29| All Work And No Play

"Where is Zachary and Ethan?" Zoey asked once she reached their usual spot in the school ground. Only Althea and Olive could be seen sitting there, with the former blabbering about something unimportant and the latter nodding in an uninterested manner.

"Zachary is studying in the library." Althea said and Zoey's eyes widened.

"Since when did he become such a nerd?" She commented and seated herself in the empty spot between Althea and Olive.

"You should have seen him last night cramming all the formulas. Apparently, he has an Algebra test today." Althea told them.

"And Ethan?" Zoey asked and got the answer when they saw Ethan coming towards them, his hand around a girl's waist.

The girl looked vaguely familiar and Zoey remembered that she was a new transfer student in her History class who just came from London. The girl had fiery red curls that reached her long neck and pale skin. Little golden freckles were dusted all over her button nose.

"Hi guys," he said, pulling the girl closer to him.

"Who is she?" Althea asked Ethan, ignoring the girl altogether.

"This," Ethan leaned towards the girl and pecked her on her plump lips. "is my girlfriend."

"I think you pronounced fuck-buddy wrong, Ethan." Althea said rudely, completely disregarding the girl. Both Zoey and Olive elbowed her to stop her from insulting the cute girl.

Giving Althea a warning glare, Ethan whispered something in that girl's ear and she nodded in understanding. The girl turned around and walked away from them, but not before kissing Ethan's cheek.

"Her name is Cindy." Ethan said. "And she is my girlfriend, believe it or not. I am pretty serious about her."

"She is hot." Olive said and then shrunk in her seat when Althea glared at her.

"I don't believe it." Althea said dryly.

"And I don't care. You said I would never get a girlfriend but I did. Now, suck it, princess." Ethan smirked and the rest of them could practically see the smoke coming out of Althea's ear.

Once Ethan left for her class, Althea stood up angrily and groaned. "He is doing this just to show me that he can have a girlfriend. I bet he doesn't give a rat's ass about Miss. Ginger."

"But why do you care? You should be happy that he is leaving you alone." Zoey said with a sly smile.

"Who said I care?" Althea almost spat and both Zoey and Olive controlled their giggles at her transparent jealousy. "I have better things to do than worrying about them."

"Like?" Olive said, clearly in the mood of pushing her buttons.

"Like going to my next class." She said and picked up her pink leather bagpack.

After Althea had stomped off, Zoey made her way to the literature class with Olive. Entering inside the class, they both made their way to their usual seats and once she was seated, Zoey angled her head to stare at Travis.

Ignoring everyone else, his whole attention was focused on the book in his hands. His light hair was falling on his forehead in an adorable manner and Zoey felt the urge to gently tuck them away and feel the texture.

Olive cleared her throat by her side and she jumped, as if she had been caught doing something wrong. Gulping, she opened her notebook and began jotting something down, ignoring Olive's gaze on her.

"Somebody has taken a fancy in Travis Anderson." Olive whispered under her breath.

"I have not taken any fancy in him, whatever that means." Zoey snarled back. "I just..."

"Just what?" Olive lifted her eyebrows.

Looking around, Zoey checked if anybody was listening to them and then leaned closer to Olive. "We almost kissed last night."

Hearing this, Olive almost hopped out of her seat but the presence of the teacher in the class stopped her from doing that. "What do you mean by almost kissed?" She muttered.

Zoey tucked her hair behind her ears, nervously playing with the hem of her shirt. It wasn't a usual thing for Zoey to feel anxious while talking about a guy but usual wasn't exactly the best word to describe Travis anyway. "Um... I was just teasing him and one thing led to another and... But it didn't really happen." She could feel her cheeks heating up at the memory.

"So do you like him?" Olive asked the obvious.

"No. I mean, he is really different from all the other guys so I kind of feel attracted to him, But I definitely don't like his rude ass." Zoey licked her lips that were becoming drier by the second.

"You are attracted to him but you don't like him?" She asked and Zoey nodded. The expression on Olive's face were enough to tell Zoey how stupid she sounded.

"I'll figure it out. Just don't tell anyone, specially not Althea." Zoey requested.

"I won't." Olive assured and Zoey let out a relieved sigh.

•••••••••••

It was almost 7 in the evening when Travis entered the Crawford mansion. He looked around to find Zoey and then entered the lounge, where her brother Sam was sitting silently on the couch.

"Hey man, where is Zoey?" Travis asked.

"She is taking a nap. But don't bother waking her up if you don't want a black eye." He said and Travis chuckled at this.

"We were supposed to work on our literature homework." He said and then contemplated what to do. He thought of postponing it but then he remembered what happened last week. He definitely didn't want another bad grade.

"You can wait here. She will be up in half an hour or something." Sam said and Travis nodded.

He seated himself on the couch beside him and took a peek of what Sam was doing. He was trying to solve a Math problem but he was nowhere close to actually getting the answer.

"Do you want to play Call of Duty?" Sam asked when he found Travis looking at him.

"But you have work to do." Travis pointed at his notebook.

"Who cares? I am not getting any correct answer anyway. Math sucks." He said, shutting his notebook close.

"Don't you have a tutor or something?" Travis asked.

"He quit last night. He said I was too much of nuisance." Sam imitated his tutor and Travis grinned at his actions.

"Come on, I'll help you. Then we can play Call of Duty." Travis offered.

"Don't bother. I think I am too dumb to be an engineer." Sam said.

"Nobody is dumb. We all just need right guidance." Travis said and opened his notebook. Sam was lagging far behind, judging by all his wrong answers but nothing Travis can't handle. He had tutored few of his classmates in previous years so it wasn't exactly impossible for him to teach a sixth-grader.

In the next hour, Travis helped Sam in solving all the questions. Travis was the best tutor Sam ever had; patient and forgiving. He didn't make Sam feel stupid whenever he made any mistake. Neither did he boast about his own intelligence like his last tutor used to do.

"Now we can play." Sam said excitedly on getting all the answers correct.

"Later. I need to wake up your sister first." Travis said and stood up.

Slinging his backpack across his waist, Travis made his way up the stairs towards Zoey's room. He knocked a few times, slow at first and then a little harder, until a groggy voice came from inside. "Come in."

Entering inside, he saw Zoey lying on her stomach, her one leg sprawled out and the other one tucked under the blanket while her dark hair was spread everywhere. The sight was cute and arousing at the same time, the latter because of the denim shorts she was wearing. Travis shook his head to pull it out of the gutter and walked further into the room.

"Wake up, Zoey. We have to work." He said to her as his eyes lingered on her toned legs.

"Of course it's you, Travis. Who else has the courage to wake me up?" She commented dryly and rolled over.

"Sue me for waking up the princess." He rolled his eyes and seated himself at the corner of the bed. "We have to work, Zoey. I don't want the repeat of last time."

"Oh come on, it wasn't that bad." She said, rising to sitting position.

"Yes, it was that bad. Now if you don't mind, move you lazy ass so we can have some work done." He said.

"My ass isn't lazy, Travis. In fact, it's quite opposite, if you know what I mean." Zoey winked at him.

Travis completely ignored Zoey's remark about her ass because God knows what that would do to his already shaky concentration."So did you give a read to this week's assignment?" He said.

"You are so boring, Travis. Studying is the last thing on a guy's mind when he is in a room with me alone." She whined and then hopped out of bed.

While she stretched her arms over her head, her crop top rid up and Travis' throat felt unusually dry. "Guess I am not a guy then." He said.

"That's what I think. You need to get your testosterone level checked." She said while combing her hair with her fingers and pulling them over her head in a loose bun.

"You don't need to worry about my testesterone levels. I have enough proofs of its adequacy." Travis commented sarcastically and a smirk appeared on Zoey's lips.

She made her way to him and then seated herself just few inches away from him. "What kind of proofs?" She asked in a sultry voice.

"Focus." Travis said sharply and she rolled her eyes.

"See, boring." She slid away from him and crossed her legs. The sight of her legs once again caused Travis to shift in his seat and he mentally groaned over her affect on him. "I pity your future girlfriend, Anderson."

"You don't need to worry about my future girlfriend. I think I will keep her pretty happy and satisfied." Travis said and Zoey felt a surge of jealousy. For some reason, she didn't want him to make another girl happy.

"I don't think so. I think that girl will have to dress up like a sexy teacher for you to take her serious." Zoey said and then giggled at her own joke.

"Open up your book, Zoey." He said, ignoring her previous remark blatantly.

"God, Travis." She said with fake anger. "All work and no play can make you a dull boy."

"I am better off dull." Travis said and began jotting down important points on his notebook.

Zoey balled her fists to stop herself from launching at him. He was so insufferable and he makes her want to punch him on his stupid, handsome face.

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Which group of friends is your favourite?

1. Travis, Maya, Mario

2. Zoey, Zachary, Althea, Ethan, Olive