"Oh shit! Tulip, get up! We're late!" Leland suddenly shook me awake, which startled me.
Tulip? Who on earth is Tulip?
"Who are you talking to?" I asked, but Leland ignored my question. He pulled himself up and helped me up too. "Leland, what's going on?" I inquired, hoping that he wouldn't ignore me. It was so bright with my eyes open. Leland picked up my tote bag and rushed for the doors.
Without turning back, he shouted, "We're late for the special assembly!"
He accidentally left his blazer behind, so I grabbed it and followed him back into the school building. Once I caught up to him, the two of us dashed in the direction or the auditorium. We waited outside the doors when we heard the rest of the school singing the school hymn. I turned to Leland whose chest raised and collapsed while he tried to catch his breath after all the running. I was quite out of breath myself.
"We'll sneak in from the back when they're done singing and- oh you have my blazer. I'll take that, thank you." he grabbed the blazer and put it on.
"So we walk in after they sing and then what?" I prompted him.
"Oh, right! Then we'll probably sit t the back which would be in your favor since you're a bad girl," he smirked in amusement.
"I am not!"
He shrugged, "You clearly make your own rules, and us delinquent know one of our own when we see them. Dress code disobedience is kind of the first step to being the designated baddie."
"Could we just go back to the plan?" I averted my eyes to the floor.
He nodded, "So, yeah, we're probably sitting in the back, but we don't have to sit together. I'd prefer it if we didn't."
"Right! Because I'm supposed to be staying the hell away from you, your car and your friends. I remember. But here you are playing the hero by volunteering to help me with my bag to my next class."
He shoved my tote bag into my hands, and considered my statement. He raised his shoulders indifferently like that's the onyl thing he could do, "I saw the opportunity to skip Vickery's class and I took ot. That class doesn't challenge me."
"Didn't you use to take AP English in grade 11?" I asked. "Why'd you drop it?"
"Stalker much?"
"Forget it. You're impertinent and impossible."
"Ooh, look at you using big words!" he taunted me, but I didn't say anything back. We stood in suffocating silent and I yearned to do something to make the it less awkward. So I turned to fix Leland's tie and collar that have been bothering me. He gently put his hands on mine to stop me and he took the tie off. "Here, you need it more than me. I don't give a shit about this assembly anyways."
All I said was "Thanks," because I couldn't stop thinking about our hands touching.
He just watched me with curious eyes and asked, "So why didn't you sleep last night anyway?"
"Insomnia," I shrugged as I struggled to put the tie on. I was used to doing it while looking in the mirror.
"Leave it. I'll do it for you," Leland muttered. As his gaze was focused on my neck, mine was on the tattoo peaking from his neck.
"I like your tattoos," I uttered. "They're really pretty."
He scowled when I called them pretty, but he grunted a quick thanks and he was done. The singing stopped and I heard the scraping of chairs, which meant they were all sitting down now.
"You should drink chamomile tea, Tulip." He said and I realized he's been calling me Tulip. I guess he found out about my tulip obsession or maybe it was the keychain. The keychain! Oh my god...
"What for?"
"For your insomnia. I used to have it when I was younger and my mom made me chamomile tea." he said before he opened one of the double doors slightly and shimmied into the auditorium without so much as a warning. I went in right after him, but the tie hooked on the door handle. Somehow, I managed to get out of the entanglement without being too disruptive.
I thought about the plan and how I was supposed to sit in the back of the auditorium, but, it was full. Luckily, Miss Gardener turned her head at the right moment and she beckoned me over to the fifth row. I power-walked towards her row and took a seat in an empty chair next to her.
Just then headmistress Abrams walked up to the podium onstage and she bellowed, "Good morning, Lincoln High Academy!"
"Good morning, headmistress Abrams!" our greetings echoed across the auditorium. Headmistress Abrams announced, "As many of you know, two weeks ago you were given ballots to vote for the new prefect group."
A majority of the crowd started to whisper amongst each other. We were all shocked since normally we didn't choose prefects for next year until the last week of October. We were more or less two weeks behind. I guess things are changing. Headmistress Abrams cleared her throat and everything went hush. "Everybody, I'd like you to put your hands together to welcome our school ambassadors: Keith and Mayor Giselle Archibald, Evelyn Clinton, Ravi Govender, Candace Reed, Alistair Romero and, Dr Wendy and Yuki Sato."
The Founding parents, as my friends and I called them, rose from their seats to be applauded. Even Finn got a laugh from it and his two moms were a part of them. Mr Romero, Leland's father, and Mayor Archibald went on stage where headmistress Abrams greeted them. They were going to introduce the new twenty prefects to the school.
The microphone screeched boisterously when Mr Romero tapped it. Headmistress Abrams passed him and Mrs Archibald the prefect badges. They called out the first couple of names of seniors I didn't even know. Then, they mentioned "Deputy head boy badge goes to August Morgan!"
My friends and I stood up for my brother. I was so proud of him. Two more names were mentioned... then "Levi Danielson!" I smiled and got up to cheer for him. He didn't look as happy as the rest of his group.
"And lastly, our head boy badge goes to my one and only son Leland Romero!" Mr Romero's voice boomed through the speakers. Just then, my phone buzzed in my pocket and it became distracting, so I took it out. The latest notification flashes on the screen.
I stared at my phone in shock. My eyes trailed up to the stage where Leland and his father stood as the photographer captured their moment. I thought back to the words Leland had said to me; he was going to make my life a living hell. I imagined it was all talk, of course he didn't have power over my father's career. Did he? As if he knew I was looking at him, Leland's eyes found me in the crowd.
Then I saw my other notifitications from Margaux and Illysa and my heart dropped.
Leland winked, but my curiousity peaked when I noticed Levi watching him with a deadly haze.