Okay, I've got nothing much to say, but the fact that I don't own HSM (I wish I did).

Quickie recap!

"Yeah, I'd say you know this someone very well," Taylor answered, trying to not to give too much or too little.

"Do you like him?" Chad had no control of himself. He was just asking these questions for some reason beyond his control.

"Ohh...about that..." Taylor started, "I..."

CHAPTER SEVEN

"Yeah, about that," Chad urged on, leaning forward over the desk, tightening the gap between them.

"Did he have to come any closer? He's making it so hard the think." Taylor found it hard to focus on anything, except for the serious expression in his eyes. "Why does he care so much?"

Chad waved his hand in front of Taylor's frozen face. "Yoo-hoo. You still here Taylor?"

She snapped back into reality. "What?"

"Are you trying to avoid something?" Chad eyed her suspiciously.

"No, no. It's just that..."

The school bell rung and Mr. Levisk strolled into the room, whistling. "Looks like everyone is here today. That means the class will receive a surprise today!"

All the eyes lit up in the room and a smile spread across each student's face.

"And your surprise is a...unexpected baby inspection!"

Every student groaned. This wasn't the surprise they were expecting.

"What's with all the complaining? I for one think that this is a wonderful surprise," he paused, "but then again, I'm not the one that's getting graded on how I take care of a toy. Now everyone, get out your children. I'll record the data and tell you how you're doing so far."

Mr. Levisk walked back to the front of the room and sat down at his desk, searching through his drawers for something. Taylor turned to Chad and asked "Where's Corbin?"

"Corbin?" Chad looked at Taylor questioningly. "Oh, Corbin, the kid." Chad turned around and pulled Corbin out of his bag. "Here he is."

Taylor stared at him, dumbfounded at the thought of why he would place a baby in a bag. "Unorthodox method of carrying the baby with you but I won't argue."

"What?"

"Nothing."

"Well," Chad said, suddenly turning bitter, "Here's the kid." He tossed Corbin at her and turned to talk to Jason who was sitting next to him.

"What's wrong with him? He's suddenly changed. I thought that we were just becoming friends." She looked at him, wondering what had suddenly changed him.

Mr. Levisk made his way around the class, taking the baby from each pair and placing them in the box. "Take a couple minutes to chat while I collect the data. After that, you'll get your child back and a progress report. Now..." He had lost the class's attention after 'a couple minutes to chat'. He let out a sigh and returned to his desk.

Taylor turned around to find that Gabriella was talking with Troy on who-knows-what. And Chad was too busy to talk to her, not like he wanted her to. Or did she?

"I definitely don't like him," she declared, just loud enough for Chad to catch it.

"Don't like who?" Chad whipped around.

"Maybe if I told him that I didn't like him, it would get rid of all these feelings that I've been having. These feelings that have been slowly taking over my mind. These feelings that have been corrupting my concentration. These feelings for Chad Danforth that I'm not supposed to feel."

"Taylor...yoo-hoo..."

"What?" Her attention returned to the room and she found Chad's fingers snapping in front of her face.

"Why do you keep spacing out?"

"I-I don't know. This really isn't like me. I'm usually so focused." She turned to look at Chad, who returned to his conversation with Jason. Apparently, she was too boring for him. It's not like she cared...or yet again did she?

"This is a complete mess. My mind is a complete mess. I'm not supposed to like Chad Danforth. He's too into himself. He's a jock."

"Yeah he is but he's kinda nice. I mean, didn't he just ask me a couple questions about what was wrong with me? And didn't he offer to take care of Corbin for the day?"

"And then dump him back on me! He only cares for himself and no one else."

"But he forgot. He did take him back and offer to retrieve your book from the library."

"But he was too nosy and read the cover. There was no need to read what was on my own personal belongs. Okay, the book does technically belong to the school, but that doesn't give him the right to go reading what was on the cover."

"He didn't mean to. And besides, who can ignore that childish gleam in his eyes?"

"Yeah, and the sparkle in his smile..."

"His bushy head of hair that you just wanna reach out and touch it..."

"And his gorgeous high cheek bones. Who can hate a guy who's as gorgeous as him? Plus he did offer to do me a favor."

"Wait, aren't you on the side against Chad?"

"I am? Well, who can be against someone as great as Chad Danforth?"

"You know what? You're right."

"Hey Taylor? You there?"

"What?" Taylor's mind switched back to reality.

"You are sure spacing out a lot today. Are you sure that you're alright?"

"Yeah, I'm fine."

"Good," Mr. Levisk's voice came in, "I want to say that you guys are taking excellent care of your child. A lot better than I expected. Keep up the good work." He gave Corbin back to Taylor who passed him back to Chad.

"Okay students. Here comes the real test. The weekend. You have to make sure that you're doing the work evenly or else problems will arise. I hope you guys have plans on how you're dividing the weekends up. Now, just talk for a few minutes while...I..." He lost the class again at 'talk'. He turned around and sat at his desk, filling out a couple of papers for each pair of students.

"Hey Chad," Taylor hissed, trying to pull his attention away from his conversation with Jason. "Chad." No response. "Chad!" She put her hand on his shoulder and turned him around. He looked at her weird, but she didn't notice.

"Now with the weekend, I thought that we could each take a day. You'll take care of him tonight and I'll come over to your house to pick him up."

"Actually, we're gonna make this really easy. You," Chad placed Corbin in Taylor's hands, "can take care of him all weekend."

"But--"

"Wait, how about you take him for the rest of the three weeks? I really don't want to have this kid in my life anymore."

"What do you mean?"

"What do you mean what do I mean?"

"I thought...I thought..." she got quieter, causing Chad to strain to hear her, "I thought that we were just starting to become friends."

"That's the problem. My life's completely changed. I'm not supposed to be friends with you. I'm not supposed to care about this project. I'm not supposed to like the fact that Troy's dating Gabriella and that he's into musicals. I'm not supposed to be seen with you. I'm not even supposed to even be talking to you. And you know why?!"

Tears were swelling up inside Taylor and starting to well in her eyes.

"It's all because of this class and because of this project and because of this baby! It's his fault that I got paired up with you. It's his fault that my life's completely upside down. It's his fault that I ever came in contact with you."

The tears were now slowly cascading down Taylor's cheeks. Tears. Emotions. Crying. The last time Taylor had cried was when she was 6 and Billy the bully shoved her in the sandbox, causing her knee to bleed. That was the first time that she saw blood and the first time that she learned that she had to stick up for herself. The next day, she had shoved the sand down Billy's shorts and that taught everyone that you shouldn't mess with her. And nobody ever has...until now, except he hurt her emotionally.

Carrying Corbin in her arms, she wiped away the tears hoping that nobody else saw them, collected her books, and walked to the front of the room. She took a deep breath, calming her voice down.

"Mr. Levisk, I feel really sick. Can I be excused?"

"Sure Taylor. Here's a pass." Mr. Levisk handed her a green piece of paper without looking up at her so he didn't notice the new tears that we collecting in the corner of her eyes.

"Thank you." Her voice was shaky; the tears were overflowing from the corners of her eyes and slowly traveling down her cheeks. She wiped them away quickly and rushed out of the room.

Chad watched as she wiped the tears away with the sleeve of her shirt. But he couldn't help but feel that he was responsible for all of this. He didn't mean to burst out like that and he didn't mean to hurt Taylor...why? He would never know, but he didn't want to hurt her feelings.

"Chad, what have you gotten yourself into?"

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How is Chad going to fix this? And will Taylor forgive him? Let's just say that love can make people do something that they thought they never would. Please Review!

With much love,
Kat