filler.. kinda? ᥫ᭡
𝚂𝙴𝚁𝙴𝙽𝙸𝚃𝚈 ᥫ᭡
CHAPTER THIRTEEN.
𝕨𝕙𝕒𝕥 𝕪𝕠𝕦 𝕘𝕚𝕧𝕖 𝕚𝕤 𝕨𝕙𝕒𝕥 𝕪𝕠𝕦'𝕣𝕖 𝕘𝕚𝕧𝕖𝕟..
CAELYNN TAYLOR 🤍 | SEPTEMBER 7
𝒉𝒂𝒓𝒍𝒆𝒎 shook caelynn's shoulder for the second time now, in the process of waking both her and diondre up from their nap. they both were slumped over their desk and out cold during the history class, having been this way ever since they sat down in the room.
he had snapped a couple pictures to send into their group chat and now he needs them to wake up because the bell is about to ring in the next minute or so.
caelynn was the first to stir awake, meeting harlem's eyes first then looking over to her other side to see diondre still sleeping.
she yawned and stretched out her short legs before reaching over and shaking diondre awake.
"y'all know we got a quiz tomorrow, right?" harlem asked them.
these two sleep everyday in here. it'll be a miracle if they pass without cheating.
but caelynn isn't even worried about the quiz. she knows the chapter that the quiz is on and has notes to study over before she goes to bed tonight.
she may sleep in the class, but it doesn't mean she isn't learning. usually when she gets home, she goes over the power points that the teacher walks through in class and writes down what she needs to know to stick it in her brain.
she doesn't know why she learns better by teaching herself, but she does. her method has been working for her since middle school.
the minute before the bell passed and it was now time for everyone to go into lunch.
like they usually do, harlem and diondre threw their arms around caelynn's shoulder and led her (as if she doesn't know where to go at this point) to the meeting spot where the rest of their friend group would be waiting.
the friend group consisted of caelynn (of course), the boys, and recently santayla, dehja and essence have been tagging along because they were tired of sitting alone in the cafeteria. the last addition to their group are more of caelynn's new friends she's been talking to from her classes: yazira, arenity, xyairah, 𝙣𝙖𝙫𝙖𝙚, and 𝙙𝙖𝙣𝙖𝙧𝙞𝙨. navae is the only other junior out of the them and her and caelynn share their seventh period together: broadcast journalism.
navae sits at the table with caelynn and santayla. she's more on the shy side so she has trouble making new friends and doesn't have too many. caelynn's taken it upon herself to befriend her and try to bring her more out of her shell.
as for danaris.. he's a senior. he's in caelynn's calculus class. she befriended him mainly because mezekiah keeps having her sit by him, but sometimes when his friends come around, he doesn't pay her too much of his mind. so she needed someone else to talk to in times like those, and that's where danaris came in. it started off with him asking for homework answers then they clicked it off after that.
they made it to the cafeteria doors where jalen, yannis, xavion and dehja were already waiting.
navae was standing at her locker across from them, but she was too nervous to go over and stand with dehja and the boys on her own. she's closer to caelynn than anyone else, so she was waiting for caelynn to arrive, and when she saw her, that's when she also went over.
caelynn smiled at the sight of her, making her naturally smile back.
"where's santayla and essence?" caelynn asked dehja.
she chuckled, "their teacher gave them a ticket out the door question so they're still coming down from a-hall."
"a-hall? damn, bruh. i'm hungry," jalen huffed.
"our food's ready too," yannis informed everyone.
"i told you it'd be ready on time," caelynn told him.
he chuckled and waved her off.
they rarely ate inside the cafeteria. they always go off campus to eat elsewhere. their school food isn't horrible or anything, but when you have options like chick-fil-a, chipotle, canes and so on nearby . . why eat at the school when they could go eat there instead?
"we're here," santayla announced her and essence's arrival. "come on."
"where y'all finna go?" janova asked as she saw them walking away from the cafeteria. zakiar had went inside already to join the rest of their group, but her and brycier hung back for a small second to talk to their first period teacher who was on this floor. by the time they were walking back, they were seeing caelynn and her friends leaving the lunch room behind.
"to shacks," xavion answered.
janova looked at brycier before hurrying after the leaving teens. "i wanna come!"
brycier also debated, looking back and forth from the cafeteria doors to caelynn and her friends. then he decided to go after them too.
him and janova will be joining them for lunch today.
SEPTEMBER 8
𝒂𝒇𝒕𝒆𝒓 school, caelynn didn't go home so she could continue to hang out with some of her friends. they all loaded up between jalen's car and harlem's car and went to diondre's house.
navae went with her, and so did brycier and essence.
brycier is starting to get to know caelynn more now that she's being open towards everyone. before, she acted like she didn't want anything to do with him or even nyani.
"there's a party after the game tonight," jalen read the flyer off of his phone before turning to the others. "we going?"
"i am," yannis nodded.
"me too," diondre added.
the others started to agree while navae turned to caelynn. caelynn shook her head. "i can't go to this one. i have to leave for my flight right after y'all's game."
"oh, yeah," harlem remembered.
she did tell them about that.
"where you going?" brycier wondered. he never heard anything about it. but then again, he literally just started hanging out with caelynn today..
"my brother's game," caelynn answered him.
tomorrow is christian's first game. caelynn being the supportive little sister that she is wants to attend as many of his games as she can. so for every one of his home games, she will already have money aside to catch a flight to his school then back here to chicago. she'll also be staying the weekends with him when she can, so that's another bonus.
"where does he play?"
"lsu." when she said the name, she couldn't help but grin. she loves lsu as much as isleigh does. from their colors, to their team, to their band and just simply the fact that her brother goes there. she couldn't wait to wear her outfit for tomorrow — proudly repping the school's purple and gold theme.
it's just something about louisiana in general that keeps her hooked.
moving on from lsu though, the nine talked and chilled around for about three more hours before the boys minus brycier had to start getting ready for the game.
harlem pulled out one of his spare jerseys from his bag and tossed it over to caelynn.
caelynn smiled while slipping it on over her shirt, using her hair-tie to tie it in the back for more of a cropped look rather than keeping it long on her short form.
"y'all want anything before we leave?" diondre double checked. their school has concessions and everything, but they don't open until fifteen minutes prior to kickoff. so they'll just be sitting at the school's stadium wasting a little over an hour of time.
they picked out their snacks and drinks before getting back into the cars and driving to the high school.
while caelynn, brycier, essence and navae walked up the steps to choose their spots in the bleachers, the other five boys left to meet up with the rest of the football team in the locker room.
because they were there so early, the stadium is practically empty. a huge contrast to how it'd be later — packed full.
now that she has the space to, caelynn wants to take pictures just for the fun of it. she put one of her strawberry pop tart bites in her mouth before opening the camera app on her iphone. "can someone take my pictures?" she asked.
"i can," navae offered.
so caelynn gave her phone over to her and started posing. navae made sure both caelynn and the field were in view as she snapped the girl's pictures. when caelynn got her phone back, she took more pictures, but this time with navae and essence. then she turned to brycier. she doesn't know him that well yet but she feels like if they all took pictures on her phone then so should he. no man left behind — however the saying goes.
after brycier got forced to take photos with the girls, he also got dragged along into making tiktoks with them.
it was when the stadium started to fill up with more people that caelynn calmed down, posting a couple of the videos they all made together onto her main account.
both football teams were present on the field now and doing their warmups. on the scoreboard, the timer counted down from eight minutes until the game would officially start, and both the home side and visitor side of the bleachers were filled from top to bottom with teens and adults alike.
caelynn saw someone from their school walk by with nachos in their hands. her mouth started craving the taste for them too. "can someone come with me to the concessions?"
"i got you. come on," brycier told her. he was going to stay up and wait for nyani and the others to get here so he could keep their spot saved, but caelynn and him should make it back in time before they get here. if not, he's giving essence the heads up to be on the lookout.
essence made conversation with navae since it was now just them two. navae was slowly but surely coming out of her shy shell the more she kept hanging out with caelynn, but as soon as she's not with caelynn, she goes right back to her quiet self. it's irritating, but she's not beating herself up over it. this is the most sociable she's been since she started high school. that's progress to her.
the eight minutes passed quickly and the game is now starting. caelynn and brycier still haven't made it back from concessions either, but essence expected that. the line for the concessions are always long. it'll take you ten minutes just to get to the front to place your order.
caelynn facetimed navae just so she could watch the kickoff, refusing to leave the line because she wants those nachos . . and some airhead extreme strips with a red powerade.
navae stood and held her phone up so caelynn can have a good view. essence, on the other hand, finally spotted a familiar face and stood up to call nyani's name.
nyani didn't hear. it was akari who saw essence. he tapped nyani's arm and motioned with his head for her to follow him. janova, remiyah, and zakiar were also with them, filling in the empty spots brycier had picked out for them.
it felt like forever until caelynn was finally able to get her snacks. she tucked her powerade under her arm and kept her candy under the nacho tray so she could still carry her phone, but she ended up ending the facetime call with navae since she was on her way back anyways. then she moved her phone to her jean's back pocket to give herself a free hand.
she already started to eat her nachos as she walked back to the bleachers with brycier by her side.
he was laughing at something she had said (it was something stupid) until they were interrupted by someone lightly grabbing caelynn's elbow.
it was kai.
"imma meet you back up," bryce told her.
"okay," caelynn agreed before turning to kai. she held her hand out to dap him up. "wassup, gang," she joked.
kai slightly scrunched his face up but chuckled. "quit playing, caelynn."
"woah, woah," she slightly pushed him back from trying to give her a hug. "we're not cut like that, gang."
"caelynn, bruh.. what you on?"
"i'm coolin," caelynn laughed.
cooling and slowly putting boundaries up between her and kai. she doesn't know what they have going on and she doesn't understand his motives. his words give that he's trying to be more than friends with her but then his actions don't add up. her biggest irk with him is he acts like he doesn't want her around his friends.
she's not asking to hang out with them or anything.. but he doesn't have to completely forget about her whenever they're around either. it's like she's nonexistent whenever he's with them, and the boys are one thing, but his female friends?
she feels played with.
until he can communicate both verbally and with his actions, him and her will remain strictly just friends.
kai let his eyes go down her attire, coming back up and stopping on the jersey. he recognized the number. the person it belonged to is playing on the field right now, his name ringing across the stadium from the commentators in the speakers. "harlem?"
"yes?" caelynn raised a brow. "i'm supporting my friend. what's wrong with that?"
"that's yo friend?"
"best friend," she corrected just to be petty.
his name was called from elsewhere, and just like she knew he would, kai prepared to leave her. "imma call you tonight, caelynn. we needa talk."
see what she means by his actions don't add up with his words?
"have fun with your friends, mezekiah," caelynn waved him bye instead, already walking away to go back to the section of bleachers where her friends sat.
SEPTEMBER 9
𝒐𝒏𝒄𝒆 caelynn swooped her last edge, she stepped back to check over herself in the bathroom's mirror. she wore a sleeveless purple crop-top, having printed the word tigers across her chest in bold gold letters, and on her back was the number twenty-two and the name 'taylor' largely pressed in the same color. she wore a skirt with a similar design. the light blue jean skirt had chris's name on her right side with purple paint this time and his jersey number painted on her left.
her braids were in a half-up and half-down style, with the half that was up being split between two high ponytails that are tied up by one purple ribbon and one gold ribbon.
she was very much satisfied with her game gear, so now she moved onto applying her lipglosses and perfumes.
chris finished what he was doing inside of his bedroom before walking over to see if caelynn is ready yet. he needs to get to the stadium soon or his coach will be on his head again. "cece,
you — ohh, look at you," he grinned at her outfit. "that's hard."
she's his biggest supporter and she'll be showing that in more ways than just cheering him on from the stands. "thank you," caelynn smiled, dropping her stuff into her small cross-body purse. "i'm ready now."
in the next few minutes, she was getting into the backseat of chris's car while 𝙙𝙖𝙨𝙝𝙖𝙚 (chris's roommate) got into the front. she would be hanging out with him in the stands while chris plays in his game.
dashae so far comes off as a really funny person to be around. caelynn just knows that him and christian are probably goofballs on the university campus since they also share classes together.
like now, he had her cracking up while he took her pictures. he so called himself 'hyping' her up, but every little thing he said made caelynn laugh which resulted in a lot of smiling pictures. "that's enough," caelynn calmed herself down, taking her phone from out of his hands. her sides hurt from her hard laughing, but at least her pictures came out cute.
"we done?" dashae raised his brows, "i thought we just started though?"
"we started fifty pictures ago," caelynn chuckled. "thank you."
"oh, okay."
caelynn went through the pictures he took, picking out five of her favorites to post on her main instagram page for later. her main account currently holds 10.2K followers. she honestly doesn't know how she blew up the way she did. a chunk came from her friends both from baltimore and chicago, the other half is from people who know of her from both places, and the last portion is from random people who followed her after she came onto their explore page. her account just keeps growing and she's all here for it.
dashae went ahead and followed her account before turning his phone off and focusing more on his m&m mcflurry. they stopped by mcdonald's before they came to the stadium so they wouldn't be hungry during the two-hour wait time they'd be doing before the game starts. then after the game, they were all going to eat at freddy's.
"it's hot as fuck out here, bro," he huffed, dramatically wiping his forehead to get off his 'sweat' (he isn't even sweating). "they needa hurry up."
"you're wearing jeans," she reminded him. but she wouldn't disagree. it is very hot in louisiana today. she's glad she has no sleeves and is wearing her skirt.
"my legs aren't sweating," dashae said back to her. "look at my face."
so she did. . very closely . . and didn't see anything wrong. dashae motioned around his face again. "you see all of this? i'm melting, bruh."
melting.. right.
there isn't an ounce of sweat coating his skin though.
she just let him have it and ate on her own mcflurry, except hers was the oreo one.
eventually, the music of the band grew loud and the game was close to starting. caelynn went back to her camera and swiped over to the video setting, zooming in on the tunnel where the lsu players would be coming out.
they went through their purple fog and the cheers of everyone grew louder, including caelynn's. she let her eyes go through all of the players until she could finally see number twenty-two: christian.
his position is a wide receiver, and he was damn good at doing what needs to be done. every time his quarterback looked for an opening, christian made sure to escape defense to catch the ball.
the quarterback and christian seem to have great field chemistry, because on many occasions, he called plays to keep putting christian towards the touch-down line and christian was able to put eighteen points on the board all on his own. the other three came from the kicker making the field goals.
caelynn caught every single one of his touchdowns on video, and she's going to add them to the highlight she's got dedicated to him on her instagram page.
"that's a fucking foul!" dashae randomly shouted when christian got tackled. caelynn flipped her camera to show her confused face. "how is that not a foul?!"
"dashae, this is football!" she emphasized. "why do you keep yelling fouls?"
"oh, shit. they don't do that here?"
"what football game have you ever watched where a ref called a foul?"
he scratched his head and looked away, not having an answer to that. it's obvious he doesn't watch football unless he's watching christian's games. his mind is strictly basketball. maybe that's why he keeps saying foul.
caelynn shook her head with a smile while ending her video.
dashae is . . dashae.
𝒅𝒂𝒔𝒉𝒂𝒆 got trapped into taking more of caelynn's pictures by the end of the night, but this time with christian. they both turned because caelynn wanted the back of her shirt that matched christian's jersey to show.
it was the main picture she wanted. she let dashae rest when she got it.
christian went to the locker room to change and freshen back up as much as he could before returning to his friend and sister.
she posted her five pictures, her new ones with christian, and one of his videos as a slides post during the car ride to freddy's.
freddy's was pretty busy by the time they got there. it's post game hour on top of it being saturday night. it isn't surprising to see all of these people out.
what caelynn's enjoying the most about this is hearing all kinds of louisiana accents. she loves louisiana accents — more specific to the nola side — but louisiana nonetheless.
caelynn dipped one of her french fries into her milkshake while looking around. dashae scrunched his face up when he saw her do it just for christian to do the same thing. so he discreetly dipped one of his fries in his own treat to see what they were on. it actually didn't taste bad at all.
"can someone go get me some ranch for my sandwich?" caelynn asked the boys. she got the spicy chicken sandwich combo but she likes to eat hers with ranch sauce. she forgot to ask for it when they were up there and now she doesn't feel like getting back up to do so.
"cece, the counter right there," christian sucked his teeth. he doesn't feel like getting up either. he just played a long game and is very hungry.
so caelynn turned to dashae who purposely kept his gaze to the nearest window. "wow.." he trailed off, "the moon's really out tonight, isn't it?"
caelynn rolled her eyes while getting out of her seat. "you guys are lazy." she flicked christian's forehead on her way by to see how he likes it.
christian was more hung over the fact she just called him lazy when it was her who didn't want to get up to get it herself rather than her flicking his forehead.
but maybe he should've got up to get it. because when caelynn returned, she was cheesing a little too much for his liking. "what, stupid?" she chuckled since he was practically mugging her.
"lemme find out, caelynn," he shook his head.
caelynn didn't say anything.
the same smile remained painted across her lips as she opened her ranch to pour across her chicken.
let's just say . .
the boys here in louisiana really know how to sweet talk.
.
.
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