TO BE YOU | shawmila

four.

As September faded into October, they were having their first quarterly exams.

Camila wasn't too worried about piano and drama—both of those classes came so easy to her. But as much as she loved guitar, it wasn't as innate to her.

Both piano and guitar had exams that were hands-on, the professors having them record themselves identifying different parts of the instrument and playing a certain set of exercises.

For drama, they'd be given randomly selected passages and would have to apply all the acting principles they'd learned. That was easy.

The only exam Camila was worried about was poetry. Not only was Mr. Anthony very good at making everyone nervous, he had the only exam that was classic paper and pencil to be done on a time limit in class.

Camila and Shawn decided to study together. Somehow, the plans wound up with Shawn coming over to study in her room—her bedroom, to be exact, and she was freaking out just a tad.

She had to make sure her room was super clean, unlike Shawn's when she saw it, since she had the advantage of knowing ahead of time that he was coming over.

She grabbed every single piece of trash or scrap paper from her desk and tossed it. She put all her dirty clothes in a laundry bag squashed in the corner and even went and borrowed one of the vacuums from the supply closet and went over her whole floor.

When her room was cleaner than she ever normally kept it—she finished with making it smell good. Candles weren't allowed to be lit, and she didn't have air freshener, so she settled for spritzing every corner with perfume.

She was just standing at the foot of the bed, fluffing the blankets and blowing the perfume scent around when she looked over to see Paige standing in the doorway.

"Um, what are you doing?" She chuckled.

"...Just cleaning." Camila blushed slightly, quickly putting the blanket back down and straightening the corners on the bed. "Shawn's coming over to study."

"Study?"

Camila didn't even have to look back at her to hear the smirk in her voice.

"Yes—study. We have that poetry exam and the professor is scary, so we have to be prepared."

"Well, I'm not gonna be in the living room that much longer. I have to get ready to finish a group art thing for one of my exams." She groaned. "I hate working in groups—I made a schedule and everything, but people are still slacking on their contributions. I'm gonna get onto them when I get down there."

"Yeah, show them who's boss!" Camila laughed.

She went back to straightening as Paige went back to the living room to clean up the art supplies. Camila got her poetry book and notes out and tossed them on the bed so it looked like she'd been casually studying and not obsessively cleaning. She jumped when Shawn texted her.

'it's cool if i come over now?'

'Yep. It's cool. :)'

She waited awkwardly on the bed, just sitting there until she heard him knock. She jumped up and went to the door.

"Hey."

"Hey." He smiled, holding up his textbook. "Ready to analyze some poetry?"

"Yep."

Paige had just left, but Camila didn't suggest they stay in the living room. She didn't make her room smell extra good for nothing.

She opened the door and let him inside, trying to see the room from his eyes, wondering if anything still looked dirty or suspiciously too clean.