The Puberty Effect

Chapter Twelve-Slip

The sound of the bell rang through my ears and I sighed in relief. Fridays was my favorite day of the week....well after school ends thats when it is.

I stood up from my seat in the back of the room, gathering my things along with the completed worksheet that was handed to us at the beginning of class and made my way to the front door, shuffling through my bag to make sure I have everything. The thing was I didn't notice the foot in front of me, causing me to trip over it and crash on the ground, all my things skidding across the tiled floor.

I felt my cheeks heat up in embarrassment as laughter filled the air around me along with some comments from the peers standing over me.

"Hey!" A voice yelled drawing everyone's attention towards the door, but my gaze remained fixated on the ground along with my scattered things

Sounds of footsteps came up to me and I looked up slightly, a pair of black and white vans standing in front of me. The person bent down to gather everything up and placed it all in one hand while they held out their other hand to me. I hesitantly placed my small hand in their much larger one, which they gripped on to tightly while they helped me off the floor.

The person led me out the classroom and towards my locker on the first floor all the while holding my hand while my bag was hanging over their other shoulder.

"Why did you help me?" I asked quietly as I looked up at the brunnette next to me

"It's what friends do" Cameron said shrugging "But also I hated the way they treated you"

You use to treat me like that

I kept quiet as we reached my locker, he placed my combination in my locker and opened it while he placed everything useless to me in there.

When I was younger, I used to run late to school everyday and having to go to my locker ( which was really just a little cubby) only made it worse. After school ended one day, Cameron was waiting beside my locker like everyday but he was leaning in closer than usual as I put my combination in. I thought it was weird but I brushed it off. The next day as usual I was running late, but a teacher caught me and told me to go to class so I had to go if I didnt want detention. Right when I walked into my classroom, there written on the chalkboard showed that we needed our journal to write down notes and to turn it in for a grade. The one day I didnt bring my journal the stupid teacher had to do an inspection.

I made my way towards my seat which was right next to Cameron, when I sat down I looked down at my desk and my eyes widened.

My journal along with my binder for my next class was right there in front of me

I turned to look at my best friend to see him scribbling down in his notebook, oblivious to his surroundings. I looked up to make sure the teacher wasn't looking and leaned over to Cameron, whispering a thank you before kissing his cheek. I leaned back and started copying my notes in my notebook - and out of the corner of my eye, I saw Cameron staring at me his cheeks tinted with red.

Over the past few months, thats what he always did. He got to school earlier than I did so he would stop by his locker to get his things and then head over to mine. He also started waiting outside the classroom door for me before heading in. I kept the same lock so he knew the combination. When we grew apart, he never opened my locker until now. I'm honestly still surprised he still knew it.

Then again I never did change it .

"Sydney?" I blinked as I saw Cameron looking at me worridly "You ok? You've been staring off into space for like 5 minutes"

"Yea it's nothing, dont worry" He nodded his head, but his eyes held disbelief. He always did know if something was wrong with me even if I didnt show it. It was like a sixth sense of his.