AN: This chapter had actually been written the same day as the last chapter and I'm so so sorry. I completely forgot I'd written it because I was supposed to be uploading it straight away. Anyway I hope it was good enough for the wait, enjoy!

Chapter Eleven

I sat in the back seat of the car holding onto the 'oh shit' handle at the top of the car door, feeling as though I was hanging on for dear life. When his mother was in the car he drove perfectly, but now it was only Brick and I he was being a bit riskier than I was comfortable with.

"Uh, Axl?" I asked.

He glanced over. "Yeah?" He put some sunglasses on and my grip on the handle tightened.

"Don't you think you should be slowing down?" He chuckled and shook his head.

"Nah, we're perfectly fine." He noticed my death grip. "You don't like my driving?" At my shaken face he sighed, but none-the-less took his foot of the gas and went a bit slower for me.

I breathed a sigh of relief. "Thanks." I paused. "And it's not that I don't like your driving, it's just this a thirty mile an hour area." I pointed at one of the sides. "Just makes me nervous."

He took one hand off the wheel to pat my hand, that was clenched within my lap. "Don't worry about it babe, I'm a great driver." His hand quickly went back to the wheel as he had to swerve slightly to avoid a car in the other lane because he was looking at me for too long. I sent him a glare.

"How did you pass your test again?"

We actually managed to arrive at the library in one piece and that alone was enough to impress me enough that I forgot about our little near miss. I linked my arm with Axl and we followed Brick through the aisles of books, every so often he would stop and read the back of one.

"This is so boring." Axl said, quite loudly for being in a library. Some old woman shushed him and I broke out into quiet giggles.

"You just got told." He nudged me in the side and tapped Brick on the shoulder. "Hurry up would you? I got places to be, people to see." Brick shrugged and took the couple of books he was now holding.

"Who have you got to see? I'm your only friend." I joked.

He gave me an offended look, which quickly morphed into something more mischievous. "You wait until we get back." He threatened with a smile on his face. I laughed and got shushed by the same old lady.

A week later I was sat at the Heck's dining room table, being served some take out food by Mrs Heck who kept smiling at me. It was quite strange because sometimes I got the feeling that she didn't really like me that much. It had gotten better since the pictures incident but there was still a little bit of tension there.

I didn't really know why she didn't like me so I tried my best to be someone who she didn't have to glare at all the time. But now she was smiling at me? I felt like something was up.

I glanced at Axl who was currently ripping off some of the chicken with his teeth, I quickly looked away. "So how've you been Sam?" Mrs Heck asked, piling some chicken onto my plate.

I nervously looked up at her. "Um, yeah. I'm fine. My mom sorted everything out with the school and the police. I got the week off from school while they rounded everyone up." I smiled slightly, remembering that more often than not Axl had skipped his lessons and came to my house to see me.

"That's good. I was horrified to hear about what happened." She gave me a sympathetic smile, one that I was happy to see what actually quite sincere, maybe she was beginning to like me? "I've never seen Axl so angry." She chuckled.

I laughed with her. "No, me either." Ever since I'd been told that all of the people behind the pictures had been dealt with I'd felt so much better about myself. I grabbed Axl's free hand that was on the table and wasn't covered in grease. I smiled at him.

He smiled back, I grimaced at the chicken stuck in his teeth, took my hand out of his and pushed his face away from mine, laughing. "You're gross." I told him.

His mother sighed at her son as he looked confused. She motioned to her teeth and Axl got the message, standing up and heading off to the bathroom. She shook her head as she watched him go, before looking at his girlfriend who was still chuckling.

Mrs Heck smiled at me, before tucking into her dinner, as she finally stopped putting chicken on my plate. I had no idea how I was going to eat all of it so I was glad when Axl came back because I put the majority of my food on his plate, knowing he would eat all of it.

When I finally felt ready enough to go to school, I had missed a week and a half's worth of work. I sat down in my maths class, feeling very behind as I had no idea what the hell the teacher was going on about, I flipped through my book trying hard to find the correct page and at least try to understand the concepts behind having imaginary numbers.

What the hell was up with that?

I was glad when the lesson was over, hurrying to pack up my stuck and meet with Axl. "Hey!" I heard a shout behind me as I exited the room, turning around I smiled as Axl came up to me, slinging his arm over my shoulder. Ever since I'd come back to school he'd become more and more protective over me, sometimes it was a bit annoying, but most of the time I found it kinda hot.

"Hey yourself." I smiled up at him.

"So I was wondering," He began, leading me to the cafeteria. "um, the Halloween dance is coming up soon." He trailed off, making me stop in front of him and looking into my face nervously.

"If I wanted to go with you?" I smiled, finding his nervousness amusing. He nodded. I paused to build up some suspense, loving seeing him squirm. "I would love to." He beamed and gave me a kiss, both of us starting when a teacher popped up out of nowhere.

"No public displays of affection in the hall." They bellowed, shuffling us away from one another. We exchanged looks, he took my hand and we ran down the hall, laughing together.

What we didn't notice was a short teenage boy crouching behind one of the lockers, camera in hand which he quickly raised and took a few snaps of us. He looked at the pictures, zooming into my face and stroking it with one finger.

"Soon." He said, quickly hiding behind the locker more as the same teacher that just berated me and Axl walked past, muttering about teenagers and how things were in his day. The boy sighed and looked at the picture again, wishing for a time that was different.

He stashed his camera in his bag, casually walking out and trying not to be noticed. This wasn't the case however as one of his tormentors soon found him. "Hey, nerd!" He shouted, the boy tried to disappear back behind the locker but it wasn't going to work this time.

"Hey nerd!" The bully repeated, his letterman jacket stretched to accommodate all of the muscle he worked so hard for. "You were supposed to do my homework. Where is it?" He demanded, grabbing the nerds jacket and hoisting him up against the locker with little effort.

"I have it." The nerd mumbled, reaching into his bag and pulling out the papers, trying his hardest not to let the camera fall out. There was a new policy coming into place since the incident with the swim and cheer teams that camera's were going to be banned from school, unless you needed them for an art project.

The nerd didn't like this new policy for obvious reasons. The jock took the papers and ruffled the nerds hair with too much enthusiasm, resulting in a massive headache. The jock let go of the nerd, uncaring that he fell to the floor with a thump. He took his homework and left, leaving the nerd rubbing his tail bone where he'd landed.

He didn't notice the glare the nerd directed at the back of his head, but even he, with his below average intelligence would have been wary about it. As it was a look that promised pain.

Axl and I were completely unaware of all this happening as we were sat with our friends happily eating lunch. I took a bite out of my sandwich just as Shaun told a joke, this resulted in me trying to eat and laugh at the same time which we all know is a bad idea. And so I ended up choking, Axl patted me hard on the back which helped me get it back out, but the choking had left my eyes watering.

"Oh, Em, Gee." Ashley and Brittany said at the same time, probably at how my mascara had run. They each grabbed an arm and pulled me off to a bathroom. "You need this." Brittany said, shoving me in front of a mirror.

"Oh Jesus." I said in horror, looking at my panda eyes. "Do your thing." I told them, closing my eyes.