Chapter 20

Tiana's POV

"Hello? Hi, Gemma. Uhm, is Marcel there?" I said through the phone with Gemma.

"Oh, sorry love, he just got off to school." Gemma said as I sighed.

"Okay, thanks Gem." I replied.

Marcel wasn't replying to my texts and answering my calls. I wonder what has gotten into him. I then decided to just text him one last time before I board on the plane.

"Hey? Uhm, it's boarding time now and I just wanted to tell you that I'll miss you... Stay safe. Sending love x."

I texted and stared at his contact photo. (image above)

I'm gonna miss him.

"Tiana, to the plane, dear," Miss Hiddleston said as the debate team and I got our bags up and headed towards the plane until-- my phone beeped.

"Oh my God! Honeyy! Stay safe! Oh and buy me one of those Elf foundations and Wet n' Wild nude colored lip gloss okay? Make sure it matches my skin tone. Loveyouu!"

Alison texted.

Wow, for a week, I actually forgot about Alison since she's been hanging out with the school's pep squad for a little while later now.

I must admit, I was hoping it'd be Marcel.

I just shrugged it off and decided to reply to her.

"Thanks :)"

Well, Marcel Styles, I'm now beginning to miss you.

*After 8 hours of travel*

"Welcome to Toronto, Canada!" Miss Hiddleston said as we dragged on our bags and got in a cab to our hotel.

We had 2 room reservations. One room for the girls and one for the boys. We all got dressed up to go meet the other kids from Toronto and Stanford University and have dinner.

I wore my black sleeved fitting black dress that falls just above the knees and some white 1-inched heels to look formal for the meet-up. We then we went to the restaurant called "Spendido" which is one of the best restaurants here in Toronto.

-At Splendido restaurant-

We arrived at the restaurant with a long table full of formal-attired students from both Toronto and Stanford University. As we approached the table, a short-haired woman came to us with a huge smile.

"Good evening! You must be the students from London," she said as we nodded. "I'm Karen Waters, and I'm the one handling the competition."

"Ahh, good eveing and nice to meet you, Miss Waters." Miss Hiddleston greeted as they shook hands. "These are one of my best students representing our school, Michael Chavis, Heather Peter, Gordon Irwin, Fallon Heron, Julio Devries and the team captain, Tiana Lynn Carter." she said as Miss Waters smiled and shook our hands.

"Here, let me introduce you to the other teams." she said, guiding us towards the table.

She then introduced the other teams one by one.

"From Stanford University, this is WalterJune, Blair Anderson, Darren May, Ashley Cray, James Von and team captain, Deena Richards." Miss Waters said as we greeted them and shook their hands.

"Okay and for the students from Toronto University, this is Leona Lewis, George Smith, Hailey Green, Sean Hitherston, Courtney Ray and of course, their team captain, Derek Hampton." Miss Waters said as we, again, greeted them and shook their hands.

We all sat down at the table and started to get to know each other and each other's school. The waiters served us a lot of gourmet food which made our group conversation even better.

"So, you cried over a 98/100 test score in math?!" Derek said, laughing as the other kids laughed too.

"Heyy, it was in middle school!" I opposed as they laughed even more.

We continued to have friendly conversations all throughout the dinner and now is the time when we finished eating and have to back to our hotel.

"Well, I guess we'll see you guys tomorrow at day 1." I said smiling as they nodded and smiled back.

"Stay safe!" Derek said, grinning.

"You too," I said, grinning back as I picked up my bag and started walking towards the door until Derek caught up with me.

"Tiana, wait!" he said as I stopped.

"Yes Derek?" I said as he scratched the back of his neck and reached out for his phone.

"Can I have your number? I mean, I would love to talk to you later. I-I wanna know stuffs about your school." he said as I chuckled and nodded.

"Well, okay." I said and gave him my phone number. "Right now, I gotta go." I said chuckling as he grinned.

"Okay, stay safe." he said which made me remember someone who used to say that to me all the time.

-At the hotel-

It's already 10:48pm, Toronto time so I decided to check my phone and called Marcel to check on him.

No answer.

Oh wait, I forgot. Canada is 5 hours ahead of U.K. time so like, most probably, it's already 3am there.

I sighed in disappointment and, I don't know.. hurt? I do miss him terribly, I hope he's okay.

But what has gotten into him anyway?

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