DISCLAIMER: I DON'T OWN LIZZIE MCGUIRE! Thank you for the reviews. I'm glad that people are interested in this story. I hope people continue to be interested in this story, because it's a lot of fun to write.

Chapter Six

On Tuesday…

Jake picked up Hailey and they talked about random things before they got out of the car.

In his Spanish class, Jake's group was assigned Spanish history.

Health class only got more entertaining. Ms. Roe lectured the class on drugs and they watched a campy video while Ms. Roe sort of disappeared to the teacher's lounge.

On the way home, Jake asked Hailey if she was thirsty, and they made a detour to the Digital Bean, although they didn't stay there. They listened to college radio on the way back.

Gordo visited a community college and lectured two classes on film appreciation.

After Lizzie came home from work, she spent most of the afternoon and until about midnight engrossed in a romance novel. She read half of it before she went to sleep.

On Wednesday…

Hailey flipped through Jake's CDs that she found in the back of the car and told him he had great music taste.

In chemistry, Jake overheard some girls at the table behind him talk about homecoming and who they were going with that Saturday. The thought of asking Hailey, as a friend, of course, crossed his mind. Who else would he go with?

Kelly asked Hailey how everything was going with them during lunch, as Jake was sitting with a group of junior guys a few tables away, and walked by, saying "hey" to her as he passed to throw his lunch away.

In health class, they talked about stimulants. Ms. Roe shared some stories she'd heard over the years and gave them a packet to read.

Gordo read through a few scripts to help him decide which project he would take on after he finished with an interpretation of the life of Napoleon, which would end in about a year.

Lizzie continued to read the rest of the romance novel that afternoon and into the night. She asked Jake if he could pick up a pizza and she locked herself in her room and finished the romance novel. She finished at around midnight, and spent another good thirty minutes, crying in bed silently. Why couldn't her life be like Delilah, from the book she just finished? When would she find her Maxwell? Would she ever find love again?

On Thursday…

Hailey and Jake talked about health class and how stupid it was. Hailey shared with him some of the rumors she'd heard about Ms. Roe. AKA…she was having an affair with the football coach last year and all this other random stuff.

In health class, they talked about narcotics. Ms. Roe told the class that there would be a quiz the next day.

On their way home, Hailey and Jake were listening to the college radio in the background while they were going on about how dumb some classes are in high school. Then, Hailey turned the radio up a little and got excited because her all-time favorite song was playing. Jake agreed that the song was awesome.

Hailey talked to Kelly that afternoon on the phone, trying to convince Kelly to drop this whole Jake thing because nothing was going to happen.

Jake saw Andrew hanging out with that girl again, as he had been since Monday.

On his way from a gruesome meeting with some stubborn writers late that afternoon, Gordo was at a red light when this truck pulled next to him. Glancing over, he was caught by surprise when he was a woman sitting up there, looking a little distressed. Before he could take in the familiarity of the woman, the light turned green and the woman was off.

After fixing a dinner, Lizzie spent a good deal of the night organizing her closet.

Because he had nothing better to do, Jake decided to make Hailey a CD on his computer.

And then Friday rolled around…

Jake presented Hailey with the CD. Hailey seemed surprised, but not in a bad way. He'd decided, with the intention of telling no one, as he hadn't met enough people, that Hailey was his new favorite person. Not only was she a great person, but he also couldn't help but having developed a small crush on her over the past few days. The car ride on the way to school, felt a little different. Hailey sat there silently, looking like she was thinking hard about something and Jake sat there wondering what Hailey was thinking about.

And Hailey was thinking about him. Well, what Kelly had said about him the day before, anyway. She'd never met a guy quite like Jake and she usually didn't go for his type. He was a nice guy, seemingly innocent and a classic guy to bring home to parents. But then again, he wasn't overly confident, seemed to enjoy her company, was decent looking, smart, had good taste in music, and everything all the other people she tried dating in the past were not.

Sure, she was only fifteen. She wasn't thinking about marring the guy or anything, but if he was interested…

Who was she kidding? He wasn't interested in her. She said he made the CD because he was bored. Jake was shy, and even if he was interested in anyone, he probably wouldn't do anything about it because he was new to Hill Ridge. It wasn't like he elaborately planned this or something. Besides, he was a junior and this truthfully intimidated her a little. She wasn't sure why, but he just looked like he was bound to be popular in a few months.

They couldn't have arrived to school a minute later. Hailey thanked him for the ride, mumbled something about paying him later, and walked away. Jake watched, wondering what was going on.

"Tough love, isn't it?" A familiar voice asked, behind Jake. Jake looked a little startled.

"Will!" he exclaimed, and turned around to greet his friend, "Hey!"

"Hey," Will said, "I didn't know you knew Hailey Isaacson."

Jake raised his eyebrow, "You know her?"

Will shrugged, "Well, not in an intimidate way, but I know of her. She made a film last year in media class that was entered into this state competition. I've always wanted to talk to her, but she always seemed so unapproachable. Obviously, she doesn't intimidate you, though. Are you going out with her or just friends?"

"Just friends."

"Well, that's cool. She seems like a nice person."

Will and Jake walked to the school building together.

In the meantime, Hailey walked to Kelly, who was sitting with some of her friends on the floor by her locker. "Hey," Kelly said, sleepily waving.

"Hi," Hailey said, as she dropped her book bag to the side and slid down to sit next to Kelly.

Kelly pointed to the CD in Hailey's hand, "What's that?"

"Oh, this?" Hailey asked. She'd meant to put it in her bag, but forgot, "It's just a CD Jake made me."

Kelly raised her eyebrows, "Jake made you a CD?"

"Yep."

"Good. I'm now one hundred percent sure that he likes you."

"WHAT??"

"You should ask him to homecoming."

"Are you out of your mind??"

Kelly shook her head, "Nope. Hey! You should ask him to the football game tonight. We could have some sort of double date or something."

"I'm not going to the game tonight!"

"Why not? You need to come to the game tonight. Then, you need to come tomorrow and invite Jake."

Hailey shook her head, "I don't think that's going to be the way it will work."

"Oh, why not? You have, like, no school spirit, Hails."

Hailey shrugged, "Oh, well. I'll get over it."

"Are you ever going to date again?"

"Um, can we not talk about this right now?"

"Why not? I'm going to bug you until you do something about this little dry spell of yours."

Hailey blushed, "Um, Kelly?"

"No, listen to me, Hailey! I'm sorry that you haven't actually liked a guy—stop poking me—in like, a year, but this has got to stop. Either you ask that guy or I will ask him for you."

Hailey looked aggravated, "Kelly! Shut up! And look behind you, because he's, like, six feet away and he's within hearing distance," she hissed.

Kelly rolled her eyes and turned around, "So? There is like no way he could have heard what I said, anyway. He's talking to one of Matt's friends, Will."

"So? I still don't want to go through this again. Let's talk about something else."

Kelly gave in and talked about something else.

The rest of the day went by fairly normal. Kelly seemed a little mad at Hailey, but got over it by lunch.

Health class was interesting, as always. Ms. Roe had them watch another video on drugs and they had a small discussion about drugs.

That afternoon, Hailey figured if Jake had heard anything that morning, he would have been more awkward because he was definitely not acting any different as he went on to complain about math and how, after a certain point, it should be an elective.

On the other hand, if he had heard something, maybe he was just avoiding it because he didn't want to say anything mean to her.

After he dropped Hailey off, Jake went home. When he pulled into the driveway and caught his brother and this mysterious neighbor pull away quickly when they saw him, he rolled his eyes. Jake had always thought Andrew was one weird kid. Why any girl would ever be attracted to Andrew was beyond his comprehension, but he didn't say anything when he passed them and went inside his house.

Will had asked Jake if he wanted to go to the football game that night just to hang out and Jake said he would stay for a little bit. He had actually thought about asking Hailey if she needed a ride there, but figured she might get the wrong impression. At his old school, when someone went with someone to the homecoming game, it was a date. Not that he wouldn't mind asking her out, but he wasn't sure he wanted to take that chance quite yet.

After spending the afternoon talking to people online and watching a movie on TV, Jake headed out after dinner. The game had already started, but he didn't really care.

888

"I can't believe you dragged me here!" Hailey exclaimed as they got out of Matt's car.

"It's Homecoming! You have to go!" Kelly argued, "Besides, don't you want to spend time with your friends?"

"But I saw you all week!" Hailey whined. She crossed her arms and pouted, "I need new friends."

"No, what you really need is a new uncle. He let you go out of the house wearing THAT?"

Hailey looked down at her wardrobe of sweatpants and a tank top covered by an old, black fleece jacket, "You didn't give me enough time to change! Between you pushing me out the door and Uncle David's shoving a twenty in my face and insisting that I go with you and have some fun, you didn't give me the chance to do anything!"

Kelly rolled her eyes as they walked toward the field, "well, I'm not apologizing for doing you a favor. You spend way too much time with your family and even your uncle agrees with me that you need to get out more."

Hailey fumed, "What are you talking about? Davie thought this was what I wanted to do. If he's known that I would have rather stayed home, he would have let me."

"Okay!" Matt said, intervening, "Girls, calm down! I did not agree to go to this with two girls yelling at each other! Now that we're here, why don't we go find a seat and enjoy ourselves? Hailey, if you really don't want to be here, you're welcome to find a ride home. Kelly, if you can't leave Hailey alone, you will be finding a ride home. Got it?" he sighed, "Are you ready to go in?"

Kelly sighed, "Yeah." Hailey nodded her head, although she still looked annoyed. This was the last place she wanted to be tonight.

A half an hour later, Hailey decided it wasn't so bad. Kelly and Matt were ignoring her, and this gave her time to think about a few things. A few of her other friends stopped by to talk to her, but other than that, she sat there thinking about random things, like listening to the CD Jake had given her and making him a CD and what she would put on it.

By the middle of the third quarter, she was bored, however. Her school was beating the other school by almost thirty points and Hailey really didn't want to be there anymore.

After telling Kelly that she was going to call her uncle and have him pick her up, she excused herself to get out of the bleachers and into the parking lot, so she could hear herself call Davie.

Hailey had just reached the parking lot and was pulling out her cell when someone said, "Hailey?"

Startled, Hailey looked to the right of her, and about twenty feet away, she saw Jake, "Jake?" she said, walking toward him, "hey."

"Are you going home?"

"Yeah, I'm calling it a night. I'm tired and tomorrow's a pretty big day."

"Oh, you're going to the dance?" Jake asked.

"No…I don't think I am," Hailey said, "I meant that I was going to catch up on some sleep and maybe do some shopping or something."

"Ahh," Jake said, and he looked at Hailey, "Do you need a ride? I'm going home."

"Um, sure," Hailey said, and she smiled, "I would love for you to give me a ride."

"Okay, well my car is over here," he said, and she followed as he walked to his car, which was on the other side of the parking lot.

"So," he said, as he got in his Jeep and she got in the passenger side, "You couldn't stay awake for the rest of the game, huh?"

Hailey sighed as she put her seatbelt on, "I hate football."

Jake chuckled, "Yeah, me too."

He pulled out and took her home. It seemed different when he drove her at night, though. They didn't play music or talk about school. Instead, they drove in comfortable silence. There was something sort of romantic about the whole thing, only listening to the night sounds and hearing crickets chirp and dogs bark.

Eight minutes later, when he pulled into her driveway, he put the car on park and said, "Well, this is it. I guess I'll see you Monday morning."

Hailey started to unbuckle her seatbelt and let herself out, but then she realized it was only nine o'clock. Feeling like this was a harmless idea, she said, "Hey, It's only nine. I'm not really going to bed any time soon. Would you like to come in and watch a movie or something?"

"Um, sure," he said, surprised by the invitation. He turned off his car and they got out of the car, "What movie were you going to watch."

"Well," Hailey said, as they walked to his front door, "We have over a thousand movies, so I'll let you decide."

"Wow! That's a lot of movies."

"Yeah, well, that's what you get when you have a director in the family."

Before she had any chance to further explain, she opened the door and let him in. Gordo was sitting in the living room with his parents, and when he saw Jake and Hailey, he excused himself to find out what was going on.

"You're back?" Gordo asked.

"Yeah," Hailey said, "the football game was boring and Jake offered to give me a ride home. Since its still early, I asked him if he wanted to come in and watch a movie. Is that okay with you?"

Gordo shrugged, "It's fine with me. I don't want him staying here too late, but a couple of hours shouldn't hurt. Are your parents okay with it?"

"I'll call my mom in a minute. She'll be fine."

"Okay," Gordo said, approving of the plan, "what movie were you thinking about watching?"

Hailey shrugged, "We haven't gotten that far yet. We can use the basement, right?"

"Yeah. That's fine."

"Great," Hailey said, as she lead Jake to the basement.

Gordo shrugged and went back to the living room with his parents.

"Who was that young man?" Roberta asked.

"One of Hailey's friends from school. He's the one that gives Hailey rides to school."

"Ohh. He seems nice," Roberta said.

Gordo shrugged, "Yeah, he's not too bad."

Jake looked over the massive collection of movies that filled up an entire room in the basement. "Wow," he said, "this is a lot of movies. Do you ever watch these movies more than once?"

Hailey smiled, "Some of them. What would you like to watch?"

"Um," he said, pulling out the first thing he saw, "how about this one?"

Hailey shrugged, "Okay," she took the movie from him and led him into the room with the theatre, turned on the lights, and turned on the movie.

Both of them sat on the couch across from the screen. Jake had picked a movie that was made a few years ago.

About half an hour into the movie, however, neither of them was doing a good job paying attention to the movie. Unclear of how the whole thing started, they got into a small pillow fight and were too busy laughing at each other to pay attention to the actual movie.

All the sudden, after the laughter subsided, it got quiet. Jake and Hailey looked at each other and neither of them moved. Debating if he should take this opportunity to try and kiss her, he swallowed nervously.

Everything was perfect. After a few seconds, he decided it was worth a shot and he started leaning in. Just as Hailey figured out what Jake was about to do, she leaned in as well.

They were pretty close to each other when they heard footsteps on the stairs, which caused them to suddenly pull back. They were both watching the movie when Gordo appeared with a bowl of popcorn, "I thought you might need a snack."

Hailey knew this wasn't the only reason Davie was down there. She knew that it was only an excuse to make sure they weren't doing anything they weren't supposed to be doing. Gordo set the popcorn back, but before heading back upstairs, said, "Everyone else is going to bed. Try not to be too loud when you go back upstairs."

"Okay," Hailey nodded.

Gordo went back upstairs and Jake and Hailey watched the rest of the movie in silence, each pondering what might have happened if Gordo hadn't shown up then.

When the movie was over and it was time for Jake to leave, Hailey walked him to the door. As they were saying their goodbyes, Jake thought, "What the heck…if this was any other girl I would kiss her. What makes Hailey an exception?" and gave her a quick kiss on the cheek. "I had a really good time, Hailey. I'll see you on Monday. Call me if you need a ride anywhere." Jake turned and walked toward his car, smiling. He could tell by the look on Hailey's face that he made the right choice. Hailey looked shocked, but not disappointed as he walked away.

Maybe Jake wasn't as shy as Hailey thought, after all…

888

Eh…I figured why beat around the bush with these two? They're young, honest, and it's time to focus on another pair if you ask me.