"You're telling me that Griffin trapped you in a tree but now you guys are a thing?" June asked for the fourth time.
After getting back to school with Griffin, I'd made my way to my dorm. I'd woken up June who'd still been asleep, then texted Noah and Ruben to meet us in an empty classroom. The four of us were now sitting on some desks, eating the breakfast croissants that June and I had grabbed from the great hall as we passed it.
"Yes," I replied. "I know it sounds crazy, but yeah we're now together."
Ruben shook his head in disbelief. "I feel like I'm still dreaming."
June nodded. "Me too."
I turned to Noah. "I have a bone to pick with you."
He laughed and I couldn't help but now see how similar his expression looked to Griffin's. "I think I know what you're about to say."
"You should've told us!" I exclaimed. "You withheld game changing information!"
"Told us what?" Ruben asked.
"That he's Griffin's cousin!"
June began choking and we paused to let her recover.
"He's what!" she finally got out.
Noah smiled sheepishly. "He's my cousin."
June got off the desk and stalked towards Noah. "Why didn't you tell us?" She pointed her finger at him and Ruben and I shared a laugh. We'd been at the end of that finger more times than a few times.
"It didn't seem important," Noah said with a shrug.
"Didn't seem important?" June echoed, throwing her hands up into the air in exasperation. "You could've revealed all of his weaknesses to us, his fears, everything! But no, it apparently wasn't important."
I decided that now was not the time to tell her that Noah had also assisted Griffin in the glitter prank. I was still fishing out the sparkles from my hair and I could only assume she was in the same situation.
"At least we know now," Ruben added. "We can use this information for our last pranks."
"Yes," I jumped in. "We have until the end of tomorrow to beat him. The score is currently 6:7 to him."
"Easy." June began pacing between our desks. "I'm thinking tomorrow we can swap their clothes with tutus while the hockey match is going on."
"Sounds good" I replied.
"Tomorrow is the final between Beckfall and Dartington." Noah ran a hand through his hair. "It's gonna be tense."
My pulse quickened in anticipation. This was the match that everyone had been waiting for.
"Tonight we can pull the stock cube and toilet paper pranks," I suggested. "Then, with the tutu prank pulled tomorrow, the score will be 8:7 to us. If he does have another prank we can always come up with one on the spot."
June nodded. "Perfect. The boys and I can leave the dance early to set up, and you can stay with Griffin to keep him distracted and to let us know his movements."
"Solid. Wait—" I suddenly realised what June had said "—what dance?"
"Today is the school's 70th anniversary," Ruben explained. "You missed the full briefing about it yesterday."
"You did bring a dress though right?" June asked quickly. "They did mention it in the email that was sent out."
"Of course I did. I'd just momentarily forgotten about it," I replied.
Noah brushed croissant crumbs of himself. "Mrs Johnson also mentioned it the other day but I don't think you were around then either. I'm surprised Griffin didn't ask you to go with him."
A cold feeling spread in my stomach.
"I'm sure he also forgot," June said, catching my expression.
"That would make sense," Noah agreed.
June glanced down at her watch. "I'm meeting Cora soon so we're going to have to wrap this up."
"Cora? Brittney's friend?" I asked.
June smiled. "She was in my group during the high ropes. I took your advice and asked for her number."
"They're too cute," Ruben said. "After capture-the-flag Cora asked June to the dance." He laughed. "It was the first time I've ever seen June truly blush. Her whole face went bright red."
"Hey! It did not," June exclaimed.
"Unless I'm colour blind I agree with Ruben." Noah laughed.
June rolled her eyes. "You're both colour blind."
I grinned and hopped off the desk. "I'm happy for you."
"Thanks." June began heading towards the door. "I'll catch you guys later."
We nodded and watched her leave, a smile plastered on her face.
"You two don't have anything on today?" Ruben asked and Noah and I shook our heads. "Want to play foosball?"
"Always." Noah replied, bumping fists with Ruben. "This time I will beat you."
Ruben laughed and the three of us started making our way to the games barn near the hockey turf. We spent the whole morning down there playing both foosball and table tennis. Ruben remained reigning foosball champion but sucked at foosball even after Noah tried to coach him.
"Okay, enough," Ruben panted, returning to the table with a table tennis ball.
"Finally given up?" Noah teased.
"I've had enough torture today," Ruben groaned. "Let's go eat lunch."
I collected our bats and put them away. We began walking back to school but were stopped on the driveway by a familiar blonde figure marching down the path towards us.
"Rory!" Brittney exclaimed with a smile when she reached us.
"Brittney," I replied.
She grabbed ahold of my hand. "I didn't see you yesterday! How's your leg?"
I took my hand back. "Bruised but the cut is healing well."
I was about to continue walking with Noah and Ruben when Brittney grabbed my hand again. "Can I have a word with you quickly?" She eyed Noah and Ruben. "Alone."
The other two turned to me and I gave them a reassuring nod. "I'll catch up with you."
They smiled and began walking away.
"So," Brittney began, "I just wanted to talk to you about Griffin." She looked at me expectantly.
"Go on..." I said, unsure what she wanted me to say.
"Well, I'm sure you already know that he's mine, but I just wanted to double check in case you didn't. You have after all been spending a bit of time with him."
I coughed trying to hide my surprise. She'd literally caught him with another girl, me, in the tent and yet she was still going after him.
"Brittney," I said slowly, "he's not yours."
"He is!" Her voice rose sharply. "That girl in the tent means nothing and neither do you. He's mine!"
I realised then that she had no clue it had been me in the tent.
"He clearly isn't yours. You deserve someone who actually wants you, don't settle for less." I told her then began walking away from her.
"He does want me! You're just trying to get between us!" she shrieked.
I ignored her and kept walking.
"Rory if you keep seeing him I will—"
I pulled my earphones out of my pocket, plugged them into my ears, then began blasting You Give Love A Bad Name. Nothing like Bon Jovi to drown out her voice. I trusted Griffin when he'd told me that he had no feelings towards her; she just needed to move on.
I couldn't find Noah and Ruben when I got back to the school building so I headed back to my dorm to grab a jumper. Nobody was in the room when I got there so I unplugged my headphones and danced over to my suitcase. At home someone was always connected to a speaker meaning there was never any silence in the house.
I rummaged around in my suitcase looking for my purple hoodie. I smiled when I passed my princess bra, the memory of Griffin's prank still fresh. At the bottom of the suitcase I found my hoodie and pulled it on, my hand brushing a piece of paper on my bed as I did so. I sat down on my bed and picked up the paper which had a few scrawling sentences written on it.
Princess,
I smiled, only one person called me that.
I couldn't find you (obviously) so here's a message for you to decode.
Tungsten-iodine-ll yttrium-oxygen-uranium g-oxygen t-oxygen thorium-e d-argon-nitrogen-carbon-e tungsten-iodine-thorium magnesium(silent g)-e?
I grabbed a pencil out of my bag and began decoding his message, each element representing a letter. Oxygen was O, carbon was C, and so on. I made my way through the elements. Most of them had obvious symbols however I couldn't for the life of me remember what tungsten's was until I'd decoded the other letters.
Tungsten-ill you go to the darnce — I'd laughed at his spelling here. There were only so many letters representing elements — tungsten-ith me?
Tungsten was w, I realised with a grin.
Will you go to the darnce with me?
I grinned and pulled out my phone. I clicked on his contact and sent him my answer.
Yttrium-e-sulfur.
A/N:
Who's excited for the dance?!
Vote and comment if you enjoy :)
SouthernAlps over and out...