Fa-ke lies

MONDAY. 9:28 AM.

Adrian and I both turn around.

We see a couple of boys holding Jake and Ralph apart. I can clearly see the anger on Jake's face, honestly, I can almost feel it. Did they hit each other?

I don't get to see what happens next because Adrian pulls me away and takes me closer to the infirmary.

It doesn't matter who hit whom or why it happened, all that matters right now is that I'm in the hands of my crush—the crush I've waited so long to get noticed by.

Who knew it'll take a fake injury to spend time with him?

Adrian helps me sit on the bed. He lets me go after making sure I'm comfortable then walks over to a cabinet and begins searching for something.

"The nurse would be here very soon, so hang in there. I'm sure it must really hurt."

Only if he knew…

I rub my palms against the fabric of my pants as I take in the scenery of this peaceful looking camp tent. It isn't as big as the other tents the students are sleeping in. It can't even exactly be referred to as a tent, it's more like a portion of land on camp ground covered by a large green thick cloth. It's located at the exit/entrance of the camp ground, close to the clear field we first arrived on Campeek! The whole tent is cool -even if the morning sun is burning outside- probably because the ground isn't covered. I wonder how the nurse sleeps here, if I tried it, I'll definitely freeze to my death. The only things present here is a couple of cabinets, a bed, blankets arranged at one corner and two chairs with a table positioned in-between them.

Adrian walks back to me and hands me a small white bottle. "Take this, it'll help with the pain."

I smile at him, taking it from his hands as he grabs a chair and sits by me. He intertwines his fingers as he prepares himself to say something. "I apologize on behalf of Ralph; he really isn't like this all of the time."

I nod, still smiling. He doesn't have to apologize, everything's alright; he makes it alright. As long as we're seated here together and alone, even if the world sets on fire, I'll be fine. My eyes move to his black hair to notice that it has been tousled by the extreme sport we just had and I have the sudden urge to brush my hands through it.

He looks to a corner of the tent in deep thought and I keep my eyes on him, memorizing every single detail of his face because I may not be so lucky to be this close to him again. His black hair's a little long and a bit straightened, his dark eyebrows; so thick to make even me jealous, his skin; a little tan like the rest of us, his lips—

"You were amazing on the field though; I didn't think you'd do that. It was a brilliant move. Maybe coach might ask you to join the team."

I nervously laugh, "Ahhh… I think playing this one time is enough."

He chuckles alongside me for some seconds then he frowns, "Where's the nurse?" He asks. "I'll go find her."

My eyes widen as he gets up from his seat, about to leave.

Oh no.

"Wait," I call out. He pauses and turns to me. "I don't think it's necessary to call the nurse, this will do fine." I say, lifting the white bottle he gave me.

"No, those won't do. She would need to practice acupuncture to ease the pain." He tries to leave but I call out again.

I don't want him to leave; if he leaves, he might not come back and most importantly, Acupuncture? -meaning needles?

"There's really no reason to call her."

"Why is that?" He frowns.

"Because," I trail. "Because it's-" I cut myself off, not knowing what to say. He stands there with a raised eyebrow waiting for me to explain myself. But I can't actually say I faked the ankle injury, that'll just give me a bad reputation and I'll become the ultimate liar of the whole school. So, under such unfavorable, heated moment, I blurt out the first thing that comes to mind. "Because I'm a brawny girl."

He gives me an amused look, "Brawny-?"

I shut my eyes for a spilt second in pure embarrassment. What is wrong with me? I think there are side effects of studying the dictionary so hard; I got to know a lot of words but I don't use them properly and it leads to mass embarrassment.

But Adrian starts laughing out loud and I too later join in to ease my awkwardness, "But I'm serious though. I am stronger than you think. The pain's already coming down even." I move my ankle to show him.

"You're funny, you're really funny." He says in between laughter as he walks back to me, taking a seat beside me.

I sigh in relief, at least he won't be leaving anytime soon.

Then I notice he keeps staring at me with a wide smile and I chuckle nervously to ask, "What is it?"

He shrugs, moving back to relax in his chair.

"Nothing. You're just really funny. I like people who make me laugh." He chuckles some more.

My smile grows wider, feeling my cheeks burn so I turn to hide my face a little. It feels like I just heard a mini love confession. "Well," I pause, trying to control my inner excitement. "I'm glad you find it funny."

He sighs heartily, "I'm also glad you stayed at Campeek! not even sure Ben would have made me laugh this much."

I only heard that he's nice; never seen it myself but now that we're here together, I can see why people call him nice and admire him so much.

"But are you new? Did you start school last week?"

My excitement instantly turns into a puddle of black goo as my mind wraps around his question. He didn't just say that, right? I look to him to really see if that's a joke question or he doesn't actually know we've been in the same town and school for the past five years. But the innocent, pure expression on his face lets me know he isn't joking.

"Well, um, no." I answer in an awkward voice.

"Really?" He frowns.

"Yes,"

He leans forward, resting his elbows on his thighs. "But why haven't I ever seen you on school ground? That's not possible, Brice Worth isn't so huge that I'll pass by you without noticing."

"I also don't know how that happens." I say while stretching my legs out on the bed. "But I guess it's because we are in different grades and have busy schedules."

"But still, I don't think I'll pass you by without noticing." He stares deep in my eyes with a solemn look.

He may not know, but I think Brice Worth is actually that big for him to not know of my existence after so many years. Over the years, I've done everything I could do to get him to notice me but nothing ever worked. My first time was during freshman year -I had just entered into Brice Worth High- so I took Jenny's advice:

"Just walk up to him and say hi."

I remember vividly the events of that glorious morning; I got prepared, saw him walking into the school with the rest of the lacrosse players, I walked to him and waved. It was as if I was an ant; too small to be seen, too small to be acknowledged. He just walked past me, not even sparing a glance and none of the players seemed to notice me either.

But I didn't give up.

I went on to join an AP class which he was in, but that ended very shortly because the teacher kicked me out when he found out I had no academic potentials. I wasn't even allowed in; I failed the entrance test.

I still didn't give up.

I then rearranged the whole cafeteria seats so that Jenny and I's table will be directly beside the lacrosse players'. But they were too engrossed in talking within themselves, laughing and playing around to notice any other thing. Worse—I somehow messed up the seat's arrangement, so, Lara and Rachel blocked my view of Adrian. Much worse—I spent two months rearranging the cafeteria seats.

That's when I got the brilliant idea of using his birthday to my advantage but that guy ruined it all.

"What's wrong? Why are you so quiet?"

I raise my head up to see Adrian frowning at me.

"Oh no, it's nothing." I quickly shrug.

He squints then points at my hand, "You should take the drugs. I feel like you're holding the pain inside."

Seeing this emotion in his eyes, I know that the next few minutes are going to be incredibly awkward for me.