𝙢𝙮 𝙚𝙮𝙚𝙨, 𝙮𝙤𝙪𝙧 𝙚𝙮𝙚𝙨 ( 𝙬𝙖𝙡𝙠𝙚𝙧 𝙨𝙘𝙤𝙗𝙚𝙡𝙡 )

𝙩𝙝𝙞𝙧𝙩𝙚𝙚𝙣

placing it right in front of me, he said, "no, i should have. this is my apology for getting us busted by the coffee clones, and beating your ass in that sword fight."

i chuckled and attempted to twist open the gatorade, but just like on the first day i met him, the plastic cap just abraded my skin, which was newly exposed. i had taken off the bandage after mom suggested it and she was right — it was basically fully healed. walker then noticed that. "want me to open it?"

i hesitated, thinking about how helpless i probably came across as. "no, i got it," i said, more gravelly as i put my strength into the cap.

"you sure—" walker stopped talking once a few spews of the red liquid spritz out. i did it! "good job."

i checked my palms. the one that gripped the bottle was unscathed. but the one i opened it with was stinging. the wound didn't open along with the bottle, though, so i simply tried to ignore it. then, as i leaned my head back onto the chair to chug the gatorade, the first period bell rang. the dissonance of it combined with the sound of mrs fennel's chair scratching the tile floor sent shivers of disgust into my skin.

my teacher began with a humorous lack of enthusiasm, "good morning class." she took her daily, tyrannically slow steps around the room. "today, we're starting a partner project. i'll hand it out now, and you'll have this period and this period only to work on it. and i don't have the energy to listen to your complaints, so don't react as you receive it." that wasn't a good sign. both fennels were infamous for giving kids unjust projects. they're certainly partners in crime, to put it nicely. 

she placed a singular packet onto our table ( yet it was the size of three ) after making her way to the back. there, she stayed and stood right next to me, and as i gazed up at her apprehensively, i noticed the... abundance of hair in her nose. she spoke flatly to class, "don't ask me anything -- it's all in the packet."

i knew immediately once i saw it. what she was requesting that we not react to was the due date, the criminal offense. at the top of the first page was a bolded, italicized, and underlined, "due on friday!!!"

i pointed to the dreadful words, and gave my reaction silently to walker. he reciprocated, furrowing his brows and snarling. this bitch had the nerve to assign a massive project and expect us to turn it in in such little time? and it was a partner project, so she was also banking on two people's schedules to align? her expectations were in the thermosphere. how did she end up such a distasteful man if her standards are this high? oh, that's right -- probably because he's on her level of atrocity.

fennel was ( thankfully ) about to leave my personal, anti-nose hair space when she halted. "miss l/n, is that a bottle of colored liquid that i see," she accused me. 

"yes," i stated. the gatorade bottle was the only thing that stood between me and mrs fennel's burgeoning rage.

"since you don't seem to remember, i should remind you that there is no drinking of non-water beverages in the lab!"

i couldn't keep eye contact with her, because her eyes were practically glowing red, so i glanced around the room. everyone was awaiting my response. i begged myself not to stutter before i opened my mouth to speak. but walker beat me to it. "it was me. i gave her the gatorade." his voice gradually shrunk in volume throughout those two sentences, fennel not-so-gradually approaching my desk and snatching the bottle.

"i don't care who brought in the damn thing, i care about who thought they had the right to open it!" oops.

the class was silent and the only thing you could hear was the weight of the almost untouched bottle as it hit the bottom of the trash can. fennel planted herself back into her chair, smoke fuming from her hairy nose.

luckily, the attention was now on her instead of walker and i, so i turned and spoke to him. "thanks for trying to save me."

"key word: trying. she was not having it." walker then began flipping through the packet, his eyes going wider in disgust with each page. this was going to be a tedious task.

a notification buzzed on my phone. it was from maeve.

maeve

hey, i'm coming to visit you. is the coast clear?

you

slow your roll. this is fennel we're talking about.

maeve

i know. but off periods are boring. sneaking into your class is more fun!

i pondered whether or not i should prevent her from tiptoeing into the class and keeping us company. i mean, i would love that, and fennel tends to not pay attention to us when we're both working separately unless students are being loud. so i checked to see what she was doing at her desk. it appeared as though she wouldn't care if we invited the whole school in for a rave with the shredded packets as confetti. she looked mad, in both ways. she was twitching with rage, rabidly whispering to herself like she was summoning a demon in some archaic language. frankly, she looked like a demon. it was kind of frightening, but maeve would definitely be in the clear.

you

okay, but just warning you, she's not in a good mood right now.

maeve

omw ;)

a few minutes later, the door's handle turned ever so slowly, with no one in sight from inside the classroom so it looked like a ghost was trying to get in. it was either maeve making a fool out of herself on the other side of the door or the demon fennel was summoning. then it noiselessly opened. maeve literally crawled inside and around the tables on the right side of the room, my classmates watching in befuddlement as she passed them and made her way to us.

"well hello," maeve whispered, getting comfortable on the radiator behind walker's chair. 

he strained his neck over his shoulder. "what are you doing here?"

"i wanted to talk business about hats," she said. "hats" was the acronym we had made for howl at the sun.

"hey, that's not what you texted me," i scolded. "i thought you were just going to keep us company while we crack down on this new partner project."

"okay, you never told me about this project," maeve defended. "and it's due in three days, you have time to get together outside of school, correct?" matchmaker maeve was back at it again.

"correct," is what both walker and i acknowledged at the same time. we exchanged smiles before i sighed and said to maeve, "so what are you thinking?"

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thank you for reading chapter 13!