Chapter Twelve

Nigel's POV

The bell for first lesson rang and like always, I headed to my locker. I twisted the knob on my lock and it clicked open. I opened my locker and grabbed the books that I needed for my next lesson… Math. I shuddered. Wally had trouble opening his locker, which was only two lockers down from mine. "C'mon you piece of crud." He growled. It flung open and all these papers flew out. I swear his locker is about as messy as a pigs sty. He groaned and knelt down to pick them up and chucked them back into his locker. "Hey Nigel, d'ya know what's wrong with Kooks?" He asked. "She's been avoiding me all day."

I froze. Wally stared at me as he put his books in his bag, awaiting an answer. "Nope." I shook my head. "Maybe you should ask her."

"Oh that'd be a good idea, considering she's not listening to me."

I felt a tap on my shoulder and I jumped. I turned to see Abby standing before me with a hand on her hip. "Chill boss." She said with a smile. "Its just Abby."

"Oh Abby." I sighed of relief. "You startled me."

"Ready to head to Math?"

I smiled and we were off. Our teacher, Mr. Mahn was quite… strange. He had a strong Asian accent and his slanted beady eyes were between a pair of clear spectacles sitting upon his nose. His thin blackish-gray hair stuck up and was quite messy. "Ah Mr. Uno and Miss Lincoln, please take seat." He greeted us as we stepped through the door. He wasn't all too flash with English either.

We took our usual seats at the back of the class and took our books out. "Now, I hope you finished chapter 4 of Math book." Mr. Mahn clapped his hands together. "We start new chapter today. Open your books."

I opened my book to chapter 5 and a scrunched up paper ball landed on it. I looked at it for a while then opened it up.

Tell Lizzie at lunch about the dance, or I will. You can't keep avoiding it.

It read. I looked beside me to see Abby writing in her notebook. I wrote on the paper,

I don't know what to say. If I tell her that I'm going with someone else she'll ask why. I can't tell her about TND.

And I threw it back to Abby. I watched her read it and she sighed. She scribbled something down and threw it back to me.

Of course you can't. But say something.

She'll kill me.

Oh c'mon. You've been going on and off with her for ages. Abby can't keep up about whether you're broken up or not. What's different about this?

It's… a Valentines Ball. You know what she's like when it comes to romance.

True. She's worse than Kuki, if that's even possible. But you have to tell her. You can't go with me and her at the same time. She'll get in the way of the mission. You said so yourself.

I read it and sighed. Before Mr. Mahn could see I put the note in my bag and continued with my work.

I was in dance class once again. I sat on the floor with Virginia, Bartie, Abby, Lizzie, Wally, Rachel, Patton and Kuki. Kuki sat far away from Wally and avoided any eye contact with him whatsoever. "So after school we're getting our dresses?" Rachel asked the girls.

"Of course." Said Virginia. "We have to get them sometime."

"Oh and we have to get our tuxes." Bartie said to us boys.

"Pfft." Wally waved a hand in front of his face. "Tuxes are so lame."

"Well what you're going to where?" Asked Patton, smirking. "Khaki uniform."

Everyone burst out laughing except for Wally. Patton's been making Australian jokes to Wally for a while now and it really pisses him off. "Okay class." Miss Kantanino called out to us from the front of the class. "Stand up, it's time to dance."

The class groaned as they stood up. "Now get with your partners." Our teacher said and Lizzie once again took my hand. Everyone paired up except for Kuki and Wally.

Wally tried to grab Kuki's hand but she kept stepping away.

"Excuse me miss." Kuki asked, raising her hand.

"Yes Kuki?"

"May I have a different partner?"

Wally stood there dumbfounded. "Well why?" Asked Miss Kantanino.

"No reason."

She shot Wally a look and he took a step back. "Well, there are no spare dancers left." Miss Kantanino said to Kuki.

"I'll dance with her." Ace shot his hand up. Wally growled as he curled his hand into a fist.

"But you're dancing with Abby, yes?"

"Yeah, but she can dance with Wally. From what I heard yesterday they're were dancing up a storm."

Now it was Kuki's turn to curl her hand into a fist. "Very well." Said Miss Kantanino. "Kuki pair up with Ace. Abby with Wally. But Kuki I want to see you after class."

Wally held Abby's hand and wrapped his arm around her waist not keeping his gaze of Kuki and Ace, who were quite close to each other I might add. Ace just smirked at Wally. "This doesn't mean anything." Kuki hissed.

"Oh don't worry." Ace replied. "It's only casual…"

"Okay class." Miss Kantanino clapped her hands. "We're going to try the waltz again since it didn't work out on Monday."

She turned to the stereo, but stopped suddenly and turned to face us again. "Where's Fanny and Hoagie?" She asked. Everyone looked around and shrugged.

"Gah! Sorry we're late!" Hoagie shouted as he burst through the door, Fanny following close behind.

"Well, would you mind telling me why you're late?" Miss Kantanino crossed her arms and raised an eyebrow. The class broke into giggles.

"Uh… no reason." Fanny replied, blushing. Hoagie was blushing as well.

"Very well."

As Miss Kantanino turned back to the stereo Hoagie and Fanny turned to each other and placed themselves in waltz position. "Oh my god." Rachel giggled. "You guys are sooo bad."

"Not as bad as you and Patton." Replied Fanny smugly. "You once missed out on a whole lesson."

Rachel frowned. Miss Kantanino played the music and signaled us to dance.

I turned my head caught Abby and Wally dancing. And once again Wally was doing every step perfect. I glanced at Kuki who was glaring so evilly at either Abby or Wally, totally ignoring Ace. She let out a loud groan and faced Ace again.

I stared down at my feet, making sure I was doing every step correctly. "Nigey, look at me, not your feet." I heard Lizzie say. So I did as I was told. I looked into her eyes and she looked back into mine and that's when I realized it.

I didn't love her anymore.

I felt sick. I was ashamed of myself. And then I knew what I had to do. I had to tell her at lunch.

The bell rang and Miss Kantanino stopped the music. Everyone left the dance studio, except Kuki, who stayed behind. "Guys, Abby's gonna just stay here fo' a while." Abby said. "Wait for Kuki."

"Yeah, Abs if you can find out what's wrong with her please tell me." Said Wally.

"Al'ight. But it might be a bit of a problem. She aint listenin' to Abby. But she'll see you guys later."

Once again I felt sick and ashamed. It was my fault that Kuki is mad at Abby and Wally and now. It felt satisfying to tell Kuki but now… I'm starting to regret it "Okay." I replied. We all turned and proceeded down the corridor and made our way to lunch.