Author's Note: I'm glad you guys are liking it so far, and I have so many more ideas that I want to turn into chapters, so there's a lot more to come! I'm sorry if this chapter seems to skip around a lot, I needed to set it up for the next one. Anyways, I hope you enjoy this. :)

Chapter 3:

J is for Jerk

Mara stormed into her and Patrica's room after Biology class and threw her books on her bed without a word to her roommate.

Patrica just stared at her as she put her school things away and quickly changed out of her uniform, mumbling things like, "Stupid, bloody, annoying jerk... Such an idiot..."

"You okay?" Patrica asked, sitting on her bed with her laptop in front of her.

Mara released a groan of frustration. "I'm fine, what gives you the impression that something is wrong?" she said, slamming her drawers shut after she was done changing.

Patrica rolled her eyes and responded, "Gee, I don't know. Maybe because you're mumbling to yourself and raging around the room like a lunatic."

"What are you talking about?" Mara said, then continued walking around grumbled, "That low, slimy, dirty, no good-"

"There you go again, mumbling," Patrica said, crossing her arms determinedly. "Come on, what's wrong, Mara?"

"Nothing's wrong!" Mara insisted.

"Alright, fine," Patrica said, still a little suspicious. "Where are you going?"

"Just headed to take care of some afternoon chores," she explained with a sigh. "Better get started before dinner, or I'll never finish," she added to the side.

Patrica gave her a strange look. "I thought last night was your night to do chores," she said, "How many left over chores could you possibly have today?"

"Just a few," Mara said shyly, shrugging her shoulders. "But, don't worry... I'll be done before dinner... hopefully."

Before Patrica could argue any more, or question why Mara was doing chores on someone else's chore day, Mara quickly walked towards the door.

"Well, I'll see you later, Patrica," she said, opening the door and walking out. "Bye!"

"Bye, I guess," Patrica called after her as she closed the door.

Mara heaved a sigh of relief, glad to be out of the room. Patrica was her friend, but she was always a bit over suspicious. Well, she had reason to be suspicious, but Mara didn't want her to find out that she was doing Jerome's chores, much less the reason why.

She made her way down the corridors and the stairs, walking to the house kitchen.

As soon as she arrived there, she set to work on some of Jerome's chores, scrubbing at dirty pots and washing dishes. And to think... that was only a small portion of all of the chores she had to do.

Mara felt helpless inside, but refused to let it show. She wasn't going to let Jerome get the best of her, not even if he made her clean Alfie's laundry.

When she heard footsteps headed towards the kitchen, she quickly masked her emotions with a neutral face and kept cleaning the mountain-load of kitchen utensils.

Mara looked over to see Alfie walk in, who then began searching through the cabinets for some food.

"Hey Mara," he greeted, then looked around the kitchen as if surveying it from a general point of view. "Do you happen to know where the apples are?"

"Sure," she said, then took her hands out of the dishwater and took off the cleaning gloves she had been wearing. She walked over a cabinet and opened it, pulling out a bowl full of apples.

"Help yourself," she said, then, remembering that Alfie had quite the appetite, added cautiously, "but remember, that's just an expression... only take one."

"Great! Thanks Mara," Alfie said gratefully, taking an apple.

"No problem," she said with a smile, putting the apples back where she had found them and heading back to the sink.

"Oh, hi Amber," Alfie said nervously, walking out of the kitchen.

Mara smiled. Alfie had had the biggest crush on Amber since they were thirteen, and she could tell. Actually, everyone could tell. Everyone except Amber, that is.

"Hello, Alfie," she said, walking past him and towards the sink. "Mara, where are the clean dishes?"

Mara groaned. Great, more dishes to clean, she thought. But instead of saying that out loud, she replied, "Over there," pointing as she put on her gloves again.

"Alright, thank you," she said cheerily, walking over to where the dishes were kept.

After Amber had gotten a clean cup and poured herself a glass of water, she walked over to where Mara stood in front of the sink, hard at work... again.

"So, what's up, Mara? Anything interesting?" she asked, taking a sip of her water.

"Oh, just relaxing in the kitchen," Mara replied sarcastically. "What's it look like I'm doing?"

"Right, sorry," she said, setting down her cup. "Wait, I thought you washed the dishes last night..."

"Yes, I know, I'm doing dishes on an irregular night. Nothing to fret about, really."

Before Amber could even open her mouth to respond, Alfie came back into the kitchen, this time followed by Jerome.

"Good evening, ladies," Jerome said smoothly.

Mara rolled her eyes and let the neutral face she had had on consume her expression once more. As Jerome stepped up to the sink where she stood, washing and scrubbing, Mara refused to even glance at him.

"Excuse me, Mara," he said, dunking a load of plates into the dirty dish water that already had some dishes in it, causing a splash of water to soak Mara.

"Jerome! What are you doing?" Mara exclaimed, her cool facade melting away.

"Trudy told me to put these dirty dishes in the sink, so I did," he said innocently.

"But-"

"What? Did I do something wrong?" Jerome asked, almost daring her to oppose him in front of Alfie and Amber.

"No, I'll just clean that up," she said through clenched teeth.

"Good. Well, I guess I'll be on my way," Jerome said in triumph. He gave Mara a wink, then turned around and walked out of the kitchen with Alfie following behind.

In a way, Mara was almost mad at Alfie and Amber. If they hadn't been in the kitchen, there would've been nothing stopping her from punching Jerome square in the nose. But, she didn't want anyone else to get involved in the matter, so she sighed and angrily went back to work.

"What was that about?" Amber asked, utterly confused.

"Nothing, really," she replied.

Amber set her cup down and said, "Mara, I know when something is nothing. And that wasn't a nothing, that was a something."

Mara looked up from the plates she had been washing to stare at Amber. "Wait, what?"

"Bottom line is, something was going on between you and Jerome," she explained, crossing her arms stubbornly. "Now... what was it?"

"I promise nothing was going on just then, Amber," Mara said, nodding. "Except Jerome being his usual self."

Amber's face scrunched up in confusion. "What do you mean by 'his usual self'?"

"You know," Mara began, "stubborn, stupid, idiotic, irrational... a jerk."

With every word that she used to describe him, she scrubbed the plate she was washing harder and harder until she was afraid she would break the glass.

"Alright, if you say there was nothing going on, I guess you're right," Amber said, still not fully convinced.

Something was going on, and she was going to find out what that was.