A Dare With The Player

Chapter 8: Lock Out The Teacher

Cristiano annoyed me. No, scratch that. He angered me. Seeing him act so nonchalant and walk around the halls of the school as if he was the most handsome guy around here. Well… okay, I guess he is kind of handsome, but still!

Everywhere I turned, girls would be flocking all over him. Their eyes all focused on this six feet three greek god-like human with his perfectly messy hair pushed back, eyes that charmed anyone, and effortless charisma that could sway even the older teachers in school. The once kind and caring childhood friend I had was now gone. Now he was a player in every way and a heartbreaker at its finest.

It was best to steer clear from him.

Unfortunately, it was obvious that the universe had other plans for me because as soon as the door in class opened, he was right there. He stepped in with so much overconfidence and a smug smile that was just making my fist itch from the need to punch it off him.

This man was unrestrained. Not even a minute in class and he had already gotten himself detention. I don’t know what his deal is, but I shouldn’t care. Just look straight, Thalia, and ignore him.

“We meet again, daredevil.” He said in such a tantalizing tone I immediately rolled my eyes.

Fortunately, he was behind me so he couldn’t see. Although even if he could, I’d still proudly roll my eyes at him so he knows how much he annoys me.

I didn’t bother to respond as I just flipped my hair backwards, giving all my attention to the teacher in front which was actually a first for me. Funny enough, it’s like Cristiano being there somehow pushed me to listen in classes more because I pretty much had no choice.

It was either entertaining his antics behind me or pretending that I was too focused to hear him. The latter seemed like a better option.

Albeit this, there were still times I couldn’t deny that having him here was one very big distraction as well. It was all because most of the girls and some guys kept trying to get his attention in different ways, like this is some kind of episode from The Bachelor.

Some have thrown pieces of paper towards him but end up hitting me. Some tried to bend their knees with their butt facing Cristiano, but since I was seated in front of him I would end up seeing the preposterous act as well. It was seriously getting on my nerves!

The worst part? Cristiano basked in all the attention. I just wanted to pull his stupid soft-looking hair and give him a taste of his own medicine, but at the same time I had to pretend I didn’t care, not even one bit.

Which I don’t. Of course not… Right?

“I will pass a paper with two problems written on it and you need to solve it for this class. Make sure to answer properly and take your time as this will determine your level for this semester,” the Math teacher announced and I groaned internally.

There’s no denying that in another universe if I was Superman, the Math subject would be my Kryptonite. Why are there even so many numbers, formulas, and equations?! No one is going to ask me how to compute how heavy five hundred watermelons are in a job interview! The only numbers that mattered to me was for baking and that was easy knowing the weights of ingredients using a weighing scale.

“Good luck, daredevil.” Cristiano said with a smirk before winking at me when I passed him the paper.

I quickly rolled my eyes at him again before turning back to my seat. I hope he sucks at this test, but at the same time, I doubt it. I clearly remember him being some kind of prodigal genius when we were kids because T and him studied together. One of the perks of having a sibling of the same age was that our lessons were the same, thus allowing me to copy from him which is what I used to being lazy and unbothered as I was.

“s**t…” I gulped in nervousness the second I was looking at my demise.

This is going to suck, but hey, it is what it is. I’ll just compute the best I can and if it’s wrong, it’s wrong. It’s not the end of the world. Grades shouldn’t always be the end all be all for students. There are many successful people that didn’t even graduate and I’m not saying one doesn’t need a degree, but one shouldn’t focus solely on it as determination of success.

True enough, I struggled completely to answer these two questions. I went through at least two scratch papers that ended up looking like doodle sheets in the end, but I just never understood it. I was doomed, but I didn’t feel bad about it.

Class finished on that note. I passed my paper even though I knew my answers were likely wrong, but I didn’t dwell on it at all.

I happily moved on with my life, the thought of the next class being the last for the day exciting me because I can go home and relax again. Nothing beats home sweet home and your comfortable bed after a long day.

Just as I was enjoying the thought of my bed getting closer by the minute, another group of girls walked to our side because of Cristiano and they clearly raised their skirts and shorts up higher. Seriously?

“Hey hot stuff, are you free later tonight?”

I gagged. Talk about cringe.

I tried my best to shut them off, to focus on something else, but it was hard when they were literally right behind me.

“Apologies, baby girl, but I might be too tired after detention. I’m going to have to take a raincheck, but I could be free tomorrow. That is if I don’t get into another trouble.” Cristiano responded in such a tempting tone I felt shivers all over my body.

“You are such a bad boy, Cristiano.” One of the girls commented while shimmying her body in a way that made me want to gouge my eyes out. I wish I hadn’t seen that.

I almost rolled my eyes to Africa at how embarrassing it was. I shake my head displeased.

A player. A heartbreaker. A bad boy. It all led to trouble. That was him. He was trouble.

Luckily, I didn’t have to stand this torture any longer as I saw Kev approaching me, his eyebrows wiggling at me and I already knew what he was going to say.

“Hey, Thal! Dare!”

I grinned instantly and looked at him excited. It didn’t take me a second longer to reply. “Hit me!”

“I dare you to lock out the last teacher,” Kev said as he looked at me, raising his eyebrows up and down.

Hah, that’s easy. That was one of my first dares back in Freshman Year, and it actually made me known around the entire Eastwood High as some kind of dare master. The word quickly spread that I made one of the meanest teachers give in and what a wonderful time it was.

“You’re on, Kev.” I quickly accepted his challenge and not a minute later, I hopped my way to the classroom door, excited for what was to come.

I don't really know what it is, but I always felt energetic when it came to dares. It’s like a part of me just loved the risky feeling it gave. It made me feel alive.

The students in the classroom all gathered as they watched me stand by the door. For the first time this whole day, the girls stopped fangirling over Cristiano and that’s at least another plus with all of this.

I turned to look at everyone, my smile that was literally ear to ear, anticipating what was going to happen.

“Ladies and gentlemen, let Senior Year begin.” I told them as I locked the door and the students cheered.

Soon our teacher arrived completely unaware of what had transpired. His expression went from confused to desperate to fuming once he realized what was going on, that I was just messing with him.

It was so hilarious, but I had to keep my act, pretending I had no idea what was going on and I was innocent.

Eventually, a guard came and I knew I had to switch it up and finally unlocked the door for him. He was not having it.

He looked at me, eyes burning in anger and nose flared up.

“DETENTION, MS. DONOVAN!”

I could have protested for my innocence right there as I usually do and how I get away with most of my stunts, but for some reason, I just took it this time. Somehow, I accepted my fate.

I then realized too late that maybe… I shouldn’t have…

-

“Can we go to yours? Your dad’s back from out of the country, isn’t he?” Rubi and Amber came up to me while I was fixing my things in the locker.

I turned to her with a glare. “Rubi Parker, if you don’t stop crushing on my dad!”

“I am not! I just know he always brings chocolates after!” She quickly denied the claims and I narrowed my eyes at her for a few seconds, deciding whether or not to truly believe her.

“Hmph,” I crossed my arms in front of my chest. “Fine, he did bring some sweets from Prague home, but I won’t be back until dinnertime or so.” I told them before closing my locker.

Amber turned to me in shock. “What? Why? We always go home together!” She looked rather distraught because it is tradition.

Everyday after school we rode together and if T wasn’t busy with Football, he would drive us. Maybe that’s why Amber actually ended up having a crush on him. Spending that much time together and whatnot. Reminds me of how I developed feelings for…

No, don’t even think about it, Thalia!

“Detention,” I told my best friends with an indifferent shrug.

I didn’t mind. I figured I could take about an hour or two ‘me time’ because no one really ever gets sent to detention here. There would be like two or three students that did some minimal thing, but they would definitely mind their own business the whole time so it didn’t matter.

“Wait, oh my god. You were the one that locked out the teacher?” Rubi held my shoulders as she stared into my eyes purely shocked.

“I told you it was her! She did that dare before! You owe me five bucks!” Amber said to her and I quickly looked in betrayal.

“What? You betted on me?! I get fifty percent of that win as commission!” I demanded, but she tried to get out of it.

“Nuh-uh, that’s my win.” Amber said, shaking her head, while Rubi begrudgingly put money on her hand.

All of a sudden, while the girls and I were messing around in the hallway, my attention was quickly diverted when a familiar figure passed by behind where we stood.

It was Cristiano. I could tell by his height and the way he walked unwaveringly. He was now the tallest boy in school, beating my brother who was six feet two, so even if you didn’t want to see him, you kind of had no choice because he popped up anywhere.

There was something off about him, though. Besides the usual girls visibly following him wherever he went, he didn’t look as pleased with it. He had his hands inside his pockets and his hair pushed further down making you wonder if he can even still see where he’s going. He looked… detached.

“I guess Rubes and I can just go home together. We’ll see you tomorrow, Thal, and don’t get detention again!” Amber said, pointing her finger at me while pouting.

“I’ll try, but no promises.” I joked and we all chuckled.

Right after they left, I made my way to the detention room which was on the second floor of the building. This place was a little more secluded and it’s like you were transported to a different place other than a school. The quietness, the dim lights, some people would think it’s like the set of a horror movie, but I quite like it. Something about no one around gave this sense of tranquility.

Too bad, that tranquility wasn’t going to last long as someone suddenly popped up from the other side of the hallway.

“Anytime now, Ms. Donovan! This isn’t a runway!” Mr. Gibbins demanded as he stood there with his hands on the side of his hips, like that funny meme with the guy looking so done with everything.

I let out annoyed grunts while increasing my pace because as much as I wanted to annoy him further, I didn’t want to get another detention tomorrow because that would mean I’d miss out on a new episode of my favorite baking show.

“Glad you could bless us with your presence, Ms. Donovan.” He said sarcastically and I smiled at him sheepishly, but deep down inside I wanted to roll my eyes at him.

It’s because of my clear distraction that I didn’t hear him say ‘us’, only until I opened the door did everything start to dawn on me.

In a bad way.

At the back of the classroom, a guy sat on one of the chairs, his hood covering half of his face, and his feet up on the chair in front of him.

The guy was-

“Mr. Ferreira! Feet off of the chair!”

Cristiano annoyedly put his feet down, but didn’t bother to turn to where we were. He merely moved to look outside through the window. I felt something unusual with him and I remembered earlier again. How he walked through the hallway so bothered and annoyed at something, perhaps.

I quickly shook my head and the thoughts away. Who cares if he’s annoyed? That’s not my problem. I’m here for my ‘me time’ and Cristiano’s presence won’t bother me.

Sadly, that all came crashing down quickly as well.

“Alright, so today’s detention is a little something different as requested by the new Principal. He wants to focus on productivity amidst the situation, so in lieu of this, we are changing venues.” Mr. Gibbins announced and I looked at him, mouth hung open processing what he just said.

“I’m sorry, what? What venue?”

“You and Mr. Ferreira are now tasked to clean the windows in the gym area,” he said before suddenly passing a set of keys to me.

“Make sure to lock up the gym after and leave the keys to the guard outside school. I will be checking the gym right after so I will know whether or not you did as tasked. Don’t mess this up, you two.”

Before I could say anything else, he had already plugged his earphones in and clearly didn’t care about anyone else around him. He stepped out of the classroom and I stood there, confused.

What the heck just happened? Ah, crap.

When I turned around, Cristiano hadn’t even moved an inch. Well, except for his feet back up on the chair which meant he heard everything that Mr. Gibbins said and he knew we were supposed to be moving, but look at him, all unbothered and whatnot.

This guy is getting on my last nerve.

“Aren’t you coming?” I finally broke the silence in the silent room.

He didn’t respond.

I bit my lip to stop myself from blurting out my anger. Instead, I made my way to where he was seated.

“We should go. Mr. Gibbins said we need to clean the gym and he knows if we’ll do it or not.” I told Cristiano what we needed to do, not that he didn’t know.

Yet again, no response. I wanted to smack him. Why is he being so difficult?! But I wasn’t going to let that sour my day. I came here to have time for myself so the sooner I get my work done, the faster I can get to that time. If Cristiano doesn’t want to participate then that’s his problem!

“Suit yourself. I’ll be downstairs and I’m cleaning half of the gym. The other half is yours if you want to do it or not,” I told him before turning around.

As I was stepping out of the room, a part of me kind of wanted him to suddenly change his mind and stand up from his seat, so when I got out and I still didn’t hear any noise from the room, I can’t deny that I felt a bit disappointed.

I was disappointed in him.

Nonetheless, I knew what I had to do so I made my way downstairs and to the other building where the gym was. Eastwood High was a very respectable school and pretty well known around the city. The amenities were top tier and some of those included our own swimming pool, tennis court, Football field, and the basketball court.

I pushed open the gym door and for the first time, dreaded the fact that my school had to have such good amenities because the place I needed to clean was way too big. I felt like an ant staring at a human’s house.

“This is going to take a while…” I sighed to myself, but accepted my fate since I knew I had no other choice.

After putting on cleaning gloves and grabbing a wiping cloth and a bucket filled with water and a cleaning agent, I was ready to finish this as fast as I could.

“A little music never hurt anybody,” I happily smiled to myself as I scrolled through my old phone and picked another one of my playlists.

As soon as the beat of the upbeat indie song began to play, I started swiping on the windows at the end of the gym.

When the music plays

I lose myself again

When the music plays

I dance till I forget

Cleaning and whatnot wasn’t new to me. In fact, for a couple of what they call ‘rich kids’, T and I were always taught to do hard work. When we were little, we had maids, but when we got older and could fend for ourselves, our parents made sure we worked around the house, that we earned what we got.

Chores such as dishes, doing our own laundry, and cleaning the bathroom were normal for us.

I was now thankful for that because it was making all this work somewhat easier. Surprisingly… I was actually having fun. Can you believe it?!

When everybody’s gone

Want you to be the one that I come home to

The one that’s up waiting

I move around, swaying with my wiping cloth in the air as I move to the beat of the song. Japanese Breakfast, a rather unusual name for a band, but their music was something I always couldn’t help but stand and just forget about everything around me as I somehow became one with each of them.

It’s symphonic, harmonic… I’m smitten.

True enough, I didn’t realize just how much time had passed and what other things were going on around me until a noise took me out of my own reverie.

My heart almost leapt out of my chest when the sound of a door being closed loudly echoed in the gym and I turned to see Cristiano in the most unlikely way I thought he would show up.

Topless.

Huh?! Am I dreaming? Did I suddenly pass out on one of the benches in the gym and I am now somewhat dreaming of him topless? First of all, why would I be doing that and second of all, it wouldn’t be in the gym.

There was only one answer then - I was not dreaming.

I got my answer not a minute later as he suddenly talked.

“Take a picture. It’ll last longer,” he shot me a tantalizing smirk.

I looked at him annoyed. “Bite me.”

“Oh, do you want me to? I didn’t see you as the type, but we can arrange that.” Cristiano quickly rebutted my response and I clenched my fists and jaw in disapproval.

My patience was wearing thinner by the second.

“Leave me alone and get to cleaning. We have like half an hour.” I told him monotone before turning back to my side of the gym and back to cleaning.

During that time, I tried to bring back all my focus to cleaning, but it was hard, so undeniably hard… when Cristiano was freaking half naked next to me.

I couldn’t help but steal a few glances to my left where he was wiping his own side of the windows.

There was no denying he had become increasingly toned. I wonder what kind of sport or exercise he did before as his arms and chest were evidently toned to the core. He was thick at just the right parts and every time he moved his cloth, you could see the muscles tightening up.

When I thought his body couldn’t get any more majestic-looking, the sun would sometimes land directly on him and the beads of sweat on his body gave him a divine glow that made him look like some kind of ethereal being.

“Gah, snap out of it!” I gently slapped myself with both my hands on my face to awaken me.

You hate him! You hate him and his atrocious attitude and no amount of stupidly perfect face and abs can change that!

“Oh, shi-”

Thanks to my terrible lack of focus, I had completely forgotten my bucket of water was right behind me so when I stepped backwards, I tripped and you know what happened.

Or at least, what was supposed to happen. I was supposed to fall down the bench and most likely scream in some pain and maybe get about a week or two break from school, but instead…

I felt strong arms holding me and when I moved my head up, bewitching hazel eyes greeted me.

My heart started to thump loud and fast even though I didn’t want it to, but it’s just like how that saying goes - Sometimes following your heart means losing your mind.

I think I’m about to lose my mind… especially when I realized how one of my hands was literally on top of his chest!

My cheeks blushed in complete embarrassment, but of course, Cristiano was having the time of his life. He flashed me with that infuriating yet stupidly sexy smirk of his.

“Enjoying yourself there, Donovan?”

I gulped. That’s the first time he’s called me anything close to my name.

As annoyed as I was at his cockiness… Was I also… slightly turned on?!

This was definitely not the ‘me time’ I had planned for myself.