2

Auriana

I walked into the classroom and heard the door click shut behind me. I swore under my breath as I fished my phone out of my pocket. Before I could find Scarlet's number in my contacts, a second voice in the room stopped me from texting her.

"What are you doing here?" he asked bluntly.

"None of your business," I replied before turning my attention back to my phone. I didn't need to see it to know that Jake was rolling his eyes. The lights were off, something the school had on a timer to save energy. They could only be turned on by teachers with a special code. The blinds were also down, making the classroom even darker.

"Whether you like it or not, we're stuck in here together." I gave him a nasty look, turned my gaze to the windows behind him, and got an idea. Windows could open and provide a way out. I squeezed past him and tried to open one of the windows. I sighed in defeat and punched the glass in frustration. The window locks could only be opened with a key, and only teachers were allowed to carry this key. I was surprised to see Jake trying to open the other windows. Apparently, all the windows were locked except one.

"So what was your big master plan?" he asked, looking down from the window.

"Simple, we climb down." Jake glanced down again and looked at me like I was completely nuts.

"We're two stories up!" It was my turn to roll my eyes and push him aside. Little did we know that someone was listening on the other side of the door. Emma carefully glanced inside and jerked the door open when she saw what I was planning.

"Stop! You could get seriously hurt!' I was so startled by Emma's unexpected arrival that I nearly lost my balance and just managed to grab onto the frame.

'The door was locked, we had to do something to keep from being stuck here all night, right?'

'We locked you in to get you two together,' Emma explained. Jake's expression became as hard as stone.

'Why don't you understand, I hate her and she hates me!' he shouted angrily at her. The rest of them also cautiously entered the classroom.

'You just don't want to understand, do you!' Jake stormed out of the classroom before anyone else could say a single word.

'You're unbelievable!' I managed to say after a few minutes of silence.

'We just want you to be happy,' Jeremy said with a shrug. Jimmy punched him in the shoulder to tell him to shut up. I rolled my eyes, but said nothing to Jeremy's remark.

"Let's go," Brooke laughed.

Jeremy

The girls left the classroom while Jimmy and I stayed behind. I was about to walk out when I saw Jimmy just standing there, lingering.

"Can you keep a secret?" Jimmy asked once the girls were out of earshot.

"Of course I can." Jimmy gave me a meaningful look, and that was enough to make me change my answer.

"Okay…I promise not to say anything." Jimmy took a deep breath and gathered all his courage to form the words.

"I think I like a girl."

"Okay…good for you Jimmy," I replied. I didn't really know how to react to this news. I was happy that my friend liked someone but had no idea what to do with this information or how to help him.

"But what should I do now? I don't want to ruin our friendship." The uncertainty was clear in his voice.

"I don't know, ask Auriana," I replied, shrugging my shoulders.

"Why should I ask Auriana?"

"Because Auriana, despite not having a boyfriend herself, is the "Love Doctor" at school."

"Okay, I'll ask Auriana tomorrow," Jimmy decided. I clapped a hand on his shoulder as we walked out of the classroom together.

…

Jake walked to the bike rack behind the schoolyard. Still pissed off that his friends just couldn't leave him alone about the fact that he doesn't like Auriana at all.

"Why won't they understand that I hate Auriana?" he thought out loud. The people around him looked at him as if he had gone crazy. This only fueled the fire inside him more.

"Oh, don't pretend that you never talk to yourselves!" he snapped. All the curious eyes that were focused on him quickly looked away. Angrily, he pulled his bike out of the rack a little too hard, causing the bike next to his to fall over and created a bike domino. Great, just great, he thought. Out of the corner of his eye he saw the girls coming his way, quickly got on his bike and rode away.

"He's in a hurry," laughed Nikki, who just saw him cycle away.

"And he doesn't have to go anywhere," Auriana said dryly.

"Why do you and Jake hate each other so much?" Skylar asked cautiously. She was afraid for another outburst from Auriana.

"I don't know, about a year and a half ago we were "friends" but then he started acting weird and we had a fight. I still don't know why exactly, but I won't let someone put me down all the time. We've hated each other ever since," Auriana shrugged. They walked further into the bike shed and looked for their bikes.

"Oh well, that's just how boys are," Brooke laughed. They all burst out laughing.

Jimmy

The next morning the rain was pouring down and the girls were waiting in the auditorium for the rest of our group of friends. This had to be my chance, so I decided to grab it with both hands.

"Hey Auriana, do you have a minute?" I asked while I was standing behind her.

"Sure Jimmy, what's up?" she answered. Together with Auriana I walked a few feet away from the group of friends so we could talk quietly. She already suspected that I didn't want the others to hear.

"Aren't you the "love doctor" here?"

"Yes," Auriana answered slowly. She wouldn't call herself that, but Brooke had once called her that when she had set her brother Chase up with his girlfriend Taylor. The two had been circling around each other for far too long. The rest had basically taken over. People came to her for love advice very often. I quickly looked around to see if anyone from the group of friends was listening.

"Can you help me…I think I like someone." Auriana nodded slowly.

"Do you think I should tell her? I don't want to jeopardize our friendship." Auriana thought for a moment about how she was a) going to process this news and b) how she could best approach it, with the least chance of a bad outcome.

"I think the best thing to do is to tell her, but in a way that preserves the friendship," Auriana said after a while.

"Yeah okay, but what's the best way to do that?" Auriana didn't have an answer to that, that was really something he had to figure out for himself.

"I don't know…you'll have to figure it out yourself, that's the best thing. You better think of a way quickly because the others are coming." With those words she left me behind and ran up the stairs to her locker. That would be useful, I thought. When I turned around, I saw Skylar walking towards me. I wasn't entirely sure about my feelings yet, but maybe if I spent some time with her, I would find out.

"Skylar? Can I talk to you for a minute?" Skylar stopped at the bottom of the stairs and looked at me expectantly. The girls looked at her questioningly and Skylar gestured for them to keep going, that she would find them when class started. As soon as the girls disappeared through the double glass doors I turned my attention back to Skylar.

"I uh…I…" I tried to close the space between us a little by taking a step towards her. That way I could sense what it would be like between us, but Skylar just took a step back. I slowly reached out to take her hand, but she moved it away from me. That was already a sign for me that she didn't feel the same way about me as I did about her.

"I…uh…I don't really know how to say it." Although my voice sounded sincere, it didn't reassure her. She kept looking at me expectantly and I looked straight at her and saw that her beautiful dark eyes were looking at me with a slight concern. We stood in awkward silence for a few more minutes until the bell rang. Before I could even protest, she walked away from me and towards the classroom. There goes my chance to tell her how I feel about her, I thought.

"How did it go?" A sudden voice behind me gave me almost a heart attack.

"Auriana! Stop sneaking up on people!" She ignored my comment and looked at me expectantly.

"How did it go with Skylar?" she asked again.

"I haven't had a chance to tell her how I feel yet, she walked away when the bell rang…wait how did you know it was about Skylar?"

"Try it later during recess," she suggested in an attempt to cheer me up. She completely ignored my question. I just nodded and we quickly walked towards the classroom together.

Skylar

I didn't really know what to do with Jimmy. Was he really going to tell me that he had feelings for me? No way? That's impossible. It would ruin our friendship if it ended badly. There's only one person I can think of who could give me some good advice on this, someone who knows Jimmy well. I picked up my phone from the table and opened the conversation, but before I could type a single word to Auriana I heard someone clear their throat. Caught off guard, I looked up and saw Mr. de Laat looking at me. He had clear rules about phones in his classroom. Even though class hadn't even officially started yet, he didn't want phones in the classroom unless he specifically asked for them.

"Skylar, turn in your phone." He held his hand out for me to hand it to him. I sighed and felt everyone's eyes on me. My cheeks flushed with shame and all I wanted to do was slump down and disappear.

"But…"

"No buts, you know the rules." I reluctantly handed my phone to Mr. de Laat. I hung my head in defeat and tried to hide my face behind my hair.

"You'll get it back at the end of class." Now I don't know what to do and I'm sure that I won't be able to concentrate on anything else until I do. I let out a deep sigh and tried to listen to Mr. de Laat as he began his explanation.

Jake

Brooke and Renee heard me laughing at the scene, diagonally in front of them. Mr. de Laat put the phone down on his light brown desk, which was diagonally in front of the classroom, and continued his explanation of verb spelling.

"Give me an eraser," Renee whispered softly to Brooke. She dug around in her pencil case and handed a small broken piece of eraser to her best friend. Renee pulled a small slingshot from her own pencil case and shot the eraser at my head. I jumped at the spontaneous impact.

"OUCH!!!" I held my hand over the spot where the eraser had hit my head and looked back to see who had shot it. The girls bursted out laughing. That was enough for me to make an conclusion. Mr. de Laat gave the girls a look that told them to stop laughing.

"We´re sorry, sir, but Jake yells pretty high for a boy," Renee laughed. The rest of the class – except me – also started to bursted out laughing. I was about to explode.

"What's wrong Jake?" asked Mr. de Laat.

"I felt something being thrown at my head, sir." I crossed my arms angrily over my chest and looked at him expectantly. Now Mr. de Laat was laughing too. Was he really not going to address the girls about their behavior?

"Oh come on Jake, it was just a joke," Emma laughed.

"Jake just has no sense of humor," Auriana chuckled. That was the last straw for me. Angrily, I jumped up, the force with which I did so caused the chair to fall backwards onto the floor, but I didn't care at all.

"You're just making fun of me!" My voice grew louder with every word I spoke.

"Jake, sit down and turn the volume down a bit," warned Mr. de Laat. He was the only one of our teachers who had a lot of patience.

"So they can just laugh at their fellow students and nothing will be done about it, but if I defend myself then I'm the one whose wrong?" I asked in disbelief. My face turned even redder with anger. The class looked from Mr. de Laat - who was not impressed - to me and back again. From the corner of my eye I saw the girls looking curiously and directed my anger at Auriana.

"Wipe that stupid look off of your face! I know for sure that red devil there threw it at my head." Auriana looked at me indignantly.

"You can sit down now or you can go report yourself to the headmistress's office," Mr. de Laat said calmly.

"She should be the one who gets punished, I'm only standing up for myself!"

"Jake…GET OUT!" White-hot with anger I looked at Mr. de Laat and realized that I didn't care about the entire lesson anymore.

'But…FINE!' I stomped past Mr. de Laat and Auriana. But before I knew what was happening I was sprawled out on the ground. The class bursted out laughing again. When I looked behind me, I saw Auriana slide her leg back under the table. She had stuck her foot out to trip me on purpose. I know one thing for sure, this is not over yet!

"You better watch your back," I grumbled as I scrambled to my feet.