8. Don't Blame Me, I am Innocent!

The next day at school, I saw Jake harassing Liliana by her locker, and my heart filled with joy. Ah, he is finally taking the initiative and bugging her directly and not trying to use me as a wing woman. Thank the Lord.

He had her pushed against the locker. He was about 6 foot 2 so he towered over her as he hovered over her face staring into her eyes. His lips twisted into a sickly smirk.

Liliana saw me passing by and mouthed 'help me' but I kept walking. Serves her right for being a bitch to me

Jake followed her eyes and saw me. He released her right away and started to walk toward my direction. The fuck...why.

"Janey wait up!" he yelled but there's no way I'm stopping.

Jake caught up to me in the hallway as I was walking to my class. He ran up behind me and yanked my ponytail. I yelped and almost fell backward but he caught me.

"What the hell is your problem?" I snarled. After seeing him way too many times, inside and outside of the school property, I realized I wasn't as scared of him as I used to be. Now I'm just plain annoyed at him.

"I called you," he said and gripped my arm firmly so I couldn't wiggle out of his grasp.

"You had Liliana trapped inside your arms' cage so why did you release her and grab me?" I snapped.

"I need to talk to you about something," Jake said.

"No, I am not going to help you kidnap Liliana," I said.

"That's not what I was going to ask smartass. I wanted to know if you are going to the spring fling dance?" Jake said.

Oh yeah, spring fling dance was coming up. I never really worried about these types of things. It wasn't like I was never invited to these things but I thought they were kind of lame. It was just an excuse for the pretty girls to show off their popularity.

"I don't know. Why do you ask? Let me guess, you asked Liliana and she denied you and now you want me to get in on your scheme to force her to go with you," I said.

"No. Actually, she agreed to go with me," Jake smirked.

What, I didn't see that coming.

"Oh, really? Congratulations," I said.

"There's only one problem," Jake said

"What's that?" I asked.

"She'd only go if you are going," he replied.

I was confused. "I don't get it. What does it matter if I don't go? It's not like we are super close or anything," I said.

"Fuck if I know. The point is if you decided not to go, you better change your mind because you are going," Jake announced.

"Oh, you get to decide my life choices now too? Are you going to decide which college I should apply for?" I rolled my eyes.

Jake pulled me aside and pushed me against the wall. His fiery eyes were boring into my soul. I'll admit his handsome face was looking quite intimidating.

"You are going and that's final Janey," he said.

"You can't hurt me, Jake. Aaron likes me so he will protect me from your idiocy," I said but I wasn't a hundred percent confident about it.

"You wanna bet?" Jake challenged.

I guess I'll be going to the dance.

A week has passed and the Spring fling dance was approaching quickly. I'll admit I was sort of excited to attend this year. Why? Because this time, I actually had a date.

I had been texting and talking on the phone with Aaron a lot. That's right, the former bad boy and the plain Jane are now friends. I could tell Aaron liked me and wanted to go out with me again so I asked him to the dance. Aaron was pleased and Of course, Jake was pretty happy about it.

But do you think he was overwhelmed with gratitude towards me and ran up to me and enveloped me in a thank you embrace? Not a chance in hell. His bullying against me continued.

Like today, I was strolling down the hallway, humming my favorite tune, then all of a sudden, I felt two hands pushing me and I tumbled forward. I dropped my binder which somehow unbound itself and all of my papers flew across the room.

I looked up, horrified. Jake was standing in front of me, laughing his ass off.

"You son of a biscuit, how could you!" I cried.

"Oh no, Janey! How did you fall on a dry floor? You are so clumsy," Jake cooed.

"Ugh! I know you pushed me. I felt your arms on my back, asshole," I sneered.

"Stop imagining things Janey, I would never touch you intentionally." Jake sneered back at me.

"Stop calling me Janey. My name is Jane, JANE!" I screamed on top of my lungs.

"What's all this commotion? Ms. Brown, why are you sitting on the dirty floor?" one of our administrators, Mr. Green walked up to me and asked.

"Jake pushed me!" I yelled and pointed at Jake who just glared at me.

"Is this true Mr. Morris? Did you push her?" Mr. Green asked him.

"No way. Jane is clumsy and putting the blame on me so she doesn't look like an idiot," Jake said.

"Liar!" I cried.

"Alright, you two. Go to the principal's office. Right now," Mr. Green ordered.

"But...." I started to protest but stopped when he glared at me.

"No arguing. I will not tolerate childish behavior in this school. Mr. Morris, you better help her pick up her papers and head to the office in 10 minutes." he said.

"Yessir," Jake said sarcastically.

Mr. Green shook his head and left. Jake started to pick up the papers with me. "Nice going, Janey. You got us both in trouble," he said.

"ME? It was all your fault, you bully!" I groaned.

"Whatever. Let's just get this over it. Lunch is about to start and I don't want to miss it. I'm hanging out with Liliana today." he said.

I was surprised. Was Liliana warming up to Jake? Does she like him now? I wondered. In that case, why won't he just leave me alone?

We went to the principal's office and sat in front of him. Our principal Mr. Garcia was a stoic, humorless man who didn't take any shits from anyone. I was a little scared.

"This is the third time you are visiting my office, Jake," Mr. Garcia said and gave Jake a disappointed look.

Jake didn't say anything.

"And you Jane, I'm very surprised you are here. You are usually a quiet and brilliant student. How did you get mixed up with Jake?" he asked.

"I didn't! It was all his fault!" I accused Jake.

"Regardless of whose fault it was, I'm going to have to punish you both for creating commotion in the hallway. After school is over, you are to spend two hours cleaning and organizing the basement," Mr. Garcia declared.

"No fucking way!" Jake yelled.

"Watch your language son," Mr. Garcia warned him.

"Why do we have a basement?" I wanted to know.

Mr. Garcia just ignored me and waved his hand dismissively. "Get to it before I lose my patience."

Great. Spending alone time with Jake for two hours is not what I had in mind today.