The sharp sounds of my alarm clock probed their way into my ears, demanding I wake my ass up. I groaned as I muddled my way over to silence it's blaring tune, taking care to step over Kash sleeping on the air mattress. After a full month of him sleeping on my floor every night, Beth was now entertaining bunk beds for my room.

"Kash, wake up!" I said, jostling his shoulders a bit.

"Give me five more minutes," he complained, turning over to face the other side. He was always such a bum in the mornings, laying about like this at the start of every day.

"Come on man. If you don't get up, we'll be late for school," I pleaded.

"Fine," he grumbled, rising from his slumber.

We proceeded to get ready, taking turns using the bathroom to get our morning routines out of the way. It almost felt like having a brother or an extended cousin taken in by the family with Kash around nearly all the time. He fit in so well, melting seamlessly into the household dynamic.

"Kash! Remy! Y'all come down here and get to eatin' now!" Beth shouted from the kitchen. I could hear her lowered, continued muttering to herself, "Don't care how late y'all rascals are, least they can't say I ain't feedin' ya."

"Coming Mrs. Sinclair", Kash exited the room, leaving me the space to take my morning medications. I completed my ritual and hurried after him downstairs.

I found Kash already digging into some French toast, gobbling it down with the severity of a death row inmate during their last meal. A few amber droplets of syrup stuck to his face as he stuffed forkful after zealous forkful into his gaping maw. The sight of it made me chuckle, and I imagined the scene as some kind of postmodern gothic portrait entitled "Kash in the Nook."

What a weird kid.

"Here you go, dear." Beth pushed a plate into my chest and dropped a few napkins atop the small mound of breakfast as I tried to prevent myself from dropping it all at my feet. "Hand Kash some of those napkins, would ya hun. You boys are already late. I don't need you showing up to school a hot mess, too."

She strolled to her place at our table and began eating her sensible two slices of toast at a modest pace in between cautious sips from a piping hot mug of coffee. I could hear the mechanical clatter of Tina's keyboard from the other room, periodically interrupted by loud slurps from her own piping hot mug of joe sat dutifully beside her. All three of us enjoyed the quiet, average morning together.

Kash cleared his plate first, and I finished in a close second. We gathered our backpacks and gave our goodbyes before heading out for the day.

"Hey man, is this yours?" Kash asked as I closed my backdoor. I turned to see my black water bottle in his hand.

"Where did you find it?" I asked, shocked by its sudden reappearance. It had been a week since my encounter with the wolf. I'm pretty sure...

No, I know I left it in the forest that day!

"I found it right here." His finger pointing to the top step on the covered porch.

"Weird," I replied, taking it from his grasp.

I didn't tell Kash about the encounter. I figured it wasn't such a big deal since we live out in the country. There were plenty of wild animals in the forest nearby; and Kash, being a seasoned local, would've thought nothing unusual of the occasional wild wolf encounter. It made me wonder for a moment how common they were around these parts--and just how many wild animals in general roamed the woods of Rosewood Creek at any given time of day.

We walked together down the dirt road, discussing the new show we had just started last night. The bitter chill from the overcast day sent shivers up my spine, mocking my poor attempts to keep warm. I adjusted my black hoodie, pulling the sleeves up around my hands to cover my cold fingers. A numbing sensation slowly crept up the tips. I definitely needed a pair of gloves before my fingers turned purple and fell off from frostbite. We arrived at school and took our usual back route to our first period.

---

Fourth period arrived, invoking every anxious nerve in my body. We never knew if Theo would be in class on any given day. As we shuffled inside, my eyes flickered to the back of the room. There they were, Derrick and Theo, sitting in the back of class, discussing something in hushed stirs and piquing my curiosity.

"Crap! They're here," Kash complained aloud behind me.

"I can see that." I rolled my eyes at him in response to his comment.

Thanks, Captain Obvious.

I quickly shuffled inside, making my way to the two remaining desks in the class, right next to Theo. As I sat down, feeling his rigid presence from behind, the slight but present tingle of his gaze seemed to wander along my neck before dissipating down through my shoulder blades. For some reason, I avoided turning around. Kash sat down next to me, in front of Derrick. The bell rung and Mrs. Patterson remained seated behind her desk, unbothered enough that she apparently felt no need to get up.

"Hello everyone, you will be working in pairs to start your semester project. This will be a five-page essay with a PowerPoint presentation you must present to the class next month."

Groans erupted in unison from the classroom, everyone displaying their mutual discontent for what was clearly just lackluster busywork.

"Either this or a 12-paged paper on colonialism, your choice darlings!" She said, unperturbed from her desk at the front and now even somewhat bemused by our collective discontent.

She always knew how to stick the rod in and twist it just a little.

"Since there are no objections, we will move on. The topic I challenge you guys to answer is, what event was pivotal in shaping world history."

Mrs. Patterson shifted her seat, searching through her mounds of papers from our last writing assignment, blatantly paying no attention to any potential responses given to her impossibly broad question for the room.

Wow! She really put a lot of thought into that one...

Grabbing a sheet from the bottom of the piles, she then redirected her attention back to the class.

"Now then, I want you to find a partner and start working on your project in class. Come up to the front and write both your names down on the sheet so I can keep track of the groups and topics."

She placed the wrinkled paper on the side of her large wooden desk, that made her look way too small to be sitting behind it.

"And guys, let's be creative here, I don't want three million American Revolution projects, think outside the box!"

She crossed her hands before spinning in her chair to face her computer again. Sometimes I thought she might deliberately structure her plastic assignments with such a palpable irony, but more than likely she wasn't thinking that deep into it. She just really didn't seem to care.

The room filled with chatter as students shuffled their desks together, friend groups splitting up while the loners were left to fretfully pick each other up out of the antisocial dust.

"Hey, Remy, let's be partners!" Kash gleefully jabbed at me, scooching his desk closer to mine.

"Sure", I complied, slightly confused as to why he would even ask at this point. He practically lived at my house.

"Remy will be my partner," Theo spoke up from behind us.

What the fuck? He can't be serious.

"Sweet, then I guess Kash is mine," Derrick chimed in, patting Kash's shoulders like he was getting ready for a meal. Kash and I exchanged equally shocked glances.

Wow, what's made us so popular all the sudden!?

Kash sadly scooched his desk back to face Derrick, the squeaks on the tile screeching out like a melodramatic chorus in his wake.

I was left with Theo, who forcibly turned my desk around for me whilst I remained seated. He somehow made it happen swiftly‒‒turning my desk around to face his cold green eyes without even jerking me out of the chair. This was the first time I had seen him since I ran into him at the therapist's office.

I had still never figured out why he was there, but I had no courage to ask as I didn't want the same question turned back on me. I had to place that thought on the backburner before it boiled over. At this point, I just wanted to forget about it and maybe try to focus on the project. I had a feeling that the project wasn't going to be the hardest thing about working with Theo.

I pulled my notebook out to write down the instructions from the board while Theo stared me down in uncomfortable silence, watching my every slight movement (though I was fairly certain he didn't pay attention to any of the words I wrote down from the board). I ignored him as best I could, and when I was done, I took out the textbook from underneath my desk and started flipping through the pages. I usually knew how these things went, he probably just wanted me to do all the work and put his name on the assignment when it's done. Why bother asking him for any help if he's just going to disappear after class anyways.

"What topic are you thinking about?" Theo drew my attention away from the book.

"Umm...not sure yet." I gave him a quick glance before continuing to peruse the textbook.

"Well I was thinking we can do the invention of the Gutenberg's printing press or the Pax Romana," Theo suggested while taking out a personal copy of the textbook from his backpack.

"Umm...wait... you're actually going to help me?"

"Well yeah, I like world history and I'm your partner so I'm obviously going to help you. Why would you even ask that?" Theo asked as he flipped through the textbook.

"Well I just assume that..."

"That I... What? Was another dumb jock using you to get a good grade," Theo cut me off.

"No!...of course not," I lied, and I could feel myself turning red. I mean I know it's bad to judge a book by it's cover, but Theo did not look like a local scholar to me.

"I'm sorry" I said, guilty that I misjudged his intentions.

"It's fine. Happens all the time. Plus, I usually do these stupid bullshit projects on my own anyways." Theo flipped to the back of the book and started scanning through the appendix, refocusing back on the matter at hand, "Doesn't matter... But yeah, what topic were you thinkin' of, man?"

"I'm familiar with the Gutenberg's printing press, but what's the other one you mentioned? I've never heard of it before... Umm, Pax Roman..."

"Oh yeah, the Pax Romana. It's a period of relative peace in the Roman Empire for about two hundred years. What was so cool about it, besides the fact that it was peace for an empire that loved to fight, was that many innovations were developed that are still used today like roads, postal systems, plumbing‒‒you name it," Theo lectured on.

I sat quietly, continuing to listen to his impromptu TED talk, somewhat mesmerized by the unexpected depth of his knowledge on the subject. Theo looked like a completely different person, lighting up when he talked about the project. His excitement was contagious. The forest green eyes brightened and I think it was the first time I'd seen him break more than a sly grin. He was smiling when he talked; and he went down so many tangent rabbit holes that took us all over ancient Europe, smiling the whole time as he did so.

He looks so... Cute.... Wait, WHAT am I thinking right now!?

"Remy!" Theo, waved a hand in front of my eyes, stirring me from my trance.

"Huh?...What? Oh...sorry! What were you saying?" I inquired sheepishly, embarrassed by my sudden daydream.

"I was asking how you would like to split up the project. I was thinking I'll write the paper and you can tackle the power-point. Writing comes easier for me than making a nice powerpoint. How does that work?" Theo questioned, an unprecedented look of concern flashing across his face.

"That works! I'm pretty good at powerpoints. I do hate writing, but I can still help with any pages if you need the help." I smiled, working with him was so easy. It made learning kinda fun.

"Awesome and no worries, I can turn a paper out real quick." Theo smiled back.

The lunch bell rang and interrupted our pleasant conversation.

"Let's meet after school in the library to get reference materials," Theo mentioned, as he strolled out the classroom with Derrick.

"Yeah... OK! See you after school," I shout back.

"Yeah see you after school, Theo," Kash mimicked in a high-pitched voice, batting his eyes like a silly schoolgirl, sticking his tongue out. "Dude, what was that?"

"Whatever man. I was just responding back," I throw him some attitude.

"Sure..if that's what you call it." Kash continued to mock me.

Shit, how obvious was I that whole time... I‒I mean, what's there to be obvious about. Theo's still just a big bully.

I shoved Kash, shooting him a warning glare to not test me. Kash laughed as we gathered our backpacks and headed out of the classroom.

A/N Yay for the new update! I had a lot of fun writing this chapter! And Theo is back and demanding as ever! 👀Oooo, I wonder how Remy is going to handle this? 😝How did you guys feel about the new chapter? Let me know your thoughts in the comment section! Please don't forget to subscribe! 

I also cant believe that I have 250+ subscribers! 😲Wow, thank you so much guys, this is incredible! It means a lot to unlock support. If you are feeling up to it, feel free to send a girl some ink! 🥰💕Thanks, guys for your continued support as always!🐺💖✨