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On day 1 of Noelle’s trip, Akarsha was nearly unaffected.
Noelle had told the group before that she was going beforehand at the end of the day yesterday, as her family was visiting relatives in Taiwan. The baseball team was off for a week due to some exams that Chryssa and Liz had to study for, so it was practically the perfect opportunity. She was coming back on Monday, next week. Diya had nodded silently, Min had made some slight jabbing comment, and Akarsha had said “don’t forget us while you’re up there!” to mess with her a little.
What she didn’t say is that she hoped that Noelle thought of her specifically, but she was used to covering that part of her up. It’s what comes along with hiding your feelings for someone.
Noelle had scoffed, and said something along the lines of “of course not, Diya’s my best friend, and you two are too annoying to forget” and then walked out the door. Akarsha watched as she almost waved but then slapped her hand back down to her side, as was a habit of hers. She carried a textbook for each class.
She wouldn’t have communication of any sorts with the group for a week, as her family prohibited electronic devices on visits, so she had to bring those textbooks home, and it was anyone’s guess what exactly she’d be up to, or how she was feeling. Noelle was usually an “emotionless” wall most of the time anyways, but Akarsha had known her long enough to know what was going on in her head (and tease her about it) and so had Diya. Min was mostly left in the dark, but that was mostly for her lack of trying.
And because Noelle came to school every day, walking to the campus and not seeing her familiar braid and bookbag among the cluster of students was a bit jarring, but Akarsha didn’t mind.
She totally didn’t wish she was there either.
----
On the 2nd day of Noelle’s trip, Akarsha was just a tiny bit disgruntled.
There was another tiny pang when she realized that Noelle wasn’t there, and Min teased her for a second about the look that had appeared on her face as she headed over. Akarsha denied any trace of feeling down with a laugh, and decided to ask Diya if she would rather own one cat-sized goat, or two goat-sized cats. She was expecting some kind of ridiculous correction to her question, or something along those lines, but it never came. .
And with no one to bug in the morning with a prank, or argue pointlessly with in the afternoon, Akarsha was a little bored, but Min made up for it by accidentally getting herself stuck in a desk trying to write something on the underside. Diya sighed, and tried to get her girlfriend out, accidentally bending part of the desk in the process, much to her horror.
Akarsha laughed, and hid the desk in a storage closet when no one was looking. No one would know. She could only imagine Noelle’s face…
At lunch, her absence was sorely noted also by Diya, who looked around for someone’s food to steal, and then realized that Noelle wasn’t there. Min gave away some of hers instead with pride, stating it as a thank-you gift for getting her out of the desk. At least she wasn’t the only person who felt like the table was uncomfortably empty.
At the end of the day, she had sent a few messages to Noelle, as was her usual style, but then she remembered that she couldn’t talk to her, and shut off her computer, and took out her elastics.
She couldn’t really figure out why annoying Noelle was so important to her, so she just sat back in her chair, and wondered how exactly they could test Diya’s strength.
Noelle probably could figure out a way… she’s always been good at that kind of stuff.
Akarsha shook her head, and opened her computer again to talk to Min and Diya.
----
On day 3 of Noelle’s trip, Akarsha could definitely tell her absence set off her vibe.
Akarsha had full-on fucking forgotten that she wasn’t supposed to be at school as soon as she saw a flash of someone who remotely looked like her and started to shout “FRENCH-” before realizing that the person 20 meters away from her was not Noelle, much to her embarrassment and Diya’s snickering as she walked beside her.
Akarsha was nearly mortified, but covered it up with “just a prank to play on the student population” to try and shake Diya and Min’s knowing looks off of her. It didn’t work of course, and Min continued to tease her about it the entire day as they walked in between classes.
“Ugh,” Akarsha grumbled as she walked into class. Diya and Min didn’t want to play cards or anything of the sort. She even had an actual pack this time, with no strings attached. Well… except for the one pokemon card she snuck in there, but that was an accident. Noelle always offered to play with her reluctantly, but instead Diya and Min were discussing some famous baseball players.
“And because of that guy, Tom Wakefield right? Is that seriously how you learned to throw knuckleballs?”
She didn’t even know who Tom Wakefield was.
“What the heck does he do anyways?” asked Akarsha, going over to them and awkwardly trying to join into the conversation. “Yell from his position to get his teammates to pay attention? Y’know, like wake-field? Wake the field up?”
Min snorted. “That’s so lame. You’re off today.”
Diya offered an encouraging smile, but said nothing, averting her eyes to the side.
Akarsha walked off to go sit in her seat, the mission failed, joke horrible. At least I could have gotten an actual reaction out of Noelle. She always seems to want to argue with me. Or she would have done that thing where she facepalms, but I can see that she's smiling and trying to hide it.
Did she… actually miss her?
...sure. It was obvious enough at this point.
Lunch passed almost wordlessly. It’s not like she didn’t usually listen while the others talked, but today she couldn’t even come up with anything good. Nothing about spiders, or how wacky wrestling was, or…
“What do you think Noelle is doing right now?”
Diya looks up from her food. “Maybe talking with some family? She knows how to speak Mandarin.”
“Nerding out,” Min replies nonchalantly, leaning back in her chair. “It’s school hours. She’s probably still operating on that.”
Diya nods in agreement. Akarsha does have to admit, considering Noelle, it’s very likely that she’s hunched over a textbook at the moment. And she doesn’t know what exactly she was expecting.
But she hopes that even if she’s sticking to her usual schedule, that she’s having fun somehow.
When Akarsha got home, her heart leaped in her chest, and she opened up her computer, hoping to find at least one message from Noelle, saying something like “I cannot converse with you right now,” or “stop sending me messages, you know I’m on a trip” or just anything, but much to her disappointment, there was only Akarsha’s messages from yesterday.
Akarsha considers sending her memes.
And then she does. One. One meme.
Just to let her know that she’s still intent on annoying her whenever she gets back.
She also considers asking her a bunch of questions about what she’s up to, but she holds back. It’s not like she’s going to answer them anyways. So she decides to scroll back up, and read their previous conversations instead, to pass the time.
Something pangs within her as she recalls all of the stupid jokes she made to get her attention.
Jesus christ, it’s like she’s dead or something. Get over yourself.
So instead, she opens another tab and watches Lucky Star, trying not to think of all the things she could have told her today.
-----
On day 4 of Noelle’s trip, Akarsha is miserable.
“Hhhhhnnnnnngggggg” she grumbles as she lays her head on the cold, probably very dirty table at lunch. She’s bored. No offense to her friends, but it just… isn’t the same. She needs someone to banter with. She wants to see that ridiculously neat braid and birth mark again. She needs to see Noelle. She is suffering.
“Dude, what the fuck is going on with you?!” Min demands, poking her sharply in the cheek. Akarsha just groans and mashes her nose into the table. “You’ve been down all day.”
“Noelle,” she replies. She doesn’t even care about hiding it anymore. There’s no point.
“She’s literally on a trip, she’s not bothering you,” replies Min, a hint of laughter in her voice.
“ That’s the problem,” Akarsha says, finally lifting her head off the table and giving a tired glare at Min. Diya is watching this conversation with a spark of interest. “I want her to come back. It’s not the same without her.”
“...It’s not the same because you don’t have anyone to rile up,” Min says, brushing off the serious tone of Akarsha’s earlier statement. “Diya is too stoic, and it never works on me unless you’re challenging me to something.”
Akarsha’s brow furrows. “Is it really that hard to believe I genuinely miss her?”
“Ye-”
“Because I do. She’s my friend. And so what if she’s coming back on Monday? Current me is ye- wishing for her to come back sooner, because I want to see her and her pretty face.”
Akarsha hopes that’ll pass like it does when she flirts with Diya. Noelle is pretty…. And she knows that she has a crush on her, but she hasn’t quite processed it. Because she wouldn’t be sitting here trying to hide, show and deny everything at the same thing otherwise.
Min stays silent for a moment, looking off to the side. Guess Akarsha actually got to her for once. Diya pipes up.
“I miss her too,” she says, “I know realistically that she’ll be back here in 3 days, but I’m not used to not opening water bottles every day, or missing out on all the jokes I can make about how weak or studious she is. And she’s my best friend. You’re right. It’s not the same.”
“...Yeah I guess that’s true,” Min admits, albeit quietly. “She’s like an integral group of our group. The nerd that we can all annoy.”
Everyone nods at Min’s sentiment. If Noelle were here, she’d be so offended…
“...Plus she never is absent from school, so it’s like a rip in the space-time continuum or something,” Akarsha adds. “Every time I see someone with long black hair or a bookbag that slings over one shoulder, or a sweatshirt tied around their waist, which is a lot of people here, I think it’s her, and it’s getting frustrating at this point.”
She wishes she was kidding.
Besides the loud yell from yesterday, she was walking in the hall and mistook Chryssa for Noelle just because she had her hair down and it’s black. It was embarrassing to skip over to her coach and then realize at the last moment that no, it’s not Frenchman, it’s just the leader of the baseball club and she’s tired from her exams, and doesn’t want to deal with people right now. Chryssa is much taller than Noelle, has a different skin tone, and looks nothing like her, yet Akarsha still mistook her for a moment for the girl who she exists to try and make laugh every day because of how much she wished she were there.
She wasn’t even aware the human mind could do that, but considering some of the things that go on in politics nowadays, she’s not really that surprised.
Min nearly chokes on her chocolate milk from laughter.
“Awww- you want to see her that much you’re having hallucinations?!”
“What?!- no shut up-”
Diya snickers from across the table.
----
Over the weekend, the feeling fades a little since Akarsha is used to not seeing Noelle on Saturdays and Sundays, but it’s still… off, to say the least, to see that Noelle hasn’t replied to her messages in 5 or 6 days.
Not that she checks her messages a lot in the hope that Noelle has actually responded to her or anything.
So she sends her another meme. Just for good measure.
-----
Once Monday comes, Akarsha is instantly looking everywhere for Noelle. So is Diya, in that Diya kind of way, but Akakrsha is determined to find her first. It’s almost a competition. She knows Diya could easily beat her if they raced, but that doesn’t matter.
She’s just gotta look for that signature braid.
“Diya, are you absolutely sure you don-”
And then she sees her.
Neat braid, bookbag over one shoulder. Tired eyes. Fair skin. Same height as Akarsha, if not a bit taller.
Her heart leaps, and she rushes towards her, much to Diya’s surprise. Diya also has the better eyesight out of all of them so it’s some wonder she didn’t spot her first, but maybe she was letting Akarsha do her thing instead.
“NOELLE!”
“AUGH!-”
Akarsha barrels into Noelle with the full force of her 14-year old body and wraps her arms around her while Noelle is taken off guard. There’s no way she can fight her off either. Her arms are pinned to her side. Hopefully Akarsha can play this off as a prank and not because… whatever the heck her motivation is. She’s just so happy.
“ I missed you Frenchman. Don’t leave ever again,” she says, face buried in the crook of Noelle’s shoulder. She added the last part just to add a bit of teasing to it, but she wouldn’t mind if it came true, honestly.
“I- wh- excuse me?! I was only gone for a week!” Noelle screeches, strangely not even trying to struggle against Akarsha’s grip. Maybe it’s because she knows it’s useless to try. She pauses for a moment, and Akarsha can just barely hear her whisper “I missed you too” before launching into her usual tirade. “AND I’M NOT FRENCH.”
Now she’s struggling. Akarsha can feel her heart speed up at Noelle’s admittance, so while in stunned silence, she lets her go. Diya bounds over like an excited puppy dog, and Min eventually joins them a second or two later, but Akarsha just stands there, face warm, brain malfunctioning.
The fact that Noelle even admitted it. The fact that she thought about her. Or maybe she knows Akarsha’s weaknesses and was using it against her so she would let go. Either way, she’s shocked.
But…
At least Noelle is back. And that’s all Akarsha needs for now.