CHAPTER SIX

 "I still ship you and Skylar though," Jenny says looking at Chase's retreating figure walking into the school entrance with Josh and Michael. He had dropped me off and I told him to go on upon sighting Jenny near Stacy's car.

"You know we're never gonna happen, he was just my celebrity crush. Besides, you've heard what they say about him," I say.

Skylar Anderson had always been my celebrity crush since my sophomore year, but it all changed at the beginning of my junior year right after his mom passed. He became a different person. The news on the tabloids about him all became negative, mostly comprising of sex scandals. He became a player, still is.

The only thing that never changed was his music. He kept on singing about a girl and the songs were sometimes... heartbreaking. I really didn't want to associate myself with him in the first place in order not to be tagged as one of his flings but after he introduced me to the rest of his band yesterday, I found myself talking to him. Sure we don't have normal conversations, but we tolerate each other.

"Hell yeah I've heard. Although- surprisingly- no nasty stuff was said about you guys after that entrance scene at the cafeteria," she says, taking a bite out of her granola bar.

"It's because of the school management," Stacy pipes in after taking out her backpack from the passenger seat of her car, "They set strict rules against taking photographs of celebrities in our school after a little incident".

I raise an eyebrow, "A little incident".

Stacy rolls her eyes, "A super mega incident, how's that?"

"What happened?" Jenny squeaks, of course she loves celebrity gossip... she's Jenny.

We link our arms as usual and start walking into the school.

"Well, someone's brother dropped her off at school sometime in junior year *cough* Ashley *cough*," I roll my eyes at Stacy's unnecessary secrecy, "And he- instead of driving off immediately- decided to escort Ashley into the school without wearing a disguise".

"His fan girls recognized him as Jacob Reynolds and rushed towards him. They touched him everywhere and I do mean EVERYWHERE," I narrate dramatically. 

Jenny gasps.

"And then, some jealous guys took pictures of it and titled it 'Holly wood actor- Jacob Reynolds- comes to high school for sexual pleasure' can you imagine?" Stacy says, her voice just above a whisper, "Everyone knew it couldn't be true, but the pictures said otherwise".

Jenny lets out a sad sigh while taking out books from her locker.

That period was horrible. It was a really bad picture. They took a picture of a girl touching his 'D' and it looked so real. The incident threw the whole family into an overdrive. It was horrible, it took nearly a month to clear that up with a series of interviews and meetings with the press. He was tagged a pedophile all just because of a simple, misunderstood picture.

Slap. Someone freaking slaps me. I turn to see Stacy smirking at me.

"What the hell Stacy?!" I yell in pain. Man, she has a mighty slap.

"I did tell you I was gonna slap you the next time you space out," she shrugs. I can see the mischief through her innocent façade. Jenny lets out a very unladylike snort while laughing.

"Oh shit! I forgot to do my homework," Jenny curses as she starts scribbling something in a note book.

Who's laughing now?

Stacy hurries to her locker to get her note books. Don't cry Ash, it's just a slap. I glare at her once she's back. Unfortunately, she doesn't notice. Seriously?! I mean, of what importance is a glare when it goes unnoticed.

"Cole wouldn't like the fact that you're maltreating his only sister now, would he?" I huff in annoyance and turn to open my locker. I have a free period this morning, so all I need from it right now is CHOCOLATE.

"And why would I care?" she asks nonchalantly.

"Oh cut that crap, even mom knows you like Cole and she's the most oblivious one,"

I see a tinge of pink appear on her cheeks, Jenny notices it too and we exchange knowing looks. Stacy likes Cole, hell, she's head over heels in love with him. Sometimes I think Cole's reason for not living in college is to be close to Stacy, but then again, I could be wrong.

The bell for first period rings and Jenny scurries of with Stacy to avoid being late to class.

Time for my free period rituals. Facing my locker, I bring out a pack of Oreos from my bag. After licking off the cream, I spread some Nutella on it and put about five pieces of m&ms on the Nutella. After taking a picture of my artwork, I take a bite out of it.

3 packs of Oreos later...

One can never have too much chocolate.

My unofficial motto.

"And here I thought you couldn't get any weirder," a voice says.

I whip my head to the direction of the voice, my heart pounding like I've been caught red handed doing something bad, then my eyes lock with his familiar green ones.

No one has ever interrupted, talk more of witnessed my intimate moment with Oreos, Nutella and m&ms... NO ONE!

And now that someone has, it had to be Skylar Anderson?!

Well, at least it's not Chase. I mean, if he witnessed that... the open mouth chewing, the finger licking and sucking... he would run for his dear life.

Still wondering why pop prince over here hasn't...

"We really need to do something about this spacing out of yours," he says, breaking me out of my thoughts.

I scowl at him, "And we really need to do something about your regular unwanted appearance".

"Ouch... Ashley," he places his hand on his heart faking hurt, "What did we say about being nice?"

"How long have you been standing there watching me?" I ask ignoring his dumb question.

"Well..." he scratches the back of his neck, "I've been here since your first pack of m&ms finished and you organized a mini funeral for it".

My eyes turn into saucers. HE SAW THAT?!

Creep.

"Don't worry, I observed the one minute silence," he says laughing.

It takes everything in me not to smash his beautiful face with a rock. "Shut up," I mutter causing him to laugh harder. And he says I'm the weird one.

"You wanna know something?" he asks when he finally stops laughing.

"What?" I ask, faking disinterest.

"You're not the only one with an obsession," he puts his hand in the side pocket of his backpack and brings out a pack of Doritos. I didn't know he likes Doritos.

He must have noticed my confusion, then he says, "I don't disclose it to the magazines during interviews".

Oh.

Is he trying to make me feel better about having a chocolate obsession?

"I never share this with anyone," he says fiddling with it, "I'm guessing you don't either".

I smile, that's actually true.

"Hey Ash! Remember our project is due third period and I just thought we shou-" I see Chase approaching us but he freezes and his jaw clenches as Skylar turns to look at him. Oh not again.

The ultimate glare battle.

This is how it's always been. Skylar and Chase hate each other. Everyone says it's because of the cheating incident or that Chase is jealous of Skylar for stealing his spotlight, but I think there's more to it. Slow down Sherlock Holmes.

"I'll see you some other time?" Skylar asks and I reply with a nod.

Once Skylar walks off, Chase's muscles relax and his gaze softens as he looks at me with a smile. Tsk. Guys and their sudden mood swings.

"I just thought we should practice a little bit before our presentation," he says waving his script in front of my face.

"Yeah, sure," I smile taking out my script from my bag.

#~#~#~#~

Our presentation wasn't perfect, but we tried as much as possible to make it fun by exaggerating our facial expressions. Chase used a thick, funny British accent making the whole class and even our literature teacher to laugh at the slightest scenarios in our play. Remember when I said I'm not an 'A' or a 'B' grade student? Imagine my joy when we got a 'B'.

Jenny, Stacy, Josh, Michael, Chase and I are currently seated together at the cafeteria and for some reason we're arguing about who's dumber between 'Mr Timmy's Dad' and 'Cosmo'.

Jenny, Stacy and Michael say Cosmo is dumber, while Michael and Chase say Mr Timmy's Dad is dumber. As for me, I think it's a tie. But if Michael is included in the object for comparison, I'd pick him.

"Hey ladies," a voice cuts our conversation. We all look up to see Mason and Connor at our table. Jenny and Stacy start smiling stupidly, making me remember yesterday at the cafeteria.

After I texted Stacy and Jenny to come and sit with me at FOREVER ALIVE'S usual table, they acted all calm and composed. It was really hard not to laugh at their calm and composed façade. I gave them thirty seconds and guess what? They didn't even get to 15 seconds before they started yapping and fangirling. But in my opinion, their fangirling was just at a three and it was still out of control.

Jenny went as far as blabbing the number of times Mason went for a pee break at the signing after their last concert during their summer tour.

"Hey," Stacy, Jenny and I greet.

"We'd love to stay and chat, but we'll go straight to the point due to some unfortunate feud we've been dragged into," Connor says seriously, referring to the fact that they are not allowed to associate with Chase's buddies for the sake of Skylar. Chase lets out a scoff and rolls his eyes.

"The band supposed to be opening for our winter tour won't be available at that time anymore," Mason says, "We would have just had a different band open for us, but we decided to try something new".

"So we're organizing a little contest for a female artiste who will be opening for our winter tour," Connor adds.

"Why so specific about the female?" I want to ask, but decide against it.

"You should participate," Jenny turns to face me.

"Yeah Ash, you love to sing and you've been singing your whole live, this is a great opportunity for you," Stacy chirps with a mouth full of fries. How ladylike.

"I saw a video of you singing on your Instagram page, you've got the voice of an angel," Connor says, "Besides, you're gonna win for sure if you enter the contest".

"How's that?" I curiously narrow my eyes at him.

"Because we're the judges," Mason answers with a smug look on his face.

"But wouldn't that be favoritism if you picked me as the winner," stop pretending you don't like the idea.

"Girl, you better shut your damn mouth before I cover you in ketchup and fries," Stacy threatens, holding the ketchup and the plate of fries in attack mode.

"Yeah, your voice is amazing, anyone would pick you to sing anytime," Jenny says and then turns to Stacy with a frown on her face snatching the ketchup and plate of fries from her, "Don't you dare waste food on her".

"I wasn't gonna, I was only bluffing," she defends.

I turn to look at Mason and Connor, "Okay, I'll do it".

"Great. The contest is on Sunday at the city theatre by 12:30pm... I'll see you there," Mason says, flashing me a smile before walking off with Connor.

Looking towards my friends, I see Michael and Chase trying to revive our dumb argument. Hmm. I completely forgot they were sitting with us.

#~#~#~#~

A/N

Hi my Lovelies,

The story's gradually coming up... Have fun reading guys

Quick question: Who's dumber?

Mr Timmy's Dad or Cosmo? I can't decide

Next update: soon

Vote and comment on your thoughts...

STAY WILD♡♡♡