Sunflower With Red Drops

3.

   'It seems like the two of you are having fun. Could you please concentrate and at least pretend to be working on those exercises?!', Tyler shyly went back to his work, drawing some ugly flowers.

   'But we are finished Miss. We're bored.', I saw Tyler's eyes widened and felt Cyrus focusing on not laughing about the whole situation.

   'Then let's see what you did, come to the board and write down the first two exercises.', I didn't really understand why but I proudly did as I was told and I don't think she liked the fact that I was right on every single thing. I calmly walked back to my lab table where my bag was already packed up and ready to go. I thanked Tyler for that and waited for the bell to ring, to finally leave this class.

Finally the whole morning went calmly and no intricacy troubled my lessons. I was saddened by the sudden disappearance of my two new friends in Music for my last hour though. I had to confront an all new environment, new people, new teacher, plus my appearance didn't go unnoticed by most of the students. Like I feared, Monty was there, immediately locking eyes with me. The teacher, trying to be nice, started to talk to me in front of the whole class and then offered me a seat next to a slim brunette with a band aid on one of his eyebrows. I got my coloring book out to look for some stickers to decorate my pencil case. After about 15 minutes, my belly started gurgling as I laid my head down on my work.

   'I'm so hungry, please someone help me...', it was a quiet whisper but the boy sitting on my left grabbed his bag and offered me a chocolate bar. I grabbed it without even thinking and turned to him, glitter visible in my eyes.

   'Thankssss.', I squeezed his right arm to death before opening and eating the snack I had in hand, not bothering about discretion until the teacher turned around to make me realize how noisy I was.

   'My name's Alex by the way.', I smiled, feeling some chocolate on my lips and chewing rapidly to answer him.

   'Lily, it's nice to meet you. It'll be nice to be friends, especially if you feed me snacks all day long.', he seemed surprised by my blunt personality and smiled.

   'What will I have in exchange?', I started to think about a valuable currency of exchange.

   'Will cute drawings and some of my Auntie's cookies be enough?', he quickly smiled and nodded to what I answered with a quiet giggle. Till the end of the class, I just couldn't suppress my excitement, I was constantly jumping up and down and swinging my legs to no end.

~

Lunch break arrived pretty quickly and I was impatient to show Tyler and Cyrus the cute bento Auntie and I made yesterday. I sat down and grabbed my phone. I put on Sponge Bob from where I stopped in the morning and waited with my headphones on. At the end of my episode, I looked up and saw a cute brunette smiling back at me. I jumped, surprised by her sudden appearance, and quickly took my headphones off.

   'Hi, I'm Mackenzie. Sorry if I scared the living crap out of you. My brother told me a lot about you, like a lot, lot. He's coming, just looking for Tyler.', I was surprised by her talkative behavior. I easily feel awkward when I have to interact with girls, I can't explain it but I feel like boys are easier to read.

   'I'm Lily, and your brother is..', I didn't get who she was talking about. Maybe she mistook me for someone else but she said Tyler's name so she must know him.

   'I'm Cyrus' little sister, sorry I wasn't really clear.', she smiled awkwardly and I sighed, finally understanding the situation.

   'It's fine, I just had a hard time understanding who you were. But if you're Cyrus's sister you must be nice and super cool, so I must show you what Auntie and I made yesterday!', I plunged my hands into my backpack turning slightly around, 'Did you watch Spirited Away?', she nodded excitedly. I put my bento on the table and pushed my phone away, 'Sorry, I was watching SpongeBob. There you see, we replicated the onigiri from Spirited Away, one with raw salmon, this one's stuffed with an umeboshi and this one is stuffed with tuna because Cy told me he only liked onigiri with tuna.'. Her eyes sparkled and she took a picture of my work, we started to chat about Ghibli studio and I introduced her to Moush Moush the susuwatari's keychain I had from My Neighbor Totoro. At some point, I got so impatient I facedtimed Cyrus, so he and Tyler would hurry to the cafeteria. I was throwing my arms excitedly in the air when a soft pat pulled me out of my trance. Cyrus sat down next to me and I turned his way with the onigiri I made for him yesterday.

   'Here, it's for you. It's stuffed with tuna, you can't refuse it.', he smiled and took a bite before turning to Mackenzie to inform her that Tyler wasn't feeling well and left for his place a few minutes ago. My face dropped at his statement, I pouted feeling extremely sad for some reason already thinking about what I could possibly do to help him with whatever he was going through.

   'I'll drop some loukoums at his place tonight. I really wanted him to try one of my onigiri.', I looked down, abandoning all the good vibes I had seconds ago. Mackenzie's eyes widened and she sent her brother telepathic question marks, not understanding my sudden change of mood. I felt his arm wrap around my shoulders, and turned to him still pouting.

   'I'll go with you. I'm sure he'll love it, okay.', I still looked a bit down the whole lunch break, sadly bringing my food to my mouth. With time, the table filled up with people I didn't know. They all looked like they were friends with Cyrus and Mackenzie so I didn't pay any attention to them, still sulking. Suddenly, there was a long silence as I felt eyes on me.

   'What would you say about going to the ice-cream shop after school ? We're finishing early, aren't we?', I looked up, eyes filled with hope as I locked eyes with Cyrus.

   'For real?', he nodded sarcastically. I happily hugged his arm, already thinking about what flavor and toppings I was going to have.

   'You can't take that back, you promise.' I turned to Mackenzie, randomly starting a conversation. Some of his friends started to laugh at the situation, making me smile.

   'Did you just extort my brother? I want an ice-cream as well.', she faked a pout at her brother and started to beg him with one of her friends. The table filled with laughter when Cy refused and went back to eating his food.