Author's note: As I'm writing this I feel it is not really a good story after all. There is not much of a real content to it at all but I'll try to add some climax. So for the moment, ENJOY!
Chapter 4: Jealousy
John walked on the curb, trying hard to balance and keep up the terminator's pace. He glanced sideways at Cameron. Her face was expressionless as usual. John was afraid what Derek did may hurt her but he didn't dare to probe.
Finally he plucked up the courage to ask her.
"Cameron," John gulped, stepping down from the curb, standing beside her.
"Yes John?" Cameron replied, not having eye contact with him but instead the surroundings as they got closer to the school and more crowds of people.
"Are you upset?" John probed, adjusting his bag which slung on his shoulder.
"No. Should I be?" Cameron finally faced him after deciding that there was no suspicious character around.
"Erm… I guess so after… you know…." John stammered with his words.
"After?" Cameron probed John back but John didn't know how to put a word to it. He didn't want to be too direct as he learnt it would make it awkward for both of them. Silence engulfed them as they approached the school. Cameron stopped at the huge entrance and John stopped too.
"Upset about what Derek did to you?" John asked, deciding that this conversation would never end if he wasn't straight about it.
"No. Why would I be? His opinion of me didn't matter to me," Cameron replied, "you are happy today." She stated.
"Yes, I guess," John said as his hand flew up to the back of his neck. It was sort of his habit. Cameron observed this movement and knew this meant he think it would be hard to explain something to her so she didn't ask any further question on why as it was often demonstrated in her presence and never in front of Sarah. Instead, she headed for the first lesson which is different from John's.
"Then I'll be too," Cameron flashed him a smile before leaving from the spot.
John watched her leave. When she turned the corner, John went on to his first class as well, Chemistry.
"Mr Baum? Maybe you should answer this question?" The teacher said loudly across the classroom. But John wasn't there to reply, his mind was somewhere else in the next classroom. About what Cameron told him before they separated. "Mr Baum?"
John jerked a little and looked up at the chemistry equation on the board and hastily chucked the teacher an answer, wanting to slap himself for not concentrating. For the rest of the lesson, his mind was not on it even when Cheri, the girl whom he found most interest in, spoke to him.
The bell rang and he went to his locker to change his books for the next lesson, mathematics. He kept an eye on the classroom beside his chemistry lab. Waiting for the door to swing open. And when it did, many students flooded out and Cameron was last, as usual. John smiled when he saw her distracted expression as usual. But it disappeared when he saw another boy walking next to her, talking to her as Cameron half-listened, half looked out for John.
Cameron went to John, followed closely by that boy. Her locker was next to John's. Cameron totally ignored John and was caught up with her conversation with the boy. She opened her locker and changed her books to mathematics, like John. John waited impatiently for Cameron while she finished her conversation. Hoping with all his might that the boy wasn't following them to the nest lesson. And to his relieve, it came true.
As the boy walked away, Cameron shifted her attention back to John when John talked to her.
"Who is he? I never seen him before." John asked curiously, trying hard to hide his anger.
"Jason Wayne. In grade 10, identical standards to ours. Apparently has perfect results in computer class," Cameron replied. John nodded.
"So you asked him what did he know about technology and closer to what did he knew about skynet?" John assumed, silently letting off all the anger in his guts.
"No. He wasn't in any of the skynet files or cyberdyne files." Cameron replied blankly, starting to walk to the mathematics classroom.
John started to get anxious again but tried not to show it. He got stumped at Cameron's reply but ran up to catch up to her "Then what did you talk to him about?"
"He asked me where I lived and other questions irrelevant to Skynet or you." Cameron frowned at John after replying. John didn't speak after this. "You're not happy anymore. Your heart rate is irregular and you seem to be experiencing the high levels of stress." Cameron reached out and attempted to touch John's neck but John shoved her hand away, annoyed.
"Don't do that!" John hissed.
"You may be sick." Cameron stated.
"I'm not!" John scowled angrily, walking quickly to the classroom, hoping to have lost the terminator there. But Cameron settled down next to him in class. For the rest of the day, John avoided conversation or contact with Cameron. He felt angry at her ignorance but countered that he couldn't blame her. She wasn't human, it wouldn't be normal for her to know how he felt.
Sarah didn't pick them up after school, telling him she and Derek had to find some information or trails of Carter.
John scowled as he heard his mom telling him this. Another walk with Cameron home, great.
"What's wrong?" Cameron asked as she spotted the scowl on his face. John pocketed his cellphone and shook his head, giving her the I-am-annoyed-so-stop-probing-or-you'd-regret-it look.
"We're going home on our own," John said, glancing at his watch: 6pm. Their math class had to stay back after school for extra lessons so the school was sort of dark and empty. John started on their walk home, followed closely by Cameron. They walked on for a while. And while they were crossing a road outside their school premises, John stole a glance at Cameron. She was looking around for any sign of danger so did not probe John for the reason to this action, thankfully…
Just then, John heard a loud screech and spun back around to find a rundown jeep heading his way at full speed. It had no intentions whatsoever to stop. John watched, dumbstruck as the huge jeep closed in at full speed at him.
Just then, he felt a hard push on his shoulder, sending him tripping to the ground hard, injuring his ankle in the process. He looked up quickly, enough to see the jeep's nose clashing into Cameron's stomach; it sent her soaring into the air.
John felt a loud shout of her name tumbled out from his mouth before he could stop it…