Faking it.

CHAPTER 19

I hear a shuffling sound coming from behind me but I don't open my eyes. I snuggle closer into the blanket and sigh. Then I feel someone whispering my name close to my ear. Slowly I turn around and look at Mom hovering above me, still in her pyjamas. A rare sight for me to see.

"Hailey." She whispers and I squint my eyes, trying to get a better look at her trough the dim lightening that's coming from the kitchen.

"It's still early in the morning. Go to your room and continue to sleep there. Your father and I don't want to wake you up all the time." I nod and stand up, my foot touching something cold on the floor. I notice my phone. It must have fallen out of my hand when I went to sleep.

With not-so-steady steps I walk upstairs, the blanket from the couch still wrapped around me. I lie down on my bed, not bothering to pull my covers up and am knocked out again, already forgetting who woke me up a minute ago.

***

When I walk to art class after saying bye to Simon and Milli, I see Elliot and Anna talking by the lockers next to the classroom. Everything from yesterday lunch comes back to my memory and I supress a groan.

Why the fuck did I do that?

I look at them again and see her touching his arm, laughing. The same feeling from yesterday rises in me but I push it down, walking towards them. They don't notice me at first, so I clear my throat.

"Can I uh- Can I talk to you for a sec?"

"Sure." Elliot says and I look at Anna. "Alone." She glares at me and I roll my eyes.

"See you later." She tells Elliot and walks away.

Elliot looks at me and I sigh. "I'm sorry." I tell him.

He raises an eyebrow. "Sorry for what?"

"For what I said yesterday. I didn't mean it."

"Then why did you say it in the first place?" He asks. He's pushing my buttons and he knows it when he sees my hands forming a first but I relax it again after a few seconds.

"I don't know. I was feeling off and was angry at the world, ready to explode like a nuclear bomb." I tell him and he bites on his lip, laughing a little bit.

"Are you trying to tell me, that you're on your period?" He asks in an amused tone and smile slightly. "No dumbass. I'm not on my period. It was just a bad day for me." Considering what happened with dad later on, it's true. But I know that this wasn't the entire reason for me lashing out on him like that.

Now he's the one to sigh. "It's alright. We all have those days every once in a while. But promise me I won't be your victim next time."

I smirk. "I'll try."

We walk into the classroom together and sit next to each other.

"But are you okay now?" He asks, pulling his sketchbook out.

"I'm fine." I answer immediately. I mean I'm feeling better than yesterday.

He gives me a look. "I know that you're not fine, but I guess you don't want to talk about it."

Before I am able to ask how he would know that, Mrs Glews walks in, silencing the talking students.

This time we talk about photography. She explains how different angles can make something appear bigger or smaller, but I quote, "You should already know all about it, since you post pictures of yourself on social media all the time."

We laughed at that.

"Guys this assignment will be with a partner, the one sitting next to you." Mrs Glews says, and I look at Elliot, giving him a small smile.

"I want you and your partner to take pictures of each other, what you use for taking them is your choice. You can simply use your phone or a camera if you have one. But as always in my class I want you guys to express your feelings in those pictures. More like your passion for something. Find something you are passionate about and let the other one take pictures of you. It doesn't need to be you playing some kind of sport, if you are passionate about make-up then get ready and let the other one take pictures of you. If you're passionate about cooking, then do that. It doesn't have to be the ordinary. It never has to be in my class. Okay?" Mrs Glews tells us, and we nod, the bell ending the hour.

As we walk outside, Elliot asks, "What are you passionate about?"

I lean closer to him and whisper, "Don't tell anyone, but I'm really into dancing."

He nods but then asks, "Why don't you want anyone to know? I doubt that you're that shit at it."

I laugh. "Not it's not that. You know, it's simply my thing. I don't need the whole word to know what I'm passionate about. At least not now."

"I get it. But does that mean, I'm special for knowing?" I see him smirk and shrug. "Whatever floats your boat, Elli."

I walk away to the locker rooms and hear him laughing behind me.

In P.E. coach has this rule, that in every last hour of the month, we get to decide what we want to do, as long as we are not sitting on our phones.

"What's the plan for today?" He asks us and everyone begins thinking. I look at Milli and Simon next to me and an idea pops into my head.

I raise my hand and coach looks at me nodding.

"Sock-Sliding-Contest." I say and a few people look at me questioningly while the others grin.

"How would you do that?" He asks.

"It's simple. We go in groups of three and then start sprinting from one wall to the other. When we reach the middle of the field, we start sliding. The two persons who come the farthest, get into the next round and then we play until there is a winner." I explain and coach looks around to find everyone nodding.

"Okay we will play under one condition." He begins and then grins. "I get to play too."

We laugh and divide into groups. Milli, Simon and I are not in the same one, since we want to compete against each other in the end.

My group consist of Elliot, a girl, I think her name was Lilly and me. On the count of three we start sprinting, then sliding. I almost hit the wall when I slide but still laugh.

The girl loses this round and I look at Elliot. "Not so bad, Elli." I tease and he laughs. "Just wait until we're in the same group again."

In the end there are four people left. Simon, Milli, Elliot and me. We decide to have a battle of four, to see who the winner is.

When we start sprinting, I look at Milli and Simon and they nod. Just a moment before we reach the middle of the field, we hold our hands together and start sliding. Simon is in the middle of us and we give him a boost, sending him straight into the wall.

I start laughing hysterically as does the rest of the class. We all come to a halt and I see that Elliot is close behind Simon while Milli and I are way father in the middle.

Elliot looks at me, a smirk forming on his lips and I shrug pointing to Simon, still on the wall and mouth, "Worth it."

He nods and we start another round of the Sock-Sliding-Contest.