Might As Well Dance

Thanks: The amazing beta reader Sue. She pointed out so many things I missed and helped me choose the appropriate ending.

Jake glanced at the clock. 11:11. Only five more minutes to cram everything in before the test. As her stomach growled, she pressed her arm into her abdomen.

How am I supposed to take a test when I'm this hungry? I'm going to kill Hamilton.

The lack of breakfast was mainly Hamilton's fault. He was supposed to wake her up. On time. But she should have known by now that on time to Hamilton meant 20 minutes later than to the rest of the world. So she didn't have time for breakfast that morning, she barely had time to get dressed and gather her books together while still making it to class on time.

"Hey." Hamilton plopped down next to her, appearing as tired as she was hungry.

"You know, I'm mad at you."

"What did I do now?" He leaned his arm on his desk, resting his head in his hand, trying desperately to keep his eyes open when it felt extremely relaxing to close them.

"Thanks to you, I didn't get to eat this morning. Now I'm going to fail this test because I'm too starved to concentrate." She went back to studying the notes spread over her desk.

"Oh shit, we have a test in here today."

All she could do was glance at him and roll her eyes; it was so like him to forget.

He leaned in closer to her, remembering the questions he had forgotten to ask her the night before. "Ok Quick - explain to me why diatomic oxygen drawn in the Lewis Structure appears to have its valence electrons in an excited state?"

"First Hamilton, that's like..." she sighed, struggling to find her thought, "an oxymoron. You can't quickly explain anything in Chemistry."

"Jake, you managed to masquerade as a boy for three years," he whispered, "And you can't do a simple thing like explain chemistry to me?"

"I don't know. Have you taken your morning dose of Ritalin so you will be able to sit through my explanation?"

"Very funny."

Taking a deep breath, she began, "Ok, so if you use the Molecular Orbital Diagram then you find out that the last two electrons aren't paired like they are drawn in the Linear Model..."

He nodded like he understood what she was saying...he was trying, wasn't that the important thing? But he had started to tune the words out, and was, instead, focusing on how animated she was that morning. Her hands flying as she tried to explain, her messy hand writing as she drew the structural formula, the way her eyes squinted when she asked him a question.

"...They have to follow Hunds' Law - remember?"

Like now...She was asking a question, but he hadn't been paying attention. He tried to shuffle back in his memory and remember what she had said.

"Yeah?" He said uncertainly, hoping that was the answer she was looking for.

She looked at him doubtingly, but reluctantly accepted his answer and continued. She talked quickly before tests. He tried to remind himself to ask her before the five minutes prior to the actual test, but he could never really concentrate on AP Chemistry. He had only taken it because he knew she would take it and he wanted more opportunities to be with her...more opportunities to 'study' together. But unfortunately, those study sessions ended after the second test. The one he failed and she had barely made a C on.

Ok, so making out is a little higher on my priority list than chemistry, big deal! Like in real life I'm ever going to need to know why chlorine has a higher ionization energy than sulfur.

Besides, whatever he couldn't learn, he could always program into his calculator. But apparently Jake thought she would need to know this stuff to further her career possibilities; so their studying had been limited to phone only. That pretty much took away the entire reason he signed up for the class.

Yeah, I like to have homework that I don't understand, tests that I usually fail, and a class that I feel utterly stupid in.

He sighed, this was becoming a rarity...being with her. Their class schedule was diverging. Both were interested in different things which lead to being placed in opposite classes.

Ok, she's interested in doing well in school and I'm interested in slacking off. Those courses don't mix often.

"Jake?"

Looking up at him, she stopped her chemistry rambling which had long ago ceased to make sense to Hamilton.

"Ok - deep breath." He breathed in deeply and slowly exhaled to show its calming effects. Jake closed her eyes and followed his example.

"You're doing that thing where you talk incredibly fast, so I can't understand a word you say, ultimately making me realize that I am, once again, going to fail another test."

"Need me to talk slower?" She tried to suppress her smile.

"Please."


"So how have your finals been?" Jake set her tray down and joined the group.

Scout groaned and laid his head on the cafeteria table. Turning to Will, Jake raised her eyebrows, glancing questioningly at Scout.

"Not a good subject," Will explained.

"I think I failed Trig." Scout's muffled voice rose from the table.

"Hey, you only had to make an 84 on the final to keep a C."

Raising his head, Scout squinted at Will, "Easy for you to say." He placed his head back down while mumbling something about Will and geniuses, with a few expletives thrown in for accentuation purposes. Will and Jake both glanced at each other, trying not to laugh.

"Well, I've got something that will cheer you up." Jake said nonchalantly, focusing on her apple as she took a bite of it.

"What?" This seemed to break Scout's intense inspection of the table from two inches away - he glanced at Jake.

As she motioned to her full mouth, she leaned back in her seat, mumbling, "M shoing."

Scout waited impatiently while Jake chewed at a painfully slow pace. It was so easy to torture him. "Fine! Don't tell me." He went back to sleeping his trig-failing worries away.

"Touchy today, aren't we?" Folding her arms on the table in front of her, she leaned in, "So... where are we going for Spring Break, boys?"

"Now that I'm going to be grounded for my grades - nowhere."

Will shrugged his consent to the fact that he would also be residing at Rawley for another Spring Break.

"Well, you better hide those grades from your parents because, as of now, you are going are going skiing with Jake Pratt and Hamilton Flemming."

"How are you going to pull that off?"

"It's quite simple really," smiling at her ingenuity, "My mom owns this place in Vermont and I currently have a key." She jangled her key ring in front of them. "Hamilton's parents think that he is going with me, 'Jake', to New York. My 'mother', a.k.a. me, sent a confirming e-mail that she will be there to watch over us."

Will and Scout nodded appreciatively.

"Brilliant, I know," she smiled teasingly at them, "Ok, so, I could manipulate a letter from Rawley Boys stating that you two were going on a school trip or...an out-of-state rowing meet - something along those lines. Or..." she stated in a bored manner, "you could opt to tell them the truth."

They seemed to consider what she had just proposed to them, neither speaking for a few moments.

"Of course," she laughed at the situation, "Omitting the part about -" lowering her voice and leaning in closer, "...the part about your friend, the cross-dressing girl who attends Rawley Boys inviting you to an entirely parent-free week."

Will and Scout only had to glance at each other to confirm what they wanted to do.

"Lie."

"Hacking option #1, please." They answered simultaneously.

"It's settled then." Slumping back in her seat contentedly, she resumed eating her apple.


"Ah, another Spring Break. Only one more quarter left until we are seniors!" Hamilton stared in front of him, the trance known as Senioritis was pulling him in.

"Wow - seniors." Jake muttered sarcastically as she quizzed herself over Hamlet, The Illiad, Oedipus - all the books she didn't understand the first time around, so she didn't believe they would miraculously make sense the second time.

"Oh come on - being seniors..." he looked at the ceiling, trying to find the correct words to convey the magnitude, but soon concluded that he was no Will. "Being seniors is awesome!"

"Why? It's basically the same as being a junior, except you are a year older and one year closer to going to college - trust me on this one, freedom isn't always as fun as it sounds. And - Oh yeah - you can beat up juniors, I'm sure that's the part you're looking forward to."

"It will be our last year, we will rule the school!" He saw her doubtful smirk, "...ok, maybe not rule, but definitely have a superior quality to us."

She shook her head and laughed at his excitement.

"And we get to skip fourth quarter finals," adding to the list of what would make his last year great.

"Ham," she stated softly as to not hurt his feelings, "you do know that you only get to skip finals if you have an 85 or above in the class, right?"

He slumped back onto her bed, "Ok, you've just totally ruined my optimistic nature toward senior year. Next you are going to turn me against Spring Break."

"Oh, I don't have a problem with Spring Break."

"That's good-"

"Except that we never go anywhere..."

Hamilton groaned in frustration as he put his head in his hands, "I shouldn't have brought it up," he muttered to himself.

"...I mean, do you honestly want to spend another boring week here by ourselves?"

"I'm never bored when I get to spend time alone with you," raising his eyebrows to suggest the events which occur on the previous 'alone' times.

She rolled her eyes, "So I was thinking, this year, we could go somewhere. My mom owns this cabin in Vermont and we could stay there and go skiing."

"Your mom would be okay with us going there by ourselves?"

"No!" She laughed, "My mom may be an actress, but she's not some free-spirit, make-love-not- war hippie."

"Well then how-"

"Hamilton, this is my mother we're talking about. She probably doesn't even know that I'm on Spring Break. Hell, she probably doesn't remember we own the cabin; we've only been there like, once in the 10 years we've owned it."

Pausing, she tried to push away the thoughts of her mother by concentrating on Hamilton; how he got that guilty look when she talked about her mom, like he was sorry she had to go through it, how his hair fell in his deep blue eyes when he leaned to kiss her, his lopsided smile, his broad shoulders and muscular back she saw almost every day at crew.

All these thoughts were leading down a familiar road, which reminded her of another point she needed to make to Hamilton, "Besides, Will and Scout are coming along - I already asked them."

"Why?"

When he pouted, she tried to hold back her smile, "Why! Because if we were there alone, we would never leave the cabin, let alone go skiing....which would effectually be the same as staying here in the dorms, except we would be in another state."

"I don't see a problem with that. Besides I've never done it in another state."

She leaned closer to him, "And your not going to." Looking out the window, "At least...not yet," she glanced back at him quickly, smiling.

"We'll see about-" Stopping abruptly as he realized something, "Wait - you told Will and Scout..." he continued, disbelieving, "Will and Scout, before you invited me."

"Yeah, so?" she shrugged, grabbing one of the Oreo*s he had in front of him and munched on it casually. "Why?"

Hamilton didn't respond, he just stared at the floor. She invited her two best friends before her boyfriend and she's wondering why I'm curious.

"You're not..." She laughed incredulously, "You're not jealous, are you?"

When he didn't answer, her laughing began again and he felt himself start to blush.

"Jealous!? Of Will...Of Will and Scout?" She fell back to the bed, dropping her half- eaten Oreo onto the plastic plate. Her hands rested over her stomach to calm her laughter, "You hear how ridiculous that sounds, right?"

He allowed himself a small smile as he leaned over her, grabbing her hands and holding them on the pillow above her head. "What makes you so sure I'll go with you?"

"Oh, you're coming all right."

"Yeah?" He leaned in and kissed her lightly.

Tilting her head back, she smiled as he moved to her neck. "Yeah."

"I don't know, my mom's kinda overprotective." He whispered between kisses, "She may not-"

"It's already taken care of..."

He let go of her hands and sat up in the bed, "What?"

Scooting herself into a sitting position, she rested with her back on the headboard, "I already talked to your parents, they are letting you go."

"What? But...You..." he stammered, trying to grasp onto a clear thought, "How did you manage that?"

"Ok, well they think you are going to New York where my mom will watch over us." Seeing the confusion in his eyes, she continued, "I told them that it was your early birthday present."

He nodded at her explanation, "That's very double-o seven of you."

"What can I say?" Placing her hand on his chest, she pushed him back until he was laying on the bed; Laughing as he landed on the papers she had been studying and brushed them away, "You know how to pick the good ones." She straddled him, with her legs on both sides of his hips, and bent in to kiss him. He held her face in his hands, slowly caressing her cheek with his fingers.

"So, I guess this means you're going?"

Bringing her face close to his again, he whispered, "Count me in." But before he could resume their prior activities, she broke away, removing herself from him and began to pick up the papers scattered on the floor.

"Great, now get going," She motioned toward the hall as she held up her notes, "I need to study, Two more finals, remember?"

"Fine," he held up his hands in defeat, walking to the door. As he closed the door, he muttered, "When did I become so weak?" He smiled as he heard her muted laughter coming from behind the door.