Chapter 6 - It tastes better off you.

Hola!

Welcome to chapter 6 of A deal with the Devil!

Don't be a silent reader!

Chapter 6 - It tastes better off you.

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Blackmailer- 'On a scale of 1 to 10, you're a 9 and I'm the 1 you need.'

I bit my lip from smiling like a crazy obsessed cat because the Math sir was looking straight at my desk from above his thick black glasses. The second his inquisitive eyes shifted, I typed a reply.

'Please I am a full 10! Don't need to be your lonely 1.'

Blackmailer- 'Honey I'm all you need and more.'

'Keep dreaming.'

Blackmailer- 'Oh I did, which reminds me you must be tired from all the stuff we did in my dreams yesterday night.'

I shook my head, a soft chuckle escaping my mouth.

"What got you all high on happiness?" Simone muttered from beside me, curiously looking at who I was texting.

I led up a forefinger, indicating her to wait. She blew a strand of her hair angrily. "Fine."

'You mean how I beat you up pathetically? Oh yeah, it was tiring but fun.'

I turned to Simone. "I'm not high on happiness. Just happy." I corrected.

She raised her eyebrows with disbelief. "Oh yeah? Have you seen yourself? It looks like you just had mind-blowing sex with your one true love."

I rolled my eyes. "Now you're just exaggerating." My phone vibrated and I opened the text.

Blackmailer- 'Ah yes, you beat me with that Flogger. That was kinky and fun. And those handcuffs and pleasure balls. Such sweet dreams.'

Needless to say, the second I read the first line I was choking on my breath. Making the whole class look at my red embarrassed face. I felt like they were all judging me and had somehow read that text.

"Problem Racheal?" Mr. Arbascus questioned, leaving the unsolved limit question and looking at me.

I gulped heavily, shaking my head. "No no. Just oxygen went in the wrong pipe."

He nodded, clearly not believing me. "Drink water and make sure the oxygen doesn't go into the wrong pipe again. Now when the limit is 0 so-"

"What was that about?" Simone hissed, staring at my phone.

"Nothing." I whispered back, keeping my phone in the jeans pocket, not caring to reply to that text. During the whole lecture, my attention was engaged by specific words in his text instead of understanding the behavior of a limit function.

"You didn't reply to that text." Colton Hastings reminded me as he sat beside me for lunch.

I chose to ignore him and ate my sandwich.

"Were you the one texting her during class?" Simone interrogated ignoring my swift kick to her shin under the table. A mischievous smirk on her face. I knew that smirk very well, last time that smirk was the cause of me getting drunk and singing Jingle bells just in my undergarments.

"No." I instantly said, glaring at Simone.

Colton's eyes frowned. "But I was texting you."

I slapped my forehead mentally. And I knew my gut was right when it whispered that this lunchtime would be embarrassing.

Simone's smirk widened. "No wonder she was blushing the whole time."

"Mr. Abacus-" Ira piped in, using the name we had given our Math sir. "-he caught her choking on her breath with a face brighter than a red flame."

I rolled my eyes. "I told you already, oxygen went through the wrong pipe."

Ira and Eva snorted together. "Did that oxygen come from his text?"

I frowned at them. "Stop talking like that."

"Like what?" They asked together, smirking innocently.

"Creepy." Drew muttered, fake shuddering.

"No one's talking to you Loser." Ira retorted, glaring at him.

He sighed. "Come on it was just hair."

"And where did you get my number from?"

We looked at an awkward Drew with open shock and interest.

"You texted her?" Colton patted Drew's shoulder, holding back a laugh.

Drew hit Colton's arm, a slight pink settling on his cheeks. "I just wanted to apologize."

"Aww." I and Simone cooed together, winking at a scowling Ira.

"Drew's got a crush. La la lala." Nathan sang, instantly followed by Adrian.

"Fu*k you guys." Drew punched their arms, glaring at them.

Ira shifted uncomfortably. "I uh need to go to the library." She spoke hurriedly before anyone could stop her, she was running out of the canteen.

Drew sighed, banging his head on the table. "Great now she thinks I'm a freak."

"No, she doesn't." Eva assured, smiling sweetly at him. "She's just confused. She doesn't like attention, she isn't used to it. So she just doesn't know how to handle it."

Drew lifted his head, looking at us. "I haven't got a crush okay. She just - intrigues me."

We all rolled our eyes. "Whatever you say, Drew, whatever you say."

He scowled banging his head back on the table. "Bloody asshole friends."

We chuckled, Nathan and Colton patted his back. "All will be good honey. You will have your happily ever after." Colton mocked, ruffling Drew's hair.

Drew slapped his arm off, setting his hair again. "That took me 15 minutes to set up."

Simone shrugged, staring at the midnight hair. "Looks the same."

"Get specs."

"Don't start fighting again." Simone warned, holding up her coke can and threatening to throw it over his hair.

"Whoa chill." I tried taking the can from her hand but she refused to let it go.

Eva curled a strand of purple hair around her finger. "Don't waste that coke on Drew, Simone."

Simone paused, not caring to throw a glance at Eva but finally keeping the can back on the table. "You're right that would be an insult to the coke family."

Drew smirked. "Luckily it won't be an insult to the fries family." He grabbed a handful of fries from his plate and threw them at Simone's face.

The was utter silence for a whole minute as we stared at the fries dropping from Simone's stunning face to the ground and on the table while two got stuck in her red messy hair.

It wasn't late before she screamed outrageously. "You mofo." And within a blink, the can of coke was emptied over Drew's head.

"Food fight." Nathan and Adrian screamed together as Nathan threw noodles at Eva and Adrian threw them at the students at the next table. Unfortunately fortunate was our luck that the junior lunch break was that time too and every student by now was tossing eatables aimlessly all around the canteen.

I grinned, looking at a sitting Colton who clearly didn't want to be a part of this. I grabbed some noodles with gravy and threw them over Colton's head. "Happy food fight!"

He looked at the noodles hanging from his hair and the gravy dripping down his neck with shock but that quickly turned into a look of pure revenge. "Racheal Smith, you better run."

I didn't need any more prompting, before I knew I was running in circles around the crazed students who were throwing any available foodstuff at anyone who breathed air. I already had burger mayonnaise splattered on my back and chutney dripping from my feet.

"You will never catch me, Hastings." I shouted, laughing hysterically as I dodged him.

Grabbing a piece of strawberry cake I turned and threw it in Colton's direction who rapidly ducked and it hit a guy with nerd glasses.

"Oops sorry." I giggled as he removed the glasses and wiped them off the pink cream and failed to see the burger coming at him from the right side. It hit him right at the side of his neck and one bread piece went down his tee.

I couldn't even control my laughter as he awkwardly shook his tee trying to make the bread fall on the floor. I held the nearby chair for support as I bowed with hysterical laughter. Using that as an advantage, Colton grabbed my waist, smearing my whole face with chocolate cake. God knows from where he picked that up.

I twisted in his hold, shaking my face away from him but that only made my neck smear in chocolate too. "Let go Hastings." I opened my mouth and instantly tasted the chocolate on my lips. I tentatively licked my lips. "It's good." I licked them again, licking off the chocolate. I froze as I felt something weirdly good on my neck.

"Did you just lick my neck?" I slowly turned to face Colton.

He smirked. "I wanted to make sure what you said was true."

I looked at his hands, they were covered with the same chocolate. "You could have licked your hands."

He leaned close to my neck. "It tastes better off you."

And just like that, the connection between my brain and lungs was cut. What was breathing again?

I blinked as his lips came closer to me. He twirled a strand of my light brown hair staring into my eyes. "You know we are a couple and we still haven't kissed? That's weird."

"We can change that now." The words slipped without my accord shocking us both.

He blinked, not quite believing what I said. "You keep surprising me."

"You get surprised easily."

The right corner of his delicious pink lips tilted upwards. "Or maybe I like getting surprised by you." With that, he dipped his head centimeters from mine as his eyes closed. I closed mine waiting impatiently and curiously to feel his lips.

"No kissing during a food fight." Some idiot shouted, turning over a whole bowl of tomato soup on our heads.

I took a step backward as the red liquid flowed from the hair down to my cheeks and neck and into the pale blue top drenching it completely. I wanted to kill whoever that person was but the rational part of me was glad we didn't kiss, it would simply complicate things more.

And complications weren't something on my to-do list.

Fake Smith, remember fake.

"Great." I hissed acidly as I felt the fluid touch the skin on my chest and stop, making a nice dark red spot visible on the blue top.

"This no longer seems to be a good idea." Colton muttered, shaking his head, sprinkling the soup everywhere.

"What the f? Stop passing your lice to others." I stepped backward keeping a safe distance between us.

"I don't have-" his words were drowned as a furious commanding male voice roared through the canteen.

"WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON HERE?"

It seemed as if Professor X from X-men had frozen time. Every student was still as we stared with terror at our principal, Mr. Brent Lancaster's, raging face.

Simone and Drew were midway in throwing a punch at each other. Nathan had his mayonnaise-covered palm over Eva's face. Adrian was under a table hiding from someone. The nerd glasses guy was staring from above the glasses at Mr. Lancaster AKA Hitler with absolute terror, I had a feeling he had already pissed in fright.

"What is going on here? Care to tell me?" the voice held an authority that could put Congress to shame. He was the youngest principal we had ever had and had been appointed after our former nice principal, Mrs. Jennifer Lancaster who sadly died five years back. 

With blond hair, a soft beard, expressive blue eyes, and a body to die for. At 27, He would have been the dream man of every girl student if it weren't for his ruthless comportment. With his callous rules and merciless punishments, he had successfully earned the nickname of Hitler. And he sure didn't give us a chance to change it.

Everyone turned to face him, standing straight, Adrian bumped his head in the process earning a scowl from everyone. We looked at the floor, apparently, that was the only thing one was capable of doing under Mr. Lancaster's strong scrutiny.

"Mrs. Bakes?" He turned to the trembling 40-year-old woman who resembled the fat lady in Tom and Jerry but Mrs. Bakes was extremely kind and loved us and often gave free chocolates. She was the only reason canteen food could be tolerable.

"Mr. Lan-Lancaster." She shuddered and I felt sorry for her. She would never tell on us and that was why she got in plenty of trouble. "I don't know Sir."

Hitler narrowed his eyes at Mrs. Bakes and she bowed her head. "I don't appreciate such kind of reckless behavior in my school. If any disobedience occurs in the canteen you will, with no doubt be held responsible."

"I was back in the kitchen when it occurred Sir, I tried to stop but-"

"You should have immediately called me Mrs. Bakes. Your services will no longer be needed."

A shocked gasp went through the canteen as we stared at a weeping Mrs. Bakes. Every student loved her, there was no doubt to that. She was one school staff who would always support students and understand us.

"Mr. Lancaster, isn't that too extreme?" Miss. Lilly Singh, a 26-year-old Indian Art teacher said. She was another favorite of the students. With an incredible body and heart-shaped face, she had kind eyes, a sweet smile, a helpful nature and she was the only reason why guys attended Art classes.

"No Miss. Singh." And that was the end of the conversation. Hitler turned to face us as Miss. Singh guided a wailing Mrs. Bakes out of the canteen.

"Have you heard the words Rules and Regulations?"

We all nodded, no one daring to look up. The foodstuff-covered floor seemed really interesting.

"Good, can anyone explain what it means? Look at me." He took a step towards us and we instantly took a step backward, staring at his calm face. It wasn't the 'I'm okay' calm, it was the 'before the storm' calm and this storm seemed worse than the Katrina.

"Anyone?" His voice boomed and we looked at each other pleading for someone to speak up.

The nerd guy slowly raised his shaking hand and Hitler nodded at him to continue. "They are a set of prescribed instructions which are to be followed." With every word, he shook in fright.

"Yes, which are to be followed. So why did this atrocious event occur?" He shouted, making us wince. Instinctively I held Colton's hand behind the table. He squeezed it reassuringly and I relaxed a tiny bit.

No one spoke and the silence was deafening.

"Who started it?"

I gripped his hand, gulping hard. I knew Drew and Simone must be shaking with fear. They were the ones who started it. I didn't even glance at them afraid Hitler would see me and catch them.

"Who started it?" He repeated with a voice that promised hurtful things.

Again no one answered and I wondered how long it would be until someone took a name. But I doubt one would do that, in the years we had learned that just one student didn't stand a chance against Hitler but all of us could. Every student's parent would complain against him and finally, he had to lift off the punishment. It had happened before.

Students flocked together here. Probably the only reason I liked this school.

"Okay, so this is how it goes." He nodded, walking with his head high. "Until I know the names of students who started this you are all under detention for lunch and if that's until the year-end then so be it. Also, I will talk personally to your parents about the conduct of their reckless child and their improper upbringing. You all will clean this mess up before you are permitted to leave the school premises. Also, 20 marks will be deducted from your finals."

A gasp flowed and tears prickled my eyes. Some of them were already crying. 20 marks meant losing a whole grade. It was just too much. The juniors couldn't even send the admission letters in that case.

"Brent I think that's too much." Mrs. Jones, the kind old librarian and a very good friend of the former principal spoke. She was the only one who could call Hitler with his name and get away with it. Probably because she had known him since he was in his diapers. He only listened to her in the whole school and at times we hoped she would get some brains and tell him to leave the school in the hands of Miss. Singh. She would be the best principal. And her being hot helped too.

"But Mrs. Jones-"

"They are just kids Brent." Mrs. Jones cut him off. "If they don't do these food fights then who will? You and me? At least they haven't sprayed the whole school with flour like you had."

Our silent laughter was stopped with a glare from Hitler.

"You have to let them be. They will clean this mess of course and they will have detention for a week, or two if it pleases you. But no student deserves to lose a grade. And look at them, they will never agree who started it. They are just like you and your friends were in high school."

Hitler scowled but sighed. "Get to work. I want this clean in two hours." And with that, he walked away, closely followed by the other faculty while Miss. Singh and Mrs. Jones stayed.

We heaved a sigh of relief, some even crumbling down on the floor. "Thank you, Mrs. Jones."

She smiled and winked at us. "You know where the janitor's closet is. Get to work." And soon it was only the students' muttering profanities at our principal.

"Are you okay?" I asked Simone as we gathered to get wet clothes.

"Not at all. I felt like I would faint anytime." She admitted, her face still white as a sheet. "I was so scared someone would blurt out my name. I think I even peed a little."

I patted her shoulder soothingly. "At least you are safe now."

"What are you all doing?" A meek voice came from the canteen door. It was a small guy with a round face and frightened eyes. Clearly, he was a fresher and had been the ragging target for someone.

"Cleaning your Grandma's shit asshole." A guy shouted, glaring at him, and the fresher scattered away looking even more frightened.

"Let's get to work." Nathan muttered, grabbing some scrubber and heading to our table.

We sighed, following his actions. I took a Push broom and Colton picked a cleaning spray. I scowled at him. "Is that all you're going to do?"

He grinned cheekily. "I love spraying."

Rolling my eyes, I shoved him with my elbow and walked behind Nathan. Eva and Simone were picking up burgers and dry stuff and putting them in a garbage bag. Adrian and Drew had picked up long wiping cloths and were sitting on the chairs, pointing out unclean spots to the juniors who were scrubbing the floor muttering cuss words to them. Such bullies!

I kicked the leg of Drew's chair, making him fall right on his butt on the ketchup-covered ground. "Get to work fatty. This is all your fault."

He scowled at me, staring at the giant red stain on his blue jeans. I couldn't help the chuckle that escaped my lips. He tried wiping the stain with his food-drenched handkerchief but instead, the chocolate joined the ketchup. He groaned. "This is all gravity's fault. If we were on the moon the ground would be clean."

"And this stuff would be floating around your face. So don't strain your nonexistent brains. Start cleaning." Colton ordered, spraying the cleaning liquid on Drew's tee.

"Fine." Drew flicked the cloth at Colton who dodged it and motioned for him to start cleaning.

After over two hours of listening to stupid bands, changing lyrics of every song, wondering why Taylor Swift had a long list of Starbucks lovers, and recording a Harlem shake video all the while scrubbing the colorful floor, around seventy students stood at the corner examining the clean canteen floor and tables with pride.

"We did it!" Adrian whooped, fist-pumping in the air.

We chuckled, grinning and fist-pumping too. The relief that surged through us as Hitler gave the slight nod to go home was immeasurable.

Within seconds we were outside the school gates. It was late, the school was already over and we were all dead tired, so to celebrate the success of cleaning the huge canteen with no adult help we had decided to hold a party at Ali's place the very next day. He was one of the richest guys in our school and the majority of parties were held there. I had been there just once that too to pick up Simone and the twins.

"Get all the rest tonight because tomorrow night there's no sleeping." Drew whooped, slapping fists with a few guys.

"Yo baby. It's gonna be fun." Simone bumped her hips with me and Eva, we laughed nodding.

"We deserve this." A junior girl with blonde hair spoke.

"Thanks for not telling on me." Drew suddenly said, his cheeks turning slightly pink.

All of us grinned at the unusual sight.

"No worries homie!" Our sports head, Rocky, slapped his back hard. "We are all in this."

We nodded and were soon saying goodbyes and promising to attend the party tomorrow.

It wasn't long before I had reached my house and was having a nice hot shower and using all the shampoo and soap to make my skin devoid of the food smell and spots. After an hour of consistent effort, my hair still smelled like mayonnaise and the green color of God knows what refused to leave my right ankle.

Sighing I fell on the bed and closed my eyes. Sleep almost taking me over until my phone vibrated and I groaned opening the text.

Simone- 'Any idea why Kevin wasn't there today?'

I sighed with frustration. 'No.' I threw the phone, slamming my face on the pillow. Kevin was the past and I'd like to keep it that way. The phone vibrated again and I debated on ignoring it, curiosity got better and I opened the text.

Blackmailer- 'Today was worth it only because of the chocolate ;) Xoxo.'

The frown was immediately replaced by a smile and a red stain that matched my red tee.

'Everyone loves chocolate! Goodnight and sweet dreams (:'

Blackmailer- 'Goodnight and chocolaty dreams ;)'

I frowned at the missing hugs and kisses but sleep overpowered my thoughts and I fell into a dream where Colton and I danced about in Charlie's Chocolate factory.

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What do you dream about? What's your most werid dream??