Another one today because I do feel a little bad I stopped posting.


Chapter 12

Kim wondered how long it would take to get used to John always following her. It turned out it took much longer than she would have liked.

Two days later, it was still just as bad as the first day. John was always watching. If Frank ever approached her he always swooped in and either moved Kim or redirected Frank.

The only guys that John ever let approach Kim were Jack, Jerry, and Milton and even then he was still very wary of Jerry and Milton. Jack, he had to quickly accept because Kim was always with him.

She knew people noticed, but nobody said anything to her face. Kim wasn't sure if that was because nobody had tried or if anybody who did try never actually got to her face because of John. Either way, she was spared the brunt of the backlash.

Today they had an assembly so the schedule was completely messed up. Classes were shortened and a few were rearranged. Most teachers had difficulty coming up with a lesson plan to fit the schedule which resulted in Kim's favorite kind of day.

They had work time in English to finish a paper most people had already submitted. They watched a movie in the randomly extra-long third period. In her fourth class, the teacher passed out a short worksheet and the rest of the time the class just talked amongst themselves.

Kim was grateful she was in a class with Jack where they could just talk and joke around.

Jack had a bag of popcorn in his backpack and when he pulled it out, Kim asked for a piece.

Rather than offering her the bag like a normal person, Jack decided to throw a piece at Kim instead.

"Hey! That one dropped on the floor!" Kim complained. "I want another one."

Jack shook his head. "You should have caught it," he shrugged.

"Please, like you would have caught it if I threw it at your face," Kim scoffed.

"Okay," Jack said, handing the bag to Kim. "Throw one at me. I'll catch it."

Kim smirked. "Okay. But you can't know when I'm going to throw it. I didn't know you were going to."

Jack rolled his eyes. "Okay fine. Don't tell me."

Kim nodded as she secretly stuck her hand in the bag and picked up a piece of popcorn. "I won't. It would be fair if you knew when I was going to throw it so I have to catch you off guard-"

Kim cut herself off as she threw a kernel right at Jack's face.

Amazingly, Jack reacted quickly and opened his mouth, catching the unpopped kernel.

Jack coughed as he realized Kim had thrown a kernel rather than a normal piece of popcorn.

Kim burst into laughter as Jack doubled over, reaching for his water.

When Jack had stopped coughing, he tried to glare at Kim but she was still laughing to herself and he couldn't help but laugh a little too.

"Why would you do that?" he asked, taking another sip of water. "I could have died!"

"You would not have died," Kim laughed. "You're always so dramatic."

"I may be dramatic, but at least I caught the kernel. You couldn't even catch a popped piece of popcorn."

Kim narrowed her eyes, sensing a challenge. "Alright then, let's try again."

Jack took the bag from Kim and began throwing Kim pieces. After a few minutes, her record of six in a row was established.

"Okay, my turn," Jack said, passing the bag to Kim.

"Okay." Kim smiled as she took the bag and purposefully started sabotaging Jack, throwing the popcorn too high or too far left or right.

"You're cheating!" Jack argued. "I threw right to you!"

"There are no rules, Jack," Kim shrugged, continuing to throw absurdly bad throws.

At some point, Jack stood up from his seat for better mobility.

That was when things really took off.

It wasn't long before other people started to notice. After all, Jack was the only one standing up and he was moving further and further away. The class took notice and started to cheer him on while Kim threw pieces of popcorn every which way.

Jack was crazy good at catching pieces of popcorn. Some of the classmates even joked about starting a school team with Jack as the captain.

When Kim threw the piece too far to the left and Sam, another classmate, caught it instead, the game morphed into a competition of trick shots.

Then, Jack caught a piece with his hand instead of his mouth to prevent it from hitting the floor and instead threw it to Kim at the same time she threw two pieces toward both Jack and Sam.

That was the start of the trio toss.

Basically, Sam, Kim, and Jack all had a few pieces of popcorn and they took a position far away and tossed their piece at the same time, in a triangular motion.

It took some coordination and practice, but by the end of class, they had perfected it.

The bell ringing caught everyone by surprise and Jack and Kim had to stay a little late to clean up all the fallen pieces of popcorn.

John, who had been standing near the door silently the entire time, just watched.

"You think John would catch one?" Kim whispered to Jack, looking curiously at John from her kneeled position under a desk.

"He'd had to actually open his mouth for a reason besides telling Frank off or grunting."

Kim laughed. "True. But if he tried? Do you think he could?"

Jack shook his head. "He acts all tough, but popcorn catching takes real, developed, and practiced skill. It takes a special kind of person to get good at it."

Kim rolled her eyes. "Oh, you mean good like you?"

Jack gave Kim a pleased shrug. "You're words, not mine."

"Well, I think you're too proud. I think John would give you a run for your money, he's just too serious to do it. But if it was a matter of my safety and he could protect me by catching popcorn in his mouth? I think he'd crush you. He just needs motivation."

"Well, everyone is entitled to their own opinion."

"Thanks but-"

"Even if their opinion is wrong."

"Jack!" Kim gasped, smacking Jack and crawling away to finish picking up the pieces by the back corner.

When the pair finished they grabbed their bags and walked down to the lunch room together, bumping into each other every few steps, trying to knock the other one off balance.

Jack and Kim's happy energy seemed to be infectious and lunch was a humorous affair. Jerry and Milton quickly joined in with the constant joking and messing around.

When lunch was over, Jack and Kim stayed together for their last class before the assembly.

Luckily their teacher had them working in pairs on an actual assignment. Jack and Kim were still able to work together, but they had to focus on their work so they were able to cool down after almost an hour of straight messing around.

When the bell rang, the halls flooded with students as everyone headed toward the gym. John held Kim back, not wanting to lose her in the crowd.

"We're going to be late," Kim argued, not wanting to have to wait for everyone to leave before her.

"You'll live."

Kim sighed and turned to Jack giving him a sorry shrug. "You can go on without me," Kim suggested.

"That's okay, I'll wait with you. Just in case we can't find the others."

"Thanks."

It was another minute before the hall was empty enough for John to let Kim go.

Kim felt that her throat was a little dry and tried to reach for her water bottle. "Jack, can you get my water out of my backpack? I'm kind of thirsty."

Jack grabbed her bag and fished out the bottle, handing it to Kim who, after John held her back, didn't want to waste any time to stop. Kim realized it was a bad idea when the movement of her steps caused the water to gush out all at once and drip down her chin and onto her shirt.

Kim yelped as she pulled the water away, looking down at the mess she made of herself.

Jack stopped and laughed at her as Kim wiped the water from her chin and bruised as much as she could off her shirt.

"Forget how to drink water?" Jack joked.

Kim glared as she put her cap back on and thrust the bottle back into Jack's hands. "Just put it back in my bag, will you?"

"Your wish is my command," Jack chuckled, bowing to Kim as he did as she asked.

"Who do you think they got for the assembly this time? Jump rope team? Motorcycle tricks? Teachers dressed up in sumo wrestler costumes?" Kim asked, going through all the past assembly events she had seen.

Jack shrugged. "I feel like this one is more of a relay race/dance-off kind of assembly."

"You want to bet on that?"

"What, if it's a relay race or dance-off I win, and if it's anything else you win?"

Kim smiled. "Yup."

"Deal," Jack grinned, reaching out to shake Kim's hand.


Another fun chapter. I cannot confirm or deny that this chapter was based off that one scene in the Office with Pam and Michael and ryan and the cheese balls.

Also I haven't really been writing this story for a while (hence why I wasn't posting, because I like to have a reserve of a few chapters so updates can be regular-ish even though my updates have been anything except regular) but my point is I think there will be about 25-26 ish chapters. So just so you know. Slightly less than the original book because no offense but that one is trash and the chapters were super short anyways and this book is longer, just less chapters. It'll be good. I promise.