Days flew by very quickly that Lorelei barely noticed it was already the day of their presentation for their History class. She didn't feel nervous at all. However, she felt somehow bothered not because of their activity, but because of the glances Amari was giving her discreetly.
"You know that I can notice your glances, right?" she said, not even bothering to lift her eyes from her reading material to look at her friend.
Amari rested her chin on her palm. "Was it that obvious? Damn," she said trying to sound disappointed.
Lorelei sighed, finally giving Amari her attention. "You should have tried to make it less obvious. Or maybe you didn't bother doing so because you want it to make it obvious?"
"Hmm," Amari paused, pondering what should she say, "it's the latter. Definitely the latter." She beamed at her which made Lorelei frustrated.
"Well, you better stop it now 'cause it's bothering me," Lorelei pursed her lips into a thin line, trying to suppress her annoyance.
There's this thing that whenever someone tells you not to do something, it just fuels your urge to do it even more–and that was what Amari was feeling at the very moment. Instead of stopping giving Lorelei "unnoticeable" glances, the girl now had the audacity to stare at her shamelessly.
"Goodness, Amy. Will you please stop?!" Lorelei protested as she put down the papers she was holding.
Amari rested her back on the chair. "What? You said I stop giving you glances, so here. I am now looking at you."
"Heck, that's even more bothering!" shot Lorelei back.
Amari pulled her chair closer to the desk and leaned her face closer to Lorelei, "So, how are you feeling? Aside from being bothered by my glances, of course."
Lorelei rolled her eyes, "Nothing? I mean, am I supposed to feel something?" She had a gut feeling that the topic would lead Amari to tease her again.
"Uh-huh. Definitely. We're doing our presentation today," Amari said while her hands whirling and twirling everywhere for exaggeration. "Oh, let me correct that. YOU are doing the presentation today with JACE. You nervous or anything?"
And just like that, her hunch was proven to be correct. "Seriously? What does it have to do with him?"
Amari shrugged and leaned back again on her chair. "I don't know? Who knows, maybe you're feeling nervous right now because of the presentation, OR you could be feeling nervous because of him."
Lorelei took a deep breath before murmuring, "Here we go again." She crossed her arms. Her brows were twitching as she tried so hard not to knit them, "I assure you, there's nothing going on between us."
"Still not convinced though," Amari said while shaking her head slightly.
"Do you just want to know whether something is up between us or do you just want us to have something?"
"Okay, you got me there," Amari burst into laughter. The papers Lorelei was holding suddenly felt hot in her hands. Seriously, if Amari weren't her best friend she would've whacked her back already. She wasn't really the type to resort to violence but she felt it was most needed right now.
"Ugh. Please!" she complained loudly, annoyance evident in her voice. She just rolled her eyes again knowing that her friend would never stop no matter what she does.
Amari has been like this for days ever since she went to Lorelei's place. She would tease the hell out of her as if waiting for her to admit that she and Jace are really something. Well, it was most unfortunate for Amari but fortunate for Lorelei that the only answer she could give her friend was a big no. Lorelei thought she should–she must, rather, avoid Jace from now on, or else Amari would make a bigger fuss than what she was doing now (though it would be impossible considering that they live in the same building and taking the same class).
After a few moments, Sam entered the room with Jace. The two made their way to the two girls to gather as a group.
"Yo!" greeted Sam with his hand up in the air, waiting for someone to receive his high-five.
Instead of giving Sam a high-five, Amari tugged his hand down, making him lose his balance and land on the seat beside Amari. "Sit here," she whispered and grinned.
"What? Heck, I don't want to sit beside you," Sam grumbled. He tried to stand up but Amari pulled down on his seat again. She was making these weird "signals" using her eyes, waiting for Sam to finally understand what she was trying to say. Sam had no choice but to slump on his seat. "Hey, stop doing that. You look like a sick tarsier."
Amari gave him a hard smack on the arm. "Ow!" he rubbed his arm as if it could lessen the stinging. "What was that for?!"
"Shush!" Amari just said as a reply. She turned to Jace to see where he was about to sit. "Hey, Jace! Over here," she pointed to the seat next to Lorelei.
Amari gave her a meaningful look and Lorelei couldn't help but grimace at her friend.
Jace ended up sitting beside Lorelei though he was planning to sit beside Sam. They were unusually quiet, except for Sam and Amari who were trying to pick a fight with each other. Jace tried to break the silence between them by clearing his throat. "You ready?" he attempted to start a conversation.
"Always am," Lorelei replied.
Upon her reply, the door burst open, revealing Professor Im. "Good day, class." The class greeted him in return.
"Alright. Presenters, start preparing. We'll start in three minutes."
Lorelei's group did not have a hard time preparing the setup for their presentation since they had prepared it beforehand. She and Jace started the presentation and it was all done in just a flash. There were no interruptions, no unnecessary questions, no technical difficulties–in short, it went smoothly.
The professor just nodded as they wrapped everything up.
"Oh my gosh. Finally, we're done!" Amari whispered enthusiastically when Lorelei and Jace reached their seats.
"Nice team!" Sam added.
Their group was then followed by the next group of presenters, and they too were able to successfully finish it smoothly. By the time all of them were done, Professor Im strode behind the podium.
"Well done everyone," he complimented them. "I believe we only have five groups left before your midterms start, am I right?"
The class agreed in unison. "Since that is the case, I'll just give you a heads up for your upcoming final output. No need to stress over this yet because it isn't due in three months after all."
He grabbed a remote and showed a slide. "You'll be making a term paper with a topic of your choice. Although, of course, it has to be under the lessons we have discussed." The professor made his way in front of the podium this time. "I'll let you do this by pair. Please refer to the slide," he clicked the remote again which showed the pairings.
"Gosh, please. Can't we even have a break from all these group activities?!" Amari murmured under her breath, her introversion finally kicking in.
"Well, I don't really mind though. As long as the other party will help me get this done," Lorelei replied in a whisper. 'And as long as I won't get paired with Jacey,' she thought. The last thing she would want was Amari teasing her endlessly for the rest of the semester. She could barely handle it even for just three days. She immediately scanned the slide, hoping she'd be paired up with anyone but Jace Lee.
'Jung, L. & Lee, J.'
Her heart and jaw dropped as she saw her name and her partner's on the slide. It struck her that History class was indeed a horror.
"Why do I always get tangled up with this guy?" she must have thought loudly that Jace's head immediately whirled to look at her.
"And you think I wanted to get tangled up with you?" he scoffed, "Sorry but I hate the idea even more."
Lorelei didn't know why she felt insulted by his remark. "Oh really? Who would want to be paired up with someone who does their tasks late?"
"And who the fuck would want to be paired up with someone who always arrives late, huh?" Jace shot back.
Lorelei could not help but frown. "At least I get my job done!"
Jace smirked at her. "And so do I, Lorelei Jung," he retorted.
Lorelei didn't bother replying back 'cause she thought she would be only wasting her energy if she does. She rolled her eyes and returned her attention to Professor Im who was now giving the details of their term paper. She realized that this class is gonna be one hell of a ride.