Family Matters

PART 2: Chapter Eight

"Yeah, each grade above freshman has to contribute something to help promote the school" Ceres said while taking a bite of her sandwich.

"Which is a load of shit if you ask me..." Fred muttered.

"I'm excited for the bon-fire though, it's always fun!!" Diana cheered.

"Yeah until you dance too close to the fire and burn your clothes off" Ross said snickering and Diana frowned before throwing one of her cherry tomatoes at his face.

"Hey, watch it! Beauty like this doesn't come around everyday y'know?" He said and Diana rolled her eyes.

"From what I heard some seniors are thinking of putting on a play or something" Ceres said and Fred scoffed.

"B~oring, who are we attracting? Soon to be high schoolers, or children? We gotta do something totally crazy!" Fred said as he showed them a photo of a daredevil on a motorcycle.

"We're trying to attract students, not scare them away. Besides, it wouldn't get approved by the student council knowing their president" Diana said with a short sigh as she shook her head.

"Ugh...Carter..." Fred muttered.

"What? You don't wanna see your- mmph!!" Ross' mouth had been covered by a glaring Fred.

"Don't start" Fred seethed and Ross' face, well what could be seen of it, was full of amusement.

Carter was an open guy who never hid what he was feeling and always spoke his mind. Unluckily for Fred, Carter's feelings for him were always at the forefront of the student president's mind.

"On second thought, maybe you should pitch the idea. Carter might actually let it slide" Diana said with a giggle.

"The last fucking place I wanna be is next to that guy" Fred grumbled as he removed his hand from Ross but the next thing he knew, two arms wrapped themselves around him from behind his shoulders and the faint scent of cologne infiltrated his senses.

Ceres made a small 'o' shape with her lips as she watched Fred freeze and Ross was practically dying of laughter as he noticed the shocked look on Fred's face.

"What guy?" Fred's eyebrow twitched in annoyance as he heard Carter's voice. Of course the devil would show up when you speak about him.

"Let go of me" Fred said while trying to release himself from Carter's embrace.

"Nu-uh, not until you tell me who you were talking about" Carter said and Fred groaned.

"You know who the fuck I'm talking about so get off me already" Fred said as he forcefully removed himself from Carter who just gave him a pout.

"So cold~ is that really how you treat the guy who likes you?" Carter whined and Fred figured he had enough of Carter's bullshit so he picked up his bag and stood up.

"I'm out of here" he muttered before briskly leaving the cafeteria.

"Fred? Wait!" Carter exclaimed before chasing after the boy.

"Those two are something else" Ceres said with a chuckle.

"It's cute" Diana cooed.

"Ha! Don't let Fred hear that" Ross said.

"Hm...now that I think about it, Hayden's also on the student council. I bet he's swamped with work..." Ceres said.

"Let's pay him a visit! He's probably in the council office bored out of his mind" Diana said and with that, the remaining trio left to see their friend.

~*~

"It's so dead in here..." Diana commented as she looked at the few people in the student council office. Some were slumped on their desks while others looked bored out of their minds. The only one still working was Hayden who seemed to not be as affected as the others.

"Oh, hey guys" Hayden said standing up as he noticed his friends walking in.

"Is it always like this in here?" Ross asked and Hayden shook his head.

"Not really, I guess it's just one of those days" He said and his eyes glanced over to Ceres who gave him a smile.

He had apologized to her earlier in the morning once again and Ceres told him she wasn't upset with him, just worried. He felt bad for worrying her but he knew that she would do it regardless whether he liked it or not.

"We just wanted to check on you since you didn't join us for lunch. Have you eaten yet?" Ceres asked and Hayden shook his head.

"I haven't but I have a free period so I'm going to eat then" he said and Ceres nodded.

"Don't work too hard okay buddy?" Ross said and patted Hayden's shoulder who just offered him a smile in turn.

"Yeah, I know" He said.

"We're should head back now, we've got 10 minutes left" Diana said.

"You guys go on, I'll join you later" Ceres said and the two nodded before heading out of the room.

Hayden was about to say something to Ceres but was stunned when she suddenly hugged him.

"Sorry...I just haven't seen you in a while. I need to charge" Ceres muttered and Hayden couldn't help but let out a hearty laugh.

Ceres still hung on to the occasional robotic jokes from her younger days as she found them to be very funny every once in a while. Although when she relayed the jokes, they were usually in a monotone voice.

Humor was never one of Ceres' strong points but Hayden found it very endearing that she still liked to try.

"Don't you have class to get to?" Hayden asked and the squeeze on his torso was basically his confirmation that she did have class but didn't want to leave yet.

Noticing that he was getting some looks from the other people in the room, Hayden held Ceres at an arm's length.

"You should get back to class before you're late" He said and Ceres pouted but didn't fight against his request.

"Alright...we're gonna walk together today right?" Ceres asked, still feeling unsure on whether or not Hayden needed more space.

"Yeah, definitely" Hayden said and the excited twinkle in Ceres' eyes had his heart melting for the girl.

"Okay, see you later" she said with a happy smile and headed out of the room.

Hayden's heart thumped irregularly as he sat in his seat and let out a longing sigh.

'That's so unfair...' he thought.

He had the cutest girlfriend in the world and she was surely going to be the death of him someday.