Living With the Bad Boy

by Sharlay

  “Come on, you’ve got to admit that that was hilarious,” he said as he started to laugh again.

  “Sssh,” the librarian said as she gave Caleb an angry look before turning back towards the papers on her desk.

  “Wow, I’ve actually met someone who’s angrier than you,” Caleb said as he pointed at the librarian.

  “Now, that is funny,” Courtney said as she began to laugh with Caleb. The kick that I strategically aimed at her ankle, under the table quickly helped to quiet her down though. “You are seriously so violent,” she said as she scowled at me.

  “Try living with her,” Caleb said as he smirked at me.

  “How did you know that I was in here, anyway?” I asked in a confused tone.

  “I just followed the bread crumbs that Gretal left behind,” he said as he began laughing to himself. As much as I still wanted to be angry with him for scaring me, that joke was pretty funny.

  “Who’s he calling Gretal?” Courtney asked, clearly confused by Caleb’s joke.

  “You,” I said as I tried to contain my laughter as she grew even more confused.

  “Huh?”

  “Did you eat my sandwich on the way to the library?” I asked, slowly in the hope that she would catch on.

  “Yeah bu-Oh,” was all that she said as the realization hit her. “I couldn’t help it, Gretal was hungry,” she finally said in a bid to defend herself. This only made me and Caleb laugh even more.

  “Anyway, why are you hiding in here?” He asked.

  “I’m trying to get away from your fan club. Can’t you just fake break up with me already?” I asked in frustration.

  “No can do, Princess. You owe me,” he replied as he took my phone off the table and started playing with it.

  “Erm, what are you doing?” I asked as I looked at him as though he were crazy.

  “Finding some entertainment, it’s boring in here.”

  “I know, right,” Courtney added before putting her attention back on her phone.

  I wasn’t in the mood to argue over my phone, so I gently pulled my Virginia Andrews book out of my bag and immersed myself in ‘book world’.

  * * *

  “Why are you following me?” I asked Caleb as I made my way to the chemistry lab.

  “I’m not,” was all that he said as he shrugged his shoulders and walked ahead of me.

  I shook my head in confusion before continuing on my journey. I didn’t want to be late today, since I missed my last chemistry period because I was handcuffed to a bed. Thanks to Caleb, I now needed to play catch up. It’s strange because every time that I go to like him, I’m forced to remember one of the stupid things that he has done to me. It’s probably my subconscious trying to warn me ahead of time.

  As I walked into the classroom, I mentally growled as I spotted Caleb sat at my desk. Are you kidding me? Why does he have to be in this lesson with me? All the chemicals, fire and other dangerous things are not a good mix for me and Caleb.

  I actually enjoy chemistry, so I knew that I’d have to just ignore the fact that I would be spending it next to Jerk Face. Mrs Jerms was also one of my favorite teachers. She was probably the only other teacher, besides Mrs Connerlay that had never witnessed my ‘angry’ side, as Courtney would put it. Although her name is not spelt the same as ‘germs’, that doesn’t stop the stupid jokes from flying around. It’s actually quite funny that her name is Jerms, since she is quite possible the cleanest person that I know.

  “Ok, class, hurry up and take your seats. Today, we will be experimenting with a list of different chemicals. You will spend the lesson mixing a range of chemicals and noting the different reactions that you get. Your lab partners will be the person that you are sat next to,” she said as she began giving out some worksheets, along with gloves and a case of test tubes that were filled with different color liquids. “Before you start, I want to warn you that the chemicals that you will be working with, also act as a dye, so it is imperative that you wear your gloves for all parts of the experiment. Please avoid getting it on skin or clothes as it will be very difficult for you to remove,” she said as she gave the last pair their equipment.

  “Now, are there any questions?” She asked in a chirpy tone.

  “Can we switch partners?” Maria asked as she kept her eyes on Caleb. Please say yes, please say-

  “No. Now, I do not want any messing about, you have thirty minutes before we all come back together and share our findings. Don’t forget to also fill in the gaps left for the chemical names. If you are unsure then take a guess, you will not get penalised for getting it wrong but it will help you in the future. Ok, now begin,” she said as she began walking around the room and checking that everybody had begun.

  “So, this is fun,” Caleb said with a mischievous glint in his eyes.

  “I don’t want to mess around, Caleb, so if you-”

  “I’m not going to mess around, pinky promise,” he whispered, as he wiggled his pinky finger at me. It caused a slight smile to appear on my face although I tried to hide it.

  “Ok, where do you want to start?” I asked as I took a pencil out of my bag and looked at the work sheet.

  “Let’s get all the names down and then work on the reactions,” he replied as I nodded in agreement.

  * * *

  I can’t believe it but Caleb and I actually worked pretty well together. Don’t get me wrong, every now and then, I had to scold him for messing around or threatening to spill one of the chemicals on me but other than that, we did ok. We had all the names of the chemicals written down, and we were on our last chemical mix.

  “Right, one more to go and we’re done,” I said in a cheerful voice. Yes, I can be happy when I want to.

  “Thanks to my brains-”

  “Your brains? “

  “Yes, not only am I sexy but I have brains as well,” he said with a smirk on his face.

  “Whatever,” I scoffed before picking up the pencil to write down our last answer. As I went to begin writing, the pencil fell straight out of my hand and onto the floor.

  “Aww, struggling to hold a pencil?” He sniggered as I jumped off the stool, to go and pick it up.

  “Shut u-”

  I was suddenly interrupted as I felt Caleb grab onto my arm, and force me back down onto the stool.

  “Err, what the hell are you doing?” I asked, angrily as I stared at him.

  “Just sit down,” he said as I watched a panic expression fill his face.

  “I need to get the pencil, what the hell has gotten into you?” I asked in frustration as I went to stand up again. I suddenly felt him grab hold of my arm again, to prevent me from standing.

  “Addy,” he said as he let out a sigh of frustration.

  “Let go,” I growled as I looked at the strange expression on his face. I had no idea what was wrong with him, and to be honest it was really starting to annoy me.

  “Can you please just trust me,” he whispered as I watched him looking at the chemicals as though he were searching for something in particular.

  “Trust you for wha-”

  “Please?” He pleaded as I watched his face soften. I rolled my eyes at him before finally giving in to his strange plea, and relaxing back in my seat. I didn’t understand why he didn’t want me to move, and I became even more confused as he started searching through the chemicals, very quickly. He finally stopped when he had found the one that he had been looking for.

  “Don’t move until I leave, ok?”

  “Ok,” I replied as I sat there even more confused than ever.

  “Here we go,” I heard him mumble to himself before he took the lid off the test tube in his hand. Before I even had the chance to figure out what he was going to do, he suddenly starting throwing the red liquid on the girl that was stood in front of us. Just when I thought that things couldn’t get any worse, he then threw it on two other girls as well, completely covering the butt area of all three of their jeans. I sat there in shock as I tried to unders
tand what would make him do something so stupid. Did he miss the part where Mrs Jerms said that we should avoid getting the chemicals on our clothes, and that they can dye them?

  Suddenly, there was a mix of screams and laughter going through the entire chemistry lab. There were the girls who he had thrown the chemical on, screaming and crying about their expensive clothes and then the guys, who found it hilarious. What was Caleb doing? I thought as I stared at him in disbelief.

  “Caleb, what on earth do you think you are doing?” Mrs Jerms shouted, causing the whole room to fall silent.

  “Trying to paint,” he replied, dumbly, causing Mrs Jerms to go completely red. I had never actually seen Mrs Jerms mad before, so I knew that Caleb was going to be in some serious trouble.

  “Look what he’s done!” One of the girls cried as she turned around to show Mrs Jerms the red liquid that was covering her jeans.

  “I want you to go straight to Mrs Jackson’s office, now! I’m very disappointed in you,” she said as Caleb turned to me and winked before walking out of the classroom. I had no idea whether or not Caleb was having a nervous breakdown, or whether he had just gone crazy but I couldn’t understand why he had done that.

  “Right, I’m going to let all the girls out early. You three go and get cleaned up,” she said as she pointed to three girls that were covered in the red chemical. ” And boys, you can all stay and help clean up, since you found it so amusing,” she said as they all began to moan.

  I quietly slid from my seat so that I could pick up the pencil off the floor.

  “I can’t believe that he got you too, and you’re supposed to be his girlfriend. What a moron,” a girl named Lydia said as she walked past me, causing me to stare at her in confusion. I quickly picked up the pencil and looked behind me. That’s when I realized that, I too, was covered in something red. I was so confused because I knew that I was sat down when Caleb had been throwing around the chemical, and that’s when it finally hit me; that was the reason that he did it. My pattern had been totally off over the past few months which had been causing me to come on later than usual, but it was obviously back to normal, so I didn’t expect it to come yet. When I stood up, Caleb obviously saw what had happened, and he tried to save me from embarrassment. I can’t believe that he would get himself in all of that trouble, just for me...

  * * *

  It was finally the end of the day, and I had been preparing myself to do this since the little incident in chemistry. I struggled to concentrate for the rest of the day, since I just couldn’t work out why Caleb would do all of that for me. Knowing him, it was probably a small part of some plan or prank that he had planned but I’m still grateful. It’s also the reason that I’ve been stood outside of Mrs Jackson’s office for the past five minutes, trying to gather up the courage to knock the door. Unfortunately, that choice was taken away from me, the minute that the door swung open to reveal her face.

  “Oh, Addison, what are you doing stood there?” She asked in a confused state.

  “Sorry, I just wondered if I could talk to you for a moment?” I asked.

  “Is it important?” She asked in a concerned voice.

  “Yes.”

  “Then you had better come in,” she said before moving aside, so that I could get in and then closing the door behind us. I hadn’t been in her office many times but there wasn’t much of a change since the last time that I had visited. She still had the same dark, grey carpet, and light brown walls. Her desk was a shiny type of mahogany wood with very little stationery on it. She had the tallest green plant that I have ever seen, right in the corner of her office. Her chair was one that you would expect ‘important’ people to have. It was a dark brown, leather chair that had four wheels on the bottom to allow for easy movement. The smell was very warm and outdoorsy, and made me feel as though I had just stepped into the rainforest. While there was something very inviting about the office, there was also something that told me that I didn’t want to be in here very often.

  “Take a seat,” she said as she pointed to the small brown chair that sat opposite hers. I sat down, slowly as I examined the second pair of sweatpants that didn’t belong to me, covering my legs.

  “So, what is this all about?” She asked in a gentle voice.

  “It’s about Caleb,” I said in a voice that matched hers. She was one of those kinds of people, where if you spent a lot of time around them, you’d end up talking the exact same way that they did.

  “Oh no, he hasn’t been causing more trouble has-”

  “No, no it’s not that. We sorted everything out yesterday, it’s about what happened in chemistry today,” I continued.

  “Well, I wouldn’t worry about that dear, I know that you were one of the ones that he threw that chemical on too, and he has been punished accordingly.”

  “That’s what I wanted to talk to you about. I don’t think that he should be punished, it was kind of my fault-”

  “Are you saying that you threw some chemicals too?” She asked with a hint of anger behind her voice.

  “No.”

  “Good.”

  “But he did it for me,” I said as I hesitated. I wasn’t exactly comfortable about sharing the story, but I knew that I had to in order to help Caleb. If he could do that for me – as stupid as it was – then I could do this to help him. “You see, I had an, erm, accident.”

  “Accident?”

  “Yes, like girls problems,” I said as I tried to avoid eye contact.

  “Oh, yes I understand,” she said as I watched her face change to a slightly darker shade of red.

  “Anyway, I hadn’t realized that I had but Caleb did. That’s why he threw the red chemical on all of the other girls, so that it would look like he did it to me as well. I know that it wasn’t the right thing to do, Mrs Jackson but he did do it for the right reasons,” I said as I looked at her. I watched as her expression softened as she took in the new information.

  “Well, I do understand why Mr Gates did it, and it was a kind thing to do but he went about it in the wrong way. I will take what you have said into consideration but he still has to be punished, so that other students don’t think that it is acceptable behavior,” she said, sympathetically.

  “Yes, Mrs Jackson.”

  “Good, and thank you for your honesty, Addison,” she said as she smiled at me.

  “Ok,” I said before finally slipping out of the door and heading towards my car. I didn’t know if my talk with Mrs Jackson helped but I sure hoped that it did.

  * * *

  As I walked through my front door, I was instantly hit with the smell of Aunt Mel’s cooking. It was typical that my dad would invite her round for dinner and then let her cook. He had been getting away with that trick for years now. Aunt Mel loved to cook, so it was never a problem for her.

  “Hey, Cutie Pie, your dad is looking for you,” Courtney said as soon as I walked through the door.

  “Why?”

  “Something about being grounded, coming home on time and an extra week being added on,” she said as she headed towards the dining room with plates in her hand.

  “Great,” I mumbled before heading towards the kitchen.

  “Hey, guys,” I said as I spotted Aunt Mel giving my dad and Bill cooking lessons.

  “Where have you been?” My dad asked.

  “I was talking to Principal Jackson-”

  “You’ve been in trouble again?” He asked in a frustrated voice.

  “No, actually, I just had to speak to her,” I grunted.

  “I’ll be checking to see if your story is true tomorrow, and why do you keep coming home in sweatpants?” He asked with a confused expression.

  “This is only the second time, and it’s a long story,” I replied as I watched Aunt Mel and Bill, laugh at my dad’s ever changing facial expressions.

  “Can I go now, Sherlock Holmes?”

  “Don’t get smart with me, kid,” my dad said as he turned back around to attend his ‘cooking le
sson’.

  As I walked up the stairs, I could hear Caleb and Cale’s voices coming from his room. I rolled my eyes at the idea of them two being friends before lightly knocking on the door.

  “Come in,” Caleb shouted through the door.

  I walked in to see him and Cale with a controller in each of their hands while they screamed about zombies, running and dying...fun.

  “Can I talk to you for a minute please?” I asked.

  “Sure, baby, I always have time for you,” Cale said as he put the game on pause and then turned to look at me.

  “Great, I think that I just threw up in my mouth,” I replied, sarcastically as Caleb burst out laughing.

  “You know, your personality makes me dislike you a little more each day,” Cale said with a smirk on his face.

  “Good, that’s what I was hoping for,” I said as I smirked at him. “Can I talk to you,” I repeated as I kept my eyes on Caleb.

  “Yeah, sure,” he said as we both turned to look at Cale.

  “What?”

  “Get out,” we both sang in unison.

  “Gosh, talk about making a guy feel, unwanted,” he said as he walked past me and out the door.

  “So,” I said, nervously as I closed in his bedroom door.

  “So, what’s up?” He asked, curiously.

  “I wanted to say thank you, for what you did,” I said, quietly as I ducked my head in shame. I was still pretty embarrassed that Caleb was the one that saw me like that.

  “It’s fine.”

  “Did you get in much trouble?”

  “At first, yeah, then Principal Jackson called my dad about ten minutes ago, saying that she wasn’t going to kick me out of the school but that I had to do ‘community service’ for the week,” he said as he rolled his eyes.

  “Community service, this isn’t prison,” I said as I chuckled to myself.

  “Exactly, anyway nobody ever died from picking up rubbish, so I think that I’ll survive,” he said as he shrugged his shoulders, carelessly.

  “Good, well thanks anyway,” I said as I made my way to the door again. I suddenly paused and then span around to face Caleb again. “Why did you do it?” I asked, curiously.