Yes, two updates in one day. I wanted to make up for the lack of edited chapters lately. Hope this one is better than the last few.
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"They're coming!" Grace shouts from the door. Everyone in the class rushes to take their seats as we planned before.
I look over at our classmates. "Remember what we planned?"
They give us a thumbs-up as they continue eating the cupcake that I used to bribe them.
"Mission Milton begins!" Grace announces. Milton is the combination of Miles and Ashton if you haven't got that yet.
I take a deep breath and sit in the middle of the row with an empty seat beside me. Grace sits two rows down with an empty one beside her too. Owen and Nyako are in the seat behind me. The only two seats left in the class are ones beside me and Grace.
This might seem a bit confusing. Let me explain it to you.
Ever since Miles and Ashton negotiated, they have become inseparable. They lunch together, sit together, hang out together, and maybe even shower together.
Well, I might be overstating a bit but the only time I don't see them together is when Ashton comes to my place after he hangs out with Miles. They even bought matching clothes and they find out they have many likes and dislikes in common. Who does that these days?
Now even Owen doesn't think it's some 'witch' that's stealing his best friend away from him.
In the end, for the sake of our sanity, Grace and I came up with a plan.
And it's we're not going to let them sit together in any of the classes today. They have five classes together and I'm in four of them. By luck, Grace is in that other class with them.
We decided to bribe our classmates with my mom's cupcakes which I specially requested mom to bake. Thankfully, she didn't question me why I need so many of them.
I got a feeling she overheard us when we were making the plan. But as long as she doesn't question me, I'm fine with it.
English is the first one they have together and it has tables with two seats. Our plan is that we won't leave any pair of seats left for them so sit together. Everyone agreed to help us when we handed them those cupcakes.
There were few extra seats in the back of the class, so Nyako and Owen helped us to throw them out of the class.
So far everything is working out as planned. I watch under my lashes as they get in the class talking something about Picasso and Vinci.
When they reach the middle, they find all the class filled up except for two seats.
"Psst Kiara, would you move with Grace?" Miles asks.
"Nope." I cross my arms.
"Grace will ya-"
"No, I like it here," Grace says.
"Me too."
They ask a few others but everyone refuses to move. They look around the class. The whole class is watching them from the corner of their eyes.
Finally, Ashton says, "Weird, the whole class is filled up. Where will we sit now?"
"Why? I can see two seats left," a guy, Jack, says from the back of the class.
"Yes, but we want to sit next to each other."
"Beggars can't be choosers," someone shouts from the front of the class. "Maybe arrive earlier next time."
Ashton frowns.
For some unknown reason, I find it cute. The way he's frowning and pursed his lips in a pout. He's looking so adorable. Too bad he's so wanted and I have a boyfriend already.
'Stop daydreaming! Don't you remember who he is?'
Yeah right.
Miles turns to me. "Kiara do you have anything to do with this?"
I snort and give him a fake laugh. "Whatever are you talking about?"
"More like gibberish," Grace adds.
They look between us suspiciously. To our luck, the bell rings in the background just as Mrs. Roth walks in the class, leaving them with no choice but to sit separately.
Ashton sits down beside me as I Miles reaches for the seat beside Grace.
Even before parting, they stared at each other with gooey eyes and telepathies a mental goodbye maybe.
See? This is why we should stop them right here. It's just not normal.
Ashton takes his copy out of his backpack and eyes the similar-looking cupcakes on every desk of the class. He turns to me but I pretend to revise the last lecture.
"Kiara?"
"Hmm?"
"You better have a good explanation."
"Mhmm?" I act like his words don't have an effect on me.
The same arrangement continues in our next class. We hand out mom's baked cupcakes to our classmates and they agree to assist us to accomplish Mission Milton. Some even said they're looking forward to the show.
Miles and Ashton were fuming during the whole class.
I don't share the fourth period with them but Grace does. So she said she'll carry on the mission in that class with the help of Payton and Luca who are in that class with them.
It is the only class I have with Derek so I can't exactly say I'm exactly disappointed.
"You look happy today," Derek says when he slips in the seat beside me in Chemistry class.
Lately, Derek and I can't spend much time together because of his practice. He can't join us in the cafeteria during lunchtime because of it too. But he's doing a great job in making up for it, like yesterday, he took me on a dinner date.
"I'm always happy," I reply to him.
Derek shakes his head. "Not this much," he says before kissing me. "Gonna tell me what's up?"
"Nope."
"Please?" He says making puppy eyes but it's nothing compared to the ones Ashton gives me all the time when he needs something. I shake my head and dig my phone out of the pocket. Derek pouts and takes his phone out too.
Then I realized something. I've compared Derek to Ashton, again. I know I shouldn't be doing this. Not just because it makes me a bad girlfriend. Derek might not be good at doing usual boyfriend things, but he was there for me when I was going through my bad time.
Derek is my past, present, and will be my future. And Ashton? I doubt he'll remember my name once this is all over. Isn't that what we had negotiated for?
That reminds me -
"Derek," I call his name.
He looks up from his phone. "Yes?"
I don't know how to bring it up. I mean we're just friends but still, I feel like Derek should know about it, about us. "You heard about the current newspaper swapping fiasco going on." Derek stiffly nods.
"So we're trying to find out who's doing it, me and the whole newspaper committee," I tell him. "Ashton, Cora, Asher are also helping us to solve the case."
"Ashton, you say?"
I nod. "I know what you are thinking, but truth to the speaking, I'm not willing to work with him either." A half-lie. "But we don't have another choice."
"You don't mind working with Cora?"
I shrug. "As I said, we don't have another choice," I say. "I told you because I thought you should know about Ashton working with us. I hope you're fine with it."
Derek nods and stares ahead. This doesn't seem good.
"Look I know-"
"I'm fine with it," Derek cuts me.
I blink. "Really?"
He nods. "I know this is important for you all." He takes my hands in his. "But if you can stand working with Cora, then I think I can handle the idea of Ashton working with you."
I smile and hug him. "You're the best," I say in the crook of his neck.
Derek wraps his arms around me. "I trust you, Kiara."
Kiara, just Kiara. No nicknames for me. Like Ashton.
I try to get rid of the sudden pain inside my chest and nuzzle into the embrace.
We pull back as the bell rings. Then the teacher hands out our worksheet. Derek collects ours from him and we start to work on our today's project.
Derek doesn't join our table for lunch. He tells me he's going to eat outside with the football team. I don't try to argue on it because I know it's important for his new role in the team. Derek doesn't offer me to have lunch with them, but I try not to think about it much.
I go to our usual table and unwrap the sandwich that I brought from home.
"Okay, that's it!" A tray slams down on the table. Everyone in the tables stares at the restless and angry Ashton.
"Do you need my permission to sit down?" I ask him.
Anger washes away from his face. He sits down on the bench beside me. I look at him from the corner of my eyes. He looks flustered and a bit red. Miles slips between Grace and Jason on the other side of the table.
Wait, they're not going to fight to sit together?
But-but-
As if reading my thoughts, Ashton says, "No we won't."
"Gonna tell us what's actually happening?" Luca asks. Everyone at the table stops talking. They all have been in at least one of our previous classes.
I look at Grace and she shrugs.
"Tell them," she says.
"No, you tell them."
"No, you."
"No yo-"
"Okay okay, I'll tell them," Owen cuts in. Everyone stares at us with wide-eyes as Owen explains Mission Milton to them.
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Thoughts?