Chapter Four

A pair of sapphire eyes looked intently at the chartreuse-headed boy sitting across the table. He took a sip of his black coffee as his emerald eyes stayed focused on the laptop in front of him. Occasionally, he would click on his mouse and start typing.

"Well, Drew?" she asked nervously. "What do you think?"

Drew finished reading the last paragraph of the essay before turning the laptop back to its owner, who started to look through the changes he had made as he was reading it.

"Honestly, May, it's a good personal statement. Why are you so worried about it?"

May sighed as she closed her laptop and moved it aside as her panini order arrived. "Because, believe it or not, my grades aren't exactly the greatest," she started, shooting Drew a glare as he chuckled. "If I want to even be considered for Castelia Music and Fine Arts, I have to to impress the admissions counsel in some way other than through my grades."

Drew thought for a moment as he ate his salad before inquiring, "Don't you also have so submit a video audition of some kind? Wow them with that."

May nodded as she chewed her food, swallowing her food before she spoke. "I already know what I'm going to do and I think it'll really impress them. But that's why I also need this statement to be one of the best they'll ever read. If I can sway them with both the statement and my video audition, I think it may really give me a shot at being accepted."

Drew thought for a moment as he continued eating his salad, sparing glances at May as he did so. When the brunette had called to ask if he was free to go out, to say he was ecstatic would be an understatement. But he couldn't let her know that he was excited, so he had to play it off cool. Unfortunately, he didn't realize that she had called him out to help her out with college applications. Regardless, he still found her determination admirable and couldn't help but fall for her a bit more.

"You know," he started, "My mom's alma mater is Castelia Music and Art. I guess if you really want to get in, I can convince her to put in a good word or two…but it will cost you, obviously, because I can't be offering these types of services for free." He added the last bit to tease her as he normally would, but also so she wouldn't think he's weird for suddenly being nice to her. It wasn't their dynamic.

May let out a small gasp at his offer. From the years of knowing him, he never really spoke much about his family. The brunette used to prod him with questions, but when he proved to be adamant on sharing just enough, she left it at that and never brought it up again as she understood where he was coming from. It wasn't a secret that Drew was from a wealthy family, but what his parents did certainly was, for he knew people would take advantage of him.

I may actually have a chance at getting in if Drew's mom helps out, May thought excitingly. But…

"I can't have her do that, Drew," May declined with a small smile. "If I get in, I want it to because I actually earned it, not because an alumni put in a good word for me. If I don't get in, there's always next time," she said, sounding hopeful.

The chartreuse-headed boy was slightly taken aback, but nonetheless not surprised at her response. He smirked as he finished the last of his meal.

"I should've known better," he simply stated.

"What about you?" May asked. "How are your applications coming along? You never seem stressed so I assume that you're all set to go."

"I've had my eyes on New Tork University for years, so that was the first school I applied to once applications became available." He glanced at his watch and noticed that she had finished her meal. "So what's the plan now? Surely this isn't all for our date."

Upon hearing him mention date, the brunette choked on her water and glared at him as he laughed. Wiping the water from her face, May tried her best to keep her composure to keep the red from coming to her face. When she first invited him out for the day, she didn't think much about it. However, now that he's pointed it out, it did seem like the two were on a date.

"I have no idea what you're talking about," she said nonchalantly. "I simply took it as us hanging out, nothing more."

Drew chuckled, paying for their meal when the check was brought to them. Before the brunette could get a word out, he stood up and helped her carry her laptop. "Come on, you need a break from college applications."

May got up from her seat and grabbed her bag before leaving the café with Drew to his car. "And where did you have in mind?" she inquired curiously.

He gave her a playful smirk and opened the car door for her. "Don't worry about it."

The brunette looked at him quizzically before getting into the car. "You're not going to murder me, are you?"

Drew chuckled and shook his head before closing her door.

When are you going to realize how madly in love I am with you?

"Hey, it's May here! Sorry I can't pick up right now- "

Dawn sighed as she hung up on the voice mail message. Of all days, May chose Saturday to be busy.

Misty's busy running the gym today, and Leaf's probably out on a date with Gary, she thought to herself.

"What to do?" the blue-headed girl asked herself as she looked through her personal agenda to see what she needed to do.

Checking off her assignments, she came upon a report for her English class that was written down, but had no recollection of a paper ever being assigned. Filing through her folder, she found an older piece of paper with the contents of said report. Looking at the due date, the girl's eyes popped out of her socket.

"It's due this Monday?!"

Immediately, she grabbed her books and skimmed through the pages to find what she needed to start the report. However, just as quick as she was to get started, she was also lost at where to start.

"Ok, deep breaths, Dawn," she told herself, trying to calm down. "You've still got all of today and tomorrow to get it done. You'll be fine," she encouraged.

After a few minutes of calming down, she reorganized her desk and papers, hoping that would help her clear her head a bit more. As she looked through her notes, she realized that she also knew one person who was in her class and most likely had his paper finished and ready to go. Dawn looked out her window, across the house from hers and bit her bottom lip.

"Paul's not going to be happy."

She knew that she would get an earful, but her grade depended on it and she needed a good grade. With Paul having the highest grade in the class, there was no doubt his help would get her the score she needed to pass the class. She just had to suck it up when he lectured her.

Grabbing her books and materials, Dawn made her way down the stairs and let her mom know that she was going to go over to Paul's to work on her paper. Since her mother was friends with his older brother, she had no problem at all.

"Can you also drop these off for the two of them?" Johanna asked, handing her daughter a plate of casserole. "With their father gone on a business trip, I want to be sure they're taking care of themselves."

Dawn agreed and left her house to cross the street, ringing the doorbell as she arrived to the front door. She was greeted with a girl who was older than her by a few years. Her pink eyes lit up upon seeing Dawn and hugged her.

"So good to see you, Dawn!" she greeted happily as she let her in, taking the casserole off her hands as she entered. "Oh jeez, your mom's cooking is the best. I chose the best day to come over."

The blue-headed teen giggled. "Hello to you too, Maylene," she greeted as she took her shoes off. "Just wondering if Paul's home?"

Maylene shot Dawn a sly look wrapping an arm around her shoulder as she led her into the living room to have a seat. "My, my, don't tell me that you and Mr. Grumpy have started going out?"

Dawn couldn't help but laugh at that comment as she took a seat on the floor next to the coffee table, before taking her books out. "Funny, Maylene, but no. I completely forgot about a report that's due this Monday and I need Paul's help."

Maylene rolled her eyes at the teen's response as she made her way into the kitchen to set the casserole down. "Whatever you say, Dawn. But, I'm going to call it now, you two are going to be a great pair."

And with that, she went upstairs to get Paul.

As she waited, Dawn went ahead to start on the reading material she would need for the project. It seemed she had to pick a theme from their current novel and grab examples from the book to state her case. Seemed simple enough, Dawn thought.

"If only I had read the book," she groaned as she allowed her head to fall on the table.

"Why am I not surprised that you didn't read the book," a new voice said.

Dawn's head shot up and turned to the source of the new voice who had entered the living room. Hands in his grey sweatpants, Paul made his way over to the couch, sitting across from her. He pushed his lavender locks away from his onyx eyes and spared a glance over at the book that was currently in her dainty hands.

"That was assigned the first day of class," he scoffed, shaking his head. "I can't believe you even passed the quizzes."

Dawn wanted to glare at him but knew that she couldn't if she needed his help. Instead, she clapped her hands together and shut her eyes.

"Paul, please, I'm desperate and really need a good grade to keep my B in the class to keep cheerleading," she explained. "I'll help you with your chemistry homework in return," she offered.

Paul scoffed at that. "No thanks, I would actually like to pass."

Before Dawn was able to continue though, he took the book from her and scanned through it. "What theme did you decide on? I assume you you just went online to find a theme for this book."

The blue-headed girl laughed nervously as he caught her. Though she hated to admitted, she did admire how sharp he was.

"Family," she answered. "You know, her search for a sense of belonging and love to somehow establish her identity and all."

Paul rolled his eyes at her generic response. There was no doubt she looked up the book and its themes and just pulled the first theme she saw. But, it wasn't as if she was the only person to do that, and he knew that. He sighed, cursing at himself for ever befriending her when they were kids.

"Half the class is going to be using that theme, you know? Juan won't be happy to read ten papers with the same theme and identical examples," he explained as he grabbed a pen and paper from her, writing down some notes for her as she leaned over to see what he was writing.

She saw him write a theme down and a couple examples before he handed the paper back to her, along with her book.

"Gender inequality?" she asked as she read over his notes.

Paul nodded. "It's subtler in the book compared to the other themes," he said, "It'll impress Juan to see someone spotting out a smaller theme. So get through as much of the book as you can for the day and try to look for examples to support this theme. I'll only help you if you come back with something."

Dawn pouted at the fact that she still had to read the book, but also expected that Paul would only help her to an extent.

At least he helped you at all, she thought, sighing. "Fine, I'll try to finish this tonight. Can you please proofread it for me then? Pretty please?" she begged, pouting up at him.

Her friend released a sigh of small frustration, but nodded nonetheless, resulting in a grin from Dawn. She packed all her things and walked towards the door, with a slight spring to her step. If she was going to get this done in the day, she'd need to focus back in her own room.

"You're the best, Paul!" she called back before exiting the door. "Coffee on me next time!"

Paul simply sighed and shook his head, a small smile gracing his lips. "So troublesome."

"Ok, so here's your membership card," Misty said as she handed a client a card to them. "Please be sure to have it on you when you come, otherwise you will have to provide your information so that we can confirm it's you," she explained politely.

The girl nodded, taking in the instructions. Before long, she headed towards the locker room to change.

Misty sighed as she wiped down the counter. Though she loved the gym, she hated it when she couldn't actually use it since she was working. "Just three more hours," she told herself. "Then it's off to the pool."

"Hey, Mist."

This brought her out of her thoughts as she turned to the person who called her. She smiled upon seeing the familiar tuft of raven hair and waved him over to her counter.

"What are you doing here, Ash?"

He gave her a sheepish laugh. "Well, I figured it's been a while since I've been to the gym, so I just thought why not come today."

Misty shook her head and sighed, knowing exactly why he decided to come. She pointed at the counter behind her, where her binder and textbooks were.

"Physics homework is over there," she informed. "And don't copy everything! Last time you did that Blaine got suspicious. You're so lucky I lied my way out of it."

Ash ran behind the counter and gave her a quick hug before taking his homework out to look at Misty's.

"Lucky for you, I actually did some of the problems on my own," he stated proudly as he showed her the half filled piece of paper.

His friend scanned over his homework and was actually surprised to see that some of the answers were right. Seeing that he did some of them on his own, she felt more comfortable with him copying her answers.

"Alright, so now that you're here," she started, "I'll be off to swim, while you take care of things here."

Ash simply nodded as he moved the necessary materials to the front counter and took over the seat that Misty was just on. At this point, it was routine for them. While Ash compared his answers with Misty's, she'll go do her workouts and he'll take over her shift. After all, all he had to do was greet and check in gym goers. Sometimes he had to handle sign ups but on a regular Saturday like this, it was very rare.

As Misty made her way to the locker room to change, she took one more look back at Ash and couldn't help but smile at him.

The weekend passed by quickly and soon, it was Monday. Contrasting from the previous sunny days, it was pouring and had no signs of stopping any time soon.

Leaf sighed as she looked out her window and debated whether or not she really needed to get to school today. She hated and refused to drive in the rain since it brought nothing but frustration within her.

"Stupid calculus test," she cursed under her breath when she realized she couldn't skip school after all.

She thought about calling one of her friends to pick her up, but since she lived on the other side of the city from them, she didn't want to inconvenience them. Plus, it was already getting a bit late and she didn't want them both to be running late. There was one person who lived a few streets down from her though and the brunette sighed deeply.

Only one other person to call.

Leaf waited until she saw Gary's black car pull up on her driveway before she put on her rain boots and left her house. Hurrying over to his car, she made sure to avoid big puddles so his car wouldn't get too wet.

Getting in, she avoided the cocky smirk he had and simply told him to drive.

"Well, well, well," he taunted as he drove carefully on the wet road. "Never thought I'd see the day come where you willingly call and ask to go to school together. Has the past month of fake dating actually cause you to have feelings for me?"

Leaf rolled her eyes and rested her chin on her palm. "You were the last option," she defended. "And I hate driving in the rain. If I didn't have a calculus test today, I would've skipped today completely."

"Why do you hate driving in the rain," Gary asked curiously, looking over to her.

"Eyes on the road," she ordered, smiling slightly when he listened to her.

Although she hated to admit it, she and Gary have grown a bit closer in the one month of fake dating. She wouldn't say they were the closest buddies around, but she had definitely gotten used to his presence. In addition to that, they found a new hobby in teasing Drew about his crush on May, much to the Drew's dismay.

Her thoughts were cut short when a white cup was presented in front of her. The brunette raised an eyebrow as she took the cup from Gary and took a sip.

"You always have coffee on you Monday mornings," he explained as he continued to drive, avoiding her eyes in case she laughed. "I figured we didn't have time to stop by for a cup so I made you a cup."

Leaf couldn't help but smile at that. She hadn't realized how much attention he had actually paid to her. Sure, it was obvious that she needed her Monday morning coffee, but she didn't think he'd go out of his way to make her a cup, especially because she knew he didn't like coffee as much as she did.

"It's pretty good," she mumbled as she took another sip, wondering how he figured out how she liked her coffee.

His ears perked and he smirked as he parked in the parking lot. He leaned in closer. "Sorry, what was that, I missed it."

The brunette rolled her eyes before gathering her things and getting out of his car, umbrella in hand. "You heard what I said, and I won't say it again."

Gary grinned as he got out his car to catch up with her, grabbing the umbrella from her and held it over both their heads. He slung an arm casually over her shoulder to pull her close to make sure she wouldn't get wet. The students may have gotten over the news of them going out, but he still had to put on a show. It was the only time he could actually be close with the brunette without her pushing him away.

"Did you just fall in love with me?" he teased as they made their way up the stairs up to the entrance. Once they made it up the stairs, he closed the umbrella and opened the door for her.

"Nope," she answered cheekily before heading inside. "Might want to try a little harder," she advised.

Entering in after her, Gary caught up to her, smiling inwardly. "And what should I do to have you fall head over heels for me?"

She merely shrugged. "Guess you'll just have to do everything in your power," was all she said when they reached her locker. "Don't you have your own locker to attend to? We've got ten minutes before classes start, you know?"

Seeing as she had a point, the spiky-headed boy gave her quick peck on her forehead before getting started on his day.

On his way to class, he chuckled at her reaction when he kissed her forehead. Even though their fake relationship has been going on for a month already, he still found her reactions adorable when he showed any public display of affections.

"Please let this last a bit longer," he said to himself before entering first period.

yo. It's me.

I know it's been ages but the past few weeks I've got tons of ideas for my stories, but it's more so trying to get to those ideas that's hurting my small brain lol. But I'll be honest, it felt good to write something again, even though it's been SUCH a long time. But I hope everyone's been good. If y'all ever want to talk, literally about anything, just PM me. I'd love tot talk.

But until next time, please review! For anyone who stuck around, I love you.