Love is a Losing Game

LIALG - Chapter 7

           Four hours later, I found myself being herded into the gymnasium for the so-called pep rally. I personally thought most of the people in Auradon had enough pep, but apparently this little school-held event was going to get them even more excited about tonight's events. I will admit, I found myself much more animated than usual today. Our class lengths had been cut in half to give us time to enjoy the festivities, and the teachers made it seem as if there was no way they could teach a lesson in just thirty-five minutes. This meant that all of my classes were basically a free-for-all, and I spent a lot of time drawing happily and pranking fellow classmates when that got boring. It had been a fantastic morning.

There were now bleachers taking up an entire wall of the gym, and we were told to sit wherever we would like. Naturally, Evie was frantically pulling me by the arm to the very middle, which I presumed was the best seat in the house. Jay and Carlos sat right behind us, not wanting to sit next to Audrey, who had taken residence on Evie's other side. We spotted Doug down in the mix of band members on the floor. He was smiling widely and waving at our group, who kindly returned the gesture.

A tap on my left shoulder had me turning to face Evie, but she was busy chatting with Audrey. My eyebrows furrowed in confusion and I turned to my right, catching sight of Uma and Harry, who burst out laughing.

"You fall for it every time!" Uma cackled, leaning back with the force of her laugh.

I rolled my eyes in annoyance; I most definitely did not fall for that every time. Not anymore, at least. Truth be told, I was surprised she had decided to sit next to me considering her and Harry spent a lot of school hours with their fencing teammates. It was nice to see her branching out, even if that meant I would be on the receiving end of some teasing.

Once Uma settled down a little, she began to scope out the gym in boredom. "What happened to your shirt?" she asked curiously, poking her fingers through the newly-made holes to touch my skin.

It tickled, and I squirmed a little at the feeling. "Apparently, my shirt was too boring, so Evie cut the sides and tied them back together," I explained.

"And I assume you had to take off your shirt to do that?" Uma said pointedly.

Harry wiggled his eyebrows suggestively behind her.

"Yeah, so? We have gym class together; we take off our shirts in front of each other all the time," I argued. I conveniently left out the part that one of us was apt to take off much more than just her shirt.

"Mhmm," Uma hummed, not convinced in the slightest that that was all there was to it.

I didn't blame her; I wasn't fully convinced, either.

"How did you even have time for that? We only had five minute passing time today," she wondered. "Or did you just strip down in the middle of class because she asked?"

"No, we did it during passing time," I answered, ignoring her insinuation that I'd do anything for Evie. Now that I thought about it, how did we manage to revamp my shirt and make it to class on time?

"Did she really wear a poofy princess dress to school today?" she inquired next, peeking around me with a scowl.

I knew exactly who she was talking about, considering my entire left leg was covered in overflowing yellow tulle. I threw Uma a warning glare. "Be nice," I reminded her.

She frowned in response.

"Oh! Harry, Uma, I didn't see you guys!" Evie suddenly said, looking to the duo with guarded enthusiasm. "Are you excited about the pep rally?" she inquired amicably.