It's a wonderful day. I'm speaking weather wise here. It's just the right amount of heat required for the people to bare the late October winds. My friends and I had decided to sit outside during our lunch and enjoy the day.

But the conversation we are having presently is quite ruining it for us.

"So, let me get this straight. You had a dream that Emma and Sophia were kissing and Emma's ex Dawn caught them together?"

"That's absolutely correct."

"Emma and Sophia?"

"Yep"

"They made out?"

"Correct."

"Dawn is Emma's ex?"

"I already said that."

"So, that means Dawn and Emma also swapped saliva with each other in your dream?"

"Okay, now that's quite disturbing."

"You dreamt of it last night! How is that not more disturbing than my innuendos?"

"That's different."

Mason looks at us girls in thought. "I want all the three of you to make out."

"Are you crazy?"

"I am convinced that you had been dropped down the stairs several times when you were a baby."

"I have to kiss my boyfriend. Please don't spoil it for me."

"Oh, c'mon y'all!" Mason whines. "Zach got to see it. It was literally playing right in front of his eyes."

I stand up from my place. "I lost my appetite. I'm going to the library and I don't want to see you both for the next 20 years."

"Em, wait—" Dawn stands up in her place as well "—let me come with you."

"Nope," I say as I push her down to sit, "I don't want to see you as well."

"Why are you punishing me for what Zach did?!"

"I don't know, but you understand where I'm coming from. It's just weird that I kissed my two girlfriends." I try to give her a valid answer.

Zach scoffs, "'Two girlfriends'. Look, your wish is already coming true." He tells to Mason and they laugh together.

Dawn and I turn our heads in unison with a serious expression that Zach and Mason shut their mouths immediately.

"And this is the weirdo you're in love with?" I ask Sophia, motioning to Zach.

"He's my weirdo," Sophia smiles at Zach and leans across the table to meet his lips, "Nope. Not going to kiss you for a while," she retracts.

Zach stares at her wide-eyed, "Why am I getting punished when you and Emma were the people who kissed. In fact, I should be the one angry at you. You dream-cheated me." Zach accuses her while Sophia stares at him with wide eyes.

"This conversation keeps getting better and better," Mason laughs while at the same time Dawn whispers, "This conversation keeps getting weirder and weirder."

"How was the kiss? Did they enjoy it?" Mason asks with an excited face.

"Well, knowing that Sophia is a great kisser," he winks at her, "I'm pretty sure that they enjoyed it."

"So you're telling me that I'm a bad kisser?" Dawn bursts out.

"Where in the fudge is that coming from?" I stare at her in bewilderment.

"Tell me, is that the reason why you dream-broke up with me? Because I tasted bad?!"

I groan out in frustration. "That was only a dream, Dawn. Stop going nuts!"

"This is hilarious!" Mason and Zach laugh, enjoying our little skit we're putting in front of them.

"No! This is outrageous," I scream at them and take my bag sitting on the bench. "I'm out of here."

"That's right, run off, Cheater!" Zach shouts behind me for which I turn around and flip the finger at him.

_______________

"Detention?!"

"Yes."

"Why?"

"I already told you. I was caught sneaking into the teacher's lounge."

"Yeah, I know. I'm asking why were you not subtle with you sneaking off."

"A pen stand full of pens which are obviously not working anymore is their trap for students like us."

"But what was your agenda behind your master plan, oh unworthy sire?"

Kevin narrows his eyes at me, clearly unappreciated by my mocking. "You'll get to know soon."

Now I narrow my eyes at him but break out little stare off competition when our English teacher enters the class.

Just like any other teacher, he takes the attendance sheet from his bag and calls our names. I move my neck only doing it to turn around to glance at Jay. He is present, which is obvious, and talking with his friend Jonah in hushed tones. You know, just doing all those silly things a person does to look at their crushes.

Dawn nudges her elbow with mine and I turn around sharply. "Could you be any less subtle."

I smile at her sheepishly and turn back to face Mr. Trudin in front of our class.

"Okay, class," he starts with a firm tone that everyone stops what their  doing to pay attention to him. Mr. Trudin smiles at us, a smile which announces itself that there is something behind it. "Since you are better than spies, I assume that you know what you're all going to be doing today, I see."

I stare at him puzzled with his words, contemplating on whether to ask him what it is or not. Maybe some of them are spies but there are some of them who are living under a rock to know what's going around school.

But not for the drama of course. People are interested to know what's happening in others lives than taking care of their own. If only people had put those efforts in building their lives. This world would've filled with all those geniuses Einstein was talking about.

"But for those who don't know, I've come up with a very interesting assignment for you to work on." He walks from behind his desk and  comes to the front, supporting his back by leaning on to the desk.

He takes a deep breath before explaining. "Books are the kind of instruments that transfer you to a whole new world. Where you can travel around with zero penny in your pockets by just sitting in your comfortable chair. Sure you can watch a movie within two hours but there's a certain pleasure reading a marvellous novel. It makes you feel alive. Where you are privileged to live a thousand different lives in just the one life we're living in. Characters who are not even real leave you mesmerised when you turn to the final page."

Pin drop silence is the most suitable idiom to describe the environment of our class.

"At a certain point, we are so engrossed into the book that we put ourselves into their shoes. And just when we step into it, we are looking at a whole new world. We analyse every hurdle they stumble upon. When we're too much into the character, we don't even know that our facial expressions change and when the protagonist speaks, we read it in this new voice we don't even know that we're capable of. The emotions they feel throughout the entire book leaves you high. Novels are the living proof that when we experience something, an infinite emotions take place within us. Why do you think there's this element missing when we watch a book adapted into movie. Those movies fail to give us the emotion that was present in that book."

This is why English is the best class for for the ones who admire literature. Don't even argue with us, we're telling this for your own sake.

"Emotions take up a huge role in reflecting us. When we're happy, we have this feeling like we're flying. Our body responds to that emotion. You feel sad, you feel this weight on your chest, you feel deflated like a balloon. It sucks the life out of you. Nothing could cheer you up because the mind is being hypnotised with the emotion that is eating you alive. The way our human mind, heart and soul responds to the emotions are something dangerous and yet magnificent. It can compel you to the highest. But it is necessary for us to feel the certain things because emotions are the only trait that can differentiate us from robots."

The class chuckles at the last comment.

"I'm only telling you this because I didn't even know that a whirlpool of emotions generated inside me when I first fell in love with my girlfriend— now wife—until I read a book. So my assignment for all of you is to know your emotions. Since you teenagers think that you know everything about true love and true friendship, I want you to submit me a paper on it."

I hold back a smile when he openly mocks us knowing about 'true love' and 'true friendship'.

He walks back to stand behind his desk again. "I've assigned partners to this of course. A boy and a girl."

"It's always the same," a student points out.

"Yes, the tradition is same, but I'm pointing this out because these vast emotions are always different when it comes to each individual. Especially the male and female. So this is going to help you see things from your opposite's perspective."

He then takes a clipboard from his bag and turns a few pages when the reality dawns upon me.

There might be a chance for me to get paired with Jay!

Oh, shut up, you fool. Don't you know that it is only possible in all those books you've read.

But what if  all the stars are aligned right now? What if they are shining brighter than sun? What if this is my time....the hopeless romantic in me tries to argue with the person dressed up in red dress and red horns.

Dream it all you want, 'cause that's what you're good at...the she devil argues.

Well, that was mean!

I buckle up to hear my last name because mine is the first one in the alphabetical order but to my utter relief and bad luck, he starts with some other name. He starts calling names randomly and most of them are satisfied with their partners as they smile or just nod at their partners.

Kevin is partnered with a girl named Sarah Perkins. She seems like an airhead but looks can be deceiving because I once spoke to her and she seemed like a nice girl. Dawn is partnered with Marvin Carter aka Marvellous Marvin. He once saved a sophomore from taking his own life by jumping from the top of the building. Known for his talent in athletics and academics, Dawn is in for a nice ride.

Please, God, please. I will stop eating unhealthy food if you pair me up with my crush. It is all I ask.

"Emma Adams!" I snap my head upwards as soon as I hear my name fall out of the teacher's lips. He examines the paper sitting in his class a little closely before announcing my partner's name.

I will also stop stealing chocolates from my bro—

"And Jay Evans."

Never mind.

I nod at the teacher and look at my friends who are giving me the mischievous look. I mirror the same expression and tighten my grip on the table to stop myself from jumping in the air. I bite my lower lip to stop the wide smile fighting it's way to my lips.

I turn my head to look at Jay, but this time making myself known that I'm looking at him. Feeling my gaze, he looks my way to smiles at me passing a friendly nod through my way. I reciprocate the same and turn back to the front.

"Now now, Emma," Kevin whispers, "you need to stop acting like a 5 year old who is on sugar rush."

"I can't stop freaking out. This is one of the most wonderful things that has ever happened to me." I grin.

"Okay, stop that." Dawn holds my knee in place. "That annoying sound is literally driving me nuts."

"You mean this?" Now I bounce my knee on purpose which hits the wooden desk just to tick her off.

"The pairing up is final. Please don't come up to me later asking for a change up," Mr. Turdin tells us.

"I think I might know a person who will not complain about her partner," Kevin mumbles and I giggle softly.

Soon silence fills the class as Mr. Trudin goes on with his syllabus. By the end of the class, he once again explains about our assignment, filling in to us with the important details.

"This assignment carries seventy percentage of your grade—" the entire class gapes at him "—you have four months to complete it. That means you need to submit me the paper in February. I will announce the date later. Yes, it is a long period of time for you to complete it, but you all are in need for this. You're not the first batch here."

The school bell goes off, signalling the end of the class, as well as the end of the day. But Mr. Trudin stops us from getting up.

"I know you're in a hurry but let me give you a head start."

We sit patiently as he stands up from his chair to walk to the center of the class. We all wait in anticipation before he speaks the words that was going to change my life. The words which had a powerful impact on them.

"By the end of this assignment, all of your beliefs are going to be changed. Whether it were optimistic or pessimistic. This project of yours is going to change the way you view upon each and everything."

He leaves us stunned as he walks back to take the bag from his desk. "The class is dismissed."

________________

"This is unbelievable. It was one in thousand chances and I cannot believe that I was the lucky person there. Can you believe it? Nah, you don't because things like these never happen to me. Oh my gosh, that means I get to talk to Jay everyday and that means I should get used t—"

Mason stops me from jumping up and down. "Emma, we get it. You're looking forward to this. You're excited, I can see that. Actually, all the students in the parking lot can see that. Even the Janitor knows. And you are going to read all those books to take lessons where they have a real conversation with their crush for the first time so that you can be prepared. And I know this how? Because you just told us."

"So that means I don't have to take lessons from all those girls?" I glance at him faking that I didn't understand his blabbering. He rolls his eyes buying my acting.

"Would you shut up? This is a great opportunity for Emma." Sophia backs me up.

"How is pairing up with her crush when she could loose her marks because she's gonna spend all her time staring at him and sketching a virtual portrait in her head is a great opportunity?" Mason asks.

I love it when my friends support me in their weird twisted way.

"You boys wouldn't understand this. Girls know the pain when that boy everyone is crushing on is paired up with some other girl. Wow, Emma, I just realised that when this news spreads like a plague, each and every girl is going to be jealous of you. You are going to become one of those bitches, where in reality she doesn't even know how to act like one." Like I mentioned earlier where my friends are irretrievably insane, Dawn backs me up.

I stop right in the middle of the parking lot as I gape at her while everyone else walks ahead. "But I don't want to be those bitches. I am just that one lucky person."

"Don't you just stand there right in the middle of the road," Zach screams as he pulls me away just as a car speeds out my way. The guy in the car shouts a crude comment at me when I try to recover from the shock from nearly getting hit by a car.

"And this is one of those 'labelled' bitches she's going to become?" Kevin looks at Dawn.

Not having an answer to give them, I simply wave and go towards my car. My phone vibrates continuously in my pocket so I take it to answer. "Missing me already, Dawn?"

"You wish," she scoffs. "Giving a little heads up. Not a little, actually entirely giving it."

"Just tell me already."

"You forgot to meet Jay after the class so he is searching for you. I told him where you are. I'm warning you first hand because I want me to be the reason for the start of an amazing love story. See ya." She leaves me shocked as she drops the bombshell on me.

I pocket my phone quickly where I almost drop it on the ground and move my head frantically to the side. I spot Jay only a few meters away from me, who is searching for me as well. I take a deep breath and call out his name. His sharp ears immediately responds and looks at me. We advance our way towards each other and stop when we're at a comfortable distance.

Jay speaks up, "Seems like we're partners."

"That's what out teacher confirmed," I reply.

"At least this time there won't be anything dangerous for you to hurt me." He smiles a mischievous one.

"There might be a bunch of papers, sharped pencils and all, so I can't promise you anything," I play along.

He laughs taking it easy. "But, Emma, how do you think we're going to ace this assignment when I don't even have your number."

Straight to the point....

So Jay and I exchange our numbers, say our goodbyes, get into our respective cars, leaving with a giddy feeling in my heart.

A massive thank you to all of my readers for making it reach 1K reads. You guys are incredible. When I first started writing this story, I did not imagine that I would be celebrating to the fullest. And this was all possible because of you.

And the dream part....let's just say one of my friends had this wild dream a few days ago and when that person shared it with me, I was like, "can I use it in my next chapter?"

Hehehehe....that person knows who they are😁😏

Vote and comment, peeps!