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UNEDITED

"You girls are young and come from good homes." The stern lady also known as our principal A.K.A Mrs. Davis sat across me and Natalie said, "Why should I be getting behavioral complains?"

"Young girls like you should be civilized." She continued on.

Civilized? Natalie? Who knew the principal had a sense of humor.

"Girls this is unacceptable." She says, "Miss Wilson especially from you. Your sister-"

"Ma'am with all due respect me and my sister are different people so please do not compare us." I say.

I mean I just had a proper fight with Natalie, back answering a principal was right now did not look as daunting.

The principal looked quite shocked.

"Yes you are right. But judging by your previous record I did not expect this from you Clara." She says, "I mean you are in the student council have the perfect grades not to mention a shoo in for valedictorian and all teachers have nothing but good things to say about you."

Yeah go ask the gym teacher what he has to say about me right now.

"Favoritism much?" Natalie mutters.

I roll my eyes.

"Miss but she so clearly started it." Natalie huffed, "There should be some kind of punishment."

"Miss Anderson I know you tripped her first so let's not talk." She says, "I am being biased to both of you and I am giving you a weeks detention and counseling for the both of you."

"What?" The both of us shout together.

"That is a very bad idea." I say.

"I agree." Natalie says, "Unless you want the school to blow up, you don't want this."

"See you agreed with something." She said, "I believe you will make wonderful progress. Miss Wilson you will be in the organizing committee for the dance this weekend and Miss Anderson you will be selling the tickets as part of your detention."

We both stare at her and for a moment I think she is going to start laughing and tell us that this was all a big joke.

"You are now dismissed." She says.

I get up and I'm ready to sprint out of her office when Mrs. Davis spoke up.

"Oh girls before you got to your classes you might want to go to the nurse's office."

_________________________________

"This is hilarious." Jake says looking at me and then quickly taking a peek at Natalie who was on the other side of the room with the nurse.

And Alec.

We couldn't see much due to the curtain the nurse had drawn to keep us apart.

"You beat the living daylights out of her." He says and then looks at me as if I have just been declared the queen of England, "Clara Wilson I have never been so proud of you."

"Oh what you are done throwing yourself at Ashley?" I say coldly trying to see what the hell was going on the other side.

"What can I say, I like older women." He says and I kick him hard on the shin,"Ow! That hurt but were you jealous?"

I roll my eyes, "Of Ashley? Pfft."

Yeah I mean whose going to be jealous of the tall gorgeous supermodel with boys falling on her feet. Not to mention the fact that she was another version of my sister. Just nicer which meant I actually liked her.

"Jake why are you even here?" I sigh lying down my head was aching like there was no tomorrow well I wasn't in the mood.

"Well would you rather be here alone mooning over Alec who rushes to Natalie's aid without sparing a glance at you?"

It stung, I admitted it. A lot.

"You're all done." The nurse announces from the other side.

I can slowly hear Natalie getting up.

"Careful." Alec said and I roll my eyes thinking up a scene where Natalie falls flat on the ground.

The nurse pulls the curtain and Natalie is standing there with a huge purple bruise on her face and a bandage on her wrist.

It takes all my self-control not to laugh.

"OH MY GOD." Natalie screams as she looks at the mirror, "I can't even hide this with concealer."

Then she notices me. I honestly thought she was ready for a rematch of what happened in the gym but Alec grabbed her and Jake stood in front of me and simply shook his head.

"Don't even try." He said.

"Natalie seriously lay off." Alec said, "You have got plenty of homecoming crowns. You seriously need to stop."

Natalie glared at Alec and shook his hand off her.

"Yeah why not." She says, "Go ditch your girlfriend for some pathetic wannabe."

"Well that pathetic wannabe can hear you, you know." I reply, "And at least she isn't a clingy bitch."

Natalie glared at me.

"Clara not helping." Alec sighs. He does look a little surprised though and just the tiniest bit impressed.

"You know what, Alec go to hell." Natalie shouts, "Honest to god if you are so concerned about her become her boyfriend."

With that she walked out.

I am in half a mind to tell Alec, Yeah listen to her this once, but thankfully I keep my trap shut.

"God Natalie." Alec muttered, "I swear to god one day without drama would kill her."

I nod.

"Are you going to be okay?" Alec asks me.

I nod again....

He lets out a sigh in relief and then gives Jake a curt nod and Jake returns that.

"Take care of her." He says, "I'll be back."

With that Alec leaves going after Natalie.

Story of my freaking life.

"Now Clara, you're back." The nurse says.

It's ironic how many times I have been in the nurse's office so much that she is on first name basis with me. Although I don't know her name mistly because ninety percent of the time I am too dazed.

"Any pain anywhere", she asks.

"Everywhere." I say.

"Yeah she is a bit sore after last night." Jake adds and I elbow him.

"He is just kidding."I quickly say.

"Okay can you try to stand for me?" She says.

I nod and slowly stand up and wince when pain shoots up my ankle I almost fall but Jake balances me by catching my shoulders.

"Okay sit down." She says.

I shrug Jake's hand off me. He gives me a look but I ignore it.

"You seem quite okay except for a sprain in your ankle." She says.

"Great." I say gritting my teeth.

"Lunch is in a few moments." She says, "You can wait here till then. I'll be back."

With that she exits the room.

"God this day cannot get worse." I exclaim, "Lunch is going to be horrible. I just embarrassed myself in front of the entire school. Natalie's minions are going to have my blood."

"Plus you are nominated for homecoming queen." He says.

I give him a blank look.

"What?" I say and then it hits me.

"Fuck!" I exclaim.

"Language Wilson." He says.

"Please your language is worse than mine." I say rolling my eyes, "I don't want to go for lunch."

Just then the lunch bell rings.

_______________________

"I cannot believe you beat the crap out of Natalie for the homecoming crown." Samantha says.

"Huh?" I say impatiently waiting in the parking lot.

The minute I had heard the lunch bell ring it took all my will power not to hurl. Luckily the nurse saw my state and agreed that if I wanted to go home I was free to do so.

I jumped almost too happily at that thought but when the nurse asked who my guardian was and Jake said Ashley I wanted to hurl all over again.

Don't take me wrong. I like her. I mean she is sweet and so likable but you know I just didn't like her.

Does that make any sense?

I'm pretty sure I got a concussion too.

"It's made out of plastic and not to mention it's totally pathetic and useless." She says, "But hats off to kicking her ass."

Samantha came to see me at the nurse's office to see if I was all right. It gave me a perfect opportunity to get away from Jake and talk to Samantha who had finally cooled down.

She apologized first and said that she had no right snapping at me and I did admit that I had been a little self centered too lately.

"You and I both know I didn't do it for that." I reply swaying from one leg to another.

I was so completely exhausted it wasn't even funny. I had barely eaten anything and catfights really take a lot of your energy.

Suddenly Rebecca runs up to us.

"Are you all right?" She asks.

She then notices Samantha and bites her lip.

"I'm fine."I say breaking the awkward silence, "I mean I just kicked the crap out of Natalie so much so she can't even hide it with concealer."

Rebecca shakes her head chuckling.

"Yup I saw that it was hilarious you are definitely getting homecoming queen that way." She says.

"Not everything in life is measured by plastic crowns." Samantha says rolling her eyes.

Rebecca laughs.

"True. But everything in high school life is measured by plastic crowns." Rebecca said.

Samantha nodded her head and laughed.

"I'm sorry for being such a bitch." Samantha said "I should not judge who you date."

Rebecca smiled.

"I'm sorry I shouldn't have snapped back." She said.

Oh thank god. I was honestly going to lose it if they continued fighting.

Okay maybe I already did earlier today but that's not the point.

Just then Ashley's blue pickup truck pulls up in the parking lot.

Just smile and wave Clara, just smile and wave.

"Who is that?" Rebecca asks as I slowly head over to truck.

"Jake's nanny" I say.

If eyes could pop out and jaws could touch the floor theirs just did.

"Anyway that's my ride." I say looking at them and slightly grinning.

They snapped back to reality and Rebecca said, "Holy mother of -"

Samantha grabbed her hand and told her to stop but only after Rebecca managed a few expletives.

"See you later Clara." Samantha says, "Oh and about the comment about your love life I take it back. After all why should things this interesting not be talked about?"

She gave me a wink and walked back towards the school with Rebecca who was taking no effort of hiding the fact that she was full on glaring at Ashley.

I limp towards the truck.

I thank the lords that she wasn't in hearing distance as I slowly climb into the car and Ashley gives me a concerned expression.

"Jake called me." She said, "Are you okay?"

Wow Jake stopped flirting with her for 5 seconds to tell her about me. I'm officially impressed.

"Nah its nothing bad just got into a fight in school." I say.

Ashley's eyes narrowed.

"Please tell me it isn't the same thing Jake is-"

She stops halfway through once she sees my confused expression.

What was she going to say? I simply shake my head and give up. Honestly I am not going to rack my head over Jake right now.

The rest of the car ride we both remain silent.

When we finally reach the house it's like I can't get out fast enough. I almost trip for the billionth time today as I land on my bad leg but I quickly regain my balance and enter the house.

The house is sparkling and has a faint smell of lemon in the air. I sigh in relief never so happy to be in someone else's house.

That's when I see movement.

I freeze. It must be some thief or an axe murderer. My hands tighten around a huge umbrella next to the door. My aim may not be great but with an umbrella that big it was hard to miss.

But then again it was me.

I see a shadow and I raise my umbrella to beat the shit out of the intruder after all I was already a seasoned veteran after my world war three fight with Natalie.

I almost felt like calling out and saying Yeah Bitch you're dealing with a pro! But I kept my mouth shut.

But before I can even get a good look the door opens knocking the umbrella out of my hand.

I knew Ashley was nothing but trouble. Now the both of us were doomed and it was all because of her. So there I was weaponless waiting for some big burly man with eighty tattoos and hundreds of piercings to come but instead came a thin tall boy.

Even by looking at him he looked like a nerd. Forget murdering anyone I doubt this guy could even lift the umbrella on the floor. I mean sure he was kind of cute if you went for the sandy brown hair gelled in a style like Justin Beiber's and big brown eyes that were hidden by huge glasses.

"Hey babe." Ashley said walking in smiling as she planted a huge kiss on his cheek.

Babe?

Kiss?

What?

"Oops I'm sorry." she said looking at me, "This is my boyfriend Nathan."

Boyfriend?

"Sorry." She says correcting herself," Fiancé."

Okay that's about it. I need to go to the doctor ASAP. There is something seriously wrong with me. But even then I would never have cooked up something weird.

"You must be Clara?" he said in a slight British accent, "Ashley was telling a lot about you."

Okay so British accent. I get it but it still doesn't wipe out the fact that Ashley is like a supermodel and he is so......

Not.

"I'm Nathan James." He says smiling, "I'm sorry for the really rude introduction."

He looks at the umbrella on the floor and smiles that finally breaks me out of my shock.

"Ummm.. Sorry about that." I say sheepishly.

"No problem." He says smiling.

Okay his smile is pretty cute. I mean his dimples are huge but compared to Jake and Alec?

Nah I just don't see it.... I mean Alec with his blonde hair and Jake with his green eyes-

ABORT!!!!! NO FANGIRLING!!!!

Suddenly my mind strikes something onto something else. Fiancé.... What's the bet Jake doesn't know about this?

I mean I'm just thinking how fun it will be to burst Jake's I have a hot nanny and I'm going to sleep with her bubble.

"You look a little beat up." Nathan says looking at me with his big brown eyes.

"Yeah its nothing." I say grinning just think about how Jake's face would fall, "The school nurse handled it."

"Are you sure you don't want Nate to check it." Ashley says, "He is studying to become a doctor you know."

I shake my head still smiling. I like Ashley a lot now. I mean if you look back at it Ashley was pretty unaware to all of Jake and Alec's miserable fails of advances.

"Okay." She smiles, "I'll make hot chocolate for you. It's getting chilly anyway."

I go to my room and collapse on my bed and smile. I'm already in a good mood despite my very eventful morning.

I turn on the water and let the tub fill up.

No school. That's something I haven't had in a long time. Someone knocks on the door lightly breaking me out of my thoughts which mostly consisted of me debating why I haven't bunked school more often.

"Come in." I say.

Ashley comes in smiling and a mug of hot chocolate with her. It takes all my willpower not to run to her snatch the mug and say My Precious. Yup it smelt that good.

"Thank you." I say taking the cup gingerly from her.

She gives me a smile and is about to exit the room but she stops.

"I know it's weird." She says.

I was too busy chugging on my hot chocolate not giving a damn that it nearly burnt my tongue and I almost choke on it.

Two close calls with death in one day.I have to say I am seriously badass.

At least in my head.

"What's weird?" I ask.

"Nathan and I..." she hesitates, "I saw the shock on your face when I said it."

I look at her curiously. She is like the perfect role model. She is smart nice and sweet not to mention drop dead gorgeous.

"You don't have to really explain it to me." I say going back to my hot chocolate, "He is your fiancé and I'm sure you like him. I mean he is totally cute. If I didn't have Al- I mean Jake I would totally go for him."

I stop and realize what I just said.

"I don't mean it in that way." I quickly correct, "Its just not my place to judge."

If someone asked me to say something nice to Ashley about two hours back I would probably give them a weird look. But somehow the entire Nathan situation has somehow made me like her better.

Cause lets face it she is not vain. I mean sure the guy is really cute in a nerdy way but most girls like Ashley wouldn't spare him another glance.

She laughs breaking me up out of my thoughts.

"That's so funny." She says, "I can see why you and Jake are so perfect for each other."

I raise my eyebrows. Sorry woman if you haven't noticed but we don't particularly like each other and the entire dating thing is a sham.

Not to mention he was flirting his ass off with you.

"I wouldn't say perfect." I reply.

"No you really are." She says smiling as she leaves, "He said the exact same thing when he came to know about Nathan."

______________________________

I admit it I spent my entire afternoon sulking and with that came Math.

So after all my hopes and dreams of breaking Jake's bubble burst I wasn't in a very good mood.

I spent my entire afternoon doing trigo and frankly if I had to take another hour of math I would kill someone.

Preferably a black haired boy whose name started with a J and ended with an E and hade an A and a K in between.

But it did help me calm down slightly. Nathan and Ashley had left at about five after cooking dinner.

She made pasta some other thing after all she had seen Jake's cooking skills and exactly how miserable it was.

Yeah my foot.

Jake is one step short of being a professional but of course Ashley thinks he sucks.

I mean it was one thing that Jake was hitting on Ashley when she was single but he knows that she is going to get married and he still is...

My point exactly. There are only 2 words that will ever describe him.

Man Whore.

Maybe that's why he did the fake dating thing which I don't think is fooling anyone is because all we do is just laugh awkwardly when people bring it up.

I shake my head and grab a towel and go for a bath.

I had a nice long bath and the water was hot thank god for that. I came out at about quarter to seven.

When I finally switched on my phone I had a grand total of 24 missed calls and 17 texts. More than half of them were from Rebecca and at least four were from Samantha.

I had also got two to three calls from Alec and finally one call from Jake.

Wow I feel loved.

I see a text from Alec saying

Football practice ran late will be staying over at Jeremy's house. Hope you're okay.

I contemplate texting him back saying getting into a fight with your girlfriend who has really long nails (trust me the scratches are not pretty) is exhausting.

But for once I stopped. That's when something caught my eye. There was another text from him.

P.S is Jake with you? Half way during lunch he got a call and disappeared Coach is pretty pissed he bunked practice.

I read the text again. Jake can handle himself I know that well enough but clearly him vanishing isn't normal.

Okay maybe by Jake standards its okay but in Clara standards disappearing for more than two hours means lying dead somewhere.

The phone rings making me jump. I look around for the phone and I pick up the cordless in the room that lies next to the bed.

Before I can say hello a deep male voice starts talking.

"Jake stop ignoring me. You knew it was coming. What did you expect? When you come back from whatever it is you think you are going to achieve living with your mother we will discuss this. When you come to New York the first thing I expect you to do is visit me."

With that he slammed the phone hard making me drop it. I sit there staring at the phone for like two minutes.

"Fuck." I say out loudly.

That was Jake's father I'm almost hundred percent sure and Jake and his father don't get along.

At all.

I quickly grab my keys and rush to my car before I can rethink what I'm going to do.

_______________________________

Its dark by the time I reach the park. I tighten my grip on my umbrella cursing myself how I talked myself into this.

I mean by now the park was going to be filled with weirdos not to mention druggies.

Well look at it positively you'll get to hit someone with the umbrella after your fail of a try with Nathan.

I'm more than relieved to find that there is no one in sight once I enter the park.

Now the tough part. Finding the lake. I walk into the dense foliage and its pitch black only some of the moonlight streams through the trees making it the perfect setting for a horror movie.

I'm going to die today.

I switch on the flashlight on my phone and slowly make my way ahead. I don't know how long it must have been. Maybe half an hour or five minutes but after a lot of tripping a lot of cursing I finally reach the dock.

It still manages to take my breath away. The moon reflecting on the still surface of the water and the stars shining brightly. In all my eighteen or more like seventeen and a half years of my life in this town I would have never guessed a place like this existed in this town.

I spot Jake sitting at the edge of the dock drinking from a bottle. Something told me it wasn't water. I stepped forward and snapped a twig and Jake turned towards me.

"Oh its you." He says and turns back.

I softly make my way towards him and sit down beside him. Like an idiot I forgot to grab a better jacket and I was stuck with a thin flimsy cardigan.

"So hi." I say awkwardly. Before coming here I had no idea what I would say to him. In fact I'm not even sure what made me come.

When he doesn't respond and just takes another swing of the beer in his hand I am really regretting my decision. With Alec I would know exactly what to do in situations like these because I had known him for so long but with Jake it was different. I barely knew him four years ago and I barely know him now.

Alec is transparent to me. Jake is anything but.

"Why are you here?" He asks quietly.

I don't know why I get kind of angry.

"It's a free country I can be wherever I want to be." I say.

Jake rolls his eyes as he says," God you're annoying."

"God you're an asshole." I say back.

"If you came here to argue go back." Jake snaps, "I came here for quiet."

I shut up instantly.

"I didn't come here to argue." I say softly after some time.

"Could've fooled me." Jake says.

"Hey! It's not my fault that every time either of us opens our mouth we start fighting." I retort.

He just rolls his eyes and continues to sip his beer. I see two empty bottles lying next to him. Now the sane part of me should have just got up and left but of course the other part of me which is certifiably insane just kept on sitting there.

I don't know why. Maybe it was because I felt like I owed it to him for how he had helped me. I mean let's face it before him I was the whiny little girl who would run away. But as much as I hate to admit it most of the new me the slapping getting into fights, being nominated for homecoming queen was because of him and I quite liked the new me.

I know for a fact that bringing up or trying to find about his relationship with his dad wouldn't help at all just make him moodier so I go with a different approach.

"So Ashley is getting married huh?" I say.

Jake turns around and looks at me with an amused expression as he says, "You met Nathan?"

"Yeah he is a pretty cute guy." I say.

"Pretty cute?" Jake says raising his eyebrows, "We are talking about the same Nathan right?"

"Yes." I say, "And lets get back to the point that she is getting married so back off and stop flirting and hitting on her."

"I can do whatever the hell I want Clara." Jake replies, "And you have certainly no right to come here and give me a lecture."

"Sorry if you haven't noticed she is getting married. If you break her mar-"I am interrupted by Jake.

"For the love of god I do not like her." Jake says, "I mean its fun to see exactly how jealous you get and how you get your panties in a bunch but seriously that's all a joke."

My mouth hangs open.

"I know Ashley is getting married." Jake says, "I honestly can't believe it. The girl is like an older sister. Yes I flirt but I really don't mean it."

He then turns and looks at me wearily.

"Satisfied?" he says.

I just continue staring at him for two minutes and he smirks.

"You make a mean drunk." I say.

Jake just smiles and rolls his eyes.

"Scratch that you are mean in general." I say.

"Are you done?" He asks.

"Getting over the Ashley thing?" I ask, "Not even close."

With that I grab Jake's bottle and take a sip.

"This stuff is revolting." I say as practically gag on the acidic taste.

"Great now give it back." He says.

"I said it's revolting. Never did I say I don't like it." I say and Jake raises his eyebrows.

"Clara Wilson who would have thought in the span of one day you would beat the crap out of Natalie and drink willingly." He says smiling.

Jake looks particularly hot. His black hair is shining in the moonlight and his green eyes are practically glowing in the dark.

Or maybe it's just the beer.

Keep telling yourself that won't you?

"So am I going to find out why you are sitting and sulking like there is no tomorrow?" I ask.

His smile almost immediately disappears and I almost expect him to go back to his crabby self again but he simply sighs.

"Family problems." He says.

"Aah. All of us have it. I mean just look at my family. The absentee parents and the supermodel sister." I say hoping that I wasn't pushing him too much, "So since I'm so great with families let me take a guess."

Jake simply shakes his head,"Yeah I still can't believe that you and your sister are related."

"Yeah I get that." I say sighing, "I mean the girl is freaking a Barbie and she isn't dumb either and then there is me the weird quiet little sister."

"I don't mean it that way." Jake says, "For the past two years whenever she has any holidays anything she came to New York and the girl gives bitch a whole new meaning. You on the other hand are nice. Too nice, always have been. You are always the good girl you can be gutsy meaner but you're not like that. It is something you rarely get to see in a person and I like that very much about you."

Okay I admit it I was blushing my face of then.

"Well my sister is a bitch but look where that has gotten her." I say, "She is currently studying at Harvard and is living close to the perfect life."

"But that doesn't make her any less insane now does it." He says,And its not necessarily perfect who knows the many STD's she currently has.STD's are like pokemons for her, you gotta catch them all."

We both burst out laughing.

"True." I say.

"Thank you. "he says smiling, "I feel much better."

"You really must be drunk." I say, "Jake Henderson saying thank you?"

He smiles.

"But you know what I know how to get you sober." I say.

"And how is that?"He says.

I smile move closer to him and push him straight into the lake.

"What the fuck!" He sputters once he surfaces.

I'm laughing my head off.

"This is revenge for every shitty prank you pulled on me in camp." I say.

I'm feeling pretty proud of myself until Jake grabs me and pulls me in.

The water is ice cold and freezing. Jake pulls me back up and I surface sputtering.

He laughs and pulls me closer to him. The lake isn't very deep but it comes up to my chin. Jake is taller than me and the water reaches till his shoulders.

His hand snakes around my waist and I stood on his toes.

"The water is ffff- f-freezing." I say my teeth chattering.

Jake laughs and pulls me closer. I'm vaguely aware of how his white T-Shirt is sticking to him and his black hair is matted.

We are so close that our noses are almost touching.

"Yeah W- Well you shouldn't have thrown mmm-me into the lake." He says his teeth are chattering too.

"Yeahhh W-well n-nn-no one told you to pull me in with you." I say back smiling despite how cold it was.

He returns the smile.

"Th-th-thank y-you for coming here. Th-thanks for everything." He says.

I smile and I'm about to respond about the call about his father but before I can he kisses me.

And despite standing in the middle of a freezing lake at night there is nowhere else I would rather be.

______________________

AUTHORS NOTE:

Aint that cute :) This chapter is massive I'm pretty sure. So Jake fans this is my treat to you. I'm trying to make up for well generally everything else that is going to happen. Next Chapter Winter ball and then we are off to New York. So drunk Jake Yay or Nay???

I'll update after 20 votes :) So Don't forget to comment and vote

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