PINK DRINK, kotlc tiana

008

thurs, feb 5.

days until the dance: 9

Mrs. Anwen kept her Biology classroom stuffy and dusty- I doubted the woman even knew windows existed. And the strong perfume made everyone drowsy- Probably even Mrs. Anwen, herself.

"...Select your group for the project now!" Mrs. Anwen called breathily.

I turned and caught Sophie, and Marella's eyes- And naturally Dex wanted to work with us, too. Sophie then gestured to Linh, who smiled at me hopefully. I shrugged. I didn't know her very well, but she seemed pretty nice.

We all gathered around Sophie's desk, pulling chairs over. 

Linh tugged Tam over. "I go where he goes!"

Why did that sound scarily similar to what Sophie's overprotective uncle, Sandor, always said?

Tam groaned. "Geez, Linh, I've already got a group." He pointed toward a mass of gangly boys on the other side of the room.

Marella wrinkled her nose. "That's Jensi and all his greasy friends."

"Hey!" Tam looked offended. "What's wrong with them?"

"Hanging out with them is-" Sophie didn't finish her sentence.

"Social suicide." Marella finished off Sophie's sentence and gave Tam a pointed look. "Especially when you're new and people are still deciding whether they like you or not."

Tam rolled his eyes and huffed. "Well, I'd rather be in a group with them, than you." He kicked the leg of an innocent desk.

"What did you say?" Marella asked sweetly.

"Nothing..." Tam grumbled and got his bag.

"Hey, Song!" Jensi called. "Why're you working with the girls?" 

When he mentioned 'girls', Valin gazed over at Sophie with a dopey grin on his face, drool dribbling down his chin- Only to be elbowed in the stomach by another guy whose oily hair was tied back into a sleek ponytail. What he threatened to Valin sounded suspiciously like, "Back off! She's mine!"

Tam looked over to Dex for help, who just shrugged and went back to playing with his phone; Dex had a knack for technology.

"'Cause I gotta look after my lil sis!" Tam finally decided, running a hand through his hair and trying to act like a rock star.

It wasn't that hard.

"I'm only two minutes younger than you!" Linh crossed her arms.

And, to be fair, he already had the looks.

"Fair enough." Jensi said with a sour look on his face. Then he turned deliberately so that his back was facing us.

"Look what you did," Tam moaned to Linh, "now they aren't going to talk to me again!"

"And that's lucky, too," Marella said sharply, "those guys are no good."

"Whatever." Tam plopped down next to Linh, which also happened to be directly beside me. 

"Anyway," Sophie's eyes blazed and she grabbed the piece of paper with instructions for the project, "Mrs. Anwen says we have to assign each of the six people in the group to one of these organisms that help ventilation occur. Then we have to make a slideshow, with each student creating a slide for their assigned organism and why it helps gas exchange."

"I call being the lungs!" Marella jumped up excitedly.

Sophie rolled her eyes and scribbled something down on the paper. "So, Marella'll be the lungs." She looked up at me. "What'd you want to be, Bi?"

I shrugged, suddenly conscious that everyone was staring at me expectantly. "I guess the alveoli?"

Sophie, again, wrote something down. "Tam, are you okay with being the trachea? And Linh, can you be the bronchi?"

Tam and Linh nodded.

"Alright... And Dex, can you be the ribs and diaphragm? I'll be the capillaries."

Once we had all decided what to be, with Sophie pretty much being the leader, we had to draw a diagram of how gas exchange happened.

While we colored in and labeled the different elements, we chatted- Marella and I exchanging outfit ideas for the dance; Sophie hard at work on the diagram, putting in some ideas of her own every once in a while. Linh and Tam stayed mostly quiet, only talking to each other, and only when they absolutely had too.

"Hey, you guys seem so quiet!" Marella dropped her pencil and looked over at Tam and Linh with an amused expression.

Tam shrugged, his silver-tipped bangs falling into his eyes. Linh offered a shy smile.

"Anyway, are you guys going to the dance?" Marella prodded.

"Ooh, I would love to!" Linh's eyes were bright, but her smile suddenly dropped. "But... No one's asked me yet."

Suddenly, I thought of a great idea.

An amazing one, actually.

"Linh," I said carefully, "can I set you up with someone? I know just the person."

"No!" Tam exclaimed before Linh could say anything. "Linh's not dating anytime soon."

Linh shoved Tam. "Sorry. Do you mean a blind date?"

I nodded, my grin growing wider by the second.

"Well... It's been a while since I've gone on one." Linh smiled dreamily. "I'd love to!"

"Great!" I almost fell out of my seat. "I'll give you my number later and text you the details!"

Linh nodded, almost as excited as me.

"Oh, and I'll have to ask the other person to come, too..." I added as an afterthought, frowning.

It would be very difficult to persuade Fitz.