177[[ IMPORTANT! ]]
For those of you who don't read the updates on my profile page (which is most of you I think) Hate turns to love is going finish soon, and I won't be writing a sequel (sorry!), but I have started a new story called Game On Loverboy so please please pretty please check that out on my profile and leave a review? The story is less intense than this one and more comical. Hopefully it'll make you laugh too (I like to think I can be funny). So yeah, leave a review, and I hope you're as supportive to Game on Loverboy as you all were to this story.
A/N: This chapter isn't as long as I would have liked it to be but I swear I tried to write for hours and this is all I could create for you. I feel like the writing in this chapter is of terrible standard and I've tried to improve it so hopefully it isn't as bad as I think it is. Besides, you can be the judge of that. =)
(This is NOT the last chapter of Hate turns to love)
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Chapter 25. Everything goes wrong at the end
"What do you mean we have to leave?" Chanice slammed her hands on the librarian, Eve's, desk.
"I was told Claire is going to be helping me during lunch and break," Eve replied calmly, as if she didn't notice Chanice's anger, "I never agreed for your two friends to come along too," Eve looked at me and gestured towards Sophie and Chanice.
"Oh they're not my friends," I quickly lied, shaking my head. I looked over at Chanice and Sophie to see if they had understood where I was going with this.
"Hah! Like I'd be friends with this trash," Chanice feigned a disgusted look at me and I pretended to look hurt at her comment.
"Yeah, we're just two normal girls who are looking for something to read," Sophie smiled sweetly and they both went off to a random bookshelf, Chanice winking at me as she went.
"So, what do you need me to do?" I asked, looking back to the librarian behind the desk.
Eve sighed and tucked her frizzy hair behind her ears. "Do you see that trolley of books over there?" She pointed over her shoulder and I nodded. "I need you to place them on shelves according to their genre and they must be in alphabetical order. Once you've done that you can leave and enjoy your break,"
"Great," I replied smiling, walking around the desk to pull the trolley out.
As soon as I took the trolley away I frowned. It was packed with books, many were squashed in and some were nearly falling off the edges.
"This is going to take forever," I muttered under my breath as I picked up an atlas and walked over to the non-fiction shelf. Who would take out an atlas anyway?
"Do you think this book is going to be good?" Chanice said quietly, showing me a book with the picture of a caterpillar on front.
I jumped with a little fright as I hadn't even realised that she had walked up to me. "Shhh!" I flapped my hands, telling her to shut up.
"That's a picture book Chanice. Why don't you try something more challenging?" Sophie answered for me from my other side.
Chanice looked up from her debate on the caterpillar book and shook her head. "Don't worry. I'm only pretending to get the book so we look like we're doing something," She whispered excitedly, nodding her head at her 'cleverness'. This was probably Chanice's idea of mission impossible.
"Okay, whatever. Just be quiet, I don't want Eve to send you out,"
The library was nearly empty, and every sound and whisper could be heard against the silence of the room. The only sounds were the occasional rustling of a page, and the soft thumps of footsteps as people got up from their seat to look at other books.
"Let us help you," Sophie offered, trying to whisper as quietly as possible. I looked at the heaving trolley of books, then back at Eve who was typing something on her little computer.
"Okay," I finally agreed.
With the help of Sophie and Chanice, I finished placing all the books from the trolley onto the correct shelves with 5 minutes of break-time to spare.
"Just enough time for a cookie," I said to myself as we exited the library and went out into the open playground.
"Claire – " I stopped Chanice with my hand before she could tell me off for craving a cookie, because you know, that's totally absurd isn't it? Like what kind of girl wouldn't want a simple cookie after 10 minutes in the library doing slave work?
"You know I'll end up buying the cookie anyway, why try and stop me in the first place?" I asked as we made our way to the canteen.
"Because I actually care about your figure and because that's what friends do remember?" was Chanice's answer.
I laughed before saying, "I thought you would never be friends with this trash?" I tried to mimic Chanice earlier in the library, and I have to say, I think I did her voice and posture pretty well.
Sophie began laughing at my joke and that only made Chanice glare even more at me.
"I'm going to spend the rest of break with Lara!" Chanice huffed before stomping away, leaving Sophie and me standing outside the canteen still laughing.
It was nearly the end of morning break so the queue was thankfully short. I didn't bother stopping the smile on my face when I felt the warm soft cookie in my hands.
"I so deserve to eat you," I said to the cookie before taking a huge bite.
With only 3 minutes left of morning break, and my cookie already down my throat, I was ready for the little investigation I had planned to do.
"I need to speak to Andy," I told Sophie as rubbed the crumbs of my hands.
"He's in the science building," Sophie replied nonchalantly. I turned to look at her with raised eyebrows.
"How do you know?" I asked her suspiciously. Sophie's face looked alarmed and a faint blush rose to her pale cheeks.
"Oh I overheard Mr Davis giving him a detention when I was…" Sophie looked lost for words for a second, "when I was nearby," she ended lamely.
"Right," I nodded my head, even though I knew there was no reason for Sophie to be near the Science building.
I began walking towards the building, hoping to catch Andy in time.
"What do you need to talk to him about?" Sophie asked, glad that I hadn't followed up on my earlier suspicions.
"Just need to ask a few questions,"
"What about?" Sophie's looked horrified at that moment, and I had to slow down my pace to look at her properly.
"What's wrong with you? It's about Tom,"
Sophie let out a breath of relief while I looked at her like she was crazy.
We entered the science building and made our way to Mr Davis' classroom just as Andy was stepping out of it.
"What are you two doing here?" he asked when he saw us. I noticed how his gaze stayed on Sophie, but I got his attention when I started speaking.
"I'm so glad I found you. I need to ask you something about Tom," I sounded rushed, but I was. I knew there were only a couple of minutes until period 3 started and I really didn't want to deal with another teacher telling me off for being late to class.
Andy's eyebrows furrowed together as he tried to think of what I wanted to know about Tom. "Urm… okay. Right now?" he asked.
"Yeah," I answered bluntly. I knew that my lunch wasn't free because I had library duty again, and afterschool I had to go to collect my phone. Mr Powell had made it very clear that if I was even a second late there would be "dire consequences."
"Okay, do you wanna walk?" He offered, already beginning to walk towards the exit of the building.
I nodded before starting with my questions. "Had Tom ever gotten … mad at you? Like really rude or mad?"
Andy looked confused at my question, and then he sighed. "Well… sometimes. But really rarely,"
I nodded, waiting for him to expand on his reply.
"It's actually only when I brought up his dad in the conversation," suddenly, Andy looked at me wide-eyed, "wait. Do you know…?"
"Yeah I know everything about his dad," I assured him.
"Okay. That's good. Anyway, like I was saying, just don't bring up his dad and you'll be fine," he shrugged his shoulders, "what did he say to you anyway?"
We were out in the open, walking aimlessly in the playground.
"Oh... nothing," I muttered looking down at the ground. The truth was, I didn't want to think about what Tom had said, because some of those things were actually true. Okay, only slightly true. I didn't see myself as a spoilt brat as Tom put it, but I didn't exactly appreciate what my parents did for me. It never really comes to mind, but when you see someone who's been living without a mum, and living with an abusive alcoholic father, you start appreciating what you have.
The pips rang across the school as break ended.
"What class you got next?" I asked Andy.
"Business class," Andy pointed to the direction of his class.
"Oh well," I sighed, realising that we were going separate ways, "then I'll see you around," I smiled at him, even though what he said about Tom wasn't exactly what I wanted to hear. I wanted Tom to be able to talk to me about his dad without breaking down like a pregnant woman who needs to pee.
But instead of saying goodbye to me, Andy looked at Sophie and grinned. "See ya Soph,"
I watched as Sophie blushed and mumbled a goodbye before turning around and walking to our class.
"What was that?" I asked her when Andy was out of earshot.
"What?" Sophie looked at me innocently.
"That weird smiling back there. And Soph? He's got a pet-name for you?"
Slowly, a smile began to spread on Sophie's face. "Okay … do you remember when you tried to set up a date for me and Andy?"
I nodded my head, wondering what Sophie was getting at.
"Well … Andy came to apologise from the misunderstanding afterwards, and then," Sophie smiled again and gave a little shrug, "we started talking,"
Sophie stopped talking right there, and I waited a few moments before realising she wasn't going to carry on.
"Is that it? Does he like you?"
"I hope so," Sophie replied with a dreamy look on her face.
"I hope so too," I added, finally feeling pleased that something was going good around me.
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Library duty during lunch was excruciatingly boring. You'd never had thought there were so many things you have to do to keep a library neat. It was even harder when every time you look over at the librarian, she's peacefully eating her lunch out of a container on her desk. I knew it was punishment, but still, she could have done some work, she's the one getting paid for it. Glad that it was finally over, all I wanted to do was get my phone from Mr Powell and head home. It was 3.15 and I was on my way to his Mr Powell's class, sure I was going to make it on-time to collect my phone when I saw him.
He stood in the middle of the corridor, blocking my path. He had a bruised eye and a busted lip that only added to the frown that those lips held.
"Brent," I breathed. I shook my head to clear my thoughts. "I don't have time for you right now,"
I made a quick attempt to go past him but he blocked my way again.
"I need to go!" I said a bit more fiercely, trying to push past him. Of course that was a stupid move, Brent was probably double my weight so it wasn't a surprise that he didn't budge at all.
His hands came to grab my shoulders to hold me still. Our faces were so close that Brent could probably feel my tense breathing.
"Let go of me Brent," I said through gritted teeth, trying to add venom in my voice.
To my surprise, Brent's grip on my shoulders loosened.
"I just wanted to say I'm sorry," Brent muttered, gently letting go of my shoulders fully, "I won't be bothering you anymore. So can we just forget about … everything?" Brent didn't look me in the eye when he spoke, instead he steadied his gaze somewhere on my cheek. I knew how uncomfortable Brent was feeling way he dug his hands in his pockets and shifting his feet. I stood there for a few seconds, trying to find words to reply with but nothing came. I barely got over the fact that Brent Jackson had truly apologised for everything he'd done to me, when Brent walked past me with an exasperated look. He obviously couldn't wait any longer for my reply and it didn't seem like I was going to give one any time soon.
I turned around slowly to look at his retreating back, still in shock. Then I saw Chanice walking past him in my direction and I was brought out of my moment of stillness. As she past Brent, I caught her surprise as she saw the damage Tom had done to him last week. But then Chanice's face was covered in disgust as she remembered what Brent had done.
"What are you doing here?" I asked her when she reached me.
"I have detention with Mr Powell remember?"
I felt like someone had just slapped me out of my sleep as I remembered what I was here fore in the first place.
"Oh my god! My phone!" I ran into Mr Powell's class, hoping he'd forgive me for being a few minutes late, but I was hugely mistaken.
"What time do you call this?" MR Powell sat at his desk, looking at his watch. "You're two whole minutes late!" He looked at me menacingly and I seriously would have run out of the class and ditch the whole thing if he didn't have my phone.
"I … er …," I was going to go with 'it wasn't my fualt´ when he pointed at a seat in front of him.
"Sit over there!"
I did as I was told and shuffled into the seat without another word.
"Since you were late for two minutes, you can stay with me for another twenty minutes,"
"But sir – "
"You're late too Miss Hope?" Mr Powell ignored me and turned to Chanice who was still standing at the doorway.
"Sorry Mr Powell,"
"Sorry isn't enough! Sit down, you've got an hour,"
"What? Claire only got twenty minutes!" Chanice shrieked, trying to reason with Mr Powell.
"I suggest you shut up and sit down, unless you want me to double your time of course," Mr Powell gave Chanice an evil smile as she went to sit down on a seat next to the window.
"Now there's a good girl," Mr Powell said, making Chanice send a death glare across the room.
Mr Powell opened up a huge digital clock on the interactive whiteboard and then turned to us.
"Claire, when it's 3.37 you may leave, and Chanice, you can leave at 4.17,"
I put my head down on the table, using my arms as a pillow, getting ready to sleep through the whole twenty minutes.
"You must keep your head up and face the clock at all times," Mr Powell bellowed, making me jolt upright.
The next twenty minutes seemed to last for more than an hour. Staring at the clock made me feel like time's slowing down. But as I stared at the digital clock waiting for each second to go by I thought about Brent.
I didn't know why I was so surprised to see Brent in that corridor. He wasn't exactly going to leave the school and never come back, although that would've been nice. I was amazed and relieved that Brent had apologised and I knew it was crazy, but I wanted to forgive him. After everything he's done, if he's willing to forget and move on then so was I.
I slouched in my chair, holding my head upright with my hands. I didn't see why I wasn't allowed to do that; I was still looking at the digital clock wasn't I?
"Sit up straight and take your hand away from your face!"
I did as I was told with a loud sigh.
This was definitely going to be hell.
xXxXx
I was finally free to go home and turned the corner onto my street, only to see Tom sitting at my doorstep. He looked up when he saw me and stood up, waiting for me to get to him.
"What are you doing here?"
Tom replied with an angry look, as if that was supposed to explain everything.
"Tom I am not in the mood for you right now. I just spent twenty – "
"Oh yeah that's right," Tom laughed humourlessly, "just keep avoiding me forever,"
"What?" I took a step back, shocked that Tom would even think that, "I'm not avoiding you!"
"Oh really? So why haven't you been answering your calls and texts?"
"My phone –"
"And where were you at lunch and break? I couldn't even find you afterschool!" Tom ended, waiting for me to reply.
But I was done trying to explain myself to Tom. From what I've seen from him today, he didn't deserve it.
"Go and ask your sister, because I don't even want to look at you anymore," I spat, going around him to my door.
I quickly opened it and slammed it shut behind me, while shouting,
"We are over!"
I didn't bother switching the lights on in the empty house, instead I leaned on the door and let myself sink to the bottom, already feeling the tears behind my eyes. I whimpered in the dark, glad no one was around to see me like this.
I was already in a forgiving mood from the apology from Brent and I was ready to forgive Tom for saying those things in class, but I couldn't forgive him for this. I remembered the time when Tom ignored all my calls and texts for three whole days and I forgave him for it straight away. Tom was flipping out on me for not answering his calls and text for a few hours! And I didn't even have my phone with me!
If Tom was going to be that unreasonable then I was better off without him.
"We are over," I whispered into the dark.
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dundunDUN! Are they really over?! Is this the end of their relationship? Hmmm… XD
I didn't get as many reviews as usual in the last chapter, but I'm guessing that's because it's summer break and people are on vacation. Well actually I'm hoping it's something like that, I really don't want to think people are not reading my story anymore! But still, a HUGE thank you to the people who did review.
Review Replies:
BlueEyedGhost– Thank you for reviewing. I know, at first I had no idea that Tom would end have having these mood swings. I hope this chapter was interesting enough! =)
JJsMommy29 – Thank you again! I hope I updated quick enough, hope you liked this one.
Attack-of-the-Blue-Penguins – Thank you! And I never really thought I was good with the emotional side of writing, so thanks! After reading this chapter, have you decided who's side you're going to take? Hmm… I think I know who's side you've picked.
Lovely Dreams – To my loveliest reviewer of all, Woohoo! Welcome back! I hope you like your new house. Actually, I wasn't really going to do a sequel at all, heehee. Thank you so much. The cookies are delicious (eating them right now – YUM!) Tom is definitely on his (her?) period, I guess those tampons up his nose from chapter 2 are going to be useful for him huh? And the pedo teacher idea was great, but I'm not looking to make this story any longer than it is. So you are right to think that it's coming to an end soon. Sorry about that! Oh and I love how you used your username at the end of your review! ("The loveliest dream of all") I just found that so amazing. Thanks again for coming back to my story!
KelsonaMuffin – I'm so sorry about the chapter being short. I swear to you, I tried so hard to write a longer chapter this time, but I just couldn't. But I updated quickly so I think that makes up for that. Yes, Tom's very stupid with his words. And it looks like Tom & Claire are no-more, so you can have him … for a while … heehee… Anyway, thanks for reviewing!
Carmel March – I'm so glad you reviewed again. It means so much to me coming from such a great writer like you! P.S. Your profile picture looks AWESOME!
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REMEMBER to check out my new story, Game On Loverboy, I would really appreciate it if you leave a review!
Love you all,
-MissColly