Of All

Surprises

The next few days went by fast and now it’s Friday. I get up and head to the bathroom knowing Ash won’t be up for another few minutes. I wash up and go to my closet to get dressed. I straighten my hair and put on light make up. I head down to the kitchen and mom is having her coffee, Sage is eating cereal. “Good morning everyone.” I say and go grab a bowl of cereal. “Morning sweetie.” Mom says and Sage nods her head towards me. She’s not a morning person. Ash comes down and makes his protein shake. We all eat and have small talk before we all make our ways out the door. Ash and I hop on the bus. He’s been sitting with Danny every time so I sit with Matty. He’s a good guy and has been a great friend to me so far. We just shoot the sh.it and it’s pretty fun. My health project is going good and now half of my grade is assigned with babies. Asher’s partner Shay is pretty cool. She’s got an older sister in Matty’s grade. I can’t remember her name.. Erin I think? Anyways Ben and I have been taking turns with baby Hunter. It isn’t too bad. The writing portion of the project is worse to be honest.. I’m snapped out of my thoughts as the bus arrives to school and we start getting off. “I’m meeting Shay in the cafe to go over things for baby Ella.” Asher says as we get off and walk into the Academy. Danny and Matty meet up with us once they are off the bus and we go to the cafe. I decided on getting some muffins. Why not right? Matty had the same idea and we got muffins. We walk over to the table Ash and Danny are sitting at and sit. We talk for a few minutes and he asked what I was thinking of doing this weekend but before I could answer a group of girls walk right up to our table. I recognize Shay and her sister but don’t know the other three girls. “Morning handsome, hope you slept well because here’s our baby. Now I can sleep well tonight.” Shay says winking to Asher handing him the baby and we all start laughing. “You got it sweetheart.” Ash says and she smiles big. Boy is she smitten like a kitten. I think they were about to leave when Shays sister sits down on the other side of Matty and starts rubbing his arm up and down. I look away. “Baby I thought you were going to try and get ahold of me?” She asks him and I look at him awkwardly not realizing he was staring at me already. I immediately turn my head back the other way. “Erica we are not together in any way. Please do me a favor and leave me alone.” He says to her and I glance away to avoid Matty’s eyes. I don’t do well with drama. In fact I never had an issue considering I had no friends but still I don’t want to be anywhere near this situation. I decide I’m going to go find Ben. I should see how it’s going and to take Hunter as it is my turn again. I quickly grab my things standing up. “I gotta go guys I have to meet Ben. See y’all later.” I say and leave. I hear Asher say something but I keep walking. I’m out into the hall and head to where my locker is. His is next to mine so he might be there with friends or something. I walk up to the third floor and he’s no where to be found. That’s alright I will see him in class. I go to my locker and set somethings inside it before closing it again. “I’m sorry about that..” I hear Matty say as I turn around. “About what?” I ask him quick not realizing it. “Back there with my ex and our conversation being interrupted.” He says looking at me. “Oh don’t worry about that it happens. I will see you later on the bus. I gotta run.” I say walking away. I wouldn’t say I’m jealous because I hardly know the guy but I’m not happy that it happened. Can’t lie and say I’m not a little hurt.. I don’t want to be someone’s second choice so I will be my first choice and take care of me right now. The first bells ring and now we are going to our classes before the second bell. I make it to Health and see Ben. I walk over to my seat. “If I didn’t know any better you’ve been ignoring me today.. why is that? Is everything okay?” I genuinely ask him. He looks up at my face then looks away before he speaks.. “Um well I may have tossed Hunter off my staircase..” It takes me a second to register what he said as I sit in my seat. “Wait what now?” He turns to look at me. “I’m sorry I cost us the grade.. I am trying to work on my anger. It had nothing to do with the project but more so my parents talking about leaving again after just being back for a few days. I.. I was so pissed walking up the stairs that I turned around and chucked the doll at them not even thinking.. It busted open.. My parents are replacing it but Mr. Young is still pretty pissed so I am sorry Aspen..” He says looking away again.. I am speechless.. I don’t know what to say back to him. I also understand his reasoning but half of our fu.cking grade was riding on this project.. Oh boy.. I try to wrap my head around it and breathe. I put my hand on his arm reassuringly. “Hey it’ll be okay, alright? It was an accident and if it costs us the grade then so be it. We can ask for extra work to help bring the grade back up. Truly I’m not mad. I’m more worried about you.. I’m your friend Ben. You can talk me about anything. I’m here for you.” I say gently and he glanced at my hand then looked at me. “Thanks Aspen. I don’t know how I got so lucky with a friend like you bc seriously where have you been all my life? You’ve been more of family to me this past week then my own parents. I appreciate you.” He says and I give him a side hug him. “Don’t sweat it. Team work makes the dream work!” I say happily giving him a squeeze before letting go. Our teacher strolls in and he gets right into today’s learning. After class was over Mr. Young pulled Ben and I aside to discuss what will happen next. He told us that he was extremely disappointed and this was suppose to be an opportunity to expand certain aspects once getting into adulthood so he said our punishment will be essays instead since we aren’t suitable for this project. Kinda harsh. Four essays each and we will get different categories for them. I was bummed I wouldn’t be working with Ben much but we could still hangout here and there. He’s starting to grow on me. I also feel bad about his home life.. Once we are free of this awful lecture we have to book it to gym because the first bell has already rung.. Ben and I make it to gym with not a second longer before the second bell goes off and attendance is documented. Asher finds me almost instantly with Matty, Jaden and Marco. I don’t say much to the others moving my head around looking for Kimi and Violet but no sign yet. They must be changing, I let the guys know I need to go to the locker room. I was right. “Hey love what took you so long?” Kimi says adding some lipstick. Violet fixing her hair. “Ben and I got into some trouble with Mr. Young.. Long story short we don’t have a baby for our project and instead need to write four separate essays.. let’s just say their goes my weekends..” I say to them changing quickly and toss my hair into a messy bun. “Stop.. your kidding.. You guys are getting let off that easily?! That’s not a punishment but more of a reward! I can hardly get sleep with Minnie.” Violet says and I shrug my shoulders giving pup eyes then we all start laughing heading out to the rest of the class. Coach makes us do laps then we play a class game and as the block is almost done he tells us to do what we want so our little group heads over to the work out room. Us girls on the treadmills and the guys lifting. It’s a nice view aside from when it’s Asher’s turn then I want to barf. “So I am thinking of throwing a massive party.. My parents are away this weekend and I think it’ll be perfect. What do you guys think of a party all weekend?” Kimi says. I just look at her with my mouth wide.. “I’m guessing you’ve never done that before huh girly?” She says to me with a big smile. “No I haven’t.” I say nervously laughing. “I don’t know if I could hang.” I say making them laugh. “Oh babe you will be great! You are in excellent hands! Now just to get Asher on board.. possibly in my bed too.. hehe.” Kimi says excitingly tapping her fingers in front of her and I give her side eye. Violet starts laughing so hard she jumps off the treadmill. “Stop.. Stop it! I’m going to p.ee myself!!” Violet says loudly crutched over laughing so hard. All eyes on us for a moment and coach clears his throat.. “Sorry! Kimi here told us a funny joke!” I say shouting over to coach and he nods his head resuming what he was doing. “Seriously dude he just got out of a relationship.” I say to Kimi and she instantly responds with.. “Then he needs to get under someone new! Don’t you know the saying?” Giving me a mischievous look. “Don’t you hurt him..” I say to her and she nods frantically. “I won’t!! Eep!” She starts getting excited again and us three laugh. “I am going to go talk to him!” Kimi says and leaves before we can say another word. “They would be super cute together I can’t deny that.” I say to Violet as we watch Kimi talk to Ash and he gives her his undivided attention. It’s really sweet. Now that I think of it they are pretty similar. Good he deserves someone real and she has been the realist person here since day one. Thank goodness I found her as a friend too. “So Kimi’s having an all weekend party huh?” Ben says to us pulling me out of my thoughts. “Yes! Get ready to put your party pants on James.” Violet responds excitingly. “What about Gray here?” He says look over to me. I laugh. “It’s actually a first for me but yeah I will try to stick it out with you guys.” I say back and he lightly chuckled. “I think you will do just fine. I will be bringing the booze. Be prepared.” He says to us and the bell rings. The next few blocks went by quick. I have math for lunch block which suck.ed d***k. Sophie is in this class but I refuse to be eating with her during lunch so I decided to head outside with my tray and sit outside near a tree alone to read when a shadow covers my view of the sun. I look up to see Carter smirking at me..