hey all! sorry i haven't posted in a while but im back with another chapter! enjoy :)


A week or two went by, and Jess was finally preoccupied with her life. She didn't find herself complaining about school as much since she finally grew used to her classes. This didn't really surprise her as much as it did Cece, because when Jess finally called her to check in and update, one of the first things said was, "Look, I don't want to jinx anything, but you're not actually complaining... About anything."

The brunette smiled, shrugging her shoulders as the phone remained pressed against her ear. "I took your advice."

"That's rare."

"Don't be an ass!" Jess frowned, pushing her shopping cart in front of her. She stopped in her tracks when one of the wheels made a very obnoxious squeaking noise, groaning to herself. "Defective shopping carts."

Cece smirked at her best friend seemingly suffering through life again. "Now it sounds like you. And since when did you take charge in adulting?"

Jessica rolled her eyes as she tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. "Never. I'm at Staples. I needed to pick up a few things for school." This should be a surprising thing, really. A senior shopping for school supplies? Most seniors just show up with a pencil. A singular pencil. However, this was Jessica Day: Future teacher and determined student.

"For what?" She could hear Cece stifling a laugh over the phone and inwardly sighed.

"Pencils, highlighters, whiteout,.. post-its,... pens,-"

"Jessica, what are you hiding?"

The brunette stopped abruptly, the shopping cart basically hitting her gut. Jess let out another groan, resting her head on her palm and leaned on the cart. "What are you talking about?"

"The last time you said a word like that, you were all like, 'My boyfriend is going to spend the night at my house and we're going to watch movies, eat food, and ...sleep"

She scoffed at her crazy best friend. "How could you compare such a subliminal word like sleep to the word post-its? You've lost your mind." Damn, her best friend was good. How the hell could she read into things this well? This almost pissed Jess off. The brunette had to step up her game.

"You're an odd one, Jessica Day." Her friend dismissed her last remark, continuing on their conversation. "Why do you need all of those things? It's not like you're really going to use any of them." Yeah, tell that to the guy that sits behind me.

Jessica pressed her lips together. "You don't know that. I am a very crafty person, you know."

"Crafty as in that time you burned yourself with the hot glue gun?"

"You never told me it was already on!"

Cece laughed over the phone, annoying Jessica further. "Let me get my shopping done. And let me live my life!" She said, making the last part louder before hanging up.

She pushed her shopping cart on as she directed herself toward the crafts aisle. As she slowly made the turn, about to go into the aisle, she immediately stopped the cart short, almost hitting herself again in the process. Her eyes spotted a certain brown haired boy bent down, checking out different types of paper. Jessica could feel her heart pacing in her chest as she slowly backed up with caution, clear out of Nick's sight.

However, she was curious...

Jessica moved forward ever so slightly without the cart, peeking into the aisle. She watched as Nick threw the package of paper in his shopping cart and continued looking around. Wow, how interesting. A regular person shopping for regular things.

As she watched his eyes scan the aisle, Jessica smiled when she saw him notice the post-its. A small grin appeared on his lips as well, picking up two small packages and tossing them into the cart. The fact that they were both registering the same thoughts almost caused her to laugh gleefully.

Nick resumed moving the cart, scaring Jess as she quickly ran to her cart, trying to turn around as fast as she could.

Unfortunately, life didn't want it to work out that way.

She tried turning the cart, and in the process of doing so, Jessica's cart hit Nick's. Almost immediately, their eyes met as Jessica sunk her teeth down on her bottom lip. When the familiarity dawned on him, a smirk lifted his face. She sighed, running a hand over a strand of hair.

"Hey Miller."

"Fancy running into you." He replied, his eyes shifting from her to her shopping cart. She noticed he was staring at the post-its which caused her cheeks to darken. Nick's smirk only widened as his amusement grew bigger. Jess stood there painfully, expecting him to say something witty. Spoiler alert: he didn't! Because she blurted out before he had the chance.

"I like to give myself reminders. These aren't for school." She quickly looked at her cart and glanced up at him, attempting at giving him her best iamnotpredictable face. Unfortunately, she wasn't rocking this expression well.

"...Same reason." Nick said, not even trying to lie as his smile remained stretched on his lips. What beautiful liars they were.

Jess didn't reply, but instead nodded her head awkwardly as she began turning her cart around.

"Hey Day."

She turned her head toward his calling once more, shy but confused.

"I'll be sure to keep you posted on my novel." He arched his brow, the papers in one hand and a finger gun in the other. Jesus Christ. She sighed dramatically, and rested a hand on her hip, turning to face him again.

"Save your puns for someone who would laugh." She swung her head away from his face. "And your finger guns!" She quickly exclaimed, walking straight out of his way. Jessica smiled to herself, feeling like she handled that encounter pretty well.

But it was not well enough. She didn't get that satisfactory feeling in her stomach like she won some game. It was more of a rain cloud appearing over her head. This was probably far from over.

It was so hard to crack Nick miller. How can one get through to that big thick head of his? He was too smug for his own good, and as much as she tried cracking down his ego, he was indestructible. As Jessica walked away, rolling the shopping cart forward, she slightly turned her face just enough to see if he was still looking at her. She noticed his gaze linger over her for a few more seconds before turning away as well. Minding herself, Jess raised her brows and cleared her throat as she glanced back to the cart-

-that rolled right into a tower of on-sale toilet paper. Jess watched as the tower came crumbling down, toilet paper rolling around the floor. She frowned in disappointment at the rolls and to Stupid Nick Miller. It was all his fault! He should be cleaning this all up-

-"Think fast!" A roll flew through the air as Jess watched, holding out her hands almost immediately and catching it. "Attention deficit?"

Jessica swore she was going to break this goddamn toilet paper roll in her hands. dontkillhimdontkillhimdONTKILLHIM-

"Miller!" She cursed, picking up a couple of rolls and throwing it at him. A smile lifted onto his face as he dodged them, throwing some back at her as well. They were creating chaos in an innocent Staples. Why they were advertising toilet paper? Because their prices were going down the toilet. The rolls became to unravel as toilet paper began to create paper trails around the floor. The two started laughing as they realized that the paper went around them in a circle.

"Oh, and to top it off," Jessica bent down to pick up a half finished roll, and stood back up with it. Slowly but humorously, she wrapped some around his neck while adding some to his shoulders. "I have to say, this was a great improvement in your fashion sense." Nick arched his brow, a gleam in his eye as a laugh escaped her lips. "Good, right?"

He pressed his lips together and looked down at the floor and up at her once more. "I walked into that." She continued laughing, her eyes dancing with mirth as she let the next remark spill from her lips.

"I'd help you, but you seem to be pretty wrapped up in a lot right now." Jessica nodded reassuringly, her cheeks pink from smiling. Nick cleared his throat, biting a smile back as he shook off the toilet paper. She backed up to her cart as she noticed an employee approaching with disappointment written on her face.

While the employee was in the process of lecturing him on store educate, his eyes stayed on hers as if to say, you win this one, Day.


That night, Nick tapped a pencil to his forehead as he stared down at the lined paper in front of him. It was one character name, but what made this female character so important that he couldn't just pick a name out of a hat? Well, he made her someone extraordinary and brave. Someone who isn't afraid to speak her mind and tell it like it is, even when one can't accept it. Who is filled with a natural light that could cause someone to want to do better-to be better. But who could he know that matched these characteristics?

These thoughts drove a specific name past his mind, causing Nick to shake his head incredulously. Just the thought of that one name could create a ten second montage of his relationship-his first love. He could visualize himself falling for her eyes, brushing hands as they'd walked side by side, and kisses being shared on the beach at night. But as months went on, he was reminded of the person that stayed up making drunken calls for the girl never who answered-with a British accent, mind you- conveying his undying love. Nick remembered the endless amounts of texts he'd send-and never got a reply for, leaving him heartbroken. Honestly, he probably had more time being heartbroken about Caroline than being in love with her. Did she even deserve a place in this book?

But when he pictured this female character-he didn't picture ashy blonde hair and sheer problems. This woman didn't radiate off a natural light that sparked individuality. Caroline wasn't much of a leader figure, nor was she really heroic. Nick pressed a hand to his forehead and sighed. Caroline could not be the woman to fill her shoes. The character would not come from a good inspiration-for he'd recall the uncertainty of her feelings and the times she'd stomped on his heart.

Who could fill these shoes?

Right then, he dropped his pencil and rubbed his temples. No. Could it be? Was his head too far up his ass?

...But on the other hand, there wasn't anyone there to tell him he couldn't choose her. She was the first person to really have unconditional honesty. The kind that drove him absolutely mad while enforcing his sensibility. She challenged him in any way she could. Even though he still had a lot to learn about her, what was the worst that could happen if she was put to the test?

And for sure as hell, she was certain of what she wanted.

Carefully and while making his heart beat a little faster in his chest, he picked up the pencil and wrote the two words down. He glanced at the print as a small curve of his lip turned up, tracing the letters as they were easy to glide across the paper.

Jessica Knight.


The next day, no other than Jessica Day sauntered into the classroom. Nick knew from right where she stepped foot, that she was the right choice for the character. He could see it now: light blue eyes, long brown hair and an endearing smile you could fall for. The glasses she wore added to her image, and she was just as beautiful-or even more so-when the brunette took them off. He paused his thoughts momentarily to check in with himself. Was he admiring her as the character in his book? Or was he-

hey.

The post-it note flew onto his desk, stopping his thoughts. Maybe that was a sign that he had done enough thinking for one day.

hello?

The fair skin she inherited had also brought out the rose in her cheeks whenever she grew embarrassed-

HELLOOOooooO

She might as well be throwing paper airplanes.

jello?

wow, what's with all the flying post-its? They're getting aggressive, Day.

well you weren't answering my damn messages

you know, if i could insert a gif right here, it would be Beyonce's, "Why you so obsessed with me?"

wow look! another joke that no one laughed at

i'm gonna stop replying again.

you lie so bad

NICK

PEPPERWOOD

WHY ARE YOU SO PREOCCUPIED

What is with all the messages? Are you trying to tell me something

uhm no

do you want an m&m

no... why do you have them?

well my mom hides the chocolate from me because she says it gets me crazy but she obviously doesn't know what she's talking about

... i agree with your mom.

you dont even know her!

well if you didn't eat those, you wouldn't be throwing these post-its like they're baseballs. You're gonna poke my eyes out.

well on second thought, i should work on my aim.

what are you so busy with?

i thought you wanted to learn

we have a sub in case you didn't notice

i didn't notice because we never learn shit in here

because you're the one always throwing the post-its

so you're returning the favor! ;)

bye

i'm writing Pepperwood chronicles.

whats happening in it?

Pepperwood is making fun of Knight's last name.

what's Knight's first name?

none-of-yo-business

uhm it should be, im like a top fan thank you

A smile emerged onto his lips as he stared at the girl who was writing another note. He glanced down again when he noticed her fidgeting movements to pass the note back.

who makes fun of knights anyway?

sick people.

now i see why you portray him well

are you done mocking me yet? i have great things i should be writing

whatevvvvzs

After the repetitive note after note banters, Jess watched as Nick slid the Pepperwood papers into his backpack as he slid it on his back. With a mischievous gleam in her blue eyes, she sunk her teeth down onto her lip as she slowly raised her hands forward. Subtly, she began walking behind him as he made his way leaving the classroom.

Closer...

She lifted her arms higher, her hands in more of a position to grip the papers. They were almost reaching for the prize as she could practically feel the spoilers reaching her finger tips-

Nick whipped around and caught her wrist with his hand gently. Jess winced at the reaction, feeling her breath hitch in her chest. His touch sent shivers up her spine, prickling her lower back with goosebumps. She shook her head and felt her body reactions exaggerating. Jessica played it off cool by tilting her head back miserably and groaning, "I just want to know the character name."

"You just need to be patient. I'll let you read it eventually, if you're not a consistent pain in my ass." Nick narrowed his brows, some kindness shaping his lips. His eyes drifted to the top of her head, confusing her momentarily. "Oh hey, you got a little..." He trailed off, stepping an inch closer to the girl. Her heart beat jumped as his hands reached out to her, caressing her hair back gently. Nick was way too close for her comfort, for she was able to smell the mint gum he'd been chewing. The boy leaned away with a speck of dust on his finger and smirked. "You had a piece of dust in your hair." He clarified after removing his hands and taking their warmth with him.

Her dazed eyes remained on his as he gave her a smug smile. "See ya later Day. You should get that checked out." He gestured to the top of his head, a worried yet humorous expression written on his face. Before leaving her presence, Nick gave her a flirtatious wink before turning down the hallway.

The brunette closed her slightly parted mouth when she could feel her feet again. It was as if she was kissed by the freakin' boy! Shaking her head to reality, she ran a hand through her hair as he did, thinking the only words that had been able to register in her mind.

what. was that?


review/follow/favorite to keep up with this story! :) adios for now lovelies. -Cali