03| g e t t i n g h e r

For as long as Tris could remember, roaming the halls of Ridgewood high had always been a sport. The rules of the game were simple; make sure you didn't get in a popular kid's way and you'd survive.

The rules had now changed drastically as she was standing right next to Zayne Mahone, who was babbling on about football to Chase Brighton, his best friend. It was like they hadn't noticed Tris standing right next to them but every time she purposely fell behind, Zayne would stop and wait for her.

They stopped infront of Tris's locker and Chase waved at them, claiming that he had homework to finish up. Zayne nodded at him while Tris smiled. She really liked Chase as he was not as normal as he looked.

During the football talk, she'd noticed how many times he'd mentioned the words 'pokemon' and 'batman'. After hearing those words, she found herself shamelessly eavesdropping and biting back laughs at Chase's idea for a new school mascot.

Zayne turned to Tris and leaned against the locker next to hers, watching as she grabbed a ton of books. He smirked at her. "Goodmorning," he muttered, "How did you sleep?"

It had been the second time he'd said goodmorning that day- the first time being the time he picked her up in the morning. He waited patiently for the answer and she sighed.

"I barely got any sleep," she answered, "But I guess it was good. You?"

Zayne coughed uncomfortably, something he tended to do whenever she asked him about himself. She frowned. It was like he was rarely asked how he felt and how he was doing, which was quite sad really.

He noticed the look on her face and cleared his throat. "It was ok. I was up for a while just practicing but it's worth it if I don't want to screw up."

His eyes held nothing but regret at the memory of failing to keep the ball in his grip and he sighed, staring at the clean floors.

Tris noticed how people walked around, each of them caught up in their own world but taking a moment to glance up at the beautiful creature that was Zayne Mahone. She kept her head down, avoiding the confused stares she got for hanging around him.

He took no notice of them, his head wrapped up in his own guilt that didn't seem to fade away. It was obvious football was his life and everyone made that clear by putting pressure on him.

"Everybody makes mistakes Zayne," Tris nudged him, "Don't beat yourself up about it."

Zayne pursed his lips, staring at the girl quizically before nodding. The bell rang overhead, ending their discussion- much to Zayne's relief. He rubbed the back of his neck nervously before clearing his throat as Tris hastily pulled out her books from her locker.

"So Tris,"He coughed, "I'll be leaving a bit later than everyone else tod-"

"It's fine. I'm sure my friends can take me home," she interrupted, not wanting to be a burden him considering everything else he was dealing with.

His expression changed to a confused one as he watched Tris rush to class. He rolled his eyes and followed her, quickly matching her stride and stopping her. She looked up at him, squeaking slightly at their close proximity while Zayne tried to stop himself from just kissing her and getting the stupid bet over with.

He took a step forward, his eyes moving from her eyes to her lips before he exhaled exhaustedly. "You're coming to watch me Tris. I thought you got my clue," he smirked when she shivered, leaning back before clicking his tongue.

With one final glance, he stalked down the hallway with a swagger that Tris could only depict as arrogant. She wondered why someone who could be sweet and honest would also want everyone else to know him as arrogant and cocky.

She shook it off the minute the thought crossed her mind. What happened to Zayne Mahone sure as hell wasn't her business. Besides, she had other things she needed to worry about. Like school, Max and getting her driver's license.

Adding Zayne Mahone to the mixture would make her head explode. She had to admit, he was very likeable and she found it hard to investigate on why he had chosen her to be his supposed 'driving buddy' whenever they were together.

She continued walking down the hall, too engrossed in her thoughts to realize that she was five minutes late to her lesson. It was only when she saw her teacher walking down the hallway towards the classroom with all her attention on that phone did Tris realise she was late.

With a slight curse, she practically jumped into the classroom and jumped into her seat, ignoring the looks from the other astonished students. She breathed heavily, setting her head on the desk before looking up once more.

"Morning class," Ms.Gilbert smiled, setting her bag onto her desk, "Any news?"

Someone cleared their throat from behind Tris and she turned, her eyes widening when they landed on Max. He was staring at Tris at the moment and smiled without really smiling, something he usually did.

The teacher raised her head at him, clenching her jaw slightly as she sighed. Max had always been known for causing disputes during class time which Tris found very entertaining. "Yes Mr.Grey?" She asked.

Max leaned forward, "I don't know if you noticed but the seating hasn't changed yet,"

A look of confusion spread onto her face as she scanned the rows of students. Tris looked at the person seated next to her and groaned inwardly. It just happened to be one of Cara Stevenson's friends, who had her nose buried deep into her book.

The most dangerous one.

Savannah Evans always had a book in her hand but that didn't make her any less dangerous than Cara's other friends. She usually observed from behind the book, silently making notes on the information she'd give Cara.

Honestly, Tris didn't get why she or anyone did it. Cara Stevenson was like a fire. More people added fuel to flame, letting it grow and grow until it turned against them, leaving them to get burnt.

But she didn't say anything. Instead, she just observed. She was never observed; she just observed.

Max tapped the desk and stared at the back of the brunnete's head as if trying to see her deepest darkest secrets. She could feel his eyes on the back of her head and decided to busy herself with rearranging the pile of books on her nearby desk.

Of course, she craved more attention from him and wanted to be close to him. She wanted to be close enough to see the greyness of his eyes and inhale his scent because he was intoxicating and she hated that.

She hated that she had to hide how she felt for him simply because he was more popular and would probably laugh in her face. To him, she was just his sister's best friend and it would be like that until Tris finally moved on. Or until they died. Whichever came first.

"Ms.Jacobs," Her teacher looked up, "You're next to Mr.Jensen,"

Tris scanned the rows of students and noticed the kid in the middle row who looked up. He had red hair and a goofy expression on his face as he stared at her with a smile. Max cleared his throat from behind them and cursed. That plan had taken a turn.

Glad that she could get away from Max's heavy gaze, she quickly rushed to Adrian, her new deskmate and sunk into her seat. Her eyes closed for a moment as she tried to get her breathing under control and she turned to look at Max, who turned to her at the exact moment.

His lips twitched into a smile and he bobbed his head at her, taking no notice of how she shook her hands nervously, slowly inspecting each part of his body professionally. She turned away and laced her fingers together, deciding then and there that Max Grey would be the death of her.

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The sports field was misty- almost a light shade of grey when Tris sat down at the bleachers. Large boys stood on the field, all of them nodding whenever the coach barked something at them before clapping their hands together and spreading onto the field.

In the middle of the field stood Zayne as he began barking out orders and judged his teammates. Tris knew that she'd lost Zayne the minute he set foot onto the field and he was now in football land or whatever shitty land he went to when he was on the field.

He'd be like that until the end of practice which was 90 minutes away.

She sighed and stared at the sky, which had grey clouds hanging dangerously low, threatening to bring rain. Tris inhaled the air, smiling when the smell of wood and grass filled her nose. It reminded her of the time her and her parents would go camping in the woods when she was younger.

Before her dad married his job.

The blue benches didn't provide much comfort but she preferred it to the cold, wet and itchy grass. Her eyes flickered from the big guys slamming into each other, to the lone football player running towards her.

Number 6

She let out a breath of relief mixed with disappointment at the fact that it wasn't Max but smiled nonetheless when Chase appeared infront of her and took off his helmet. "Awww you came to see me babe," he smirked, sitting down next to her.

She laughed, "In your dreams Sally,"

He chuckled mischievously, "You wouldn't want to see my dreams,"

Tris choked slightly and shook her head, making the boy's smirk spread. His smirk faded slightly at the thought of how heartbroken this girl would be when either Max or Zayne left her.

It was cruel how high school worked.

There were too many people who took little to no regard of the people who they hurt's feelings. They just thought that they would be ok as long as another person felt the pain they didn't want to feel.

She noticed the frown on the brunnete boy's face and grimaced as well, opening her mouth to speak but was shut up by Chase placing a finger on her lip. She narrowed her eyes at him, "I bite bitch,"

She was shocked at how easy it was for her to be herself around Chase when she found it awkward around Zayne. It wasn't a bad thing of course but she knew she'd have to warm up to Zayne if he was so insistent on them being friends.

He leaned forward, somewhat amused with the girl in front of him and nodded in approval. "Stop dropping hints love," he winked and went bouncing back to the rest of the boys, where Zayne was practically glaring at him.

He was thankful that it wasn't Max who had gone to talk to Tris-it was obvious he'd win if he got to talk to Tris more. Luckily for Zayne, Max was too busy battling other problems to actually talk to the girl. Or so he thought.

Tris stared at his retreating figure, her eyes lingering on the number on his jersey before she frowned. The lastness of it all was defeaning, screaming in her ear as she realised that it was all going to be over soon.

She wouldn't go to football games, or hate on Cara Stevenson or get bombarded with useless high school assignments. These were all things she hated but it was still the last time she was doing them.
It scared her that she was going out into the world she'd been told was cruel, ravaged by war, global warming and abuse but she knew she had to go on with it.

Her eyes moved up to Max, who was doing circuits and she smiled. It hit her then that this might've been the last time she saw him again and she still hadn't gotten the kiss she so desired from him.

For so long, she'd stood behind girls like Cara and never got to tell Max how she felt and how she wanted his attention.

Now that was all going to change because she would come out of the shadows and she was going to get him. There was no telling how she'd do it but there was no way she was throwing her cap in the air and graduating without knowing that she got a kiss from Max Grey.

That was a promise.

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Love
Musawa