Chapter Sixteen

Diagnosed with Love:

Chapter 16

“Breathe, Star!” She patted my back as I swallowed down what I could and I rushed to the bathroom for some water.

I walked out patting my upper chest, trying to breathe. “Did you just say Mr. Check?!”

“Yes…”

“You’re going on a hot date with your history teacher?!”

“No! I never said it was a hot date! Other students are going to be there! I said I was invited to dinner!” she corrected me. I guess I had assumed the rest.

I relaxed a little bit knowing it wasn’t just going to be them two. “What’s the dinner for?” I asked.

“Most improved students.”

“Sweet, congrats. Hmm, guess we have to change sexy to sophisticated…”

Jaelynn laughed. “Sorry about the change in plans- I was wondering why you kept calling it a hot date. Maybe next time.”

“Next time you’ll be specific.”

She laughed again,.“Right, sorry.”

“I still can give you a few tips or so…” I narrowed my eyes and tried to picture a more sophisticated Jaelynn- after we were only juniors. How sophisticated could we be? You’d be surprised.

The next day at school, while in homeroom, I was excused when a student helper wandered into the classroom with a note for me. It was a pass to Mr. Bird’s class. I took my time getting to his room. Ever since I had heard about those bets about me, I was more pissed and less interested in being a part of a team like that. I basically wasted my time writing that story for him when I could have been finding someone else who was going to give this story the attention it deserved.

I finally wandered into the newspaper room to see Mr. Bird talking with the dark-haired stranger. They both looked up at me. “Starlight, we’ve been waiting for you. I talked with your English teacher, Mr. Arnold.”

“Star,” I firmly corrected. He obviously didn’t talk to him long enough.

“Kody, this is Star.” He stressed the pronouncing of my name. “Star, this is Kody.” There was no extreme pronouncing on his name. The dark-haired boy looked at me and didn’t speak, not even acknowledging my presence. I couldn’t ignore it and I wasn’t about to stoop to his level. I nodded, acknowledging him, and he grunted- typical male response. “She’s our new edition to the newspaper,” said Mr. Bird. The boy gritted his teeth, and my eyes grew larger. Seriously? Even I was surprised. You could obviously tell the boy didn’t like what was being said. I’d bet this was the boy who bet on me. Jerk.

“Star, Kody here is our editor in chief. He runs most things here. Stories have to get by him to make it into the paper.” Kody smirked triumphantly like he was just crowned king of the castle. I guess basically that’s what he sorta was- the boss. I didn’t have a problem with that. The problem was him and his attitude.

“Usually, I’m a lot ruder to new comers- but I’m feeling a little out of place this morning. Bottom line, if I don’t like it, then you redo it until I do like it or don’t count on it being put into the paper.” I didn’t say anything. There was nothing to say, he was the boss. He was also a complete a*s.

“You two play nice now.” Mr. Bird walked off and into the back where his office was.

“Do you speak?”

I literally rolled my eyes and followed Mr. Bird to his office, ignoring him. That boy was an even bigger jerk than… I don’t know, I don’t think there was a bigger jerk, but I guess I’m stuck with him now so I might as well deal with it. I collided with a body on my way into the office, as they were coming out. “Oww…”

The boy laughed. “I’m sorry, are you okay?”

“I’m fine…” I looked up, noticing the bag boy from the toy store. “Hey.” I didn’t want to say ‘bag boy’, that would be rude. “From the toy store?” I asked.

“Of course- I wasn’t exactly wearing my name tag that day. I saw you looking for what to call me. I was running late that day, but I’m Dominic.”

“St-” He interrupted before I could finish.

“I know who you are. I see you around school a lot and a few other places outside school. No, I haven’t been stalking you.”

I laughed. “Thanks for clearing that up. I wasn’t even aware that we went to the same school- you should have said something.”

“What, so you could have asked for a discount? Kidding. Maybe you’re not as aware as you think you are.” He winked at me. “Besides, I know how to blend in- part of being on the newspaper. I look forward to working with you.” He walked around me and headed towards the computers as I made my way to Mr. Bird’s desk.

“Do you plan on using my story or not?” I asked, wanting to get to the bottom of all this.

“I plan on it. Don’t you think you should acquaint yourself with your partner first?”

“Partner?” I asked.

“You brought me a full story yesterday morning, and Dominic brought me a piece of it that you didn’t have. I figured you wouldn’t mind having a little bit of help along the way.”

“He did?”

“He did- turns out he had gotten some info from before you had arrived at the scene, when he was heading to work.”

“Nice,” I said.

“Are you interested in a partner?”

“Sure am.”

“Then consider you and Dominic officially partners. He agreed as well. We’re making this story our front page news. I’m changing your schedule around a little bit, and you’ll have to become free after school Monday through Friday. Times vary. You can pick up your new schedule in the office tomorrow.”

“Alright.” I nodded, then thought about Patience.

“You’ll have to read your story to the rest of the workers on the paper after school, so make sure you’re here. Late is not acceptable with the press, early is on time. You will learn this.”

“Okay.” I nodded again.

“You had better be prepared to persuade and back up. Kody is definitely your biggest worry and he tends to like to attack- you’ll see what I mean by that this afternoon. It’s the reason why I made him captain of this ship- understood?”

I nodded and headed for the door, stopped by his voice. “Star.” I turned and looked at him. “Welcome to the paper.”

I nodded back at him. “Thank you.” I then headed out and back to class, eyes burning my back as I left.

Author's Note

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