Being back in school felt more exciting than it should have been. My days of relaxing and enjoying my hobbies were now gone, but the thought of seeing my best friends again more than made up for it.
I really missed chatting with Ashley in person and listening to Melissa and Derek squabble over petty matters.
I'd spent a lot of quality time with my parents and Ryan during their pockets of free time, so my energy was fully recharged after coming back from break.
The first thing I did after unpacking my stuff in my dorm room was to check the group chat. We'd agreed last night to meet up once we were in school and finished organizing most of our things.
I grinned slightly at the latest messages in the chat log.
Melissa and Derek had both announced that they were already done and were currently in the school courtyard. Ashley's reaction to their messages was a string of shocked emojis as she asked them how they did it.
To be honest, I wasn't surprised. I could easily envision them just tossing their belongings everywhere they fit into and calling it a day. Ashley was the one who would painstakingly slave over sorting her items into different categories to be stored in different sections. Her room was the neatest one among all of ours, including Derek's—even though I didn't know what his looked like, I could deduce it from seeing how disorganized his school bag was.
Before locking my phone screen, my thumb couldn't resist clicking on the chat log I had with Nolan.
The whole car ride here, the thought of seeing him again just wouldn't leave my head. In fact, it was one of the reasons I was so enthusiastic about returning to school.
I was excited to see Ashley and the others again, but I couldn't wait to see Nolan.
He hadn't yet responded to the message I'd sent him this morning when I was leaving my house. It wasn't unexpected, considering it was morning, but he had to have gotten up by now, right?
As I walked out of the dormitory building, I kept glancing down at my blank phone screen. Was he going to reply any moment soon?
School hadn't even started yet, and I was already missing our daily conversations. On the other hand, I could deal with the loss of a few text conversations if it meant I could actually see him in person now.
The thought brought a smile to my face and a spring to my step.
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"Mel! Derek!" I squealed as I ran up to her and Derek, who were sitting at one of the stone tables in the courtyard.
There were a lot of other students in the place, too, happily chattering away with their friends.
Looking up from the soccer ball she was examining with Derek, Melissa beamed at me. "Chelsea!"
Derek raised his head as well and grinned at me. "Hey, Chelsea."
Bubbly warmth spread through my chest at their familiar smiling faces. Melissa's light brown hair, which had been growing down to her waist before the break, was now just a couple of inches past her shoulders. Derek had gotten a haircut, too.
I missed them so much.
"What are you guys doing?" I asked, plopping myself down on one of the seats.
"We're just trying to figure out what happened to my ball," Melissa said, tapping it. "I barely touched it over the break, but when I came back and unpacked, it was already like this!"
The parts of the soccer ball that didn't have black pentagons on them were entirely bright blue. I recalled Melissa hauling it around on regular school days, and it was a regular black-and-white soccer ball then.
Derek ran his fingers over the bright blue areas. "It feels like paint, though. Could someone else have gotten to it? Maybe your brother wanted to mess with you?"
Her eyes narrowed at the suggestion. "That sounds like exactly the kind of thing he'd do! I bet he did it knowing that I wouldn't discover it until I got back at school. That little brat, wait till I get back home!"
"Isn't your brother already in the fourth grade? That's so childish," I said.
"He is childish," she said, rolling her eyes. "I had to fend off his dumb pranks for the entire school break, even during Christmas!"
"Hey, guys!"
Ashley's clear voice was distinctive as always, even from afar.
Instantly, we all looked up. She was practically bounding towards us with a bright smile on her face.
"Ash!" I said, waving both my arms at her.
"I can't believe you guys got done so fast. How did you manage to finish unpacking so quickly? Did you just throw everything into your wardrobe?" she said as she reached our table.
"Of course not," Melissa said, frowning at her. "Some of the stuff goes into the dresser and desk drawers, you know."
"The real question is, why did you take so long?" Derek returned the soccer ball to Melissa, who set it on her lap.
I laughed.
"Unlike you guys, I actually try to be neat," Ashley said, shooting him a half-hearted glare. "Don't worry, I know it's hard to imagine for you."
Derek began arguing with her about how he wasn't messy, because he knew just where he kept his things. Melissa chimed in with her own opinion, which was mostly similar to his.
Amidst their great debate, I pulled my phone out of my pocket to check for new messages. I kind of knew there wouldn't be any, since I hadn't felt any vibrations, but it was becoming a habit now.
Nolan had to be in school by now, right? It was almost evening.
I couldn't resist—I sent him a text asking where he was.
There was still no reply. Stowing my phone away, I forced down my rising disappointment as I tried to tune back into the conversation my friends were having.
"Please?" Melissa was saying with clasped hands and pleading eyes aimed at Ashley. "I haven't played anything in ages!"
"There's no point," Ashley protested, crossing her arms. "You know how much I suck at basketball. You're better off putting a mannequin on the court or something. Right, Chelsea?"
"Uh," I said, blinking. "Right. Totally."
They were talking about basketball, weren't they? When it came to sports, Ashley was always right. We were both awful at everything.
At my answer, Melissa turned towards me. "Please, Chels! We don't have enough players. When was the last time you played with us? It'd be fun!"
"It's just for fun," Derek added. "It's not a big deal if you're slow."
"I know, but I'm just so bad at it," Ashley said, groaning. "Do you guys have to play today? Can't you play tomorrow? You would be able to find more people if you did it tomorrow."
"I really want to play now," Melissa said. "Chelsea, if you join in, I'll give you my dessert tonight, okay?"
Melissa knew just how to get me to do what she wanted.
I sat up just a little straighter. "I'll do it if I get your dessert at lunch tomorrow, too."
"Done!" she said, flashing me a bright grin. "No backing out now!"
Ashley looked incredulous. "Are you serious? You're going to play basketball for the sake of extra dessert?"
"I mean..." I shrugged. "It's extra dessert, and I just have to bear with it for an hour. Why not?"
Besides, I was in way better shape than I had been previously, now that I was taking gym class and exercising more seriously. At least I wouldn't be completely out of breath like I used to be.
"You're way too easily bribed!"
"Come on, Ashley," Derek said. "Even Chelsea's playing."
Nodding, Melissa said, "Yeah, it's boring to just sit on the bleachers watching us. Please?"
Ashley stared silently at us in obvious contemplation, and then she heaved a giant sigh. "Fine! I'll join, but don't expect me to be any good."
"We won't," Melissa said in a soothing tone, but it only made Ashley glare at her.
With all that agreed upon, we went back to our dorm rooms to get changed before setting off to the school's indoor gym. According to Melissa and Derek, the few others they'd convinced to play would be meeting us there.
As expected, Ashley and I were terrible.
Melissa and Derek tried to include us once or twice by passing the ball to us, but we pretty much lost it immediately after we got it. Aware that I was really only there to fill up the numbers, I ran around and pretended to care about what was going on.
By the end of the game, I'd worked up a good amount of sweat. Somehow, I felt refreshed despite being exhausted. It had been a while since I'd really exercised since I went home, because there was no one forcing me.
"It's finally over," Ashley said, looking totally worn out.
As we strolled towards the bleachers where we'd left our belongings, I stretched out my arms. "Yeah, it feels good."
Melissa, who was walking beside me, said, "You know what? I'm not even going to question why you've been so into exercising lately. I'm just going to go with it because I love that."
Once I got to my small messenger bag, I got my phone out of it.
Had he replied me yet?
Yes! Excitement surged up my veins at the new text notification that was displayed across the screen.
'I'm in my room. What about you?'
I immediately sent him a reply. 'I just finished playing basketball with my friends! We're going to get dinner soon. Want to join us?'
I really wanted him to say yes. I just wanted to see him again.
'I guess I can. When should I come down?'
My face felt like it was about to be split apart from how big my smile was.
"Hey, Chels!"
Startled, I glanced up. Ashley had turned her body halfway towards me, and the others were already walking ahead.
"What are you doing?" she said. "Come on, let's go."
"Yeah," I said, picking my bag up and slinging it over my shoulder. "I'm coming."
'We're going to shower first! I'll text you?'
'Yeah, alright. See you later.'
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I'd never showered faster in my life. I just wanted to be done so that I could head down for dinner.
The dining hall was bustling with teenagers as they settled down for dinner. The noise was comforting, and I found myself closing my eyes in contentment as I sipped from my strawberry smoothie. I missed the rowdy dinner time atmosphere here.
"I don't want to get up early tomorrow morning," Melissa said. "I've gotten so used to sleeping in every day."
"Me too," Derek said. "I've been sleeping at 2:00 a.m. these days."
Ashley shook her head. "My parents would never let me sleep so late. They'd kill me if they caught me still up after midnight."
'Are you here?' I texted Nolan.
'Yeah, I'm entering now.'
"You've been looking at your phone this whole time," Melissa said, pointing at it with a French fry. "What's so interesting?"
"And why are you smiling like that?" Ashley said, leaning her head towards me.
I quickly slid my phone into my bag. "Nothing! Was I smiling?"
Ashley squinted at me. "Totally. It's like you suddenly got a free cake slice from Mr. Jameson or something."
"Hi," said a low voice from behind me.
Thankful for this merciful interruption, I hastily turned to face the new person.
Nolan stood there before our table, holding a tray of food. His fine, black hair looked like it was at the same length as it had been before we started out school break. His sharp green eyes were alert and not at all sleepy—probably because it was evening—and they were looking right down at me. I found my gaze lingering on his narrow jawline, and I had to force them back to his eyes. Had he always been this attractive?
"Nolan!" I said, feeling baffled at the abrupt fluttering in my chest. "Hey!"
Distantly, I heard my best friends acknowledge and greet him, but their voices were like background noise.
I was too busy reeling at the sudden need that was clawing at me to reach over and hug him.
After greeting everyone else, Nolan set his tray down on the table and sat next to me.
"I just finished unpacking," he said, opening his bottle of mineral water.
Looking at him only revealed to me how much I missed talking to him in real life—my fingers twitched as I restrained the urge to launch myself at him. The thought jolted me out of my daze, and I stared down at my hands in shock. What was that?
Finally finding my voice, I said, "This is the first time you're eating dinner with us! Thanks for coming."
Taking a sip of water, he shrugged. "Thanks for asking me."
My heart was soaring at the idea that he had come down to have dinner with us because I had asked him.
I still wanted to hug him. The desire to hold him hadn't faded and was in fact steadily growing stronger with each passing second. I hadn't even hugged—or thought to hug—Ashley when I saw her earlier. The realization struck me like a heavy baseball bat to the head.
Just receiving a text from him was enough to hype me up for hours, but none of the texts from my best friends had that effect.
Oh.
Just seeing his face was enough to send my heartbeat into an erratic rhythm. None of my best friends could do that.
Oh.
He raised his eyes to my face, and my ability to breathe left me. I kind of wanted to kiss him.
Oh.
"What is it?" he said, his eyebrows knitting together at my frozen expression. "Is there something on my face?"
"No," I said faintly, lowering my eyes to my own food. "There's nothing."
I peeked at him when he returned to picking at his salad, my heart hammering in my chest. The rush of blood in my ears was as loud as thunder. I swallowed.
In that moment, there was only one word on my mind: Oh.
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AN: someone's realized something! ( ˭̵̵̵̵͈́◡ु͂˭̵̵̵͈̀ )ˉ̞̭♡ I'M SO SORRY FOR THE LATE UPDATE!! i've been really busy irl :( there are just a lot of things on my plate rn, not just work. also i would've updated an hour earlier but then wattpad underwent maintenance, lol. thank you so much for reading and all your support and votes guys, it means everything to me! remember to click that little star button if you enjoyed this part! i love you all!! ˉ̞̭(′͈∨‵͈♡)˄̻ ̊ please take care and stay safe!
this part is dedicated to med_girl___ HEY GIRL THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR ALL YOUR ENCOURAGING COMMENTS AND VOTES, you're such a sweetheart and i appreciate you so so much! every time i see a new notification and your username it makes me smile :) I LOVE YOU~ （*'▽｀*）