In Disguise

Chapter 7

I woke up to laughter and slowly opened my eyes to see Zander sitting in his bed laughing at something on your phone. 

"What the hell is so funny?" I wasn't a morning person... 

"It's just a funny video. Do you wanna see?" He was still laughing so I was curious. I got up as he handed me the phone. I watched a girl complaining about her ticket and how broke she was and began to laugh. Her tantrum was hilarious. I handed the phone back to Zander after looking at the time. It was only 7 AM. Unfortunately, with Zander wide awake and laughing loudly, I knew thirty more minutes of sleep would not be possible.

"We might as well get breakfast," I said with a yawn. I was tired like usually but surprisingly not hungover. Usually my headache made me want to roll over and die. 

As we walked into the cafeteria, my eyes immediately landed on Alex, who for the first time since the hallway incident, was by himself. I told Zander I would catch up with him in a sec and made my way to my 'friend'. I don't know why I was even doing this. I guess I wanted him to like me, but was angry that he didn't. As a girl I bet he would be drooling. Ugh. 

"Well hello there! How are you doing on this fine morning?" I gave him a friendly smile and he gave me a friendly scowl. 

"What the fuck do you want."

"Wow I hope you're hungover because you sound even ruder than usual. Where are all your friends?" I was honestly curious. 

"Asleep. I'm an early riser. And I like sitting by myself." He looked me in the eyes and basically subbed me. The nerve. 

"Okay I get it. Wouldn't want to get punched again. I'll see you later friend." I got up and walked away. 

Under his breath I heard himself say, "he's so fucking weird." At least he didn't hate me anymore. 

I grabbed a bagel with cream cheese and as I reached Zander's table I saw him staring weirdly at me. 

"What, do I have something on my face?" I bit into my bagel. 

"Why were you talking to him? He's a horrible person, you should stay away and be careful." I giggled and then coughed and made it a more masculine laugh. Oops. 

"Thanks for watching out for me, but he's not that bad. I'm sure if you got to know him a little better you'd see." 

Zander began to question me, "why do you even have interest in getting to know him? What's the point?" Hmm, tough question. 

"Um, well I guess I am just curious. He's...," I searched for a word that wouldn't make me look weird, "different. But I think he's different in a good way, maybe, I don't know." I had no clue what I was saying. I obviously couldn't tell Zander that I wanted to get to know Alex because he was cute and I was developing feelings for him. That wouldn't end well. 

"Just please don't get hurt." He gave me a sincere and worried look. Aw Zander was so sweet. 

"I won't. I promise." I hoped this was true, but unfortunately, I knew it probably wouldn't be. 

We entered math class and took our seats. Long story short, the class was boring as hell and I can't remember a thing we did because I drew my name all over my notes. As class ended I began to stand as my eyes connected with Alex. Oh right, I forgot to mention that he sat right next to me. A blessing if you ask me. 

"Who's Evelyn?" His eyes moved from mine, to my notebook. Shit. 

"She's a friend. And by friend I mean my dog. You know a man's best friend." He didn't believe me obvioudly. 

"I didn't know you had a girlfriend." He looked confused, "Why didn't you tell me about her when I asked if you were gay?" 

"Um well I didn't want you to think it was a cover up. You know when gay people don't want to come out yet, ya know? I really do like her." It was very true. In fact I loved myself. Just to make light of the situation I added, "If I could, I would marry her." Also true. 

"Wow, good for you. You got a picture?" I hadn't realized until then that we had left math and were now walking towards the combat room. I pulled out my phone before freezing. Shit, what would I show him. I decided on a picture where I had really long hair and tons of makeup. I was almost unrecognizable, but still hot as fuck of course. I was curious to see what he thought of the girl version of me. 

He looked at my phone for a good 10 seconds as I waited anxiously for him to reply. 

"Wow man, good for you, she's beautiful. You got any more pictures." If I was actually dating myself I would be angry for looking at me that way but in this case I was totally fine with it. I quickly found another picture. 

The pictures were from when I was a year or two younger with long red hair, so looked pretty different. He looked again as we continued to walk. 

"You're one lucky guy." His eyebrows went up and he gave me a friendly nudge. My girlfriend and I were doing cartwheels in our head right about now. 

"Yeah, I sure am." I smiled proudly. Success felt good after all. Nothing could ruin this perfect day. 

We finally entered the combat room right as Coach Jess and Coach Damon arrived. 

"Good news class! We're going to the ocean for class today for a swim. Go grab your bathing suits from your rooms quickly, change in the locker rooms and meet us back here. You have 20 minutes starting now." All the boys began to leave the room in a mad dash for the best locker room stalls as I just stood there stunned. Well, there goes my perfect fucking day.