Chapter 7

When I get home nobody is there as usual.

I often have the house to myself because my father passed when I was younger, and my mother is usually working harder to compensate.

Mom is a chef. Even though we don't need the extra money, my mom cooks because she has a true passion for it. She cooks at a very fancy and expensive restaurant in the city. Athough her job keeps her busy much of the time, she always tries her best to be home as much as possible. When she is home, she tries to find ways to be with me, like her normal routine of waking me up in the morning and "cooking" me breakfast, or just having a short talk about whatever, and on the sixteenth of every month, we both watch a movie together, (even though she's usually exhausted from work).I can tell she tries her hardest to be the best mom she can, and I really do think that she is. Her and my father had been so different, it's strange that they ever fell in love.

Even though they're so different, I could only dream of ever finding love like my mom and dad had. They're love was so strong and beautiful you could practically see it, it was undeniable. No matter what was going on, even during their few arguments you could still tell they loved each other with everything in them. A part of my mom died along with my father, but she's good at hiding it. When my mom talks about him, there's this little twinkle in her eye to even out the sad smile that quivers with the mention of his name. Even though my dad died, instead of being sad when mom talks about dad, she's always smiling this sad yet somehow happy smile. I think it's really sweet.

I grab a bag of chips and a Sprite before jogging up the stairs and slipping into my room. I slide in

A Walk to Remember, as I crunch on my chips. And an hour and forty two minutes later, I'm crying like a baby.

This movie gets me every time. Every, time.

A sound piques my interest, what sounds like a knock, so I turn the tv off, to hear clearly.

Knock knock knock knock knock. *pause* knock knock.

I roll my eyes as I stand up and race down the stairs, not bothering to look through the peep hole as I swing open the door, already knowing it's Lyra from the knock. She always had a particular rhythm.

A grinning Lyra looks at me as I lean against the doorframe "What're you so happy about?" I ask

"Oh nothing, I just thought you should know that a certain someone is planning to ask you to prom in front of the whole school!" Lyra squeals.

Say what?

"What? No, I hate those big dramatic gestures, you know that." I whine. "Who is it, anyways?"

She rolls her eyes at my lack of excitement "Come on this is a good thing, it's going to be so cute!" She enthuses. "I don't actually know who it is yet, Angela wouldn't tell me." Lyra grumbles.

This whole situation sounded slightly suspicious if you asked me, but of course, no one would. Who would be planning to ask me to prom? and why on earth would they think it's a good idea to make a big cheesy, and public gesture of it?

"Apparently it's going to take some time to plan, so it'll be a few days until he actually does it, until then, we can work on your response, how you'll say 'yes' of course." She states as she pushes through me walking inside my house. I groan at the thought of practicing something as grossly overrated as that, but I know Lyra won't let me get away with not practicing. I swear, this girl has got her priorities all mixed up. I mean, who worries about how you're going to say yes to a bogus invite, to a prom that no one will even remember in ten years?

Who even said I had to say yes? These prom things were so monotonous, anyways. Pointless really.

But Lyra wants me to say yes, so say yes I shall.

*********

As soon as I walk into Grammar, I get called over by my teacher Mr. Haines.

I see Asher is already standing there.

"Asher, Piper, it took my a while, but I've come up with the perfect project for you two. Your going to hook each other up on lie detectors"

What?!

There was no way I was ever letting a lie detector be hooked up to me! Especially if Asher is the person on the other end, the one asking questions.

"But-" I start to interject but Mr. Haines interrupts me by holding his hand up.

"This project is to help you build trust. You two are going to continue to do the lie detector test over and over again until both of you tell the complete truth. Once you learn that you two no longer need to lie to each other, I feel you will learn that you can truly trust one another. I'm giving you each until the end of this month to come up with ten questions each"

Yeah okay that sounds like a big load of bullshit. I swear teachers only do stupid projects like these just to make their sad jobs more interesting.

"No" Asher objects simply.

Mr Haines looks up at him in surprise. "Excuse me, you don't get to decide if-" Asher interrupts Mr Haines

"What if only Piper gets hooked up to it? I already know the secret on how to manipulate a lie detector so really it won't do me any good" Asher states as he stares at Mr. Haines very intently.

Mr Haines looks like he's about to say no, when I strange look crosses over his face, he scratches his chin thoughtfully.

"Yes, I suppose only Piper should have to do it then" Mr Haines concludes.

"WHAT?! That's not fair! I'll just look up the cheat then. Why should I have to if he doesn't have-" I start to rant but am abruptly interrupted.

Mr Haines stands up "enough! I'm the teacher and what I say goes! Do you understand?"

He said his words with such force, his face showing only anger. I knew I couldn't argue unless I wanted a month of detention. I've never seen Mr Haines act this way ever. He usually really likes me.

I nod even though I really really don't want to.

"Yes sir" I answer quietly.

I look over at Asher and he's grinning at me like an annoying idiot ughhhh.

I stick my tongue out at him (I know, childish)

One of his eyebrows raises "is that a suggestion?" He hints with a smirk.

My cheeks burn as I realize what he means.

I practically stomp over to my seat and sit down.

All through class I couldn't concentrate. Only thinking about what had happened. Going over scenarios as to why Mr Haines agreed with Asher so easily, as to why he blew up on me out of nowhere.

But I couldn't come up with anything...at least not anything that makes an logical sense. If I didn't know any better, I'd say that Jake mind controlled Mr Haines...but of course that's ridiculous, and impossible...then again supposedly so is reading minds.

🔹🔹🔹

I tried to explain to lyra what had happened at lunch but she just shook it off as nothing.

"Girl Mr Haines has always been a sexist, angry, jerk. I don't know why you're surprised" she shrugs.

"Yeah I guess." But I didn't actually believe that. Something was going on, I'm just not sure what yet.

I search the room for Green Eyes. As soon as I see him from across the room, our eyes lock, he had been watching me.