Jon put one black legging-clad knee over the other and bobbed his foot as Mrs. Browning finished her lecture on the effects of gasoline on fire or something. He wasn't really paying attention.
In fact, he'd been in a bad mood ever since that encounter with Nicole. Not that the encounter itself upset him, he just had a feeling of discomfort that had started right then. Every interaction he had had had felt like a competition.
"Had had had". Was that too many "had"s? No, the interactions "had" felt like a competition, and he "had" the interactions in the past so he "had had" them. Anyway.
Whatever was going on was better than having Sarah's shoes constantly yelling at him, so Jon counted his lucky stars. He'd been expecting that to go on much longer than it had had.
"Had had." No, that was definitely one too many "had"s.
The bell rang, and Jon was out the door.
"Jon!" It was Nicole.
"What do you want?" Jon snapped, stealing the upper hand.
"I- I wanted to," Nicole had clearly already decided that she'd lost this conversation, "I wanted to apologize for earlier today."
Jon smirked. "Well, you should apologize."
"I know, that's what I-" Nicole stopped herself. "Look, would you sit with me and the girls for lunch?"
Jon's smirk intensified. "I would love to." He had won.
