IV

.𖥔 ݁ ˖𓂃.☘︎ ݁˖(episode 2  - live a little

second week of October 2023).𖥔 ݁ ˖𓂃.☘︎ ݁˖

"What's up with all these decorations?"

"It's for the upcoming Homecoming huddle!"

Posters and banners were plastered in every single corner of the hallway, mostly with the face of the school's  mascot and with the words "Homecoming Huddle!". It's still early in the morning, yet the students buzzed like today's the actual event.

"You don't have that in your previous school?", Phoebe asked, tighten her hold in Bea's arm as more students passed beside them.

"We do have, but I don't really participate." Bea recalled from her previous school's homecoming event last year. Her, Jamie, and Mia, get to visit some booths, but not so much at watching the games.

"We should go tomorrow!"

Bea's curious on what their own homecoming event would look like. Besides, she wanted to hang out with Phoebe outside of school."Sure! You don't want to invite Seb?", she teased.

As she predicted, the mention of her cousin's name made Phoebe blushed like crazy. Redness crept into her entire face and neck.

"No! Tomorrow's only OUR day! No boys allowed!", Phoebe lightly slapped her arm as both of the girls entered their room for their first period. Bea chuckled at her reaction, and sat at her respective seat.

Mr. Wellbein, their English teacher, greeted them as soon as he entered the classroom. "I know all of you are excited for the homecoming huddle — ", he adjusted his glasses, preparing for what comes next. "— but this doesn't mean you don't have serious time as well."

The students groaned at his words, but he quickly shushed them up. "As I was saying before I was interrupted, your assignment would be about homecoming huddle — Mr. Garcia, you're late!"

All of them turned around and saw Isaac at the back, looking like a deer caught in headlights. Bea was shocked, especially by the fact that she doesn't noticed someone's absence beside her.

One thing about Mr. Wellbein us that he hated being interrupted.

"Good morning, Mr. Wellbein." Isaac awkwardly grinned, gripping the strap of his backpack. "Just take your seat, young man." Their professor was clearly fuming, making Isaac rushed to his seat.

"Again, your assignment would be your reflection about the homecoming huddle. You can be as creative as you can. The purpose for this is to enhance your creative juices. The required number of words would be exactly 1,000 words. Pass a hard copy during our class, and this would be a paired activity."

Phoebe immediately turned around and smirked at Bea, which made Bea do in return. The two immediately know who their partners would be.

"Don't get too excited, Ms. Miller and Ms. Taylor. Remember, this is a permanent seating arrangement and every paired activity in this class, you already know who's gonna be your partner."

Some students got happy, some forced themselves to smile. Still looking at each other, Bea gave her an upset look, knowing who she'll going to be paired up with for the rest of the school year.

Phoebe was sad too, but mouthed "good luck" before turning her back and started talking to her blonde seatmate. Mr. Wellbein gave them 5 minutes for a brief discussion of the activity before formally starting the class.

Awkward silence fell between Bea and Isaac. 2 minutes have passed, yet no one said a word or two.

Groaning, Bea pulled out her notebook and started jolting down her ideas. Talking to him after the cupcake incident at the cafeteria would be awkward, but she doesn't have a choice anyways. This is something serious, not a casual one.

"Okay I have an idea," she swallowed her nervousness. "I was thinking about what if we kind of like... make a story? We just have to — "

"Story? That sounds stupid."

Bea rolled her eyes. She expected this reaction from him anyways. "Fine. What's your idea then?"

"What about making a journal entry?" he began. "We'll just divide our part. We each write 500 words and then, we're done! Simple."

Bea cringed, but still wrote his ideas on her notebook. She stare both of their written ideas, thinking thoroughly on how they'll going to do it.

"Do you like the cupcake?"

"What?"

Bea didn't dare to look at him.

"The cupcake. I'm not sure if you ate it though."

"We're in class, we should be discussing our activity." Bea whispered, seriousness painted in her voice. "Why do you care about my thoughts if I like the cupcake or not?" She rolled her eyes. "You didn't even care about what happened back at your house."

She turned around and there he went, looking straight at her eyes. Bea couldn't tell if he knew what she meant, was confused, or in between.

"Not only that, but what you did to Jackie too! That's horrible!"

Isaac broke the contact and chuckled. "It's just a prank, relax.", he scoffed. "Why do you care about what happened to Jackie anyways?"

"Her family died!"

"So? That literally happened like, 6 months ago? She'll get over it. She needs to have fun."

Mr. Wellbein announced that time's up, and then started discussing today's lesson. Great! The time had already ended, but the two hadn't created a concrete plan on what they'll do. Can they do this and their other future activities well even if it means pairing up with this guy?

___________

"Bea!" Nathan called her after their last period in the afternoon ended. He ran after her as he spotted her at her locker, returning some of the books.

"Look!" He proudly showed her the test paper from their surprise quiz earlier. "C minus! Not bad, Nate." Bea smiled, feeling like a proud sibling to him. Both high fived each other and chuckled.

"Definitely better than our first surprise quiz," he sighed, checking on his test paper again. "I'm still confused about this section though."  Bea glanced at the paper and nodded at him in understanding, before continuing putting her books inside the locker. "That's quite understandable. I even got confused by there for a sec."

"Coming from someone who only got an A today? That's impossible." Bea rolled her eyes, lightly hitting his arm before closing her locker. "I'm serious, Nate! But you'll get there eventually."

Nathan scratched his head. "Is it okay if I need some tutoring again? Only in this section though," Nathan pleaded, and Bea nodded instantly. "Sure! We're officially Biology study buddies anyways."

"Great! See you at our house later!"

Again?

Bea groaned internally. Why on earth it's always at his house? The last face that she wanted to see today is Isaac's.

She do wanted to help Nathan. Maybe that's where he's comfortable studying at? Well, whatever the reason is, she doesn't have a choice. She's there to teach him, and what's more important is for him to concentrate on studying in an environment that he's the most comfortable with to get better at his weakest subject.

Noticing that Nathan was concerned because of her reaction, Bea reassured that she's fine and is excited to meet him later, before the two of them went on their separate ways.

________________

"I think you got the topic already. Try answering this practice quiz.", Bea handed him the practice quiz she made inside Seb's car during the drive to the Walter household. "And no peeking!", she grabbed his phone and notes and put it a little bit further away from them. Nathan nodded then started answering the practice quiz.

To occupy her mind, she grab her notebook and went to a page where she wrote hers and Isaac's ideas for the assignment.

If it weren't for Isaac asking about her thoughts about the cupcake, they should've have an idea on what they'll do!

Stupid Isaac, she clicked her tongue.

She's confused even more than ever. One day, he was acting all weird, staring at her with an unreadable expression before resuming in flirting with the girls, and then today, he's acting all cocky, calling her idea stupid and not caring about Jackie's feelings.

He's confusing as ever, and that made her urge to get an answer.

But first, she needed to find him in this goddamn house, wanting to clarify about their activity. School come first before....this.

She excused herself from Nathan before walking into the kitchen, hoping he was there.

To her surprise, there's no one in the kitchen. Sighing, she turned around and —

"What are you doing here?"

As if he just appeared out of thin air, Isaac stood there, one hand tucked in his pocket and the other touching his pearl necklace. "Nathan didn't tell you? I'm tutoring him, and he's currently  answering the practice quiz.", Bea approached him, and at the same time making sure that there's a space between them.

"I actually wanted to see you to —"

"See me?"Isaac smirked, still touching his necklace. Ignoring the heat in her cheeks, she rolled her eyes at him . "That's not what I meant. I wanted to ask you about our assignment," she sighed. "Tomorrow's the homecoming huddle, and both of us know we still don't have an idea on what we're going to do."

"Your idea is stupid, and you thought mine's stupid too. We could just... I don't know, use AI?"

Isaac laughed, but Bea just stood there, arms crossed and face scowled. Knowing she won't take a joke, he stopped. "Okay, do you have an idea then?" he sarcastically asked.

"Uh, no not yet — "

"Well, AI it is."

"Do I look like I'm joking here?"

It's the truth — she doesn't have any ideas other than her first idea. Sighing, she reached out her phone from her pocket and handed it to him. "Give me your number."

Isaac was taken back by this. "A girl asking a guy's number first?"Before he could joke further, she cut him off.

"I swear to God! Garcia, tell me one more joke  before I decided to throw you out of the window!" she snapped. Isaac just laughed at her reaction before snatching her phone and started typing his number."Relax, jeez," he handed the phone to her right after.

"This is for school purposes only. No casual talks, and other stuff."

"Yes, ma'am," he jokingly saluted at her.

While Bea was saving his contact in her phone, she couldn't help but feel something. As she looked up, Isaac was staring at her.

And there goes that uneasy feeling in her chest again, and his puzzling stare.

"What?"

She noticed his adam's apple bob up. Touching his pearl necklace again, he broke the contact and looked anywhere but her.

"Um — ", he  coughed. "— I just wanted to say I'm sor—"

"Bea, I'm done!", Nathan's voice suddenly boomed around the ground floor. "I promise you, I didn't peek!"

"Well, I guess that's my cue to leave," Bea said. "You can continue telling me that tomorrow at the event, okay? And I'll text the idea later". Before Isaac could even respond, Bea already left the kitchen and walked towards the living room.

On the other hand, Isaac didn't move from his spot. He clicked his tongue, knowing that his plan was unknowingly interrupted by his cousin today, and he dared himself to not let this slide tomorrow.

"See you tomorrow, pretty."______________

For Bea, every paired activity means she needs to work on her part as soon as possible and to give her all, no matter who she paired up with.

The clocked strike at 11 pm, yet Bea typed at her laptop like she's running out of time. She had already established an idea on what they'll be doing 3 minutes ago and was so eagerly excited that she poured out her all attention on the screen in front of her right away, with ideas felt like naturally flowed inside her veins. She hoped Isaac would like this —

"Oh shit!", she cursed and quickly grab her phone. She was so engrossed about this actvitiy that she forgot to do the most important thing: telling Isaac about her idea.

garcia(+1) (***) (***-****)Today. 11:00 PM.

garcia? this is bea.

not even a second later, he replied.

oh heytexting me at this hour, huh?😉

oh my god.anyway, i was thinking about our activity. what if we combined both of our ideas together?

okay, im listening

we make a story about the homecoming huddle. we each wrote 500 words, but the plot twist would be that one of us wouldn't know what the story's gonna be unless they'll read the 1st part of the story.

that's so complicated

exactly! this is to exercise our creative abilities anyways. that's literally the purpose of the activity.

i told youwe'll just use AI for this

im screenshoting this and send it to mr. wellbein.im serious.

garcia reacted angry at your message

womp wompokay fine, let me think of other ideas then

"He did not just reacted angry and sent a 'womp womp'?!", Bea rolled her eyes. Seeing that he's not typing, she continued her work. If ever he'll agree with her plan, might as well finish this so that he can start his part faster.

Minutes felt like hours when her phone didn't buzz. Groaning, she reached out her phone and hoping he's typing, only it wasn't.

it's been 7 minutes. i need your answer now.

Another 3 minutes passed until he replied her back.

can't you just wait?finei can't think of anything, you won

great. i've already started writing now. that means you'll be the other person who'll write the other half.

garcia reacted angry at your message

you're working? at this hour?wtfalright whatever 🥺

Bea cringed when he reacted 'angry' again and sent an emoji that happened to be her most hated emoji ever.

i'll send the 1st part through your school email as soon as possible. you have a printer there right?

yes, ma'am.

alright. that settles in. goodnight garcia.

Satisfied, Bea happily continued her work, excited on what the outcome will be. She hoped that whatever Isaac put on his part will turn out to be great.

Her phone suddenly buzz twice. Isaac has sent two messages.

*garcia unsent a message*goodnight.

Seen at 11:21 PM

Curiosity dawned at her as she stared at the unsent message. Why did he unsent? Did he send something accidentally?

Not letting this incident overthink her, she threw her phone without locking it at her bed and continued working, determined to lock in and finish this before midnight. Besides, whatever he unsent it, it's probably not related to their work.

Her phone buzz again, and a notification appeared at her lockscreen.

garcia reacted heart at your message

____________yey, first update this month! :)