The morning was the same as before but with a slight difference. I didn't feel energetic or even excited to go to school like I've been before. I wasn't even looking forward to seeing the girl of my dreams. I wasn’t looking forward to anything. 

"Jade, time for school!" The same sentence my mother yelled every morning was heard and I got up from my bed groggily with multiple groans. Walking into the bathroom, for a minute I got a bit shocked at the way my hair was sticking out everywhere and since now that it was smaller than before, it was going everywhere like a boy's.

"Ugh, I look stupid. If no one makes fun of me for yesterday they sure as hell would for this." I mumbled as I tried to comb my hair. When I knew that my hair looked a bit presentable, I placed the comb back down and began to do the morning rituals, dreading every moment that was yet to come.

What would mom and Caleb say about this huge change, would they approve? Well, even if they don't, it's not like I could paste all the hair back on my head. 

After I was done getting changed and looking presentable for school, I walked down the stairs to the kitchen where I knew mom and Caleb would be at. Entering the kitchen, I tried my hardest to not freak out because there sat the only girl I didn't want to see.

"What happened to your hair?!" Mom shrieked as she looked at me with a disapproving look. Caleb, who was sitting next to Sydney, began to laugh, while she looked loss of words as she stared at me.

"Since you didn't let me kill myself, I decided to kill my hair." I spoke looking away from the pair of multiple eyes staring at me. Caleb's laughter still rang throughout the kitchen as Sydney tried to shut him up.

"Jade." Mom sighed as she rubbed her forehead. I wanted to desperately ask why the blonde girl that invaded my thoughts was sitting in the kitchen of my house, my solace. "Just, sit down. Paige here, is going to take you to school from now on." My eyes snapped towards mom's face as she spoke and then began to calmly drink her coffee. 

My eyes drifted to Caleb as he simply nodded with a smirk while Sydney looked guiltily at me. "What? Why?" I asked harshly as I looked from mom to Caleb for answers.

"Because of yesterday. Paige is such a sweet girl, she came here to check on you and even insisted on taking you to school. So, Sydney suggested that Paige take you to school from now on, until your car gets here." Mom spoke without even looking at me, still with her eyes on the newspaper she was holding with her glasses on. I glared at her before my glare was turned towards Sydney and then lastly at the bluish greenish eyed girl. 

"No." I spoke stubbornly as I crossed my arms across my chest. 

"You have no say in this. This is an order." I glared at mom who was giving me her deadly look. In usual situations, I crack under her deadly look but this time I won't. It's a whole lot worse if the girl that I peed in front of yesterday takes me to school, where everyone would've already found out what happened yesterday.

"I'll go with Caleb." I spoke indifferently as I still had my arms crossed. "I won't take you." I glared at Caleb who smirked and shrugged my way with an evil look.

"Then I'll walk." I grabbed an apple and a banana from the fruit basket on the counter, and began to walk towards the front door.

"Jade Phyllis Bryan!" I immediately stopped with a flinch when I heard my mom yell my full name and even in front of my crush. Great, just great. Seeing me pee myself wasn't enough, now she knows my middle name as well.

"You will go with Paige. And that is the end of discussion." I just silently nodded my head before walking towards the front door, not even seeing if Paige was following me or not. 

When I reached outside of my house, I saw my next-door neighbor, watering his plants but as soon as he saw me, he gave me a slight smile. Even better, now I'll get pity from complete strangers.

"Wait for me." I heard a sweet voice say from behind me and there I saw Paige with a smile on her face. On usual occasions, I would have half fainted and half drooled at her smile but now I only saw it as a means of pity.

I made my way towards her car, without uttering a single word. She walked over to the driver's side of the car before unlocking it, sending a small smile my way. I rolled my eyes after she had gotten in, before getting in myself.

"You- your hair looks nice." She spoke as she tried to start a conversation with me but I just crossed my arms, leaning back against the seat.

"Yeah, sure." I mumbled, not wanting to talk to her at all. "Just, please drive." I spoke a little louder and got the response I wanted when the car came to life. Funny how I couldn’t even form words around her before and now I was only being a dick to her.

Throughout the whole car ride, I could feel her glancing at me minute after minute, and at any other day I would've fangirled in my mind but right now, all I felt was annoyance. 

Just as the school came into sight, I thanked god. I couldn't bear to sit in this car with her any longer. She parked her car at the far end of the parking lot and I silently groaned at that.

Couldn't she park a little closer to the school building?

The parking lot was full with students and it didn't make it any better that they were staring right here at the moment. Maybe, it was because of Paige. Everyone knew how Paige's car looked like and since she was so popular in school, maybe everyone was just looking at her car. 

Yeah, they were doing just that.

My mind tried to convince me desperately but I mentally slapped myself before sighing. Who am I kidding? They're looking at me. They know. Warning alarms were going off in my head and I didn't even know how hard I was clenching my hands when I felt a soft hand unclenching them softly.

"It'll be okay." She was leaning a little closer to me as I smelt her minty breath fan my face and her eyes turned a light shade of blue as she stared at me, giving me a small smile.

I wanted so much to just pull her head closer and kiss those kissable lips but my dumbstruck-self did the exact opposite. I moved away from her a bit which made her back away immediately, giving me a light awkward chuckle. Suddenly, awkwardness surrounded us as I saw a light blush on her cheeks and I blushed as well, just thinking about what would've happened if I had moved closer to her. Maybe a slap to the cheek or a kiss to the lips.

I snapped out of my thoughts when a knock came from Paige’s side, and her friend waved her hand excitedly towards Paige.

Turning to me, Paige gave me a small smile before waving back at her friend.

This was my time to escape. As Paige went to lower her window down, I opened the car door and quickly stepped out. Her attention had now snapped towards me, but I didn’t wait to see what else would happen – I quickly closed the car door and bowed my head down before speed walking towards the double doors of the school building.

Good. No one seemed to pay attention to me, so does this mean that not many people know about my little accident. Entering the school building, I sighed out in relief.

“Wait – Jade!” I heard a familiar voice call from behind me and when I looked over my shoulder, I saw Paige’s face in the middle of the moderate number of students. What’s her problem now? Does she expect me to say thank you?

Not wanting to do be awkward in front of her anymore, I sprinted towards the end of the hall where the bathrooms were located. “Jade!” Looking back, I didn’t see Paige but I heard her voice.

Quickly entering the bathroom, I leaned my back against it with a heavy sigh. It’s a good thing that she didn’t see me enter the bathroom.

“Are you lost?” Now that I was done running away from a certain blue-green eyed girl, I was face-to-face with one of the same blue-green eyed girl’s best friends. She had a disgusted look on her face as she stared at me through the mirror that was on the wall while she washed her hands.

I shook my head frantically as I stared back at her.

If I remember her name correctly, it was Bridget.

“So, then maybe you needed to pee before class. Wouldn’t want another accident like that, now would we?” The laugh that escaped her lips after she was done speaking made me want to dig up a hole in the middle of the bathroom and crawl inside of it.

Sending her a fake smile, I pulled open the same door I came in from and stepped out before breathing out in relief.

Looking around, no one was looking at me, better yet, it felt like I was invisible. At some other time, I would’ve been offended but right now, I was grateful for it.

“There you are.” I heard the familiar voice of a certain bluish-greenish eyed girl, who invades my dreams and sneaks into my thoughts, and at that very moment, I couldn’t do anything but to turn to her and frown.

I wasn’t happy to see her, so why should I fake it?

A similar frown was gracing her beautiful face as she narrowed her eyes at me while placing her hands on her hips. “I was calling your name and you just kept running.”

“Well,” I thought for a moment, for a good lie before my brain dinged and gave her a sickeningly sweet smile, “I needed to use the bathroom since my bladder can’t store liquid for a long period of time.”

Her eyes softened before her frown was replaced by a look of utter pity and I could tell that she was there standing, looking down on me, seemingly feeling sorry for my not too little accident of the other day.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t…” I cut her off with a hand raised and a fake smile on my face. “Doesn’t matter, what’s done is done.”

She nodded her head, agreeing with me before she grasped my right arm tightly, “So you don’t run away again.” Her cheeks turned a light pink as I raised an eyebrow with amusement.

“I wasn’t planning to.”

This time, she smiled at me before she dragged me towards her locker, I think.

Now that I had took into consideration the people that were around me – I could see that everyone would glance at us once in a while as if they were seeing something amusing.

The insecure part of me told me that it was because of the ‘thing’ that I did in class yesterday, while the other – more insecure part of me – said that it was because I was walking too close to Paige.

I felt uncomfortable, walking while everyone stared at us, but Paige wasn’t bothered by it. As we neared her locker, I could clearly hear the snickering of the students. Once again, Paige wasn’t bothered by it, but I was.

Glancing at the students around us, I realized who they were snickering at. It was me.

Paige was still holding onto my arm, when I had taken it away, making her look at me with question. I just shook my head, “I’m gonna go to my locker.” I managed to speak and before Paige could even say anything back to me, I was speed walking towards my own locker.

The snickers were loud and transforming into laughs as I hurried to my locker.

Gratefully, my locker was isolated by the students who were now staring at me with smirks. Brushing the weird feeling away from me, I unlocked my locker to find a brown paper bag with two holes. A note was stuck to it, which made me want to break down into tears.

Grabbing a hold of the brown paper bag, I ripped the note off of it and threw it away.

‘A little something to lower your embarrassment.’

The only possible answer to all of my worries was to run away from the place.

And that I did.

Slamming the locker door shut, I sprinted out of the hallway – leaving my back pack behind as laughter erupted all around me – with the brown paper bag still in my hand.

***