(A/N) Thank you for the reviews! I know I say that everytime I update this story but I really truly mean it! I really appreciate all the reviews! So thank you so much! Oh, sorry it took a little longer than usual to update this story, but I found this chapter hard to write. Sorry if Gary seems a little OOC here! Anyways, I hope you enjoy, and please review! I really do appreciate it!
Ever since her little run in with Gary, Eve hadn't spoken to him, or even seen him at that matter. It seemed like he was avoiding her, and Eve wanted to know why. The way his personality had changed in about two seconds confused her, one minute he was laughing, the next he had seemed quite angry, and then he had just ran off. Eve couldn't stop thinking about it, she wanted to know what was up with Gary, but she didn't want to exactly just walk up to him and demand an explanation. That wasn't how Eve did things.
Eve sighed heavily as she casually walked through the car park towards the side exit. Pete had asked her if she wanted to go to the carnival with him and Jimmy, and Eve had immediately agreed. She had grown very close to the two of them over the past few days.
She blinked in surprise as someone suddenly stepped in front of her, and looking up she saw one of the bullies, Wade, standing right in front of her, glaring down angrily.
"You wanna piece of this, huh, loser!" He shouted, making Eve take a timid step back. She had seen these guys bullying other kids, and she knew how aggressive and violent they could be.
Wade shoved Eve back, making her step back again as she stared up at him nervously. She'd never been very good at standing up for herself, and she'd never been good at fighting either, considering the amount of times she'd been beaten up before by her dad and the bullies at her old school.
"What you gonna do, huh? You gonna go cry?" Wade taunted, cracking his knuckles and shoving Eve again. He raised his fist getting ready to hit Eve, who closed her eyes and looked away, bracing herself for the impact, but it never happened. Instead she heard a thud, and the sound of someone scuffling around, and opening her eyes, she saw Jimmy now sitting on top of Wade, throwing punches at him.
Eve squeaked slightly as she felt someone's arms wrap around her waist, pulling her away from the two boys, who were now angrily rolling around on the ground.
Eve tried to pull out of the persons grip, thinking it was another one of the bullies.
"Relax, Evie, it's just me!" A familiar voice said, and looking up she saw it was Gary who had hold of her, and for once he wasn't smirking, he actually looked slightly…concerned. Eve thought she may have been imagining that though, as if Gary Smith would ever feel concerned.
As Jimmy and Wade continued wrestling, another bully ran over, who Eve recognised as Trent. Gary let go of Eve and ran over to Trent, where the two of them started to fight angrily.
Eve just stood there, her eyes staring at the fight fearfully. She wanted to help, she really did, but she knew that if she tried to help she would just get in the way, and cause even more trouble.
She felt slightly relieved when Pete turned up. He ran over to her, his eyes locked on the fight as he watched nervously.
"Pete, what do we do?" Eve asked desperately as she watched the four boys fighting, feeling pretty helpless.
"Don't worry, they can handle themselves," Pete said reassuringly, though Eve could tell that he was still slightly worried.
She felt a little calmer though as she saw that Jimmy had managed to knock out Wade, and was now going to help Gary who had almost beaten Trent.
Once Gary and Jimmy had finished with the bullies they walked back over to Eve and Pete, who both had anxious looks on their faces.
"Right, lets get going," Jimmy said, walking towards the parking lot gates as if nothing had happened. Pete followed Jimmy, still looking slightly worried; he was obviously scared in case the prefects found out. Eve just stared after the two in confusion, before her eyes travelled to Gary, who was standing a few feet in front of her, watching her intently.
"You coming little Evie?" He asked, smirking slightly. Eve nodded, heading after Jimmy and Pete, feeling nervous. If it hadn't of been for Jimmy and Gary, she could have been knocked out by now. She was very thankful to call them friends.
Eve smiled to herself as the cheesy music of the carnival reached her ears. She'd always wanted to come to a carnival; however, since her father had never given her any money, she'd never been given the right to actually visit a carnival, so she was pretty excited right now.
"Ever been to one of these before?" Jimmy asked, studying Eve as they walked through the gates into the carnival. Eve shook her head, glancing round in amazement at all the bright lights, her eyes lingering on the very unsafe looking rollercoaster, which looked like it was about to fall apart at any moment.
"Is that thing safe?" She asked, staring at it uncertainly.
"Probably not, but it's still fun," Jimmy replied, shrugging as he followed her gaze and stared up at it too. "You should go on it,"
Eve shook her head quickly. She'd never been a fan of heights, she felt much more comfortable with her feet planted firmly to the ground.
"Um…I'm not too great with heights," She explained, smiling uncertainly.
"Oh, come on little Evie, it's not scary." Gary said, shoving her lightly. "I'll hold your hand if that's what you want."
Eve knew he was just teasing, but she couldn't help but blush slightly. After all, she was actually starting to develop a crush on Gary, even though she refused to believe it.
"Shut up, Gary," She mumbled, crossing her arms over her chest and looking away from them. She regretted tying her hair up into a ponytail, as now she couldn't hide the light blush that had formed on her cheeks. Thankfully the boys didn't spot it though.
"Lay off her, man" Jimmy said, nudging Gary in the ribs, glaring at him slightly.
"Fine, no need to be all girly about it," Gary said, smirking. "Now come on, are we just gonna hang round here like little girls or are we gonna do something fun?"
Eve raised her eyebrows at Gary, before glancing at the other two who just shrugged and followed Gary who was now heading towards the funhouse. Eve sighed, before hurrying after them, not wanting to be left behind as there were a lot of rough looking boys hanging round.
As they neared the funhouse, Eve noticed that it was designed to look like a clowns face, and the entrance to it was actually through the clowns mouth, which Eve thought was actually quite clever.
Trudging down the slightly damp flooring which was meant to be the clowns tongue, Eve found herself inching towards Gary slightly, as even though she was excited, she was also feeling slightly nervous. She looked at Gary, and noticed that his smirk had gotten wider. He could obviously tell that she was nervous.
Eve's eyes widened as they entered another passage. The black and white walls swirled round, making her feel slightly dizzy, and right at the end of it was a black hole that obviously led to the next room.
She took a step forward, trying hard not to stare at the walls, as they made her feel slightly sick, what with all the swirling. It was as if they were almost hypnotizing her.
She jumped slightly as she felt someone grab hold of her hand, and she looked up to see Gary holding her hand, smirking slightly. It wasn't his usual smirk though, this one was different. A lot different.
Eve smiled happily as they stepped outside the funhouse, shivering slightly as it was starting to get cold, and dark.
The funhouse had been extremely…fun. What had made it even more enjoyable for Eve was not when Jimmy had humorously been hit in the head by a miners shovel, and it wasn't when Pete randomly fell over. No, what Eve had enjoyed the most was the fact that Gary had held her hand the whole time they were in the funhouse.
"Guys, we'd better be heading back soon," Pete said, looking slightly worried as he realised how late it was getting. Curfew was about an hour away, and if the police caught them out after curfew, then they'd be in big trouble.
"You guys head on, I wanna show little Evie here something," Gary said suddenly, making Eve look at him uncertainly, as she thought he was going to take advantage of Jimmy and Pete's absence and start acting like a jerk.
Jimmy narrowed his eyes suspiciously, nodding as he pulled an anxious looking Pete off. Pete obviously thought the same as Eve, that Gary was going to take this chance to bully her.
"Relax, little Evie," Gary said, smirking at how nervous and tense Eve now was.
"You're not gonna act like a jerk, are you?" Eve asked cautiously, as she stared at Gary intently. Gary chuckled and shook his head, before grabbing Eve's hand and walking towards the game stalls.
"I just wanted to hang around for a bit," He said, stopping at a random game stall and giving the worker some money, before he started playing the game.
"Oh," Was all Eve said, she couldn't really think of what to say right now. She felt kind of awkward.
As Gary continued playing at the game stall, Eve just stood there in silence, watching intently. She was fully aware of how late it was getting, and it was making her feel very anxious. She didn't want to get caught by the police for being out after curfew.
"Gary, I think we'd better go. It's getting late," Eve said timidly, as Gary turned to face her, grinning widely.
"Relax, little Evie. I just gotta do one more thing and then we can go," He said, running off towards the prize tent.
"Um…okay…" Eve said, more to herself considering Gary had already entered the prize tent, leaving her to stand outside. She glanced around uncertainly, wrapping her arms around herself as she started to shiver slightly. It was starting to get extremely cold.
After a few minutes of waiting, Eve heard someone cough from behind her, and spinning round she came face to face with a white, fluffy teddy bear.
She looked at it in confusion, before her eyes travelled to Gary, who was holding it out to her, a smirk on his face.
"Here," He said, shoving it forward again.
Eve smiled shyly, before taking the cute teddy in her hand, a slight blush on her cheeks.
"Thanks," She whispered, blushing even more as Gary's smirk grew wider.
"Aw, is little Evie blushing?" He teased, as he took Eve's hand and led her towards the exit, finally deciding that they had better get back to school before curfew.
As they walked back to the school in silence, holding each others hands, Eve couldn't stop smiling. She'd never in all her life received a present of any sort, and yet even though she'd only known Gary for about a week, he'd still given her a present. Eve couldn't help but wonder if she was finally fitting in. She felt as though she finally belonged somewhere, and the thought made her smile happily. She knew that her mother would probably be delighted to know her daughter was finally happy.
As Gary squeezed Eve's hand gently, she couldn't help but feel just a little confused. Up until today Gary had been a total jerk to her, and yet all of a sudden he was being really kind and friendly to her. It made her extremely curious, but she knew better than to just demand an explanation. Besides, she would sound very rude if she just asked him why he was being nice.
As they stepped through the school gates, Eve couldn't help but feel relived to find that not many people were hanging round the campus, as she knew that if anyone saw them holding hands that there would soon be a whole lot of rumours travelling around Bullworth Academy.
Gary walked Eve to the doors of the girl's dorm, before turning to face her.
"Um…thanks for tonight, I had fun," Eve said, looking at her feet awkwardly, still clutching her new teddy. Gary just nodded, and for once he wasn't smirking.
They stood there for a few moments, an awkward silence lingering between them.
"Well, I'd better be going, see you around, little Evie," Gary said, rubbing the back of his neck uncomfortably, waving goodbye to Eve before he headed off in the direction of the boys dorm.