She Should Have Dropped the Necklace
Disbelief
Chase and Dana had managed to side step an invitation, which was humorous to Chase because they were always with their friends but knew it was their friends way of asking them both to come, as a couple, to breakfast. Without hesitating, both Chase and Dana said they had a few things they had to do. The group had nodded in unison, Michael stifling at laugh as he wondered what the "few things" they had to do was, along with Zoey and Logan who both secretly rolled their eyes, both of them wondering the same thing.
Dana let out a relieved sigh for the first time since she had spotted the group walking up on Chase and her. Dana stared at an unaware Chase, who watched the group walk and slowly blend into the large amount of students who were now infesting PCA campus. Dana shook her head briefly, a small smirk and frown fighting within her, both of them wanting to show themselves on her face.
Dana didn't know how to react to Chase taking charge of the whole situation like he had, even though the plan was entirely his idea. It kind of made Dana see Chase, who's chest rose and fall in a sigh as he stared for one last second at a departing Zoey, in a different light. Dana had no idea that Chase could take charge of a situation like he had. On the other hand, a little voice in the back of Dana's head was downright displeased for at herself for actually letting Chase take the lead. It was her greatest defense mechanism; Dana never felt uneasy or vulnerable when she was in charge, it gave her an opportunity to set up walls around herself that no one could break through. Dana fought back her thoughts, neither the smile nor frown winning out as an unreadable expression was the only thing Chase saw when he finally looked at her. After all, Chase was a great guy, and always looked out for his friends; she was sure taking the lead as he had a few moments ago wasn't an attempt to make her feel uncomfortable. Dana didn't think anyone could read her, Chase included, so that clearly wasn't his intent. In fact, she was sure it wasn't, and she let the anger ebb away inside of her as she realized Chase had basically saved them from possible disaster with quick thinking.
"Wheew…okay…that was a little tougher than I thought it would be…but we did it…good job."
Dana slowly replied to Chase's compliment, nodding her head with a pensive look on her face as she still was having a debate in her head. Chase noticed this, and rose an eyebrow as he stared at Dana with an appraising look.
"You okay Dana?"
Dana nodded her head, shrugging her shoulders slightly as she shook all of the immature thoughts from her head.
"Yeah…ummm thanks for saving me back there."
Chase nodded his head, giving Dana a cheesy smile.
"Yeah, no problem…what are friends for right?"
Dana smiled at Chase, shaking her head as she broke eye contact and looked around campus, checking her watch as she noticed they should head for class, or at least start walking in the general direction of what each of them had 1st period.
"Yeah …hey ummm it's Tuesday, I have Algebra first period."
Chase nodded, knowing fully-well that their first period classes were in different building on campus.
"And I have English Lit."
Dana nodded at Chase, about to say goodbye, as he let out one more statement.
"Hey, you don't have first period with any of them, do you?"
Dana shook her head. Chas let out a small sigh of relief. Before speaking, Chase scanned the immediate area to make sure no one was eavesdropping.
"Okay good…we can think up how we "got together" second period then…so we're prepared…because you know they are all going to want to know."
Dana nodded her head, her face questioning Chase's statement a second after it registered.
"I thought you already thought of how we…I told you too."
Chase shrugged his shoulders, letting out a small laugh at Dana's typical, slightly scolding tone.
"Ummm…yeah I forgot."
Chase rubbed the back of his bushy hair with his hand as Dana put a hand on her hip, shaking her head as she rolled her eyes. After a second, Chase dropped his hand from his hand, shrugging his shoulders as he held both hands out to his sides.
"Besides…I figured we could discuss it and come up with our story together."
The slightly angry expression fell of Dana's face as she fought the urge to smile. She was relieved to know for certain that Chase wasn't trying to take complete control of their plan and use her as a pawn to get Zoey. Dana found it hard to maintain eye contact with Chase for a brief moment. It was nice to know that someone valued her opinion and respected her. Regardless, Dana made none of this public knowledge, putting on the cold exterior that everyone was used to seeing from her.
"Okay…fine…I'll see you second period."
Chase nodded, nervousness obvious in his body language as he slowly walked up to Dana before she could turn and leave, his eyes darting sporadically between Dana and his surroundings. Dana felt her chest rise up a little bit, as it became slightly harder to breathe and talk.
"What…what are you doing Chase…?"
Chase let his eyes dart around for another few seconds, finally looking solely at Dana and shrugging his shoulders.
"Ummm…I'm about to kiss you."
Anger swept over Dana as her initial thought was Chase was taking advantage of the situation, not only working towards getting together with the girl he dreamed of being with since freshman year through her help, but also using her as a piece of meat that he could do whatever he wanted to freely with because they were "going out". Dana's voice went up a few octaves, squeaking slightly as she lowered it to a whisper.
"What…?! No…absolutely not, they're not even around Chase!"
Again, Chase shrugged his shoulders with an apologetic look on his face, knowing along what lines Dana was thinking.
"I know…but if we only kiss…hold hands, whatever, when we are around them…how long do you think it will be before everyone starts suspecting som-"
Dana rolled her eyes, letting out a small scoff before she cut Chase off, knowing exactly what he was about to say, and that it was true.
"Okay, fine…"
Before Chase could register Dana's response she closed the distance between, leaning up on the tip of her toes to kiss Chase squarely on the lips, Chase instinctively closed his eyes as Dana's fluttered shut as well.
After about a second, the kiss lasting a little longer than necessary for the people who were in their general area to notice, they broke contact. Chase let a lopsided grin show on his face, holding his breath as he felt the awkward silence start to set in the moment they broke the kiss.
"I'll see you second period."
Dana nodded quickly.
"Bye."
Dana turned around, not looking back towards Chase, as she walked with haste towards algebra.
SSHDTN
Lola stared at Zoey, who stared at the wall lost in thought. It was 2nd period…the two girls sitting next to each other in a study hall they shared as they quizzed each other for an upcoming test. Lola had been waiting for about ten seconds to find out if she was right and Thomas Jefferson was the third president when she realized Zoey wasn't even in the same room as her mentally.
"Zoey…?"
Lola's comment snapped Zoey back to reality. Without thinking, Zoey restarted the conversation by saying what kept running through her mind the entire morning.
"Can you even imagine Dana and Chase together, honestly?"
Lola shot Chase a confused look with one of her eyebrows raised.
"I thought you were tired of talking about them?"
Zoey rolled her eyes, letting out a scoff that only she heard as she replied, "I am." Lola's knew her friend and that she was lying. She also knew that if she tried to change the subject to anything else they would just end back up on in within a few minutes. Saving time, Lola read through Zoey and replied to the statement.
"Ummm…no it is really weird now that I-"
Zoey nodded at Lola's comment, cutting her off and not allowing her to finish.
"I know right like they-"
Lola's retaliated by cutting off Zoey's comment, trying to make Zoey, who was obviously upset by their group's discovery that morning, realize the irony of her words.
"But look at you and Logan…no one ever thought you two would get together."
Zoey tried to reply, but her mouth closed as she couldn't find words as she realized Lola was right. After recollecting her thoughts, Zoey continued the conversation, having a gentle argument with her friend, neither one of them raising their voices above the whisper level that was allowed in study hall.
"Not really…I mean we are both on the basketball team, drama club…and we are in the same group of friends."
Again, Lola turned Zoey's word around on her skillfully, Zoey getting slightly agitated as Lola continued bringing up points that were true, but Zoey didn't really want to hear at the moment.
"Chase and Dana make up our group too Zoey…"
Zoey shook her head, letting a sigh fall out of her lips at Lola's resistance to trying to get her in her corner.
"Yeah, but they are like cat and dog…I mean some get along…they do…but even if they are friendly, they don't get together and make little… dogcat babies."
Lola covered her mouth with her hand, stifling a loud laugh as the substitute teacher overseeing the study hall looked up from his desk momentarily, shaking his head towards Lola. Lola's laughter was contagious, and Zoey almost immediately started laughing as well, doing her best to keep it under control and keep their table's volume down.
Zoey gave up trying to convince Lola, taking the opportunity to change the subject as she didn't want to talk about Dana and Chase, confusing feelings she couldn't decipher welling up in her body every time she did. As soon as both of the girls quit laughing, Lola letting out a sigh as she shook her head. Zoey asked another question, this one having nothing to do with her best guy friend and one of her best girl friends.
"Who was the fourth president of the United States of America?"
SSHDTN
Dana let out a sigh as she tried not to fall asleep, staring up at the board as Mrs. Brennan pounded chalk, talking in a monotone voice as most of the class diligently scribbled down what was on the chalkboard into their notes. Dana sighed again, looking over at Chase who jotted messy cursive writing that looked like hieroglyphics in his notebook, fully in his bookworm mode that resulted in him having one of the best grade point averages in their class.
Frustrated, Dana nudged him, causing his pencil to move a few inches as Chase gave her an irritated glance, holding up one finger on his free hand to tell her to wait, as he continued writing down notes.
Dana let out another sigh, this one loud enough for most of the class to hear it. It was halfway through second period, and since Mrs. Brennan decided to go on a Nazi rampage with notes they hadn't spoken more than a few words about what they would tell their friends.
"Chase…"
Chase looked up from his notes, irritation falling off his face as he noticed the serious expression on Dana's. Chase did his best to whisper, their conversation the only sound in the room besides pencils scribbling on paper and chalk crackling on the board.
"Yeah…what's up?"
Dana noticed that their conversation, while quiet, was drawing attention from their classmates due to the absolute silence of the room. Dana leaned her head in a few inches towards Chase as she lowered her voice even further.
"We were supposed to come up with our plan…remember?"
Chase shrugged with a frown on his face as he nodded towards the front of the classroom.
"Sorry…I know."
Dana let out a scoff, making it clear to Chase that she wasn't happy.
"We don't have time for this…I mean I haven't seen them since this morning but I have fourth period with Zoey and Michael…and next period with Lola."
Chase nodded, laying his pencil down as he turned in his chair slightly to face more towards Dana.
"Okay…ummm…you have any ideas?"
Dana let out another scoff, shaking her head as it was still relatively early in the morning according to her, and Chase wasn't exactly making it easy for her to maintain her already less than peachy mood.
"No…this is your idea…remember? I thought you would at least think this through… a little, before you begged me to help you go through with it!"
Dana's hushed tone grew louder towards the end of her statement, almost at normal speaking volume, which caused Chase to put a finger in front of his mouth as he let out a "Shhh".
Dana turned towards the front of the classroom in her seat, crossing her arms as Chase stared at her. Chase tapped Dana on her upper arm after a second, causing her to look over at him, not turning her face entirely as Chase could still see the frustration on her face.
"Okay, look…we'll just tell them that we-"
"Excuse me, Chase?"
Chase snapped his head, along with the rest of his body, towards the front of the classroom, immediately replying to their teacher's comment.
"Ummm, yes?"
Mrs. Brennan put a hand on her hip, her words clearly sarcastic as she peered across the room at the table that Dana and Chase were sitting at.
"Would you and Dana like to answer the question I just asked the class? Because I am sure that you are discussing something that is relevant to this class and not your personal lives."
Dana blinked her eyes, leaving them closed for longer than necessary as she let out a sigh. Chase didn't know what to do, stammering in response to Mrs. Brennan's request.
"Uh…ummm…question?"
Mrs. Brennan shook her head, letting a disappointed look fall on her face as she looked towards Chase, who felt bad considering he thought she was a good teacher and was one of her favorite students.
"That's what I thought."
Chase rubbed the back of his head with his hand, sitting upright in his seat as he looked towards the front of the room.
"I'm sorry Mrs. Brennan…it won't happen again."
Mr. Brennan kept her hand on her hip, considering if she should actually punish her two students in addition to merely embarrassing them. Luckily, Chase did have a perfect record, and after a few seconds of harsh staring and a strict warning Mrs. Brennan turned back around to the chalkboard and continued writing notes.
A/N: Okay, I am going to be honest with you… I don't know exactly where these early chapters are heading. Don't get me wrong, I already have the major plot points, drama, climax of the story, and ending in my head…it just may take me a while to get them worked in. Anyways, thanks goes out to everyone reading this and reviewing. I know this story, or at least the pairing, is unusual, or at least a little bit unconventional. Regardless, I hope you are enjoying this story, more to come soon. Like always, thanks for reading, please continue doing so, and if you have the time, review. Thank you, Trim59.