Your Crush On Dingle

chapter 6

It was seven am, and Dingle was getting bored of their bus. The people on the bus were loud. Dingle didn't want to go to school. They felt tired. Dingle blasted pop songs in their headphones.
Some kids threw their school supplies at each other and were arguing.
Dingle looked out the window. The sky was gray, and a few small drops of rain dripped down the window. The rain was starting to pick up.
Once they got to school, Dingle went to their first class. Because of their inconsistent school system, Dingle's first class was chemistry, instead of forensic analysis of the anatomy and chemical structure of various criminal squids. Dingle was a bit apprehensive about this class. They didn't like chemistry too much because they thought it was boring.
Dingle used to really like school. They got mostly As, and enjoyed participating. But then..
Dingle was suddenly forced to pay attention from the teacher walking through the classroom door. The teacher was announcing a new project they would have to do. Everyone would be assigned an environmental chemistry research project, and have to research and present it in front of the class. They would also be assigned pairs to work in.
The teacher called names for the pairs, and Dingle waited for their name to be called.
Eventually, they got paired up with someone named Joe. He had two fox ears. They were assigned to work on air pollution and its effects.
Joe seemed really agitated about their project. Dingle asked Joe if he was alright.
"I already have an essay, and, like, three late assignments!" Joe complained. "I'm just a girl! How am I supposed to do so much work??"
Dingle was surprised that she was a girl. They thought she was a guy at first.
Dingle and Joe started working on their project. Joe mentioned Y/n, and Dingle was reminded of how she eats squids and stole their coffee the day before.
Dingle said, "Y/n is kinda mean.. She took my coffee yesterday!"
"She can be a bit rude at times, but y/n never has bad intentions." Joe looked reminiscent of some memories.
"Do you know her well?" Dingle asked. Joe said, "yeah.. we've been friends since middle school. It's kind of funny how we met,"
"How did you two meet?"
"Y/n and I had the same classes when I moved here ..she was always so nice, ..so pretty.. I had a bit of a crush on her," Joe said, looking slightly blushed. Dingle replied, "you had a crush on y/n?"
Joe said, "Yeah. I realized I had a crush on her one day when.. let's just say I was going through something.. and she helped me. Y/n supported me."
"Did you ever confess to her?" Dingle asked curiously.
Joe chuckled. "I did but she turned me down. We became friends after that, however. It was a day just like today, raining heavily."
The bell for the next class suddenly rang, and Joe and Dingle quickly made plans to work on their project at lunch the next day.

After school ended, Dingle saw y/n leaving the building. She was getting wet from the rain as she walked away. Dingle ran up to her and gave y/n their emergency umbrella, so she didn't get soaked.