Chapter 4

It's been two weeks since my time travel.

To be honest, I had expected to go back to my timeline after sleeping but reality stayed the way I had woken up to.

It took a little adjusting but I am perfectly fine going to school now.

Back in the day, I tried pretty hard during these times so I got into advanced classes but since I came back everything has been pretty simple so far.

Anyway, I was just sitting down at lunch in the cafeteria when Alice came over.

Apart from the first day, we hadn't interacted as much. I was still getting adjusted to everything and it felt a little strange seeing her act so differently as compared to before.

My friend group got along well with her friend group, so they chattered as she sat down next to me and hugged my arm.

There she goes, acting like a drunkard once again.

"What's wrong?"

"Why do you always ask if something's wrong when I hug you?"

I showed my shiny pearls, "Maybe you need comfort?"

She considered the option, and I saw a millisecond of hesitation which was engulfed by a smile.

She stuck out her tongue, "Don't need it."

I snuck in a fork of broccoli into my mouth, "Have you eaten yet?"

"No, not really. I'm not very hungry, though." She grabbed a piece of broccoli from my plate with her hands and nommed it quickly.

"Don't eat with your hands," I handed her a tissue and a reprimand.

She looked at me and harrumphed.

"You say you're not hungry but you're eating my food..?"

She cleaned her hands with the tissue and tossed the reprimand aside, "Mmm, I like broccoli though…"

I lifted a piece of broccoli with my fork to her mouth.

The crunches were loud.

"Thanks."

"Chew with your mouth closed, and don't talk while eating," you drunkard, I scolded.

She crossed her arms and looked away while the cries of the poor broccoli echoed in her mouth.

The stares of others suddenly zoned in on me.

"Get a room already." Our eyes darted to the voice, popping our bubble.

I realized the chattering had quieted down and now our friends looked at us with teasing smiles.

Too bad my skin has always been thick. Maybe if I was younger I'd feel slightly embarrassed but even then I'd still play it off.

"Alice, let's get a room then?" I smiled.

The others began coughing, surprise betraying their faces.

"You weren't supp—"

She smiled, "Ohh, privacy would be nice… are you okay with an older woman?"

Alarmed question marks popped above everyone else's heads.

"I don't know… I'll have to see if it's up to standard."

"Is that a challenge?"

"Call it a question in desperate need of guidance."

As for my playing around, I had stopped being so flirty with everyone. It's a good feeling to have those hormones suppressed.

Even then, for some reason, I wanted to play along with the joke with Alice.

I nommed on my vegetables, staring at nothing in particular.

"Give me more broccoli, peasant."

I looked at her strangely. A candle of deja vu rose in my heart, feeling familiarity at her personality.

"Don't call me peasant," I shoved the broccoli into her mouth, no innuendo intended.

"Thank youuu. Bastard."

"Bitch."

"Asshole."

I stood up, towering over everyone else, and left my plate in the cafeteria tray rack.

I guess I'm just going to have to live like this for a while. It's strange how uncannily similar she acts now to her past self when she was drunk.

"Anyway, you have basketball training today, right?"

"Uh, yeah. Training for people that are obviously going to be selected in the tryouts. Coach invited us to start training earlier before school started."

"Soo.. then what were the tryouts for?"

"Just a formality… it's fun too. I really like these tryout games. I get to show off to my upperclassmen teammates what I've been working on too."

She pulled on my hoodie strings, muttering, "Yeah, you get to show off to other girls too."

I pretended not to hear her as she slapped around my hoodie strings.

"What was that?"

She kept her silence as she pulled very heavily on the strings, also bringing my neck down to her level.

I rose my eyebrows.

She shrugged. "What class do you have after?"

"No clue. I've been wanting to change my schedule to get into the harder AP classes…"

"Get in AP Lang, APUSH, Calc, and Statistics… I'm in those classes."

[In the US high school education system, there are advanced (AP, Advanced Program) classes with college-level difficulty. Similar college-level programs might be AICE or IB classes. AP Lang refers to AP Language and Composition, APUSH refers to AP US History, Calc - AP Calculus, Statistics - AP Statistics. There are numerous AP courses, and usually, the bigger the school, the more AP courses are offered. These classes usually mix grade levels]

I scratched my head. "Uhh…"

To be frank, the classes weren't that difficult. Alice was most likely breezing through them, and I myself have knowledge of my past.

"Bruh, Ivan's smart but not that smart."

My friends interjected. We had some classes together and they preferred me to stay with them.

To be fair, in the past, I started taking school seriously in my Junior year. Though I was decently smart, I was only in a few challenging classes from Freshman to Sophomore year because I was too busy partying around.

I shrugged, "I can take them."

My friends glanced at each other as if the world was falling apart. "Did Ivan actually catch feelings? No way he's getting in those classes to be a simp…"

Though they were whispering, I could tell what they were thinking of.

They had funny expressions on, and I had to laugh at the others who also teased me.

Anyway, I'm getting in these classes for myself. They're also good for my future.

The imaginary devil on my shoulder slapped my nose, scolding me for being a loser. He was too weak to influence any of my decisions.

"When are you going to change your schedule then?" She asked calmly but I could see the impatience in her eyes.

No one would've noticed it, but being supervised and nagged by her during work, I picked up her small habits and behavior when she wanted something done immediately.

I didn't know she had these habits since high school.

"I'll go talk to the counselor soon…" I yawned and ruffled my hair around. I should cut this soon.

I thought it was stylish in the past, but it's getting a little bothersome.

"Why not go now? Who knows if she'll give you a chance to."

I smiled at her, "The counselor gave us this month to change our classes…" her cheeks unconsciously and minutely puffed, "...but I'll go now. Come with me." Her kitten-like expression instantly eased.

We waved away at our friends and walked side by side to the counselor's office.

"Don't forget to use protection!"

A few odd eyes scanned us.

I yawned as I walked with her.

"Is it normal for you to wear slippers to school?" She asked curiously, seeing my comfortable wear.

I was wearing a yellow hoodie, training shorts, and slippers revealing my black socks.

"Yeah, if I'm feeling lazy," I smiled and opened my mouth again to yawn.

"Quit yawning, you lazy pig," she yawned, annoyed that my yawn was passed over to her. "You sleep late or something?"

"Nah… I like my sleep too much to stay up late. I'm sleepy because I overslept."

She laughed, "So you ARE a lazy pig."

"I have to take advantage of the amount of sleep I can get… Later in life you won't get enough sleep…"

"Woah, woah. Calm down middle-aged father working over-time for his three children."

"Point is, sleep is good."

"Pig."

I grinned. "So what if I am?"

"You're not even denying it, then? You like being insulted huh?"

We laughed, "Shut up already."

"Shut me up then."

"Does that mean you want to be KO'd or kissed?"

"Ohh, degradation and then sadism? That's a weird combination. I didn't sign up for domestic abuse, to be honest."

I reached open for the door handle as we arrived at the office, and opened it for her in a show of gentleman behavior.

I grinned at her, "We'll need some ointment for your future bruises."

"Thanks, such a gentleman," she walked in and I walked in after her. "I'd like to keep the bruises, they'll help my case in the courtroom after I hide your corpse."

"...Didn't take you for a necrophiliac."

She widened her eyes and hit me several times in the shoulder. "Stop it, you jerk."

I winced at her heavy hands. "You take box or something?"

"I'd KO you any day of the we—"

"Alright you guys… let's settle down now," the counselor herself was smiling at us as we walked into the office loudly.

"Haha… hey," I waved at her.

"You're lucky that the student I had these fifteen minutes scheduled for is absent. I'll allocate this meeting time to you then. What's up?" she sat down on her office chair.

"Oh, well just going to switch my courses. Would that be possible?"

The counselor glanced between us with a smile, "Yes of course…" she swivelled her laptop over to us with my student profile, "you planning on dropping out of the AP classes?"

Huh. That's a little insulting.

To be fair, I seemed more of a relaxed student rather than an academic one…

I laughed politely, "No, I'm actually planning on taking more AP courses…"

She looked interested and glanced at Alice. "Which courses?"

"What are the ones availa—"

"He's taking AP Language, US History, Calculus, and Statistics. They're the only ones that fit in schedule anyway," Alice interrupted and decided my schedule for me.

The counselor gained a glint of amusement in her eyes, "Well, I'd like to help you… but as a sophomore, some of these courses are only open to him in his Junior and Senior year…"