Chapter 4: Jealousy Is Contagious

Kelsey woke up the next morning, feeling more tired than she had when she initially went to bed. She lay in bed, contemplating on going back to sleep when she looked over at her alarm clock.

" Oh, man." she groaned.

The clock read 7:30, meaning that the seventeen year old had to be at school in 10 minutes. Kelsey got out of bed as quickly as her injured arm would allow her, and moved over to her closet. She pulled out a pair of jean hip-huggers and a black shirt, making quick, yet careful, work of changing out of her pajamas and into the clean clothes. She pulled on her tennis shoes, and grabbed a hair clip as she carefully made her way out of her bedroom and downstairs. She prayed that her dad had made it back at some point that morning or she would be in more trouble than she could count on one hand.

" Dad, I'm going to be late." Kelsey called out, listening for an answer.

" Okay, I'm ready." Caleb said, as he came into the living room while grabbing his car keys from the rack by the front door. " Wait a minute, what happened to you?"

Kelsey explained the trials she had endured the day before as her father quickly laced up her sneakers and pulled her messy hair back and clipped it up. Her father picked up her bag and ushered his injured daughter out the back door of the apartment, into the two car garage. Despite having the mean to buy a more expensive car, Caleb chose to drive a blue Jeep Wrangler, which looked completely out of place in a city setting. Kelsey loved the vehicle nonetheless, and enjoyed driving it on the occasions her father would permit it. The engine roared to life, and Caleb made use of his crazy driving habits to get his daughter to school.

Kelsey made it to the illustrious institution with two minutes to spare before the bell rang.

" Bye, I love you." Kelsey said and kissed her dad on the cheek.

" I love you, too. Be sure to have someone bring you home after school. I'll be home for dinner." Caleb added with a frown as she shouldered her bag.

Kelsey waved to her dad after she closed the car door, and then walked to where the Ducks were sitting.

" Look, she has a cast." Averman said as he pointed at Kelsey.

" Really? I didn't notice it." Connie said sarcastically.

" I better get going. I don't want to get trampled." Kelsey said, resisting the urge to kick Averman.

" Hey, Kelsey, do you need someone to carry your books?" Charlie asked as he got up from the grass. Linda had a look that was a mix of admiration for her boyfriend's helpfulness, and jealousy that he was being so helpful to such an attractive girl.

" You don't have to." Kelsey said while blushing.

" But, I want to." Charlie insisted.

" Okay." she said, realizing she was fighting another losing battle.

Kelsey and Charlie were the first ones to sit at the table at lunchtime.

" So how long do ya have to keep the cast on?" Charlie asked as he returned to the table with a tray that had two bowls of food and two bottles of milk.

" About six weeks, I think." Kelsey said in a depressed voice as he sat the food down.

" You sound a little upset. Want to talk about it?" the team captain asked as he opened her milk.

" Well, I just had a bad night. I really didn't get much sleep..." Kelsey replied, hesitant to talk about such a touchy subject with someone she barely knew.

" What's up, babe?" Portman said as he sat down in the empty chair to the left of Kelsey.

"What is this?" Kelsey said referring to the soup in her bowl, ignoring the question Portman had asked.

She had initially been tempted into eating it, but once noticing that this was a chunky white substance nothing like a soup she had ever been tempted into eating, she sat her spoon back down into the soup.

" It's clam chowder." Adam said as he sat down at the table. " Well, more like something the cooks would like us to think is clam chowder."

" You would know, Cake-eater." Charlie said, chuckling.

" Shut-up, Spazway."

" Cake-eater is eating with the Ducks? What happened to sitting with the rich kids?" Russ taunted.

Adam rolled his eyes, enduring the teasing. " Can't a man sit with his friends?"

" Who doesn't want their clam chowder?" Goldberg asked, moving the flow of the conversation as he lowered himself into a chair.

" Here, you can have mine." Kelsey handed him the bowl with her untethered hand. " Thanks for getting it, Charlie, but I'm just not in the mood for chowder."

Having lived in New York for several years, Kelsey had a special place in her heart for clam chowder, but this oatmeal looking batch did not look appetizing at all.

" I still say my mom can make the best clam chowder." Goldberg said to Guy, as he accepted the other bowl.

" Sure." Guy rolled his eyes.

" Where's Luis?" Connie asked as she joined the group.

" He's over there, talking to Kylie." Fulton answered as he took a place at the table.

" He's stupid." Charlie added as he began eating.

" I know. Why would she even want to talk to him?" Adam agreed.

" Who's Kylie?" Kelsey asked, bewilderingly.

" Well, as you can see, she is a cheerleader. She flirts with every boy and every boy wants to go out with her." Julie explained as she pointed to a very pretty blond haired girl who was standing by the cheerleader table.

" Oh."

" Earth to the boys." Connie, waving her hand in front of her boyfriend's glazed over eyes. " Guy! Quit staring at Kylie! Now!"

" Oh, I'm sorry." Guy apologized quickly, immediately turning his gaze to his now angry girlfriend.

" Sorry isn't going to help you now. I'm sick of this. Change your attitude or I will change my mind." Connie snapped.

The remaining team members attempted to advert their attention. Most went back to eating or talking in hushed tones, hoping to not draw attention to themselves.

Julie looked over at Kelsey. "Do you need me to come over after school to help with your homework? I invited Scooter over to help me study for this humongous physics test I have next week, but I can cancel if you need me to."

Kelsey looked away from the couple that was heatedly arguing with one another. "Um, that's okay. I think I can find someone else to help me, Julie. I took physics last year; it's way harder than biology."

"Okay. But, if you can't get someone, just let me know. I'll probably get tired of studying after a couple hours anyway." she laughed.

"Connie, wait!" Guy exclaimed as he jumped up out of his seat.

Connie had stormed out of the cafeteria , leaving Guy no choice but to follow his stewing girlfriend to wherever she had went. Everyone at the table glanced up for a moment to shrug before going back to what they had previously been doing. While everyone else ate their lunches, Kelsey sat silently at the table. She suddenly felt a brief jab at her left leg, and looked up quizzically at Portman. He silently offered her half of his barbecue sandwich, which Kelsey gratefully accepted.

The bell rang fifteen minutes later, and the group of hockey players grabbed their trays and returned them before heading off to their afternoon classes.

" As I said yesterday, we will be studying the American Revolution." Mr. Clark said once the tardy bell rang. " You will be partnered up and will have to give an oral report. This counts as 50% of your end of term grade."

" Do we get to chose our partners?" Kylie, the cheerleader from lunch asked. She was winking at Portman.

Kelsey was torn between scratching the other girls steely eyes out and hurling.

" Mr. Clark, you have a phone call." the secretary paged over the intercom.

" Alright, guys, keep the noise down. I'll be back in a few. " Mr. Clark said jovially as he went to the office.

" I'm going to be sick." Kelsey said to Portman, trying not to laugh as he smirked.

Though she hadn't noticed him in the class on the first day due to her being rather perturbed with him, she had decided to sit with him once she realized they had the class together and she was no longer harboring ill-will towards him.

" I hope he chooses our partners. I ain't working with Kylie." Portman said.

" Okay. I will be choosing your partners." Mr. Clark announced as he entered the classroom a few minutes later. He went down the list. " The last two groups are Kelsey Paris and Kylie Perry, and Dean Portman and Ashleigh Vance."

" My luck is horrible." Kelsey groaned, earning a sympathetic nod from Portman who was mentally celebrating the fact that he had dodged that bullet.

Mr. Clark then told them to get together with their partners to choose which topic they would present on and to exchange contact information. Kelsey grinned and bared the painful conversation she had with Kylie until the bell rang for their next class. Kelsey was positive that Kylie would contribute zilch to the project, while she did all of the work. This didn't upset Kelsey because she did not want to spend too much time with the other girl.

Kelsey waited at the door for Portman to stop talking to his black haired partner before heading to their next class, the two hour long lecture about the finer points of literature.

" Hey, you know you're supposed to be taking it easy." he admonished as he exited the classroom. " Give me that bag, and I won't have to tickle you."

Kelsey easily gave up her bag, not wanting to be tickled. She wouldn't be able to defend herself with her injured arm.

" You're becoming soft, Paris." he joked as he pulled the bag onto his shoulder and walked beside her down the crowded hallway.

A.N.- This chapter was a little hard to expand on, but I tried my best. I hope the new direction of the story is good with you guys. Please leave reviews or criticisms if you feel the need to. I appreciate any and all feedback that I receive. Also, in case you have not realized it, I have now taken down the chapters that have yet to be revised. If you wish to read them, please check out my profile for the link to my Live Journal (it is listed as my homepage). Again, thank you all so much for checking out this story!