The Casanova's Class Clown

Chap. 26: Cottage In The Forest

COTTAGE IN THE FOREST...

Emma was gathering water with a makeshift bowl, which was actually just half a dried coconut she had found half-buried in the ground when she was dragging Oliver around earlier, after her conversation with the incoherent heartthrob.

She wondered if he had been lucid enough to notice her ungodly attire, which had been stripped down to only her undershirt and jeans. Once she found out her clothes were easier to tear than Oliver's, darned expensive durable original branded clothes she had muttered after the discovery, she proceeded to keep tearing at the cheap blouse she was never attached to and proceeded to deal with their wounds as best she could. She even managed a rough-and-ready tie to keep her hair in order. It half-failed its purpose, but it was doing something, and that was better than nothing.

After the initial bout of tears of relief at the discovery of the abandoned cabin, as well as the jitters that kept creeping down her spine at the remembrance of a horribly scary movie once watched between friends, she had been very precautious in changing out of her clothes as an unconscious Oliver laid at the other side of the one-room edifice from her. Of course, she didn't mind at all getting naked in front of other girls, even those that seemed to have shown the most shallow interest, but then again, Oliver was a special case. He always has.

Every groan or twitch or rustle would make her jump and immediately button her clothing all the way back up to the neck. And that was just the jacket. The vest was a whole other process that was just as perturbing, not to mention having to tend to her and his wounds afterward. She couldn't even manage to get the first button of his shirt off without blushing furiously. She had no idea what had come over her to touch his chest after the initial shock of the wreck. Adrenaline maybe? She had heard and seen a lot of the instance on TV and newspapers, but she never thought she'd ever experience such a thing.

Looking back, she was really lucky she paid closer attention to health class than the rest of her classes. After elementary, her IQ on the number-based subjects suddenly went askew, and for the life of her she had no idea what happened herself. Her grades went from stunning to decent, and in a sense, though disappointing at first, might as well have been.

It added to the fact that she was average, and after much self-consolidation, she settled. Neither Oliver nor Kat ever knew of her rise then fall on grades from the very beginning though, their elementary teachers never tattled about such things, so having them not worry about her was a bonus. As far as they knew, she had always survived her classes, and that was good enough. No one ever pushed her to do anything she never showed much interest on, and for her that was a lot.

She didn't know if it was a bad thing, but she knew she wouldn't be herself now if her past went a different direction, and she knew who she was right now wasn't that bad at all, so that should've counted for something.

She took an interest in drawing, her parents bought her an entire art set for Christmas. She talked a bit about her friend's new gadgetry, two birthdays later, she got a Laptop. She got hiked up over a comic that made no sense whatsoever, her entire family threw her a themed graduation after-party based on said-comic.

Her entire life had been nothing but supportive in the many ways she could remember, and even she wasn't exempt from this. Her being the only one to say Lucy wasn't going through a phase, that she was exploring her interests and even defended her clothing and make-up choices to her parents was one example, and even her relationship with Oliver, being the stable-minded and better half of their moirallegience was another blatant one.

She was the supportive, understanding, calm-headed friend who could make everyone laugh with her that people could always count on. Now shouldn't be any exception.