Chapter Text
Jake Sterling was an infuriating person to be sat next to is the very obvious conclusion Hailey had easily gathered after mere weeks of having to sit next to him, oh and as a side note: if the guy hadn’t had an adhd diagnosis yet he should really look into that because oh my gosh he could not sit still even if his life was on the line and Hailey was certain of that.
Every few minutes he would shift in his seat to find a new position to sit in, which obviously meant Hailey not only had to deal with hearing him move around but also the fact that he would bump into both her and the table as he did so, sure he apologised softly under his breath, which admittedly she didn’t think he’d care to apologise to her of all people, but it was still annoying being jostled so frequently while she was trying to concentrate on the lessons content.
Oh, he also has a habit of making a lot of really unneeded noise under his breath, often humming, which Hailey found a tiny bit funny cause she thought she was meant to be the only “music freak” sat at this table!
All jokes aside though, Jake Sterling needed to pack it in before she turned and throttled him in front of everyone who’d bothered to show up to class today. They were currently covering a new poem for their poetry unit which was admittedly extremely boring and that was probably why Jake was so unfocused today but unlike most she actually cared about the grade she got out of this class. It would be most appreciated if she could actually hear the teachers advised interpretation and analysis of the poem ‘Ozymandias’ so she could take down the appropriate notes for when she needs to revise them before midterms.
Jake throwing his pen, before catching it and twirling it between his fingers, while cool as heck and oddly attractive, was extremely distracting when mixed with the sound of his foot continually tapping on the floor below them. Somehow no one else was bothered by this as much as she was, but then again she seemed to be one of the only ones paying any attention to Miss Jones right now.
She was halted from her note taking by another teacher abruptly entering the classroom, Milly in tow, and having a whispered conversation at the front of the class. It took Milly as second but as she looked over the class of murmuring students her eyes finally landed on Hailey and she sent over a small wave, Hailey returned it with a small smile before pointing over at the teacher Milly had followed into her classroom and making a face that silently asked, ‘Why are you in here?’, Milly caught her question and while at least having the sense to look slightly ashamed mouthed the words, ‘Fight’ and ‘Got in trouble’ over to Hailey.
Really she wasn’t surprised at all but she did shoot the girl a half unimpressed, half sympathetic look. As much as she didn’t like her friend getting in fights all the time she also knew it stemmed from a place of wanting to defend herself and it wasn’t as funny as Milly liked to make it out to be, but unfortunately the pink haired girl had a habit of not only sugarcoating how bad the fights were but also going out of her way to pretend she enjoyed fighting and trying to give herself that reputation publicly.
Just as she was about to mouth something back to Milly, Miss Jones’ voice cut through the classes talking, “Class I have a situation I need to step out for a short while to resolve”, she, in the least subtle manner possible, shot a quick look over at Milly as she said that. The girl in question remained completely unbothered by this and was simply leaning on the door frame of the classroom while picking a hangnail off her thumb.
“While i’m gone, please continue to look over the selected poem for today and work on your annotations of it, I’ll be back as soon as possible.” And with that Miss Jones walked out with the other teacher, who she had seen before but had never been taught by him, and Milly who stuck her tongue out playfully at Hailey as she walked out.
Not even a second after the door shut students in the class immediately begun pulling out their phones or turning to friends around them, basically just doing anything other than work. Now normally Hailey would probably do the same but considering her lack of close friends in this class she decided instead to keep working. Though she was definitely less productive than before considering the noise in the room and she defaulted to drawing stars in the margin of her poetry book.
She was shocked to see Jake out the corner of her eye messing with his pen instead of talking to anyone around him but when she turned her head she realised the two guys he usually joked around with were missing today, probably skipping class she figured.
Since the first class she’d figured out that the two boys were on the football team and that’s why she recognised them, they walked around the halls with Jake sometimes and were even friendly with Luke, who even though he was in their “freak” club, managed to still be considered popular. Probably because he was extremely chill and conventionally attractive, not to say that the rest of her friends weren’t attractive by any means but Luke doesn’t have a lot of girls crushing on him in the school for no reason…
“Oh shit.” Jake’s voice was quiet but startled and as she turned her head to him she instantly understood why.
Sat directly next to her, as usual, was Jake Sterling however he was now sat stock still with his arms held unconsciously in front of him. It was the kinda stance someone takes after dropping something on the floor and the mess caused is so bad they just have to stare at it in devastation.
Except Jake hadn’t dropped anything, he’d somehow, probably because of all his messing, broken his pen and basically caused it to explode all over him.
He was lucky no one else had noticed it due to their desk being placed at the back of the classroom but the way he sat there clearly not know what he should do, with blue ink covering his clothes and arms caused Hailey to burst out in to a fit of laughter, or well it was more quiet giggling since she didn’t feel like drawing any looks from any class mates right now.
Jake’s head snapped to look at her and his face immediately took on a look of both embarrassment and exasperation at his current predicament. He let out a groan before cutting her a look, “Don’t say a word”.
And well Hailey wasn’t going to say anything but now that he’s told her not to she’s not just going to listen to what he tells her to do, “I mean I wasn’t going to but I was just thinking isn’t pen ink meant to go in your book and not all down yourself?”
“Hm, funny” He practically sneered at her before seeming to give up being annoyed at her in particular and caring more about the ink that was now surely staining his arms and clothes, “Have you atleast got anything i could try wipe this with? Like tissues or something” he was wildly gesturing with his hands but not closing them or touching anything, clearly he didn’t want to risk staining anything right now.
She felt a slight of irritation run through her at that, he was a jerk to her all the time! Why would he expect her to help him out here! “Uhm no i don’t, and even if i did why the heck would i give you any?”
“Uh have you looked at me, I’m covered in ink! Maybe that would be inclination enough for you to give me some.”
Well he did kinda have a point there, but that didn’t make it her problem by any means, he should just learn how to solve his own problems. “Can’t you just go to the toilet and get some?” That seemed like the sensible thing to do in this situation.
“Miss Jones left the room and if i go without her hall pass then i’m getting detention so i’m good.” He was leaning back in his chair and tapping his foot, whether he meant to or not he was being very pissy about this.
“Well that’s not really my issue”
“Hm okay whatever.”
They sat in tense silence for a bit, Hailey trying to busy herself with her doodling but really she was paying attention to Jake who was trying to figure out what to do about the ink. It was still wet so he wouldn’t be able to put his jacket back on to cover it yet unless he wanted to stain that too but they didn’t have long left of the lesson and she did feel kind of bad leaving him to deal with that.
Ugh curse her for being a nice person even when it’s an asshole like Jake that needs something.
Reaching down to her bag beside her desk she zipped open the front pocket over the back and shifting some emergency things like, hair ties, pads and tampons out the way she found a packet of wipes in the bottom of the pocket. She never really needed them but they lived in her bag just incase she ever needed to clean her hands for whatever reason, they were only small ones from a local gas station but she hoped they’d do the trick to help Jake get the ink off his skin at least.
Zipping the pocket shut again she sat back up right in her seat and dropped the wipes on the desk space in front of Jake. She didn’t even bother to look at him, instead turning her attention back to note taking thinking he’d probably make some stupid or smug comment about it but she was met with nothing but quiet next to her as Jake seemingly stilled for about 5 seconds before he picked up the wipes and she just heard a quiet, “Thanks”.
Huh well I guess he does have at least some manners, shocking. Hailey thinks.
The last 20 minutes of the period were spent making basic notes on the poem, it was a relatively easy poem compared to the two they’d already looked at so it wasn’t hard to come up with things she could write about. Jake on the other hand spent that time trying to discreetly scrub his arms free of ink and while it didn’t work completely it did mean he was able to put his jacket back on. He zipped it up, covering his stained arms and tshirt but his hands were still very visible.
While Miss Jones was wrapping up the lesson she felt a tap on her shoulder, “Uhm thanks for lending me the wipes, I hope I didn’t use too many of them.” He was holding what looked to be about four wipes, presumably so he could throw them away, that were covered in blue splotches and in his other hand was the packet which he was holding out towards her.
She hesitated before speaking, he genuinely did look thankful and the small genuine smile that graced his features, one she’d never seen before, really suited him far more than his usual smug one. “Oh, it’s no problem” She took the pack and leaned over to return it in to her bag.
From there she just waited for them to be dismissed, neither of them really knew what to say and despite the fact that they were listening to the teacher still it somehow felt awkward between them. It made sense considering they weren’t usually friendly with one another but still… maybe it was just Hailey that was thinking this. Yeah that was probably it.
As the bell rang she quickly stood up and exited the class not even realising the brown eyes that followed her movement all the way until she was out of view.