Chapter Eighteen- Norman’s Order

I was cut off on my way into the Chemistry classroom by a smug Norman Blake. “I will be acquiring your seat in this class.”

I gave an amused snort, “No, you’re not.” I walked past him to the desk in question. Dougie hasn’t arrived yet so it was empty as I sat down. Blake leaned on the desk opposite me, his eyes boring into mine.

Norman Blake was one of those people who believed that if you had intelligence, you didn’t need to have anything else- including manners. He really hated that I was smarter than him, and had still managed to retain my personality. “I must sit next to Douglas.”

“Then tell him to move! I picked these seats!”

He made a scoffing noise at my refusal, “If I am to tutor Douglas to the best of his ability, I should be seated next to him.”

“Wrong,” I said flatly. “If you are to tutor Dougie to the best of his ability, he should be using class time to focus on the class, rather than be suffering you breathing down his neck,” was my smooth retort.

“You no longer have call on that fact,” he stated primly. I stared at him blankly.

“I no longer have call on…? That doesn’t make sense… What the hell does that even mean?” I shook my head in disbelief, “You know what your problem is?”

“I’m sure you’ll enlighten me, anyway. You do, after all, know everything.”

“You think if you speak in such a mature and proper manner, everyone should pay heed to you. But it’s fake. It’s a strain for you- you have to think about it too much. It’s not natural, and that much is bloody obvious. And why do you do it? To gain the title everyone else in JC would dread. Class geek.”

I leaned across the table towards him, “You can’t handle the fact everyone thinks you’re a slave-driving, pressurising, infuriatingly proper…thing. It’s not going to kill you to abbreviate!” At his humiliated flush, I cocked my head to the side, “But it’s too late to be yourself without people thinking you’re being fake now, so you just make yourself even more into this horror.”

My mouth hardened as I let my steady gaze unsettle him, “I didn’t pass Dougie onto you so you could control him. The only reason I did that was because I want him to pass, and you’re my only option bar trying again myself. So if I hear you’ve been calling him stupid, or mistreating him in any way, I’m gonna come down on you like a sack of bricks, do you understand that?”

His eyes had narrowed dangerously, “Then tell your boyfriend to actually focus on what I’m telling him, and I won’t have to-”

“He’s not my boyfriend.”

“Could’ve fooled me. You’re protective enough of him.” He sneered at me, and moved back across the room.

“Geek,” I muttered venomously, shifting back into my seat. I collided with something solid and a pair of arms curled around me. I recognised the embrace immediately, leaning back into it.

“Thank you,” Dougie whispered in my ear.