"Hey, Mel," she said quietly, looking around. "Have you noticed? None of the jocks or cheerleaders are here."
"Yeah," I replied, glancing around the room. "It's weird. You'd think they'd still show up even though the victory party was probably canceled."
"Well, I was in the teacher's lounge earlier," she continued, pushing her glasses up her nose again. "Turns out, both the math and geography teachers are out sick today."
I couldn't help but giggle. "You think they're secretly dating?"
Her eyes widened in surprise, and she blushed. "No, I mean, I don't think so... I just—"
I laughed more. "Relax, I was just joking. But hey, wouldn't that be funny?"
She bit her lip, then smiled a little. "I guess it would be."
"Hey, I heard about how you stood up for Alisha," I said after a pause. "That was really brave."
She blushed again, looking down. "Oh, that was nothing. Irene was just screaming at her, and I couldn't stand to watch. Alisha's always been kind to me."
"Do you feel famous now?" I asked with a grin.
She shook her head. "No, it's just the same as usual. Some people smile at me more, but the whole scene just drew a lot of unwanted attention. Some even made memes and GIFs out of the whole situation on the field."
"I'm really sorry," I said, feeling a pang of guilt, though it wasn't my fault.
"It's okay," she replied, giving me a small, reassuring smile. "It'll blow over soon."
"You feeling alright?" she asked suddenly. "You seem really down. Is it because Ishani and Bianca aren't here?"
I sighed. Is it that obvious? How did she know about Bianca?
"Well, something happened, but I don't really want to talk about it."
"I understand. Everything's gotten so complicated. I miss elementary school when everyone was nice and got along. Then people just changed. A lot of them stopped talking to me." She looked away, fidgeting with her glasses.
"Why?" I asked, genuinely curious.
"I like things to be orderly, with everyone getting along and enjoying learning. They called me a teacher's pet, but that's not true. I always maintain proper boundaries with teachers."
"I get it... Do you stay in Ms. Thompson's class during breaks like Ishani?"
"Sometimes, but no one really talks to me. They just ask for homework help occasionally."
"Strange, not even Ishani?" I thought she stopped hanging out with Irene a while ago and was pretty lonely. So why not talking to Lydia, our class rep.
"Ishani prefers hanging out with guys."
"Figures," I muttered under my breath.
"Have you heard anything about Bianca's birthday party?" I asked naively.
"No, yesterday I was preparing for math. I thought we'd have a lesson," the class rep replied innocently.
"I see..."
"I heard," whispered a girl from the next easel. The class had started, and we were speaking in hushed tones. Ms. Thompson didn't mind us taking as long as it didn't interfere with our creativity. Today, she was dressed in Jane Seymour's western style period.
The girl leaned in closer, her eyes wide with gossip.
My bonus chapter about Mel and Heather you can find via my Patreon page (You can also find a bonus chapter of THE QUEEN OF THE NIGHT'S CONCUBINE: the Queen's POV) 👩🏻❤️💋👩🏼
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