Our Tulips Together

10 | Rarest of Sightings

"Here we find the studious and hardworking Isabelle Grigio in her natural habitat: the school library."

"Benjamin Morrell in the school library—the rarest of sightings." Isabelle looks up from her laptop and smiles slightly at him. "So," she says, pausing as he takes the seat beside her, "What are you doing in the library?"

"I came here to borrow a book...," Ben explains, "and to sleep." True enough, he is holding a book that was tall and wide enough to cover his head. Ironically, the book is 'The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People' by Stephen Covey. Only he would sleep behind a book about productivity and efficiency.

"You?" he asks.

"Maximizing the study period," she says pointedly.

"All right, carry on." Ben positions himself to take a nap. "Oh, by the way, can you please warn me if the librarian comes. He and I aren't exactly on positive terms."

"Gee, I wonder why," Isabelle replies flatly. She spends the next thirty minutes creating a tracker and timeline for her World History Project. It is due in less than two months, which for others, may seem like ample time for a project worth a third of their grade. But, she, who still hasn't the slightest clue about what to do, is already stressed and anxious about it.

She looks at the rubric again. Think outside of the box, it says. But she doesn't even know how to think inside of it.

Sighing, Isabelle looks over at Ben, who seems peaceful in his sleep, not an ounce of stress or anxiety weighing down on any of his features. Sometimes, she wishes that she could be as numbingly carefree as him. It always seems like he doesn't worry about a single thing or care about any expectations. Then, she has a strange thought, "What would it be like to be careless and irresponsible for a day? But she pushes that thought away and looks back at her laptop screen.

"Hey," Ben whispers, putting the book down and propping his head up on one elbow, "you okay?"

Isabelle massages her neck and exhales deeply before answering. "Not really, I'm a bit overwhelmed," she admits, but she manages a small smile when she notices his knitted brows in slight concern. "Nothing I can't handle, though."

"You know what you need right now?" Ben says.

"What?"

"A break."

Isabelle makes a face, as though it was a foreign concept to her. "A break?"

"Yeah, a break," Ben replies, a mischievous smile playing on his lips. She doesn't like the sight and what it probably meant – not one bit. "Let's skip the last period," he continues.

It takes a minute for her to understand what he had just said to her. "Oh, my god, are you insane? That is a huge violation of the school handbook. We could get in serious trouble. You know that, right?" she whispers-shouts, flabbergasted.

"Only if you get caught," he replies.

"Do you know who you're talking to?" she continues, "I'm not breaking my perfect attendance record for you. Because if I did, would you take responsibility for my imminent death if my dad – who I might add is also the principal – finds out?"

"Okay, first of all, I can't believe you read the school handbook. That has, like, a thousand pages," Ben says, counting off on his fingers. "Second of all, you deserve a break —"

Isabelle interjects, "I'll settle for a KitKat."

But he continues, "And third of all, do you know who you're talking to? I'm an expert at cutting and skipping classes. Not to brag, but I already cut classes, like, twice this week, and I didn't get caught —"

"Not something to brag about, buddy."

"Look. Right now is the study period for the juniors. A lot of students will be in the library or walking around the school, pretending that they're headed somewhere. Which means they'll barely notice that we're gone. And with the lax security measures, we can get away with skipping the study period." Ben stands up, looking ready to leave. "Do you trust me?"

She winces. "I really don't."

"Fine, I wasn't going to do this, but... you don't back down from a challenge, right?" he says knowingly. "I dare you to skip classes with me."

"The answer's still no, buddy."

Ben shrugs, trying to play it off coolly. "Okay, okay. Fine. I guess you're too chicken to ever try skipping classes."

Isabelle laughs. "I know what you're doing, Ben, and I'm not falling for it."

He resigns, nodding, "Ah, you're right. Okay, okay. I guess I'll leave you to it, then." He starts walking towards the door.

She scoffs, watching his retreating figure. She hates to admit it, but his plan does make sense – During study period, it would be difficult to keep track of the students in the classroom. And since it lasted one hour and thirty minutes, maybe they could even slip in and out of the school grounds without anyone noticing. Her eyes shift between her laptop screen and Ben, who's now exiting the library, one foot outside the door.

"Ugh, fine. Wait for me, please." Isabelle packs up her things in a hurry, glancing at the door to see that he is waiting for her.

Ben smirks at her, crossing his arms. "I knew you were going to come with me."

She narrows her eyes at him, but her lips stretch into a small smile. "You are a bad influence, Benjamin Morrell."

A/N: Hi, everyone! Thanks so much for reading <3 I know this chapter is quite short, but trust me, the next one will be longer!

📢 I'll be putting 'Our Tulips Together' on hold for one week, which means the regular updating schedule will resume on March 3-4). I'll be doing a writing sprint for 'Meet Cute' and stocking up chapters for this to avoid long hiatuses (as I get writer's block often :().

See you this March! Here's a clue about the next chapter: