READY FOR LOVE | JENLISA

Chapter 21

Lisa

"Time's up!" Irene announces, scurrying around the classroom to pick up our quizzes. I hand in my quiz more willingly this time, feeling a bit more confident after actually studying for this one. I know I didn't get a hundred percent or anything like that, but I know I did better than the previous quizzes, feeling more confident in my answers.

Once Irene is finished collecting the papers, she places them on her desk and grabs another pile sitting on her desk. "Good news, class. Your professor has finished grading your tests from last week, and I can hand them back to you now." she says, starting to call out names to have us come collect them from her.

"Jennie Kim." she calls, and Jennie stands, walking up to Irene to grab her test. "Good job." I hear Irene praise as she hands Jennie her test, smiling.

Jennie scans her test on the way back to her seat, sitting down and placing her test face down on the table. "What did you get?" Rosé asks, stretching over the table and snatching up Jennie's test. Jennie lunges to prevent her from doing so, but Rosé is too quick for her.

"Rosé!" Jennie scolds.

Rosé's eyes grow wide, and then her brow furrows in confusion. "How?" she breathes out in disbelief and aggravation. She picks up her own test, frantically flipping through the pages, scanning and comparing her test to Jennie's.

While Rosé is messing with the tests, rat boy gets called up and scurries back with his own test, looking pissed. He scoots close to Rosé to search Jennie's test, intently comparing answers. Between all the page swapping, I manage to see that both Rosé and rat boy got A- for the test while Jennie scored an A+.

"Lisa Manoban." Irene calls my name, and I pop out of my seat to grab my test from her, expecting the worst. By the grim look on her face, I know that it's not good. I grab my test and immediately frown at the D+ scribbled in red ink staring back at me. Fuck.

Beyond frustrated with myself, I void myself of any emotion when I return to my seat, not wanting to give away my horrible test score to my genius table mates, feeling uncharacteristically embarrassed and ashamed. I can only imagine the shit that rat boy would give me if he knew my test score. And Jennie... she'd probably think I'm the biggest idiot alive.

When I return to the table, I take my seat and immediately shove my test into my backpack to hide it from any wandering, curious eyes.

"How did you do?" Rosé asks curiously, looking up at me from the tests in front of her.

"Well." I lie, giving a casual shrug.

"Define well." rat boy presses, almost knowing.

"Can I have my test back now?" Jennie cuts in, unamused that her friends are fawning over her perfect test score. Rosé scowls, reluctantly handing Jennie back her test, but not before asking her numerous questions, wondering how she got some answers wrong. While the girls debate, I feel rat boy's beady gaze on me, staring me down. There's a hint of a malicious smirk tugging at his lips, like he knows how poorly I did on the test and is criticising me for it.

"You're so stupid, Lisa! You'll never amount to anything!"

My eyes snap to Jennie, but she isn't the one who spoke. She's still explaining concepts to Rosé.

What the hell?

Shaking my head, I try my best to clear my thoughts, but the negative judgments keep crawling to the forefront of my mind. The whole lab period, I fight with the troubled thoughts swirling around my head, and rat boy's shrewd smile and stare isn't helping one bit.

"Lisa?"

I swing my gaze to Jennie to see that she is, in fact, speaking to me this time.

"Are you okay?" she asks, looking at me with concern.

"Yeah. Yeah." I lie, realising that I've totally been zoning out on her this whole lab period. She looks at me sceptically, but before she can confront me further, Irene dismisses the class.

"I'll see you later." I tell Jennie, ducking out the door in the opposite direction of her and her friends. I walk down the hall, pacing at the end of it, trying to release some of the pent up anger and irritation vibrating through me.

"What's the matter, Lisa?" someone asks, feigning concern. I know that condescending voice anywhere. I look over my shoulder to spot Somi standing behind me. She's managed to squeeze her curves into the tightest pair of jeans, and her breasts are almost popping out of her black ribbed tank top. Those piercing green eyes stare back at me, practically begging for a challenge.

Without a word, I charge her, gripping the back of her head and forcing her with my body to take a few steps back into the nearby empty classroom. As soon as we step inside, I kick the door shut behind us and Somi pushes me back against the door before sealing her lips to mine.

Instinctively, I let out a groan, loving the way her plump pink lips move against mine and how her tongue swirls around mine. I know I shouldn't be doing this, but I can't stop. As much as I can't stand Somi most of the time, I have to admit, she's one hell of a distraction and an immediate ego boost.

Somi roughly rakes her fingers through my hair and jumps, wrapping her legs around my torso. With one hand supporting her back, I walk forward and blindly find the nearest desk, setting her on top of it. With one swift movement, never breaking my lips from hers, I roughly shove the desk with her on it over to the door, blocking it to prevent anyone from coming in.

She giggles against my lips, momentarily breaking contact. "Eager, huh? I guess someone really missed me." she taunts, and before she can say more to put me off, I slam my lips to hers to prevent her from saying anything else.

I practically sprint to English, running late after my little lunch hook-up with Somi. The cool air from the air-conditioner greets me as soon as I get inside, and I pause right around the corner. Running my hands through my hair, I try to make myself seem as put together as possible, despite feeling anything but.

While my hook-up with Somi was an impulsive decision that made me feel good in the moment, I feel... disgusted, now. I should know better, I really should. But after feeling like a complete idiot and humiliated after getting our tests back, I just wanted to feel good again. To let out my aggravation and feel emotionless for a moment.

Once I feel put together enough, I walk into our English class with my head held high, masking my shame to save face in front of Jennie.

"Hey, Finch." I say, plopping down into my chair.

"Hey." She looks over at me, giving me that signature smile that falters after a few seconds. I watch as a handful of emotions scroll over her face, her expression eventually landing on suppressed surprise.

"What's up, Finch?" I ask hesitantly. I know my face is probably still flushed from my lunch break activities, but that can easily be excused as the heat outside.

"Uhh..." she stutters, chewing at the corner of her lip, debating whether to tell me or not. It's then I realise that she's staring at my neck.

"Yeah?" I softly urge her, already swiping at my neck.

"You... uh... have something..." she pauses, pointing at her neck, just below her ear, to signal to me.

I swipe higher on my neck and peer at my fingers, finding a faint pink tint smearing them with some sparkles.

Fucking hell.

I let out an uneasy laugh, excusing myself to the restroom to wash off Somi's lingering lip gloss, damning everything to hell.