Chapter 7

"Those Stares..."

Last night, It was fun, That's for sure. That is also why I forgot something important—We have school. This is the first time... 'I woke up late. It's already 9 am!?' I thought as I stared at the alarm clock beside the television. I immediately sat up straight and noticed that I had slept between Clayden and Zenji on the floor. The sound of the plates clattering made me curious, and I went to the kitchen to see Royce cleaning the dishes with his uniform on.

"Oh, You're finally awake. We stayed up late last night, so I already called your homeroom teacher and said that something emergency happened and had to skip your first period." Roy said as he was wiping his wet hand with a towel before he turned to face me, smiling at me.

I softly chuckle. "Need any help preparing, Roy?" I asked him as he shook his and smiled.

"No. I'll only go to school for club activities, Big Sis." He answered as he took his water bottle from the fridge before leaving the kitchen. 'Ehh?' I thought as I started to get curious about why he was only attending school for club activities. "Our homeroom teacher told us that we don't have anything to do other than self-study since we had just taken the exam and had told us what the next lessons were." He explained why. Before he took his bag from the hallway, I was startled that he seemed to have read my mind.

"How..." I muttered before he could even reach the door. He then glanced in my direction, smiling at me.

"Big Brother Zen is right about something. You're easy to read." He said before closing the door on his way to school. Which reminds me... 'I need to get ready for school and wake up those two.' I thought as I let a groan before I started walking towards the bathroom. Still though...

'Am I that easy to read!?'

• • •

"Where were you, Raven!?" Heather yelled at me as she was running towards me, lookin' pissed. She then jumped on me and hit me on the head. I scratched the back of my head and let out a nervous laugh.

"Sorry, something came up, so..." I lied because I was embarrassed that I woke up late, but as Zenji walked past me...

"We stayed up all night and woke up late." He said frankly as he approached Tristan and another guy from his class. Seeing Tristan, Heather started to get flustered and dragged me along with her as she ran to our classroom. I looked back to look for Clayden but only saw him surrounded by girls handing him box lunches. "He can handle himself from here, Raven." Zenji blurted out, peeking by the stairs before he could come up to his classroom. He is a year older than Clayden and me, after all. I then looked straight ahead of me and ran along with Heather, making her stop dragging me to our class.

"Seriously though, Why does that Zenji guy have to be with Tristan!? And Who's the other guy with them?" Heather talked to herself out loud, blushing hard. It attracted our classmate's attention, but instead of focusing on Heather... They were looking at me? One of my classmates finally approached me and asked.

"Are you and Clayden dating?" She was nervous, and the stares of our classmates behind her—Reminded me of those eyes. 'It's suffocating...' I laughed nervously and swayed my hands back and forth repeatedly.

"We're just childhood friends, nothing more." I could feel their gazes despite my eyes being closed as I laughed. I had experienced this before... I'm supposed to have gotten used to it already.

"Really?"

"What a relief..."

"I thought Clayden had really stooped so low."

"Is that all?" I asked as they flinched, glaring at me but somehow deep inside... I'm not mad. I feel like crying. I'd rather keep these feelings to myself instead of having people criticize Clyde. The sound of the doorknob signifying that the teacher was about to come inside rushed us to our seats, and silence filled the room as soon as our teacher went inside.

"Raven?" The teacher called out for my name, searching for me. I raised my right, and she immediately noticed me, "Mr. Warner asked me to give this to you." hearing Clyde's last name made the girls stare at me again. I approached our teacher's table and took my lunchbox and the paper bag beside it.

'I completely forgot that he was holding on to my lunchbox earlier.' I thought as I walked towards my seat while looking down at the floor, avoiding their gazes. The class finally started, but why are these memories returning now?

"Can she really do it?" A woman's voice asked, sighing with a hint of disappointment, "I can't see a big deal with us working for this little girl." The woman asked in the same voice as I started grunting. Hearing those words while I felt everyone's gaze on the set was suffocating. Father had just died at that time, and I wasn't at my best—I still didn't understand why mom was crying over my father, yet I couldn't help but cry along with her and blame myself every single time.

"That Zieden!? She's his Daughter?" She was speechless and couldn't believe the fact that her co-worker had said. That only made the pressure even heavier, and how they stared at me made the air really thin. It was... really overwhelming. Many questions ran through my head while the whole set stared at me, waiting for me to pose and smile at the camera.

"Raven, you ok?" I was startled when I heard Heather ask me that question. I tried to wash off any expression on my face before I turned to look at her with a smile on my face.

"I'm fine," I answered. I opened my textbook and started copying the lecture our teacher had written on the board. 'I'm glad I quit.' I thought as I bit my lip. Our teacher started her discussion again, and my attention has now been averted to her.

"Was that the girl you were telling me all about? Zenji?" Tristan asked me while I was on my phone as we waited for our teacher inside the classroom. I was about to mention Raven, but then I remembered her friend was there too.

"Which one?" I asked. Tristan leaned on the wall before my table, looking outside the window. At the same time, Michael turned his seat facing our direction—Probably gossiping because of a girl being a topic.

"The brown-haired one." He turned to look at me, and I smiled and looked out the window before I nodded.

"I don't know much about her at all, but the other guy who was surrounded by girls earlier does," I said as I remembered how Raven looked for Clayden. I closed my eyes and laid my head on the table. She looked so lost whenever Clayden was not by her side, that irritated me a lot earlier. I hope she didn't think I'm mad at her...' I let out a sigh.

"You really like her, don't you, Zenji?" Michael asked out of nowhere, while Tristan let out a chuckle.

"Shut up."

• • •

"I heard there's a really good arcade nearby the bakery shop. Let's go there right now, Rave!" Heather invited me when I was placing some of my stuff in the locker. I smiled and hummed as a yes to her before I closed my locker.

"Can we join you guys?" Zenji, along with his friends, suddenly appeared behind me, followed by Clayden. Heather couldn't even utter a word as soon as she saw Tristan. I answered on her stead that they could join us.

Clayden let out a sigh and said. "I finally got away. I thank Mr.Ibera for dismissing me early in his class." Zenji started laughing.

"What did he ask for you to do this time?" Zenji asked. Clayden groaned and crouched down with his hands on his head; he looked over in our direction, lookin' stressed.

"A thousand-word essay about how important being on time is..." He answered. We all started laughing as Zenji. I remembered that Mr.Ibera told him last week to say "I'm going" in different languages In exchange for letting him go early, like now. "I should've gone to the rooftop instead of his class." He sighed. Zenji narrowed his eyes at him and started to walk away with his friends, whilst Heather pushed me to follow them—Leaving Clayden whining in front of the lockers.

As soon as we got inside the arcade, we all went our separate ways to play different games. Clayden and Zenji went to check out the claw machines while I went with Heather to play basketball. It's funny how Michael was stuck in a machine trying to get more tokens while Tristan was only there watching him shout at the machine, having a hard time winning.

"Damn it! This machine is a cheat! It would probably not even let me win!" Michael complained while he banged the machine. Tristan started to chuckle and whispered.

"If you break that, don't expect me to pay for it. It's worth more than those tokens you used~" He teased as it made Michael flinch and move away from the machine, pretending that he didn't even touch it.

A little later, Clayden handed me a Cinnamaoroll plushie from Sanrio—My favorite cartoon since childhood. That made my heart skip a beat for a second, and I started squealing, seeing that plushie in his hand. "Thank you, Clyde!" I thanked him as he smiled at me. Zenji appeared behind him with a smirk on his face, but that expression on his face made me realize that Clayden actually had a hard time getting this for me.

"He was really desp-" Zenji was about to say something, but Clayden placed his hand to cover his mouth, refraining Zenji from talking—Clyde looked so annoyed when he was covering his mouth.

"Can you stop saying everything you want to say for once!?"

To be Continued. . .