School Days - Chapter 3

Hey! Sorry this is a bit slow moving - I've always had trouble getting a story started - but something happens at the end of this chapter that'll help to get things moving now. Thanks again for the reviews!
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They arrived at the door and Jake, once again, had to do a short introductory piece on himself at the front of the class. Amy had to stifle a small smile when he said, again, that he one day wanted to act in the West End. She still just couldn’t picture it. He then went and sat down at the seat pointed out to him by Mademoiselle Girard, a couple of rows in front and to the left of Amy’s own.
French was normal, with Mme. Girard asking Amy for most of the answer and Amy failing to give the correct reply to all but a few. Her teacher just couldn’t seem to accept that languages just weren’t Amy’s strong point and seemed to think that forcing her participation would be the solution to this.
It wasn’t.
Of course, the rest of the class were quite happy with this arrangement – it meant minimal effort for most of them.
Ten minutes before the end of the class, Mme. Girard set them a task to work with the people sat next to them. Amy turned towards her partner, Billy, catching sight of Jake looking nervously at the pretty girl sat next to him, Kim. Mme. Girard insisted on boy-girl seating as far as possible, and luckily for her, Jake evened the numbers out in the class.
Billy grinned at her as they made eye contact. He knew just how much she hated this class, and often helped her out with the stuff she didn’t understand: his grandparents had a house in France and had been spending 3 weeks there ever summer since he was 6, so had little trouble with GCSE level French.

Amy once again sent up a quick prayer of thanks that she had been placed next to Billy as they set about their task. He took it slowly, giving her the opportunity to pick up some of the more basic aspects and explaining those more complex ones. Despite this, she knew most of what he taught her would be gone before the next lesson.
The bell rang just after they finished and, much to Amy’s pride, she had been able to contribute a little to the work, rather than Billy having to do most of it, as was the norm. She was grinning slightly as she walked out of the door and found Jake waiting for her.
"I didn’t want to get lost again, and figured you could take up the job of tour guide again, if you don’t mind?" Jake said nervously when she reached him.
"It would be my pleasure," Amy replied, giving him a wide smile as they set off down the corridor. "And – lucky you! – there’s an empty space on our table next to Ella if you want to join us?"
He hesitated for a second before seeming to come to a decision. "Yeah, that would be great." He hesitated another second before asking, "Do you think I’m going to have to get up in front of everyone again and tell them who I am?"
Amy giggled before patting him on the arm in mock sympathy. "Sorry, but yes," she said, grinning at him. "Don’t you just love starting new schools?"
He looked at her with a twinkle in his eye before saying "It could be worse."
At this point they reached the classroom, so Amy didn’t have a chance to ask what he meant by that and, as anticipated, he did once again have to introduce himself.

They reached the end of maths with Ella only flirting with Jake only slightly. To his merit, he seemed to hold his own and not give way under her charms and near flawless looks. Amy was impressed as most guys would be running around after Ella by this point, but her attention to him seemed to do little to impress him.
"K Ells, lets go! Another fun-filled after school sesh with Miss Miller to get to!" said Amy.
Jake looked at her questioningly, "You’re not getting the bus home?"
Tina smirked a little a flashed a look at Ella at this point, something silently communicated between them that Amy made a mental note to investigate later.
"Nope, sorry," Amy replied to Jake. "Me and Ella are both in the school play this year, and we have a rehearsal this afternoon."
"I’m the lead," said Ella, fluttering her lashes at Jake as she did so. He, however, seemed to barely notice this as his eyes were glued to Amy.
"So," he started, dejection obvious in his voice, "you’re not getting the bus home with me?"
Amy blushed a little as she realized that maybe her feelings for Jake weren’t so one-sided after all. "No, sorry. I’m only in the chorus but they still want us all to go to all the rehearsal. Building the spirit of the production or some rubbish like that", she replied.

At this point the giggles that Tina and Ella had been successful in concealing broke out of them. Amy shot them a withering glare as they once again stifled them before turning back to Jake. "I’ll see you on the bus tomorrow though, ok?"
"Yeah," he replied somewhat glumly before turning towards the door, saying only a fleeting goodbye when he reached the door.
Tina and Ella at least had the good grace to wait until he was out of ear shot before their hysteria burst out of them. "Oh my gosh, you two are so cute together! Has he asked you out yet? Are you going to go out with him?" shrieked Ella at the same time that Tina was saying, in a slightly lower pitch, "He looked so sad and sweet when you said you weren’t getting the bus! He so likes you, it’s adorable!"
"Guys, guys" intoned Amy, holding her hands up to try and stop the verbal onslaught. "I’ve known him for like one day, I’m not even thinking about stuff like that yet!"
"But you are going to go out with him if he asks you, aren’t you?" inquired Ella in a slightly more normal voice.
"I honestly don’t know, but I do know that we have to get to rehearsal," Amy said, grabbing Ella by the hand and literally dragging her out of the room. "See you tomorrow Tina!" she shouted over her shoulder.
As they walked past the school gates, they saw Jake standing in the car park. Amy had to put her hand over Amy’s mouth to stop her from yelling out to him. By this time, the school was near deserted and there was no doubt that he would have heard her. Amy just couldn’t deal with that right now, but did wonder why he hadn’t caught the bus.

Just as they were about to enter the doors to the main school building, Amy glanced back towards Jake. He was gone, but she did notice a big black car driving away. She didn’t think twice about it, assuming that one of his parents had come to pick him up instead.
It wasn’t until she was sat listening to Miss Miller, the drama teacher and director of the play, that she realized that Jake’s house was over 30 minutes drive away – there was no way someone had driven there to pick him up between the end of class and when they saw him 5 minutes later.
Amy was confused for a second and that there must be a rational explanation. Either it hadn’t been Jake in the car park, or he wasn’t in the car that she saw driving away. She was confident that one of those must be right, but as Mr Railton the choir master set them to warming up their voices she couldn’t help but feel a niggling doubt that there was something more going on.