Hey, sorry for not updating in a while. School & all that fun stuff catches up! Writers block doesn't help either and I got that several times when I was writing this chapter. I'm still not 100% happy with this chapter, but it was all I could think of a work it.

Anyway, enjoy the chapter and please review! If you do, I'll update soon.

Chapter 10: Rude Encounters

The bell had gone symbolizing the end of lunchtime and the 5 teenagers grabbed their bags, leaving for their next lesson they shared.

"What's our Society & Environment teacher like?" Marcus, the blonde newbie of the group asked.

"Firstly, I dunno why where you came from called it Society & Environment, but it's S&E here, so unless ya wanna be utterly teased and mocked by others in your class, including me, then I suggest call it S&E" Alexa informed him.

"You still didn't answer my question Alexa! Wait a minute… is our S&E teacher one of you guys relatives too?" Marcus said puzzled by his unanswered question which was only producing more questions!

"Nope, we're all out sorry!"

We continued walking in silence, until Cara spoke.

"Oh sorry I forgot! I need to go hand a form into student services. I'll be right back, but can you tell the teacher if he gets there before I do?"

"Sure" Ryan confirmed.

"You want me to come with you Cara?" Marcus offered.

"Yeah sure, only if you want to though."

Nodding at her, Cara smiled and the two blondes walked off, leaving Ruby & Alexa behind the smirking and raising their eyebrows at each other.

"There's totally something there" Alexa stated simply, while both Ryan & Ruby nodded at her in confirmation.

"Just don't let her hear you say that!" Ruby said making the twins smirk & smile as they continued walking to S & E.

As Cara & Marcus walked into the student services office, oblivious of their friend's discussion about them, Cara's shoulder knocked against someone else. Turning around to apologize as the person walked past, Cara noticed the familiar body walking in the opposite direction.

"Dad?"

Hearing his daughter behind him, Will turned around and smiled.

"Hey you! Sorry, bit out of it. Didn't get much sleep at the hospital."

"How is Mum? Is she home?"

"Yeah, the burns hopefully aren't going to leave much permanent damage, but they'll be sore and swollen for a few weeks."

"Oh ouch. Did they give her pain-killers or anything?" Cara asked, but as Will answered back "Uh, yeah" she noticed he wasn't looking at her anymore, rather the boy next to her.

Seeing the direction of her Dad's eyes, Cara tried to stop his intense glare at Marcus by introducing the two.

"Dad, this is Marcus. Marcus, this is my Dad, Will."

Smiling awkwardly, sensing Will's intense stares Marcus held his hand out with no shake.

Seeing nothing had changed, Cara added "He's new here. He just started yesterday."

Still met with awkward silence, Cara desperately tried to stop her Dad from intimidating Marcus completely.

"Dad, what are you doing here anyway? I thought you had the next few days off to look after Mum."

Turning to Cara, Will snapped out of his glare on the poor 16 year old boy.

"Yeah I have, but I just needed to bring stuff in for the relievers."

"Oh right. Anyway, we're gonna be late for S & E. Bye Dad."

"See you at home Car, bye Marcus."

"Bye. Nice meeting you" Marcus said awkwardly, before walking off with Cara to S&E, but taking one look back at Will.

"Sorry about that! Dad's can be severely overprotective!" Cara apologized as she and Marcus walked up to the classroom.

"It's not your fault!"

"Yeah I know, but still…"

"Still nothing. Forget about it Cara."

"Okay…" Cara said, giving in, looking at Marcus smiling before they continued walking to class together.

Listening to the usual, routine introduction & welcome to the class speeches, when their teacher started steering off to the dreaded topic of work & assignments.

"Now, unlike some teachers at the school, I am a very strong believer in not using school for a bit of R&R or a social gathering and doing work, a lot of it, at school which is what it's meant for. This is my reasoning behind giving you your first major assignment today" their teacher said as he floated around the classroom, distributing assignment sheets to the tables.

A chorus of groans filled the classroom, sparking a stern expression from the teacher as he sat at his desk.

"You're year 10's for crying out loud. It's not unreasonable to expect this and anyone who grumbles from this point on will be receiving a time out."

As always, boundaries were set down, so Alexa felt inclined to push, audibly saying "We're not in Uni for crying out loud!"

Not accepting her behavior and big-mouth, the teacher reached for the time-out pad on the corner of his desk.

"Thank you for voicing your opinion Miss Bennett, but I hope you realize that your opinion comes with consequences" he said filling out the details on the pad.

On the other side of the room, there was more whispered talking, which the teachers raised voice interrupted.

"Look's like Alexa's going to have a time-out partner."

"Hu- Wha- Bu- Blair" was the words Casey rapidly fumbled out.

"Does Miss Chifley have the ability to control your speech?"

"Well, no."

"Just as I thought. Once I've explained your tasks, you two may leave."

"Alright, semester 1 we'll be focusing on the environment part of Society & Environment, covering society in semester 2. I don't like to beat around the bush, setting little sheets and bits of info. In my classes, you'll receive your major assignments earlier, which will allow you more time to give me a better end result. As you can see on the sheet, the topic is 'Untouched Local Environments.' As you well know, the Gold Coast is one of the most established areas of Australia, but if you look hard enough, you will find areas bigger and smaller that haven't been built on. These places include natural rainforests, desolate beaches and unlivable islands. Wherever you choose, you will need to study this place and provide me with detailed similarities and differences between this 'Untouched Environment' and the sprawling Gold Coast. Due in 6 weeks. Work in groups of 2 or 3.

Groaning again, Alexa really, really didn't want to do the assignment. At least it was in a group. That way she could a 'silent' member of her group.

When the class began talking again, supposed to be discussing the assignment, Ruby piped up with "Bags you Cara. Sorry Marcus but you totally kidnapped her from us."

"Sorry!" Marcus said blushing, looking at the blonde girl next to him.

"Oi! Marcus! Wanna work together?" Ryan asked trying to get Marcus' attention which was currently fixated on Cara.

"Huh? Sure" Marcus said returning to conversation.

"Lex, wanna work with me & Rubes?" Cara asked Alexa who was swinging her bag onto her back, about to walk out to time-out.

"Uh-huh."

"Alright, do you mind where we choose?"

"100% couldn't care less."

"K, we'll let you know where we've chosen at lunch. Have fun with Casey!"

Sarcastically flicking her hair and wearing a cheesy accent Alexa exclaimed "I'm so excited!" – looking & sounding exactly like her Mum.

Walking to the teachers desk and snatching the time-out form, Alexa raced out of the room before Casey had a chance to catch up.

As Casey & Alexa left the room, Cara –oblivious to the oh-so similar discussion about herself and Marcus earlier in the day- said "There's definitely something there."

While Marcus nodded in agreement, Ruby & Ryan exchanged smirks, remembering the all too similar conversation between them and Alexa this morning.

"So anyway, where are we gonna do?" Cara asked.

"I don't really know."

"Mmm me either" Ryan said, adding "Well what places can we do?"

"Rainforests… Islands…" Cara said reciting what their teacher had said earlier.

"How about Mako? I mean it's close to all of our houses and my parents are always talking about how beautiful and unique Mako is" Ruby suggested.

Cara nodded and shrugged "Works for me and we haven't got any other ideas. Why not?"

"Cool" Ruby said nodding to half of her assignment group.

"Can we do Mako too?" Ryan asked on behalf of Marcus & himself.

"You can, but cause we're all friends and hang out together, the teacher might think we were giving each other information if we both do the same place" Cara reasoned cautiously.

"Mmm true… we bags Mako!" Ryan said.

"Uh no-ya don't! We had Mako first!" Ruby fought back.

"Oh fine… we'll go find an interesting rainforest then!"

"Fine, you do that!" Ruby said, ending her fake fight with Ryan, leaving Marcus & Cara smiling at them.

For the rest of the lesson, Ruby & Cara sorted out basic details for their assignment, as did Marcus & Ryan.

Because time-out lasted through lunch-time, after school on the walk home, Ruby & Cara filled a very un-interested Alexa in on the details of their assignment.

"So when are we going to head out to Mako?" Ruby asked the other two girls.

"Dunno, don't care" Alexa responded.

"Not sure, but the sooner the better" Cara said, her response slightly more helpful.

"Well what are you doing tonight?"

"Washing my hair."

"Nothing."

"Alright then, we haven't got much homework so why don't we meet up tonight and head out to Mako?"

"Fine with me" Cara confirmed.

"Suppose it's better than doing homework…" Alexa begrudgingly agreed too.

"Okay then! So we'll meet by the wharf at 4? Whose boat are we going to take? My Dad's or one of yours?"

"Take my Dad's. I'm angry at him right now so I wanna use all the petrol" Alexa said.

Even though Ryan wasn't part of the group, he added to the girl's conversation "You're always angry at Dad, Lex. And besides you know I'm going to have to drive you right. I'm the only one with a boat license."

Rolling her eyes, Alexa sighed saying "Brothers…"

Once again arriving at Ruby's street, the other 3 said their goodbyes to her.

"Seeya at 4 Rubes" they yelled as she walked down the street, and the others continued walking down the other road.

"So Marcus…" Alexa teased, knocking her elbow against Cara's arm.

Alexa wasn't actually talking about Marcus, rather just making a reference to him to watch her friend squirm in embarrassment.

"What about him?" Cara said coolly, even though her tanned cheeks were changing colour from normal, to pink, to red.

"Something going on there?"

"Are friendships banned nowadays?"

"Oh come on Cara! There is so totally, 100% something there! Way more than friendship!" Alexa said throwing her hands up in the air.

"Seriously, we're just friends!" Cara insisted.

"Sorry Car, but I agree with Lex –this one time only- and there's a super obvious chemistry between you two" Ryan added.

"Oh thanks for the support Ryan! And why is this conversation about me & Marcus? Hello! You & Casey were totally flirting with each other in English yesterday!" Cara argued, pushing the attention away from herself.

"I agree with that too…" Ryan said, switching sides between the girls.

"Now you're both delusional! I was not flirting with Casey!"

"Ya totally were!"

"Okay, can this conversation stop? Like now!"

"See how it feels Lex?" Cara said proving a point.

"Alright, alright. Point taken."

"Good, now see you two at 4" Cara said as she left the others and walked up her driveway.

As Ryan & Alexa continued walking to their house, Ryan couldn't resist stirring his twin sister up.

"So did you & Casey restrain yourselves from flirting in time out, or did you just skip straight to making out?"

Hitting her brother in the arm, with a heck of a lot of strength, Alexa bit back with her own comeback.

"Don't you wanna know? Anyway, I reckon you and Ruby would be cute together. I mean childhood friends to lovers. Naww!"

Rolling his eyes, Ryan disputed saying "That's not even funny Lex! I mean yuck we've been friends since the dinosaurs, so even suggesting it is so weird!"

"Give it time…" Alexa prophesied as they walked into their house, and like the others prepared a few things for their Mako date.

I love this story. I really do. I'm so happy with the upcoming storylines and I can't wait for all the characters storylines to get thicker.

But anyway, did you enjoy the chapter? Good parts, bad parts? Let me know! Out of curiousity, who is everyones fav characters? Boy & girl?

Please review & i'll update. Next chap they head to Mako!