𝓥 𝓪 𝓷 𝓲 𝓵 𝓵 𝓪

3.

 Upon arriving near the food stalls, they were joined by Spencer, an athletic girl their age with the toughest arms Aurelia had ever seen, and Vanessa, the rich snobby brat that everyone sort of despised.

Everyone knew each other of course. Spencer was the 8th grade sports captain. Vanessa just liked to hang out wherever there was crowd. Both of them had been Aurelia's 10th grade classmates.

Everyone chose a table for food. Spencer sat there, to keep the table reserved, while the others dispersed in the crowd to get their fav food.

When everyone came back, Vanessa's boyfriend Kobe also joined them.

Aurelia fumbled with the things in her hand(purse, keys, food, change) while pulling a random chair out to sit. She accidentally dropped her purse as she did that, but ignored it to put everything on the table. She took a seat, and after taking a deep breath, stood up again with the purpose to pick up her purse, that had fallen right behind her chair.

But instead, she ended up colliding into Ambrose. She said "Sorry, didn't see you there " before Ambrose handed her, her purse , smiled ,and said "Careful"

"Yeah, Thanks"

Ambrose replied by continuing his comforting smile.

He kept his food down, and sat down right next to Aurelia's seat.

Aurelia's eyes might have widened as she sat down, cause Vivian nudged her and made an expression suggesting 'What happened?'

Aurelia nodded her head sideways indicating- 'Nothing'

Vivian then smirked a little, nodding toward the seat next to her, occupied by Ambrose.

Aurelia widened her eyes but threatening this time -'Don't'

Vivian smirked again but looked away to send these message signaling them to Sylvia and Tessa.

Vivian, Tessa and Sylvia sat there smiling and looking back and forth at each other, and then at Aurelia.

A little about this group's dynamics. Nobody really likes Vanessa, but they can hide that fact well. Tessa and Vivian don't like each other but relate to each other sometimes. There was a brief arguement at lunch one day where Sylvia and Tessa claimed if Aurelia had to choose between them and Vivian she would choose them(cause they had been friends for a longer while) , but Vivian claimed she would choose her(since their bond was stronger, apparently).

They solved it out with Aurelia claiming she didn't need to choose anybody, and then slyly adding 'except my boyfriend' by pointing at Ambrose walking by, and grinning. Everyone broke into fits of laughter and made up after that. But since then there was still silent competition between Tessa and Vivian sometimes.

After a few more incredibly unbearable moments of awkward silence, Sylvia spoke up, "Anyone in for a game?"

"Depends, what game?", asked Kobe, to which Vanessa replied "truth and dare, maybe?"

"Truth and Dare!?!?"shrieked Vivian.

"Fuck no" , said Tessa, looking disgusted, "its not even fun."

People kept suggesting games while Tessa kept rejecting them, shooting hopeful glances towards Aurelia every few seconds. She noticed Aurelia had zoned out again.

"Aureliaaa. Don't you have any games to suggest?", sing-song-ed Tessa with a sweet smile and expectant eyes.

sing-song-ed? really?

Either you take my job fully or sit silently as I narrate.

Dumbass.

Name-calling is highly childish, You clinking, clanking, clattering collection of caliginous junk!

lol loser.

you choose to talk to the narrator, while you are actually in a real life situation, who's the loser?

point.

"Ok, um y'all wanna play rapid fire then?"

Sylvia and Tessa yelled "Yes!!" childishly, while the others muttered in confusion

This was a game Aurelia, Sylvia and Tessa used to play almost all the time, when they were bored in the bus. And they hadn't played it in a long time cause of final examinations.

Tessa explained the rules to everyone, "Its nothing much, a person will start the game saying a random word, for example, lets say I started with Watermelon, then the person next to me has to say the first word that comes to their mind when they hear the word Watermelon. Get it? It has to be quick. Any person can be asked to explain- Why? they thought of that word, at any time, so keep your reasons ready. More than 10 seconds to think for a word, and you're out. "

"No repetition of words, and only nouns to be used." added Aurelia

"yeah, ONLY nouns.", repeated Sylvia.

(They were sitting round a circular table. The order was Aurelia, Ambrose, Kobe, Vanessa, Tessa, Spencer, Adrian, Sylvia , and then Aurelia again obviously)

And so the game started with Ambrose saying "Mango",

to which Kobe, continued with "Peach", while winking at Vanessa ,

followed by Vanessa smirking right back and saying- "Banana".

Everyone looked around uncomfortably.

Tessa said "Cherries", after making a gesture, as if she was about to vomit,

"Yuck" muttered Spencer, along with "Orange".

Aurelia, and Sylvia scrunched their face in disgust. Vanessa and Kobe started kissing with wierd moans and putting on a whole show.

Adrian said "Green", unaware of what was going on.

Ambrose muttered, "What the hell, they're 16?!" almost a bit too loudly.

Aurelia said ,"Electric Blue", right after Sylvia said "Black".

Ambrose spoke up- "Red", paused, then looked at Aurelia (who was trying to look at Ambrose without having Vanessa and Kobe in her peripheral vision) and whispered,

"Do you want to-"

"Yes, please."