Contagious Chemistry by Sian Webster (best ereader for pdf TXT) 📕

"Beep beep... beep beep... beep beep!"
My hand slammed down on the stop button on my alarm clock. I groaned and rolled over again, pulling my covers over my head and attempting to go back to sleep again. I was always grumpy and tired in the mornings that weren't on weekends. The reason I had to get up so early was obvious; school, hell, torture... whatever you'd like to call it. When I opened my eyes again and looked at the time on my alarm clock, I almost had a heart attack. 7:20 Am. I had ten minutes before my bus left.
I dragged myself from my bed and peeked out of the closed blinds that were covering my window. It was sunny and looked warm. There was barely any wind either. I smiled to myself as I got dressed into my school uniform. I folded up the sleeves of my polo shirt because they were too long and annoying, slipped on my black shorts and put my black high-top converse on. I did a rubbish job at straightening my shoulder-length blonde hair, but it looked better than it would've had I just brushed and left it. I put on a little black eye liner and some mascara before I checked my timetable and cursed. I always had the worst subjects on Mondays. I took out the books I had left in my school bag from the Friday before and stuffed in my English, Advanced Maths, Ancient History, Music and Art books before zipping it up quickly and running down the stairs.
"Bye Mum!" I yelled as I reached the front door.
"You're not having breakfast?" She called back as I opened the door. I heard the bus turning onto my street.
"No time!" I told her.
"Have a good day honey!"
"I'll try," I muttered as I closed to door behind me and ran to the bus stop just as the bus got there.
I clambered on the bus and found my best friend, Emily, and sat in the seat next to her. Emily's brown hair which was dip-dyed purple was pulled back into a pony tail, though her side fringe was still left out, covering her left eye completely. She looked at me with her brown eyes and shook her head in mock disappointment.
"You were lucky." She commented as the bus pulled away from the curb and started driving to school.
"I know," I laughed, catching my breath. I didn't think I had ever run so fast in my life!
"I don't think the driver would've appreciated it if you were late two weeks in a row, Absidy." She pointed out.
"True." I nodded. "I would've had to walk to school."
"Fun," Emily laughed.
"Oh, definitely!" I said sarcastically as the bus stopped at the last stop before school.
"Absidy Tate, sarcastic as usual, I see." A voice said from above us.
I looked up, even though I knew who it was already. A boy with brown messy hair, relatively pale skin, green eyes and no freckles who was pretty tall stood in front of me. If I didn't hate him with a fiery passion, I'd probably think he was hot.
"Alexander Parker, what a wonderful surprise." I rolled my eyes and unzipped my bag. I rummaged through it and pulled out my iPod before putting in my headphones and turning it on.
Alex sat in the seat in front of us, resting his arms on the back of the seat and his chin on his arms. "I know I'm wonderful, Absidy. You don't need to tell me."
"You're a jerk."
He looked down at my iPod that I held in my hand and noticed how I was purposely covering the screen.
"What is it today?" He asked, referring to what I was listening to. "Screamo? Hard rock? Soft rock? Punk rock? Or even, god forbid," he paused, "not rock?"
"No, actually." I said. "It’s a new genre. It’s called How-To-Kill-Alex-Parker Rock."
"Sounds cool," He commented. "Care if I have a listen?"
"Yes actually, I do. It’s an iPod, not an usPod." I snapped as the bus pulled in at the school's bus bay. I stood up and walked off the bus, Emily following me, before he could answer.
Emily fell in step beside me as the walkway widened. "Will you two ever stop flirting and just go out?"
"Me? And Alex? You're kidding right?" I asked.
She shook her head. "He's totally into you."
"Well I'm not into him!" I told her stubbornly.
"Ok! Ok!" She laughed and pulled her phone out as her message tone went off.
"Who is it?" I asked.
"Just James." She smiled. James was Emily's boyfriend. He went to a private school in our town, but they had been dating for about a year and a half.
"What does he want?"
"He wants to go to the movies tomorrow night. He wants you to come too." She told me.
"Me? Why would he want me to go?" I asked in perplexity.
"I don't know... maybe so you don't feel left out? Don't ask me." She said.
"Tell him I'll go if he brings a friend." I thought about this for a moment. "A hot friend."
"Ok," Emily laughed and typed what I said into her phone before sending it to James. His reply was almost instantaneous.
"He says he'll see what he can do." She told me.
"Good." I smiled as the bell went.
"I'll see you later!" She yelled as she ran off in the opposite direction to me. She had physics first every Monday, so she was heading to the science labs.
I turned and walked towards my music classroom. I was dreading this class for once though; I had my guitar assessment, and all I could think about was how bad it would be if I screwed up. Another reason to dread music was the fact that Alex was in it and none of my friends were. Even though Alex was in all my classes, this one was the worst. I sat down in my usual seat and shoved my bag under the desk as Alex walked in and sat beside me because all the other seats were taken.
"Why can't you go bully someone out of their seat to save me the torture of sitting next to you for just one lesson?" I asked him.
He shook his head. "Can't do, Absidy. Haven't you heard bullying is bad?"
"You finally got the memo, huh?" I snapped back.
"Quiet down everyone!" Mr Jackson yelled above the class. "Come on, quiet! Sam, get off the drum set or I'll give you detention!"
The class settled down and Mr Jackson sat behind his desk. "You all know what today is, right?" He asked us.
When no one answered, he just continued. "Its assessment day! Exciting, right?"
Still no answers.
"Ok then! Let's get straight into it! Let's see..." He looked for something on his laptop before continuing. "Sam! Since you're so enthusiastic, you can go first for your assessment. I'm hoping you know your piece."
Sam, one of Alex's friends who had blonde hair and soft hazel eyes, stood up and nodded before returning to the stool behind the drum kit and playing his assessment piece. Name after name got called out and everyone played their pieces. There was some that made little mistakes, some that made big ones, some that forgot their assessment piece in the middle of a bar, and only one person that got it one hundred per cent right. Alex.
He returned to his seat next to me after playing his assessment piece flawlessly on the piano and winked at me. "Good luck."
"Not like I'll need it." I told him as Mr Jackson called my name. Cocky, I know, but I wasn't about to let him get to me.
I walked up to the front of the class and played the assessment piece that Mr Jackson had given me to learn for this very moment; Are You Gonna Go My Way by Lenny Kravitz. The song was actually really easy to play, even though it sounded difficult. I managed to get through the whole song without missing a beat even though I had to play it on one of the school's nylon string acoustic guitars, which made it harder to distinguish bends and force harmonics. I let out a breath I never realised I had been holding and walked back to my seat next to Alex.
"Damn, girl." He winked at me as the bell went to signal second period.
I rolled my eyes and grabbed my bag before stalking out of the classroom and to the computer lab that my Ancient History class had been booked in to for that lesson.

I got to the computer lab for ancient history and spotted Emily and our friend, Stacy, already logged on to computers with a spare one between them. Good. I thought. Now Alex can't sit next to me. I smiled and sat between my friends and logged on to the computer.

"What's got you so happy?" Emily asked as Alex walked into the room. "You and Alex finally declared your love for each other?"

Stacy snickered beside her.

"No." I snapped. "I'm happy because now I'm sitting between the two of you, there's no way he can sit next to me."

In the corner of my eye I saw a hurt look flash across his face before he quickly composed himself and walked over to me.

"You did pretty good in your music assessment back there," He commented.

"Really?" I asked sarcastically. "I thought one hundred percent was a terrible mark!"

"You only got one hundred percent because I wished you luck before-hand." He winked.

"Stop trying to steal all the glory, Alex. Like I said earlier; I didn't need it." I snapped.

"Mr Parker, chatting with Miss Tate again are we?" Mr Mathers asked, looking around the classroom before his eyes landed on Alex, who nodded. "If Miss Tate here didn't hate you so much, I'd think something was going on between you two."

"He wishes." I muttered.

"I bet he does." Mr Mathers chuckled before turning back to Alex. "But for now, Mr Parker, you need to stop chatting up my female students and start work on your assignment, seeing as you haven't even started it."

"Yes, sir." Alex said quickly and looked around for a spare computer. There was one next to Emily and one next to his friend Mike. Thankfully, he chose the seat next to Mike. I supposed he didn't want anymore attention from Mr Mathers than that he was already getting.