-The S Cruise-
I walk behind Lyra along with Ivy. We still discussing our plan in the hall. Since yesterday, we keep receiving a suggestion from the students and that we need to go through it one by one.
"I think we could ask the boys later." Ivy smiles.
"I'm not going to cooperate with some bullshit guys like him."
"Come on. We need to work professionally. Don't let small things like that ruin our moment." Ivy tries to convince me.
"Whatever. Later, before we get back please remind me to buy some chocolate for Iris and Adeline. They want it so much." I sigh.
"All set boss."
Just then, all of us arrived in the private hall. We sit with our partners at a table of four. Luckily, Ivy placed was next to me. But unfortunately, Aidan sits in front of me.
"Hi, nice to meet you, girls, again. So, Claire actually in the student affairs department?" Daniel asks politely.
"Hahaha yeah." I try to put on my best smile.
Just then, the ceremony started with the opening speech by Lyra and Jason. After that, they put on the whole plan by the prince school regarding the ball and so on.
"I hope we could get our place in the ball decorated well since I had put Daniel and Aidan who were experts in our school for handling events. And also, I've heard from Lyra just now, she put Claire and Ivy who were also experts in decoration. I hope our event will be smooth and we can cooperate well throughout the preparation. Thank you. Enjoy your food." Jason comes to his end speech and we finally get to enjoy our food.
I look into the plate. They serve strawberry pudding. I look at Ivy. She also sighs. Daniel looks at us in question.
"Why don't you guys eat?" He asked.
"I don't eat strawberry and Claire got allergic towards it." Ivy's words make Daniel shock.
"Oh my. It's ok you can change it with me." Daniel changes his plate with Ivy.
Just then, Aidan also does the same things. I was shocked. He does not speak to me but he coldly cares about me. I felt touched. I quietly said thank you to him. We eat and Ivy and Daniel keep chatting about ideas. I don't know how to start a conversation with Aidan so I just remain silent until I find a good time to approach him.
"How about we make it white? Since the hall is quite blunt." Suggest Ivy.
"Yeah. We could use grey and black also." I find something weird and stop them.
"No." Me and Aidan spoke at the same time.
"Woo relax guys." Daniel shook.
"Black and white symbolize death," I spoke up.
"And grey symbolizes depression." Aidan turns to spoke.
"Wow you guys know much about color, right?" Daniel tries to tease us.
"You can google it." Again, we spoke at the same time and both of us were shocked.
"Wow, you guys were synchronized with each other, right?" Ivy turns to tease us.
Just like that, we could finally join the conversation. After a lot of conversation, we finally decided that we need some inspiration to get the main theme idea for this ball since all of them put the hopes in us.
"Did you guys get time this weekend?" Daniel asked us.
"Of course."
"Let's join us for camping. Would you guys mind?" He asked.
"Camping? Where?" Asked Ivy.
"At my family vacation house somewhere in Town B. Would you guys mind to join us? Don't worry. It will be only four of us there." Daniel was coaxing us.
"Of course, we can. We would love to right Claire?" Ivy looks at me and I smile.
"Yeah sure."
Aidan smirks. His smirks make me mad. He looks at me with his bitchy eyes which make me feel like I want to kill him now.
"Can a girl like you come with us into the jungle? Don't you afraid of getting mosquito bites? We do not have an air conditioner there. We stay in a cabin. It will be tough for you." Aidan points at me.
"Hey, Claire was…" Before Ivy finish, I stop her.
"You better watch on your mouth mister. I'm not going to tolerate guys like you. Can't you be like your friends here? Always know how to take care of a girl. Not like you. Fooling around." I bravely spoke.
"And who do you think you're? A weak city girl going into the jungle following guys that she just knows for like a week and going to spend the night with them? Don't you think we will do bad at you?" He asked again.
"Huh, let me asked you that question. Won't you afraid I will be the one who does badly at you? Even if you dare to lay a finger on me or my friend, I will not hesitate to split your finger into two pieces."
"Let see city girl how long will you endure getting yourself in the jungle."
"I bet you will be the one who will not endure it long."
"You."
"You."
"You."
"You."
"Hey, guys stop." Daniel stops us from getting further.
I looked at the other place. I was done with this man. I thought he was a sweet guy but not. He did make me change my perspective towards guys become much worse. As the ceremony over, Ivy and I change our clothes into something casual and wear masks so that we are fully protected from the coronavirus. I told Lyra earlier that we might be late and she just give us a thumbs up. We walk to a convenience store and get both of us ice cream. We bought chocolate and seat at the nearest bench beside the store.
"What do you think about our event?" Ivy asked.
"I don't know. I hope it will be better than before." I smile and weakly lick my ice cream.
"Well, it should be."
"No way."
"What? Do you think it will be worse?"
"No. There's strawberry in my ice cream." My sentence left both me and Ivy shocked.
-Hospital-
I almost fainted just now but luckily Ivy manages to get me here on time. I lay down on the hospital bed for quite a long time. Ivy was smiling weakly beside me.
"Next time we shouldn't buy that flavor again." Ivy knocks smoothly on my head.
"I will not ever take it again. When can I get back to school? The gate will close and we need to use the backdoor again. "I sigh.
"It's okay. Tomorrow is Saturday. They won't be at school and none of them will realize that we're not back tonight. Let just stay here tonight."
"No. We need to pay for the hospital fee then and we need to sign over some guardian form." I try to get up but Ivy pushes me back on the bed.
"No. It's okay. I already fill-up the form. And for the fee, we divide it later." Ivy smiles.
"No, I don't want to use your money or mine. What if our parents find out that we use a lump sum of money in one night?" I asked her again.
"Claire. Relax. I use my brother's card. He is being generous with the usage of the card. No worries. You pay me later. But, if you get sick again and got warded again, we might be using your cards by that time. Would you ever imagine if your cousin sister knows that you're being warded?" Ivy's words make me gulp.
"No. I think I'll better stay." I smile weakly and get back to the bed.
"Nice. You better watch yourself or your beloved sister might kill everyone." Ivy smile.
I smile back at her. Later that night, I could not fall asleep at all. I take a walk to the rooftop. It was cold and the night wind leaves me chill over my body. I smile looking at the city. This city does not change at all. I grew up in the countryside with my family. I do not know how actually city people live until I start schooling here. It was nice. I learn a lot of things. I do not know how to eat and buy things that are expensive but since I'm here, I've learned how to use my money on what I like. Even though my family is rich but they like living in the countryside and I enjoy it so much.
"I hope I could live for a long time." I put my hand together and start praying.
Not long after that, I walk back to my room. Ivy was still sleeping on the sofa. I get the extra blanket and put it on her. She looks tired.
"I'm sorry Ivy. I told you before if anything happened you can just give up on me."
I get back to my bed and lay down. I try to close my eyes and get back to sleep. Tomorrow and forward will be tougher for me and I do not want to regret every second, every moment I have now.
.
.
.
-T5(Council Bedroom)-
"You accidentally eat a strawberry?" Andrea looks shocked.
"Relax. I'm ok. I'm not going to die yet." I smile at her.
"I think I know how to prank you later." Aubrey smile.
"Hmm?"
"I will put a lot of strawberries on your bed."
"You will be charged in court for murdering."
"Come on. It will not turn that bad right?" Aubrey put on a weak smile.
"I only eat a little last night and I collapse. What if I eat a lot? Won't I die?" I try to play with her.
"Err, don't die yet. Iris and Skylee would beat me to death. By the way Claire, we need a serious talk." The surrounding was quite tense.
"Why? You will finally admit I'm way cuter than you?" I try to loosen up the mood.
"No. It's about Adeline." When Andrea opens up her mouth, I started to get serious.
"Go on. I'm listening."
"She…do it again. This time, worse than the first one." I felt quite shocked but I'll try to stay calm.
"No. Not again." I hold on to my head.
"She should be aware of the rules. Even if Iris knows about this, she might kill her." Andrea pat my shoulder and walk away.
"You should talk to her about this," Aubrey said and walk away.
I get up and grab my mask. I walked outside the room leaving Ivy alone in the room. I walk towards Adeline's room. I enter her room and I saw she was left alone by herself on the bed. She was busy with her phone. When she realized my existence, she ends up the call and smile at me.
"You're back. Where is my chocolate?" She acted as if nothing had happened.
"Adeline, I'm not letting you off this time." I sit on the bed next to her.
"So, you know about it already? Must be Aubrey who told you right?" She put on a weak smile.
"If she doesn't tell me, she will tell Lyra instead. You should be grateful for this. Tell me now. Why did you do this Adeline?" I coax her to tell me.
"Claire, you will never understand. For someone who knows nothing about love, you will never understand." She gets up and grabs her coat.
"Tell me if you're doing this because of money, I could give you more. But stop selling your body to the boys. Don't look like a stupid bitch." I shout at her which made her perplexed.
"You could say anything you want Claire. I don't mind. I'm doing this because I do love him. You won't understand love until you're into it." She walks away.
I sighed. I slowly moved out of the room. Adeline was a very beautiful girl that a lot of men crave her so much. She goes out with a lot of men and sometimes sleeps with them. She even once slept with two-man at one time. I was seriously worried about her. I walked outside, to the school garden. It was calm as no one was there at this time with this kind of weather. Cold and cloudy.
"Adeline, when will you change? The principal will expel you if she knows about this." You look up into the sky.
Just then, someone approached me. She was Star, the Head of the Juniors Association.
"Can I help you?' I asked her.
"Sister Claire, Phi Joss told me to give you this." Star hand me a folder that I hand to him earlier.
"Thank you, Star. What makes you come here? Why don't you just send it to my room instead?" I asked her.
"I come from the Music Room just now and Phi Joss point you from upstairs." I was a bit shocked.
"You can see this garden from the Music Room?"
"I can't see you but Phi Joss said that he was confident that the girl in white was you while pointing from upstairs."
"Ohh, ok. Thank you. You can leave now." She walks away.
"So, all this time, he was actually stalking me from behind? Creepy but he was kind of cute." I smiled and walks away.