Diving In

Diving In Chapter 12: Cheaters

Cameron's least favorite and most favorite time of year occurred in June. It was final's time at Mineola High School, and Cameron was freaking out. He was excited for school to end, but he had to get all A's on his final's if he wanted to do well for the year. He also needed to find Matt a date for prom, which was not turning out as easy as he thought it was going to be. Cameron realized that he didn't know many girls in school, and none of them well enough to ask them to take a random date to prom.

Cameron pulled his car into the school parking lot. He loved the fact that he had recently passed his road test and he could now drive himself places. He sat in his car for a moment, watching other student's pass by. It was the Friday before final's week, and this was the first weekend Cameron had not been looking forward to. He would spend most of his time studying and not a lot of time with Matt. Matt on the other hand was a senior, so all of his finals were pretty much a joke and didn't matter.

Matt and Cameron's relationship was getting better and better every day. Cameron felt so comfortable around him, and Matt just seemed to be the perfect boyfriend. Everything was going just right in Cameron's life and if he could just get past this last week he would be off at Matt's summer house.

His thoughts were interrupted by Travis McCarthy knocking at the passenger seat window. Travis and Cameron had not spoken in weeks; Travis had been busy with Marissa and Cameron had been busy with Matt. There friendship had kind of died down, which was why Cameron was so surprised to see him. Cameron unlocked the passenger seat door, allowing Travis to enter. Travis plopped down in the passenger seat and closed the door.

"Hey," Travis smiled as if they had been speaking daily.

"Hi Travis," Cameron said. " What's up?"

"You know how you're, um, in student government or whatever?" Travis asked. "Do you have like access to any sort of key, or whatever, to get into classrooms? Or anything like that?"

"Yeah, the master key. Why?" Cameron asked suspiciously.

"Nothing, just wondering," Travis shrugged then turned towards the window. "Do you think I could borrow that, like for tonight or something?"

"Oh yeah sure, it's not like I'd get in trouble for allowing you access to every important room and file in the entire school..." Cameron facetiously stated.

"All right cool, could I like pick that up from you after school or..." Travis said.

"I was being sarcastic. What do you need it for anyway?" Cameron asked.

"Nothing, Jesus, I was just curious," Travis mumbled.

"Hm, just curious enough to come back to school at night. Travis, you barely spend time at school on a week day, I highly doubt you'd come back on a Friday night." Cameron pointed out.

"I didn't know you were going to be such a bitch about this," Travis muttered. "I'll ask someone else, jeez."

Travis got up and left without saying anything else. He slammed the door behind him. Cameron watched Travis leave and spent a moment reenacting what just happened in his mind, trying to figure out what the hell Travis was talking about.

...............................................................

Alexis Lucas felt lonely. She was used to being independent, but with her parent's recent separation and her own separation from Kevin Trainer, she suddenly wished she had someone in her life that kept her sane. With finals approaching, she wanted someone's shoulder to lean on. Right now, that shoulder was Cameron, who's shoulder she was literally leaning on this Friday morning. He was quizzing her for her Biology final, while she nearly passed out on his shoulder. She had taken the late shift at The Downtown, the bar where she worked, the night before.

"Jelly fish have a body that is..." Cameron quizzed.

"Coelenterate." She answered definitively.

"Correct, Ms. Lucas." Cameron smiled. "You're going to do fine, plus you have all weekend to study. I don't know what you're freaking out about."

"Yeah, I know," she agreed. "I just want to keep myself busy to ignore the fact that I'm going to die alone." Cameron rolled his eyes and pushed her off his shoulder.

"That's it," he said. "No more depressed lectures, you need to stop. You're not going to get anything done like this. Plus, you're going to prom with me! What could be better than that?"

"Yeah, I guess you're right," Alex smiled.

"I know I'm right," He said. "Oh by the way, have you had any luck finding Matt a date?"

"You know I'm not friend's with any girls," Alex reminded him.

"Well, that can keep you busy. Find Matt a date. Please!" Cameron begged.

"I'll try, but I can't promise anything." Alex said. Right then, Marissa Tampa came speed walking down the hallway right up to where Alex and Cameron were sitting. Marissa had never spoken to either of them, so they were both surprised when she stopped right in front of them and spoke.

"Have you guys seen Travis?" Marissa managed to get out. She seemed extremely frazzled.

"Nope," They both said.

"All right, if you do, tell him I'm looking for him. It's really important." Marissa muttered and than quickly walked away.

"Well, you can't be doing much worse than her," Cameron joked.

..................................

James Winters had felt uncomfortable in every English class since he ended things with Tom, or Mr. Reilly rather. Mr. Reilly refused to call on him, and acted like he wasn't even in class. James had grown accustomed to being invisible in that class, so he was shocked when Mr. Reilly told him he wanted to see him after class.

The rest of the class went by slowly, while James thought of possible reasons that Mr. Reilly would want to see him for. He hoped that it wasn't for sex, because James had recently given up on sex completely. After the shower incident with Max, he realized that he wasn't happy and sex with guys he didn't care about wouldn't make him happy. So things with him and Max had been relatively normal. They acted like nothing had ever happened, and that was exactly what both of them wanted.

The bell interrupted James' thoughts, and he realized that he had to now speak to Mr. Reilly. The classroom emptied out, leaving only Mr. Reilly who sat behind his desk collecting his papers. James slowly approached him.

"You wanted to see me?" James quietly muttered.

"Ah yes, Mr. Winters," Mr. Reilly didn't make eye contact with him, he just looked down at his grade book. "You seem to be in danger of failing my class, Mr. Winters."

"What?" James was surprised for several reasons. He had actually been doing rather well in the class, and he was surprised that Mr. Reilly would stoop that low.

"Failing, Mr. Winters." Mr. Reilly repeated.

"Tom, are you seri..." James started to talk

"Mr. Reilly, James," He corrected. " And yes, I am serious. You'll need to do extremely well on this final, otherwise you'll have to go to summer school."

"Okay, I know you're upset with me..." James began.

"I'm not upset about anything, Mr. Winters." Mr. Reilly began. "Look, if you want I can offer you some tutoring..." James began to see what Mr. Reilly was implying. Basically, he would have to start sleeping with him again if he wanted the grade.

"You can't just..." James began, but the second bell rang and James realized he would be late for his next class.

"Well, like I said if you need tutoring," Mr. Reilly smiled. "you know where to meet me." James rolled his eyes then left the classroom.

............................

The day had finally come to an end, and Cameron was not excited to go home in the least bit. He knew that he would have very little time to himself, and that he would be studying most of the weekend. As he unpacked books from his locker, he tried to make a mental plan for the weekend. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw James Winters walking down the hallway looking distraught.

"James!" He called. James looked up and walked over towards Cameron.

"Hey," James said.

"What's wrong?" Cameron asked. He could tell that something was bothering James.

"Nothing," James thought about whether he should tell Cameron about what occurred with Mr. Reilly. "Just that, I might fail English if I don't see Mr. Reilly again.'

"What do you mean?" Cameron didn't quite understand.

"Mr. Reilly," James whispered. "Is going to fail me unless I start...you know...with him again."

"Oh God," Cameron groaned. "That's horrible. That's...illegal. You can sue him. Tell him that!"

"Yeah, but he knows that I would have to come out if I did that." James reminded Cameron.

"Oh," Cameron nodded. "So what are you going to do?"

"Well, I mean I'll study really hard and hopefully so well that he has to pass me." James thought aloud. As James was talking, a freshman boy approached Cameron and tapped him on the shoulder.

"Excuse me," the freshman interrupted. "I left a book in my classroom, and the teacher locked the door. You're in student government right? Can you open it up?"

"Yeah sure," Cameron said. "Just come with me to the office, so I can get the key. I'll see you later, James. Good luck!"

"Thanks," James smiled. Cameron and the boy headed off down the hall together.

.............

Travis watched as Cameron unlocked the door to the freshman's classroom. He was hiding around the corner so that Cameron couldn't see him. The freshman entered the classroom while Cameron waited outside. A few moments later the boy emerged, shook Cameron's hand and then they both went their separate ways. The freshman walked toward Travis, while Cameron walked in the opposite direction.

"Hey kid," Travis whispered. The freshman spotted Travis and walked over to him. "Did you get it?"

"Yeah, do you have my money?" The freshman asked.

"Yeah, yeah." Travis reached into his pocket and handed the kid a twenty. The kid pulled the master key out of his pocket and handed it to Travis. "All right, now get out of here, kid."

Travis couldn't help but smiled at the key to his success. Literally. He walked down the hallway and exited to school. In the parking lot, he was too busy celebrating his success to notice Marissa calling his name. He was startled when she grabbed his shoulder and turned him around.

"Travis!" She yelled.

"Oh, hey," He looked up at her. It took him a moment to realize that she had just been crying. He eyes were red and some remnants of tears still remained. "What's wrong?"

"I've been looking for you all day, Travis," Marissa started. "And I couldn't find you at your house, you weren't answering your phone. And I asked your friends and they didn't know where you were, and..."

"Slow down, Seabiscut, I've been busy with some stuff." Travis coolly smiled. "Plus, why were you stalking me anyway?"

"I needed to talk to you..." Marissa began.

"So, then talk..." Travis smirked.

"I...I...I don't...I don't know how to..." Marissa had trouble getting her words out, even though she had been planning what to say for a while now.

"T-t-today junior," Travis groaned. "I've got stuff to do."

"Wow. Just forget it. You can be such a dick sometimes, Travis." Marissa mumbled.

"All right, I'll see you later." Travis smiled and started to walk away.

"I'm pregnant, Travis." Marissa stated. The words rung in Travis' ears for a moment. "Well, I least I might be. I've been late for weeks now, and..."

"I can't do this right now." Travis wiped his forehead.

"What?" Marissa asked.

"I can't...I can't do this right now." Travis repeated. "I have to ace my finals, otherwise I'm going to be left behind...and...I can't do this right now."

"Are you kidding me?" Was all Marissa could say as she watched Travis walk away.

.........................

Alex Lucas decided to stay after school and study in the library. She needed time to clear her head, but the library turned out not to be the best place for it. As soon as she walked in she bumped in to Kevin Trainer. He was the last person in the world she expected/wanted to see in the library.

"Alex," Kevin smiled. She wanted to punch him in the face and make the smile go away.

"Kevin," Alex muttered as she pushed past him.

"How long is this going to go on, Alex?" Kevin followed her into the library.

"Until you finally get the message that I don't want to fuck you." Alex said as she set her books down on one of the library's desks. She wasn't really paying attention to Kevin as she sat down.

"C'mon, you know you miss me..." Kevin nudged her.

"All right, look dude," Alex looked up at him. "Maybe I was interested in you for like a week when we were working on that stupid project. I'll admit it. But honestly, you're just not my type. Yeah you're hot, but honestly that's all you got going for you. Get over it. I am."

Kevin wasn't really sure how to respond. He was half shocked, and half turned on by her boldness. For once, he was stunned. So stunned in fact that he just had to turn around walk away.

Alex continued studying, somewhat proud of herself with out that transaction went down. She smiled as she studied for her finals. She was interrupted by a small brunette who sat down in the seat next to her. Alex wasn't bothered by it until she felt the girls eye starring at her. She tried to ignore it but eventually she couldn't.

"Can I help you?" Alex sneered.

"Sorry...I just...sorry." The brunette shyly muttered. "You can go back to studying." Alex tried to do just that, but still felt the brunette staring at her.

"Look dude, I'm not a dyke. Sorry." Alex muttered.

"No...it's not that!" The girl got embarrassed. "I've just...I've just never seen anyone stand up to Kevin before...He um...Me and him hooked up at a party. He was my first. He was so sweet and hot. He never spoke to me ever again. Doesn't even say hello to me in the hallway."

"Oh," Alex felt a little bad. "He's a typical jock. Don't worry about it. My first was in the back of a broken down van."

"Yeah, I guess." The brunette looked away. "I'm Alison by the way. Thanks...for sticking up to that jerk." She started to walk away when Alex thought of something.

"Hey, wait!" Alex said. "Really random, but do you have a date to junior prom?"

............

It didn't take Cameron long to realize that the universal key was missing. After searching his pockets, his locker, his car, his room, he finally realized that Travis must've had something to do with the mysterious disappearance. He called Travis' phone three times but no answer. When he went to call a fourth time, his phone was already ringing. It was Alex.

"Hey," she said, "So, I got Matt a date to junior prom."

" What?" Cameron's face lit up. "Who? That's fantastic!"

"This girl Alison, she seemed pretty...nice. Anyway, I told her that she'd just be going as friends with this guy, so yeah. You're welcome."

"Wow, Alex, thank you so much. You have no idea what a weight this is off of my shoulders." Cameron wiped his forehead.

"Yeah, yeah. What are you doing now?"

"I think I'm going to head over to Travis' place,"

"What? Why?" Alexis was confused.

"Don't ask." Cameron didn't feel like explaining the situation to her. "Do you want to come over and study later?"

"Yeah, whatever. Just call me" Alex hung up.

Cameron was happy to have finally found Matt a date. He was already imagining how much fun they would have. He was also somewhat relieved to have Alex knowing about him, especially in situations like this. After mentally rejoicing for a few moments, he decided to drive over to Travis' house and see what he had done with the key.

Travis lived on he opposite side of town from Cameron. The trip was always somewhat annoying, but now that Cameron drove it was a lot easier. Travis was lucky that Cameron had just received good news about prom, because normally Cameron would've been pissed.

Cameron arrived at the house and walked right in. Travis' mom worked several jobs, so she wasn't around much. He walked up the stairs and into Travis' room. When he opened the door, he was not expecting what he saw.

On the floor were papers piled neatly in rows and columns. Travis was sitting on his bed studying one of the papers intently.

"What...what are you doing?" Cameron asked. Travis looked up startled.

"What am I doing?! What are you doing here?!" Travis scrambled to put the papers away, but it was too late. Cameron had already seen them.

"Are these the answers to the finals?" Cameron realized.

"Um...maybe..." Travis nervously laughed.

"How did you...why did you..." Cameron started to ask questions but realized he already knew the answers to them. Travis was not a dumb kid, but he put no effort into his schoolwork. Cameron knew that if Travis didn't ace his finals he would be left back.

"Please don't be mad," Travis begged. "I'll give you you're stupid key back, don't worry. I put the original answer keys back. These are only copies. No one will know. Please, dude, I'm begging you."

Cameron thought for a second. He wanted to force Travis to throw away the answer keys. But there was something he needed to do.

"Give me a copy of the English midterm, and the key and we'll call it even." Cameron muttered.

............

Marissa Tampa sat in her car outside of a place she'd only been to once before. Kieren Wilmer's house. She hadn't been their since the day following his funeral. It was weird being back. She wasn't sure why she was there. She just left her house and started driving and that was where she ended up.

To be fair, Kieran had been on her mind after she had realized that Travis was a complete asshole. She couldn't believe his reaction to the thought of her being pregnant. I can't do this right now, he said. Who says that in response to I'm pregnant. Ironically, Marissa was not pregnant. She had taken a pregnancy test when she had gotten home, and it turned out negative. But Travis' response had really woken her up to the fact that Travis was not the guy for her.

Marissa had left her whole world behind, her popularity, her cheerleading, her friends, her life. And now she was alone. No one cared. She didn't even have a date to prom anymore. She felt humiliated.

She got out of her car and approached the house nervously. She hadn't been there in months, yet it felt like she had only been their yesterday. She knocked her fist against the door. For a while there was no answer, and just when Marissa was about to move away, Mrs. Wilmer swung open the door.

"Marissa?" She smiled. She looked a lot better than the last time Marissa saw her. Her hair was straightened and her eyes were clear. She actually was quite pretty.

"Hi, sorry to drop in unexpectedly like this..." Marissa smiled. "I just wanted to, uh, see how you were doing." That was a lie. It's not that Marissa didn't care, but she had really just come there to here more about Kieran.

"Oh, you're so sweet!" She placed her hands over her heart. "I knew Kieran was right about you! I'm doing great actually. I, uh, got a job offer in Arizona, so I'm packing up and leaving in two weeks."

"You're moving?" Marissa was shocked, and a little upset.

"Yeah, yeah." She ran her fingers through her hair. "I just wanted to get out of this place, it's...it's to hard." There was a moment of awkward silence as Marissa was in deep thought.

Soon Mrs. Wilmer invited Marissa in for some tea. They sat around and discussed memories of Kieran and for once Marissa remembered what it was like to be loved.

.........

James was screwed. He literally thought he was going to fail English class. There was nothing he could do about it either, because Mr. Reilly was a complete douche. He sat on his bed in lacrosse shorts and a t-shirt while he stared at Walt Whitman's Song of Myself, and couldn't get past the first few sentences. He scratched his curly hair and wiped his face. Someone knocked at his door. He told them to come in, and his sister, Kate appeared at the door.

"Some kids here to see you," Kate muttered. "Should I let him up?"

"Who?" James asked.

"I don't know," Kate shrugged. "I think he said his name was Cameron, but I'm not sure. "

"Oh, okay, uh, yeah." James was flustered.

Kate left and he heard her tell Cameron to come up. James quickly looked over at a mirror and made sure he looked okay, and then looked down at his textbook. Cameron knocked at the door and then poked his head through.

"Hey," Cameron smiled.

" Hey man, what's up?" James looked up at him. "Come on in." Cameron entered the room wearing a blue button down and jeans.

"Nothing, sorry I just dropped by like this..." Cameron apologized. .

"No, no, it's fine. I was already not doing any work, it's not like you're distracting me." James said.

"How's that going?" He asked.

" Um...it's uh, it's going okay. I just feel like no matter what I do, I'm going to fail. Unless I get like a hundred..." James trailed off.

"I think I can help you." Cameron admitted.

"How?" James was intrigued.

"Okay, so it's a long story, but I have the answer key to the English final..." Cameron smiled.

"What?! How?" James was pleasantly surprised.

"It's complicated, but yeah..." Cameron reached into his backpack and pulled out the answer key. "You can't tell anyone, though." Cameron handed the paper to James, as James' face lit up.

"Holy shit! You're amazing!" James cried.

"Yeah..."Cameron smiled. "All right, well I'm going to get going, but um, yeah. Good luck next week. Not like you need it, now."

"Yeah, holy crap..." James began to look through it. Cameron got up and headed towards the door. "Hey, Cameron wait..."

"Yeah?" Cameron turned around.

"I know this is random, but, uh, that trip...with Matt. Did you ever figure out what you're going to do about that?" This question had been on James' mind for weeks, ever since Cameron had mentioned it at the pool.

"Um, yeah..." Cameron hesitated. "We're leaving a couple days after prom...so two weeks."

"Oh, cool." James forced a smile. "Yeah, I was just wondering." There was a moment of awkward silence.

"All right, I'll see you next week..." Cameron waved. "Good luck."

...................

After Cameron James' house, he drove directly over to Matt's house. He needed a break from all the studying he had been doing. Also, he felt guilty that he hadn't really seen Matt all week. Cameron loved the fact that he could drive, it just made life so much easier.

He opened the door to Matt's house and noticed that neither of his parents were home. He climbed up the stairs and opened the door to Matt's room to find him asleep on his bed. He was passed out with all his clothes on. Cameron jumped on him, waking up from his slumber. Matt's initial reaction was annoyed, but then looked happy to see Cameron.

"Jerk," Matt smiled, then pulled Cameron in to snuggle with him.

"So, I found you a prom date," Cameron smiled. He could feel Matt's chest moving in and out behind him.

"Oh, I need to talk to you about that..." Matt leaned back.

"What about..." Cameron looked nervous.

"Okay, I know this is going to seem like some stupid excuse, but I swear it's true," Matt started. Cameron did not like where this was going. "Okay so, a bunch of my friends are going upstate for the weekend instead of going to senior prom, and I...I kind of wanted to go with them...."

"Oh..." Cameron couldn't help but feel disappointed. "What friends?" Cameron rarely heard of Matt talk about any friends of his own.

"Just this girl Tiffany and her boyfriend, and my friend Sam, and Jeremy, and..." Matt tried to gloss over the name Jeremy, but it stuck out like a sore thumb to Cameron.

"Jeremy, the boy who you had sex with." Cameron's face fell and he sat up to look at Matt. "I thought you didn't talk to him anymore..."

"I don't, well..." Matt started getting red. "We started to hang out after that fundraiser thing. Not hang out in that way, he just started talking to me. Nothing happened, Cameron."

"Yeah..." Cameron said skeptically.

"I swear to you, Cameron." Matt grabbed Cameron's hand.

"I don't know what you want me to say...." Cameron looked down at their hands.

"Just...I want you to trust me," Matt began. "Look, Jeremy was my best friend. My best friend. It was so hard for me to lose him, and now that he wants to hang out again...Look it's nothing sexual, I promise. I just want a friend."

"Why? Am I not good enough?" Cameron was getting more offended the more Matt spoke.

"No...stop twisting my words. You're amazing. I...I love you." Matt stuttered. The moment he said it Cameron's face got beat red. He didn't know what to say. Did he love Matt? He wasn't even sure what love was. Luckily Matt continued so Cameron didn't have to respond. "I just want a friend outside of us. You have so many, Alex, Travis, James."

The mention of James made Cameron cringe. He knew that Matt was trying to send a message.

"That's different, Matt..." Cameron tried to defend himself.

"Oh really?" Matt retorted. "How is it different? Please, tell me. You and James spend all this time together, meanwhile I know he's gay and that he asked you out on a date. I always see you guys talking in the hall and you guys study together. And I don't say a word to you about it. "

"It's not like that, Matt and you know it." Cameron got upset.

"It's not? Please tell me what it is like then." Matt was now on the attack.

"It's...I don't know how to explain it, but..." Cameron was flustered. "You know how I feel about you."

"Do I?" Matt asked. "When have you ever told me how you felt?"

"I..." Cameron didn't know what to say.

"Look, I don't want to fight with you, Cameron. I really don't." Matt looked down. " Are you okay with me going or not, because I won't go if you don't want me to...honestly."

"No, it's okay." Cameron sighed.

Cameron collapsed onto Matt's chest. He snuggled up against him as they sat in silence.

Thank you so much for reading this chapter. I know I was kind of a long wait, and kind of a boring chapter, but it sets up a great next chapter. Thanks a lot. Please e-mail me comments at ryanwest25@yahoo.com