Human Kid (II)

12.

Suzanne, Andrew and Anna walked along the dark street which was lit up by street lamps.

Anna walked a bit ahead of them. She had on her brother's headphones and she was listening to some music on it as she walked.

"Your sister is quite something else," Suzanne commented drily in a bid to lighten the awkward atmosphere between her and Andrew. 

Anna had insisted on watching a live soccer match earier, and after that,  they had headed down to Ashley's pet center where she helped out as a volunteer.

Anna was stoning the bread at the ducks when she ought to be feeding them with it. Ashley had been horrified at what Anna was doing for an amusement.

Later on when they had been at the park; Anna, Ashley, Ethan and Suzanne had played hide and seek.

Though it had turned to be quite worrisome when Ethan had found everyone except Anna.

Ryan was super annoyed that he had to join them in the search for the lost Anna and to keep Andrew from knowing that his sister was missing but it was a futile effort as three minutes later, Andrew had walked boredly up to the four of them who had tried to act as normal as possible when they saw him arriving.

He had simply walked past them and leaned on a tree as he watched them in their conspiratorial pretense.

Ashley had fretted on how they could search for Anna without Andrew noticing it when he had kept staring at them without saying anything.

That was when Andrew had nonchalantly told Anna to get down from the tree where he leaned on, and stop fooling around.

When they had all looked up they had seen a mischievous Anna hanging upside down on a tree branch.

"Huh?" Andrew turned to face her.

"I guess," he replied flatly and looked straight on again as they walked on.

The conversation died there.

"Um...," Suzanne frowned a bit.

She didn't even know what to say to Andrew. They rarely conversed since they were rarely alone.

"Actually, have you--" she started in an attempt to lighten the atmosphere as they went on but the passive look that was plastered on Andrew's face cut her off.

"I'll just keep quiet," she muttered and looked away.

"You act pathetic around Ryan," Andrew stated after a while and she looked at him as she blushed slightly and grinned.

"How can I not? It's Ryan afterall! I mean...he's just so cute, and cool and he's so hot! I mean..." She blushed at the thought of Ryan's face again.

She tugged at Andrew's sleeves.

"And Andrew did you see when he tucked in a strand of my hair behind my ear?! I mean...it must mean something, right?! I think..." her cheeks turned crimson. "I think Ryan's getting to like me."

She added the last part in a hushed tone.

Andrew rolled his eyes.

"So what?" he shrugged, as he gave her a sideways glance. "Not that I care anyway."

She giggled, foolishly.

"If Ryan likes me, Andrew, I'd be the happiest girl in the world! I mean....the cutest guy in our school would like me! And also I think we'd make a pretty cute couple and maybe later we'd get married and live happily ever after," she dreamt on.

"Happily ever after," Andrew repeated in a deadpanned voice.

"Huh-uh." She nodded and smiled in a dreamy way.