This Just In [ON HOLD]

10. Aftermath {Lia}

It was something we did daily. A couple of us would stay at the table to ensure that no one else would sit at our spot and steal our seats away. With the rest of the girls away and Lauren with her head on the table, we were the only table without chattering students eating without a care of the world.

The silence was abruptly interrupted by a figure settling down beside Lauren.

"Princess," Uhu harshly nudged Lauren, nearly sending her toppling over.

"Oh. It's you again," Lauren assumed the position again before turning to face me with an annoyed expression.

"You and your cute little friends did something yesterday?" Uhu stared at her head before glancing at me.

"Assuming that cute little friend you're talking about is me," I started with a fake chirpy voice, before deadpanning. "I did do tons of stuff. Like studying, eating, reading; the usual ya' know."

Uhu glared at me before shooting me down, "Was I talking to you, Little Miss Perfect? Or do you always interrupt people?"

I chose to ignore his retort but not before my cheeks stained with crimson. Uhu had always a bone to pick with me ever since I beat him in our grade fourth spelling test. When I emerged as champion after the spelling test, Uhu had been around my locker with his pristine-white converse making shoe marks along my blue-coloured locker. Upon seeing me, his mouth warped into a pleasant grin before he marched towards me. Eyes glinting with mischief, he mouthed, "Isn't this an unprecedented gift?" before stalking away.

"Unprecedented" was the word that caused his downfall in the competition.

Pushing the incident away, I latched my eyes upon the breakfast line, which was moving haltingly. Realising that it would take a long time before my food would arrive, I took out my phone to waste the time away. It was apparent that Uhu only came over to irritate Lauren and I was not going to be involved in that.

I checked my phone and realised that I had a message from Clayton that was buried under numerous texts from my sister, Riley and my dad. Clucking my tongue, I wondered whether they have ever heard of sending one message with all their questions loaded inside instead of several different ones. I shook my head as I scrolled through their messages and grasped the idea that all were centered on one common topic: "The Carnival".

Furrowing my eyebrows, I tried to scan my mind for the brief moment where I heard about a carnival being held at Briarwoods. Maybe it was mentioned once during a meeting with The Newspaper Club, however the aforementioned event didn't ring a bell in my mind.

I was going to need to ask one of my friends about the carnival to answer all the questions my family members were asking me. Then it came to me, how did my family members know about it before me, a student at Briarwoods? I fumbled around with my thoughts before coming to the conclusion that Briarwoods had sent out letters that alerted the family members of Briarwoods students about the events that would happen during the term.

I replied to my father and sister's texts accordingly before opening Clayton's text.

11:15pm

From: Clayton :)

Hey, it's me Clayton. I was wondering if you'd like to hang out this weekend at the pizzeria in town?

I stalled and stared at my phone with disbelief before an enormous smile emerged on my face. Clayton wanted to hang out. With me. Score! I typed in a reply just as Jane appeared with my breakfast.

7:04am

To: Clayton :)

Sure! I'll see you there? On Saturday?