Aiden's P.O.V.

After spending some time with Clara yesterday, I had to admit that I felt kind of strange, but in a good way. When I first caught sight of her, I found myself checking her out...again.

It wasn't everyday that I got to see Clara in shorts, but I was digging those tights she was wearing beneath them. I could have swore she caught me staring at her, but even though I wasn't even dressed that great for the occasion, she still complimented me.

At the end of the night, I had this odd moment with her. It only lasted for a moment, but Clara and I just found ourselves staring at each other. I'd be lying if I said that I didn't want to pull her towards me and kiss her right then and there, but I didn't. She must have thought I looked weird staring at her lips like that. Hopefully it isn't too awkward when I see her in class today.

When I arrived at school, I felt the urge to use the restroom since I had forgotten to go before I left. Once I got to the bathroom, I was about to go in until I heard two familiar voices behind the wall.

"You did what?" I heard one guy who sounded like Horatio.

"I had to cover for her, man. I couldn't let her go to jail."

Was that Marcus? What were those two talking about? I pressed my ear up against the wall, wanting to listen a bit better.

"Marcus, bro, you could get in a shit ton of trouble for this. If someone finds out, not only is your ass on the line, but so is Sitara's."

So, Marcus was the one who set up that kid for lying. As interesting as it sounds, I'm not too surprised.

"I know," Marcus replied, "But I couldn't just sit around and let her get into trouble, or even worse, jail."

I heard a sigh from Horatio. "Look, dude, I know you like Sitara, but...this shit you just pulled shows way more than you just 'liking' her. You've got a serious crush on her if you're willing to risk something like that."

"Just...promise you won't tell nobody?"

"Believe me, if Sitara were to find out who was covering for her, she has the right to hear it from you. Not me. But why can't you just tell her how you feel, man?"

"Because she doesn't seem to like me back."

"Yeah, well what seems and what is are two different things. You'll never know how she really feels about you until you tell her."

"I don't know about right now, man. She's been real flirty with Aiden."

I heard a slight chuckle come from Horatio, "Dude, he does not look the slightest bit interested in her." His voice dropped almost into a low whisper, "But if you want my honest opinion, I think he's got the hots for Clara."

Do I? Or is it just lust? I shook my head and tuned back into the conversation.

"My point is, you gotta tell her at some point. If you keep waiting around, eventually somebody's gonna beat you to her. Even though, she's already had like two boyfriends who were complete shit anyways."

Just then, the bell rang for first period. Shit, I had to get out of here.

"Let's just go before somebody comes in," Marcus says.

As soon as he said that, I was out of there. I guess I had to find another bathroom then. Still, it got me thinking whether if I should tell Clara or not. Maybe it wasn't any of my business, but should I keep it to myself?

After using the bathroom, I made it to first period only a few minutes late. The teacher didn't say anything to me surprisingly as I took a seat. She seemed occupied with telling the class something about a group activity. Great.

"Each of you will be assigned a partner to work with," she explained, causing everyone to groan, including me, "Now, now. This is a way for you guys to be able to communicate and work together. I think this will be good for all of you."

Yeah right. I'm most likely not gonna see any of these morons after graduating so what's the point? After that, she went down each row, pairing people together until she stopped in front of me.

"Aiden, you will be assigned with Jordi," she pointed towards the annoying loud mouthed kid who was sitting a few seats from mine.

Are you fucking kidding me? It could have been anybody else but that kid. Oh well.

Jordi took a quick glance at me, not seeming to give a shit about the assignment in general before rolling his eyes at the teacher. She gave him a sharp glare before telling him to come over and sit next to me. I just stayed silent. I wasn't about to make the situation worse.

It took a lot of convincing, but Jordi finally went over to the empty seat next to mine looking annoyed that he has to do the assignment with me.

Once the teacher handed us our papers and left, he leaned towards me and said, "Okay, before you go and assume that I'm an expert at math just because I'm chinese, news flash, I'M NOT."

I looked at him, confused. "I wasn't going to-"

"Great! Also, I don't give a flying fuck about this shitty assignment that she's making us do so don't expect me to work on it. I don't even need this class to fucking graduate. I already took some stupid supportive math class three god damn years ago and believe me, the teacher couldn't teach worth a shit so I didn't learn anything." He then sighed which I honestly couldn't believe he still had air in his lungs. "Jesus...I need to get paid to go to school."

I was already getting tired of listening to him. "Are you done?"

"For now." He then slammed his head down on his desk.

I sighed before focusing on the worksheet in front of me. Honestly, I didn't even need Jordi's help with this worksheet, let alone anyone else. It was just a sheet filled with algebra problems and the teacher was probably just finding some excuse to get people to work together.

Throughout the rest of class, Jordi didn't talk to me, which I was glad he didn't, otherwise I would have to start bringing duct tape to school.

After class, my mind went back to the conversation Horatio and Marcus. Should I tell Clara? I feel like she deserves to know, but on the other hand, she might tell Sitara and that could spark some tension. Maybe I should keep it to myself for now.

Before I knew it, I was in my fifth period class and surprisingly, Clara wasn't there. I hoped she was just late and not absent. I was looking foward to seeing her today for some reason. I'm guessing it was because we went out last night, and I wanted to hang out with her some more.

Occasionally I would check and see if Clara had entered the classroom only to be disappointed to see it wasn't her. Five minutes went by before the bell rang and still no sign of her. Looks like she wasn't here today, which I was bummed about, but I could probably survive through class without her.

Probably.

The first couple of minutes of class felt a little odd without her there considering that I didn't know a single damn person in here besides her, but just when I was about to lose hope, the door opened. My eyes quickly shot up to see a very pissed off looking Clara. A part of me was relieved that she was here, but I took notice of her face being slightly red which instantly left me wondering what happened that made her so late.

"Clara, how nice of you to join us," Mr. Kenney said with clear sarcasm in his voice.

She sighed in response, "Am I in trouble?"

He let out a soft chuckle, "Of course not. Have a seat."

Without another word, Clara began walking, well more like stomping, over to her seat. Once she sat down, she sighed heavily before dropping her bag on the ground. She then turned to me and did her best to work up a smile which I could clearly tell was fake.

"What's wrong?" I asked, curious to know who or what put her in a bad mood.

She huffed and her smile faltered. "I just ran into some trouble in the hallway."

"What kind of trouble?" I asked almost with caution, hoping that she wouldn't snap.

There was a short pause before she finally spoke, "Fucking Defalt."

"What did he do?" I said, feeling a sudden urge to find the douchebag and shove a foot up his ass. He had to have done something really shitty to make Clara this upset.

"He and these two other guys were picking on some poor ninth grader, you know calling him names, dumping stuff out of his bag and throwing his books at him. So being the nice person I am, I step in to help the kid, and Defalt was just standing there trying to defend his actions like any typical asshole would. He calls me "sensitive" for trying to defend this kid and I swear I wanted to just..."

She then took a deep breath, attempting to calm herself before she continued, "Long story short, I got the kid out of that mess, but...I just don't understand how he can be like that."

I was about to say something until another voice startled the both of us from behind.

"Are yall talking about ratboy?" We turned to see T-bone reclined behind his desk looking amused by our conversation.

"Yeah," Clara answered. "He's such a jerk."

"I had him in class one year. He was always slackin' off and whenever I told him to do something, he would flip me off and tell me to go fuck myself," he said with a small chuckle, not caring that he just swore in front of his own students. "You said he was throwin books at the kid?"

Clara nods, "Yeah. I just don't know why the school hasn't done anything about him."

"Well if you want me to be honest," he leans forward a little bit and says in a hushed voice, "I don't think the principal is doin' a very good job at runnin' this place. If he was, Defalt would be long gone by now."

Damn, even the teachers thought Dusan wasn't suitable for being in the position that he was. It made me wonder why he was even the principal of this school.

"This school has gone downhill ever since he took the throne," he continued, "Believe me, I've been working here for ten years and I know change when I see it."

"Does he make you not want to work here?" Clara asked out of curiosity.

He shook his head, "Not really. Actually, I want to be here long enough to see him leave this school for good."

I could see a smirk appear on Clara's face. "I do too."

After class, we went to the cafeteria and I had to admit, lunch felt way more quiet without Sitara.

"So you're telling me Sitara is off the hook?" Wrench asked Clara with astonishment.

"Yeah. I told you that already," she said with an eyeroll, "I don't want to keep repeating myself."

"I know, but it's a big fucking deal. Either it's someone who's close to Sitara, or they really hate Dusan. Maybe both?"

"Yeah, probably," Clara said.

Throughout their chatter, I noticed that Marcus was the most silent out of all of them. His face had the word 'guilty' written all over it and it wasn't difficult for Horatio to take notice as well. After all, he knew who really covered for Sitara and so did I.

When I got home that day, Nicky immediately greets me at the door, which was unusual. She had her hands behind her back with a huge grin on her face. I knew that she had some interesting news to tell me.

"Aiden," she says, her grin growing imposssibly wider, "I have some really good news!"

I sigh, knowing that I'm probably not going to care about what her exciting news was, but I'll hear her out.

"I'm all ears," I replied.

Upon hearing my answer, she takes a deep breath, "Okay, so I've...well it's better if I show you."

She turns her head sideways and does a hand gesture, signaling someone to come over. What I saw and heard next nearly made my heart stop. There appeared a teenage boy who looked to be Nicky's age and he stood beside her looking smug and casual.

"Aiden, meet my new boyfriend, Cody."

Did she just say...boyfriend?