high school [ jeff atkins ]

[ 03 ]

03; into you

pinching the bridge of his nose, jeff stared down at the history paper that had red scribbles all over it that he didn't understand. clay jensen, his history tutor, sat across from him in the library going on and on about how the founders didn't smoke weed, how about they used hemp but not weed. running a hand through his neatly combed hair, jeff looked over at clay with a look of annoyance on his face. all he wanted to do was play some baseball, but no his mother had overreacted about his grades and called up the school, forcing his coach to say that if his grades didn't get up to at least a c average he wouldn't be able to play on the team.

"hey clay," the familiar voice he had grown to love so quickly and easily then echoed through his ears, "can you look at this history assignment for me, i don't wanna hand it in until i know it deserves a b."

lifting his gaze from his history paper, jeff looked over at a tired looking rose. it made jeff a little annoyed how tired she looked, and he knew she was tired because of practice for the pep rally and for coming up with more choreography for their own dance they did during their tutor sessions. rose's dark brown hair was tied up loosely and messily into a low ponytail, her attire was much different from the outfits she usually wore and consisted of simply a pair of grey sweat pants and an oversized sweater.

"sure," clay nodded his head and gently took the piece of paper from her nimble hands.

"hey rose," jeff did an awkward sort of smile as he looked over at her, "you okay?"

"just a bit tired," she laughed dryly, "nothing new."

"maybe you should take the day off or something," jeff suggested, "we don't have to do our tutor session this afternoon if your too tired."

"no it's okay," she shook her head, "our tutor sessions are critical since your improvements are suddenly slowing down, and i'll just get a coffee from monet's no biggie."

clay then handed rose back her assignment, "it's good a definite b for sure, maybe even an a minus."

and with that, rose smiled brightly and bid her goodbyes to the two boys. jeff's eyes followed her out of the library that they were situated in, he had a worried glance pointed in her direction. once the australian korean disappeared from his sites, he turned back to face a smirking clay. clay had been friends with rose for quite a while, ever since she moved in next door to him when they were younger, when she was only just fourteen and he was only thirteen. they had been friends for almost four years, and they had gotten pretty close over those four years. rose was still seventeen at that moment, her eighteenth birthday coming up in four months, a birthday that clay had memorized the first time she told him.

"so rose," clay smirked at the older boy, "how long have you had the hots for her?"

"what are you talking about jensen?" jeff played it off with an eye roll and small shrug, but the seventeen year old could see the slight blush start to form on the eighteen year old's cheeks.

"god even i could see the look of adoration you had in your eyes as you watched her walk out," tony scoffed as he looked at the boys from his seat a table away from them.

"shut up," jeff blushed even harder, suddenly becoming extremely flustered and embarrassed by the two younger students, "what's up with you and that hannah baker girl? have you asked her out yet?"

"no," it was now clay's turn to blush a bright tomato red, "she doesn't like me like that."

tony's scoff could be heard in the background of their conversation. jeff too scoffed and rolled his eyes, it was obvious that hannah baker held feelings for clay, by the way she looked at him, the way she talked to him, the way she acted around him, it was so obvious that she was head over heels for him and that he was head over heels for the curly haired beauty as well. ever since jeff had pried it out of clay that he had a crush on hannah he had been trying to set the two up, like any perfect wing man.

"well the winter formal is coming up so just ask her to go with you as you date," jeff shrugged.

—

racing into the back building, jeff huffed and puffed as he barged inside the dance studio. he was late, like fifteen minutes late. he and clay got carried away with talking about the dollar valentine and he got distracted. when he raced into the building he noticed rose dancing while a male sat in the corner of the room watching. frowning at the sight of the male, jeff walked into the room slowly tearing his eyes away from the asian boy and onto the dancing rose.

"are you the jeff dude?" the asian boy then spoke up in a hushed tone, not wanting rose to hear him speak.

jeff nodded in his direction, gingerly walking up to the boy, he then whispered back, "who are you?"

"i'm her little brother, ryan," the boy mumbled as he pulled his knees up to his chest and rested his chin on the top of them, "so are you doing this tutoring thing cause you wanna learn to dance or because you think she's hot?"

jeff was a little taken back by the question, but nonetheless he answered it truthfully, "a little bit of both."

"do you have a crush on her?" ryan asked as he brushed his bangs out of his face, revealing his clear forehead to jeff for just a split second.

"i don't know," jeff shrugged, he felt a little bit weirded out talking to a twelve year old about his feelings for rose, but he continued to talk to him anyways.

"well she has a crush on you, she talks about you all the time to lisa and to mum," ryan mumbled and rolled his eyes, "it gets so annoying sometimes that i just bang my head against the nearest thing."

jeff laughed slightly, but his laugh silenced when he realized the words ryan had just said. rose talks about him, the girl he was sort of crushing on was talking about him to her best friend and her mother. that's either got to be extremely good or extremely bad for her to mention him to her mother and best friend.

"she's been obsessing over that dance you two are supposed to be doing to, she stayed up all night practicing for it," ryan mumbled and rubbed his own tired eyes, "which caused me to stay up all night. can you please just take her out on a date or something so she shuts up?"

a blush then found it's way upon jeff's cheeks for about the third time that day. he then spoke up again, "maybe i will."