately after, I went over my contacts and found Nicole.

Hey, Megan wants me to help with some council business. Could I ask for a ride tomorrow?

I waited for a bit until the bus came to my stop. As I got off, I felt a vibration in my pocket, signaling Nicole's response. I lugged my backpack inside, eventually plopping it down on the floor, then checked my phone.

Sure thing, squirt. I've got a surprise yearbook meeting anyway. Will you be done by 4:30?

I couldn't have seen putting up posters taking more than 30 minutes. Definitely, I responded, all the while walking up to my room. I let my head hit the pillows and rest there for a few seconds before groaning and taking out my homework. At least Wednesday afternoon will be more eventful, I thought to myself.

Wednesday went by quickly, with nothing of real value happening during the day. Mr. Carrozza held a lab on the effects of acids and bases, Mr. Graves held his usual lesson, then went back to his desk while Carson and I talked the other half of the class away, Mrs. Jackson held a pop quiz on To Kill a Mockingbird for hopefully the final time, and Mr. Salvador had us working on doing a complete improv scene using just our faces.

It may have seemed interesting, but it all just kind of blurred together into one big homogeneous blob, otherwise known as school. I was all too happy when the final bell rang. However, it wasn't until I was halfway to the bus that I remembered I was supposed to meet up with Megan.

Luckily, when I ran back to the main hall, she was just standing there, not pissed at my lateness at all.

She waved cheerfully at me. "Hey Adam!" she called. Other people looked at her, and then at me, as they passed. Megan held up her collection of posters and two rolls of tape. "Ready to start?"

"Sure!" I answered, trying to keep my encounter with her as business-oriented as possible. I took some of the posters and a roll of tape, and started to walk down the hallway.

"Where are you going?" She asked me sweetly as I started to walk away.

I gestured to the hallway I was heading to. "I was gonna, y'know, hang posters." I replied dumbly.

"Oh." She said simply, her expression not changing. "I thought we could hang them up together."

"Well, it'll take less time to do if we cover the whole building separately, don't you think?" I asked her, thinking I knew what her true intent was.

Her smile faded. "Do you have to go soon?"

Crap. She had me there. My honest side overcame my selfish one as I admitted, "I have until 4:30."

Her smile reappeared, yet was more vibrant, like pentimento. "That should be plenty of time. I'm sure you wouldn't like to do it alone, right?"

I smiled at her, hoping it didn't seem forced. "Right." I answered. God, I hoped she would get over me soon. I actually envied Matt - she seemed like she would make a great sister or friend, and it's not like I was that annoyed with her. If anything, I kind of felt bad for her. She had her heart set on me like I did with May, and I did not fail to see my own hypocrisy there. I just didn't like her that way, and any time we shared just seemed to turn into awkwardness or her venting her romantic frustration at me, while trying (badly, if I may add) not to make it seem she knew what she was doing, and to whom. For multiple reasons, I wanted to turn back the clock and say no when she invited me to the dance. In many ways it would have made my life better.

In actuality, she was fairly quiet while we worked, seemingly concentrated on the simple task. If I had not known any better, I would have said she graduated from being awkward around me to being nervous. In a way, it was more peaceful, but in another way, it was worse, like I should feel guilty for my feelings.

Jesus ... The more I thought about this situation when it happened to me, the more I realized just how right Nicole was about May. Instead of stopping myself from feeling about that way for her though, I just excused Megan. Okay, so I knew how she feels. If I were in her situation, knowing I wouldn't get the guy, I'd just want them to be friendly and wait for the feelings to wear off.

Solid. "Hey Megan..." I said after a moment of silence, turning to her. "I'm kinda glad we could hang out, even like this. You're a pretty cool friend."

Yes, I may have been getting more confident, but I still wasn't totally comfortable with my words yet, and my God, did it show. Nevertheless, Megan's response was to form a beaming smile.

I had to say, I couldn't decide whether her eyes or her smile was her best feature. I didn't like her, but I could sure tell how beautiful she was. Her brown eyes, only made bigger and more beautiful by her glasses, had a way of conveying both innocence in the cutest of ways, yet a curious playfulness that could make any guy smile. Hey smile, however, had the great ability of lighting up her face beautifully, and combined with her eyes, I couldn't help but smile myself before I knew it. Her smile was just contagious in that way.

"Really?" She asked me, her glowing white smiling showing as much glee at my remark as her eyes.

I nodded. "Yeah! It's cool that we're hanging out and chatting and stuff." Great, now I was the friend-zoner. Is this what people with friends have to deal with? I think I overheard Carson refer to it as 'drama' before, before rolling his eyes.

It looked like a weight had been lifted off of Megan's shoulders. "Yeah, really cool." She said, with this odd mix of shyness and enthusiasm.

We chatted more from that point on, making small chat. I tried to steer the conversation back to the previous topic when relationships were mentioned, which I noticed happening more than once. We worked until the last of the posters were placed, which was around the 3:45ish area.

"That's the last of them." I remarked, smoothing down the last poster. "I hope people actually notice these."

Megan shrugged. "I guess people like showing off school spirit." She said back quietly. Her enthusiasm was gone and her nervousness was back. I briefly wondered if I had said something wrong to her along the way when she broke me out of my trance.

"Oh goodness!" She said urgently. I tried to hide a smile - I think 'goodness' was the biggest swearword she had ever used since I met her. I turned to her as she continued, "I think I left my backpack in fourth period!"

I returned her look. "Well, I don't think you can get it back now - all of the classrooms are probably locked." I told her seriously.

She bit her lip and sadness, panic and worry filled her eyes. "All of my homework is in there." She whined to the floor. "I've never gotten a piece of homework in late this whole year. That was my goal."

Jeez. If I thought Megan's happy eyes were powerful, her sad eyes were something else. "Don't worry, I'll get it." I said to her, smiling. Somehow, I thought to myself.

"Really?" She asked me, smiling despite her sad eyes.

I nodded. "What room is it?" I asked her.

"Room 314, Health and Nutrition." She answered me.

I nodded again. "Okay, tell you what. I'm going to go see if the room is locked. While I'm doing that, just in case it is locked, and something tells me it is, you go down to the office and see if you can find someone who has a school key. Okay?"

Happiness filled her eyes again, although strangely the nervous look returned with it. "Okay." she answered. I flashed her a brief, closed-mouth smile then went off to the third 'floor.' Basically, our school just had five sections, diving the classrooms up by their areas of concern and labelled them under different sets of hundreds, but were too lazy to call them 'sections, ' so they decided to save two letters and call them 'floors, ' despite the school being basically two-story.

Despite not being familiar with the floor (it mostly dealt with geography and non-English languages, subjects I did not take in first semester), thanks to the sectioning I found the room easily. Expecting the worst, I tried the doorknob. To my surprise, it opened. The room was open.

At any other high school, this might have been commonplace or even a pleasant surprise, but for me it was just perplexing. I knew for a fact that the custodians always made sure to keep all of the doors locked by 3:30. If any one room was open (particularly one that had kitchen supplies one might see as valuable) it could only be the result of a massive oversight. One that would probably need to be reported.

Throwing that topic off of my mind, I scanned around the room. The room itself was pretty big, so it could have been stashed away anywhere, but Megan's backpack was definitely not in plain sight. I putzed around the room, looking under desks, but couldn't find anything.

I heard footsteps behind me, and turned around to see Megan enter the room. She must have ran to the office ... There wasn't any other way she could have gotten here so fast. "Hey," I said to her, still looking around. "I hate to say this, but I don't think your backpack is in here."