༺❦༻

꒰ birds of a feather ꒱ ━━ ⤾·˚ ༘ ༄
☁︎︎ ✧˖* ━━ chapter twenty-two!

❝ YOU GUYS ARE DATING?! ❞

REINA, CONNOR, AND EDDIE entered the gym where the morning announcements would be taking place, along with basically everyone. the gym was practically filled to the brim.

"you get up to anything this weekend?" koosh asked the three.

they all shared a knowing look before shaking their heads. "nope. pretty mellow," eddie shrugged.

"yeah, super lame," connor added.

"very boring," reina then said, playing along.

"oh, man. we got off our asses - you would've loved it," koosh grinned, turning so he was facing all three of them. "sorry again about those plus-ones. next time, it's a lock."

he then pointed to reina's hand. "what happened there?"

reina looked at her hand - it healed, thankfully, but there was still faint bruised marks that still needed to fully go away.

"i punched a wall..?" she said, but it sounded more like a question than an answer.

koosh raised his brows. "what - why?"

"halo! uh, she um, was raging at the game," eddie replied before she could.

"hey reina! connor, eddie!" up above the top of the bleachers, katrina waved the trio over. shocking them all, but mostly koosh.

"is katrina aurienna waving at you?" he looked between his friends and the popular school girl with wide eyes.

reina shrugged with one shoulder. "looks like it."

"uh-huh, weird," eddie nodded.

"yeah, i guess we better go check it out."

"hang on," koosh stopped them. "should i roll with?"

they all pretended to think about it before quickly disagreeing. "nah, you know, it looks pretty full up there," eddie said in mock disappointment.

"yeah and she didn't really call your name, so.." reina trailed off.

"but hey, next time man, it's a lock." connor patted koosh's shoulder teasingly, the trio laughing afterwards as they made their way up the bleacher stairs.

halfway up, they got stopped by the same two boys they saw on the first day. "woah, not so fast, fetus. freshman sit on the floor," one of them pointed down.

"yeah, back to the womb, fetus," the other said, laughing.

connor and eddie looked at each other before nodding and turning around to go back. reina, however, didn't budge. she glared at the two boys in annoyance.

connor sighed. "rei let's just-"

"um, i'm sorry, who the fuck are you?" katrina intervened, making connor and eddie stop and turn back around.

"me? i'm.."

"yeah, no one cares," katrina sarcastically smiled at him. "and his name is connor, not fetus, asshole. now get up. my friends are sitting there."

when the two guys still didn't move, katrina rolled her eyes. "it's not a riddle, douchebag, move."

the two boys reluctantly started getting up. "let's go, boys. chop-chop. thank you."

as they left, reina gave them a bright sarcastic smile, mockingly waving at them before flipping them off. "buh bye," she mouthed smugly.

"i washed your clothes," katrina handed eddie the sweatpants and shirt.

eddie took them. "oh, oh you didn't have to-"

"i also want to apologize."

connor waved her off. "no, no it's cool."

"actually, it's pretty fucking far from cool. i'm sorry you guys had to deal with that," she said sincerely.

eddie smiled. "apology accepted."

"don't even know what you're talking about," connor shrugged.

"thank you for being gentlemen," she smiled, turning to reina stood in the middle. "and thank you for helping me out, reina, you're very sweet."

reina shook her head. "aw, no worries at all."

"come sit with us, please," she said, gesturing to the seats where the two guys once sat.

the trio didn't hesitate to sit down, slightly turning around to face everyone behind and next to them since they were on the edge. "um, guys, meet my friends. this is reina, connor, and eddie," she introduced.

they all fist bumped and dapped each other up, exchanging nice greetings.

"hey, reina," katrina got her attention. "you need to give me your socials so i can follow you."

reina's jaw dropped. "are - are you sure?"

"of course girl," she waved her off, handing reina her phone so she can type in her instagram handle.

reina did so, still in a state of shock. she handed her phone back with a bright smile. "there you go - oh, and you can call me rei. all my friends do."

katrina nodded. "then you can call me kat."

"cool," reina sent her one last smile before turning around, immediately locking her arms with connor who turned around.

"you okay?" he asked in concern. she was squeezing his arm and her brows were furrowed.

"katrina asked for my socials," she muttered.

his eyes widened. "what the hell, rei, that's amazing - you gave it to her right?"

"yeah but," she took out her phone and went onto katrina's instagram page, lowering her brightness so katrina couldn't see. "she only follows like twenty people?!"

connor chuckled, refreshing the page. "well twenty-one now."

reina slapped a hand over her mouth. "con, pinch me."

"but then you'll punch me back?"

"good point."

"all right, settle down! settle down," the headteacher interrupted on the microphone. "we got a lot to get through this morning. first up, coach barella."

almost all the students clapped unenthusiastically, already bored and not paying attention. reina leaned into connor's side, and he rested his left hand on her knee.

reina retrieved her 'doodle' pen from her pocket ( a spare black pen she carried out whenever she was bored ) and leaned forward, doodling on the back of his hand. connor made sure to stay still, paying no mind.

after a couple announcements, reina admired her masterpiece of a doodle - and by masterpiece, there was literally a dick, random shapes and patterns, and in the middle it had R+C with hearts around it. beneath that, she wrote: pls get me an ice tea at lunch if they have any or else die <3

"all right, that about does it for today - oh, looks like we have one more announcement from uh.. benjamin nielsen."

reina's head snapped upwards towards the front, sharing an equally confused look with connor and eddie whilst some people slowly clapped.

"hi everyone," he greeted awkwardly. "i'm benj."

"woooo! k-hole!" a random person shouted, making a lot of people laugh.

"okay what the fuck.." reina whispered.

"i need to say something," he continued. "i've been looking forward to high school.. forever."

"nerd!" someone called out. again, people laughed.

"i know, right? but for whatever reason, i believed that's where i was gonna become my best self. and i got off to a great start. i met some awesome people, but they didn't meet me. not the real me."

the three friends shared a curious look. what is he doing?,

"you see, i was so obsessed with winning everyone over, that i lost sight of the one person that i truly care about," he paused. "bailey, this is for you."

suddenly he started singing. singing.

connor stared in complete shock. "is he.."

"yep," reina nodded slowly, not believing her eyes.

"now i'm wondering if your love's still strong, ooh baby, here i am, signed, sealed, delivered, i'm yours.."

suddenly, eddie started clapping to make a beat. connor looked over and nodded, joining in. reina sighed before joining her friends too. she didn't want benj to suffer with no music more than he already is.

quickly after that, everyone else joined in.

benj looked up to where his friends sat up above, a smile now on his face. he started being more confident, knowing his friends were supporting him in the audience.

then, someone on the piano jumped in and gave him proper music as he sang. he started being more confident, moving around and getting closer to where bailey sat. "signed, sealed, delivered, i'm yours!"

he eventually went directly in front of where bailey was, kneeling down on one knee. "what do you say, bailey? will you be my girlfriend?"

there was a long, tense pause as everyone awaited for bailey's answer, some even filming. reina covered her eyes, but peeked through her fingers. she couldn't bare to watch, but she also wanted to see what would happen.

"no, dude, no. what are you doing?" bailey shook her head.

"OH SHIT! nah!" someone from the top shouted, causing everyone to jump up and laugh, point, and tease him. reina covered her eyes fully, cringing in second hand embarrassment and pity for her friend.

"okay! okay, fun is over! get back to class!" the headteacher took the mic and tried to calm everyone down.

bailey walked away, and everyone else got up to go to class, talking and laughing. some mockingly took a photo with benj all upset, still in his same kneeled position as she tried to process bailey's answer.

the trio all made their way down the stairs and towards their friend. eddie and connor lifted him up from the floor, watching as he stared ahead with a frown.

"you'll be okay," eddie tried to cheer him up.

"eh.." reina muttered, getting a nudge from eddie. "ow!"

connor nodded, placing a hand on his shoulder. "yeah, at least you tried, man."

"were you guys even watching?" koosh exclaimed. "that was the most brutal thing i've seen in my life!"

"oh shut up koosh."

"watch it again if you don't believe me!" koosh said, showing the video he took of it.

"put that away!" eddie scolded.

"what the fuck, man? you were recording?!" connor shook his head.

"someone needs to take away your phone, you're really irresponsible," eddie sighed.

reina shrugged. "can you send me it?"

eddie and connor looked at her, and she put her hands up in defence. "what?! he could use it for character development!"

"character development, seriously?"

"okay well that, and so i can laugh at it again later."

"benj, you all right buddy?" eddie abruptly asked, bringing benj out of his daze.

he looked at all of this friends and nodded, seemingly not as upset as he was a minute ago, which raised reina's suspicions. she made a mental note to ask them all for a sleepover.

she needed details, and fast.

"yeah. yeah, yeah, i'm good. lot of year left," he smiled.

reina turned to connor. "i don't know how he's coping. if you did that, i'd literally kill you then change my identity."

"well good thing i didn't," he shrugged, smiling proudly.

"and thankfuck for that," she laughed as connor wrapped his arm around her shoulder. "no offence, benj. you tried."

"wait, wait, wait," benj pointed at the two of them. "wait you're saying that-"

koosh grabbed onto benj's arm in disbelief. "there's no fucking way?!"

"you guys are dating?! what the f-"

𖥔 ۫ iloveblondead speaks ! ⋄ 𓍯

this scene was a hard watch ngl
but bless him man, even mason
said this was more scary to film than
tbp HELPPP😭😭😭 he can sing
really well tho

anyways ROLL THE CREDITS

screaming crying throwing up this is
the last chapter i'm gonna miss writing
this book so much STOP . 🙁💔 i'm
also gonna miss all ur funny comments

thank you so very much for reading,
commenting, and voting!!! all the love
on this book and the support i get from
u all is insane and i love u all so much
💝🙏🏼 appreciate all of u :')

#rennor4life

( will publish one or two bonus
chapters don't u worry😜 )

༺❦༻