Oh Calamity!

The next day at school Laura didn’t talk to me as much, I got through the day but had to see her in detention,
“Hey” I smiled feeling awkward
“Hey” she smiled sitting next to me,
“Ok if you 2 sit together you are silent, I don’t want a peep out of either of you”
“Yes sir” I said quietly, Laura stayed silent smirking, I sat working, the teacher walked out
“Why you working so hard?”
“Alex will kill me if I don’t work hard, and it’s how I’ve always been, he is serious now”
“Seriously come on”
“You 2 shut up” the teacher said walking in,
“Sorry” Laura started laughing
“You find this funny?”
“No sir” I said quietly, I couldn’t get in more trouble,
“Not you, Laura, do yourself a favour stay away from her, you are so much better off” he said shaking his head, I finished my work before the end of the hour,
“Ashleigh do you not have anything else to do?” the teacher asked when I was sat not really doing anything,
“No, I finished everything” I said honestly
“Go hand it in, and you can go” he smiled. I left and went to hand in what I could, I was waiting in the car park when Alex drove in, and I jumped in the car in a good mood
“Hey” I smiled happy
“Hey, how was school?”
“Better” I smiled
“You have any homework?”
“No I did it and handed it in in detention” I smiled
“You sure?” Alex said looking at me in the mirror,
“Yes, why would I lie, I would get a detention or they would at least put a comment in my homework diary, I’m not going to lie right now”
“Ok good” he smiled and drove off
“No Jack?”
“Nope, he was recording and I wanted 5 minutes alone”
“Oh why?” I said worried I was in trouble
“Nothing really, just would rather be able to chat without you 2 bickering”
“Then tell him to go away” I complained
“Stop arguing, and don’t complain you love him really”
“But he is so annoying!” I complained laughing, Alex laughed too but ignored my complaint, we drove to the studio, I followed Alex, he had never brought me so I had no idea where I was going, we walked into a room, I could see Jack recording, and Rian and Zack got up from where they were sitting talking and came over,
“Hey guys” I smiled,
“Long time no see” Rian smiled, we talked for a bit until Jack finished and ran out and hugged me,
“Jack man get off me” I moaned,
“No I want hugs” he shouted
“Oow my ear” I moaned and fought myself out of his hold. He laughed and sat down. I watched the guy’s record, I watched Alex sing, until Jack started winding me up, he poked me in the side,
“Jack go away!” I complained, Alex wasn’t there to tell him to stop so he pushed it, he picked me up
“Jack you freak! Put me down” he put me over his shoulder laughing then threw me on the settee, and jumped on me
“Jack get off, leave me alone!” I shouted annoyed
“Nope” he grinned and tickled me
“No, stop it get off” I tried to hit him but he caught my arm,
“Jack piss off” I shouted,
“ASHLEIGH!” Alex shouted from the doorway, I froze, and Jack got off “in here now”
“Alex, I did push her too far” jack said sounding worried
“Jack shut up, Ashleigh in here NOW!” Alex said, I followed him to another room, looking down “do not ever speak to any of us like that again” he said seriously sounding so mad,
“I’m sorry” I said still looking down, I couldn’t look him in the face
“Don’t say sorry to me, it’s Jack you need to apologise too”
“But he was” I started
“I saw what he was doing, he knows you don’t like that and he shouldn’t wind you up, but it doesn’t mean you can swear at him” he said loudly,
“I know I’m sorry” I said still not able to look at him,
“Go talk to Jack” he said, I walked back in the room feeling bad,
“Alex I pushed her too far, give her a break” Jack said as soon as he saw us
“I’m sorry Jack” I said quietly, I grabbed my bag and got my art stuff out, I sat in the corner and did some sketches, the guys tried to talk to me but eventually they got the message and left me alone, Jack was sat messing with his guitar so I decided to draw him, no one was paying attention to me anymore so I got quite far with it before anyone realised what I was doing, I was finishing it off when Alex sat next to me,
“Hey, I thought you didn’t have any homework?” he asked, he knew I was doing art
“I don’t this is art, its extra stuff, might use it for my project I’m not sure yet, I shrugged he looked at my drawing
“Wait you did this while you’ve been sitting?”
“Yeah” I shrugged
“That’s really good, anyway you can come talk to us you know” he said gently,
“It’s ok” I said quietly “don’t say anything to him until it’s done” I said, he walked away, Zack walked over and sat next to me
“You ok?” he smiled, he was always nice to me
“Yeah just busy” I said not looking up from my drawing,
“That’s good” he said trying to get me to talk, I smiled at him,
“Thanks” I said quietly,
“Are you really ok, you kept away from us since what happened with Jack?”
“I’m fine, I was a little upset but I’m fine I just want to finish my drawing, and not have Jack come over and annoy me about what happened”
“It looks pretty much finished to me, I think you just don’t want to talk” I sighed I was taking my time on purpose but I wasn’t quite happy with it, I sighed knowing I would never be quite happy with it,
“Maybe” I shrugged, he laughed a little at my stubbornness
“Hey Jack come look at this” Zack said getting up I looked up at him annoyed but he just smiled, Jack put his guitar down as Zack walked away,
“What?” he asked smiling, I knew from his face he was giving me some time alone, he didn’t want to push me after what happened,
“Nothing” I said trying to put it away subtly, but he knew me to well, he sat next to me,
“What was it?” he asked, he could have grabbed it from my bag but was being careful,
“Just some art stuff, it wasn’t that good”
“It was great” Alex shouted making me glare at him and the others laugh,
“Can I see it anyway” he asked gently nudging me, I smiled, and he was trying hard
“Come on” he said giving me puppy eyes, I sighed and got it from my bag, I handed it to him
“You drew me?” he asked surprised, I shrugged “this isn’t that good?” he laughed taking it off me to get a proper look
“See” I said to Alex, glad he wasn’t making too much of a big deal about it.
“I was making fun of you, it’s amazing!” he laughed, I put it away embarrassed, and he took the silence to talk to me again,
“I’m sorry for getting you in trouble before, I didn’t think I would wind you up that much, or Alex would over react like that”
“I can hear you, I didn’t over react, she shouldn’t be talking like that, she never used to” Alex shouted, Jack rolled his eyes making me laugh
“anyway I didn’t realise it would cause all of this, so I’m sorry please stop hiding in the corner cos of me, come listen to us” Jack asked, I nodded and came to sit with the guys, Alex and Jack were writing music, I watched listened and chatted with them, until Alex decided it was time to go home, we drove quietly in Alex’s car. Jack got a lift in Rian’s car to give us some time to talk
“ok, I know what happened upset you, but we have all made an effort to not talk like that in front of you, I know you probably hear it at school, but we work hard not to talk like that, especially hard for Jack, I would kill Jack if he spoke to you like that”
“Oh, I didn’t think about that” I said feeling guilty, Jack had never came close to swearing. The next day after detention I walked home alone and sat next to Jack
“Hey” I smiled,
“Hey” he said looking surprised, I never sat with them without him pushing me to
“You have any homework?” Alex asked
“Not for tomorrow” I said honestly
“Up” he said seriously I sighed and grabbed my bag
“She could do it down here?” Jack suggested, I paused I didn’t have much to do and not doing it alone would be nice
“fine but as soon as she stops and talks she’s upstairs” he warned I sat back down getting my books out, I chatted half talking half walking, it took twice as long but I was happier, I answered questions about school until I stopped answering confused with a maths question,
“Earth to ash!” Jack shouted
“Jack she’s working!” Alex complained at him
“Oh sorry” he laughed
“It’s ok I’m just stuck” I sighed,
“Let me see?” Alex asked and knelt down next to me, I showed him it, he worked on it with me till I got it, and I smiled happy I finished it, and happy he helped and didn’t get mad for once.
“Thanks Alex” I said and hugged him, he smiled and walked away,
“Ok you done?” Jack grinned,
“Yes” I said nervous looking at his face,
“Let’s go play guitar” he grinned pulling me upstairs, Alex was sitting in there writing,
“Oh sorry” I said about to leave
“No its ok” he smiled Jack passed me a guitar and showed me how to play some stuff, Alex joined in and we all played guitar all night.
The next few weeks we got into a rhythm, I came home talked while I did homework then we played guitar until tea. Until I had a bad day at school, I just wanted to go to my room and have peace, I went straight to my room quietly, I didn’t sneak but I wasn’t loud, if they listened for me like they used to they would have heard, but no one came up, I did my homework not wanting to argue if they did, I left it out with my homework diary and then lay on my bed,
“Ash you in?” Alex said sounding a little worried, I sighed knowing I had to talk to them,
“In here” I shouted, he opened my door
“Why didn’t you say hi, or do your homework like you normally do?” he asked, I shrugged
“I did it, it’s on there with my diary” I said hoping he wouldn’t keep questioning,
“Oh, erm ok well we are going to play if you want to come in” he said walking out of my room, I knew he would tell Jack and he would be in soon, I lay face down on the bed not wanting to talk at all.
“What you doing in here?” Jack said walking in about 2 seconds later,
“Nothing leave me alone” I said not looking at him, hoping he would take the hint
“What’s up?” he said sitting on my bed, no such luck.
“Nothing, just go write with Alex” I said knowing he wouldn’t but giving him the option anyway
“no, nothing is up at all, you are just hiding in your room again, after you had just started talking to us without anyone pushing you, you snuck up so we wouldn’t talk to you and are telling us to go away, of course nothing is up why would I think that?” he said sarcastically, not mean just proving his point,
“Jack” I complained into my pillow, I knew I couldn’t argue with him, but I really didn’t want to talk,
“what’s wrong ash” he said, I felt him get up and knew he had knelt downif I lifted my head he would be eye level with me, I sighed I couldn’t keep this up much longer, it was pointless really, and soon he would threaten to tell Alex, not that he didn’t know anyway,
“I just had a bad day and didn’t want to talk about it”
“How did that work out he said laughing”
“Brilliant if you leave me alone” I said sitting up, he sat back on my bed
“Fine sorry, what happened?” he asked getting comfortable he wasn’t going anywhere soon,
“I had most of my lessons with Laura, apparently she had been skipping school and now she’s back because they spoke with her parents or something but she’s in a lot of trouble”
“Good she deserves it” he said not seeing how this was connected
“She thinks I told on her” I explained
“Did you?” he laughed
“No! But she believes I did and so does her friends”
“What happened?” he asked again seriously
“She was just mean to me” I lied, I realised I couldn’t tell him what she said,
“You know you are terrible at lying” he said simply
“So” I said nervously
“So stop lying what did she do, and why are you afraid to tell us”
“You will go mad, and Alex will be worse” I said quietly
“Why?” he said looking worried, I wasn’t going to get away with not telling him “ash?” he said when I was quiet for too long
“She said she was going to tell everyone who you guys were” I said quietly, as quiet as I could in case he didn’t hear and left me alone.
“What?” he said angry, I hid my head again, “ash, we need to talk to Alex about this come on” he said standing up I hid my head further into my bed making him sigh in frustration, I had heard him do that at guitars, when the guys wound him up, but never at me, I didn’t move,
“Alex” he shouted
“Jack!” I complained so annoyed,
“Oh that made you talk” he said slightly amused, I got up and stormed out as Alex walked in.
“Ash? What’s up? What’s going on? Jack what did you do?” he asked annoyed, they came down and sat next to me, I got up and tried to walk out but Alex grabbed my arm, I sighed and stopped
“Sit down” he said, I sat down folding my arms and sat so they couldn’t sit next to me, they both sat on the chair opposite,
“So what happened?”
“Nothing Jack over reacted”
“Ashleigh, I know something happened by you hiding in your room, you are upset and you are going to tell me why” Alex said seriously,
“But” I said then saw both their faces, Jack looked deadly serious, he was about 10 seconds from telling him anyway, “Laura is being horrible to me” I said
“And” Jack said glaring at me,
“Said she’s going to tell everyone about you guys”
“I knew she was going to do this, I’m going to talk to the school about this, I warned them this could be a problem. I will talk to them on Monday, now you 2 apologise”
“For what” I said annoyed making Jack laugh annoyed, he had never been like this with me,
“For snapping, storming out like that when he was trying to help”
“Oh for god sake I will go first, fine I’m sorry for telling Alex like that, I shouldn’t have acted like I did, I’m sorry, you trusted me and I snapped, it just annoys me when you hide this stuff and wont let me help”
“Ash”
“Fine I’m sorry” I said just wanting this over
“Try and mean it” Alex said sounding mad, I sighed
“Fine I’m sorry I stormed out but I felt trapped and forced into this when I wanted to be alone”
“I know I shouldn’t have, I just knew you would try and hide it”
“I would have” I admitted. Jack hugged me making me felt less worried he was mad,
“I’m going to go to my room”
“Nope”
“Why” I said moaning
“you aren’t hiding away” Alex said, I sat down knowing they wouldn’t let me go anyway, I sat in a mood not talking, the guys tried but I barely answered, eventually Jack gave up and went to his room, we ate and I refused to talk to Alex till he got annoyed,
“Right this is ridiculous why you won’t talk to me?” he said annoyed, I shrugged my shoulders, he sighed in exasperation, “ash talk to me” he begged,
“I just- erm- I’m sorry I got us into this mess I told her about you, if I had kept it to myself you guys wouldn’t be so mad at me”
“you are worried about us being mad, at you?” he said looking confused “ash no, no, no we aren’t mad at you we are mad at her, we are worried about what it’s going to do to you, we aren’t mad at you at all, you shouldn’t have to be worried who knows what your uncle does for a living, you shouldn’t care”
“But if I hadn’t told her this wouldn’t be happening and everything would be fine” I protested.

Notes