AMBER EYES (rewrite)

09 | class serpens

Even someone from another program who knows nothing about us could sense how palpable the tension is in this room. However, it isn't just our group who seems to be uncomfortable with one another—it's the other one too. The members of the other group are straight up giving each other a cold shoulder.

Rhea is sitting in the front with her feet propped up in one of the chairs. She has a notebook in her hands, a bored look on her face. She catches my eye and salutes in greeting. Our group would've been more relaxed if she hadn't messed up her foot but I wouldn't say that to her. Even if she denies it, I know that she still feels a bit guilty about this whole thing.

The warm up session goes by in a whim. Val doesn't seem to mind the weird energy in the room, nor did she stop anyone if they bickered. She does her job of guiding us and correcting if we are doing something wrong. She asks us to pick our partners for the exercises ourselves. Since there wasn't anyone specific with whom I really got along with, I just watched as the partners were being formed. There was an odd number, so I was hoping to be left out. That's why I had been standing in the corner watching everyone for the past few minutes.

"Harley," an oddly familiar voice says to me. I don't need to turn to figure out who's speaking. I'm surprised she reached out to me, though.

"Freva," I say, turning to face her.

Her hand reaches the back of her neck and she looks back. Val had been watching the two of us but the moment she noticed that she's caught Freva's attention, she looks away. "Partner up with me?"

"Sure," I agree without hesitation.

She smiles calmly, standing next to me awkwardly while the others struggle to find a partner. I know Freva's glancing at me momentarily and I know exactly why she's asked to partner up with me but I don't say a word, knowing that it's better to go by her pace.

"I need to talk to you," she finally says after two minutes of silence.

"That's why you partnered up with me, right?" I ask her. Her face turns red as she tries to deny it but I send another smile her way. "It's alright. Go ahead with it."

"You knew I'd be recording the whole thing, didn't you?" She gets straight to the point. I have to resist my smiling now because otherwise, I'd be the creepy one. I don't want to scare her away. Not yet. "Harley, you knew, right?"

I don't reply to her for a moment. She keeps looking at me expectantly, waiting for me to answer. "I'd want that recording on my phone, by the way. Send it to me?" I say to her, finally giving in to the grin.

For some reason, this seems to ease her tension a little. She leans back against the bar, folding her arms across her chest, her eyes still trained on me. "You're not going to tell me how you knew, are you?" She lets out a breathy laugh that turns into a yawn. "Guess that's the thing with you genius', isn't it? You somehow always know."

Of course, I knew. I've known this since Saturday when the groups were allotted. I had searched every single member of my group from the rank list, seen their scores, and found their social media to stalk. Freva has a public account and if you really pay attention to every thing on that account, you can see that she's a social media addict. That girl posts literally everything. From the fights in her previous schools to the latest gossip—it's as if she gets paid to publicise every single thing about her.

It was confirmed when she had her phone out during the rehearsals in the afternoon. She was constantly recording arguments till Sam came and told her off. It's okay for a person like her to listen at a moment like that but if a potential fight at Redville's going down right in front of her on her first day of the second week here? Ain't no way she's going to not record it.