1 Alice's Offer

Close… open… close… open. Alice's eyes were threatening to shut anytime soon. Her teacher kept on rambling about a new lesson and she knows she has to listen attentively but her mind is too distracted and tired to process anything else at the moment. She glanced at the clock, no luck. She still has to deal with thirty more minutes of this. She sighed in disbelief and tried pinching herself awake but it was to no avail since even her mind was telling her to just give up and sleep.

So she just gave in. Her eyes eventually close and she feels herself drifting off to sleep. Her teacher's voice starts to sound blurry and she feels herself caving into her drowsiness.

It didn't take long until she was awoken because someone poked her with a pen. Alice inwardly groaned, completely annoyed that her slumber was interrupted. "What?" She sneered at the person that disturbed her, it was Josh, one of her close friends.

"Don't sleep in class, you'll get scolded." He reminds her.

"Well, no shit Sherlock," she scoffed. "I'm really so sleepy and I'm tired. I spent the whole night gaming because I was having a hard time falling asleep." Josh only shook his head as Alice slumped back down onto her desk and closed her eyes once again.

"What an idiot. I gave you a warning so don't you blame me for this later." He grumbles.

Despite saying that, Josh simply waited for a few seconds to pass then he once again poked Alice's arm using his pen. "The heck is your problem?" Alice said with an unnecessarily loud voice. Now everyone's attention was on them, including their teacher.

"Alice and Josh, is there something we should know?" their teacher asked with a cock of her eyebrow. The two only glared at each other before shaking their heads. "As I was saying, your retreat is approaching soon and we should all start preparing." their teacher continued.

At the mention of their retreat, Alice's drowsiness instantly dissolved. "Since when did she start discussing about the retreat?" she wondered aloud.

"Since you were starting to fall asleep, that's why I was waking you up," Josh explained in disbelief.

"Well sorry, I'm grumpy when I'm sleep-deprived," she said with a giggle.

"I know," Josh shrugged, he is already used to Alice's antics anyway. It is not the first time that he's waking her up in the middle of their classes.

"Alice and Josh, if you're going to keep talking just leave the room." Their teacher scolds. The pair look at each other again. Before the two could even protest, their teacher points towards the door and tells them to get out. Based on the expression on her face, her decision is already final and there is no way they can talk themselves out of it. The two sighed in defeat and left the room.

"This is your fault, we got kicked out at the last subject." Josh groaned.

"You don't have to point it out, I'm aware of it." Alice huffs. After just standing there for a total of twenty minutes their teacher dismissed their class and most of their classmates were headed home.

"We need to talk," Alice blocked the doorway once her friends were about to leave.

"To the rooftop we go," Gerald told her and all of them headed there afterward. The rooftop is where they usually hang out whenever they are on breaks or if they have no classes.

"Okay, you're all aware of what happened a while ago," Alice began as not-so-subtly glares at Josh. "So just spill about the retreat." she said.

There were eight of them in their whole group; Josh, Alex, Mark, Matthew, Vincent, Gerald, Lance and Alice. Among all of them, Alice was the only girl. The guys had no idea how Alice ended up in their group, all they know is that their life became more stressful and more interesting once the female entered their group.

"Well, we only discussed the amount to pay and the other stuff that we'll do on the retreat," Vincent said.

"Well don't leave us hanging, tell us more." Josh said impatiently.

Alex took out two pieces of paper from his bag and handed each to Josh and Alice, it was the waiver and the note regarding their retreat. The two read the given paper and they couldn't help but grin. "A cruise? Whoa, this is insane!" Alice gasped.

"You bet. This is going to be fun." Lance cheered. "Our teacher said that this retreat is also a way to get to know everyone, even the students from the other class." He continued. "And I must say, this is a perfect way to get closer to Sarah," he said in awe. Sarah is Lance's long time crush, but apparently he never had any luck of showing his affection to her.

"Whoa, not only you Lance but I think you're forgetting about me and Jayne," Josh added. Alice groaned, she knows what's coming up next. The guys are going to daydream about their crushes, she finds it annoying because her friends are such saps and she can never relate to topics like these.

"Don't forget about me and Julianne." Alex grinned.

"How about me and Joanna? We'd make a perfect match," Gerald said.

"Shut it, if anyone is going to make an advance, it'll be me with Therese," Matthew said proudly.

"Hey, Angela and I are on good terms now you know," Vincent remarked.

"I think you're all forgetting that Mia and I are best friends and it's about time that I take it to the next level." Mark told them.

"Shut up losers," Alice cut them off. "Stop acting like a bunch of old men, you won't attract them if you'd keep acting like that. If your crushes hear you right now, they won't find it cute and I can attest to that." She sighed as she sat on the railing.

"Hey, be careful or you might fall." Lance panicked.

"Chill, only idiots would fall from here." Alice laughed.

"Yeah, but we're like four storeys high, I doubt if you'd survive if you fall," Alex points out as he moved and kept a safe distance away from the stubborn girl.

"I won't die that easily, I'm way too awesome!" Alice obnoxiously says.

"I'll tell you now if you fall, it's your fault and none of us will be able to help you." Josh said as he crossed his arms.

"As if I care...I'll never fa--!!!" Alice accidentally slipped and lost her grip on the railing.

"Alice!!!" The guys rushed towards her.

They all stopped when they saw Alice's feet clasped on the railing and she used her arms to pull herself up and she returned to her previous position. She laughed at them. "I thought none of you would care? Admit it, you all care about me." She smirked triumphantly.

"No! Of course not! You just caught us all off guard with that!" Mark defensively said as he avoided eye contact with Alice.

"You almost gave me a heart attack!" Gerald exclaimed.

Alice only giggled as she went down from the railing. "Let's stick together during the retreat, I'll be your guide. I'll help you with your love problems since I have nothing better to do anyway." She smoothly changed the subject.

"What about you? I'm pretty sure you're asking for something back since you volunteered, which happens rarely." Mark asked skeptically.

"Not really, but it would be great if you guys could help me find my date. I'm sure that if everything succeeds, you're all gonna get dates for prom and I don't want to be left out." She said shyly.

"You're supposed to find that yourself. Do you expect us to just grab a random guy to be your date?" Alex told her.

"What do you mean by that?"

"You'll realize it soon enough, just be yourself." Lance gave her a thumbs up.

"Whatever, it's not like I desperately want to attend this prom anyway. I don't understand the hype around it." Alice pouted. "But yeah, if all of you will have dates by then I don't want to end up alone either so it's great if I would get a date of my own too."

"Well, let's not think about prom yet, there's still the retreat." Josh said.

"Right! Let's focus on the retreat first!" Alice cheered.

So after making their agreements they all headed home, at least Alice did. The guys decided to do their usual routine of visiting the internet café to play online games against each other.

When Alice arrived home, she immediately showed her parents the form. After a whole lot of convincing, they finally said yes. It was hard to convince them especially her father who said it'd be dangerous to stay on a ship together with her male classmates and he reminded her to always stay with girls, little did he know that Alice has a flock of male friends. She was overjoyed that they allowed her, too overjoyed that she slept early. She can't wait for the day of the retreat to arrive.