There was something I'd been thinking for a while now, since Nolan had declined my invitation to have dinner together two weeks ago.

When he turned me down then, he hadn't exactly said that he didn't want to be around me or my friends. He just said that he had just woken up and didn't have an appetite.

We'd gone on our weekly forest outings as usual, and I'd successfully managed to get Blue to be comfortable enough around me not to fly off when I approached him. I wanted to think that we were close enough friends now for me to try again. After all, we'd already been hanging out for over a month now.

I wasn't stupid for hoping that if I asked again, he might just say yes, right?

It was with that in mind that I gathered my courage and spoke to him when the bell for lunch period rang.

"Hey, Nolan," I said, before he could get up from his seat. "Want to join me for lunch today?"

He blinked at me. "Why?"

I stared at him. "You know ... for the usual reasons people eat lunch together? Companionship? Friendship?"

"Right," he said, slowly getting up.

"I just think it would be nice," I said. "I've probably said this before, but my friends are really friendly. I'd really like to have lunch with you."

He stared back at me for a few seconds.

"Nah," he said finally. "Thanks for the invite, but I'd rather sleep."

At least I tried.

"Oh, well," I said, shrugging. "No problem. Have a good nap!"

"See you." He gave me a small wave before heading out of the classroom.

I had to admit, I was disappointed but unsurprised. It made sense that someone basically nocturnal like Nolan wanted to get more rest, but except under special circumstances I could never prioritize sleeping over eating during lunch period. That was literally what this period was for.

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"I love fall," I said to Nolan, as we stood beside a beautiful quaking aspen tree near the forest clearing that we frequented. "I bet if it were daytime right now, I'd be able to show you the gorgeous colors of this gorgeous tree."

"Stop saying 'gorgeous'," he said, watching Blue hop from his hand to mine. "You've used that word fifty times already."

"You stop exaggerating," I said, shooting him a quick glare. "I've used it, what, maybe ten times, maximum."

"This gorgeous tree grows so gorgeously fast," he said, adjusting his voice into a higher pitch that completely did not suit him. "It's so gorgeously resilient, like gorgeous cockroaches. It can clone itself gorgeously, did you know?"

"I did not say it like that," I said, narrowing my eyes at him. "Also, my voice does not sound like that. Please cross voice-acting off your list of potential careers."

"It was basically like that." He paused. "Sorry, I meant gorgeously like that."

"Nolan Rowe!" I placed my hands on my hips, and Blue flew away in a flutter of wings. "Oops, sorry, Blue!"

He cocked an eyebrow at me as Blue returned to perch on his left shoulder. "See? You even scared Blue away with how excessively you were using it." Nolan snickered, holding his hand out so that Blue could fly back onto it.

"Firstly, I would never put gorgeous and cockroaches together," I said, narrowing my eyes at him. "You should know me better by now! I was saying that—"

"—it's like the cockroach of the forest, yes, yes," he said, grinning. "I heard that the first two times you mentioned it, you know."

I huffed. "Secondly, you looked like you were interested in hearing more, which is why I continued talking about it in the first place!"

With a shrug, he said, "I do like hearing you talk about trees. I was more opposed to you gushing over it like someone just bought you an entire forest for your birthday."

"Oh." Caught off-guard by his frankness, I scrambled for something to respond with. My mind came up blank. "Well, thanks, I guess?"

"I'm just saying it," he said, jerking his thumb in the direction of the middle of the clearing. "No need to thank me. I'm going over there to stargaze for a bit. Want to come with?"

"It's not like I can say no," I said, following him as he began walking back to the clearing. "I didn't spray on any repellent today, so I have to stick close to you."

Nolan tilted his head back to grin at me. "And I'm thankful for that, so I'll accompany you to admire the trees again after this."

"Hey, I like stargazing too," I said, waving a hand at him. "It's not like I'm just barely putting up with this."

Especially when I'm sitting down on the grass next to you.

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"Hey! Open up!"

A flurry of sharp knocks followed the low but loud voice behind my closed door. I looked up from my study desk, where I was finishing up my homework. It sounded low enough to be a guy's, but there was just something a little off about it—not to mention that guys weren't allowed to be on this floor.

I stared at my door warily as I got up from my chair. It was eight in the evening, and I wasn't expecting any visitors.

"Open up before I knock your door down!" the same voice bellowed.

Um, what was that about?

Ready to give the person on the other side of the door a piece of my mind, I stormed over to my door. Once I yanked the door open, however, I was greeted with the sight of Melissa holding a baseball cap by its bill. What I saw lasted for less than a second, because she promptly launched forward and shoved the cap onto my face, covering my eyes and plunging my vision into darkness.

"Melissa?!"

As I reached up to remove the offending cap, a pair of hands grabbed my wrists and pulled my hands down. Quickly, they pulled my wrists together behind my back.

"What are you doing?!" I said, shaking my head in an attempt to get the cap off.

Unfortunately, it fitted tightly on my head and wouldn't budge. The grip around my wrists tightened as I tried to twist my hands out of it.

"Ah! She saw me!" I heard Melissa say.

"I told you to use a cloth!" came Ashley's hushed voice from the side. "But no, you had to insist on a dumb cap."

"Ash? What are you guys doing? Was one of you using some kind of weird low voice earlier?"

"Shh!" someone hissed, and then there was silence for a couple of seconds.

"Um," I began, hearing my voice growing uncontrollably louder, as I felt something slide over and then under my wrists. "What are you guys doing? Guys?"

Someone cleared their throat. The binding around my wrists tightened.

"Guys! If you wanted to kidnap me, you could've just said something! I'd be happy to get blindfolded! What is this weird abduction strategy you're going for?"

"W-who is Ash?" a weirdly deep voice said from beside me. "I-I don't know what you're talking about."

"Shh! You're giving us away!" Melissa's voice whispered on my other side.

I snorted. "You've already been identified! You guys are terrible at this."

The first weird low voice I'd heard outside my door returned. "Excuse you! Were we talking to you? No, so keep your mouth shut. We have some business with you, so you better start walking now!"

Someone prodded me in the back with what felt like a finger.

"Okay! No need to poke me!" I said, stuck between confusion and amusement as I started walking forward. "What is even going on here?"

"Stop asking questions if you know what's good for you!" the other deep voice boomed.

They led me a little further down, and I heard the low hum of a lift. Our dormitory building had a semi-hidden lift which was only for staff and handicapped students to use. If any student who wasn't handicapped got caught using it, they were usually assigned detention for weeks.

"Is that the lift? Are you serious?" I said in disbelief and then promptly got shushed from the friend on my left.

"Be quiet, you f-fool!" the one on my right said just as I heard a ding. "Do you want us to get caught?"

"Well, if I believed you were real kidnappers, I would," I said, scoffing.

The distinct sound of the metal lift doors opening greeted my ears.

"Hurry up and move!" the one on my left snapped.

Someone's hand pushed my back lightly. I quickly walked forward. After several steps, one of them placed a hand on my shoulder.

"That's enough," the totally faked low voice said gruffly.

I stood there, unable to see a thing except darkness. "Seriously, what is this? What are you guys planning?"

"You may not speak to us," one of them intoned.

I sighed. "My friends are so weird. At least this is the most exciting thing that's happened to me in this year."

Recollections of feeding Blue and stargazing with Nolan under the clear night sky appeared in my mind. No, wait, this was the second most exciting thing. The first most exciting thing was definitely sneaking out of my room in the middle of the night and exploring the forest outside our school.

"I said not to speak to us!" the same voice said.

"Well, yeah, but I was talking to myself. Get over yourself, pretend-kidnapper. Not everything is about you, you know."

I snickered as I heard someone splutter.

"You are to remain silent during this time!" the voice finally said, as I heard the other person beside me wheeze.

"You should've specified that," I said, feeling a large grin spreading across my face.

One of them attempted to shush me again, but then there was another ding and the lift doors opened.

I was pulled along by both of them for what was probably a few minutes, but it felt like forever since I couldn't see my surroundings. Finally, they came to a halt and told me to stop walking too.

"Please tell me we're here," I said. "I'm sweating under this cap. Also, it smells like the deodorant Melissa sprays after gym every time."

Someone groaned. Then the bindings around my wrist fell off with a faint snipping sound.

"Finally!" I said, raising my hands up to lift the cap.

Before I could even touch it, it was whisked off my head.

"Surprise!"

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AN: thank you for reading! i appreciate your support so much（人'∀'*） hope you've had a fantastic weekend! have a great week ahead and all the best in school/work, and i'll see you again on Thursday! we're reaching 14k reads and i'm so so thankful!

this part is dedicated to i-freaking-lo_ove-me! thank you so much for all your support on my story so far! it always makes me laugh when you're hitting on nolan LOL. i appreciate all your encouragement and kind words, i lo_ove you! (人 •͈ᴗ•͈) also, shout out to her story What Lies Beyond You! if anyone likes teen fic/romance (like my story LOL) you should give hers a try! it's both cute and funny ^^