School Daze
Chapter 6
“So how much of it is true?!” Quinn eyed him out the corner of her eye, though her head was bowed towards her strawberry ice cream sundae. Justin laughed lightly, leaning back from his banana split and looked directly at Quinn. He was sure that she heard quite a bit about him and could even sense the most of it had nothing to do with his good morals.
“ Well, let’s see..” he started sparking her full interest, causing her to drop her spoon and bring her eyes to him. Justin smiled under her intrigued gaze, and wondered how it was that her interest in him made him want to forget some of the intricate details of his popular lifestyle.
“ About half of what you hear is based on a third of the truth.”
“ What?!” Quinn laughed leaning her head to the side in a perplexed look. Looking down Justin tried to keep a straight face, she looked adorably cute and funny- even if she wasn’t trying. “ You always do that you know.” Justin stopped his faint laugh and looked at her questionably. She was biting her lip, in a state of indecision as if deciding if she should continue on with the thought. Justin sate up straight, expressing his seriousness, hoping that it would encourage her to continue.
“ I always do what?!”
“ You always, laugh at me.” Justin didn’t want to smile, in fact he wanted to suppress the smile, but her innocent manner made him grin nonetheless. He had already knew that it sent her to her wits end whenever he laughed at her, because it did in fact seem as if he was mocking her. He wasn’t though, he was just truly amused by her and the joy of her always came out of him as laughter.
“ It’s not what you think.” he finally said, hoping that his smile didn’t dissuade her from that fact.
“ How do you know what I think?!” he had to stop in mid swallow at her frank and very suggestive manner, moving the spoon slowly out of his mouth he placed it back in the half eaten bowl of his banana split, and looked her over.
“ What do you think?” he watched her as she scooped a spoonful of strawberry drizzled vanilla ice cream into her mouth and weighted her answer.
“ Depends.” she smiled, looking down in that shy an innocent fashion Justin found himself falling in love with. “ I think a lot.”
“ Cute.” he laughed and figured that she was just going to have to get over his amusement of her, it just seemed to come natural to him.
“ I guess I’m going to have to get used to it then.” she smiled reading his mind and Justin could have crossed over to her side and enveloped her in a bear hug. In fact, he could have done that on more than one occasion.
“ Good.” he winked at her and scooped yet another spoonful into his mouth. As if she hadn’t started already, Quinn began to grow on him. Something about her made him want more from her than what he could have from any other girl, something about her made him want to forget about his proclaimed playboy image for the year. He looked down, not wanting the intensity of his thoughts and stare to scare her. Trace had finally picked a good one.
Quinn hadn’t been paying much attention to the announcements Coach Newman was making, but found the better part of her interest to be directed towards Scarlett and Justin who stood side by side against the wall. She, herself, was seated amongst the group of girls who were still going through preliminary cheerleading tryouts. Today was the last day, meaning that the team would finally be formed and an end had finally come to this madness. Quinn didn’t know if she or her mother was more excited, then again looking over at Trace whose smile was filled with encouragement- she was suddenly booted out of the top two list. Diverting her attention back to Coach Newman, she subconsciously moved a strand of her hair behind her ear. The fact of the matter was that she was not focused, and when she wasn’t focused she was preoccupied. Being preoccupied put her in a state of nervousness, because no matter the case you always miss out on something when you don’t pay attention. And contrary to popular belief, you can’t focus on two things at once. One will always carry more weight of importance then the other. In this case, it was Justin and his private conversation with Scarlett. Maybe they were just discussing their picks for the team, that would make the most logical sense. Of course it doesn’t take such closeness to conduct a conversation with the likes of that topic, so perhaps they were throwing out ideas of a great location to grace with the gruesome act of their lovefest. Either way, the conversation in itself was inappropriate and should come to a vast end. Nobody liked secrets.
“ I didn’t know you were into robbing cradles.” Scarlett smirked, her eyes looking over Justin once and then back to the crowd of girls where Quinn sat. She hadn’t expected for the girl to make it this far after showing up a week ago clad in what most boys would where to an open gym. In fact, Scarlett was quite sure of the fact that Quinn Carroll would not make it on the team. There would be no junior high new comer upstaging her, not on the squad and not with Justin.
“ Jealous?” Justin sighed, looking over at Quinn who seemed to be moving her hair behind her ear every five seconds. What was her deal, Justin thought before turning his attention to Scarlett.
“ Should I be?” she asked pointedly and Justin smirked in response. He felt like asking should he be jealous of Joshua, but he really didn’t feel like getting into it with Scarlett. The way he saw things, even if something was going on with Quinn, Scarlett had no right to get mad. She had no right at all.
“ What are you talking about Scar?”
“ You know what I’m talking about.” Scarlett hissed and crossed her arms over her chest. Glaring at Quinn, Scarlett felt herself get even more angrier by the minute. Justin hadn’t even showed at her house last night, without having to even be told she knew he was with her. What did he want with a little 13 year old? Without pressing the question too much, for fear of recognizing her beauty, wit and charm, Scarlett dismissed it as nothing. That little 13 year old had nothing on her.
“ No I don’t” Justin sighed, shaking his head. He suddenly wished Joshua was there, and not in AP physics, so he could take his girlfriend of his hands.
“ She’s not getting voted onto this team.” Justin stopped and turned to her, how dare Scarlett use her power of authority over Quinn just because she felt threatened. What was worse was that it all boiled down to him, Quinn would be rejected just because she was acquainted with him. It wasn’t fair, especially when everyone knew about Quinn and Trace.
“ Scar, what the hell.. She’s talking to Trace not me!” Justin shrieked in an angry whisper.
“ Then what are you doing bringing her to school and taking her home each day, taking her out and doing who knows what?!”
“ Do you hear yourself? Scar you have a boyfriend, so no matter what I do it wont make a difference. Remember you left me.” Scarlett rolled her eyes, she wouldn’t give him up. She would not give him up, especially not for some little girl.
“Hey perk up kid.” Justin couldn’t even look at her without his heart breaking, he couldn’t believe Scarlett. He didn’t know what to think when the final team was announced without the mention of Quinn’s name. No way was the situation fair, when clearly Scarlett was the only one that voted against her. It was without reason that all the guys casted their vote for her in. So there he sat, behind the wheel of his car trying to tune out of the condoling conversation between Trace and Quinn. His anger was to fused to try and look around it, and he knew he couldn’t talk to her without feeling guilty. Afterall it was his fault she didn’t make the team anyway.
“ Hey yo J, could you come back around 5 and get me.” Trace asked looking into Justin’s window. Justin nodded and watched as Quinn sat down in the passenger seat. He couldn’t quite read the expression on her face, which made him uneasy. He waited until she spoke before he made any move to start the car. He half expected her to burst out into tears maybe even scream out in anguish, what he didn’t expect was the smile plastered across her face.
“Quinn?”
“ Thank GOODNESS I was ejected! YES!” Justin once again felt that smile, that always had a habit of showing up whenever she was around, creep onto his face. She was one unpredictable person. “ I mean to think I would of had to prance around in those little skirts in the brink of winter! And adhere to the orders of Scarlett, it’s a shame I wasn’t cut sooner.” Justin stared at her in disbelief, he had expected a much worse state from her than the elated one she presented.
“ What?!” she finally asked him, her smile reflecting his own.
“ I thought you were upset?”
“ No. I just played the part for Trace. He looked like he needed it.” Laughing, Justin started the car. This girl was amazing to say the least.
Number of reviews: 9
Print:
Chapter or Story