Chapter Nine

Surprisingly Nathan and I had the same first class and I was extremely nervous because of my dad. I mean if Nathan could find out this easy then my dad will know right away.

"How did you know it was me?" I asked Nathan before we walked in.

"Well, your face and by you biting your lip. You always do that when you're nervous or thinking hard about something," Nathan told me, and I frowned making a mental note not to do that in front of my dad. "Sit in the back with me." We made our way to the very back of the classroom and talked quietly.

"Well, the whole thing with your dad explains why you look so nice," I said and he grinned.

"Yeah, he keeps sending me all this money and now I have a personal limo driver,” he told me.

"I'm coming in that limo with you one of these days," I said seriously, and a lazy smile appeared on his face.

"Of course, you are,” he said and we were interrupted by an all too familiar voice.

"Nathan? Claire didn't tell me you were going here,” my dad said when he scanned the room.

"Uh, yeah it was a last minute decision,” he said giving my dad a tight smile. Clearly feeling awkward about the sudden attention.

"Well, I'm glad to have you in my class. Did Claire tell you? She got into a great school in Chicago,” he said and Nathan raised an eyebrow at me before letting out a light laugh.

"Yeah, she was really excited. “I could tell Nathan was starting to feel awkward talking about me as the class started to fill in.

"Now, I know you two are good friends and all but when she comes home for a vacation you aren't stealing my baby girl away the whole time."

He did not just say that. I imagined that, right? I mean why would he say something like that in front of the whole class? I looked over at Nathan to see him holding back his laughter.

"Who's Claire?" Tom suddenly asked.

"My daughter,” my dad said narrowing his eyes at Tom.

"Do you have a picture?" Tom asked and my dad scowled.

“No.” Just as he said that the bell went off and he flashed a smile on his face.

"Hello, class! I know you all don't want to be here but you don't really have a choice in the matter unless you aren't taking a business management class or something like that,” he said while writing his name on the chalkboard.

"So, why don't we start off on a good note? How was your guy's summer?" my dad asked and no one answered. I could see from the corner of my eye Kyle raised his hand and my dad smiled. “Yes."

"What time is this class over?" My dad's smile turned into a scowl.

"If you don't want to be here then the door is right there. No one is stopping you,” he said seriously and Kyle thought about it for a moment before grabbing his bag and walking out.

"Anyone else?" He said not looking even a bit amused nor shocked. When no one moved he began talking about the reading that was supposed to be done for today. I let my eyes wander around the room since I never got a chance to read anything before coming here.

"Based on the moral you found for the story, you will write a research paper surrounding that theme. If you didn't read what you were supposed to then you've got a week. If you don't finish it by then, well, don't even bother showing up in my classroom,” he snapped as he turned on the airplay for the TV and his MacBook.

"Is that your daughter? Damn, she is hot!" Tom suddenly said and I looked up from my desk and at the flat screen that was air playing what's on my father's computer.

Why would he put a picture of me as his desktop?

At least it's a decent picture.

True.

It was a picture of me after graduation. I was wearing a pair of blue ripped shorts that looked like they were cut at the bottom and a black shirt that said Jack Daniels on it with my signature pair of black vans. Over the top of my clothes, I had my blue graduation gown. But, of course, those don't close so basically everyone saw my creative outfit for graduation. My blonde almost white hair has a messy look to it because I decided to sleep in a little on graduation day and had to throw on my clothes and use my skateboard to get there. Let's just say my principal wasn't very happy and neither were my parents when I just barely made it when they called my name.

Yeah, don't go out the night before and party. It only creates bad news.

"Do you really want to get kicked out of here on your first day?" my dad asked glaring at Tom before pulling up a PowerPoint making my picture disappear.

"I'm surprised he even has that as his background. I remember the steam he had coming out of his ears from me wearing that outfit,” I whispered to Nathan and he chuckled nodding. My parents really wanted me to look nice and wear a dress but they didn't force me because last time I had to wear a dress to my aunt's wedding it got ripped because I was skateboarding and went through a mud puddle and tripped when I was doing a trick. I personally thought the pink dress looked cool ripped up with some mud on it. It looked like it has some splatter paint on it.

"Your poor dad almost had a heart attack at the sight of you," Nathan whispered and I sent him a cheeky smile. We stopped talking for the rest of class and listened to my dad's lecture taking notes. When the class finally ended I was relieved to leave since my next class didn't start till three. “Let's get some breakfast,” he suggested and I agreed as did my stomach as it growled. I made it through day one without getting caught. I guess I'm not that bad of an actress after all.

“Eddie!” I said surprised, running into him.

“Jason,” he responded, smiling widely.

“What are you doing today?” I asked him suddenly causing him to raise an eyebrow.

“I have a date with my TV. Why?” he asked and I shook my head.

“Not anymore. I need some time away from this university. Want to go somewhere fun?” I asked and he ran his hand through his neat hair.

“What do you have in mind?” he asked and I thought about all the different places we could go.

“Bowling,” I said determinedly.

He looked at me carefully, “Bowling with just the two of us,” he said slowly, making sure he understood and I nodded.

“Yeah! I mean you can invite your friends if you want,” I told him and he quickly shook his head.

“No, it’s okay. Just the two of us sounds fun,” he said and I smiled causing him to stare at me for a minute, a long minute. “I’ll drive,” he said and I shrugged.

“Sounds good to me. Let’s go,” I said dragging him toward the parking lot. We got into his small Volvo and headed to the bowling alley twenty minutes away. “Now, I just want to forewarn you. I absolutely suck at bowling and I’m probably going to get killed, brought back to life and then killed again. I guess I should’ve asked you beforehand how good you really are because now it’s going to be completely awkward if I can’t even make it five seconds without getting it in the gutter. You know what? Maybe we should go do something else like get ice cream, go out to dinner, anything but bowling,” he said.

I put my hands up. “Eddie, Eddie!” I yelled, cutting him off.

“You’ll be fine. I suck at bowling too, don’t worry,” I reassured, causing him to sigh in relief.

“Let’s get started then,” I said smiling as we went to pay for a lane and get our shoes.

Eddie stared at me for a minute before nodding his head. “You’re not a guy,” he said shaking his head and I paused in my steps to the counter.

“Sorry, what?” I asked and he pursed his lips staring at me, walking all the way around my body.

“You’re not a guy,” he repeated. “You’re definitely a girl,” he said and I felt my heart stop. “I’m not judging. I mean that's fine with me. Is it a transgender thing or?” he asked genuinely curious and I bit my lip, shaking my head.

“My mother thinks my dad is cheating and asked me to go undercover to find out,” I said in my normal voice, cringing at how bad this probably looked. He stared at me for another solid minute before bursting out laughing.

“Definitely the craziest thing I’ve heard yet, but I believe you,” he said smiling widely and I couldn’t help but want to hug the ginger-headed boy. “Why are you here with me now? Shouldn’t you be spending all your free time trying to find out?” he asked and I nodded.

“I mean yes, but I’m not spending my first year of college spying on him. He’s a teacher, he spends majority of his time grading papers and going to meetings. I never wanted to do this, so I’m enjoying the college life. Although, if I was myself I’d probably be out partying like crazy right now, but I wouldn’t have met you, so I’m thankful. I can see us being good friends if you can look past this,” I said giving him a hopeful smile.

“What is your real name?” he asked.

“Claire Martez,” I said and recognition of the name immediately showed. He put his arm on my shoulder and looked at me,

“Well, Claire, consider us already best friends.” He grinned and I couldn’t help but return it.  

“So you still want to bowl with me? I’m not the best, but I’ll always be here,” I said holding up the ball with another hopeful smile.  

He rolled his eyes, “Is that even a question,” he said already slipping on his shoes. We decided on me going first. I looked at the pins determinedly before I swung the ball pack and letting it go in front of me. I watched as it rolled down the lane and I quickly jumped up and down cheering as my ball hit the pins. I did a small shuffle in front of the lane and Eddie tapped my shoulder. “Claire, you got one pin,” Eddie said with an amused smile. I stopped jumping and looked at the lane before cheering again. I grabbed his hand and twirled him around. “You’re honestly crazy,” he said and I didn’t disagree. I rolled the second ball, doing it granny style and I couldn’t help but laugh as it went straight into the gutter.

“You’re already going down,” I said pointing downward. I looked up to see his smile and I stopped my crazy attitude and looked at the kid like grin. He looked so carefree and happy; I didn’t want to ever see that smile fade.

“Okay, okay, my turn,” he said rolling up his dress shirt sleeves. “Here we go,” he said tilting his body a certain way before he released the ball causing it to go flying backwards. I stared at the ball with wide eyes and he did the same, looking completely mortified. We both fell into a fit of laughter and I loved every second of it. That feeling of pure happiness you could only have with a good friend. I only just met this boy a couple of days ago, but I knew it and he knew it, we were going to get along well. “No one can be as bad of us. This is just sad,” he said grabbing the ball and I nodded in agreement.

“This is just sad,” I said sitting at the table nearby. “I love it,” I said in all honesty, watching as he threw the ball the proper way this time and it started rolling slowly down the lane. “Was I really that bad of an actress?” I asked after a while of us bowling.

He shook his head, “I wasn’t even a little attractive to you. No offense, you’re missing some masculine bulges and an Adam’s apple,” he said and I bit my lip, realizing he was right.

“Is it really that noticeable? Because I need to last at least another week,” I said and he shook his head.

“You’ll survive, but you really have to let some hair grow on those legs,” he said and I cringed at the thought.

“Yeah, I’d rather be made fun of for shaving them. Trust me, I already gave up getting my eyebrows done,” I said and he rolled his eyes.

“Girly girl or tom boy? I can’t figure you out,” he said and I shrugged with an innocent smile.

“I’m not really sure anymore either,” I said taking a bite of cheesy fries we ordered. I jumped up from my seat and pointed at him dramatically. “That’s it, I have an idea. We’re joining a bowling league,” I said and he snorted.

“Yeah right. We can go bowling every week, but we’re not joining any type of league. I like myself at least that much,” he said rolling his teeth over his lips, a habit I noticed he had when thinking. I thought about it carefully.

“Fine, every Monday. Bowling here at six o’clock,” I said firmly and he got up, handing me a ball.

“You’re on.”