I'm bored.

Ultimately, I decided to go on a small tour around campus. Might as well find myself something to do other than sitting down waiting for my next class to roll around.

I stood still by the Main Green and scanned the place. I tried to take everything in, from the big bear statue that was supposed to be the school's mascot, to the people sitting around on the grass right outside Solomon Hall, where allegedly most of the big lectures took place.

Once I did that, I strutted along the cement path, which guided me to yet another huge, blue bear sitting on what looked to be a desk study lamp. This time it wasn't a statue, but rather a giant stuffed animal with big buttons as eyes.

That isn't creepy at all.

I made my way inside a building and roamed the hallways, inspecting the rooms and making mental notes of where different places were located, until I felt my stomach growl in protest.

All of that exploring had made me hungry.

I thought about grabbing something quick from one of the vending machines distributed around campus but a guy had already beaten me to it and was essentially beating the crap out of one of those things, muttering all sorts of profanities under his breath. I knew of somebody who had  had an exceptionally shitty day.

I honestly didn't care, but I had nothing better to do, so I approached him.

"I'm sorry, but did that vending machine kill one of your dragons and execute your best friend right in front of you, or something?"

"Worse, it stole my soda," he explained without ceasing to hit and shake the machine.

He stopped and turned to face me, slightly out of breath. "I already tried 'Dracarys'... Didn't work, so I had to improvise." His eyebrows shot up in shock when he saw who he was talking to.

He got the Game of Thrones reference and played it on, that's a plus.

I made a sad pout, but my face fell quickly to its usual blank state. "Absolutely tragic."

I guess I'll have to get my food elsewhere.

"Wait!" he called after me, making me turn around. "Uh... you slapped me."

I arched both my brows in amusement. "That's a new one."

He forced his eyes shut and shook his head. "No, I mean, I recognize you. You're the one who slapped me the other night at the party, remember?"

That vaguely jogged my memory, it's not everyday you get to slap someone hard across the face with no consequences whatsoever.

"The kiss or slap game." He brought a hand up to his forehead as he skimmed through his memory, trying to recall my name. "Jade, was it?"

"Oh, yeah," I acknowledged. "That was me."

I took a second to chuckle at the memory. "I'd say that I'm sorry, but I'd be lying to you and to myself." I purposefully brushed past him as I walked off.

Thinking twice about it, I slowed down and turned around in his direction without coming to a complete stop. "Oh, and good luck trying to get your soda back," I added.

Yet again, I snapped my fingers a couple of times as if I were trying to remember his name, then pointed my index finger at him.

"Khaleesi."

A smirk made its way up to my lips as I resumed walking away from him and sauntered my way to the dining hall.

***

The day was finally over. I sat down on the floor by the entrance of Theodore Francis Green Hall (which is definitely a mouthful, now that I think about it) waiting for Liz. It's the student-run building for the arts. She should be out any second now.

Someone suddenly sneaked up to me and ruffled my hair. "Hey pretty girl, need a ride?"

"Ew," I teased as I shoved Liz's arm away from my head.

She laughed and extended her hand to help me up. "Met anyone interesting in any of your classes yet?"

"No one worth mentioning," I answered, accepting her offer.

We walked towards the door and Liz opened it for me with a fake gape on her face. "Who would've thought I'd see the day when Jade Cross got bored of guys?" She followed right behind me as I walked outside.

I rolled my eyes at her goofiness. "I never said anything about being bored of them."

Liz raised her eyebrows at me incredulously. "Do you expect me to believe that we've been here for a couple of weeks now and you still  haven't found someone that's 'worth mentioning'?"

I shrugged. "I'm weighing my options."

"You'd think an Ivy League school would have more to offer." Liz chuckled. "Maybe you'll meet someone at the Lake Party."

"Lake party?"

Liz made sure to enunciate. "A party, at a lake," she said. "It's pretty straightforward if you ask me."

I fired a half-hearted glare in her direction. "That's not what I meant."

Liz brushed it off. "Apparently it's some sort of traditional party, all freshmen are supposed to go."

She stopped on her tracks, which made me stop, too. I watched closely as she reached for her phone in the back pocket of her jeans.

"Hold on." Liz frowned while looking down at the screen, hesitating to pick up the call.

"Who's calling you?" I asked curiously.

"My dad." She sighed. "I don't think I can handle my parents right now."

"So don't answer."

"I'm not gonna," Liz stated, looking at the ground in deep thought.

I left her side and went to stand right in front of her. "What do you think they want this time?"

She shrugged and looked up at me. "Who knows? Last time I had a proper conversation with them they almost disowned me."

I do remember that.  Yikes.

"Sophie?" I asked.

"The one and only." Liz's phone rang again. "Ugh, he doesn't know when to quit. Give me a second, Jade," she told me as she stepped to the side to take the call.

Liz's parents are... let's say conventional. On top of that, they're not afraid to share their opinions - openly.

Seriously, everyone ends up hearing about them sooner or later. Therefore it wouldn't be any different when it came to their daughter. Her dad in particular is, to put it nicely, a little homophobic.

See where I'm going with this?

Naturally, when Liz officially presented Sophie to her parents as her girlfriend, they certainly didn't hold anything back. Liz was understandably furious and said things she maybe shouldn't have said. Hence almost getting disowned.

A sudden buzz from my pocket broke me out of my thoughts. I got my phone out and saw I had a new message from an unknown number.

Unknown: Hello gorgeous.

I'm sure whomever it was thought I was actually going to answer. I brought a hand up to my forehead and rolled my eyes.

As if I needed any more idiots to handle.

Looking up from my phone, I saw a familiar back walking away from me. I know a back when I see one, especially if I've glared at it murderously before. That was definitely Jesse. I stared at him briefly until an idea popped into my head.

Before I knew it I was already running up to Liz and telling her not to wait for me.

"What?" She held her phone against her chest to cover the speaker and looked at me in confusion. "Where the hell are you going?"

"Gotta' take care of something, I'll see you at home."

"Who's driving you?"

"Don't worry about that, I'll be fine." I assured her as I paced away.

I witnessed Jesse getting on a bus and quickly caught up to him, climbing in behind him. I made sure he didn't see me following him and stopped right beside one of the seats in the front of the bus, casually taking my bag off my shoulder.

I took a quick peek at Jesse and realized he was already staring at me, trying to figure out where he remembered me from. That made me want to smirk, but I kept it together.

I looked away quickly, acting completely oblivious and put my headphones in before sitting down on the far seat by the window. I felt an abrupt poke on my shoulder that made me flinch in surprise.

That was quick.

I glanced at Jesse as I took the headphones off my ears.

"Sorry I didn't mean to startle you," he said.

My face lit up and I smirked playfully. "Well, if it isn't The Mother of Dragons."

Jesse let out an amused chuckle. "Precisely." He placed a hand on the headrest of the seat beside me. "Hey, I don't think I remember you taking the bus."

Good observation.

"I don't, but my friend Liz was acting kinda' shady earlier. She said she had to go take care of something." I smiled at him. "So I offered to take the bus home."

Jesse returned it with a warm grin of his own. "You don't think she's burying anyone, right?" he joked.

I scoffed. "No, we're in broad daylight and in public." My expression went momentarily severe. "She's smarter than that."

Jesse smiled weakly, "In that case, we're in the clear."

I let out a low chuckle and limited myself to study him closely. I was never really that much of a talker.

"Is it okay if I sit here?" he finally asked.

I glanced at the empty sit beside me, then back at him. "Be my guest."

Without uttering another word, he sat down beside me. Shortly after, an awkward silence arose between us.

I guess I'll have to give him a little nudge.

I watched through the window as Providence quickly unravelled before my eyes. Still looking at the landscape, I curled my lips into a smirk.

"Did you ever manage to get your soda back?" I said, so as to break the uncomfortable silence.

"I did." Jesse laughed in relief. "I ended up being able to shake it out of the machine."

"Congratulations."

I know what you're thinking. A little dry, but completely necessary.

He cleared his throat awkwardly and silence took over once again.

Wait for it...

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Jesse nervously scratch his head.

Here it comes.

"So there's a party this weekend at the lake," he blurted out.

Check...

I looked away for a second to hide the victorious smirk that was threatening to form on my lips.

"Mhm." I gandered at him innocently. "What about it?"

"Are you going?" he said, his eyes full of hope.

"I'm still debating it." I shrugged. "Sounds a little too Vampire Diaries for my taste."

Jesse let out a deep hum and took a deep breath before attempting to speak again. "In that case maybe, if you did go, we could hang out? Because I'll be there, I mean."

... And checkmate.

I smiled at his timid babbling. "Maybe I will."

I heard a high-pitched squeak as the bus started braking and slowing down. It looks like your time is up, Khaleesi.

Jesse's smile fell slightly when he realised he was already at his stop. He looked back at me as he stood up and threw his bag over his shoulder. "See you around, then?"

"Sure."

Well, that was awfully easy.

***

"Jade, is that you?" I heard Liz say as I closed the door behind me.

"Yeah," I said, making my way over to the kitchen.

Setting my bag down on one of the chairs, I felt Liz's gaze on me. I looked at her overly concentrated stare, her eyes were narrowed and she was furrowing her brow almost as if she was trying to fry my brain with her mind.

I laughed a little at her expression. "Are you okay there, Li-"

"Where were you?" She asked even before I could finish my own question. "And what's that look you got on your face?"

"What look?" I grabbed one of the cookies that were out on the table in front of her and took a bite.

"You're up to something."

"I don't know what you're talking about," I said with my mouth half-full.

"Keep playing dumb -" Liz said as she grabbed a cookie. "- but I know what I'm saying." She took a bite of it, still submerged in her own thoughts.

"Like earlier," Liz pointed out. "Since when do you go chasing after a guy? You usually wait for them to approach you." She pointed at me with the cookie, still wearing that suspicious frown on her face.

I looked at her as if I had no clue what she was talking about. "I don't chase after guys," I said, motioning air quotation marks with my fingers. "And who said anything about approaching him?"

Liz's frown was back. "Huh?" She was truly lost. "I really don't get your logic sometimes."

I shrugged and finished my cookie. As I was shaking the cookie crumbs off my hands, an idea crossed my mind which made me give Liz a curious look.

It didn't take her long to pick it up and snap out of her thoughts. "What?" Liz said with a cookie stuffed inside her mouth.

I bit my lip slightly and a smirk sneaked its way up to the corner of my lips.

"So tell me more about this lake party."

***

A/N

Yayy, party! Which means a lot of stuff potentially happening... I mean in the last one more than one went home with a sore cheek, so that's something.

Isn't Jess adorable? Heh, I'm excited for you to see how their interactions progress throughout the story :)

Thanks for reading, you guys!

Oh, and here's Liz's playlist!!:
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/6dRE274H6lqAcxKXNCZnyW?si=LdBxbZUdRCO4c8-L2mYf8Q