To say I regret writing that note, after these past two weeks, would be more than accurate. What Melody had decided she would 'do about it' was force her girlfriend to spend as little time with Camila as possible, or something of that nature. At least that's what Camila figured since she barely ever saw Lauren, at all, except for very briefly in the mornings and at their shared military class, in which Lauren would still sit next to Camila but never actually engage in conversation. Camila still tried, she would come up with any excuse just to start a decent conversation with her but it only ever would amount to a few exchanges before Lauren quickly turned back to her work. That would be really the only time she would be able to interact with Lauren as both her and Melody stopped coming to breakfast and lunch and she would either always fall asleep before Lauren sneaked in the room late at night or Lauren just didn't sleep there at all. She was beginning to like it better when Lauren didn't sleep there at all; because when she did sneak in after lights out to sleep in her bed, she would bring Melody with her. Camila hated to have to wake up to see them cuddled up together; why did she need to come here and cuddle when she had her own room with no roommate because of her special treatment? Oh, that's right, she lives to make Camila jealous and though Camila knew that, she couldn't help it because everytime she saw Lauren lying there, looking so perfectly content, with her arm around Melody it would make her heart ache.
It was now the day before the dance, Camila wasn't so concerned about that; no, she was more concerned about tomorrow morning because of the 'war simulation' she has to take part in. How in the world was she going to successfully simulate a soldier in combat? The mere thought of being that made her uneasy, she didn't like to think of war with all its violence and gore, and the fact that soldiers literally kill people. Camila couldn't find it in herself to kill a fly; she just had to remind herself that at the end of the day it was just a simulation of war, it would be just like an epic game of laser tag. At least, she hoped that's what it would be like and reassured herself of it.
Camia looked at the clock, it was around four p.m. and she had finished her homework half an hour ago yet here she was still with all her books open reviewing everything. She made it a habit to take all opportunities she had to study; study, an action that was out of her doings for a pretty long time was now her primary way of occupying her time. She really didn't have much a choice in it though, with her roommate always MIA, the strict policies of when you could leave campus or just even your dorm, and the lack of free wifi, studying was literally the only thing to occupy her time. She studied her military strategy textbook for a couple of minutes before she heard a knock on her door; she opened it revealing a very excited Normani and Ally.
"Guess who's man finally grew some balls and asked her to the dance?" Normani asked enthusiastically as she plopped down on Camila's bed followed by a blushing Ally.
"Aw, Ally, I'm so happy for you," Camila replied as she gave Ally a genuine smile and hug. Ally and Troy had both been obviously crushing on each other for god knows how long, but Camila found them very cute. She liked how similar they were, they both wanted to get into science/research jobs in the military, Ally as psychologist and Troy as engineer/programmer and they both were shy, nerdy, and, at times, quirky. But the thing she loved the most about them was the way they looked at each other, even the simplest of looks were full love and admiration, it gave her a sense of hope to see two people that were so clearly deeply in love with one another. It was about time one of them overcame their shyness, she could already tell this was the start of a long anticipated and foreshadowed relationship.
"Are you ready? We were thinking the three of us should head to the mall today because it's probably going to be crowded tomorrow and I really hate buying my dress the day of the dance." Normani said as she scrunched up her nose in distaste at the implication of the suggestion the school had made that everyone could just prepare for the dance the day of.
"I thought were were allowed off campus on school days?"
"Well, you regular peeps aren't," Normani replied, pointing to both Camila and Ally, "But, I am; and as long as you're with me, you're good." It was times like this Camila was grateful to be friends with a Cadet Captain and got a share in the advantages of being of a high rank. With that the girls left the room and started to make their journey to the mall.
"How bout Lauren? She didn't wanna come?" Camila said in a hopeful tone; she really missed hanging out with Lauren.
"Oh, god. Don't even get me started with her. We had the biggest fight before, right Ally?" Normani replied.
Ally immediately nodded her head, remembering the scene that unfolded, "It was real bad, I mean I'm sure you guys are going to make up by the end of today, but I never saw her get so angry at you." Camila was very curious now, because she had seen Lauren get angry with Normani, sometimes seriously, sometimes playfully, that was just their relationship but it must have been bad if Ally described it as the most mad she had seen Lauren at her.
"What happened?"
"Well, she got mad at me cause I didn't pick Melody for the team but how was I suppose to know she was even a choice? She's always exempt from this cause of her father but I guess daddy made her do this war simulation. I didn't even bother to look at the pool of names cause I already knew who I was picking. But, anyways, she made me trade one of our strongest players, for Melody; fucking stupidest thing ever, and now the only guy we got on our team is Troy and, no offense Ally, but if I was going to have a team with only one boy, it would at least be a strong, athletic boy not the fucking computer geek." Normani sighed as she rubbed her temples, not very confident with her team as she traded a more than adequate member for little miss princess.
"None taken," Ally said with a slight giggle, fully aware she wasn't dating the most physically strongest guy but she picked brains over muscle any day, "Seriously, though, if we didn't have you or Lauren and it was just Troy, Mila, Melody, and I we would have to call ourselves the weaker, less awesome version of the powerpuff girls-with the addition of a powerpuff boy." They all laughed at Ally's silly yet true comment, Camila couldn't deny that the 'powerpuff girls plus boy' team would probably be the least intimidating team out there and would lose the battle or mission for their representative country rather quickly. The girls then finally reached the mall and quickly went to the 'go to' store for formal dresses.
Ally and Normani were pretty picky when it came to choosing their dresses; Camila was just a simple girl and she wasn't very choosy when it came to dresses, she'll go with anything that was pretty and right now, all these dresses were pretty so she'd go with any one of them. It also didn't help that she was always a very bad decision maker, but she finally narrowed down the pool of ones she wanted to wear to just two dresses. One was a short, black dress and the other was a white dress that got lacy towards the bottom with a black ribbon in the middle. The second one was her the clear winner because it was cute and simple, just how she liked it; the first black dress was just tempting because she did always like to be in short, skin tight dresses, it made her feel sexy and that would normally be the type of dress she wears at school dances, but she realized that it wasn't herself. Normani, who just walked out of the dressing room and over to Camila, saw that she was putting down the black dress and gave her a look while saying, "Damn, Mila, you were going to wear that?"
Camila blushed and shyly replied, "It was just an option, I like this one better," gesturing to the white one in her hand.
"Hmm, well, I think you should try on the black one cause I dying to see how'd you look wearing something like that," she said as she raised her eyebrow mischievously and started to drag Camila to the dressing room with the black dress in her hand. Before she could protest, she was lightly shoved in the dressing room and just laughed as she compiled to Normani's demand and started to put on the dress.
Normani sat waiting outside the dressing room before out of the corner of her eye noticing Ally, she turned to see her walking over surprisingly accompanied by Lauren and Melody. Lauren immediately wrapped her arms around Normani as she apologized for her behavior saying, "Mani, I'm sorry I got mad at you. Thank you for doing that trade for me and for always being there for me, in general."
Normani smiled and shook her head as she pulled out of the hug and replied, "Girl, stop getting all sappy on me." Slightly shoving her best friend off giving her a knowing look; they both knew that was her way of saying apology accepted or maybe just saying there was no need for one in the first place.
"Well, I hate to breakup the love fest but babe, come on, the driver is waiting." Melody said to Lauren, not even giving Normani a glance since she made an appearance. If Normani wanted a thank you from anyone it would be from Melody because she sacrificed any chance of her team getting a high overall score for her; well for Lauren, technically, but still. The nerve of ungrateful bitches these days.
Just as Lauren was beginning to walk away, or rather dragged away by her girlfriend the dressing room door opened revealing Camila. She initially walked out confidently in her sultry dress, expecting to only see Normani on the other side of the door, but then realized the presence of the three other girls; particularly the presence of Lauren who was scanning her eyes up and down Camila's body, immediately causing her to be slightly embarrassed and shy.
"Oh shit, Mila. You look so hot, I might have to take you to the dance as my date," Normani said and then gave her a wink. She blushed and thanked her for the compliment while still watching Lauren from the corner of her eyes, she was curious as to what she thought.
Her curiosity was answered when she heard a very quiet, breathy, "Beautiful," escape from Lauren's lips; she turned only slightly, still watching Lauren only from her peripheral vision and could have sworn she saw her gulp after letting out her word. Maybe that was just wishful thinking but that 'beautiful' was definitely from her and it surely made Camila blush like a tomato.
"What was that Lauren?" Normani asked with a smirk plastered on her, clearly knowing what Lauren initially said.
Lauren cleared her throat and looked down in slight guilt as she said, "Uhm, nothing." Melody watched the scene unfold, anger visible in her features until she started to walk away while gritting through her teeth, "Lauren, come the fuck on."
Well that was interesting, very interesting.
-
Currently Camila, Ally, and Normani were stuffing their faces in the food court as they tried to ease Camila's nerves about war stimulation.
"It's totally like laser tag, Mila! That's a good comparison." Ally said encouragingly.
"But except you're also wearing wound simulation for when you get hit so it kinda stings like a motherfucker, oh and when the gun goes off its made to be like the real loud sound, and there's bomb sounds like everywhere," Normani added, making Camila's forehead crease in anxiety. Normani laughed at the newbie's clear terror and added, "Oh, you'll be fine. I'll protect you, babe. Though, I'm sure you'd rather be protected by Lauren."
"Wh-what makes you say that?" Camila asked unconvincingly trying to sound oblivious to Normani's insinuations.
This only made Normani raise her eyebrows suggestively as Ally also seemed pretty curious and then her eyes brightened as if she just realized something, "Oh you're gay, too?" This unexpected question made Camila practically choke on her chicken nugget.
"Damn, Ally, look at you all being all straight forward." Normani said with a chuckle, as Ally realized she probably shouldn't have asked her that.
"Oh no, you don't need to answer that, Mila, that was rude. I just thought that was maybe common knowledge that you hadn't told me or something, I'm so used to people being so open about that stuff, I didn't even think-"
"Ally, breathe," Camila interrupted the rambling mess of the girl, she had to smile at it though. "I'm bisexual, well at least, I think. I researched some stuff and I think I might be pansexual actually. Yeah, pansexual that's better."
Normani smirked as she said, "I totally knew it."
"That's awesome, pansexaulity is so interesting. Kind of beautiful too, when you think about it, because you're like able to love literally anyone and everyone."
"Hmm, I never thought about it that way. When I think pansexaulity I think huge potential slut because you literally will fuck anybody, but hey, nothing wrong with being a slut. It just means you enjoy having sex, and I mean what's not to enjoy, am I right?" Normani suggestively said as Ally scrunched up her nose clearly in distaste for her friends way of thinking.
Camila just shook her head and laughed; Ally and Normani were two very different types of people and for some reason that made for a great friendship combination.
-
Camila had lay awake in previous nights for the built up anxiety she had just for tomorrow in general, and tonight was no different. She turned over as she heard Lauren sneak in, surprisingly she was alone this time.
"Oh did I wake you, sorry," Lauren whispered.
"It's alright," Camila replied, even though she wasn't actually sleeping she was tired, too tired to really say anything more. "Night, Lauren."
Lauren was now tucked in cozily in her bed and she gave Camila a smile and replied, "Night, Camz."
Though it was dark, Camila was still able to watch Lauren drift into sleep. She was content for a little by just watching her until anxiety kicked in again. But it wasn't really fear for war simulation or anticipation for her first dance at this school that made her anxious like other nights, just the general curiosity of what tomorrow had in store for her; she tried to picture in her head how the day was going to go. Little did she know that the events of tomorrow were to unfold in ways that she could have never imagined.