Oil Paint.

Natalie Anderson dumped an entire bucket of black oil paint all over me in front of the entire school and she couldn't have picked a better time.

Well she didn't do the dirty work herself of course she made all her minions do it who blabbed the minute they got caught and almost instantly got suspended.

Everyone freaked out after it though. Most of them laughed and some of them literally started screaming for ruining everything.

To be honest I was kind of relieved.

Up till that point I was so caught up in everything. My favourite flowers, his speech and everything else that I didn't think through what I was about to just blindly say. I was going to say yes to him like a stupid moron.

So it was good in a way that Natalie did what she did when she did because it served as a wake up call as to what I was going to do and if I was grateful to Natalie about anything at all ever, this was it.

"So I see you both once again in my office."

I look at our principal who looks pissed as hell. Thankfully this time it was not at me.

Natalie huffs and sits on the chair but I remain standing. When the paint had fallen on me, Samantha had been the first to react. She grabbed me by the hand and took me into the locker room and stuffed me into a shower. She gave me her shampoo which she kept in her locker so I could get all the paint off before it left a nasty stain.

When I came out Samantha told me I had to go to the principals office.

It was then Alec had shown up looking rather red seeing me in a towel and handed me a set of clothes.

Natalie's.

Alec who knew her locker code and had taken her extra set of clothes out thinking that it was the least of what she owed me after the debacle outside.

"This behaviour is worthy of expulsion." Mrs Davis looks lividly at Natalie who doesn't even flinch.

"But since you're the daughter of a trusted chairman I can only suspend you and talk to your father."

Natalie keeps her mouth shut but she remains passive as if she was unimpressed and that's when she notices what I'm wearing.

"Are those mine?" Her voice is high pitched and her eyes are wide as saucers.

"Alec gave them to me." I respond coldly.

Her eyes narrow and she smirks,"I couldn't have a more perfect time could I?"

"Miss Anderson enough." Our principal speaks up,"You're on thin ground now do you really want to mess around?"

She raises an eyebrow,"It was just a prank Miss Davids, I don't see why it's being made such a-"

"Because it was done on school grounds." Even I step back at her tone and Natalie's calm facade has finally broken.

"You two were supposed to go for counselling as far as I can recall." She continues,"Clara here came on the first day of school and asked me to excuse her from any after school activity due to her SATS."

"Today was supposed to be your first day and yet Miss Anderson you failed to come. What excuse do you have this time?"

Natalie keeps her mouth shut.

"First things first Miss Anderson, I expect a handwritten letter apologising for your actions addressed to Miss Wilson."

I try my best not to snort at that.

"You are going to get detention till the end of this school year-"

"But-"

"And you are banned from your senior prom."

Her mouth drops open and Natalie finally starts tearing up.

Figures, she'd cry over prom.

"But you can't ban anyone from Prom. It's a dance!" She say frantically,"As long as a person has a ticket-"

"Miss Anderson I don't know which school you seem to be attending but I'm the principal of this school and I can do as I see fit."

The expression on Natalie's face is priceless.

"But-" she says helplessly.

"And you are suspended off the cheerleading squad for the next month."

"WHAT?"

Ouch that's got to hurt.

"You heard me and I want no arguments."

Natalie slumps back,"But I'm the captain-"

"I'm sure you have a vice captain too." She cuts her off.

"But I'll miss most of football season." She says.

"Then you should have thought through the consequences."

"Clara." Our principal says kindly,"Do you have anything to add to this?"

I look at her surprised.

"As if this is not enough." Natalie mutters.

"N-no." I stammer out.

"Okay." She says noding,"If Miss Anderson steps out of line with you I want you to report it immediately."

I give her a small nod.

"Tomorrow I want you both at the counsellors after school, I will see to it personally." She says firmly.

I start to turn around and I can her Natalie getting up too until our principal speaks again,"Miss Anderson you're forgetting something."

Natalie raises a tired eyebrow,"What?"

She reaches into her cabinet and takes out a small key.

"This is the key to the janitors closet." She says,"Tomorrow morning when I arrive I want to see that floor sparkling, you got it? You can take the help of all your friends outside who helped you with this. They are going to be joining you for detention too."

Natalie simply bows her head and takes the key before leaving.

I'm about to leave too when Mrs David's calls out.

"And Miss Wilson if you are to take any pictures whatsoever and post it on a website for the whole school to see, I had no prior knowledge about it." She says giving me a wink.

____

"I'm sorry you had to wait."

He gives me a small smile,"What happened to our no sorry deal?"

"Right totally forgot about that, sorr-" I realise what I'm about to say and I put my face in my hands and Alec laughs.

"You know what?" I say pushing my matted hair out of my face,"I'm just going to shut up."

"Since we are at the topic of apologies." He says,"I'm sorry for all of that, I- I thought it would be romantic but instead it just-"

"I thought it was beautiful." I say smiling,"The black oil paint being the best part."

He groans and I find myself laughing.

"It's really not funny." He says even though his lips are tugging into a smile.

"Nope it's hilarious." I say,"Considering the fact that I'm the one who got paint thrown at them and you are the one who is feeling embarrassed about it."

"But what's funnier is that you dated that girl." I say and then pause for dramatic effect,"Twice."

He groans again this time even louder.

"Please don't remind me."

We sit in silence as he drives and I yawn. I smelt like paint even though I had taken a good half an hour in the bathroom to scrub it off. My dress had been ruined so I had to throw it away but I was still wearing the white converse shoes which was now dotted with black.

I turn my phone off to vibrate which had been beeping like crazy courtesy Rebecca. The minute she found out that Natalie and her group of minions had to clean the gym she had grabbed her phone and clicked pictures like a crazy person. She then took the liberty of setting up a new Instagram account for me and uploaded all of the pictures in a jiffy. She then took the initiative of spreading word of those photos(I don't know how) and bam! My phone was getting lagged with all the comments.

"So hypothetically speaking." Alec starts,"If Natalie hadn't had her mental breakdown what would you have said?"

"Yes."

He looks at me with a mixture of happiness and shock,"Really?"

I nod,"I don't think any girl would have been able to say no to that."

"So is that your way of saying a yes?"

I look down and start fiddling with my hands.

"Why do I have a feeling that there is a but coming?" Alec sighs.

"I don't want you to be some rebound." I say finally,"I'm sure that's what everyone is going to be thinking too, you know that."

"A rebound?" He says slowly,"You think that I'm going to be a rebound."

"I'm scared that if I do this now, almost immediately in a flash ill mess it up with you." I say softly,"And I don't want to mess it up with you."

He sighs as he stops the car in front of my drive way.

"I mean are you sure about this?" I ask,"After everything I've done, in New York?"

He turns towards me completely.

"Clara I've know that I loved you since the day I kissed you in that stupid party in freshman year." He says,"I'm sure about how I feel about you."

"But Alec-"

"You can't change the way I feel about you Clara." He says,"And I don't intend to unless you stand in front of me and tell me in black and white that you don't feel the same way about me and you never will."

The very thought of me doing that is horrifying. How do you find the strength to stand in front of someone you love and break their heart even if it's for their own good?

Even if they'll hate you for it?

"You know I can't do that." I say,"And I won't."

"Clara I'm serious." He says,"The both of us have always put this off which is why we are in the position we are in now. I love you and I want everyone to know that I'm done kidding around with other girls because the one I want is right next to me."

"You're the one that I want, Clara." He says,"Always have been, always will be."

"How can you forgive me after New York?" I ask quietly.

"The same way you forgave me for all my colossal mistakes I made as compared to yours which was just one thing." He says.

"So I'm sure about this." He finishes,"Are you?"

I look at him, taking him all in. The blonde hair the light golden green eyes. At that moment I remember why I fell in love with Alec in the first place.

He was always there for me. May be not always in the way I wanted but he was someone I could rely on at the end of the day even after everything that had happened between us.

So I take a deep breath and make the choice which I should have probably made in New York.

I smile,"Yes, I'm sure about it too.I'd love to be your girlfriend Alec Evans ."

___________________________

I thought about it all night.

I wrote the pros and the cons of my decision and all I drew up with is the longest list of pros and exactly one con.

Jake Henderson.

For more than a month I had avoided the topic but I stared at those two words on those paper trying to draw up as to why I had put him as a con.

That's not my problem.

I don't know for how long I stared at that sheet of paper trying to draw up any feelings, any emotions from it but I came up blank.

Did you really think that the two of us could be together?

He was right, why did I ever think that we could have?

She is the one good thing in my life and I'm not going to let you ruin it.

I am serious about her.

I do fall Clara, sometimes harder than I want to.

I shut my eyes tightly and try to picture him. Black hair, sea green eyes, that were hard, cold unbreakable. That's all I got.

I glance at the name written on the paper again and then at the dark bedroom out of my window.

And then I glance at Alec's room which had its lights out and curtains shut. He'd said goodnight to me ages ago.

Alec. I choose Alec, I tell myself and I try to make myself believe it.

I stare at the dark house on the right for some time and then crumple the paper in my hand and throw it away.

"Goodbye, Jake." I say to his house as if it could hear me.

I then promptly shut the lights off and go to sleep.

If I had just stared at that paper longer, thought a little harder then maybe I would have stayed up just long enough to see the bedroom lights in the house next door switch on.

___________________________

"Hi!"

I shut my locker door and scan the girl in front of me. She looks like a freshman, one of those who will probably be seen hanging around Natalie hoping to get popularity points but her dressing sense isn't like Natalie's but more like mine. Scratch that it was freakishly similar to mine.

"Hi I'm Brooke." She says.

"And I'm Clara." I say slowly trying to figure out why she was here.

"I know, I mean obviously everyone knows." She stammers and I raise an eyebrow.

"Oh, the paint." I say and she looks downright terrified and she stammers.

"N-no." She starts,"I was just here to say t-that what -y-you did against Natalie was awesome, thanks bye."

And she ran off with me looking behind her confused. A mop of black hair catches my eye behind her and for a second I think it's him,in our school but then I realise the ridiculity of that thought.

"Hey, beautiful."

Alec wraps his arms around my waist and rests his chin on my shoulder. I smile and shake my anxiousness off.

"You certainly know how to make a girl smile, don't you." I say teasingly turning around and wrapping my hands around his neck.

"It's my specialty." He says.

"Hmm." I nod,"You're just making everyone stare."

"Let them." He shrugs,"So I need to tell you something."

I groan at his tone,"No bad news please, not now."

He halts for a second as if he's about to say something but then changes his mind,"Okay then let's talk about the plans for our first date."

"Oh, so you mean that the ball wasn't our first date?" I ask,"Pity, the oil paint falling all over me was my favourite part."

He blushes, embarrassed,"Yes I've hard that before and it's still not funny."

I smile teasingly,"I know. I am hilarious."

"If you weren't so god damned cute, I swear..." He says,"Have you opened your present yet?"

I shake my head,"Nope, not yet, today after my counselling session with Natalie, I need something to cheer me up."

"I still think she deserves worse than getting suspended from the squad." He mutters,"I mean you're getting punished too."

"Tell me about it." I say,"But it's just an hour and you anyways have to stay back for football practice today."

"Its going to take more than hour." He says,"Shoot I shouldn't have driven you to school now you're stuck with no way back."

"That's okay, I'll wait." I say,"My grandmothers only going to be back at night anyway so there is no point of me going early."

"I hate to lay on more bad news but we have chemistry after this." He says and I raise my eyebrow.

"How is that bad? It's just me and you lab partner." I say.

"Let me correct my previous sentence." He says,"We have practicals."

Well fuck.

____________________

"I'm going to end up killing you." I state matter of factly. Alec rolls his eyes behind his dorky huge safety glasses.

"Tell me something I haven't already figured out." He says.

He turns the burner on and I sit on the chair distancing myself from it. Mrs Yetern eyes me suspiciously but doesn't say anything.

"How about you do the experiment and I write down the observations." I offer.

"I can't pour the and mix and hold the beaker at the same time." he says,"Besides we've been lab partners so far how hard can it be."

I quirk an eyebrow challenging him and he pus his hands up as if to surrender,"Fine it's hard but you need to help."

"If you die, I'm sorry." I say in advance.

"Damn I have a killer date planned." He says,"Too bad you'll never get to know what it is."

I roll my eyes and he chuckles.

"I'll hold the beaker, you pour." He says.

"I'm probably going to spill it all over you." I say,"So it's better I hold it."

I add the salt in the beaker and mix it with water while Alec heats up liquid in the test tube which we had to identify.

"Okay steady now." Alec says as he carefully pours the contents of the test tube into the beaker and it immediately starts to bubble.

I hold up the beaker carefully in front of my face trying to observe the reaction which I had to write about.

Thats when the door of the lab swings open and I look up for the briefest of moments but my eyes remain glued at the doorway as I try to process who just entered the room. And when I finally take in the black haired, sea green eyed boy standing there looking straight at me the beaker slips from my hand and shatters on the floor.

Jake Henderson was back.

____________________