Chapter 7

I wasn't doing that bad.

Whatever, there's still more time left, I thought, tightening my grip on the yellow pencil. Here I was, in the middle of a chemistry pop quiz, close to pulling my hair out. How does Mr. Smith expect us to memorize the entire periodic table? I can barely memorize Olivia's Starbucks order!

"Time's up. Class is over in five minutes," our balding teacher announced blandly. "Hand in your quizzes."

I groaned, looking down at my quiz. About half of it was marked with my grey pencil, and the answers were probably incorrect anyways. I trudged to the front of the room, not eager to hand in my quiz at all.

"Ah, Miss White," Mr. Smith squinted his eyes at the paper he grabbed out of my grasp, "it seems you used invisible ink because half of this paper is empty."

I mumbled a "sorry" before retreating back to my desk. As I stuffed my books into my backpack which was falling apart at its seams due to the overwhelming amount of books, Olivia's high-pitched voice interrupted my thoughts.

"That was so easy!" She pulled on her pink backpack as we exited the bland classroom into the hallway. Laughter echoed in the halls, joined by energetic conversations about the latest gossip, which I can proudly say that I did not participate in.

I scoffed. "Easy for you to say," I sighed as we headed towards our lockers which were pretty close to one another. "I could just feel that paper burning in the pits of hell."

"Well I'm already there so I'll see your paper there I guess," she joked with a straight face. "But for real, just ask Xander for help. He's, like, a genius in everything."

"He never shows up! He didn't even show up today," I complained, flailing my arms in emphasis. "I mean, he's smart and all, but he doesn't know what will be on the quiz. Also, why don't you help me? You're smart in chemistry." Olivia loved the sciences since she's always held a certain interest in being a doctor when she's older.

"Because I'd be a crappy teacher. And he already said he would tutor you. I mean, who am I to ruin your moments with Xander?" she shrugged, inspecting her blue tinted nails.

"There are no 'moments' with Xander, whatever you mean by that," I narrowed my eyes at her with a small smile to let her know I was only joking. "Anyways, I've gotta get to practice. I'll see you at the dorms though."

She nodded before we turned to head our separate ways. Normally, I would be rushing to the girls locker room before Mckenna got there so I could avoid the awkward silence and her scrutinizing gaze that would linger on my appearance, judging every flaw about me. But today, that unreasonable rule hasn't allowed me to run in two weeks since my grades haven't been up to par lately.

I slammed open the doors, freeing myself from the crowded halls, only to be met with the pettiest of girls perched on blue tables outside and other girls crowding around them, desperate to be part of the "fun."

"Hey, Aurora," came Mckenna's snotty voice behind me as I made my way to the tracks. "You still go to track? You really must be desperate for boys if you resort to sports to talk to them."

I turned around to face Mckenna to see that she was one of the girls perched on the table. "Yeah, that's why I'm on the varsity team. At least I got on it because I'm actually good, not because my daddy is the coach," I spat with a smirk in her direction. "I assume you're skipping practice again, thankfully." A gasp left her lips along with the eruption of whispers as I turned back around to head to the field.

I rolled my eyes and adjusted the backpack that was pulling on my shoulder as I continued to the tracks.

"Hey, White," Coach Segal greeted as I dropped my things on the bleachers. I sat down to be scorched with the burning metal since it had been extremely warm all day.

"Coach," I started, pulling out my homework, "When can I run again? It's pretty obvious that my grades won't be improving drastically any time soon."

"Sorry, kid. It's the policy, and I don't think you've realized yet, but the rules are only restricting you from running in practice. You can still run after practice."

"Oh," I laughed at my stupidity before hearing my name being called by two voices.

"Aurora!" I snapped my head to the left where Cooper and Tommy were entering the gates, walking across the wet grass in my direction.

I gave them expectant looks when they approached me. "Well," Cooper started, "I saw your little fight with the wannabe queen bee just a few minutes ago."

"She was being bitchy for no reason," I scoffed. "What else am I supposed to do? Let her humiliate and belittle me in front of everyone?"

"It wasn't everyone," Tommy interjected. "There were, like, fifteen people."

"Whatever," I shook my head. "Shouldn't you guys be getting ready for practice?" I scanned the field and made eye contact with Xander who was just walking through the rusting gate to the field and smiled before snapping my eyes back to my friends in front of me.

"Well, let's just hope Mckenna doesn't tell her dad because in case you forgot, he's our coach."

"Just go get ready for practice already," I shooed them off as they began to walk towards the locker room to prepare for practice.

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"Nice job today, guys!" Coach Segal announced as I watched the flushed boys surround him before they dispersed.

I stuffed my backpack with my homework and crumpled papers before turning around to be met with Xander's sweaty form.

"Practice was torturous," he started before he picked up my heavy backpack and carried it on his back along with his duffle bag as we walked to the exit gate of the field. I smiled at the gesture. "You're honestly lucky you don't have to run."

"Please," I scoffed. "I would rather be running with you guys than trying to figure out how to memorize the periodic table. And by the way, you missed a pop quiz in chemistry."

"I bet you did great on that quiz," he laughed.

"For your knowledge, I did great."

"I'm sure you did," he smirked down at me, not believing my lie. "So when do you wanna start tutoring?"

"You still wanna tutor me?" I asked in shock. He never mentioned his helping me again so I assumed he didn't want to.

He shrugged in response. "I can tutor you right now if you want."

"Sure," I shrugged. "Since you're so eager to start tutoring me, I guess we can go to the library now."

He scoffed. "Hey, consider this my charity work. Although I'm a natural genius, if you want better grades, it's gonna take a lot more than my help. It's gonna have to take a miracle."

"Ugh, I actually thought you were being nice for once," I pushed his shoulder with all my strength but he didn't move an inch. "You suck!"

"No, love, that's your job, if I'm correct."

"You're disgusting!" I stuck my tongue out at him.

"You're disgusting-er!" He bared his pearly whites as he kept up with the childish fight.

"You're disgusting-er-er!"

We were about to continue our childish fight before I heard Tommy shout my name behind us. "Aurora!"

I turned around to face Tommy who was running up to Xander and I, his backpack and orange duffle bag on his back. "Yes, Tom?"

"Wanna head out for dinner right now?" He asked, shifting from one foot to the other. "There's a new restaurant that's only, like, five minutes away from campus, and I don't wanna go all alone."

"It's Monday, though," I sighed. "Also, Xander was gonna help me with homework right now."

"No, it's fine," Xander interjected abruptly. "Just go with him, Aurora," he nodded and handed me back my backpack that he had been carrying for me.

"You sure?" I asked him, hoping he wouldn't let me go. I was hesitant to go with Tommy since it was a school night, and I desperately needed to study.

Xander nodded before mumbling out a "see you later" and leaving Tommy and I. I turned around from Xander's retreating figure to face an excited-looking boy.

"So?" he asked, smiling.

"Sure," I sighed. "Let's go."

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"That tiramisu was fricken great!" I screeched, unlocking my dorm room. "If heaven had a flavor, it would be that cake."

"I would have to agree with you on that, Miss White," he nodded while leaning against the beige wall of the dim hallway. We had gone to the new Italian restaurant, and the foods were phenomenal. Tommy ended up paying for my food, despite my insistence to pay for myself. We had walked back together, but although he was in a different dorm hall, he walked me to mine since it was pretty dark already. "Well, I'm in a different dorm hall so, I guess this is where I bid you goodbye."

"Bye, Tom-Tom," I smiled, stepping into my room and closing the door before he waved goodbye.

"You went on a date with Tommy?" Olivia yelled while running out of our small bathroom. "I was mid-pee when I heard you two out there!"

"It wasn't a date," I rolled my eyes at her assumption and sat on my bed.

"Well, you need to make sure he knows that it wasn't one."

"He knows."

"Considering he basically asked you out on a date to the football game, it was probably a date."

"No, it wasn't. And Xander was there when he asked, so he was probably inviting Xander to dinner also."

"Puh-lease!" she sighed, rubbing her temples like she had a headache and lied down on her bed. "Tommy thinks it was a date. Now go call him and tell him it wasn't."

"No! I'll just tell him tomorrow at practice," I sighed. "You're gonna be the death of me, Liv."

"Whatever," she shook her head, pulled out her laptop, and put her earbuds in. "I'm gonna watch Vampire Diaries. Don't disturb me or I will murder you."

I laughed at Olivia's unhealthy obsession with Damon Salvatore. Her obsession had always been a little creepy, but that's Olivia for you. She's a crazy one.

My phone in my back pocket dinged, signaling a notification. I pulled out my phone and saw that the notification was Xander.

X: Tutoring tomorrow after practice?

I smiled at the reminder before typing a response.

A: Of course :) Thanks, Xandy.

X: Good night, gem.

A: What do you mean by "good night?" It's 6pm!

X: Just go with it

I could imagine him rolling his eyes at his text. I sent a "goodbye" message before shutting off my phone and pulling out my books to continue my homework from where I left off at practice.

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Hey, loves!

Thank you so so so much for reading this chapter. If you liked this one, don't forget to vote/comment! I love you <3

Writing the next chapter right now, and it may or may not be in Xander's POV *wink wink*

Also, any ideas for future chapters?

-sophia :)