⠀When my alarm went off Thursday morning, I immediately groaned. I hadn't been able to get any sleep. I'd tossed and turned, thinking about the gang and if someone really was trying to get it back together. I didn't feel as though I could trust Shawn, but I didn't feel as though he was lying to us either.

⠀I didn't know what to think. I wanted to forget about it completely, but I was a little scared. I couldn't let it go.

⠀Fortunately Chris hadn't asked where I'd been. I wouldn't have lied to him, but I wasn't really ready to tell him I'd went and seen Shawn.

⠀I rolled over, my gaze falling upon Chris's sleeping form above the blankets. This startled me. I lifted my head up off my pillow and looked at the clock. It was already a quarter past seven. "Chris," I said loudly, tapping a hand on his shoulder.

⠀He immediately moved his pillow over his head.

⠀"Chris, get up, you're late," I warned him, taking the pillow off his face.

⠀His hair was matted across his forehead and he opened one eye to peer at me. "I'm trying to sleep."

⠀It still amazed me that he was so handsome. Even first thing in the morning. I kind of wanted to leave him like that, but he had to get up. "It's already past seven."

⠀"So?"

⠀"School," I said, stating the obvious.

⠀"It's not fun without you," he grumbled.

⠀I smiled a bit, but rolled my eyes. "Come on, you gotta get ready."

⠀Sighing, he made a move like he was about to get up, but then he shot his arms out and wrapped them around my waist, pulling me toward him. I let out a startled sound as he hugged me to his chest.

⠀"Chris," I protested.

⠀"Shhh, there's no school today, a water line broke," he told me.

⠀"What? When?"

⠀"I'm not asking any questions."

⠀I let him keep me there for a moment longer, reveling in his warmth. I loved being able to wake up every day next to him. "I still have to get ready for class."

⠀"No."

⠀I grinned a little. Sleepy Chris was so cute. I struggled to get him to release me. "Let go."

⠀He held me tighter. "Just skip, Holly."

⠀"I'm not skipping during the first week of classes."

⠀"But you get to stay with me."

⠀It was tempting... but no. I slid down the bed to get out of his grasp. "I'll come back right after class."

⠀He pouted at me, propping his head up on his hand. "I miss you."

⠀I felt my heart skip a beat. How could he be so adorable? How could I have gotten this lucky? I understood how he was feeling though. Before I could see him whenever I wanted just by stopping by his classroom. Now I only got to see him after class when we were both tired from the day.

⠀"I've got a great idea," he said suddenly, sitting straight up.

⠀Usually his great ideas weren't so great. "What?" I asked warily.

⠀"I'm going to go to class with you," he announced, smirking at me.

⠀"No way," I responded immediately.

⠀"Come on, let's shower," he urged, sliding out of the bed and tugging on my arm.

⠀I tried to pull back from him. "You're not going to class with me. You're not a student!"

⠀"They don't check the I.Ds, I'll be fine."

⠀"Still you can't sit in the classroom with me."

⠀"You have Isaac's class today, don't you? He'll let me in. I'll make him," Chris said, his eyes lit up with excitement.

⠀Did I really want Isaac and Chris in the same room together? What if Isaac let something about the gang slip? Well, better he say something to Chris than me, I thought. And it might be fun to have Chris around... "You can't come into any of my other classes," I warned him.

⠀Chris nodded seriously. "I'll follow Jer around when you're busy."

⠀"Alright, fine," I conceded, now smiling a bit.

⠀"Great, let's shower then," he said, scooping me off the bed and into his arms.

⠀"P-put me down!" I cried. "Shower alone!"

⠀"It's not as fun as when I shower with you," he responded and kicked the bathroom door open with his foot. "I need you to wash my back."

⠀After spending way too long in the shower, Chris strutted around his room with just a towel around his waist, his face twisted into a contemplative expression. I watched him while I blow-dried my hair. "What are you thinking about?"

⠀"What to wear," he answered, speaking loud to be heard over the drier.

⠀"Just wear what you usually wear," I told him.

⠀"I need to look good."

⠀I pursed my lips. Who did he need to look good for? And it was impossible for him not to look good in whatever he wore.

⠀It took him a good twenty minutes to choose his outfit and when he was finally done there were shirts all over the bed. He'd ended up in dark jeans a dark blue button up which he rolled up to his sleeves. I suddenly wanted to keep him by my side all day. He looked too good.

⠀"I'll drive," he told me as we headed out the door.

⠀"I'm going to text Jeremy and let him know you're coming," I said and pulled out my phone. "I have math first so you'll need to hang out with him. He might have a class though."

⠀"I'll make him skip."

⠀I rolled my eyes. "You're a teacher. You shouldn't be saying that."

⠀"As a teacher I've done many things I shouldn't have. Mainly, you."

⠀I blushed a little and punched him in the arm. "Jerk."

⠀He chuckled and leaned down to kiss my cheek. "I love you, Ms. Evers."

⠀We climbed into the car and I sent Jeremy a text to which he responded to faster than I would ever think was possible.

⠀OKAY!!! :D :D :D :D <3

⠀"I think Jeremy's excited," I said showing Chris the text.

⠀Chris nodded and smirked and I wondered just what he planned to do with Jeremy when we got to the campus. I suddenly felt nervous.

⠀Jeremy was waiting for us in the parking lot when we arrived, rocking on the balls of his feet. He grinned happily and waved. "Topher!"

⠀"Skip your class," Chris ordered as we approached.

⠀"Yes, sir!"

⠀I grimaced. How could Jeremy agree to that so easily?

⠀Chris nodded. "You know the drill."

⠀"Drill? What drill?"

⠀"None of your business," Jeremy teased, wagging his finger at me.

⠀I gave them both a serious look. "Don't do anything to get kicked out."

⠀Chris laughed. "I don't even go here."

⠀"To get me kicked out," I corrected.

⠀"Have fun in math, Holly," Chris said, patting my head. He then pointed at the tallest building on campus. "Let's go."

⠀"Mr. Heywood!" a feminine voice cried and I twisted around to see Lexi and Aaron.

⠀Aaron immediately smirked and I looked at Chris who crossed his arms over his chest. "Nice to see you two."

⠀"You look good," Aaron commented.

⠀"What are you doing here?" Lexi asked happily.

⠀I wondered where Lance was but knew the jealousy I was feeling was completely ridiculous so I shoved it from my mind. Chris wrapped an arm around my shoulder. "To see what Holly's day-to-day life is like."

⠀"If you're bored you can come see me," Aaron told him. "I can show you a few things."

⠀Chris frowned and Jeremy gave Aaron a disapproving look. "I'll be showing him around," Jeremy said.

⠀I glanced between the two and wondered if they had some stupid rivalry about Chris. Chris was so popular. At least I came out on top. "I'm going to be late. You two... behave."

⠀Jeremy and Chris both mock-saluted me and I resigned myself to having my boyfriend and his best friend most likely escorted off the property at some point.

⠀I trudged to math and the class felt like it lasted ten years. I kept tapping my fingers on the desk, anxiously wondering what Chris and Jeremy were doing. I could only imagine... setting fire to something... destroying property... fighting... Suddenly I had the urge to go check on them.

⠀When the class was finally let out I bolted out of the room. I only had twenty minutes between math and English to hunt them down. Since Chris had pointed to building where my English class was, I decided to head there first. I tried to call him but he didn't answer, not easing my worries. He wouldn't do anything too stupid, would he?

⠀"Oh my God," someone said as I walked past them. "There's someone on the roof!"

⠀I stopped dead. No way...

⠀Looking up, I saw two silhouettes on top of library and my jaw almost dropped. It was definitely Chris and Jeremy. How in the world had they got up there? I went closer to the building and pulled out my phone again to call them. I watched as Chris took his phone out his pocket, hit a button, and then put it back into his pocket. "Hey!" I called up.

⠀Surprisingly, he heard me. Both him and Jeremy looked down to me. Jeremy waved.

⠀I opened my mouth to yell again, but people were already staring at me. I motioned for them to get down— everyone knew you weren't allowed on the roof— but Jeremy just kept waving back at me. I shook my fist to get my point across. Chris pointed to his arm and I figured he was actually pointing to the watch on his wrist. I debated skipping English and getting the campus security, but I really didn't want to get them in trouble. At least they were having fun for once. With whatever the heck they were doing.

⠀Begrudgingly, I turned back and marched away. Hopefully they wouldn't fall.

⠀I twitched my way through English, wanting to check my phone to see if Chris had texted me, but not wanting to be rude. When I finally decided to go for it, the fire alarm started going off. Since my professor looked shocked, I knew it wasn't planned. It couldn't have been...

⠀As everyone was filing out of the arts building, I kept my head down. Had they set off the fire alarm? Wasn't that taking it too far? All of a sudden someone bumped into me and I jumped, looking up to see Jeremy and Chris smirking. "Was this you guys?" I hissed.

⠀"We had to get everyone out," Chris said matter-of-factly. "And we have a question for you."

⠀"Why? Why do you have to get everyone out? People are paying thousands for these classes," I said. At least they were having fun. "And why were you on the roof?"

⠀"The goal is the highest point of the place and then we carve our initials into something," Jeremy explained and Chris nodded.

⠀"Weird."

⠀"You're just boring," Chris said.

⠀"I'm not!"

⠀"Which room would be the forensics room, Holly? Jeremy can't remember." Chris asked, feigning an innocent expression.

⠀"...Why."

⠀"No reason."

⠀I pointed to the floor above us. "It's up there, but—"

⠀"Thanks!" Jeremy interjected before tearing off with Chris. "We'll be back shortly! Meet you in home ec!"

⠀"Hey!" I called after them but they didn't stop. I stared after them for a moment before heaving a sigh. As long as they didn't come back with a dead rat, it should be fine... I felt a headache coming on.

⠀Unsure with what to do with my new spare time, I headed for Isaac's classroom to wait for class to begin. Fortunately he was already there. "Why are you so early?"

⠀"Fire alarm," I told him.

⠀"Oh I heard someone set it off."

⠀"Yeah..."

⠀He gave me a curious look. "You look tired."

⠀"Is that how you talk to girls?" I retorted.

⠀He blushed a bit. "Ah, no. I don't mean like you look bad. I just mean..."

⠀I laughed. "I'm just kidding."

⠀"Are you worried about what we found out after talking to Shawn?"

⠀I kicked at the floor, frowning. "We didn't find out anything new."

⠀"We have solid proof that there is someone trying to get the gang back together though. I was just going on rumors before," he replied.

⠀I bit my lip. That didn't make me feel any better.

⠀"I'm glad you're here though. I wanted to show you something," he said, waving me over to him. I walked up to the desk and he opened up his laptop. "Look at this."

⠀I stood beside him, bending down so I could see what he wanted to show me. He was on someone's Facebook and had a profile picture pulled up. It was a beefy dude with arms as big as tree trunks and a baldhead. "Who's that?"

⠀"I was looking into old members of the gang. Where are they are now. Who's in jail and all that. Then I remembered this guy," Isaac explained.

⠀"He was part of the gang?" I asked, giving the picture an uneasy look.

⠀"Yes. Have you seen him before?"

⠀I thought back to the past year. As far as I could remember, I hadn't seen anyone as jacked as this guy. I totally would've remembered him. "I haven't. He looks scary."

⠀"He's really scary."

⠀"You think he's the one trying to get the gang back together?" If that's who we had to go against... I swallowed nervously.

⠀Isaac shook his head. "No. I don't think he has anything against Chris. Shawn and him never got along and most people respected Chris."

⠀"So why are you looking into him then?"

⠀"He has a brother," Isaac told me and then tapped on the keyboard, bringing up another profile and clicking on the picture. "This is who I'm worried about."

⠀I moved closer to the screen. The guy was younger than the first and much smaller, but gave off more of a rough aura. He wasn't smiling in the picture and his neck was covered with tattoos. "I haven't seen this guy before either. But he's scary looking too."

⠀Isaac nodded. "He's beaten me up more times than I can count."

⠀Looking at Isaac, I could see how someone like the guy in this picture could beat him up. I didn't say anything though. "You think it might be this guy?"

⠀"It might be. I'm not sure. Shawn and him used to be close and I know there was a huge blowout at one point but I don't know exactly what happened. I think Chris would know though. We would have to ask him."

⠀"Uhhhh..."

⠀Isaac turned up to me. "Are you not planning on telling him?"

⠀I planned on telling him, I just didn't know how to tell him without him getting angry. "I am, but—"

⠀"Did Shawn do that to you?" he suddenly said, narrowing his eyes at my neck.

⠀"Do what?"

⠀He raised a hand and touched the underside of my jaw. "You've got a bruise."

⠀Just then the door opened and I immediately jumped back, feeling my face warm up. Isaac also blushed and turned toward the door and then he froze. I also turned and had the same reaction when I saw who was at the door.

⠀Chris.

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Inspiration has struck!! Sorry about such sporadic updates D:

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