Chapter Nine

Finn had been enjoying a Drama lesson when the fire alarm droned it's familiar song. All eyes turned to the red-head, but this time it hadn't been one of his pranks. He shrugged and shook his head. Even the teacher raised his eyebrows at Finn, who hurriedly explained that it wasn't him (unless he had somehow managed to create a clone of himself - or if a future version of himself had travelled back in time. Both were plausible).

The class began heading for the sports field, all talking in a hushed murmur but not making it obvious - so that the teachers would not pick up on it. Finn moved up beside Hazel, who turned her head. "Do you know what happened?" Finn questioned curiously.

"What, you didn't do it?" Hazel's eyes widened. "Oh.. then who did?"

Miss Cloud wandered up beside them and glanced between Hazel and Finn, who went silent and continued to follow their classmates. They reached the top of the bank and lined up in their classes.

Lionel peered from behind Ben and Dana, all of which looked equally as confused. Heather was mumbling a low voice to Tyler. The rest of the student body were either silent, talking to each other and glancing around with a mixture of curiosity and confusion.

Finn looked to his left and spotted Ivy, who was staring at the ground. He checked for teachers looking his way, before leaning forward and hissing, "Ivy! Hey, Ivy! Over here."

She turned and smiled at him weakly. "Yeah?"

"Do you know who did it?" Finn asked. "I bet they'll be in lots of trouble."

Ivy stared back. She chewed her lip. "I have no idea. Not you?"

"Nope." Finn shrugged. "I mean, unless I have a clone or something..."

He trailed off as Mr Heavern, with vibrant red hair and green eyes, stepped forward. "Hello, everyone. I'm deeply sorry to drag you away from lessons - I'm sure you were having great fun - but we had a bit of a problem in the Science department. Nothing big. Just an experiment gone wrong. I repeat, nothing bad. No need to panic."

Finn leaned forward.

"I will now ask the people who did it to come to my office after this is over." Mr Heavern paused. "Brent Ferguson and Ivy Falleh."

An intake of breath from the student body and all eyes turned to Brent and Ivy. Finn followed their gazes and stared at Ivy. Brent.. yeah, he could believe that alright. But Ivy? That was one big plot twist.

Miss Flaire explained some more things, but Finn had zoned out and was focused on Ivy. In all his time of knowing Ivy, he didn't think that she'd ever do something quite so... quite so Finn!

As the students were dismissed, Finn almost tripped over as his eyes followed Ivy. Obviously being around Finn was leaving some sort of ripple effect on Ivy.

"Brent Ferguson and Ivy Falleh?" Mr Heavern placed his paperwork back on the desk and raised an eyebrow. He stared at Ivy. "You have an almost clean record at this school. Brent, you are remarkably talented for getting into trouble and tricky situations."

Ivy wrapped her hands together in her lap and breathed in sharply.

"I really should give you both consequences-" He paused and glanced between them. "- But I understand that it was an honest mistake. It's Science. Things going bang is normal. However, I also understand that both of you had failed to responsibly attend to your experiment. In the future, please focus on your work. Next time, I won't be so forgiving."

She breathed out and pushed a strand of hair behind her ear. "Thank you so much. I promise this will be the first and last time something like that ever happens."

"We'll see." Mr Heavern nods. "What are you two waiting for? Off you go!"

Ivy and Brent both scrambled out of the room, as fast as possible. They glanced at each other once they were out of the room. Brent set his jaw and looked straight ahead; Ivy chewed her lip and shrugged, shouldering her bag and retreating as fast as possible.

"I can't believe it!" Dana hissed. "My own sister... how... what?"

Ben shrugged. "Who knows, huh?"

Cinder grinned. "Seems like Finn's rubbing off on her."

The school bus was beginning to fill up with students, and they had all resumed their normal seats. Ivy flitted onto the bus and stared down the aisle at her friends (and sister). But part of her couldn't face them. She was paused in the middle of the bus, hesitating between being strong or doing what she wanted.

Ivy shook her head and grabbed the nearest seat, away from her friends, and plugged herself into her phone. She put on a playlist and tried to shut out the world, closing her eyes and leaning against the window of the bus.

Her peace was disturbed as someone settled down beside her. A moment later and she was being poked repetitively, until she pulled out her earphones and turned to the person. And, oh joy, it was the person she least wanted to see, next to Brent; Finn.

"Hey, is it alright if I sit here?" Finn smiled. "Don't be too worried.. did you get into trouble?"

Ivy sighed. "No."

"Then you should be celebrating!" Finn suggested happily, with a beaming grin. "I didn't know you were such a bad-ass. Why didn't you tell me before?"

"I'm not a bad-ass." Ivy shook her head. "I'm a hot mess."

Finn tilted his head. "True, but you're a bad-ass hot mess."

Ivy broke out into a laugh and whacked Finn on the arm. "You are such an idiot."

"I know." Finn grinned.

Thanks for reading!

Just as a random note, I'll probably write between 800-1200 words per chapter. Do you prefer longer chapters with slower updates or shorter chapters with quicker updates? Please leave a review with your opinion :)

QOTD: Favourite book of the WC series'?

Thanks xx

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