Lunchtime Confession

Andrey roamed around the school from one place to the other as if he was trying to imprint each and every corner of the school in his mind. When he could no longer walk, he just sat near the field and observed the rest of the students playing.

He continued to do so until his eyelids felt heavy and he decided to take a short nap under the shade of a tree. Andrey woke up to the buzzing of his phone, he took out his phone which had a message from Jacob asking about his whereabouts.

Seeing Jacob's message Andrey's eyes focused towards the time that was displayed on his phone and it was then he realized that he had fallen asleep for the whole of the first half. It was already 5 minutes into the lunch break.

'I'm coming," Andrey replied to Jacob and quickly picked himself up.

He wanted to tell the two of them about his circumstances and the canteen was the most appropriate place for the three of them to talk their hearts out.

When he arrived at the canteen, he found Jacob waving his hand towards him as he shouted, "Come here! I've picked up your lunch as well,"

"Thanks!" Andrey said as he pulled out the chair to take his seat.

"No need for that, instead tell us what happened in the vice principal's office?" Jacob inquired as Jenny too looked towards Andrey in an inquiring fashion.

"Well…" Andrey suddenly became short of words as he didn't know how to tell it all to his friends.

Seeing the distressed expression that Andrey was making the two of them became even more confused.

"Are you being rusticated or what? What's with that face?" Jacob commented.

"It's not like that…" Andrey said as his expression clearly indicated how difficult it was for him to convey his thoughts.

"It's alright if you don't want to say it," Jacob sighed.

"Indeed, if it feels uncomfortable to talk about it now, you can tell us about it later on as well," Jenny tried to comfort him. She had never seen Andrey having such a conflicted expression on his face so she wanted to help him out.

Listening to their words Andrey finally sighed as he said, "No, I must tell you guys about this."

He took a deep breath and after adjusting his composure he continued, "The thing is, I'm being made to graduate early from the high school because of the special test which I did yesterday…."

Andrey explained the whole situation to the two of them.

When Andrey was finished with his words both Jacob and Jenny were silent as if they were still processing the news.

Jacob finally sighs and says, "If that's the case then I only have one thing to say to you,"

Andrey listens to Jacob with an inquisitive expression.

"Get Strong! Much stronger than our seniors! I've heard that ragging is pretty common there so we both will be depending on you to protect us from their abuse. Got it?!" Jacob says out his thoughts leaving Andrey stunned for a few seconds.

"Got it?!" Jacob exclaimed once again when he saw Andrey's blank expression.

Andrey could only nod absent-mindedly to him as he was not expecting such a response from Jacob.

Jenny who had realized what Jacob was trying to add in her thoughts as well, "Yes, Andrey get stronger! What if a senior develops a liking towards me and tries to separate me from Jacob? I'll have no choice but to depend on you to help us out at that time!"

Jacob was glad that Jenny was trying to help him out but his eyes soon furrowed as he heard her words and couldn't help but comment, "Hey… I'll be able to handle that senior by myself,"

"But you would clearly be weaker than him, so how would you be able to help me? I'll have to depend on Andrey," Jenny said as a matter of fact.

Jacob felt his ego bruised and the two of them soon entered into a little quarrel.

However, before the quarrel could continue for longer Andrey started chuckling uncontrollably. This caused the two of them to suddenly pause and focus their attention back on Andrey.

Seeing Andrey's relieved face while chuckling, the two of them matched eyes with each other and started chuckling as well. The earlier tense atmosphere finally disappeared thanks to this.

When the light chuckles subsided, Jacob continued "Jokes apart, I wish you good luck. You don't need to feel guilty or anything since we'll be meeting again soon anyway. It's just a matter of few months,"

"Good luck from my side as well Andrey! By the way, I wasn't joking earlier, I'll be needing your protection." Jenny said as she glanced towards Jacob gleefully with the clear intention of irritating him.

Jacob could only sigh at her antics in defeat.

"Thank you for understanding guys…and yes Jenny I got your back provided you live up to my expectations," Andrey said.

"What expectations?" Jenny asked curiously.

"Since I won't be here as a third wheel anymore, I'll be expecting a niece or nephew the next time I meet you guys," Andrey finished his sentence with a teasing smirk.

It took a while for Jenny to process what had been said and Andrey was clearly able to see the whole of her face turn red because of it.

"Hey, stop teasing her," Jacob commented even though he was a bit embarrassed aswell.

"I won't be teasing your woman anymore sire, Let's eat, the bell will ring in a few minutes," Andrey said as he dived into devouring his food.

Seeing this Jacob and Jenny matched eyes with each other for a few seconds and just like Andrey also dived into the food.

With the ringing of the school bell, the lunch break was over and everyone made their way back to their respective classes.

It was chemistry class and another duel between Alex and Andrey ensued. Andrey deliberately let Alex win a few times so that he remained motivated. If all of a sudden, he stopped answering and the teacher made him answer instead then Andrey would be in some problem.

They kept on competing the whole of the second half and the school time was finally over a ring from the school bell.

"It's 16-14 today, how's that?" Alex came over to Andrey with his head held high.

"Good, you've done a great job," Andrey said.

"I know, but I won't stop at this. I'll keep on going until I crush you to the ground." Alex said with conviction.

"Why are you trying so hard?" Andrey couldn't help but ask.

"Isn't that obvious? Since you're my rival, I'll keep on defeating you until you surrender." Alex said as a matter of fact.

"Is that so? Well..." Andrey placed his right hand on Alex's shoulder and continued, "Too bad, I can't play this game with you anymore."

"What do you mean?" Alex couldn't help but ask.

"The thing is…" Andrey patiently explained everything to Alex because even though he didn't know him much he somehow felt connected with him after competing with him in his silly game for all these days.

"…" Alex had a blank look on his face as he processed everything that Andrey had said.

Andrey patted Alex on his shoulder once again to get him out of his stupor, "Are you alright?"

"Y-yeah, I'm alright. Congratulations." Alex replied in a very stiff manner.

"Thank you, you can always compete with me once again when we meet after 6 months," Andrey said. He could clearly see that Alex was behaving in an unusual manner.

"Yes, I indeed can, so long then." Alex turned to his seat to pick up his bag and got out of the class.

Seeing this Andrey was left a bit speechless. He looked towards Jacob who just shrugged his shoulders indicating that he had no idea on what to do. Andrey could only sigh as he walked out of the class.

There was one more person to whom he needed to tell this news. Andrey walked towards the school's gate hoping to find Lisa waiting for him there only to find the spot empty.

'She might have been late because of some reason,' Andrey told himself. Such things have happened a few times in the past also so he wasn't very worried.

He walked to the side of the school gate and stood there in wait for her. A few minutes later while Andrey was immersed in his phone, he suddenly heard footsteps coming towards his direction. Hearing them he couldn't help but say, "It's isn't like you to be so lat…Rebecca?"

"You're waiting here for Lisa I suppose," Rebecca said.

Andrey nodded as he looked around her and asked "Where is she?"

"She went home early today stating that she was experiencing a severe headache," Rebecca said.

"Headache?" Andrey asked.

"Indeed, it wasn't very serious but we still recommended her to go home early today and rest because she was massaging her head almost the whole first half," Rebecca explained.

"Alright, thanks, otherwise I would be standing here for quite some time," Andrey thanked Rebecca for informing him about.

"You're welcome, I'll be going then," Rebecca replied and bid him goodbye.

As Andrey was watching Rebecca leaving his heart couldn't but grow a bit worried.

'It's just a headache, it should be fine' he tried to placate his mind but a part of him was growing more and more restless and in the end he decided to give her a visit.