Taking The Class Pt. 03

She reached for another forkful. To her dismay, her fork struck the bottom of the empty dish. Am I going to need to make another one of these? Ugh. I don't even feel full. She picked up the dish and took it to the sink, where she filled it with water.

I should check my phone and make sure Ay's not messaging me again. Then back to brainstorming. She headed for the stairs. There must be something I can do...

She turned into her room and walked over to her backpack, next to her desk. She bent down to pick it up and noticed something on her desk. So that's where I put it! She picked up Tiff's business card and looked at it. "SKY CLUB. Tiffany Stanton, Asst. Manager." I've been meaning to give her a call. Maybe... Maybe now?

She pulled her phone out. Why not. Maybe she'll have some ideas. It'll be nice hearing her voice again, too. Argh, why couldn't whatever this is be going away with my Class levels!

She dialed the number on the card. It rang once before it was answered.

"Alaina! Ohmygosh! Hi!" said Tiff.

Alaina found a big smile instantly forming on her face. "Hey, Tiff," she said, moving over to lay down on her bed. "Is this a bad time?" She propped herself up with some pillows and began running her hand down her ponytail.

"No, no! Definitely not! I'm so glad you called!" said Tiff in her high, bubbly voice. "Thanks, Dom!" she called to someone on her end of the line. "I'm just getting to the club now. Usually I get in earlier, but Daddy was on the phone forever and I had to wait. Ugh, and then Mommy got a call, so we were waiting on her! I thought we'd never get to eat!"

Alaina stifled a giggle. "Sounds like a tough night so far," she said.

"Oh, you!" Tiff harrumphed cutely. "So, how's your week been going? Did you have fun with Will after the party on Monday? That was so cool of you at the party, by the way! I just had to tell you again."

Alaina blushed. "I did," she said coyly. "And I can't believe you didn't tell me how good he is with his tongue! I thought I was going to die."

Tiff giggled. "Will's the best. I can't wait to see him tomorrow night! You're coming, too, aren't you?"

Tomorrow night? "What's tomorrow night?"

"Clit poker at my club, silly. Will said you were probably coming when he messaged me on Tuesday."

He did tell me about that. And he even asked if I wanted to go. She sighed. "I'm not sure..." she trailed off. Wait. That's exactly what I need! "Tiff, I'm in. And, um, do you want to get dinner before, just the two of us? I have something that I can't really talk to you on the phone about..."

Chapter 11: Friday Morning, 6:45AM

Today is either going to be a great day where I get Will back, or it's going to be a sad day and my Class will go back to being level one. Or maybe even disappear entirely. Ugh, even this shitty Class is better than becoming a disabled person who doesn't have one. Alaina slammed the door of her car shut and stomped towards the main entrance of the school with her bag slung over her shoulder. Can a Class do that? Just disappear?

Her walk from the faculty lot was quick. I don't need to worry about that, though. This is going to work. It has to work. She threw open the doors to the school—her school—and briskly walked through the foyer. She nodded to Deborah and received her salute in return as she passed into the building proper.

Tiff was so fun to talk to last night. I should call her more often. We're friends, aren't we? Friends call each other. And get horny while listening to each others' voices. This has to be a Quirk. But why don't I know what it is?

She rounded the last corner before her locker. Ugh, what now?

"Yo," said Don. He was leaning against the locker next to hers, looking down at his phone. "Get my note yesterday?"

Fuck, I knew I was forgetting something. "No," she growled, "but Laura got something yesterday. On my desk. Because you forgot to lock the fucking door." She began working the dial on her combination lock.

"Shit, my bad," said Don. He put his phone away. "What do you mean Laura got some..." he trailed off, and his cheeks ballooned up. Then he started to laugh. "Oh, that's so Will. I've been telling him to get laid in the student council office since he got elected, but he kept giving me this 'Not during school hours, bud' line. It's probably not even his first time banging a girl in there!" He laughed harder, clapping his hands to the sides of his face.

"You think this is funny?" Alaina hissed, glaring at the long-haired boy.

"Uh, yeah? Obviously I do!" he said between guffaws, showing not an ounce of the fear or tentativeness from their previous encounters.

Alaina glared harder.

"Whoa, don't strain yourself there, Alaina," he said, his chortling finally tapering off. "No need to get so mad, I'm just laughing at Will being himself despite this whole thing. You're in this for him with the rest of us. As far as I'm concerned, you're an honorary one of the boys now." He gave her a half-serious grin.

Alaina sighed in disgust. "Great. Just what I always wanted: to be a boy. Get back to the point already. Was Greg in yesterday?"

"Nope, we got lucky." He pushed off the bank of lockers and stretched an arm behind his head. "Apparently he's out in town every morning this week interviewing people for some newspaper piece. Gets in just when first period starts. If this goes into next week we're gonna have to meet up somewhere else, though."

"Ugh," said Alaina.

"I came to keep you in the loop about what happened yesterday after school. You're the brains until Will is normal again, so I figure you gotta know know what's going on if you're gonna do all your planning or whatever." Don stretched his other arm over his shoulder.

Huh. Maybe this one's slightly smarter than I gave him credit for. "Do we need to wait for Vinnie?"

Don smirked. "Nah, he had a good night last night and was up way late. He's not gonna drag himself in for a while."

Alaina rolled her eyes. "So all it takes for one of the boys to have a good night is getting laid?"

Don's smirk smirked. "You really got the wrong idea about Vin, and it's fucking hilarious. I think if his lady friend asked him to go out a second night in a row he'd have a nervous breakdown. He stayed up past midnight with his sister catching up on all the soaps he's been missing for the past couple weeks since Will's not around."

She slapped a hand over her face, smiling despite herself. "Of course he did. Will doesn't know?"

"Of course he knows. We all do. But we gotta pretend like we don't so Vin doesn't get embarrassed."

That's surprisingly wholesome and adorable all around. "Right. So what happened yesterday?"

"We decided we were gonna keep an eye on the two of them to see if we could figure out what was going on," said Don, rubbing his hands together. "And..."

* * *

We—I mean me and Daniel—had a talk during lunch. Well, it was my lunch and he cut class because what's class matter when your boy is maybe getting mindfucked? Anyway, he called up his dad and got his season tickets for the team's game for that night. Courtside seats, obviously.

So we had that for later, and we still had to figure out what to do until then. We had like, almost five hours to kill. But then we figured we'd add in dinner, because we gotta eat, and then we're down to like three or four hours. And we're racking our brains trying to come up with stuff because it's like we gotta be taking them out on a date or something.

Stop laughing.

Anyway, we decide to just be lame and start off with some mini golf. It's nice and open, lots of other people around, great place to see if anything weird's going on.

Daniel waits around at the back entrance of the school with me, and we grab Will right when he comes out and tell him we're celebrating him and Laura getting back together by taking them out. It's Will, right, so it's not like he's gonna say no.

We get into Daniel's car—me in front and Will in back like usual—and drive around front to pick up Laura. We're waiting for a couple minutes, everybody's checking out Daniel's car like always—it's fucking white with gold trim, so everyone's always gotta be staring just like he wants—normal stuff. Then Laura comes out.

Not gonna lie, I forget how hot she is sometimes. Like, how does this babe even go to my fucking school? She's got them tig ol' bitties, and even in that turtleneck they looked fucking great. And she's wearing a skirt that... Um...

So, Laura comes out and she looks okay. Will does the whole gentleman thing and holds the door open, and she gives him this total 'fuck me' vibe and gets into the car. Will gets in the other side, and we take off.

Daniel and I are talking to them, trying to get Laura to say something incriminating. Subtly, of course. But she doesn't. And the back seat is a total love festival. At first it was a little cute, you know, despite the probably-getting-mindfucked thing, but ugh, enough is enough, dude. They're holding hands on the middle seat, and they keep giving each other these looks. Ugh. It was like they were fucking each other with their eyes the whole drive.

We get to this mini golf plus batting cages place and the fucking mini golf course is closed for repairs. And Daniel's throwing a fucking tantrum like, "Bruh, c'mon, we gotta get some mini golf today! I need it!" and Will's trying to hold him back. You can imagine it, total chaos for like half a minute until he started getting winded.

Then Laura steps up and she's like, "Why don't we just do batting cages?"

And I'm staring at her like, "How the hell you gonna do batting cages wearing boots with heels like those? But then she starts acting all shy and says she's never done batting cages before and flutters her lashes at Will.

Will's obviously gotta be the hero then, so he's all, "Why don't I help you? It'll be fun."

So we're over at the batting cages. And it's pretty dead because school just got out and most kids are still at clubs and sports shit. Daniel's talking shit like he's got a [Batter] Class, and he... I mean, it's not like he's an athletic guy. A lot of whiffs and fly balls.

I get up, start off with an easy home run right at the target—Alright, fine, I didn't, but I did hit all ten—and then it's Will's turn.

I'm not expecting much out of him. It's not like we hang out at batting cages. I don't think he ever played baseball, either. But he gets up and from the first pitch it's like a gunshot. This fucking guy. He and Vin used to hang out a lot after school on the field when he first got back. Vin played all the sports, and he taught Will how to bat. Every pitch, Will just crushes it.

Daniel's fuming, Not like he's actually mad, but both of us were expecting Will to be less... You know, less Will. Why's he gotta be so fucking good at everything? I'm sitting back there laughing, just seeing the contrast between Daniel glaring and Will being cool, it's killing me.

Then I look over at Laura, and I swear she's got fucking hearts in her eyes watching Will smash those baseballs. It's like... She was sort of like this when they were going out before, but she's on a totally different level now. Off the crazy-hot scale in both directions for sure. Way off.

She's up next to bat. But she's starting to get shy again, like, "Oh, I don't know, why don't you just bat again, Will?" and batting her lashes at him. They end up making out again for a minute before we break it up—Look, we tried, okay, but they were into it—and then Will starts teaching her how to bat right there.

It's like a fucking movie. He's got his arms around her, and they're both holding the bat, and he's putting her through the swing. And she's bright red. I mean, I don't know if I've ever seen anyone blush this hard before. So hot.

I mean... It was hot out. Yeah, like a passing, localized heatwave. Meteorology shit. Stop glaring. I'm trying, okay?

She goes up, manages to hit a ball, and then sticks her tongue down Will's throat again, nothing new.

This whole time, Daniel and I are watching her, trying to figure out if she's doing anything. Definitely not checking her out, though. We're totally professional the whole time—or at least, I am. But she's not fucking doing anything. Will's acting pretty normal the whole time, joking around with us like always. And most of the time it's him going to kiss her, not the other way around.

We bat for a while, then decide to just go for an earlier dinner. Daniel's got this new place he wants to try out in the middle of fucking nowhere. And I mean seriously middle of nowhere, it's like a forty minute drive each way. But Daniel's driving, so whatever.

We start driving over, and it's still totally normal. Will even busts on Daniel a little for eyeballing Laura too much in the mirror. It's just like when they were going out before; Daniel's always had a crush on her. It's not like he'd ever do anything about it—he's Will's friend, after all—but it's also not like he's ever kept it a secret about how hot he thinks she is.

When we get to this place, it's fancy. I'm expecting a little fancy, but it's really fancy, even for us. Laura excuses herself to the bathroom while we get seated, and then a waitress comes to take our drink orders.

This girl was so fucking cute it was unreal. A little taller than you, short, dark hair, and she had the most amazing gray eyes. But I'm on the job, so I didn't flirt with this girl at all or even check her out.

Thank you, I know it was heroic of me.

We order drinks, and Laura's still not back, so Will goes to check on her. He's gone for a while and then they both come back. Laura's kinda flushed and goes straight for her water, then scoots her chair practically on top of Will.

Now I'm not saying she sucked him off in the bathroom. I'm working the case here, and I'm going off evidence. But she probably did.

Dinner is amazing. I get this linguine with a vodka sauce and these little mini meatballs that were melting in my mouth.

Yeah, it was good.

Fine, we'll bring you next time, stop giving me that look.

You did too look like you wanted to go.

Whatever, dude.

We leave after a couple hours of Laura and Will making kissy faces at each other and giving each other longing looks like a couple in some fucking chick flick. Daniel's hauling ass because—

What?

No, I didn't get the waitress's number, I'm not Will. How the fuck am I gonna hit on a girl that cute who works at a high class restaurant while I'm a customer? A man's gotta know his limits. Plus I was working the case!

So Daniel's hauling ass because we're running late. And then it starts to get a little weird. Will's a good guy. He might get all the girls, but he'd never rub it in our faces or show off. Well, not intentionally, anyway. But in the back seat, Laura's sitting on his fucking lap and they're making out almost the whole way over. I mean, they were totally in their own world, hands all over each other. We tried talking to them, and they just ignored us.

Yeah, exactly, I was kinda grossed out too. A little bit was maybe cute, but this was too much. We finally get to the fucking arena and Laura attaches herself to him like she's never letting go. Daniel gets us down floor-side and we find our seats, and then it starts to get really awkward. This fucking guy doing the broadcast apparently thought Laura was famous and kept focusing the camera on us—I checked the broadcast later and they even said the wrong name, fucking morons. Even the players were eyeballing her, though. She was just sitting there petrified through the entire game, clinging to Will tight like she thought someone was gonna try to take her away.

I felt bad for her, even given the situation. She was fucking terrified. Even when we were leaving, she wanted to go to the bathroom and she wouldn't go in unless Will promised to stand outside waiting for her.

The game itself was cool. Not the first time I've gone, but the team was really dominating last night, and the new point guard—

Okay, okay, I'll skip past that. Not a basketball fan, I take it.

We head back to Daniel's car, and Laura's really subdued. She's still holding onto Will, but it's less chick flick and more don't let them take me horror movie. She was like that the whole way back, too. Didn't say a word. Just sat there, looking kinda shell-shocked.

* * *

"Huh," said Alaina. She leaned her shoulder against her locker. That pasta dish sounded so good. Ugh, how can I still be hungry after eating two whole casseroles last night?

"Based on all that," said Don, "I'm thinking she used whatever Skill she's been using when she and Will were alone together right after we got to the restaurant. He went from normal to kinda weird after that point."

That's what I was thinking, too. "Yeah, seems that way. She didn't say anything weird the entire night? No gloating or snide remarks?"

Don thumbed at his ponytail. "I don't think so? Other than when we were at the game and after, she was the same sweet, borderline-obsessive Laura as always. Maybe a little more attentive to Will than I remember? But that's really it. If Vin hadn't brought it up, I wouldn't even have noticed, honestly. Everything Will was doing could've just been a guy happy he reconnected with his ex-girlfriend. Same with Laura."

He beat his fist softly against a locker. "Do you really think she's doing anything? Vin swears Will's acting different, but..."

Alaina frowned. All we really have is Vinnie's word for it and his sudden loss of interest in me. Was it really only a couple days ago that I thought he liked me? No, he did like me. Vinnie even said as much. I wasn't imagining it! There's no way he'd lose interest in me that fast. And he wouldn't have sex on my desk... Well, not without me he wouldn't! "I'm positive. And I've got an idea on how to get him back."

* * *

For once, the day flew by. Having a plan meant that Alaina was able to focus on everything else.

But she was still bored.

I should tell Mom about my Class. About everything. She tapped her pencil against her notebook in Economics. I feel really bad after she was so vulnerable last night, telling me how she was afraid she'd lose me when she told me about her Class. If I'd trusted her last week with it—Even if it is the most embarrassing thing possible!—everything would have been so much easier. She probably could have fixed my leaking on Thursday, and then she could have been my proxy on Friday.

Alaina frowned. But then I would never have gotten to know Will. His kissable lips and grinning blue eyes flashed through her mind. And even if I didn't like him as much as I do, he's still had a net positive influence over the past week. Without him coming to dinner, I never would have found out about Mom's Class.

She sighed. Fifty six. Not too many more levels to go before I lose my body temperature Skill. And then... Am I really gonna lose my Class if it reaches zero?

I'd have to register for disability, I guess. Everyone would know I was Unclassed. Everyone would... I can't... Would I get bullied then? I don't think I could stop it, either.