Red String (CAMREN)

Chapter 3

The room that was filled with students laughing, joking around, chatting was suddenly changed with gasps. She noticed the lady behind the counter stop taking her order then Camila followed her gaze, looking around the room. Students gathered near the middle of the cafeteria and made a circle while chanting. "Fight! Fight! Fight!"

This caught her attention, leaving the place she stood on, Camila walked fast to the crowd.

"What is going on here?!" She exclaimed as she tried to get through the cheering students. She gasped, horrified of what was in front of her. There on the floor, Sofia was on top of another student she recognized, Jake, pulling his hair out while he struggling out of her grip.

"Oh my god..."

"Sofia!" She exclaimed. A horrified Camila came in between the two raging kids, separating them and getting scratched on the neck on the way but she ignored it. Then a few seconds later, another teacher that was on lunch duty, came to help her while the students let out a 'boo' for ruining the show.

Sofi just looked down on her lap as she waited for her parents to come and get her. Thirty minutes has passed since the fight in the cafeteria, Jake's already left with his dad. The principal went off on them for fifteen minutes in disbelief, mostly directed to her. She was known as a kind, smart, well behavior student that everyone liked. She'd never been to principal's office out of trouble.

Sofi looked up when she saw feet with black high heels came in view. It was Lauren, not her parents. Of course they wouldn't come, she said to herself. She watched the green eyed latina making her way to her and taking a seat on a chair beside her. Lauren sighed. The girl didn't dare to look at her; she didn't want to see the disappointment in the older latina's eyes.

"Hey," Lauren let out a low sigh when she received no response from the girl. "Will you let me take a look at your face?" She said calmly.

When Sofi finally turned her face, she examined the girl's slightly bruised left eye. Just then the principal came out and Lauren stood up, giving the man a hand shake. Then he began to explain the event occurred.

"She won't be suspended, considering Sofi has always been a good student. But she still got a detention for a whole month. Helping a teacher would be a good punishment." He ended.

"That's fair enough." Lauren glanced down at the girl then turned her attention back to the principal. "Thank you and I'm very sorry for the inconvenience."

They sat in silence for a moment in Lauren's car that was parked in school parking lot. "What happened, Sofi? Why did you fight?" Lauren asked softly to let the girl know that she wasn't mad at her. She knew Sofi was not the type to do something without a reason.

"H-he kept picking on me. Usually I ignored him but earlier he took my journal and he... he r-read it out loud in the cafeteria. That's my... secrets and he kept reading it, laughing at me... m-mocking me." Sofi said in between sobs, putting her head on her hands.

"Oh Sofi," Lauren brought herself in the center of console, wrapping her arms on the younger girl in an awkward angled hug. She let her crying until it became little whimpers. Lauren leaned back a little to wipe the tears on Sofi's cheeks with her thumb. "I'm sorry he did that." Lifting the girl's chin so she could look her in the eye, she pondered.

"You know, I saw the boy walking out with her father on my way to the office. If it makes you feel better, you did a hella good job with him."

The younger latina laughed whole-heartedly.

"But you're going to apologized to Ms. Roberts. Are we clear?" Lauren turned serious and gave her a firm tone. She meant business. All these years she spent with the Cabellos, Lauren became a constant in Sofi's life. That was why she knew to not test her luck with the green eyed woman.

"Yes."

"Good! Cause we're going to do it now."

"What?" Sofi's head turned fast to Lauren. "But she won't be out until all of her classes finish for the day." She whined. It didn't make sense to her that they had to wait another three hours or so. Why she couldn't just apologize tomorrow, she thought.

"Then we'll wait for her. Here," Lauren handed a brown paper bag to Sofi. "Figured you might lose energy because your kungfu panda stunt." She giggled, earning an eye roll from the younger girl.

Defeated. Sofi leaned her head on the door window, still narrowing her eyes at the raven haired woman on the driver seat while opening the paper bag. She guessed she didn't have another choice, she took out the burger, unwrapped it, took a big bite then chewed it exasperatedly before turning her gaze to the school building, might as well keeping an eye for when her teacher out of the door.

—

Camila headed to the parking lot then stopped on her track when she saw Sofia was standing by her car, with an older woman. Raising her eyebrow, Camila walked towards them.

As Camila stood before the two, she eyed Sofia before she turned to the other woman. She studied her—her pale skin, her raven hair, her gorgeous face to her decisive posture.

"Hi, Ms. Camila," Sofi managed to say which got Camila back to reality. Before the girl could continued, the pretty raven haired woman in front of her take a step forward and said, "Ms. Roberts, Hi, I'm Lauren Jauregui," She addressed her, holding out a hand for her to shake. "Sofi's sister."

What was it about the woman that seemed familiar? It was weird 'cause she had this feeling when the first time she met Sofia. Only this feeling now wasn't as strong as then.

"Hi, please call me Camila." Ignoring the familiarity she sensed, Camila asked, "What is it?"

"We're here because Sofi has something to say to you, right, Sof?"

"uhm right... Ms. Camila, I apologize for hurting you—giving you that," Sofi said in a hush tone as she pointed to the scratch marks on her teacher's neck. "I really didn't mean it and I'm very sorry."

Camila smiled at the younger brunette's sincerity, "It's okay, Sofia. But I must say you got good claws there." She joked but that only made the girl furrowed her brows and evoked a child-liked giggle from the older woman.

"That she does," said Lauren, patting her hand on top of Sofi's head. Sofi scowled at this and swayed Lauren's hand away from her head.

Camila smiled softly watching the two bickering. That was when she realized something and asked, "uhm do happen to be the car owner that was found burned?"

Lauren's eyebrow arched and answered, "Yes, that would be me. Excuse me but do I know you?"

"No, but my friend was hit by your car."

"Oh. I see..."

"What do you mean it was yours, Lo?" Sofi asked confused by the new information.

"Yeah, remember when you called and Dinah answered it? I was at the police station with her at that time to make a report. It was stolen two weeks ago and yesterday when I was at work, I was requested to come to the police station to be questioned." Lauren explained to Sofi, knowing her teacher was also listening right now.

Then Lauren turned to look at the teacher and said, "Detective probably had told you. I really don't know what to say but I'm sorry for what happened to your friend."

"Yes, she has," Camila shrugged. "I guess I was just surprise to meet you, the car owner, here, when they're still searching for the driver."

———

a/n

Hey guys!

i was so happy for the girls for winning 2 awards on the VMA. i couldn't stop grinning like a crazy person when i heard that :)))))))

honestly i was supposed to update on last sunday but hell broke lose and my mind stopped working properly for several days. so here it is! though i feel like something's just missing in this chapter.. it felt off for me tbh.. but yeah.. i hope you still enjoy it

again thank you for all the feedbacks and the read. i really appreciate it :)

have a good night you lovely people

—Gunar