No Hidden Cameras

Chapter One: The Two Kinds of Chemistry

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It's hard to say that life went back to normal after my encounter with John Tucker. I mean, that would be the ideal thing to say, right? But things were now much different for Forest Hills High and for me. Things had changed.

John still hadn't exactly understood that most girls don't like their boyfriends dating someone else at the same time. Even so, girls were still lining up to take the next empty slot to date him. I didn't understand it. Sure, he was finally being honest, but it still made him seem like a pig. But I won't deny that I actually talked to him every now and then. Usually it was just a conversation to catch up on things, but it was nice conversation nonetheless.

Beth, Carrie, Heather, and I became closer, the cliques mixing and people becoming genuinely friendly to each other. It was really nice because the original tension was not as strong, plus I was making a lot of friends. Not just acquaintances from being known, but actual, real friends. But I still wasn't as close to anyone as much as the three girls. I think it was our different personalities that made us work; we each brought something to the table.

The biggest thing probably had to be that Mom finally found a guy who would stay with her longer than a few months. It had kind of been hard to call him Skip, considering that he was my chemistry teacher, Mr. Conrad. They met at the supermarket, imagine that. "He has a way with...chemistry," Mom once said to me. I almost threw up after she said that. It was like, "Bad mental images!" But I found out that he was actually pretty nice once I got to know him. Plus, it was always useful to have a little extra help on chemistry homework.

Chemistry class is actually where things started getting interesting again. It all started when we got our more recent tests back; individual tests, by the way. I received my expected A, but my lab partner was another story. I could tell by the expression on his face that he hadn't received a similar grade.

I looked over at him, his face buried in his hands, and asked, "How'd you do, Scott?"

He peaked out through the gaps in his fingers and said, "The only reason you'd ask that is so I'll ask you how you did and you'll get to flaunt your good grade in my face."

"And how do you know I got a good grade?" I played back.

"Because otherwise, you'd probably have your face in your hands, too." I could see a smile creep out from behind his palm.

"Are you kidding me?" I retorted sarcastically, "The only reason I didn't is because I don't want to mess up my perfectly flawless makeup!"

"Flawless, huh?" Scott put his hands down and pointed to my face, "Then what's that?"

"Huh!? What!?" My hand flew to my face.

"That." He quickly dipped his hands in water and flung it at me, pleased with himself.

I put my hands on my hips. "Oh, ha, very funny, Scott Tucker. Enough sarcastic comments, what did you get?"

"A D," he replied simply. "An A, I assume?"

"Yeah." I could help but flush in modesty. "What screwed you up?"

"Who the hell knows?" He looked at the paper as though it was some kind of dead animal. "I'm surprised that I got a D, actually. I must've made better guesses than I thought."

I frowned. "But we've been covering this stuff for the past two weeks. Weren't you taking notes?"

"Well..." He stuck his hands into the pockets of his jeans. "Alright, I guess I wasn't really paying attention."

"Distracted?" Mr. Conrad asked Scott as he walked by, handing out the last of the papers. Scott's expression didn't change, but I couldn't see Mr. Conrad's.

I quickly put it aside and went on to say, "Well, maybe it would help if you focused more on chemistry rather than the next music mix you're going to make."

He smiled. "Maybe."

I smiled back as Mr. Conrad's voice boomed throughout the room. "For those of you who excelled on this exam, good work. As for the rest of you, I suggest studying a little harder next time because if you fail to perform well on the next one, I wouldn't expect a passing grade for the quarter."

At this, Scott's smile faded away and turned into a scowl. "Fuck," I heard him curse under his breath. "What the hell am I going to do? That test is going to screw me over, too."

I tilted my head over to see his face. "Scott?"

"Miss Spencer, please save the conversation for after class," Mr. Conrad said.

"Sorry," I replied. Scott jokingly pointed at me and mouthed a ha-ha. I stuck my tongue out at him and turned away before I got too distracted.

During the whole John Tucker thing, I had become so worried about the plan that my grades had faltered a bit. So afterwards, I decided that schoolwork came first and social life second. With that in mind, I began to write down the first notes of the chapter (and making sure that Scott was doing so as well.)

On the way out of class, thirty minutes later, I said to Scott, "If you ever need help studying, you can always ask me."

He smiled again. "Thanks. I'll keep that in mind." With that, he walked in the other direction towards his next class.

Beth, Carrie, and Heather were waiting for me. When I walked up to them, Heather immediately fired the question. "Why don't you just ask him out, Kate?"

"Yeah, it's been two months," Carrie pitched in. "Everyone knows you two are perfect for each other."

"And it's so obvious he likes you back," Beth added.

We went through this routine at least every other day. Alright, I knew I was being a chicken by not going for it, but I just didn't want to get involved in another relationship so soon. Okay, so the last one hadn't exactly been real, but I didn't feel ready to deal with figuring out the male species again, especially one with the last name of "Tucker". Besides, I'd say to myself, if he liked me, he should just ask me out, shouldn't he? And because he hadn't in those past two months, I figured that he only liked me as a friend anyway.

"Well?" My three friends crossed their arms and looked at me, expecting an answer as usual.

"You already know what I'm going to say, so I'm not going to bother saying it for the millionth time." I tightened my grip around my books. "Besides, didn't you just hear what I said? I told him that he could come to me for study help."

"Yeah, he'll be doing some studying, all right," Heather commented, "on the female anatomy of a certain blonde-haired, blue-eyed girl that I happen to know."

"Too bad it isn't health class," Beth played along.

I had turned away rolling my eyes, but only because I had turned a bright pink. It was like they wanted to embarrass me into asking him out. I began to walk away, Carrie calling back, "Fine, be that way, Kate! But it's your loss!"

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It seemed as though there was this empty void in my life ever since Mom had started going steady (for once). There was no chocolate anything in the house, and I usually snacked on it whenever I had a craving. So I decided to buy a huge carton of chocolate ice cream on the way home from school, and Mom was surprised to find me eating it when she walked into the kitchen that afternoon.

"You didn't tell me that you had a boyfriend," she said to me, dropping her keys on the kitchen counter. "I hope this one was actually serious."

I couldn't help but laugh. "Not everyone eats chocolate only when they get dumped, Mom. My love life is on hold for right now, thanks."

"Oh, really?" said Mr. Conrad as he walked in after Mom. "I should think otherwise."

"Is she keeping something from me?" Mom asked him giving him a peck on the cheek and looking back at me.

"Well, I was just going to say that there's more than one kind of chemistry going on in my class," Mr. Conrad replied nonchalantly, giving me a wink.

"Ooo, I want details!" Mom exclaimed as she leaned over the side of the counter. "Come on, Kate, there's no harm in telling me. I can keep a secret."

"For one thing," I began calmly, "I find it slightly weird for my chemistry teacher to be interested in my love life. Secondly, there is nothing going on, and he probably shouldn't overanalyze things."

"Well, last time I checked, I was dating your mother; therefore, I think I have somewhat of a right to be interested. And either you're in denial, or you just underanalyze things." Mr. Conrad smirked.

"That's not even a word," I said, licking the last of the ice cream off my spoon. "If you will excuse me, I have some chemistry homework I have to do." With that, I put the bowl and spoon into the sink and headed upstairs.

As I walked up, I heard the two of them talking. "Come on, tell me, Peter," I heard Mom's voice whine.

"I'm sure you'll find out soon enough," Mr. Conrad's voice replied, "I predict that her love life will be taken off hold within the month."

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I have to say, I was really surprised that I decided to write fanfiction again, especially on a movie such as "John Tucker Must Die". Even though it was a chick flick, I was very unsatisfied with the ending, plus I found that it was quite easy to come up with a fanfiction plot.

Anyways, so what do you think? Think I should continue, or is it no good? If it's good, you better review, otherwise you probably won't be seeing more!