onyx: poltergeist

twenty-five (finale)

JAYDA

Now that I came back into my original life in my original body, everything in my life just seemed to continue normally. Somehow it felt more perfect than it was the last time; maybe it's because Charlene was no longer around to bother us anymore, or maybe it's because Martin surprisingly reciprocated the feelings I started to have for him.

Speaking of Martin, I really learnt a lot about him over the past few months, ever since we confessed our feelings to each other. Turns out, Martin aspired to be an electronic dance music DJ, which explained why he took so many music classes - curricular lessons and additional after school courses, and why he preferred to be addressed as Martin Garrix instead of Marti(j)n Garritsen, because that was going to be his future stage name if he were to eventually make it big in the music industry. Besides that, he also filled me in on his family background and life back in Amsterdam, as well as confess to me that he was worried that he would feel lonely when he first joined our school since all his friends from back home were posted to different schools all over the country, until Celine and I took him in and made him one of us. As much as he's thankful to be on our team, we're thankful for him joining us too.

After spending quite some time getting to know more about each other, Martin and I finally came to the agreement to make our relationship official, which practically meant that Celine would become the third wheel in our small squad. She didn't mind it though, in fact I don't even think words would describe how many times she wished the both of us congratulations on our relationship. It was as though she was sending us her blessings from the beginning of time.

Mr Lambert continued to teach the three of us Creative Writing for the rest of the year, as well as the following year. He remained the cool teacher he was throughout our remaining time in high school, which was amazing, and there were a couple times when we caught him after dismissal hastily grabbing his things from the staff room and rushing out of the school. I confess, it's kinda cool when your teacher is in a band, but too bad we were all underage to go check him out at the Bootsy Bellows. All of us would have to wait until after graduation to slip in.

I watched as Celine unpacked her locker and slammed the door behind her. The entire senior cohort had finished our last final paper, which meant that everyone has been buzzing over two things - graduation and prom. The three of us have been witnessing students proposing left, right and centre; whoever had the idea to make asking out a prom date look like a wedding proposal, we've been seeing extravagant master plans unfold all over campus.

"Now that exams are done, I'm gonna have to drag all these back to destroy in a bonfire," my best friend groaned, "and I swear I'm never gonna have someone surprise me for prom."

"You can always come with us Cel," I suggested, Martin nodding alongside me with his hand firmly gripped around mine. Surprisingly, Martin didn't have to spring a full-blown surprise to ask me out for prom. He kept his invite pretty lowkey, kinda like when a teacher asks their students to group up with whoever they like so they end up finding their good friends to work with.

"Nah, what am I? A third wheel?" Celine pouted at us, "Yeah sure, I don't mind third wheeling every day, but third wheeling during prom? Nope, not gonna happen. That's just gonna look awkward on too many levels, where am I gonna stand in a couple photo?"

Well then, yikes.

"Chillax, I'm sure some nice dude will drop you a surprise soon. Good things take time, maybe he's just one of those conventional, basic guys that probably have a master plan bigger than the size of a house. A very big house," I reassured her, albeit awkwardly.