Meet Me at Five

1: Coffee Stains

     Maybe it was the light seeping through the tree leaves outside the window or the light feeling given by the AC inside the computer laboratory. Perhaps it was because we were about to finish the project that cost our group a decent sleep for the past three days. Whatever it was, it felt uplifting.

"Now we just need to click run," Lucy said, guiding the elf on the monitor to catch the falling gifts with the mouse.

I sighed in relief. Lucy finally got rid of the error that has been bothering me since three in the morning. It turns out it wasn't that big of an issue in our game, and I was only probably too sleepy to think of a better solution during the wee hours of the morning.

"We only have five minutes left!"

We crammed a project. Again. But this will be the last time... for this school year (I can't promise that we won't do it again next school year). Of course, we weren't crazy enough to make a game until the last minute of the deadline. The project was just too hard to complete overnight. The teacher taught this, but he only skimmed through the lesson. So, how were we able to perfect this game? YouTube and Google. You will never end up disappointed with those two.

My arm twitched when Thea's sweaty hand landed on it. Even the cold breeze inside the room couldn't help hide her nervousness. In a group, Thea is one of those members who does not usually cram. But we still have five minutes. Five whole minutes to save the file in our group flash drive and pass it to our teacher.

"Okay, okay. He is in the faculty," Lucy pertained to our teacher. She handed the flash drive over to Luis, who bolted out of the room right away. Lucy and I had to stay to turn the computer off and fix our small mess. Thea, on the other hand, ran after Luis to be sure he'd hand it over before the deadline.

We parted ways when I stopped by the cafeteria. It was lunch already, but Lucy and Luis had other plans. Thea was nowhere to be seen. Or maybe she was just catching up with her breath, calming her heart that might have been beating crazy as we barely passed on time.

As soon as I occupied a table next to the windows, I took a deep breath. I realized I could finally relax. The school year is ending, and I do not have any backlog left to accomplish. But that little feeling of inner peace was shattered when I was in the middle of savoring the beef and broccoli. I noticed that the other students squealed and pointed at me.

Why were they looking at me with those eyes? It wasn't offensive, but it was bothering me. Could it be that I was savoring my lunch too much and ended up looking like it was my first time eating decent food? In that case, they were not wrong. Instant food kept me alive at school. I did eat proper meals at home, but it was always rushed because of our demanding school works.

I was about to defend myself when one of the girls finally used words.

"Just how cute was that?"

I turned my head only to see two girls near the tennis court. The taller girl holding a red flower wrapped her arms around the other girl in a ponytail and cutely jumped around her.

Ah, the prom.

The exhaustion was slowly creeping back into my body. I haven't gotten myself a partner for the prom yet, and I only had about four weeks left. Unlike other schools, we have our prom weeks after the last grading period. Luis was going to ask Lucy. One of our batchmates asked Thea to be his partner, which she agreed to. I was the only one left in our friend group without a partner.

Have I been picky with who I want to partner up with? I won't deny that. You see, I didn't want to go to prom with just anyone. That would be ruining my high school experience. I wanted to go with someone else. Someone that had been in my mind since the teachers announced the event. Luckily, he hasn't asked anyone or been asked by other people – according to a source.