This chapter was a bit harder to write; I got stuck at the most random places XD. Anyways, thanks again for continuing to read this and I hope you enjoy :)

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After Shawn left, I spent the next two days of the weekend working on missed work and spending time with my mom. Thank god all the assignments and lessons were posted online, or going back to school would've been a bitch (well, more of one).

I didn't hear a single thing from Shawn on Saturday, then again, without my phone, there wasn't really a way to contact me. Shawn must have known this, because on Sunday morning, after I returned home after grocery shopping with mom, I found my phone on the bed with an infuriating note on it.

Dear Jakey,

Here's your phone. I'm tracking everything on it now (thought you might like to know that), and I also changed all of your contact names to 'Don't-tell-them-shit'.

Love, Me

Surprisingly, Shawn didn't send me a single text that weekend. However, my friends did. Though all of their names were changed to 'Don't-tell-them-shit', I could still tell who they thanks to their distinct texting styles. All of the texts were asking things like where I was and why I wasn't in school. I spent a good part of the day replying to them all and making good excuses so they wouldn't get suspicious or angry with me.

When Monday finally came around, I was a little bothered to see that Shawn still hadn't texted me. Shawn usually texted me all the time, why wasn't he now? Hopefully he wasn't off killing people...

After checking my phone one more time, I stuffed it in my pocket and headed downstairs. For once I had actually woken up on time and didn't have to rush to school.

When Mom saw me she smiled and said; "Good morning sweetie, guess who made pancakes!"

I looked at the mouthwatering breakfast laid out on the table. "Dang, this looks delicious!" I exclaimed. "But really, you didn't have to- don't you have a presentation soon?"

Mom waved her hand dismissively. "It's almost finished, besides, Mondays need a bright start!"

"Well I can't argue with that." I said, sitting down to dig into the food in front of me.

Once I finished breakfast, I waved goodbye to Mom and began to walk to school. While I was walking I started to get nervous; what if someone jumped out from a bush and attacked me? Or maybe sneak up on my from behind. Hell, it wouldn't be that hard to stop a car and yank me inside...

I shook my head free of these thoughts. I was just being paranoid; there was no way that something like that would happen in broad daylight while I was walking to school. Right? I sighed to myself as I dully recalled being abducted from school while it was in session just last week. Crap, my paranoid worries were actually plausible at this point.

When I stepped through the school's front gate, I stopped a moment and took out my phone to check the time. 8:15, which was fifteen minutes until school started. I glanced around the small clumps of teens around me to see if anyone I knew was nearby. When I didn't see anyone that I recognized I walked across the damp grass to a bench and sat, taking out my phone to ask my friends if any of them were at school yet. I was about to unlock my screen when I got a text.

Private Number: "Aw, u look so lonely Jakey".

Oh yeah, we went to the same school. I looked around the schoolyard for him. When I didn't see him, I frowned in annoyance and texted back.

Jake: "I'm not lonely, just alone."

Private Number: "Either way, ur going to b a lot less lonely from now on. I have a surprise for u <3"

Oh fuck. Shawn plus surprises couldn't be good. Because the last time Shawn gave me a surprise at school, it was a fucking kidnapping!

Jake: "Whatever it is I don't want it!"

Private Number: "2 bad ur getting it anyway."

I was going to text him back, insisting that I didn't want whatever the fuck it was, but the first bell rang, signaling for everyone to get to class. I cussed under my breath and jammed my phone into my pocket. I then stood up and began to walk to the locker rooms.

On my way someone slapped me hard on the shoulder. "Well look who's at school!" Trudy said, pulling up next to me.

"Hey Trudy." I said. "So, what are we doing in P.E right now?" I asked.

"Pickle ball." Trudy deadpanned.

I frowned in confusion. "What the hell is that?"

Trudy just shook her head. "I don't even know. I didn't really listen to the rules, so I kind of just slap the ball around." She said, moving her hand in hitting motions.

I laughed. "I should have known you weren't paying attention."

She rolled her eyes. "Yeah, yeah. Oh! And the coach wouldn't shut up about your absence! He was all like, 'I hope you know where your responsibilities lie' and 'see this! Now Jake has to pick up trash for five hours'." She said, imitating the coach's voice.

"Ha! Well now they're all excused and he can't do anything about it... except make me run extra laps because he hates me." I said with a pout. Seriously, why did I have to start the school day with this crap?

We reached the point at where we had to separate to our different locker rooms. "Well, if he does, then I'll stick up for you." Trudy grinned, starting to walk away. "Oh, but you'd have to give me your English homework in exchange." She added, turning around.

"Yeah right, I'll see you soon." I walked away to the boys' locker room.

I walked to the end of the narrow isle to my locker. Las Vegas was already there, putting his P.E shirt on. We made awkward eye contact, but both looked away in silence. I then turned to my locker and got out my P.E sweatshirt.

"It's going to be pretty hot wearing that sweatshirt over your long-sleeved shirt." Las Vegas said pointedly.

That bastard! He knew that I was trying to hide the bandage I put on my wrists because of the chafing the cuffs caused. I forced a smile. "Yeah, well I've been sick, so I get cold easily."

"Oh, I see." Las Vegas said sarcastically.

Ugh, he was going to give me all sorts of problems, wasn't he? I pulled the large sweatshirt over my head.

I reached to get my shorts, but Las Vegas placing his hand gently on mine and stopped me. "Shit." He mumbled. "Sorry man, that was lame; you told me not to bring it up."

At least he was taking my request not to say shit about it to heart. I smiled. "Thanks, just don't mention it again."

He smiled back. "Yeah, no problem."

Someone beside me cleared his throat in irritation. "Excuse me ladies, but my locker is there." He said snidely.

I stepped back to let them through and froze. Fuck, it just had to be Shawn, didn't it!? "What are you doing here?" I asked.

"Well, P.E is one of my classes, so I sort of have to come here." He replied sarcastically, acting like his Shitty-Shawn alter-ego. "What are you doing?" He asked, sending me a threatening glare. Ah, there was the Psycho-Shawn I was used to.

"Talking to a friend, not that it's any of your business." I replied.

Shawn just rolled his eyes and opened his locker, which was positioned between Las Vegas's and my own. Shit, was this his surprise? How the hell had he even changed classes so late in the semester!?

I turned away and reached back to my locker to finish changing.

I was sitting crouching on the floor tying my shoelaces when a guy I didn't recognize poked his head around the corner. "Hey Roy, could you help me put up the nets in the gym." The guy pleaded.

Las Vegas sighed. "Fine." Before he left, he turned back to me. "Hey Jake, are you gonna be okay?" He asked, motioning his head towards Shawn.

"Yeah, I'll see you in a minute." I replied in a calm tone, pulling the knot on my laces tensely. I knew that if Las Vegas left, Shawn was probably going to interrogate me.

True enough, as soon as Las Vegas and his friends' footsteps faded, Shawn crouched down next to me and placed an arm against the lockers by my face.

"What were you two talking about before I came in?" He whispered, narrowing his eyes suspiciously.

I opened my mouth to say 'nothing' but then paused. Would he consider that lying? Knowing Shawn, he would probably claim it was a lie in order to have an excuse to kill Las Vegas.

Shawn smirked at me knowingly. "It must suck to know that you can't dodge out of it anymore, huh?" He whispered patronizingly.

I glared at him. "You're enjoying this aren't you?"

He grinned sadistically. "Hell yes I am." His expression turned serious. "Now spit it out."

"Las Vegas said stuff relating to the other day, I brushed it off, and he apologized afterword for breaking our agreement not to talk about it." I briefly explained.

Shawn looked a bit disappointed. Probably because he didn't have a valid excuse to kill Las Vegas. "You're not lying to me are you?"

"Nope." I replied.

Shawn sighed and pulled away from me to stand up. He held out his hand to me in an offer to help me up. I ignored him and stood up on my own, earning an annoyed eye roll from him.

"What are you even doing here in the first place?" I asked. Wasn't it safer for him if we had as little contact possible in public? Our friends didn't exactly know us for having the best relationship...

"Isn't it normal to want to be close to the one you love?" Shawn said dramatically.

I looked at him humorlessly.

He frowned. "Fine, it's because I don't trust you being around Las Vegas so often... And also because I love you want to be around you."

"How can you not trust me with him even after I covered for your stupid ass multiple times?" I asked irritably.

"Because he's a fucking threat that's why." Shawn replied. "Besides, if he gets to see you change, then so do I." He huffed.

I looked at him uneasily. Great, now I'm going to be scared of changing. "We should probably get going." I whispered, dodging the topic of watching me change...

Shawn nodded in agreement. "I'll go out first and you follow a few moments later."

"'Kay." I said.

Shawn walked down the isle and out of the locker room. A few moments later, I followed suit. When I got outside, I saw that everybody had started their laps around the track. Crap, now the teacher was probably going to ape-shit on me.

I tried to sneak around him so that I could maybe cut in without being noticed.

The teacher noticed what I was trying to do and yelled; "Jake! After being 'sick' for so long you show up late to run!? Get your butt on the track and give me a mile!"

Fuck! That was two extra laps! Maybe there was a way to get out of it. "Sir, I'm still recovering, do you think-"

"Running will make you feel better! Now give me that mile!" He interrupted angrily. Jeez, did the man ever stop yelling?

I followed to what he said and started to jog on the track. I tried to jog at a quick pace so that I wouldn't be too far behind the others. However, by the time I was on my third lap, everyone had finished running.

"Come on Jake, you can run faster than that!" The coach yelled at me, my classmates waiting behind him looking bored. He just couldn't get enough of putting me on the spot could he?



Once I finally finished all four laps, I stood tiredly in front of the teacher, feeling exhausted and pissed off.



"You've kept us waiting Jake!" He bellowed disappointedly, hands across his chest.

"You wouldn't have needed to wait if you didn't give me two extra laps." I said sourly through gritted teeth.

"Are you trying to sass me Jake?!" He asked angrily.

"No Sir." I said.

He glowered at me for a moment, and then turned to the rest of the class. "All of you go to the gym and get in your pairs."

We all started walking towards the gym. Las Vegas walked up besides me on our way. "Shit, that guy hates your guts." He commented.

I nodded. "I'm surprised he didn't give me another lap for sassing him." I said.

"What took you so long to get out anyway?" He asked.

"Bathroom." I replied easily.

"And nothing to do with that guy?" He asked.

I shook my head. "Nope."

The guy that called Las Vegas out of the locker room pulled in beside us. "Roy, I need to put up the nets, do you think you could get my paddle?" He asked.

"Sure, I'll see you soon Jake." Las Vegas said before running to get some paddles.

Throughout the rest of P.E I tried to grasp the basics of Pickle Ball, which is a lot like enlarged Ping-Pong. I was paired to play with a guy named Ben, whom I'd never been acquainted with before that day. Because we both had bad hand-eye-coordination, we basically lost every game. From what I could tell, Shawn pretty much won all of his games effortlessly. Fuck, was their anything he wasn't good at?

When the end of class came, everyone trudged back to the locker rooms to change. When I got to my locker, Las Vegas and Shawn were already both changing nonchalantly.

Remembering what Shawn said about watching me change, I tried to hide as much of myself as possible while changing back into my clothes. However, from what I could tell, he wasn't watching me at all. Hm, maybe I was worrying over nothing; he couldn't exactly just openly watch me change while Las Vegas was around.



After Shawn finished changing, he left the locker room without so much as a glance of acknowledgement.

Las Vegas then stepped over to me and asked; "So, if you don't mind me asking, who is that guy?"

"Just some dick I knew in middle school. We didn't exactly get along." I replied, closing my locker.

"Well, I'm ready to give a whole lot of this if he ever bothers you." Las Vegas said, proudly showing off his muscles.

I rolled my eyes with a smile. "Nothing will happen."

Las Vegas shrugged. "If you say so."

A few moments later the bell rang and everyone left the locker room to commence with the rest of their school day. And damn was that school day long. In English I had to explain to Ms. Shortwater why I was absent and turning in so much late work, which I had already explained in an email to her. When it was finally lunch I had to run over to math class in order to quickly take a quiz that I missed, which was a lot harder than the teacher made it sound.

By the time I finished the quiz I only had three minutes until the next bell, so I sat down on a bench outside and got out my phone. I texted my friends explanations as to why I couldn't make it to lunch. Afterward I was about to put away my phone when I got a text from Shawn.

Private Number: "What did you and LV say after I left?"

I was about to text back 'how do you know we even said anything?', but I figured that'd be a waste of time. Might as well just tell the damn truth like we agreed. Ugh, that fucking deal was going to be the death of me... or Las Vegas if I wasn't careful.

Jake: "In a nutshell, he asked who u were, I said u were a shit from middle school, and he said he would punch u if needed. Nd Do u REALLY need to know EVERY conversation I have with him?"

Private Number: "yes."

The bell rang, and was about to put away my phone when Shawn sent another text.

Private Number: "Surprise in advance."

What the fuck did that mean!? He didn't transfer into any more of my classes did he?! Shit only one way to find out.

I walked into Chemistry class and was immediately greeted by Ms. Morel, a really sweet petite woman who tried to help students as much as possible.

"Jake, while you were absent we switched lab partners last Friday, and because we had an odd number you were left out." She then pointed to a lab table at the back of the room. "But because that boy Shawn just transferred into this period, you'll get to be each others lab partners." She said. Fuck. Just fuck. Not only was I in two classes with Shawn, but he was my fucking lab partner!? Augh, oh well, it could've been worse.

I forced a smile and said; "Great."

She smiled back. "Now if you need any help with what you missed, you can drop by after school and I'll go over it with you."

"Thanks." I said before walking over to the table in the back. I opened my bag and put my binder onto the table, sending Shawn a frown as I sat down.

He smirked happily and shrugged in response.

The second bell rang, and Ms. Morel began class. "Okay, we only switched lab partners last Friday, so before we do today's lab, I'd like you to tell your partner what you're comfortable and uncomfortable doing in labs, such as handling flames, acids, etcetera."

I sighed. "I'm comfortable doing whatever." I said.

Shawn turned to me and muttered. "I'm comfortable doing you."

I struggled to keep a straight face. Why did he always pull this shit? And why the hell did it make me so fucking flustered?

When the room was quieted down a few moments later, Ms. Morel began to explain the lab. "For this lab we are going to be comparing acids and bases. Take caution when handling both strong acids and bases; the bases can injure you as well. Now, for the-"

"Attention faculty." The telecom interrupted. "This is a lockdown; please close and lock your door. This is not a drill, I repeat; this is not a drill."

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And then the author ended the chapter in a cliffhanger because she's a freaking monster :)

Also, I can't believe this is already chapter 20!