"Psssst, (Y/n)!" Odd taps my shoulder. "You wanna sneak out later?"
"Like out of class?" I ask. "Or sneak out of the school?"
"Out of school, duh!" He grins. "I wanna show you around France!"
"Della-Robbia! (L/n)!" Mrs. Hertz snaps. "Either pipe down, or I'll send you both to the Principal's Office!"
We're supposed to be focusing on the quiz in front of us, something to do with Earth's minerals. It's a short quiz with ten easy questions; it took me only a few minutes to complete. However, Odd, on the other hand, hasn't even written his name down.
"Yes, Ma'am!"
I pull out a piece of paper and continue the conversation there.
'So like, after classes or are we skipping Gym?'
I slide over the paper, and he starts to scribble down his response.
'skip gym!!! so what if Jim marks us absent?? its only 1 time!'
The bell rings, and students rush to hand in their test and leave the classroom. Odd panics and rushes to fold his quiz into one of his famous paper cranes. I roll my eyes and snatch the paper from him, unfolding it and quickly writing down some of the answers.
"There," This way, you'll at least get a C," I say, handing Mrs. Hertz our test. She narrows her stare as we rush out of the classroom.
"You're an actual god; you know that?" Odd hugs me from the side. "One that deserves a tour of France!"
"Is that why you guys got in trouble?" Ulrich steps out of class, Jeremie and Aelita following from behind. "What, you going on a date or something?"
"Date!?" I panic, shaking my head. "No, no, no, no, no! Definitely not a date! It's anything but a date!"
"Riiight."
"Good luck with that," Jeremie says. "You know we have Gym next hour? You don't exactly have the best attendance record, Odd."
"Pshh! I've thought of a plan for that!" Odd rest his arm on Jeremie's shoulder. "We'll use some clones! Jim'll never notice!"
"What? Are you crazy or just plain stupid?" Jeremie shakes his head. "Do you even remember what happened last time we did that?"
"I think we should do it!" Aelita chirps. "It's only for one period. Xana won't have much time to initiate an attack."
All eyes turn to Jeremie, eagerly awaiting his hopefully-not so-predictable-answer. "Fine!" He groans. "Just don't come crying to me if this ends up terribly."
"Thank you, thank you, thank you, Einstein!" Odd cheers with glee. He grabs my hands and slowly begins tugging me towards the dorms. "We gotta go to my room real quick! I need to grab my wallet."
"Fine. Lead the way, Dork."
Sneaking out wasn't really too hard. We just did what we usually do for a Xana attack, and boom, we're waltzing out of the Factory looking like two teens who're about to commit arson. Nothing weird about that.
"Alright! For the first stop of the day, I gotta show you this awesome bakery! It has the best sweets in Paris~!" Odd grins, almost skipping with each step.
"It's not called something like Tom and Sabrine's something bakery? Right?"
"Oh, wow, how d'ya know!?" He lightly gasps. "I mean, you were close but still! Does this mean you're actually physic?"
I about choke on my spit. Did I seriously get it right? "I wish. Unless I'm somehow Saiki K, but uh, I highly doubt it."
"Umm, Say key who?"
"Uhm, never mind. I just knew the place from how famous it is?" I mean, technically, that's not a lie. "Like, it gets popular later in twenty-fifteen or so."
"Oooh! I already go sometimes, but if we go together more, maybe we'll get special treatment!" He rubs his hands together with excitement. "I'd say half-off everything is fair!"
"In your dreams," I roll my eyes. "Ever consider getting a part-time job? Ya know, so you're not always broke?"
"Art is my job!" Odd proudly announces. "People at school commission me every so often."
"What? Dude, that's awesome!" Now I can actually put a face to the hundreds of characters I created forever ago! "How much do you charge?"
"You really think I can remember numbers when I'm barely passing math?" He lets out a huff of air. "Uhh, I don't know. I'll show you the chart later when we get back."
"Okay, good. Just an FYI, but uh, I'll kill you if you're underselling your art. Consider this a threat."
"E x c u s e me ?" Odd stops in his tracks with a nervous smile. "Should I thank you?"
"Yes, now let's go get some foooood! I wanna munch on something."
Absentmindedly walking hand in hand, we arrive at the bakery shortly after making a small stop at the magazine kiosk he likes to visit. Odd wanted to pick up a magazine featuring the new movies coming out next month.
Stepping inside the bakery, I'm instantly taken aback by the sweet-smelling aroma filling the air. The homemade pastries, creamy icing on warm cupcakes, and bread baked fresh from the oven it's just enough to make my mouth start watering.
"Hello, Mrs.Dupain-Cheng~! How are you this lovely day?"
A sweet-looking lady jumps up from behind the counter, quickly dusting off her messy apron. Her smile brightens as she watches the two of us walk into her store. "Odd! It's lovely to see you again! I see you bought a friend with you this time?"
"Hello, ma'am! Um, my name's (Y/n)." I have a bit of trouble making eye contact. "I've heard a lot of great things about your bakery!"
"Oh, what a sweet thing you are!" She smiles, cheeks dusted with bright pink. "Why don't you go ahead and pick a pastry of your choice? No need to worry about paying!~"
I gasp at the offer, not knowing if the tears in my eyes were exaggerated or not. "F-For real? Are you sure?"
"You're questioning free stuff?" Odd cuts of my plea of protest to pay for our sweets. "Never mind free, you're questioning one of the best bakers in Paris? Shame on you!"
"Hush now, you two." Mrs.Dupain-Cheng pulls out an array of vibrant cakes fresh from the oven. "Flattery aside, I'd like for you two to enjoy your little date. So please enjoy a treat on me!"
Her eyes are smiling, but the tone of her voice tells another story. Lesson learned! Accept free pastries from the nice lady, or else something bad will happen!
"I'll take a chocolate and banana cream crêpe, please!"
"Okayyy!" A childlike voice speaks up. Not a moment later, a little girl walks up from behind the counter and hands Odd his crêpe with the biggest grin imaginable. "For you!"
Me, being the excitable idiot I am, I slap my hand over my mouth so I could stop myself from saying something stupid.
"Thanks, Mari! It's good to see you again!" He pats her head, her pigtails bouncing, both giggling happily.
She then skips over to me with a smile as bright as the sun. "Hiiii! Are you getting something too?"
I gaze over at Odd. His mouth is slightly drooling over his pastry as he hovers over its warmth, mouth wide open. Noticing my stare, Odd slowly moves his head back and gestures for me to take a bite with a nervous smile.
Should I be grossed out from what I just witnessed or thankful he's willing to share? "Not this time, Marinette. I don't think I'll be able to finish mine if they're all about as big as my head."
She smiles sweetly before returning to her mother's side.
Why is it that France has the sweetest and dorkiest people for their superheroes? Not complaining, though, since I suppose I've become one of them.
Not much later, we say our goodbyes and leave the store with hardly more than a few bites left. For the most part, we start mindlessly walking around, enjoying the little things that Paris has to offer.
We pass by one of the many bridges with locks attached to them. Feeling a bit cliche, I offer for us to buy one. Because, ya know, to commemorate our friendship and junk? Odd shoots the idea down, saying that there have been many petitions lately to take them down since the bridge could collapse and that the keys are badly polluting the water.
"We could go to the Effiel Tower if ya' want instead!" Odd pulls out two crumpled tickets from his pockets. "It might not be as special as a lock or whatever, but the view from the top is pretty sweet!"
"The Effiel Tower? Seriously?" I snatch one of the tickets from his hand and flatten it out the best I can. "Dude, aren't these like crazy expensive? How'd you even get one of these?"
"Eh, it's not that bad when you're our age." He shrugs. "It's like, eleven bucks, I think?"
"Each? Or like, altogether?"
"Uh, together, I think? I had a friend get them for me."
As we got closer to the famous metal tower, I couldn't help but feel a little uneasy. As astonishing as it may be, looking straight up wasn't such a good idea, seeing as I nearly fell over from how dizzy the sight made me.
Odd laughs and hooks his arm around mine to keep me from falling. I roll my eyes and protest that I'm fine, but he doesn't care. Cause he's saying that we're linked together for life.
We opted to take the stairs for the first half, not wanting to rush things. I may sound like a basic tourist but come on, I kinda am an honorary one. I mean, how often do you get to climb the freaking Effiel Tower? The sights alone are breathtaking!
Looking over the edge reminds me of the Digital Sea, weirdly enough. You'd think it would be more terrifying to fall in that than off of here. Well, with one of them, I guess you kinda just disappear off the face of the Earth forever while the other, well. . . at least people can visit you when they wish.
"Yoohoo~ Earth to (Y/n)!" A hand waves in front of my face, snapping me out of my thoughts. "You okay? You look like something's bugging ya."
"Uhm, I uh. . . I'm good? Yep!" I reassure. Nothing like the lovely thought of death to spur up the moment, huh? "Just random intrusive thoughts. Nothing to worry about, really."
It doesn't seem like he's buying into what I said but goes along with it anyways. Changing the subject, Odd starts asking all these questions about me. Things such as what I do and don't like. Cat's or dog's, favorite food, hobbies. All that random icebreaker stuff teachers make you do in class. But this is tons more enjoyable.
I guess I hadn't noticed until now how late it's gotten. The sun starts to dip behind the winter clouds, vibrant shades of pink and orange mixing. With the warmth of the sun disappearing, I retract my arms into my shirt so I won't turn into a human popsicle. Oh wait, that would be a terrible Xana attack, huh?
"Hey," I take a deep breath as my gaze remains unfocused on the people below us. "Do you. . . we're not on a date, right?"
"Date? Whadaya mean? We're just hanging out, aren't we?"
"Well yeah," I fiddle with the ends of my sleeve. "but everything we did today was kinda couple like, ya know?"
"Oh! So you're falling for me, huh? Well, I can't blame you. I am irresistible!"
Technically, he's not wrong.
"Yeah, but dude, I just don't wanna like you more than a friend knowing you like someone else. Cause you have Sam, right?"
"O-Oh. . . !" Odd shifts his weight from side to side, clearly trying to avoid any eye contact. "You even know about Sam? I'm beginning to think you know everything about us."
"Sorry uh," Shoot, I didn't realize how weird that sounded until it came out. "It's not like it's a whole lot. Just enough so it's not creepy."
"Right. . ."
This isn't exactly how I wanted things to go. God, take me out, please.
"I love her, yeah," Odd leans over the railing with a long sigh. "But I don't think I'll be seeing much of her anymore. She, uh, moved somewhere near the coast, so I haven't seen her in forever."
"S-Sorry, I didn't mean to bring something like that up." Even though he isn't looking at me, I feel that he doesn't want to be here anymore. "If you wanna vent about it or anything in general, I guess, I'll be here for you."
[2129 Words]
I feel like I disappear every chapter so sorry about that! I'm already working on chp 13 and I'm not sure where it's heading so it's probably going to end up as a short filler chapter before 14 hits. Just so you guys know, once 15 drops, all of the angst is gonna be unleashed. I think I'm better at writing those parts rather than sweet moments like these. So, thanks for reading!