Secrets In Paradise (GirlxGirl)

Baseline

Emma's POV:

Running my thumb and middle finger across my eyebrows and under my eyes, I tried to see if I could get rid of my headache by massaging my upper face. With the school year coming to an end and seniors having less than 24 hours to study for their exams, it was safe to say today was havoc.

So much so that principal Hoffman announced that any juniors or seniors that wanted to leave early could. According to him, we were disturbing the exams that were in place for the freshmen and sophomores due to how noisy we were being. Naturally, I would have jumped at the chance to leave early but seeing as I had a study group with Hanna and Jenna, we just agreed to study in the cafeteria. Jenna had made the suggestion that we just study in one of our houses, but since several of the books we needed were in the library, we had to stay.

For the most part, the first half went by smoothly with only a few interruptions, but our small study group grew when it came time for lunch. We were joined by Chloe, Aaron, and Koby, and although I didn't want to sit near the guys, I stayed rooted in my spot since there wasn't any other place to sit. For the first time since the beginning of the school year, instead of the lunch period being divided into two, principal Hoffman just combined them believing that most of the upperclassmen would have left by now. Sadly he was mistaken causing the cafeteria to be crowded with all the grades in one place.

Thankfully, many people after getting their lunch ate elsewhere, but it still didn't help with the volume of noise, causing me not to hear when someone called out my name. It took the person, Stephen, shaking my shoulder from behind for me to drop my hand from my forehead and snap out of my trance. Turning to look at Stephen, I gave him a small smile before waiting to hear what he needed to say. Fidgeting with his hair, Stephen looked around at the table before frowning slightly, mumbling under his breath Koby's name.

"Have you seen Brooklyn?" Stephen asked.

Shaking my head, I thought about the last time I saw her, only to realized it was during our fitting which was two days ago.

"No sorry, I actually haven't heard from her either. Why, is everything okay?" I asked. Once again Stephen just shook his head before responding.

"Yeah, I just wanted to tell her how my exams have been going so far. I know for a fact that in science I got at least an A-minus. I just thought she should know."

"Well, I'll let her know if you want," I said.

"No it's fine, I rather tell her myself. Do you know if she's in school?" Stephen asked as he finally turned to look at me.

"Honestly, I don't know. I came to school pretty early and Brooklyn usually gets here twenty minutes before the bell rings."

"Right... when hopefully I catch her soon... I have a feeling she probably won't be here next week. I know if I was a senior I wouldn't come," Stephen mumbled, looking slightly sad. Placing my hand on his arm, I tried to give him a reassuring smile as I responded.

"She's valedictorian, I have a feeling principal Hoffman is going to ask her to come next week," I said.

"Oh... wow okay, did not know that. Thanks, but um okay, I'll talk to you later, I left my food with my friends and I have a feeling they're gonna mess with it," Stephen said as he smiled at me. Letting his arm go, I watched as Stephen playfully saluted at me before walking away from my table. Keeping an eye on him until he made it to his table, I couldn't help but smile at the fact that Stephen seemed to care what Brooklyn thought of his progress.

"Wait... Brooklyn is our valedictorian?" Someone called out, causing me to turned to look at the group.

Looking around, I had thought it was Hanna who asked but seeing as everyone was now staring at me, I wasn't too sure which female said it. Nevertheless, I responded.