Chapter Text
Mr Davis only sighs and nod.
“Next time, please inform your class president. Alright, since everyone’s here now, we can continue our lesson. Everyone looks at the whiteboard.” He picks up a black marker, writing on the board.
“Why didn’t you tell Mr. Davis where I was?” Luqman whispers to Haikal. Haikal’s brown eyes lazy into Luqman’s blue eyes.
“You didn’t tell me where you were.” Haikal murmurs, scribbling down what Mr. Davis wrote in front. Luqman is shocked, to say the least. This guy, seriously?
“I did, didn’t you get my texts?” Haikal shakes his head, before ignoring the rest of Luqman’s rantings. Luqman only gives him the look of disbelieve and shakes his head slowly, turning to look at the front.
“Inequalities are used to describe the relationship between two quantities that are not equal. Like you all learned in Freshman Year, inequality uses the symbols...” Mr. Davis voice trails off. Luqman wishes that he had come later to class. What can he say, Mathematics is not his strongest point. He loves Mr. Davis, the man’s a great teacher, it’s obvious he is very passionate about numbers and teaching, but no good teacher can make Luqman enjoy this class.
He looks at Haikal, brown eyes focused on the board, like it’s the greatest thing in the world. There is nothing that can make that focused eyes distracted. Not even a crying baby, hell, he might even teach the baby inequalities in an attempt to shut them up. Luqman had to stop himself from laughing out loud to the image of Haikal picking up a crying baby, shoving a pacifier into its mouth, and reading about inequalities to put it to sleep. His eyes scan the room, landing on a certain black-haired girl a row in front of him.
She tied her hair up, Luqman thought. She seems to be making notes, switching from the pink pen and purple pen, jotting things down. He can’t fathom the fact that someone puts this much effort into school. But who is he to judge? That doesn’t mean she’s not a boring, plain girl, though.
Luqman takes out his sticky notepad, jots down something with his favourite blue pen. He grins, and reaches out to stick it on her shoulder. She doesn’t seem to notice, yet.
Luqman stretches a little bit, getting restless in this class.
“x < 1200 + y, is an example of a linear inequality in two variables.” Mr. Davis shows an example on the board. Tiana writes down the examples on her paper, then switching to the purple highlighter to make a square, gotta make it cute and aesthetic. How else is she supposed to enjoy writing down equations? She smiles at her note, looking good so far.
She feels something on her shoulder. Oh no, please don’t.
She looks over her shoulder. The blonde behind her is looking down on his paper. She just shakes her head and turns back to the front.
Another tap on her shoulder. She turns. Luqman is writing something on his paper, he looks up, giving her the look that says ‘what’s up?’. She grits her teeth, before turning back to front.
Another tap, she turns faster. Luqman retreats his hand back, grinning. Tiana is in disbelieve.
‘What do you want?’ she mouths.
‘Check your shoulder.’ he replies, tapping his own right shoulder. Tiana reaches her right shoulder, finding a piece of sticky note. She takes it, reading what was written with blue pen.
‘Do you have gum?’ She raises her eyebrow. Why is he asking me, she thought. She takes her purple pen, and writes down on the note.
‘Why do you need it?’ She sends the note back, sticking it on Luqman’s deck. She turns back to her notes, writing down more of the example questions and solutions that was on the board.
She feels a tap on her shoulder.
‘I’m hungry. Do you have it or not?’
She looks at the stack of gum in her pencil box’s front pocket. Grabs a pen and writes down.
‘Yeah’
‘Can I have one?’
‘No. ;)’ Satisfied with the note, she smiles and gives it back. The thought of Luqman getting his hope crushed makes her want to laugh out loud.
“Mr. Howard. Are you passing note in my class?” Oh, frick. Please don’t.
“No, I’m not, sir.” He denies. Yeah, like that would ever work.
“Miss Maxwell?”
“No, sir.” She shakes her head, sweats beading on her forehead, if you look close enough. Oh, god. Please don’t ask him to read it.
Mr. Davis glares towards them, he walks towards Luqman’s desk.
“Stand up, you two.” He orders. Luqman and Tiana immediately stands. He gives them a marker each.
“Answer question number 10.” says Mr. Davis, showing them both towards the board. Tiana can hear Luqman sighs in frustration. They walk up to the whiteboard and begin answering the question.
‘It’s just inequalities. Should be easy.” Tiana thought. Writing down the inequalities from the question.
“Is it supposed to be less then, or more than, Mr. Howard?” Luqman stops and changes the symbol. He looks at Tiana, desperately asking for help. Tiana does not bat an eye. She finishes her answer. She looks at Luqman. He’s halfway, but he should be able to put two and two together and get it done.
“It just inequalities, stop giving me that look.” She mouths.
“I don’t know about you, but I get confuse easily in this subject.”
“Sucks to be you then.” She says and walks back to her seat. Luqman keeps on writing and finally sits down. Mr. Davis looks at both of them and then towards their answers. He shakes his head. Luqman gulps. Tiana tilts her head a little, wondering if it’s wrong. Mr. Davis turns back towards them.
“Would you like to read the note to the class, Mr. Howard?” Luqman glares at Tiana, before giving her a grin.
“Sure.” He stands up. Picking up the sticky note, he gives Tiana the ‘I’m gonna ruin your reputation’ grin. Tiana raises her eyebrow. Luqman opens his mouh and Tiana’s eyes are open wide.
“Hey, wanna go to the movies this Saturday?”
******
KRINGG! The bell rings, indicating it is recess. Tiana walks out of her class with Alisha following closely behind.
“And here I thought he matured over the weekend.” Alisha says, not believing what Luqman did in their Mathematics class.
“I don’t wanna talk about him.” The corner of her eye could see the blonde and Haikal, talking to their English teacher, Mr. Harold, both are laughing, probably about one of his mediocre jokes since Haikal seems emotionless, as usual. She lets out a grumble, quickly walks toward her locker to put away her books. Alisha could feel the anger and annoyance radiating from her friend.
“Hey, it’s not that bad, Tiya. I mean, Luqman is pretty hot.” Alisha says, making a motion of a fan with her right hand.
“Alisha, if you want him, you can go say so. I’m pretty sure he’ll just say yes.” Tiana rolls her eyes, putting her books into the locker.
“Great joke, Tiya. Blonde’s not my type.”
“Hey, girls! How was your class?” A voice heard from behind them. Both of them turns to see a blonde-haired girl, with her usual friendly smile.
“Hi, Imani!” Alisha’s eyes light up, raising her right hand to wave at the blonde gleefully. Tiana smiles and nods. Imani Howard. Luqman’s cousin. One of her best friends, Northwood’s cheer captain and dance group’s manager. This girl’s crazy athletic, also a very social butterfly.
“Your cousin made people think I’m trying to go out with him, and I got a B on my English paper, other than that, it’s just perfect.” Tiana says, her voice drips with sarcasm.
“Always so critical. As expected from our debate captain.”
“I told her it wasn’t that bad, but she doesn’t wanna listen to me.” Alisha chimes in between the two of them.
“Oh, you were here? Sorry, my eyes were looking at the top compartment.” Tiana says, Imani tries not to giggles, feeling a little bad for Alisha.
“Oh, you giants. Always stepping on the little guys. I’m still growing, you know?”
“That’s what you said, two years ago.”
“Yeah, and was I wrong?”
“Your height hasn’t changed since.”
“Yes, it has!”
“1 cm, doesn’t count.”
“Yes, it does! It makes a big difference!”
“Yeah, right.”
“Guys, stop fighting. I’m sure you’ll grow bigger later, Alisha.” Imani says, as she finishes laughing at her friends’ antics. Alisha grins and blows raspberries towards Tiana. So childish, Tiana thought. Yet, she can’t say she’s not amused.
“Hey, girls! How was weekend?” A voice calls out to them. Oh no, not her. She can see Alisha frowning really obviously. Well, she’s Alisha after all. She’ll make sure you know that she doesn’t like your presence. And usually, she doesn't hate anyone easily. She’s chill with pretty much everyone. But there are exceptions. Some people are just too unlikeable. Especially the dirty blonde in front of them.
Addison Greene.
No one’s too important. But she does act like it. And that makes Tiana gags every time.
“Hi, Addison! It was great, thanks for asking.” Imani replies, a smile never left her face.
“Wait, did you dye your hair? I didn’t realize!” She says, gesturing towards Imani’s coloured tips.
“Yeah, I thought it give them a little something.” Imani twirls a strand of her hair around her finger. The tips of her light blonde had been dyed light pink on the right side, and light blue on the other. It’s only on the tip and it’s beautiful. Tiana notices Alisha is smiling smugly. Of course, she’s the one that picked the colours.
“It looks so great on you! I was thinking of doing it too, but I didn’t have time.”
“You should go for it; light colours would look good on you!”
“The girls want to go hangout after practice today, you wanna join?”
“I wish I could, but I already have plans with Tiya and Alish. You girls have fun, though!”
“Oh, what a shame. Wanna sit with us, at least?” Tiana is getting tired of this ‘conversation’. It’s just Addison trying to make Imani like her and acting like their besties.
“Oh, Tiya! I was actually looking for you!” Tiana had to try not to make her disgusted face towards Addison too obvious.
“Oh, really? How can I help you, Ms. Greene?” Tiana asks in her formal tone. The tone she usually uses during Debate Club meeting.
“Well, I think you should talk to your brother.”
“My brother? Why?”
“Yeah, what’s up with Zahin? He’s nice.” Alisha chimes in. Addison lets out a little grunt, not as noticeable if you look at her.
“He was a little creepy towards me this morning. You should tell him to stop staring at girls just cause he can.”
“He was staring?” Imani asks, wanting more information.
“Not just staring. He was asking me for my new scrunchie too. In front of my friends.” Addison says, showing ‘her’ scrunchie. Tiana is cursing in her head. Alisha is very visibly gritting her teeth. Imani’s smile is crumbling, but she’s trying to not get mad.
“Like, he’s collecting things from me or something.” Tiana can hear Alisha grumbles under her breath. She can also see from the corner of her eye that Alisha is clenching her fists tightly. She can also see a group of students that definitely heard the conversation as Addison wasn’t even trying to lower her voice. Tiana had accepted the fact that Addison just physically cannot and wouldn’t speak with an inside voice since a long-time ago. Said group is whispering to each other, while still kinda and kinda not eyeing them.
“It’s not that I’m saying he’s a creep or anything, just, if he has a crush on Jane or something, he should use a better way to show it.” Seriously, woman. Get over yourself, goddamnit. Addison’s group at the back is giggling. Tiana takes a deep breath before opening her mouth.
“Right, ok. I’ll talk to him.” Addison smiles, satisfied. Imani takes Alisha’s hand in hers and excuses the three of them. Alisha follows Imani, dejectedly. If Imani did not take her away, she would’ve thrown hands. Alisha and Zahin are very close and Alisha hates it when people assume things about him. Tiana closes her locker door.
“But you do know he doesn’t like girls, right?” She says, one last thing before turning to join her friends. Loud enough for the others in the area to hear. The way Addison face drops as the other students snicker at her stupidity is one of Tiana’s most satisfying moments in her life.
“I, I know that! But still, he was pretty creepy. You weren’t there! How would you know?” Addison stutters, before scoffing and walks away with her friends. Tiana, Imani and Alisha look at each other.
“Zahin? Creepy? How?” Alisha questions, in disbelieve. Imani shrugs, indicating she also wouldn’t know how anyone would think of Zahin as a creep, Zahin out of all people. He wouldn’t even hurt a fly, hell, he doesn’t even like girls. Everyone knows that!
“Who knows, Addison loves making mountains out of a molehill.” Tiana says, rolling her eyes, for the possibly 20 th time that day.
“Talking about her, though. Do you guys know if she’s dating anyone?” Imani asks. Tiana and Alisha look at her with questioning looks.
“Maybe she might have, but she wouldn’t keep it a secret. So maybe not.” The brunette says as she scrolls down her Instagram feed.
“And why is this question important?” Tiana raises an eyebrow.
“Nothing, just need some confirmations. She’s been talking about going out with a certain senior.” Imani shrugs, but this answer is making the question sounds much more suspicious than it was. Who is this ‘certain senior’?
Before Tiana could open her mouth, Imani had already changed the topic, talking about what should they have for lunch today. Alisha on the other hand, easily deceived and quickly pulling out the menu from the school page. Tiana could only sighs in defeat.
The three walks toward the big café door, Alisha’s chirpy and happy voice talking about getting some donuts as Imani nods in agreement.
Donuts does sound good right now, Tiana thought, opening the door to the cafeteria. Expecting the sounds of students chattering, a bunch of girls sitting together at a table, giggling and talking to each other, another group sitting at the big table in the middle, usually the ones called the popular people.
Instead of those things, she was met with the floor and a loud sound of water splashing.
WHAT
THE
HELL?!
******
“Now that’s a good one!” Laughter erupts from the table in the middle of cafeteria. A group of students are seated, one of them being Liam, the infamous rumoured soon-to-be basketball team captain, Louis, the Hispanic kid that everyone loves for some reason, despite the man not being the most pleasant person to be around.
“Told you guys I was the funny one.” Haikal says, before taking a sip of his coffee. His voice seems to never change octave every time he speaks. Perhaps that is the reason he tells great dark humour jokes.
“I thought I was the funny one.” Luqman says, munching on his fries. Haikal only stick a tongue out at him and put his index finger that was dipped in sauce on the blonde’s nose, to which Luqman responds with a pout. The others only snicker and laugh at Luqman.
“Haikal, don’t go too far, someone here might get jealous.” Julia, the girl with black coloured hair teases, her hand gesturing to the only other blondie in the group.
“It’s fine, Julia. They’re already going on a date this weekend.” Louis informs, eyes never leaving his smartphone. Julia’s facial expression morphs into a surprised face.
“Wait, really? Since when?” Luqman could feel himself turning ten shades of darker reds as he basically hides into his jacket. Liam only scrolls through his phone, not once looking at Julia’s face nor does he have the intentions to elaborate at all.
“This morning, apparently.” Haikal says.
“After like, forever. Both of you finally just decides to go out.”
“It’s not like a date, date. I mean... Um...” Luqman seems to can only stutters and stammers the words out of his mouth.
“Where are you guys going?” Julia keeps on asking questions, it seems like she’s very excited about the news.
“It’s for us to know, and for you to never find out.” Liam butts into the conversation, saving Luqman from dying in embarrassment.
“OK, fine. But tell me everything about it.” Julia says, holding Luqman by his shoulder, eyes wide in fascination.
“OK, OK. I’ll text you later.” Luqman says as he pushes Julia back to her seat.
“Hey, guys! And Julia.” A voice as sweet as caramel, (if said caramel were way past the expired date) chimes to the group.
“Hello, Addison. What do you want?” Julia asks in a pretty obvious condescending tone, her happy expressions quickly disappearing from her face. Addison takes note of the girl’s behaviour and ignores all of it.
“You guys free this weekend, Emily’s having a party at her house!” The brunette says as she invites herself to the table, taking a seat next to Louis.
“Um... Not really, we’re all pretty busy.” Luqman replies, scratching his neck. Liam nodding in agreement next to him.
“Oh, come on. It’s gonna be fun! Plus, all of us haven’t hang out for a long time.”
“Not interested.” Haikal says, before taking a bite out his donut again, eyes not once glancing towards Addison.
“Come on, Haikal. All the cheer girls are gonna be there. You might finally get a girlfriend.”
“Party’s not my thing, Ms. Greene.”
“Ugh, you and Maxwell both the same. You guys should date, you know, she’s basically the girl version of you. Boring and annoying too.” Addison says, rolling her eyes to the thought of Tiana Maxwell.
“Well, she’s definitely better than whatever you are.” Julia says in annoyance.
“You know, Julia. If you have a problem with me, you should just say it to my face. Instead of running around and stalk me and Louis!” Julia only clenches her hands and greets her teeth in anger and annoyance.
“Stalk you? And Louis? Now, what do you mean by that?”
“Well, it’s not too secretive when you came out of his bathroom when I was at his house last weekend. Geez, I don’t know what you think guys like, but that cakey make-up, with your creepy attitude isn’t a good match, ok, sweetie?”
“Cakey? Dude, I literally have the most basic shit on my face. It’s not... what? And what do you mean, stalk Louis?”
“Well, what were you doing in his bathroom then?”
“Maybe... because I live there?” Julia retorts, her eyes narrowing towards Addison.
Awkward.
Silence.
“Hahaha, good joke. You’re a terrible liar. Right, Louis? She’s so desperate to be friends with you guys.” Addison says, getting a little bit too close into Louis’s private circle.
“Addison.”
“Yes, Louis?”
“Can you go? This seat was reserved for someone else.” He says, not wanting to make eye contact with the crazy girl.
“B... b... but, Louis. We’re best friends! Right, guys? Liam? Haikal?” Addison turns towards the others at the table.
“Addison, we’re trying to have lunch here. You invited yourself here and made everyone else uncomfortable!” Liam exclaims, grunting in annoyance of the brunette’s antics.
“Uncomfortable? We’ve been friends since middle school. You guys never had problems with me before.” Crossing her arms, Addison retorts to Liam.
“Friends? What are you talking about? You only acknowledge me when you need ‘help’ with homework.” This time, the statement comes from the brunette with glasses, he’s also done with Addison’s bullshit.
“Ugh, I’m sorry for rejecting you, alright? It’s not my fault that you’re like, in love with me or whatever.” Addison retorts, rubbing some more salt into the wound. Haikal only grips a part of the table hard enough to remind himself that they are in the cafeteria, and he shouldn’t make a big scene.
“Look, what the hell is wrong with you?!” Julia says, half-shouting. Two tables next to them are already turning their heads to the scene-in-the-making.
“What is wrong with all of you? You guys are being so sensitive!”
“Addison, please just go. We don’t want you here.” With a low voice, Louis made his orders clearly heard by the brunette.
“But, still... The party. They really want you guys there!” Addison says again, still hoping they would say yes.
“Addison, we don’t want to go, to the stupid party. So, with all due respect that you don’t deserve, I suggest...”
“I’ll go.” Luqman says, cutting off Liam as he half-raises his hand.
“Really?”
“If I’m not busy, of course. But we’ll see, I guess.” Luqman says, trying his best to not escalate the situation as he scans around the room, looking for Addison’s friends. Where are they?
Emily and Hana are buying food from the counter.
They’re getting donuts, cool.
Sarah is eating with Amir at their table.
These two need to ask each other out, asap.
Brandon, Jay and Jane are at putting a pail of water on top of the door to the cafeteria.
Wait a minute.
“Um, Addison, why are your friends putting a pail over the top of the doorframe?” Luqman asks, pointing to the three people at the door. They seem to be laughing and giggling about it.
“I don’t know, maybe they’re just pulling a stupid prank. I’m pretty sure it’s nothing.” Addison says, dismissing Luqman’s concern.
“Is this what you guys do with your free time? Dump water on people?” Louis says, with a louder voice this time.
“I’m not the one who’s doing it.” Addison says, as she walks away toward Sarah and Amir.
“I thought she’d never leave.” Julia says.
“Seriously, I don’t even know why we’re trying to be nice to her. None of us even like her anymore.” Haikal complains, finishing his donut.
“Agreed.” Louis nods.
“You don’t really plan to go to the party, right?” Liam turns to Luqman, who is still looking at the pail on top of the door.
“Of course not. I’ll just tell her some family thing came up last minute. She wouldn’t be crazy enough to come to my house and drag me there.” Luqman replies, telling Liam not to worry about him.
“We should really declare her strangers. Once and for all.” Julia suggests, Louis and Haikal are very quick to agree. Liam nods in response, as it is the most logical thing to do in this situation. Luqman reluctantly agrees, Addison is annoying and mean sometimes, but it’s hard to cut off someone you knew since middle school. But then again, she’s not that important in his life, so it should be fine. If she tries to talk to him again, he’ll just ignore her until she gets the hint and stop, somehow.
“Anyway, changing the subject. Who was the seat reserved for, Louis? You wanna tell us that?” Julia says, bringing the group’s attentions to Louis. Louis did not answer, instead he looks around the cafeteria, before raising his hand and waving at someone.
“Zahin! Here.” Louis calls, the group turns towards the black-haired guy with green eyes across the room. Zahin turns to them and nods as he quickly makes his way towards the group.
“Zahin! Hey!”
“What’s up, bro?”
“Enjoying recess, man?”
“Hi, Zahin!”
“Hi, guys. Thanks for letting me sit here.” The black-haired boy says, putting his tray filled with tuna sandwich, a cup of hot chocolate and most importantly, a small bag of chocolate chip cookies as he takes a seat next to Louis.
“Nah, man. You can sit here whenever you feel like it.” Liam says, patting Zahin’s head, messing with his hair, as he does with everybody.
“Ok, thanks.” Zahin replies, looking around the table, he’s not dumb to not notice the group had recently been frustrated. He sees that Louis is glaring towards a certain brunette. Zahin turns.
Oh, of course.
Addison Greene.
Zahin turns back towards the group, opening his mouth to say something.
“So, what’s up with Addison?” The group turns to him. Julia quickly answers.
“Nothing, she’s just being annoying and obsessed with Louis as usual.” She rolls her eye as the words trails of her mouth, Zahin nods, understood immediately. Louis had complained about her a lot of time before when they hang out.
“Guys, don’t you think we should do something about the pail? It could hit someone.” Luqman chimes in, pointing towards the pail on top of the cafeteria door frame. Zahin turns to the way Luqman is pointing. This raises a lot of questions, but the name Addison seems to answer all of it. Haikal and Liam look at each other, nods and begin to get up. They’re all for a good laugh, but there’s nothing funny about someone getting soaked from head to toe. They’re funny, not cruel. Zahin turns to one of the windows the cafeteria, from his position, he would be able to see if someone’s coming in.
Alisha, Imani and Tiya.
Oh no.
Haikal and Liam were already throwing away their trash and Luqman was putting back their trays. Would they make it in time?
He sees Tiya putting her hand on the door handle.
Looks like the won’t.
Zahin’s body move faster before his mind could contemplate the consequences.
Splash!
A loud sound of water spilling and the pail hitting his head before it falls to the floor catches the whole cafeteria attention. Tiya’s shouting some curses also may have made a good call for attention.
‘Should’ve taken off my jacket before this.’ Zahin thought, but that doesn’t matter.
“Zahin, are you okay?!”
******
“Zahin, are you okay?!” Tiana frantically asks as Imani helps her off the floor. She rushes to her brother who is now soaked and wet from head to toe, he’s wearing his jacket too, that must feel terrible.
“I’m fine, it’s just water.” Zahin says, he hopes it is, at least as he smells a little bit of the liquid, but it only feels like water, unless someone actually put something into it. Which is highly unlikely.
“Dude. What the hell?!” Haikal says, his voice ranging from enraged and mad to concern and disbelieve. Why wouldn’t he when Zahin literally appears right in front of him as the door opens and the pail fell on him.
A bunch of laughter can be heard from the cafeteria, some laugh because their sense of humour is broken, some laughs possibly because others are laughing, most of them doesn’t care about what happen actually. The loudest ones are Addison and her little gang. Tiana’s eyes are full of rage.
If she wasn’t mad before, she definitely is now.
Liam let out a nervous laugh. The others look at him like he was crazy.
“Sorry, that’s how I cope.”
“It’s fine, I’m pretty sure I have a t-shirt in my locker.” Zahin says, disregarding everyone’s concerns for him, and also disregarding how the drama queen of envy and her friends are mocking him from afar.
Tiana walks into the cafeteria, straight towards Addison’s table.
Addison signals her friends to quiet down; she looks at Tiana and opens her mouth to speak.
“Yes, how may I-?”
Slap!
The cafeteria fell into silence.
“What the hell is wrong with you?! Soaking people with water? In high school?”
“It was funny! Geez, people like you don’t know how to take a joke, ugh.” Addison retorts, taking a sip out of her iced tea, so casually like she didn’t just told Brandon to ‘prank’ Zahin.
“That was not funny! You just soaked someone, for literally nothing!” Julia steps in, standing right beside Tiana.
“That wasn’t for him, you know? It’s not my fault he wants to save you so much.”
“Relax, girls. It just water I took from the boys’ bathroom, Zahin would be fine with it. We’re buddies.” Brandon says, he takes a bite of his sandwich as the word trails of his mouth.
“You only talk to him when you need something. Stop saying you’re ‘buddies’.” Tiana spats, she remembers when Brandon would go to Zahin for help with homework, flirting with him and dropping various hints about dancing the devil’s tango together in his parents’ bedroom when he come over.
Safe to say, Tiana made sure to fill Zahin’s schedule that day.
“Water you took from the boys’ bathroom?” Alisha asks.
“The one they use to clean the bathroom.”
“EW!” Everyone immediately shouts. Tiana cringes at the thought of it.
“Well, Tiya, you’ve been getting on pretty much everyone’s nerves. It’s only fair.” Jay says, backing up his best friends. Tiana only glares at the raven-haired guy.
“She told you to stop flirting with her once. Stop being so petty.” Alisha argues, backing up her best friend. Imani looks at Luqman, both trying to think of a way to defuse the conflict. He shrugs, not knowing what to do.
“Either way, Maxwell. We don’t like you, we wanted to prank you. It’s not our fault your stupid brother interfered.” Jane says. Sarah seems to be trying to tell them not to fight with them.
“Guys, this is getting very childish and stupid. Um, Tiana, we’re really sorry-” Amir apologies was cut off as Addison stands up.
“Your stupid of a brother deserved it!”
Dun!
Everyone turns towards the sound of someone’s hand slamming on the table.
Louis stands up, walks towards Addison.
“Don’t call Zahin ‘stupid’. And don’t you contact me again.” With a quiet but firm voice, he made his stand and orders clear to Addison before leaving the cafeteria to go find the green-eyed boy.
The cafeteria fell into silence. All eyes stare as the black-haired guy walks out of the cafeteria, stomping away in anger.
“L... Louis! Where are you-” Julia cuts Addison off by slamming her hand on the table, forcing Addison to stay where she is.
“We’re not done here, Addi baby.” She says, taking a seat in front of her.
“What do you want? I need to get to Louis!”
“He doesn’t like you, Addison. He’s just couldn’t be bothered to tell you ‘no’.” Alisha says, taking a seat next to Julia.
“Fine, what do you want?” Addison crosses her arms, lips pursuing into a small frown.
“Apologise, to Zahin.”
“No way, he deserved it.”
“Yeah, he was being a creep to us this morning.” Jane says, her facial expression morphs into a disgusting expression.
“What was he doing, actually?” Jay asks.
“He was asking for my scrunchie, he’s also been texting me lots this morning.” Addison says, her voice goes on an octave higher, asking for pity from her friends and perhaps, the whole school. It’s a little bit extra but still, a pretty good deal for a girl like Addison Greene.
“He was asking for your scrunchie?” Alisha asks, raising her eyebrow.
“Yeah, this one. It’s new. I just got it.” Addison says, flexing the scrunchie on her wrist, smiling wide.
Tiana’s blood is boiling. That’s hers, the bitch!
She tries hard to fight the urge to pummel down the brunette to the ground and slit her throat with the butter knife so she would put that annoying voice of hers to good use, and Tiana could finally be happy as blood sprays around her and the brunette dies a slow, and painful death.
You know what, frick it.
“Hey, give it back!” Addison whines, as the black-haired debate club ‘president’ snatches the scrunchie from her wrist.
“Yeah, sorry. This is mine.” Tiana says, walking away to their usual table, Alisha following from behind. Imani only sighs, as she is torn between the two sides. Sarah looks at the blonde sympathetically but she is also desperate for help.
“Hey, you thief! Give it back!” Addison shouts from her table. But honestly, Tiana doesn’t care anymore.
“Addison, that’s enough. You might think that this is not a big deal but...” Luqman jumps into the argument. He, for one always hated it when this happens.
He takes a deep breath, looking straight at Addison’s clique.
“We’re all just trying to eat lunch here, and you’re making everyone mad and uncomfortable. Please, just don’t.” Luqman says, walking back to his table, motioning for his friends to do the same. He looks at Tiana, wondering if he should go say something. But decided against it, considering the both of them are not the best of friends.
“Why is she so attention-starved?” Alisha complains, looking down on her watch. The argument seems to have taken 10 minutes off their break.
“Daddy abandoned her twelve years ago it seems.” Tiana says, pulling out her phone, unlocking it and opening the messaging app. She scrolls through some of the messages in the debate club group chat and also the messages from the drama club president asking for her help with the costumes for their next show, Heathers: The Musical. She reads through the message, before her fingers start to type and replies to the message.
drama king
Hey Tiana
Ik u said u dont want to help the club anymore...
But Cara have been really busy with exams n other stuff
So we might need more help
Its fine if u cant tho
Just tell me
Tiana thought for a moment, it’s not that she hates theatre, Hakimi is also a great president. Not only that, she owes a lot to Cara, the drama club’s official costume designer for helping her with classes and studies last year.
Other than the annoying blondie, she enjoys hanging out with the people in the drama club.
But at the same time, the debate club had been busy too. Especially with the seniors now having seminars, exams and extracurricular activities for their college credits and also making sure they don’t fail academics completely, most juniors have to step up in the role sometimes.
She starts typing.
drama king
‘i would really love to help’
‘but debate club has been brutal lately :/’
‘i could come by n help if i have free time tho’
She sends the message, just in luck it seems, the dramatic brunette is online. Despite how he’s supposed to be in class right now.
But then again, when is he not online, honestly?
Ding! A reply.
drama king
Sad
Welp ok then
Come by l8tr if u can
Luqman’s been asking bout u ;/
Somethings up? ;)
Tiana grunts, she takes a glance at the blonde who’s right now laughing along with his best friends Haikal and Liam. He pulls out his phone, scrolling through something. Possibly texting someone. Tiana rolls her eye at the sight.
drama king
Hey
Where did u go
Tiya????
????
Dude, sorry
Im just kidding
Do u feel like auditioning?
I mean ur pretty good at it
‘talk about him again n ill kill u’
‘also’
‘no thx’
‘im shit at it, especially heathers’
‘its a musical too’
Ur a good singer
‘yeah, against a dying cat’
Ok, but I mean
If u change ur mind
U can always come to the auditorium
We’re having the auditions for 3 days
Starting tmorrow
Just come whenever during club
‘okk’
Tiana scrolls down, finding Zahin’s name. She clicks on it, and begins typing on her phone.
Zahin
‘hey’
‘are u ok?’
She puts down her phone, looking up to see Imani sitting down, with a tray filled with donuts, a sandwich and three cups of iced tea.
“Hey, are you ok?” Imani says, a sympathetic look on her face. Tiana sighs, taking the sandwich, unwrapping it before taking a small bite.
“Yeah, I’m fine. Sorry for freaking out like that.”
“Oh, you should have. The bitch dumped toilet water on your brother.” Alisha says, taking a bite of the strawberry donut that Imani bought, her eyes lazy into both of them.
“But still, I should’ve been more mature when handling that. Not act like a three-year-old throwing a tantrum.” Tiana says, her lips pursuing into a small pout, disappointed with herself.
“Dude, you’re 16. Like all the rest of us. I would get mad if some girl decides to dump water on my brother too. Pranks are ok. Not when it literally harms someone else, though.” Alisha says, putting her hand on Tiana’s shoulder, reassuring her friend that she was not at fault in that interaction.
“Alisha’s right. Addison went too far with that one. I’ll try to talk to her later.” Imani says, taking a sip from her cup of tea.
“I hate her so much.” Tiana sighs as she lets out a small grunt, frustrated. Her phone chimes. She quickly checks, hoping it's Zahin.
Unknown number
Hey,
Pls don’t kill me for asking this
But
Are u ok?
Tiana doesn’t think she recognizes that number. She types a reply back.
‘sorry but whos this?’
Bruh
Seriously?
U never saved my number?
‘im not obliged to save anyones num’
‘who r u?’
‘im not in the mood to get more mad rn’
Tiana puts down her phone on the table, not wanting to think about the unknown messenger. She takes a bite out of one of the sandwiches in front of her. The chime from her phone catches her attention again.
Unknown number
Hints
Funniest guy in school ;)
‘liam?’
‘this is not funny’
‘who r u?’
Liam?
Seriously?
That guy does not understand comedy
‘u r so annoying’
‘also, that was sarcasm’
‘liam is the least funny guy on the group’
‘haikal’s funnier honestly’
Why does everyone say Haikal’s funny?
He’s not tho
Next hint
They call me drama kid
‘did u get a new num, kimi?’
‘lol’
Tiana’s lips pursue into a small smile. She knows who is it, she wouldn’t say it though. Only one person in her whole life, call himself funniest guy in school. She only smiles as she saves the number in her contacts.
“Who’s that?” Alisha asks, stretching her neck to look at the screen. Tiana immediately takes her phone away from Alisha’s line of sight, hiding the content of the screen.
“Personal space, Alisha.” She says, as she moves a little bit to the left, further away from the peeping brunette.
“Tch, stingy.” Alisha pouts, turning to the right in her childish attempt of sulking. Pouting her lips, crossing her arms and munching on her donut, like a little child. Tiana pays no mind to her friend’s behaviour.
Imani only smiles in amusement at her two friends’ antics.
******
“You didn’t have to push Tiya out of the way, you know?” Louis says, handing the Zahin a new t-shirt from his locker. The green-eyed guy looks at the brunette. His lips curls into a small smile. A soft ‘heh’ escapes his mouth.
“Sorry, I just reacted. It’s just, in the heat of the moment, you know?” Zahin takes the t-shirt in Louis’s hand, as he begins to walk to the changing room.
“But, still. You didn’t have to. Tiya could’ve handled it somehow.”
“It would’ve been worse for her, actually. I can handle some water. Plus…” Zahin begins taking off his wet clothes, putting them in a plastic bag.
“She’s wearing her favourite blouse today. She wouldn’t want it to get ruined. And besides…” He takes the towel that was hanging on the inside of the locker, as he walks into one of the shower cubicles.
“I really don’t want my little sister to get hurt, you know?” He says, getting into the shower cubicle. The whole time, Louis have been staring at the other, completely speechless. Not that he has a lot to say on daily basis.
“You are a little bit too nice sometimes, goody two-shoes.” Louis says, letting out a small grunt of frustration. Zahin’s head peaks out of the cubicle.
“Nice? Maybe. Goody two-shoes? Not really.” Louis’ eyes went wide, he looks away, a hint of red appears across his face. Zahin only let out a small giggle.
“You know, you could take a picture since you like staring so much.” Zahin teases the blushing boy, a third of his right foot already stepping out of the cubicle. Louis instantly pushes the green-eyed boy back into the cubicle and shutting the shower curtain.
“I… I… I’ll wait outside.” Zahin only grins at the other’s stammering as he hears footsteps running out of the shower room. He let out a small laugh before starting to actually clean himself from the toilet water.
Louis practically runs outside of the boys’ changing room. His heart was beating fast, chest going up and down as he was breathing hard, he was practically gasping for air as if he couldn’t breathe. His face flush a deep shade of red as he put his hand on his face, covering his nose and mouth,
Leaning against the wall outside of the changing room, Louis decides to sit down, mind still trying to process what just happened. He thought about the moment he shared with Zahin a minute ago. Since when did that guy became so bold?
“Damnit.”
******
Luqman pouts as he looks across the cafeteria, towards where Tiana is sitting. He knows that she knows it’s him messaging her. He also knows that she knows his number as they’ve talked before, for school purposes. The black-haired girl side-eyeing him as she grins from across the room is proof to that. But that doesn’t surprise him, Tiana had always been a bit of a jerk.
No, not a jerk.
She’s just kinda arrogant, for the most part.
What surprise him more, though is something else.
“She didn’t save my number?! We’ve been classmates since elementary! I gave her my number each time I changed it!” Luqman thought, looking at his messages with Tiana. This is unacceptable! How dare she?!
Luqman let out a small, can only be heard if you’re right next to his mouth groan as he glares at Tiana, who is now a bit more relaxed and laughing with her girl group trio. His mind scrambles to think of a good revenge against the arrogant Ms. Girlboss.
He looks down at his phone. An idea popped into his head.
That’s it.
He knows what he wants to do.
He goes ahead and press the edit option on the saved contact number and as he does, started typing.
“Arrogant witch”
That should do it. He smiles. Satisfied with his attempt of revenge. It’s petty, but he doesn’t care.
He looks at Tiana across the room. The black-haired girl is giggling with her friends, looking at their phones. Probably about some texts, maybe some funny pictures. His lips pursued into a small smile, proud and satisfied with something his own rival doesn't know about (and probably wouldn't care, but he digress!).
Tiana Anderson is an arrogant girl who thinks she knows everything, and Luqman Howard is one petty, dramatic boy.