𝟏𝟐 𝐘𝐄𝐀𝐑𝐒 𝐀𝐆𝐎...

—𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐑𝐋𝐎𝐓𝐓𝐄, 𝐍𝐎𝐑𝐓𝐇 𝐂𝐀𝐑𝐎𝐋𝐈𝐍𝐀

—𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗹 𝗹𝗶𝗳𝗲

The bell rang, the sound chiming through the corridors, signaling the start of class. At this, students hurried to Mrs. Anderson's eighth-grade English class.

Arabella entered the classroom and settled into her seat, placing her bag beside her. She pulled out a pencil, tapping it lightly on her desk as she waited for Mrs. Anderson to begin the lesson.

As class began, Arabella could hear laughter coming from the back of the classroom. She suppressed a silent groan of frustration, knowing exactly who was responsible. Despite knowing, she glanced towards the back of the class, where the source of the commotion was located.

Arabella's gaze fell upon Orlando, Drew, and Lance in the back of the room, huddled around Orlando's phone. They were all dressed in their lacrosse jerseys, laughing loudly at something on the screen. Arabella never understood why they felt the need to wear their sports jerseys to school.

Drew's unrestrained laughter filled the classroom as he sat on the desk instead of his chair, clearly amused by whatever Orlando was showing him and Lance. Lance, on the other hand, tried to stifle his laughter by burying his head.

Arabella couldn't help but roll her eyes at the boys' antics.

But at the same time Arabella looked back at the group of boys. Drew turned as well, and their eyes met. Instantly, Drew stopped laughing and lightly slapped his friends on the back, gesturing them to stop laughing, they were confused but they did. Drew then hopped off the desk to sit in his actual seat, he straightened up and gave Arabella a light smile.

Arabella didn't smile back. Instead, she furrowed her eyebrows in confusion, then turned around to face the teacher.

"Boys in the back, please settle down," Mrs. Anderson announced, her voice carrying over to the back of the classroom to where Drew, Landon, and Lance were sitting.

The three boys quieted down as Mrs. Anderson started to speak.

"So class, today I am going to pair you up with a partner, and you will each be writing a short story. This is to work on communication while writing," Mrs. Anderson announced. Drew's hand shot up, but Mrs. Anderson sighed, "No, Drew, you will not be able to pick your partners for this."

At this, the whole class let out a groan, with Drew's being the most notable. Arabella glanced over to Layla, who sat on the other side of the class, and gave her a sad smile.

"Settle down, please, it's not the end of the world," Mrs. Anderson chuckled, taking out a piece of paper to read out the groups she had picked.

"First group is Amelia and Ivan." The teacher started, crossing off each pair as she continued.

"Layla and Joseph."

"Neem and Landon."

Mrs. Anderson read a couple more names, and with each pair she named, there was a groan from the students in between.

This left Arabella to wonder who she was going to get partnered up with. She really wanted to get partnered up with someone who would actually get work done.

"Our final pair is Drew and Arabella."

Arabella couldn't help but silently curse. She wasn't particularly friends with Drew, nor did she want to be. While they had mutual friends, she had never spoken to Drew. From what she could tell, Drew would not be a good partner for the assignment.

Before she could move, Arabella felt someone beside her. She looked up to see Drew standing there, holding all of his books.

"Hey, do you want to sit here or somewhere else?" Drew asked.

"Uh," Arabella glanced around, noticing her favorite table by the bookshelf was already taken. She turned back to Drew. "We could just push these two desks together," she suggested, pointing to the nearby desks.

Drew didn't respond, instead he walked over to the table near the bookshelf and started talking to Landon. She pressed her lips into a thin line and let out a sigh. Of course, he was chatting with Landon when they had a project to do.

Drew returned shortly after. "Do you want to go to the table near the bookshelf?" he asked. Arabella was confused, she looked over to see that Landon and Neem weren't sitting there anymore.

"Yeah," Arabella cracked a smile, picking up her books before getting up. "That's funny, I was just thinking of sitting there before I saw Landon and Neem."

"Yeah, that is funny."

The pair walked over to the table, materials in hand. As they reached the table, Arabella pulled out a chair and sat down, Drew following suit and taking the seat next to her.

Arabella groaned as she opened her notebook to a blank page. "I hate English," she muttered. The project was to write a short story, and Arabella's mind was drawing a blank. "I like math and science way better."

"What? I love English," Drew chuckled, taking out a pencil and starting to write something.

Arabella furrowed her eyebrows at Drew's revelation. "Really? You don't seem like the type to like English," she remarked, genuinely surprised.

Arabella's words brought out a laugh from Drew, "What is that suppose to mean?"

"I mean, you... you're more of a sports guy," Arabella attempted to clarify, choosing her words carefully so she didn't come off as mean. "You don't strike me as the type who enjoys school."

"Well then you would be surprised at my other hobbies."

"What are your other hobbies?" Arabella asked, surprised at how easy the conversation flowed with Drew. She was beginning to think he wasn't so bad after all.

"Promise you won't laugh?" Drew raised his eyebrows inquisitively.

"Pinky promise." Arabella said,  lifting up her pinky which made Drew furrow his eyebrows.

"Pinky promises, really? That's just so...girly," Drew said, pressing his lips together to suppress another laugh.

Arabella didn't respond, simply keeping her pinky out. Drew groaned but eventually gave in, lifting his pinky to interlock it with Arabella's.

"Okay, so now tell me your other hobbies," Arabella asked, leaning in with a curious expression.

"Okay fine, but remember, you said you won't laugh. " Drew warned which earned him the action of Arabella miming zipping her lips and throwing the key away. "I like drama."

Arabella furrowed her eyebrows. "That's not embarrassing. I like drama too, especially what's happening between Sydney and Marissa. But I don't like when I'm in it—"

"Not that drama." Drew interjected. "Like theater, I like theater."

"Oh." Arabella deadpanned. "That's still not embarrassing though, you could become like a famous actor or something."

Drew nodded, and Arabella could tell by the surprise in his expression that he was surprised she didn't judge him for liking theater.

"Drew and Arabella, are you two even working? I only see one sentence on your page," Mrs. Anderson suddenly spoke, causing both Drew and Arabella to jump in their seats. They turned around to see a disappointed look on Mrs. Anderson's face. "I think you two should go to the library. The librarian, Mrs. Elrod, will keep an eye on you two there."

As Mrs. Anderson walked away, the two couldn't help but laugh. They had gotten so carried away that they hadn't even noticed the assignment in front of them. Now, they had to pack their bags and head to the library to work, trying to stifle their laughter as they gathered their things.

When they reached the library, they were instructed to go to the quiet zone, a section monitored by Mrs. Elrod. Arabella and Drew chose a table farthest from her desk.

"We seriously need to get this done," Arabella muttered in frustration. "But how? I don't even like writing."

Drew stayed quiet for a moment before speaking, "Okay, how about I give you an idea from the list and for 10 minutes we write in silence. Just write whatever comes to mind." 

"Easier said than done." Arabella mumbled under her breath.

"Just trust me."

"Fine."

And that's what they did. For the next 10 minutes, they wrote in silence. The only sounds in the library were the soft scratching of pencils against paper.

Arabella started to write about Santa Monica beach. A beach where her and her family would go all the time when they visited Los Angeles.

Arabella found herself unexpectedly enjoying the writing process. She felt a sense of freedom in expressing whatever came to her mind within the given topic. She was so engrossed in her writing that she didn't even notice when the bell rang, signaling the end of class.

Drew dropped his pencil and flexed his hand, cracking his fingers. "That was definitely more than 10 minutes," he remarked, glancing at Arabella, who was still deep in her writing.

Drew chuckled to himself before tapping Arabella on her shoulder, bringing her out of her writing trance. "Liked it?" he asked, smiling.

"Yeah," Arabella breathed out, a smile tugging at her lips. "Yeah, actually I did. Thanks."

"Yeah, it's whatever." Drew said, packing up his stuff. "What class you got?"

"I have a free period, and actually, I was thinking of staying in here. You know, to continue writing," Arabella replied, her voice trailing off slightly.

Drew nodded his head before placing his stuff down, making Arabella look at Drew in confusion. "You have a free period as well?" She asked.

"Yeah," He coughed. "We can just continue what we were doing then, that alright?"

Arabella nodded and smiled at him. She returned to her writing, they both started writing again, in silence.

All while Arabella didn't know that Drew in fact did not have a free period. He had lunch, where he promised his friends that they would practice lacrosse before their upcoming game.

©𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐞