When Summer Ends (59 page)

In the middle of my Spanish class someone came in with a
note and handed it to the teacher. She immediately walked over to the front of
my desk and looked at me curiously. “The Principal would like to see you,
Chloe,” she said, nodding to the door.

Oh God, please let this be okay!

I nodded, swallowing my fear and shoved my books into my
bag. Amy was whispering over and over that everything was fine, that it was all
working out perfectly. The Principal had approached Amy early this morning,
asking about Sam. She had confirmed everything, even dropping herself in
trouble by telling him that she was one of the ones at the club with me, and that
she met Sam that night too. She’d encouraged Principal Sherman to speak to Nick
too, and from what he’d told me, that meeting went well too. Nick had just said
that I talked about Sam nonstop and that I was completely in love with him, but
that he hadn’t met him yet.

When I was all packed up I headed to the office and took a
couple of deep breaths, gathering my confidence. As I walked to the office door
and raised my hand to knock, it opened before my hand could make contact with
the wood. Will was heading out of the office, Principal Sherman behind him,
obviously seeing him out politely. They were both smiling. I gulped.
Yes, they’re
smiling! That’s a good sign. Please let this have been fixed.

“Oh, Chloe, great timing. Come on in,” Principal Sherman
enthused.

I looked at Will curiously just as he turned back to look at
the balding little man. “Thanks for getting this all sorted out so quickly,
Richard. It’s nice to know that there is such a supportive network here at the
school, something like this could have been disastrous if it wasn’t handled in
the timely and professional manner that you handled it in,” he stated.

Wow, there’s the professional Will again, using the big
words.

Principal Sherman smiled warmly, and Will turned to walk
out, stepping to the side so I could get past him. “Kiss ass,” I whispered so
quietly that the retreating, ageing Principal wouldn’t have been able to hear
me.

I heard Will chuckle as he closed the door behind me,
leaving me in the office to fend for myself with the head of the school. I
wanted to beg him to come back and hold my hand, but instead I put on my big
girl panties and marched over to the free chair, sitting myself down and
looking at Principal Sherman expectantly.

He smiled. “Okay, Chloe, I expect you know why you’re here.
I told you I would investigate the complaint that was made to me, and I have.
As I’m sure you were expecting, the accusation has been proven false,” he said,
smiling almost apologetically.

I felt my leg spasm. I pressed my feet together to stop
myself from jumping on his desk and doing a happy dance. I tried my best to
keep my cool calm exterior as I nodded confidently. “Of course it was, it was
just plain stupid,” I scoffed, rolling my eyes for dramatic effect.

He nodded. “I’m very sorry you were dragged into all of
this. I’m not sure if it was just a harmless prank, or if the complaint was
made with malicious intent, but rest assured the complainant will be dealt with
properly. I do not take kindly to time wasters, especially those that make up
lies about one of my most promising young teachers.” He frowned angrily and I
felt a wave of sorrow for Erika. She was in deep trouble by the look on his
face.

“What does that mean?” I asked, wanting to know what her
punishment would be, but at the same time not really wanting to know.

He sighed and picked up his pen, tapping it on the desk
unconsciously. The sound of the rhythmic tapping started driving me crazy
almost immediately. “She has already been suspended from school for a week.
She’ll be stripped of her head cheerleader role, but I have allowed her to stay
on as part of the team because I don’t want the squad to suffer. Mr Morris has
agreed that the punishment is sufficient. He’s been very understanding and
gracious about the whole thing. You’re lucky to have such a bright and gifted
teacher,” he said, smiling fondly.

Wow, Will’s making a great impression at this school!

I smiled and shrugged. “I’m luckier that he has such an
awesome brother,” I countered, grinning at the thought of Sam. That statement
held more meaning that the Principal knew.

He smiled and looked at me a little bemused, like I was that
stupid school girl again that didn’t understand that she’d just dodged a
bullet.
Trust me, I understand all right.
“Right, well, thank you for
your time and you should probably get to class. Do you need a note to explain
why you’ll be late?” he asked, pulling open his drawers one by one, obviously
looking for paper.

I shook my head and smiled. “No, it’s cool; I have Mr Morris
right now. I think he’ll understand why I’m late,” I chuckled.

Principal Sherman laughed too. “You’re probably right
there.” He stood up, signalling the end of the meeting so I grabbed my school
bag and stood too. “Thanks again for being so cooperative, I know this
investigation couldn’t have been easy on you,” he said, smiling kindly.

I shrugged. “It’s fine. It was actually pretty funny. Sam
was laughing for hours when I told him that people thought I was getting it on
with his nerdy brother,” I lied, faking disgust at the end. He laughed and gave
me that ‘you’re a silly little girl’ smile again. “Oh, wait! You said the
person was stripped of head cheerleader. Does that mean it was Erika Dennison
that tried to get me into trouble?” I asked, already knowing the answer.

He smiled sadly. “Yes, but I’d appreciate it if you could
just leave it alone. She’s been punished and spoken to. If you have any
problems with her when she comes back after her suspension, then please come to
me, don’t try to settle anything or seek revenge. If there is trouble between
the two of you then I’ll have to treat it as a separate incident, and you’ll
both be in trouble, understand?” he asked, looking at me sternly.

I nodded.
There goes my punching her in the face fantasy.
“Okay,” I agreed reluctantly. I slung my bag over my shoulder and
practically skipped to calculus. I felt like a weight had been lifted off of my
shoulders. Now that everything was sorted I felt like I could breathe properly
again. I didn’t realise how stressed it was making me.

Will smiled at me as I walked into his class. I caught Amy’s
eye and nodded. A smile stretched across her face too as she seemed to relax. I
weaved through the rows of seats and chose an empty one, trying desperately not
to grin like an idiot that had just won the lottery.

When the final bell rang I just packed up and left without
saying anything to Will. I didn’t need to; we’d already made our plans for
tonight. He was picking me up from my house in half an hour.
I guess we’ll
be celebrating tonight!

As I got to my locker my cell phone vibrated in my pocket. I
plucked it out, expecting a call from Will so I didn’t even bother looking at
the caller ID as I answered it.

“Hey there, boyfriend,” I chirped, grinning like a madwoman.

I heard laughter down the line. “Hey there, girlfriend,” Sam
answered.

I blushed and rolled my eyes.
I wasn’t living that one
down anytime soon I bet.
“Hi, Sam-bo.”

“Foxy,” he said, his tone warning. I laughed. He hated me
calling him that. To be honest if he didn’t hate it so much I probably wouldn’t
do it. His reaction to it was just too good to miss. “I’m outside, come meet
me,” he ordered lazily.

I frowned in confusion.
He’s outside?
“Huh?” I
shrugged at Amy who was looking at me curiously, I mouthed to her that Sam was
outside. “Okay, let me just grab my books then. What are you doing here
anyway?”

He laughed. “Just stop with the questions and get your
pretty little behind out here. I’m bored of waiting already, and some of these
high school girls are starting to undress me with their eyes, you know how self-conscious
I get when people look at me,” he joked.

I laughed and grabbed my books from my locker. Linking my
arm through Amy’s, I skipped out of the front doors and disconnected the line.
Sam was standing there, leaning against the side of his car, looking hot as
usual. He really wasn’t lying when he said that some of the girls were looking
at him, they really were. I couldn’t exactly blame them; the Morris boys sure
were easy on the eye.

I smiled as I walked up and he moved, pulling out a huge
bunch of red tulips from behind his back, holding them out to me. I gasped and
looked at them shocked.
Why would he buy me flowers? And, how did he know
which were my favourite?
I frowned, a little bemused as I walked up to him.
People were stopping to watch now. A hot guy parked in the no parking zone, holding
out a bunch of flowers, wasn’t something that happened every day at our school.

When I got up to him, he smiled and handed me the flowers.
“From Will,” he whispered, stepping closer to me.

I felt my heart speed up a little because Will had asked his
brother to give these to me.
Aww, he’s so freaking adorable.
I suddenly
realised why Sam was here - more witnesses for our fake relationship. I just
wished Will had told me that he’d arranged this so I wasn’t so surprised.

“That’s very sweet, thanks, Sam,” I gushed, running my
finger along the petals, just melting inside at how adorable my boyfriend was.

Suddenly Sam wrapped his arm around my waist and pulled me
closer to him. I let out a little gasp of shock as I was yanked forward and
crashed against his chest, barely managing to move my flowers out of the way in
time. He smirked at me and crashed his lips to mine, kissing me for the fourth
time.

I whimpered against his lips but didn’t try to pull away. If
this was Will’s plan then I needed to go along with it. I trusted Will
completely so if he asked Sam to kiss me in front of a load of students then
I’d let him.

When he finally pulled back, I smiled awkwardly. “I’d rather
Will give that gift to me in person,” I joked quietly, knowing no one was close
enough to hear our conversation.

Sam laughed. “No, that one was from me,” he replied, shrugging.

What the heck? Will hadn’t told him to kiss me?
I
slapped his arm and gasped. “Sam!” I cried, shaking my head shocked that he’d
just kissed me again.

He laughed and grinned at me wickedly. “You know I love to
piss off my brother! He goes that awesome shade of red, it’s incredible,” he
stated, laughing as I slapped his arm again. “Relax, Foxy, it’s not like I want
to kiss you. I mean jeez, I need some mouthwash or something to kill all of the
Will germs you just passed onto me.” He faked a shudder for dramatic effect.

I closed my eyes and laughed quietly as he led me to his
car. Sam really was too funny, and he just couldn’t resist an opportunity to
tease the life out of his brother.

Chapter Thirty-Seven

The following week was just a normal week. It actually felt
so strange though because my life hadn’t been normal for so long that I was
just expecting something bad to happen, some jealous ex-girlfriend of Will’s to
pop out of the woodwork and tell him she was pregnant, or someone else to catch
us and tell the Principal again. I was even waiting for Nick to beat the crud
out of Will for ‘abusing his position in authority to prey on young girls’, but
none of that happened.

Nick did speak to Will though, in private, Will had told me
that night what he’d said. Apparently, Nick had told him how important I was to
him and how he didn’t want to see me hurt, how he didn’t like the situation,
but he liked how happy I was. I would imagine there were a few threats involved
in that conversation too, but Will didn’t go into details about those with me.
All in all, Nick seemed a lot more comfortable around him; I was guessing it
would only be a matter of time before they were friends. They were both great
people and had awesome personalities, they would probably end up being drinking
buddies or something – well, when Nick was old enough to drink anyway.

People were talking endlessly about Erika though. You
couldn’t walk down the hallway on the day following her suspension, without
someone mentioning her name. Speculation started immediately about why she had
been suspended and demoted from cheer captain. Will told me that night that
Erika wasn’t allowed to tell anyone the true reason because that would add fuel
to a ‘false rumour’, so we were pretty much out of it at the moment. If she
decided that she wanted to spread the news around school about me and Will,
then there would be even more trouble for her, the Principal had apparently
made that abundantly clear to her.

Because no one knew the truth about her suspension, the
guesses were getting pretty wild. Some of them were actually outrageous. I
heard one girl spreading that Erika had a nervous breakdown, that she’d ate a
whole jar of mayonnaise and then stripped naked and done a dance on the
Principal’s desk. Another one was that she’d had a bad nose job and this was
all just a conspiracy, that she hadn’t really been suspended at all, she was
just waiting for the swelling to go down.

The other gossip that was going around the school hallways:
My hottie boyfriend. The same one that had picked me up from school with a
bunch of tulips. Everyone wanted to know every single detail about Sam. When
word got out that he was a teacher’s brother – and not just any teacher, but
the hottest one the school had ever had – people literally went crazy.

I was being hounded for information on Will; they wanted to
know everything about him. Had I met his girlfriend, was he seeing Miss Teller,
was he gay, has he come out to his parents yet, where did he live. The
questions were endless and actually a little stalkerish. Will definitely had a
lot of fan girls at school.