The Bad Boy's Princess

Ch. 34 - First Day Back

"Happy first day back to school, baby." Mom planted a kiss on my forehead as I grabbed a pancake from my plate. It was awfully quiet without the twins at breakfast and also extra strange to have my dad home for breakfast. He was sitting at the dining table reading newspapers, dad was one of the few people I knew who preferred newspapers over tablets because he said he was tired of having to look at computer screens at work.

"Good morning, mom and dad. Ali." I rubbed Ali's head and she smacked my hand away immediately. "Well, you're grumpy today."

The twins were sick today so both my parents were home since they were extra needy when they were sick and dad didn't want mom to have to be on her own.

"It's day however many and dad still hasn't lifted my shopping ban so excuse me for being a little grumpy." When dad heard about Ali's little mission to sneak out to go to one of her friends' parties last weekend, he was furious and put a ban on her cards for a whole month. "Daddy....."

Ali looked over at my dad using her puppy dog eyes trick and he just waved his index finger at her. "Don't even bother, young lady. A ban is a ban for a reason."

For once, I was proud of my old man for sticking through his punishment for my sister since most of them wasn't usually successful.

"How are the twins, mom?" The poor little monsters went on a trip with Grandpa Zach and came back with sore throats from probably having too much fun.

"They still have a little bit of a fever and still coughing but it's getting better." Mom was typing away on her computer, probably working on her next bestselling book. If only her writing skills didn't skip me.

After breakfast and dad reminding me we had a golfing date with the Johnson's this weekend, I was off to school. I had offered to pick Avery up for school but she didn't want the attention from people at school for coming with me so she declined my offer.

I hoped she was feeling better since she was in bed pretty much all day yesterday. I came over and we watched movies together and ordered Chinese take out. She wasn't mad at all even after I told her what Scottie did. Her forgiving nature was admirable but frustrating at times because I was worried she would let others take advantage of her that way.

Avery was at her locker, putting her stuff away. She was wearing a knitted sweater today, which was a change from her usual hoodies and crewnecks. And I swore no one pulled off converse better than my girl could.

"Hi, you." I snuck up on her at her locker and she jumped. "Happy first day back."

"You scared the bajeebuz out of me!" Avery smacked my arm lightly and took out her textbooks from her locker. But before she closed it, I stopped the locker door and pulled out the picture from my pocket.

It was a picture I had of us together at her birthday party when we were little. I wanted to see a picture of us together on her locker so I brought my favorite one for her.

"Jace!" She took the picture and grinned ear to ear. "You were so cute back then. What happened?"

"What?" I pretended to be hurt and she laughed. "I'm even cuter now, look at me."

"Cheeky." She pinched my nose and put the picture up on her locker with the magnet. "I'll treasure this forever, thank you."

I walked her to her class, despite the fact that I was going to get an earful from Mr. Zamora for being late to Calculus, again. But I didn't care. When I kissed her forehead, she looked taken back and her rosy cheeks appeared once again. Everyone in the hallway was whispering and looking at us but I didn't care. I wanted the world to know Avery was mine.