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Chapter 21

Troy walked down the halls of East High trying to dodge sympathetic looks from his classmates. He wasn't hurt that much. Sure his arm was bandaged from the wound he acquired a few days before, but it really wasn't that bad. He entered Ms. Darbus' class to hear his friends in a conversation about college.

"I was accepted to-"

"Gabriella, we don't need to hear the long list," Chad said. "Have you picked one yet?"

"I don't know, maybe UCLA."

"J, where you going," Cam asked, seeing Gabriella was uncomfortable talking about college. The main reason being Troy.

"Florida, I'm going to be a Gator."

Troy sat down in his usual seat in front of Chad and turned around. The group stopped talking about college. "Hey Troy," Chad said. "We were just talking."

"Why did you stop," Troy asked, knowing why they stopped.

"We didn't want to talk anymore," Chad said quickly and Troy could tell he was nervous. Troy stood up and said, "go ahead guys, talk about it all you want...um, I have to go get some work."

"Troy," Chad called after him. When Troy didn't turn, Chad jumped out of his seat and grabbed Troy's arm. "Listen, I know it's tough for you-"

"How do you know? You've never been declined after you got accepted because they didn't want you as a person, they wanted your now non-existent ability. They didn't just take away my scholarship, half of them don't want me if I can't play."

"Troy, just listen to me," Chad yelled. All eyes were on the two and even Ms. Darbus was just watching. "Just because the top basketball schools don't want you doesn't mean that another school wouldn't be happy to have you!"

"That's it Chad, my whole life I've been looking at basketball schools. I don't know any other school!"

"We can help you," Chad said. "You don't have to go through this alone. If you would just stop shutting us out." Chad looked around. "Well, this is embarrassing."

"Yeah," Troy agreed, bitting his bottom lip. "Okay guys, go back to what you were doing. Don't mind us."

"Ms. Darbus," Chad said. "We're going to go get a drink."

Before she could answer, Chad grabbed Troy's arm and dragged him out of the room. Chad didn't know about Troy, but he was dying of embarrassment.

"Did you get it," Jason asked. The girls turned around to see Cam with Chad's video camera.

"What did you do," Gabriella asked.

"Chad's going to hate us," Cam said. "But them finding out that everyone was watching them," he said while he was rewinding it, "was priceless."

"If you would stop shutting us out. Well, this is embarrassing," came Chad's voice from the camera. The entire class started to laugh, even Ms. Darbus cracked a smile.

"Cam, you're bad," Zeke said.

"Eh, I just learned a few things from West High that I wanted to remember." He rewound it and it had just started to play it again, when the door opened. Chad stormed in and grabbed the camera.

"I hate you," he said before he walked back out in the hall. The class broke into laughter when the door shut. The door opened again and Chad stuck his head in. "You disgust me."

"Chad," Jason said. "You have to admit, it was great."

Chad sighed. "Easy for you to say." He popped out the tape. "Here Cam, keep it, it's got the footage from the hospital on it too so don't lose it."

"Wouldn't dream of it," Cam said. Chad shut the door behind him.

"Is he dense or what," Jason said. "He just gave Cam embarrassing footage of him and Troy. How stupid do you get."

"He's not stupid," Taylor said. The class gave her a look. "It's just early."

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Mack walked down the hall, taking every detour she could to try and avoid Calum. She already almost bumped into him twice and had ignored him during English.

"Mack!" She stopped and turned around. Without looking she said, "Calum can you not take the hint. I don't want to speak to you at the moment. I need some time-"

"Mack, it's me Caleb."

"That's a whole lot better," she said sarcastically.

"Well, I was just wondering, since I heard you and Boucher split up...maybe you wanted to..." Mack was about cut him off and say no really loudly in his face, when Calum walked around the corner with Adam and Teagan. "Well, would you want to be my girlfriend?"

With a look toward Calum, Mack said, "of course."

"Great," Caleb said. "Well, um, I'll call you."

"Sure," she said. He kissed her cheek and walked away. Mack looked at Calum, his face gave everything away. He was heart broken. She shrugged off any guilt she was feeling for saying yes to Caleb in front of him. She turned and walked to her next class, leaving Calum, Adam and Teagan stunned in the hall.

"Well she got over me fast," Calum said. "I thought you said she was asking where I was!"

"She was, but Bailey and Keisha reminded her that you sorta...broke her heart," Teagan said.

"Look, I have science next with her so, I'll talk to her. Alright?"

Calum nodded and walked toward his next class. Adam and Teagan shared a look before heading off in separate directions. When Adam got to science, he moved to the back of the room and sat in the chair next to Mack. "What was that for?"

"What? He asked me and I said yes," she said as if nothing was wrong. She took out her notes and started to take down the notes that her father had put on the board.

"Well, you said yes right in front of Calum, your ex."

"Calum should have figured out that other people might ask me out if they knew I was single. If he didn't want that to happen, he shouldn't have kissed Alyx. I'll still be his friend. Actually, I want to be his friend, just his friend."

"Mack-"

"It hurt Adam. It hurt like heck when I walked in on him and Alyx. I'm a girl and girls hold grudges."

"Bolton, Duval, do we have a problem," Jack asked Adam and Mack.

"No, Mr. Bolton," Mack said. "I was just helping Adam read what was on the board."

"A little quieter," he said. Mack smiled sweetly.

"Great," Adam said. "Now your dad thinks I'm blind, stupid and loud. He's going to hate me."

"Hey, he likes my brother and Chad. They're loud."

"But not blind and stupid."

"I wouldn't put it past them to be stupid."

The two smiled and went back to their work. Adam kept it in the back of his mind that Mack still wanted to be friends with Calum, not sure if Calum would like that answer at all.

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The cafeteria was buzzing with noise, when Mack, Bailey and Keisha entered with their lunches. Bailey and Keisha were talking about the cute boy that sat in front of them in some class and Mack was barely paying attention. Caleb was waving her over to the table he was sitting at, but Bailey and Keisha had already started to walk over to Adam and Teagan.

Then she felt a hand on her arm, remembering her recent kidnapping she screamed and threw her lunch in the air. The food flew through the air, landing on the person who had grabbed her arm. She turned to see Calum wiping food out of his face and hair.

"Sorry," she said, helping him.

"I got it," Calum said.

"I'm really sorry," she said.

"I know," he said. "And, I'm sorry too. I hurt you and I didn't mean to."

"That's okay. Friends?" She held out her hand to him. He frowned for a split second before smiling.

"Friends," he said shaking her hand.

Next chapter you'll find out why Chad was so focused on the camera last chapter.

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