2. Hand Of Friendship

In the second year of middle school, life was going without any ups and downs. I started crushing on Lucas and have continued crushing on him for the past year now. But, the weird thing was that I kept my feelings just with me and never once let them out. Neither to Jewel. We had little interaction with him in the past academic year. But, this following year felt different. Something was changed. Many things changed and so did my love life take a turn.

(June 2018 – Third year of Middle school)

Spring vacations ended with eagerness and excitement to go to school and see him. All three of us, Jewel, Lucas and me, and many of our other classmates were again in the same class luckily!! And seeing him again after two months of vacation made me hopelessly fall for him again this time. "Woah, our class is bright. Such a huge amount of sunlight! Refreshing mood for studies, don't you think?", I asked Jewel with excitement while walking through the door.

"You're right! It indeed is so cheerful here", replied Jewel nodding in agreement while sitting on the 2nd-row bench. I went to the other side of the bench and we both sat together with a bright smile.

After a few moments of chit-chat, Lucas entered the class with his gorgeous messy hair, carrying the bag on one side of his shoulder and his jacket, wearing it in his usual style.

As he entered the class he threw his bag on the first bench near him and hugged his BFF Ken Williams. He then elegantly passed his fingers through his messy long hair that fell on his eye level and his eyes caught us staring at him, as he talked with Ken. He smirked slightly looking at us and then went to sit beside Ken. Jewel and me, we were surprised by his reaction and we stared at each other in confusion with wide-open eyes.

"Uhh...Okay, to be honest, that was really suspicious!!", Jewel said in shock.

"...And seriously breathtaking too!!!!", I exclaimed in agreement.

"Let it go, he's a weirdo from the very beginning... Oh! I guess this will be our new class teacher for the year", Jewel whispered to me looking at our new class teacher.

"Hello everyone! Please settle down now! And, let me give you my introduction first. So, I'm Ms. Helen Brown, and I will be your class teacher for this academic year. At the beginning, I would like to tell you the rules that need to be followed. First, I'll be deciding your places to avoid chaos. So, everyone please come in the front and empty the seats. I'll allot your places.", announced Ms. Helen.

Everyone wasn't ready to leave sitting by their friends but this had always been the rule for middle school. So, no escape! Our Teacher started to allot places one by one. Lucas's turn came, he was made to sit on the 2nd row, 3rd bench. "Haha, he wanted to escape all the teachers by sitting on the last bench but he can't do that now", I giggled as I thought. Then I was told to sit beside him!!! Damn!! I was feeling so happy and like I was in heaven internally imagining things, but not to express my feelings openly, my face had this 'Oh no!' type of disappointed expression. I walked with my bag to his seat and sat beside him without saying a word or even looking at him. Jewel kept on controlling her laugh and making fun of me, but I somehow liked it when people teased me and Lucas. Jewel was made to sit with some new guy who was really quiet. Everyone got settled and Ms. Helen started the introduction.

"So, we'll have to sit together from now I see?" Lucas asked, looking at me with a normal face without any expression. "Yeah, I guess so. Hopefully, we don't kill each other or something.", I replied.

"Well, maybe it's better we don't play along too much until we sit together. Maybe this is the time to be casual and calm like we normally are with our other friends. So, just that we won't kill each other as you said", he suggested calmly with a friendly tone that he never once spoke to me till now. I was surprised but what he said was fact and I liked his sweet nature. "You're right. So, finally friends, from frenemy?", I asked with a warm smile and gave him my hand of friendship. He smiled and nodded while shaking hands with me.

This is how Lucas and I first time talked properly, without any jokes, or pranks, and I liked it. Sitting beside my crush was like a wish I had from last year, but more than that, I wish that he liked me back and someday we'll date!! And for him to like me back, we should interact and I can see this is now kind of possible. More chances for him to be mine! Yeah!!

It was recess break and finally, I could chill out with Jewel. She came to my bench as I was winding up the books from the previous class. Lucas had gone to the canteen already so it was only me on the bench there. "So, enjoying sitting with the weirdo, huh?", she chuckled teasing me. "Oh, come on! Why do you have to tease me now? Isn't the rest of the class teasing both of us enough that you wanna give me separate teasing?", I complained with puppy eyes. "Fine! Fine! Stop that dramatic look!" She started laughing while holding her stomach and I joined her. While we were laughing Lucas came from behind Jewel and called out for me.

"Hey! Jennie, could you give me my bottle from my bag?" asked Lucas, standing behind Jewel. Listening to his voice from right behind her made her stand straight in attention. "Yes, wait a minute", I signalled him to wait. I took his bottle and passed it to him while he was staring at Jewel with infuriated eyes. She kept her eyes straight down. Of course, why not? She is my little introverted BFF who stumbles her words when nervous. "Thanks, Jennie", he thanked me, continuing to stare at her and finally went away. "You can breathe now, Juleka", I pointed out casually. "Woah! What the hell was that? Why was he staring at me as if I did something really bad to him? That was thrilling! He really is weird; how can you agree to sit with him? Shall I help you to talk to Ms. Helen?", she busted out.

"Woah, woah! Chill girl! First of all, I don't need any help to talk to anyone, be it Ms. Helen or... Lucas, unlike you. Second, I think you must be in trauma so let's go and eat.", I explained, calming her down.

"Yeah, you're right. Let's go.", she replied.

We took our lunch plates and sat at our regular table near the window. I can still see her confused. "Just forget it, girl! He did that on purpose. He was just playing around", I said reassuring her. "Plus, I think you should drink water because you are sweating like anything and your hands are as cold as if you're dead. I really can't believe how someone's hand becomes so freezing cold and sweaty at the same time, with nervousness. You really are some different kind of species. Haha", I said teasingly.

"I know right, I also have that question. Haha. By the way, what was that before? You two talking casually in a calm way, huh? I see. Something is cooking between you two." smirked Jewel with a huge devilish smile.

"Oh, come on! It's nothing. We just became friends because if not, then we would have just kept on irritating and teasing each other. And of course, both of us want to survive, you know", I shrugged, eating up one bite of Kimbap.

"Oh, I see. Well, I thought that the rumour was coming true. Lol", said Jewel.

"What rumour? That one from the previous academic year?"

"Yes! I thought you both liked each other"

"Ugh... that's ridiculous. Why would you think that? Plus, I guess you forgot the second half of the rumour. It wasn't just about Lucas and me, it was about Lucas and us. And from your reaction a while ago, it surely does look like an introverted girl having a crush on a guy who just came really close behind her and she paused in amazement. Omg!! This is really funny", I started laughing uncontrollably.

"Not funny, girl", she mumbled blushingly, a little bit embarrassed. "So, tell me, Juleka Adams, are you crushing on Lucas?", I asked, holding my chopsticks as a mic and pointing it towards Jewel to speak her answer. "Of course not!!", she whispered softly with a celebrity-type attitude and we started laughing.

Days went on with me sitting beside Lucas and enjoying myself as if I was in heaven. We used to solve math together in class and helped each other in difficulties. We started to talk casually, but we never stopped teasing each other over any stupid thing. During this time, two rumours started spreading in school, about Lucas crushing on either of us, few said he liked me and a few said he liked Juleka. The majority said he liked Juleka. That sometimes made me a little bit jealous, but it was alright. The second rumour was, even we both had a crush on him. We got to know about this rumor in the last grade only but it wasn't so much of a hot topic at that time. But now, almost everyone thinks that way.

One day on the bus, Jewel told me about an incident at the public park near her house. "So, I went for a walk to the public park in front of my house while listening to music in my headphones. There, I saw Lucas with some guys who I know as they live nearby. He didn't notice me but as I approached his group from behind, acting as if I was just passing by. And the wrong timing of my sneeze, he noticed me immediately. 'What sneezed...here you're doing?', that's what he exactly said to me. I was confused and I asked him what does that even mean. He started talking any kind of shit. I couldn't understand a thing what he wanted to say and the whole group was continuously laughing. I don't know why were they laughing out of the blue like a maniac, I yelled at him 'Stupidity Master'. They continued laughing at it, so I ignored the whole bunch of idiots and ran back to find my friends' circle. Thank God! I met them while returning. I told them this complete incident, even they had no idea what thing was spicing up between those stupids.", Jewel recited to me the complete incident that happened. Even I was confused about what exactly they were laughing at, her sneeze? It's nothing to laugh at? But, imagining Jewel talking down to Lucas and calling him 'stupidity Master' made me burst into laughter. As usual, we ended up giggling at such stupidity again.

Today, Ms. Helen mentioned about performing an act on stage. And guess what, I was with Lucas in the same group. The main job was to re-create and edit the end of the story given to the group. This group play on stage was to be performed on 14th February, on the occasion of Valentine's Day. It was to be presented in front of our seniors who were high schoolers, 9th graders and above. They had even arranged a Ball for them. I'm desperate to become a high schooler and go to the Ball with the love of my life! Aww! Anyways, all groups were given some romance story as a topic. Our topic was Romeo-Juliet. We had to express the victory of love at the end, so editing the end of the story was allowed as few stories like ours itself, didn't have a 'Happily ever after' moment. So, I took the initiative of writing the script as I loved writing. Being the scriptwriter, I made changes in the ending of the story and trust me, it was so lovely and totally for today's generation type. I hope we win the 1st place. I decided to play Juliet as there were only three girls in the group including one of me. The one girl backed out from playing Juliet saying she hated romance stories. The other said she isn't comfortable playing Juliet with some other guy because she is already dating. Bruh?! It's just a play, who thinks such cheesy stuff? Ridiculous thoughts! Well, so it was obviously me. Taking advantage, I asked Lucas if he would play Romeo. He hesitated because of the rumour that was already spreading, but I convinced him to play Romeo. Everyone agreed to the role they were allotted, except for one guy, he was Henry Smith. I don't know why was he opposing this. "Maybe he wants to play the lead?", I thought. But the real reason was something else and I got to know about it from my source, which was none other than Lucas.

"What?!?!?! Henry is crushing on me??!", I shouted surprisingly, with wide-opened eyes and my jaw dropped.

~QUEEN SE YEON

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hello Kingdom!  Eager to know who's Henry?

Stay connected and follow me for new updates to reach you! 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

*Credits*

Writer - Queen Se Yeon

Images Editing - Queen Se Yeon

Editor - Miss Incomplete

Image - Pinterest (@nourhanaco)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

*To be continued*

-------STAY CONNECTED-------