June 14, Friday.
8:00 AM

It's alright Lydia... It's probably just a coincidence.

I took deep breaths to calm myself. But with every sound of the door knob clicking I would yelp.

"Boo!"

"EEEEK" I screeched and jumped out of my chair. "Ari! Don't scare me like that!"

"Hhahahahahaha! Lydiaaaa! It's been a while since you gave me such a face! You usually deadpan me." Ari laughs uncontrollably, till she was on her knees and clutching her stomach.

"Is it really that funny?" I stretch my back, regain my composure, and returning the usual half-dead look on my face.

"Hey guys!" Putting her bag down and greeting us casually, Maia raised her brow at Ari with a smile on her face. "Girl, what chu doing down there?"

"I was laughing at Lydia. All I sad was 'boo' and she screamed like she saw a ghost!" Ari says with pride and continues laughing.

"Yeah, haha. Very funny." I say sarcastically.

"Oh by the way Lydia, have you heard of the game Divine spring?" Maia asks me, and I shake my head negatively.

Here it comes.

"You should really check it out! It's so cool!" Ari says once she has calmed down from laughing. "Since it is a really popular game, I thought that Theo might play on there so me and Maia made an account."

"Is that so..."

"Yeah! But I think we've done something wrong and teleported to the wrong area. Because the place was filled with level 100 monsters and we were only level 1! We tried asking for help but nobody noticed us." Ari frowns.

"If only you listened to me when I told you we were doing something wrong!" Maia sits down. "In the end we made absolutely no progress! But anyways, the game was pretty cool. You should make an account too Lydia."

"I'll think about it... Haha..." I laugh awkwardly.

It really was them.

But anywho, I'm glad it was just a coincidence. I sighed in relief.

"Hmm... Are you sure you are alright Lydia? You've been acting strange since yesterday." Ari's mood suddenly shifts, and now she was the one raising her brow at me. Though she is an airhead, I gotta admit. She's observant.

"Oh right! You ran off yesterday, what happened?" Maia asks.

"Twas just my dad hehe... And don't worry Ari. I'm alright, really."

"Oooohkay then..." Ari gets up from the ground and takes her seat, looking at me doubtfully. "Oh by the way Maia, there are quite a lot of people on divine spring, do you think we'll even be able to find Theo there?" Ari's doubtful look turns into a frown.

"I'm not sure, but don't lose hope Ari!" Maia pats her back supportingly.

"Thanks Maia."

"Oh and Lydia, how's the speech coming along?" Maia then turns to me and asks.

"I already got it done. Professor Adley is just making us practice."

"That's good! Do your best Lydia!"

"Yeah, do your best." Ari says in a sulky tone. And a strike of guilt hit me. Did I upset her?

"Ari... Did I make you mad?" I ask her, hoping that she would tell me what's wrong.

"Hmph." She turns her head away from me.

Ouch

And the door swings open.

"Good morning Mrs. Diaz!" My classmates greet in chorus and I slump into my seat, letting out a heavy sigh. What could've made this crazy woman upset.

"Good morning class!" Mrs. Diaz greets back. Her eyes wander the room, till the finally set on me.

"Ms. Hill, practice later, yes?"

"Y-yes Mrs. Diaz." I force myself to crack a smile, trying to refrain from twitching my eyebrows. Which was another habit of mine when I get irritated.

She really just has to rub it in my face.

"Is something wrong, Ms. Hill?" She raises her brow. But was smiling at me cheekily.

"No Mrs. Diaz."

And she's totally enjoying this.

Sadist teacher!

I could easily imagine Mrs. Diaz holding a whip and slashing her husband with it everytime he misbehaves or does something wrong.

Wait- why am I imagining that anyway? I shake my head to push the thought away, then focus on the lesson.

But the words would just scatter and my mind would fly away once again without me noticing it. And again I was pondering on what would've upset my bestfriend.

1). She's jealous that I'm getting close to Theo.

2). She's just being moody.

3). Im just being oblivious and I really did something wrong.

I did a mental recap on what happened before she got upset.

Well... She asked me if I was really alright and I said yes. Then all of a sudden she got upset.

Eh.

If you could see steam coming out of one's head, then I'm pretty sure everyone would see my skull suddenly burst open.

Also. I should really focus on the lesson.

"Ok class! Pop quiz!" Mrs. Diaz says all of a sudden, turning away from then board then once again looking at me specifically. The rest of the class groans and complains.

Ah great.

Also... Pop quiz about what?

The lesson on started a few minutes ago.

"Meh." I shrugged my shoulders and took out my pen and paper. To hell with this.

10:33 AM

Ari went off to the canteen on her own.

And I was facing the ceiling in a daze.

I can't even remember if there ever was a time that Ari got this upset. She'd usually already forgive me by now.

"Hey Lydia... It's recess." Maia pokes my arm gently. "You aren't going to go to the canteen? I'll go with you."

"No thanks." I placidly snap back to reality and answer Maia in a slow and steady voice. "I've lost appetite."

"Oh... Ok."

"You should go get something to eat."

"I will." Maia slightly nods her head with an unsteady smile. She gets up and heads out the door and I hit my forehead against my desk. I suck at treating the people i'm close to well.

And I stare at my desk lifelessly.

"Hey Lydia... Are you alright?" A slightly familiar feminine voice asks me and I turn my head to look at her.

"Yeah. Thanks for asking."

Just one of my other classmates. Can't remember what her name was.

"You can always come talk to me if you need someone to talk to." She smiles.

"That's really sweet of you. Thanks." I smile back and she skips off.

And the door swings open once again. Since my brain was now (half) alive one again. I slowly turn my head to the other side to see who just entered the room.

It was Ari, holding a box of chocolate milk in one and a cinnamon roll in the other.

I should make things right.

She walked over to her seat, passing by me like I was a ghost.

"Ari."

She didn't even bother to look at me.

"Ari?"

She just stared straight. Looking at the board while sticking the straw of her chocolate milk into where it's supposed to go and she sips it peacefuly.

"Ari I'm sorry. Really."

Ari puts down her box of chocolate milk and bends down, digging out something from her bag. Then pulling out sticky notes and a pen. She wrote. It wasn't much, but she stuck it onto the side of my chair and went back to sipping her chocolate milk.

I took the little paper and hoped it would be something good.

Let's have a good talk tomorrow.

2:00 PM at the sweet patisserie treats café. The one at the plaza's central.

No being late and no excuses.

"Alright." I told Ari, despite being aware that she would just ghost me.

Oh, and she did.

"Ms. Hill, practice!" The door opens and Mrs. Diaz sticks her head inside, calling for me.

"Ok Mrs. Diaz." I get up from my seat, stretch my back and arms and head out of the classroom, following Mrs. Diaz into the vacant room where the two were most likel once again waiting for me to arrive.

Time to get ready for the worst.