"Never tell people how to do things. Tell them what to do and they will surprise you with their ingenuity." – George S. Patton
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It has been a day since Luke left for New York. He refused to let Annie send him off at the airport; mainly because he thinks that he won't be able to go up the plane without her. Fortunately, Annie agreed, since she herself found it hard to send him off. The couple had indeed grow closer than before. You could say that they're partly best friends apart from being a couple.
Here she is now, grumpily throwing her things on her locker before getting to class. The bell rang indicating the start of another class. She groaned. She remembered how Luke would always accompany her every period. Sadly, he had gone to a vacation with his own family for two weeks. She pouted at the thought of now seeing him for that long, and sighed eventually as she thought that there's nothing much she could do of the matter. It was a 'family' vacation after all. She should give him that at least, she though. After all, they had been stuck like a wad of gum since they had become official.
Although out the day, Annie had been sticking up with her usual character as the so-called "ice-princess". It's not that she wanted to go back through that old facede though. She was indeed gloomy all day. Apparently, she had been waiting for Luke's promised call after he lands in NewYork. It has been over twenty-four hours now yet he hasn't called, still. She did in fact felt disappointed, but what else could she do, right?
She sighed for the umpteenth time and plastered her usual poker face, only this time, it was more stoic. She could feel eyes on her, to be honest, mostly from boys.
'I bet they're just weirded out since the usual blooming Annie is now gloomy. Blame the tanned boy for that,' she thought.
Annie absent-mindedly tapped her mechanical pencil as she spread her notebook and her French textbook on her desk. French class was actually her favorite; however, her professor was just the most boring professor you could even imagine. He would often dose off at his own lecture, to which her other classmates take as an opportunity to leave the class early. Sometimes they even play a prank on him, and every time he wakes up from those pranks, he would just shrug it off and act like nothing happened, even though it was quite obvious who those prankters were. Him being an idiot would sound weird. Maybe he's just getting older, don't you think?
The university's bell rang again indicating the start and end of yet another class. Annie sighed another time as she collected her things and placed them neatly on her bag. She groaned as she took a glimpse from her phone. There weren't any notifications of any calls nor texts. Annie scrunched her nose and sighed yet again. She was about to set out of the room when her professor called her suddenly.
"Annie Clifford," Mr. Danver, her old, French professor, hollered, "Can you please come here for a sec? I have to tell you something."
Annie's face turned into a confused one, an expression to which differed from the poker face she had pulled off the whole day. She nodded and politely walked towards Mr. Danver, who now seemed like he was about to dose off again. "What is it about, sir?" She asked politely, although a little bit loud to shake the old man awake.
That seemed to get his attention as lightly shook his head to get rid of sleepiness and took a glance at Annie. He seemed to be raking his head for the right words to say before he snapped his fingers, indicating that he finally remembered. It was a good thing that he remembered a bit faster that you could imagine since the ice princess was already getting impatient.
"Oh. You're good in Chinese, right?" He asked, waiting for Annie's reply. The latter took a moment to answer since she was kind of nervous as to why he asked that question. She sensed that it had something to do with an extra-curricular activity, and she was proven right as the old man smiled and took out a pamphlet of some sort as soon as she nodded her head. She hesitantly took the pamphlet from him and bowed appreciatively, just for formality. The pamphlet talked about an Chinese competition, one to which will took place a couple of days from now; the exact same day that Luke was coming back from his little trip.
"The university decided to hold up a few competitions for some students. One of the competitions is that one. Fortunately, that competition required two participants as a team, with language professors as their coach. As a language professor myself, I was required to pick from you guys to battle it out, regardless of college level. With you being one of my top students, I decided to choose you together with another one from my other class. I was informed that you're good in Chinese. Fortunately, your partner's a native speaker, so you don't have to worry that much."
As soon as the old man stated that her partner was a native speaker, her blood immediately turned cold. It may seem like she doesn't care of her surroundings, but she's quite the observer though. She knew each and every one from her batch, and by a Chinese native speaker, she already knew who it was. And oh boy, this will not turn out good.
"I called for him though. Why isn't he here yet?" By now, she was not sweating. She wasn't actually prepared to meet him right now. She was silently cursing the old man for picking her out, let alone choose her own partner.
A knock suddenly came from the door. As soon as the old man told the culprit to come in, Annie's theory was proven right. It was indeed Kaiden with his tall glory! The latter seemed surprised as she was as soon as he saw Annie standing in front of the old man's desk.
Kaiden emerged in the room gracefully and stood beside Annie. "What is it that you want to talk about?" Kaiden asked warily, his eyes glancing at the girl at his side.
"I can't believe I have to repeat it all over again," the old man coughed and cleared his through before continuing, "Like what I've said before, this university will be holding different types of competition. In your case, I decided to pick you two to participate in the Chinese competition since you both are my top students. Although my course is not of Chinese, I've quite heard from the others that you both are good at that language. With that being said, you two will be partners for the said competition. I will be coaching you two of course, but seeing that Annie Clifford's good in Chinese and you, Kaiden, is a native speaker yourself, I guess I don't have to coach you two anymore. You two work it out, okay? I have to go now." The old man didn't wait for the two to respond as he immediately fled the room.
Kaiden was gaping at the now empty desk whereas Annie remained impassive as she had heard of it before. She sighed and racked her hair from frustration. She couldn't get out of this now since the old man had already left; plus, it would be hard to refuse from an old man. That'd be disrespectful, right? Her thoughts were cut as the boy beside her cleared his throat.
"Y-you don't have to do this, you know?" Kaiden said warily. He was staring at the floor, unable look right at the girl's eyes.
Annie frowned at his actions. He looked awkward and not to mention weird. It was quite new to her since he had never acted like that before, not even when they were already ignoring each other before. "What do you mean?" She asked.
Kaiden rubbed the back of his neck, still staring at the ground, "The c-competition. Y-you don't have to do it. I'll just talk it out with--"
"I'll do it," Annie blurted out, "No. I'm going to do it."
Kaiden's eyes widened at her words. He glanced up only to meet her eyes. He saw the look of determination etched on her face as she remained stoic. He blinked multiple times before straightening himself out. "W-why?" He stuttered. He was mentally kicking himself for stuttering.
"What why? Is there a reason why I shouldn't participate?" She said with a raise of an eyebrow.
"N-no."
"Exactly," she sighed, "look, as much as we both hate this, can't we just act professionally and get this over and done with. For one, it'd be disrespectful to decline something the old man had already offered for us. Plus, this is a big opportunity for an extra-curricular activity. If you don't want to participate, then it's your choice. I can always find my own partner." She blurted it all out. She was internally confused as to where she suddenly got the confidence. She was, after all, still angry at the tall boy from the past, but at the same time, she wanted the both of them to make up. She wanted everyone at peace after all, and this was the perfect opportunity for the both of them to talk things out.
Kaiden waved his hands in front of him, "No, no, no. T-that wasn't what I meant! I'd love to join!" He said in a hurry. The latter didn't reply. Instead, she only nodded her head.
"Errmm... The old man did say that we have to work this out, right? Like practice and learn or something? When and where should we start?" He asked, rubbing the back of his head again in an awkward manner.
"Tomorrow. Library. 4:30p.m after classes. Don't be late." She said and finally exited the room without hearing the other's reply, causing her to not hear his protest.
"But I have classes until 5:00p.m," he said faintly. He sighed and messed up his hair.
A janitor came to the room all of a sudden, "Ermm, sir? I'm sorry but I have to close this room now since there's no more classes for this room."
Kaiden sighed and grumpily exited the room. The janitor was definitely a mood-breaker. After a few strides, he finally smiled. He finally realized that it'd be a good thing since they'd have to perfect time to talk, alone. It's the perfect opportunity to patch things up. He was silently thankful to Harry as well for blurting out Luke's family vacation last night when they were hanging out. With the boyfriend gone and the two of them talking in the library alone, there'd be no interruptions; just the two of them.
'I guess I'm skipping classes?' He thought, smiling.