Rebound: A 2nd Chance

The days passed by with Jason going to class and practice just like usual except now he had to meet up with Kyle, Samantha, and Karla to work on their project.

They would either meet up at the diner or video chat online to discuss what book they would do their project on.

After a lot of lobbying by Kyle and the support of Samantha it was decided that they would do their presentation on Rick Riordan and the Percy Jackson series.

During the time that the four of them spent together to work on their project Karla continued to make advances on Jason but to no avail.

Despite her greatest efforts she failed to even get so much as a positive reaction out of Jason. It was as though he didn't even see her as a girl.

But to her defense it wasn't due to a lack of charm nor was it due to a lack of effort and motivation. Unfortunately for her Jason really just didn't even put her on his radar.

Despite having spent a little more than a year now as a child and having gotten close with a lot of the kids at school Jason still felt like an adult trapped in a little boys body.

He saw and treated all of the kids his age as just that, kids. He subconsciously treated all the girls around his age differently because to him they didn't even register as members of the opposite sex.

That went for Samantha, Shania, and Karla as well as all the other middle school girls that he often came into contact with.

- - -

Friday morning. Samantha was in the hallway as she stopped by her locker to switch out textbooks. Next to her were a few of her friends.

"You guys would not believe how tone deaf this girl is. Like, Jaya is clearly not responding to any of your moves girl. How much longer do you need to make a fool out of yourself."

One of her friends with blonde hair responded "Well that's not what the everyone else thinks." Samantha turned to her "What do you mean Lexi?"

She tucked a strand of her platinum blonde hair behind her ear "Word with the other girls at Jefferson says that Karla and Jaya got a lot closer after getting paired up for Ms. Yullers project."

Samantha frowned "That's probably just Karla trying to spread rumors on her own. If she was being honest the whole school would know that she's been shot down every time she tried to make a move on Jaya."

Samantha stuffed her textbook into her locker. She rolled her eyes as she slammed the locker shut "How pathetic."

- - -

In a different part of the school. Karla was walking through the hallways on her way to her next class accompanied by some of her female athlete friends.

Karla frowned slightly as she turned to her friends "I told you guys to keep what I said private. Now all the other girls are talking about me and Jaya."

One of the shorter girls replied "Sorry Karla, we didn't think it would spread like this. We just told a few of our friends.... Then they told some of their friends."

A tall girl patted her on the shoulder "It's okay May. Come on Karla, don't be mad. We didn't think that you were serious.

We all know how much you dig Jaya. We didn't think that it would hurt if a few more people knew that you and Jaya were getting close.

And besides, just imagine how pissed off that red haired punk wannabe is right now having to listen to all this."

Karla sighed "Either way. You guys shouldn't have done that. But I guess you guys didn't really mean to do any harm so I'm not pressed."

A different girl asked "So how close are you guys now? Have you made anymore progress?" Karla blushed slightly.

Before she had started to make any moves on Jason she had bragged to her friends how tons of guys had went after her at her first school and that getting Jason would be easy.

With all the bragging that she did it was impossible for her to admit to them that all of her advancements so far had failed so she chose to tell them a little white lie in order to save face.

But when she had told them that she didn't expect things to escalate to this point. Now all of the other girls at Jefferson really thought that she and Jaya had gotten closer.

Which wasn't completely a lie. She had in fact gotten closer to Jaya ever since they had started working together as a group for Ms. Yuller's project.

The lie laid in the part where she had exaggerated just how close the two had gotten. The rumors going around made it seem as though they were now a little more than friends.

Where in reality it was more like they were acquaintances making the progression towards friendship.

They had exchanged phone numbers and emails and interacted with each other during non school hours but most of their conversations where either about Ms. Yuller's project, sports, or training.

But to Karla it was too late now. There was no way that she could come clean and admit that she had lied now that all the other girls were talking about it.

Doing so would completely destroy the image that she had created for herself at Jefferson. Karla put on an awkward smile.

"Well.... Yeah I guess. I think we're pretty close now." The short girl asked "Just how close Karla? Are you two like, a thing?"

Karla hurriedly shook her head as she waved her hand "No no no. We're not at that point yet but... I think we're definitely more than just friends at this point."

She could feel her face getting hotter as she spat out those dishonest words 'Thank god Jaya isn't here to hear this.'

Just then one of her friends spoke out "There he is!" "Huh?" Karla turned her head in confusion and saw Jason walking through the hallway with Kyle and the other guys who were on the basketball team last year.

She then felt a force move her forward as she got pushed from the back by one of her friends. She turned her head back toward them and saw the expectant look on their faces.

They clearly wanted to see Karla walk up to Jason and show just how close they were. Karla gulped as her hands shook slightly at her sides.

Seeing that she couldn't think of a way out of this situation Karla took a deep breathe before turning around to walk towards Jason.

She could feel everyone's eyes on her as she walked toward Jason. Her heart began to thump loudly in her chest.

She tried her best to put on a bright smile as she called out "Jaya!" She waved at him as she walked. Kyle tapped Jason on the shoulder causing him to turn around.

"Huh?" He then saw Karla waving at him. He looked at her and waved casually at her. What she did next surprised everyone including Jason.

Karla ground her teeth while smiling and hugged Jason "You look great today! How have you been?"