3

Auriana

Brooke, Renee, Scarlet, and I were standing at our lockers.

"I thought Jake was right to get kicked out," Brooke laughed. She and Renee had told us about the eraser and why they shot the piece of eraser at his head. How could he react like that? I knew he was a jerk, but to make fun of Skylar like that when she's already so shy.

"I especially liked how you tripped him after he falsely accused you without any evidence," Scarlet chuckled. I felt someone tap on my shoulder. When I turned to see who it was, the first thing I did was duck away from him as soon as I saw his face. I narrowly avoided a punch to the face. He saw I wasn't there anymore just a little too late, causing his fist to collide with the metal locker with a loud thud. We bursted out laughing as he waved his hand to ease the pain.

"Watch your back!" he grumbled.

"Nice try, but I think you're going to lose," Renee said, laughing. Jake walked toward the restrooms while we walked toward the auditorium.

Skylar

Emma, ​​Nikki, and I were sitting at our usual table in the auditorium, waiting for the others. We were talking when someone walked up to us. But before he could even get to us, I had already ran out of the auditorium. I looked over my shoulder and saw Nikki and Emma looking at me questioningly.

"Skylar, wait!" I sprinted up the iron stairs, away from Jimmy. How could I ever bring myself to break his heart? I'm not stupid and I already have an idea of ​​what he's going to tell me. I just couldn't.

"Leave me alone!" I didn't want to talk to him. Afraid of hurting him, I quickly walked through the school without a goal. Before I knew it, I had walked into a hallway with a dead-end. Oh no, what now? Before I could turn around, I heard Jimmy behind me.

"Skylar, wait a minute!" I had no choice but to talk to him, he had me trapped Desperately, I glanced at the clock hanging on the white wall above my head. The break still had more than fifteen minutes to go. Jimmy kept his distance and looked nervously at his shoes. He was searching for the right words to keep the friendship we had.

"Jimmy, don't do this," I begged, "you're ruining everything." Jimmy looked up at these words. He clearly didn't expect me to know what he was trying to tell me.

"How did you know?" Jimmy asked. He let his gaze fall to his feet in disappointment.

"Auriana told me this morning." I looked away from him. At the moment, I couldn't look at him, knowing that I was the one who had caused the pain he was feeling now.

"She really can't keep secrets," Jimmy grumbled, laughing. He decided that pretending it didn't hurt was the best thing to do. He knew I felt guilty, but it still felt like a huge weight had been lifted off my shoulders. Maybe it isn't as bad as I thought it was, I thought. I was just glad he could still laugh.

"But you don't feel the same way about me?"

"Sorry, Jimmy." I looked down and pushed past him. For now, I figured it would be best if he couldn't follow me. I walked away from him again, into the girls' bathroom.

Jake

"I want revenge!" I said angrily. Jeremy and I were standing on the balcony. Jeremy took a bite of his sandwich as he listened to my grumbling.

"Violence is never the answer." I raised an eyebrow at him over the rim of my bottle.

"I didn't say anything about violence." Jeremy looked away. It might have been better not to mention that I had just tried to punch Auriana in the face. He didn't feel like arguing and figured he'd better change the subject, but I'd beaten him to it.

"Have you seen Jimmy?"

"No, not since Dutch." I took a sip of my orange soda and watched Auriana and Scarlet walk past laughing on their way to the cafeteria line.

"I hate her!" I said as I crushed my sandwich with my other hand. Jeremy rolled his eyes but wisely kept his mouth shut. Unfortunately for him, I saw him roll his eyes at me and I punched him in the shoulder.

"OUCH!" Jimmy walked over. When he stood next to us, he glanced at the girls. He looked down. After the break, we had our favorite subject: music. But when Mrs. Scheeps told us that we had to write a duet in pairs this period, the lesson turned into a nightmare. We were not allowed to form pairs ourselves, she had already done that for us. Mrs. Scheeps started by calling out the pairs: "Jeremy and Brooke." Jeremy and Brooke gave each other a high five.

"Jimmy and Skylar." Skylar looked away from Jimmy as soon as she saw him looking her way. Strange, Skylar didn't really seem like the person who didn't like working with someone. Something must have happened between them if she reacted like that, I thought.

"And finally Auriana and Jake," Mrs. Scheeps said and with those words she put her list away and took the assignments she had printed out from her desk.

"Jake and who?!" I asked in amazement as I jumped up. I couldn't believe that I was now stuck with that red devil during my favorite subject. Even worse… had to work together! Why did this have to happen to me?

"Auriana and who?!" Auriana asked who had also jumped up.

"Jake and Auriana," Mrs. Scheeps repeated calmly. Auriana sat down and buried her face in her arms. I sank back into my chair in defeat and crossed my arms over my chest.

"The song can't exist yet, it has to be in English and the word "love" has to be in it, you have the rest of the lesson to come up with ideas." She handed out the assignment as she said this. Auriana and I reluctantly sat down together. Jimmy walked past us, he seemed to be deep in thought while it seemed as if he was walking with lead in his shoes. Auriana took her songwriting book out of her bag and put it on the table. I couldn't contain my curiosity, picked up the book and flipped through it. Several titles passed by: Finally me, Highway, Better together, Heartbeat, My secret crush, Write your story.

"What's "My secret crush" about?" The question had already left my mouth before I knew it. Auriana looked up from her bag where she was looking for a pen and grabbed the book from my hands before I could read any of the text.

"Keep your hands off my stuff!" If looks could kill I would have dropped dead on the spot.

"I was thinking maybe "One sided love" for a title," Jimmy suggested. Skylar and Jimmy were sitting at the table behind Auriana and me. That's why he seemed so depressed, he was heartbroken because Skylar had rejected him. I didn't know she had it in her to break someone's heart.

"Sounds good," Skylar said. By the end of the class, Brooke and Jeremy were laughing their heads off, Skylar and Jimmy had only come up with a title, and Auriana and I were ignoring each other.

"I hate love songs," I grumbled. Auriana looked at herself doubtfully before an idea occurred to her. At least she was good for something.

"Stupid love songs," Auriana mumbled.

"What? Speak up, I can't hear you." I looked up from the doodle I was making in my notebook out of boredom.

"Stupid love songs," Auriana repeated, but this time a little louder so I could hear it too. She wrote it at the top of a new page in her book.

"Oh, you mean as a title." To our right the laughter slowly died down.

"Jeremy we need to come up with a title." Jeremy thought. Brooke stood up and walked over to Emma. After all, she had more experience in writing songs than Brooke did.

"How do you come up with a good title?" she asked her. Emma looked up from her own notebook. "Find something you both like," Emma replied simply. Brooke thanked her and walked back to her seat next to Jeremy in the front of the class.

"Emma said the best thing to do is find something we both like, so what do you like?" she asked.

"Parties," Jeremy answered immediately without hesitation. She thought for a moment.

"Dance to the beat?" Brooke suggested. By the end of class, most of the class had already finished their first verse, but Auriana and I only had the title.

"This isn't going to work, I'll write the song, give it to you, you learn it, and then we'll perform it." I struggled to stop myself from rolling my eyes. Who does she think she is? Bossing me around. I looked at her, not at all interested in this collaboration.

"Fine by me."