XII

.𖥔 ݁ ˖𓂃.☘︎ ݁˖(episode 6 pt. 1 - baggagetwo weeks after thanksgiving //second week of December 2023).𖥔 ݁ ˖𓂃.☘︎ ݁˖

Two weeks had passed since Thanksgiving ended, the autumn breeze turned into a sharper chill, hinting a winter's quiet arrival.

Many minutes had passed since lunch break started. Nathan's leg bounced, anxiously looking around while fiddling the flash drive in his hands. Meanwhile, Bea was silently eating her PB&J at his side.

"Gosh, I'm nervous," Nathan confessed, clutching his jacket.

"Nate, you literally made me review your playlist for the 6th or 7th time since last night. You picked the songs very well!" Bea nudged at her younger friend.

"What if he doesn't like the songs? And what if he doesn't like my song?" Nathan whispered.

"He will like it. And he will like your song", Bea reassured him, sipping down her honey lemonade drink. His playlist was already perfect as it is. Although Nathan didn't put his own song when Bea reviewed the playlist, she was confident that his song will be turned out good.

Speaking of the devil...

Bea noticed Skylar entering the cafeteria, and quickly nudged Nathan. Nathan almost slipped his flash drive from his hands, and quickly left their table. Bea just watched as the scene unfolds in front of her eyes — Nathan talking to Skylar and giving him the flash drive. As Skylar left, Nathan clutched his jacket in his arms, his face turning beet red.

"So? How was it?"

"I-I guess it's okay? He said he can't wait to listen and he thanked me", he went back to his seat. "He even said that it's an honor for him to receive a music from a musician."

"Oh gosh that's great! He better like the playlist."

"Hey!"

"What?" Bea scoffed. "Making a playlist and picking the perfect songs is already difficult, plus you made an original song, which is so much more difficult."

"I get your point, but at least I wanted him to appreciate it", he lowered his head. "Doesn't matter if he'll like it or hate it."

"Hey, don't be so hard on yourself", she patted his back.

"Hey guys! Sorry I'm late," Phoebe panted as she arrived at the table, her keychains in her bag making noises.

"Where have you been?"

"Uh, school stuffs."

Bea had been suspecting about Phoebe recently; sometimes getting late for Mr. Wellbein's class, not responding to their text messages often, and having to go constantly to the school's computer room. She didn't questioned her, not even Nathan.

"Guys, I brought you something," Bea pulled out two sandwiches from her bag. Apparently, Amelia had stopped making her PB&Js every morning due to the demand of her work, and as much as she loved how her aunt makes it, she had to continue this 'tradition' herself  — but of course, not without making extra sandwiches for her friends.

Both of her friends thanked her and started munching down their own sandwiches.

"Oh by the way –" Nathan gulped. "-are you guys going tomorrow?"

"What's for tomorrow?"

"Bonfire!" Nathan took another bite. His mouth was still full as he asked Bea about something, but she was able to comprehend it.

"Bonfire's not really our thing back there."

Bonfire in Silver Falls is what to clubbing in her hometown. Most of Bea's seniors at her old school bounced from a club to another, with their glittering clothes and fake I.Ds.

"Well you should come tomorrow! How about you Phoebe?"

As they looked at Phoebe, the girl was silently munching on her sandwich. Her face turned unknowingly pale.

"Hey, you good?"

"Huh?" Phoebe startled at Nathan's question. "Um, I forgot my phone at the computer room. Bye!"

Before the two could say anything, Phoebe left together with her sandwich.

"That was.. odd?"

Bea tried not to overthink. "Maybe she did leave her phone at the computer room."

As the two friends continued eating their sandwich, Bea noticed Jackie sitting on the bench outside, together with Alex. They were laughing and Alex started kissing Jackie all over her face, including her lips.

What?

"Hey Nate, since when did Jackie and Alex..."

Nathan glanced at where Bea's gaze was. He shook his head. "Since Thanksgiving. They're all over each other and it's making me nauseous every time I saw them," he cringed.

"Since what—huh? When me and Seb were there, I don't think –"

"It was after Thanksgiving," he clarified.

In just months of being here and knowing the boys, that was quite fast for Jackie to fall in love with someone. What's even shocking is she dated a boy who lived under the same roof as hers'. Good for her, maybe.

"Okay, what's up with the bonfire thing?"

"Just some beer pongs, drinking beers, and unfortunately, a place for sex."

"Place for what?"

Silver Falls is definitely a wild place. Back at her hometown, she doesn't even know if such events like these happened at her school, and if there was, her parents will forbade her to going places like that anyways.

"Lots of people make out there. No surprise."

Bea could only mutter "damn" after hearing those. This is definitely new to her.

"Hey! If you're going tomorrow, you can stick by my side you know. We could play songs- oh yeah, I'm planning on bringing my guitar tomorrow!"

That doesn't sound too bad.

The school bell rang, indicating the end of lunch break. Both friends bid goodbye before they separate ways.

As she clutched the strap of her bag, Bea's mind wandered off again to their "bonfire" conversation. Being honest with herself, it wasn't really an ideal "go-to-place" for her. Beers? A place of making out? Maybe, drugs? Back at home, the only places she would go to are cafes and restaurants, or any other establishments (except for clubs, obviously). Trying those things weren't in her mind ever since.

The smell of the ink from the marker pen and old textbooks welcomed her back to reality as she entered her History classroom. As she situated herself in her seat, the thought of her thinking if she'll go (mostly because of Nathan) or not is still in her mind.

_________________

It's Saturday, the day of one of the most anticipating events in Silver Falls will happen later tonight.

This morning, Bea was currently studying Math in the library. She has no classes this day, but figured she'll have a change of scenery of her study sessions when Seb went to the school due to activities that the art club will be doing now, and decided to go along with him.

From the countless papers with hundreds of solutions in it to her switching in listening to white noise instead of her usual Ariana Grande study playlist, her brain was literally deep-fried.

She needed a break.

Sighing, she left the library, clutching her Math book and her notes.

Bea arrived at her locker and started putting her things inside. As she finished arranging, the back of the door of her locker caught her eyes. It was a series of photographs that she took, mostly from when she was in Washington, D.C. But recently, recent pics were already added there; a selfie of her and Phoebe at the Homecoming huddle, a stolen shot of Phoebe and Nathan at the Lark, and the three of them wearing their matching beaded necklaces. Followed by the pictures from her hometown, she bitterly smiled as she observed them, starting from a selfie of her and her father at the National Mall, a shot of her glee club members rehearsing at the stage few days before their performance, and a picture of.....

She quickly snatched the picture and teared into pieces. Obviously, Jamie and Mia doesn't deserve their faces in the wall with the people she loved. Shaking her thoughts, she closed the locker and threw the teared pieces of the picture into a trash can that she found in the hallway, her head hanging low.

They don't matter now. They're in the past.

"Bea! What are you doing here?" Bea looked up and saw Jackie, who stopped her tracks and clutching the straps of her bag pack.

"Hey Jackie. I just studied Math back at the library."

"Oh. You're going home now?"

"Nah. Guess I'll stroll around here while waiting for Seb to finish their activities at the art club," she shrugged.

"I heard they're doing backdrops for the play. Why don't you come with me?" Jackie suggested.

Bea smiled. Besides, she wanted to hanging out with her ever since they met at the Homecoming huddle.

"Yeah sure," Jackie smiled and the two started walking.

"Where are we going, anyway?"

"You'll see. Oh, we're almost there," Jackie sighed. "We should walk faster. Gosh, I'm so late."

The two girls were still a few meters from the room, but Bea heard a guy's voice inside, and it was oddly familiar.

"Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind."

This guy must've been reciting a line from a play?

"Hey. Sorry I'm late," Jackie apologized as soon as they entered the room. Bea was surprised to see Danny standing on what it seemed like a front porch prop, a hand on his hip while the other hand carrying a script.

"Hey. It's okay. Oh hello, Bea!"

"Hi Danny."

"You don't mind if she's here, right?" Jackie asked, as she situated herself in a bench in front of Danny. Bea followed her.

"You don't snitch on Bash, right?" Danny turned to Bea. "I haven't told anyone about this yet, not even my family."

"I plead no snitching," Bea chuckled.

"Great," Danny's attention then turned to the New Yorker. "Thank you for helping me with this Julliard application. I would love to go to their summer program," he slowly stepped down the stairs prop.

Bea didn't take Danny as a theatre kid the first time they met at the Thanksgiving, and thought it was so random of him to go in and out of the auditorium. It was surprising to hear this, especially when he wanted to do summer program at one of the most prestigious drama schools in the Upper West Side.

"Woah, that's so cool, Danny." Danny smiled at Bea.

"No, um.. I want to help," Jackie started letting out some things from her bag. "There's so many things I didn't know how to do when I moved here. You know, like, how to muck out of a stall or make up excuses for why I can't muck out a stall." Both Bea and Danny chuckled at her. "But this is something that I can help you with. So just let me put my fancy school skills to use, okay?"

"Yeah sure."

"Wait, you're into theater too, Jackie?" Bea asked.

"More so of how I wanted his application to be a bomb," Jackie got two folders from her bag, with lots of bond papers inside. "But yeah, I also used to watch theaters back at home."

Ah right. No surprise her and her late family watched those. New York was the theater capital anyways.

"How about you, Bea? You're into broadway too?" Danny folded his arms.

"Not really. I enjoy watching musicals at home though. And I like Hamilton." She recalled the time when the cast of the popular broadway musical performed at the White House few years ago. That was the first time Bea had heard about them.

"I think that's everyone's first love in musicals."

Danny's not wrong though. Hamilton was Bea's first love in musicals, and since then, she enjoyed watching musicals at home.

Jackie cleared her throat. "Okay, shall we start now, Danny?"

_________________

Bea left Jackie and Danny, as she had received a text from Seb that he's already in the parking lot. As she walked in the hallways, she spotted her best friend at his locker, putting some of his things inside.

"Nathan, hey! You have classes today?"

"Oh, hey Bea," Nathan's voice halted.

Oh there's definitely something going on.

Bea leaned her back at the locker beside Nathan's. "Spill."

"What?"

Bea only gave him a look. Nathan started to confess — from asking Skylar again if he listened to the song already, Skylar saying he hasn't, and Nathan generally being awkward.

"I wasn't very chill. It's so stupid," he cringed at that thought.

"Stop saying bad stuffs about you!" Bea straightened her composure. "It was not stupid, it's okay to be awkward and besides, maybe he'll listen to it eventually."

Nathan finished arranging and locked his locker. He started banging his head on his locker.

"Hey! No banging," Bea stopped him before he continued banging his head for the 3rd time.

"Look –" Bea put her hands in his shoulders. "- Just be yourself for later. He's going too, right?"

"Yeah."

"Try not to ask him again, Nate?" Bea gave him a sheepish smile. "Just...whatever happens, it'll happen and accept it," she patted his shoulders before releasing them.

Nathan just shrugged. In the glimpse of his eyes, Bea knew he'll asked him again later.

"Gosh, it would be so much better if you and Phoebe go later. You're going later, right?"

_____________hey guys! it's been a while :)))

so busy with school (finals season is killing me) but i'm finally done!!! aaaaaa

the next chapter will be about the bonfire episode, so excited to upload it :))