Kissing Habits.

01. D-Minus

Chapter One
D-Minus

"FUCK," CAMILA DIMAANO MUTTERED UNDER HER BREATH AS SHE TURNED OVER THE MARKED SHEET, adorned with a big fat D- at the top next to her scrawled name. Ever since Camila had come back to school for the new year, her grades had been plummeting downhill, especially in Mrs Liles' class; Mathematics.

She stared down at the grade in disbelief, stomach twisting in knots, eyebrows furrowing, sort of unsure how to really feel about her score. Last time she'd taken a maths test, in September at the beginning of the year, she'd scored a C, so it was evident that her grades were getting lower and lower.

A light tap on Camila's shoulder pulled her out of her D-minus daze, and she turned around to face the person behind her. Excited, wide brown eyes gazed up at her, and the charming smile of Coco Byun soothed Camila quickly. "What did you get?" she asked, feet kicking against the varnish flooring, cradling her test sheet against her chest.

At this, Camila deflated slightly. She knew by the puppy dog glint in Coco's eyes that she'd scored a high grade, and would only feel worse about herself once finding out just what she'd gotten. Camila glanced back at her test. "Well - uh - a D... minus."

"Oh, that's really good!" Coco grinned, patting Camila's shoulder encouragingly. "I only got an A, so it wasn't like I did amazing or anything."

"I mean, like... you still did really good," Camila replied with a pained smile, her fingers digging into the paper.

"Don't worry about it, Cam! You'll do good next time!" The other girl smiled warmly, and Camila took that as her cue to turn back around in her seat.

Generally, Coco was a really fun, kind, loving friend, but she was also much better than the rest of the friend group in... well, basically everything. And when it came to tests and talking about grades, she always managed to make everyone else feel bad for not being as academically fortunate.

With a heavy sigh, Camila pulled her bag open and stuffed the test paper inside, completely disregarding its now-crumpled state (preferably, it would be disintegrated by the time she next opened her bag).

As the final bell sounded, the class stirred as they hauled their bags onto their shoulders and leapt out of their seats, eager to leave Mrs Liles' maths class. Camila Dimaano and Coco Byun left the class together, shoulder to shoulder, as they entered the now-bustling corridor to meet with their other friend, Theodora Özdemir.

Out by the front of the school, Theodora was spotted leaning against her dad's brown Ford Pinto, and Coco and Camila made their ways over.

Once Theodora looked up from an orange sheet between her dainty ringed fingers, she smiled and waved at her two friends. She turned around the orange paper to show them the black lettering, to which Camila had to squint.

"What's that?" Camila asked as she and Coco grew closer to the car.

Theodora turned the paper back around. "Tina gave me one of her spare party posters in Soc class. You guys aren't doing anything on Halloween, are you?" She looked up at her friends with a cheeky smile.

She passed Camila the paper, and now she could read the letters clearly:

TINA'S HALLOWEEN BASH
" come and get sheet faced "
- HALLOWEEN NITE 9PM