11

Jake

I was so focused on my game that I practically jumped through my roof when I heard someone knocking on my door.

"Hey baby brother." My sister walked in and threw herself on my bed.

"Hey Dawn." I paused my game and turned towards her.

"What's wrong?" Sometimes I hate how well she knows me. No matter how much I wanted to deny that anything was wrong, I knew it would be pointless. Dawn would see right through it anyway. I thought for a moment before answering.

"Ever since Auriana saved me, all I can think about is her. I mean…she said she hates me but she still pushes me out of the way when I´m about to get hit by a car." Dawn couldn't believe her ears and pulled her legs under her on the bed.

"So all you can think about is her?" I nodded. Dawn got a big smile on her face that made me look at her questioningly.

"My little brother is in love!" I gave her a look that said she was crazy.

"In love? With Auriana? That's crazy!"

"Is there nothing you like about her then?" She couldn't help the stupid smile making it's way on her face, making me roll my eyes.

"There's a lot I like about Auriana, I like her laugh…I like that I can talk to her about anything recently, I like her red hair, and when she pushed me aside I got this feeling that no one, not even Jenny…" I stopped talking when I realized what words were actually coming out of my mouth. Dawn gave me a meaningful look.

"Oh man…I have a crush on Auriana."

Brooke

Renee and I were talking on WhatsApp. I´d decided to make the first move, I didn't want to fight with my best friend. The others had noticed that something was going on between me and Renee.

Brooke: Oh come on Renee, you can't still be mad!

Renee: Yes I can, because you called me a bad friend!

Brooke: I never called you a bad friend, I said you don't do anything for your friends. There's a difference.

Renee: That's not true, it's the same. Like you're always the perfect best friend. You're practically forcing me to do something that I've already mentioned I don't want to do multiple times.

Brooke: Well I'm sorry I just wants us all to support our friends. Renee, don't play dumb. You know as well as I do that you're being unreasonable.

Renee: I'm not playing dumb,

You are for thinking that I don't care about my friends.

Brooke: Take it back. >:(

Renee: I don't think so.

Brooke: If you keep going like this, you can go and find yourself a new best friend.

Renee: You know what? I

will. But don't come back in a

few hours with your tail between your legs!

I threw my phone on the bed angrily. I couldn't believe Renee was being so unreasonable. We had never had such a bad fight before.

We'd decided that we would tell Mr. de Laat the news about Nikki's accident during his class.

"I...well, Auriana, Brooke, Jake, Jimmy, Jeremy, Emma, ​​Skylar and Scarlet have bad news." Mr. de Laat stood in front of the class and didn't really know how to break the news. We took pity on him and decided to put an end to his attempt at breaking bad news and went to stand in front of the class ourselves.

"Nikki won't be in school for a while," Jeremy said. The rest of the class immediately started to whisper.

"Nikki was in a car accident and now lays in coma," Emma said. Even someone who didn't know what was going on could see that the class was clearly shocked by bad news.

"Now we thought it would be a nice idea to make a card with all of our names in it," I said. The class started whispering again.

"If that's okay with you?" Skylar asked hopefully. Mr. de Laat nodded.

"Of course you can, I think it'll cheer Nikki up when she wakes up."

Together with the other girls, I was sitting at our usual table under the big tree in the middle of the auditorium during the small break. Jake, Jimmy and Jeremy walked over to us.

"Can we join you?" Jeremy asked. He looked at us expectantly.

"Sure," Scarlet answered. Jake sat down between Auriana and Scarlet, they had left a spot for Nikki out of habit. Jimmy sat down next to me and Jeremy sat down next to Emma. Jake carefully took Auriana's hand. She gently pulled it away, but gave him a smile. We were so wrapped up in our conversations that our fifteen minute break flew by.

"Yay! Music!" I cheered as I walked to the classroom while dancing. The others burst out laughing. Although our laughter would soon die down. During music, Mrs. Scheeps was in a bad mood and she took it out on her students.

"Next week I want to hear Skylar and Jimmy's duet, the week after that Auriana and Jake's, the week after that Brooke and Jeremy's, right now I want to hear Bobby and Nikki's."

"Nikki's not here," Emma said. She crossed her arms.

"And where is Mrs. Simon?" she asked, irritated. She didn't appreciate someone speaking up without her permission during her lessons.

"Nikki's in a coma in the hospital," Jimmy replied, slightly angry. He couldn't believe Mrs. Scheeps was being so insensitive.

"Oh, well, I want to hear Nathan and Scarlet's duet then."

"Since you have gym classes outside for the rest of the year, you can start preparing and decorating now," said Principal Nickolas. She had asked us to come to her office after school to talk through some things.

"That's great, but not right now…we're going to go visit Nikki," said Emma. Nikki still hadn't woken up from her coma. There was some brain activity, but very little. We visited her as often as we could. The last thing we wanted was for her to think we were abandoning her.

"Okay, I understand," said Principal Nickolas. We slung our bags over our shoulders and walked out of the office. Jake grabbed Auriana's hand and pulled her into the closet. Dawn walked over to us.

"He confessed." We were standing at the reception, about to walk out of the school building. It took us a moment to figure out what she was talking about.

"Does he like her?" I asked, trying to hide my excitement. Dawn nodded.

"YES! I knew!" I didn't care what the others thought about it, this called for my happy dance.

"Okay…I'm going back to class." Dawn walked away feeling uneasy.

"Speaking of Jake, where is he?" Jimmy asked. We looked around and only now realized he wasn't with us.

"I have no idea," Emma said.

"He's in the closet with Auriana," Jeremy said. We gave him the are you kidding us look.

"Why didn't you tell us that earlier?" I grumbled.

Auriana

"Jake, what are you doing? We have to go to Nikki." Jake looked at me and didn't think twice.

"Auriana I have to tell you something…I…I…"

"You what?" I asked. Jake pulled me closer to him as I looked at him. He's really close, I thought. I felt his warm breath on my face. It's now or never, he thought. Before I could utter a single word, I felt his soft, warm lips on mine. Millions of memories flashed through my mind. The pain in my head and the dizziness became too overwhelming and before I knew it, everything went black. Jake was just able to catch me in time when I collapsed. It took me a moment to regain consciousness.

"Where am I?" I asked weakly. I blinked a few times against the bright light. My head was still pounding violently.

"At school, in the closet." He helped me stand on my own two feet again.

"Jake? Why did you kiss me? You hate me!" I struggled to get out of his arms that he still had around me to support me.

"No, I don't hate you… I like you."

"Yes you do… when I tripped you wanted to hit me a moment later, I didn't want you in the surprise for Scarlet because I hate you!" Brooke, Jimmy, Skylar, Jeremy and Emma walked up but stayed outside the door.

"Ask Brooke or Skylar or anyone here at school! Everyone knows you hate me! You're not in love with me but with what I did." Jake looked at me, uncomprehending.

"Because I risked my life for yours."

"Auriana listen…," Jake said softly. The others looked at each other, they stood outside the closet and listened. They didn't know exactly what was going on, but it wasn't good.

"I like your laugh, I like that I can talk to you about anything lately, I like your red hair, and when you pushed me aside I got this feeling that no one has ever given me…only you. I like you Auriana," he said. The other five walked in.

"Hey, are you guys coming?" Brooke knew I was confused by my own feelings and wanted to prevent me from making the wrong choice.

"First I want an answer," Jake said.

"Answer to what?" I asked. Stubbornly I turned away from him.

"Auriana, did you feel anything during the kiss and if so, what did you feel?" The others gaped in surprise.

"KISS?!?" they asked in unison. I looked away from them.

"Well?" Jake asked.

"I…" Knowing I couldn't give him a straight answer, I ran out of the closet.

"We were right, weren't we," Jeremy said, laughing. Jake glared at him.

"What? It's true?" Jake ran after me without saying a word to Jeremy.

"Should we just go?" Skylar asked.

"Yeah, they need to work this out for themselves," Jimmy said. The five of them walked out.

My thoughts were racing. Jake's kiss may have given me my memory back, but why? Why did I feel something during that kiss? I thought. Jake ran to me and wrapped me in his arms to keep me from running away from him again.

"Jake, let me go!" I tried to break free but Jake's grip was too strong.

"Auriana, answer my question." I kept resisting his grip.

"Yeah, nausea," Jake's grip weakened a little. A bit of guilt took over my body because I knew I was hurting him by saying this.

"I heard you talking to Brooke, you said you kind of liked me." My mouth opened to say something but the words just wouldn't come.

"Why didn't you tell me?"

"Jake, you're in love with what I did, that I risked my life for yours. You've always hated me, and that's not going to change...you know I'm right." I protested by struggling even more.

"I...Auriana don't be so hostile!"

"I can do what I want." Jake turned me around so that I had to look at him. Don't look into his eyes, don't look into his eyes, I repeated in my head, because otherwise I knew I couldn't keep this up.

"I know your heart tells you otherwise, you're blushing." I lowered my eyes. Jake tightened his grip and to his surprise I wrapped my arms around his waist.

"I'd lost my memory."

"Had?" Jake asked. I looked away from him.

"Everything came back after the kiss," I confessed. The struggling had stopped and I was now standing still in front of him.

"Is that why you fainted?" Jake asked.

"Yeah, it was a little overwhelming," I answered.

"But what did you feel during the kiss?" I ignored his question completely and changed the subject.

"We have to go to the hospital." Jake let go of me so I could get my keys out of my bag. Together we walked out of the school through the double doors. Knowing that we were about to start a new life without hate and constant fighting.