|A LIFE-CHANGING FACT|

"Tell me this is a lie. I'd start having an existential crisis right after this if you don't say so," Zeta stated, while I still struggled for words to say. Sierra smiled sheepishly at both of us, looking confused.

"I don't get it, it's just a fact. What's wrong with it?" I facepalmed and looked around just in time to see Addison appear and stand right beside me, just in front of her locker, pulling open her locker door briskly.

Zeta looked at me mischievously and I winked back, fully aware of what she wanted me to do. I turned around and smiled widely at Addison. It took her some time to look back at me but in the end, she did and was completely confused by all three of us gawking at her like a hungry hawk. She winced, as she looked prepared to listen to another round of Sierra's weird animal facts.

"So, what is it now?" She sighed, barely anticipating the harsh outcome of that question.

"Sierra has another fact─"

"─about another animal, and that's making me contemplate my whole ass existence and─" Zeta explained, her expression twisted as she looked back at Sierra, feigning disgust.

"─and I've been facepalming myself for past few minutes, hoping that she'd understand─"

"─understand how useless the fact is." Zeta concluded, her words reflecting my exact thoughts. I nodded, as Zeta raised her hand in front of me and I gave her a well-deserved high-five.

Ever since I've joined Pride High, Zeta felt like a true sister ever since the very first day because both of us would think the same way, and we've grown into a habit of completing each other's thoughts and sentences. It was pretty cool to do so, and dad was mildly amused by it when I told him about it.

"Stop twinning, for God's sake," Addison muttered under her breath while both I and Zeta simultaneously snorted at her reckless comment.

"Can we move towards the fact?" Zeta intervened, as I nodded on cue. Sierra shrugged as she waited for one of us to recite it to Addison but the rest three of us kept looking at her to continue.

"My blood caffeine levels are highly fragile which might severely harm your heart, which might succumb to an attack. So, speak," Addison reasoned, glaring down at Sierra threateningly. She gulped and cleared her throat, clearing her throat before starting.

"Well, it's a proven fact that a pig's orgasm can last up to as long as thirty minutes, and sometimes as long as ninety minutes."

Silence. A deafening silence.

Students swarmed through the hallways while all four of us stood in utter silence. Zeta groaned as Sierra repeated the utterly useless and absurd fact of the whole fucking century. Addison looked at each one of us before sighing loudly.

"Suddenly, I've higher respect for a pig," That was all she said, as she stared blankly at Sierra.

"See, it's not that bad─" Sierra started but Addison objected to that by raising a finger in front of her.

"Woman," Addison started, and it was them when all of us knew that Addison was anything but happy. She'd always refer to any one of us by "woman" or "gentleman" when she'd be pissed. Very pissed.

"I don't recall saying that I appreciated the fact which you just dropped on us like a fucking life-changing missile at the very starting of the week," Addison stated as a matter of fact, which made both Zeta and me snicker.

"I just have a higher sense of respect for pigs but not for your facts." Sierra just rolled her eyes as she knew that Addison wasn't being mean, but she was brutally honest.

That girl can't lie for shit.

"Does that mean that the whole time the pig makes its annoying sound it is getting an orgasm?" Zeta suddenly stopped wheezing, her eyes wide in shock. I stopped laughing too, as I looked straight at Zeta.

"High respect, high respect," Addison muttered as she took out a water bottle and started drinking from it. Sierra looked bewildered for her fact was twisted in such a way.

"Where are the boys?" Addison finally asked, breaking all of us from our stunning positions.

"Uh- Lucas would be late, again. Felix stopped by Starbucks to fetch you a coffee, Addison. I don't know about Nick─"

"Nick's with Felix. He picked up Felix and took him to Starbucks," Zeta cut off Sierra in the middle. Despite how both Zeta and Nick would fight almost every moment possible, they had a weird friendship. They would share everything but still hate each other's gut.

"Let me remind you guys, for everyone's sake- NICK IS A PIG," Felix turned around into the corridor where we stood as he shouted the last part, holding a Starbucks' cup in his hand while dragging Nick behind him, who struggled in his grasp.

Nick staggered as he walked towards us as soon as Felix loosened his grip on his collar, shaking his head as he tried to focus his gaze on us. Felix sighed as he passed the cup towards Addison, who received it rather gladly.

"So, his orgasm lasts till thirty minutes?" Sierra jumped in before thinking twice, directing her question towards Felix. A lot of things happened simultaneously.

Addison spilt the coffee which she was sipping onto Lucas's shoes, who had just appeared in front of us. Lucas looked completely scared while Felix looked as if he had seen a ghost while Nick stared blankly at Sierra. Meanwhile, Zeta, who stood right beside me kept on muttering how she had that image of Nick permanently etched on her mind as I tried to make sense of the whole situation but with no success.

"Why are you spitting coffee─"

"My orgasm isn't that long, Sierra─" Nick shouted, his cheeks flushed red, making all of us look at him, deadpanned.

"What! It's barely ten seconds."

"Thanks for that unintentional fact," Zeta muttered as I facepalmed myself, hitting my nose a bit too hard. Lucas looked the most perplexed about the scenario which had unfolded in front of him. Felix sighed as he looked at Sierra, probably figuring out that it would be one of her facts.

"I don't know what to expect from this whole week," Lucas muttered, as he approached his locker, which was right next to mine.

"Copy that," I muttered back to him, as I followed his actions of opening the locker and dumping my books inside it.

"Is the latest fact related to Nick?" Lucas asked as both of us ignored the chaos which had unfolded right behind us. From my hindsight, I figured how Sierra was poking Addison with a straw while Felix talked about pigs to Zeta and Nick snorted on something which he had said.

A normal day in Pride High with the Scandalous.

"No, it's about a pig's orgasm," I started, not before sighing about how tiring Monday mornings can be. "I worry about Sierra, sometimes." Lucas looked at me for a while not before patting my shoulder, as he closed his locker and turned around, his eyes fixated on me.

"Honestly, Addison is there to keep a check on Sierra. And on her facts too," Lucas said as a matter of fact. It was true that Addison and Sierra were very close ever since they had joined Pride High. They always had each other's back, well, more like Addison having Sierra's back while Sierra always stopped Addison from losing her temper.

"Kaia, time for Calculus," Zeta said from behind us, patting my shoulder in dismay, as both of us shared the same hatred for Calculus. "Did you text that friend of yours?"

I sighed as I pulled my phone from my back pocket, swiftly opening to Claire's contact, waiting for a reply from her. "Still hasn't replied?" Lucas quizzed nonchalantly.

"Hmm." It had been weeks since Claire had last contacted me. Maybe she was just busy with her senior year in Bridgeton. It would be tough for her to struggle there alone. Zeta shot a dirty look at Lucas as she snaked her hand around my shoulder.

It was always a bit difficult for her to sling her arm around my shoulders as I was taller than her, but she always retaliated stating how it comforts the person who gets it. In the end, I considered it's better to not argue with Zeta, she was always too persistent.

"Wait- I've to meet Cecile before that! Save a seat for me, Kaia," Zeta shouted, her eyes wide as she broke into a run, almost colliding with Addison who stood behind us, waiting to go to her class, which was as same as Lucas's.

"Let me walk m'lady to the class," Lucas dramatically bowed in front of me, making me snicker, while Addison scoffed at it. Nick and Felix still discussed something, along with Sierra and looked too engrossed to be disturbed.

"Sure, and I'm the driver. Way to take the royal couple to their class," Addison rolled her eyes and she started walking in front of us, making both of us trail her.

"You know, you shouldn't rely on Claire," Back in Bridgeton before Lucas left, he was never a fan of Claire. Seems like some things never change.

"She's the most reliable person─"

"I beg to differ, Hemmings. She gives me those weird vibes," Addison intervened, walking right beside me. I glared at her for judging her even though she doesn't know her.

"How do you know that McRae?" I shot back, which was pretty rude of me to do so and I knew I would regret it later. She shakes her head and chose to ignore me, pulling out her phone and busying herself over there.

Ignoring her smoothly, I saw Lucas looking intently at me. "What?" I raised an eyebrow at him. It wouldn't be considered as raising an eyebrow as I was never unable to arch one eyebrow like people in movies could smoothly do.

"I can help you with Calculus if that works for you it's fine by you. It's not like I'm going to force you or something, that'd be rude to do so but if you need some guidance of some sort, then I'd provide you for sure-"

"Stop ranting, Lucas. For God's sake," Addison raised a finger right in front of his face to stop him from talking. She walked ahead, leaving both of us behind, not before looking at me for the last time before she merged with the crowd.

"She can be rude─"

"But she was right. I was talking gibberish─"

"No!" I said, a bit too loudly apparently, as people turned around to look at us. Lucas held my worst and pulled me ahead, towards the Calculus class, which was just a few steps away. "I mean, I appreciate it. Yes, I do need some help."

He gave me one of his big smiles, excited about it. "I'll try my best with you, Miss Hemmings," He bowed again, making me blush in embarrassment as people stopped midway through their walk to look at us.

"Whatever, but you don't even take this class, how will you─"

"Don't worry, I took that class last year." That surprised me entirely. Did he take the advanced class in his Junior year?

"You took this class in your─"

"Junior Year? Yeah, I love Calculus. Can you blame me?"

I stared at him blankly for a whole minute. He looked confused, scratching the back of his neck nervously, wondering what on earth I was thinking. I sighed before I motioned to enter my class, leaving him perplexed.

"Kaia─"

"Bye, Calculus nerd. Pick a place where we can study."

Saying that I entered my class, not even sparing him a last glance.

How can somebody like Calculus?

"I give up!" I almost shouted at Lucas, throwing the heavy and utterly ridiculous calculus book onto the table, exasperated by trying to understand the whole point of it. It's not like we would stand perplexed in front of a fountain wondering about a calculus question we randomly stumbled upon which was engraved on it. It's meaningless.

And ridiculous.

He shook his head in dismay, already tired of making me understand the need for it. Even after a very unreliable answer from Alexa herself wasn't convincing enough for Lucas. He could have just helped me solve the questions rather than making me remember the formulas associated with them. Grilling me with that mindless numerical dor past two hours, ever since the school got over.

"You have to focus a bit more," He retaliated, finally closing his book shut. Taking a final sip of his third smoothie, he looked outside the large windows, towards the car parking lot.

Gloria's cafe was famous for its mango smoothie, which Lucas was sipping right in front of me. Wide red seats were placed around polished brown tables, each booth being decorated the vintage type. Just as Gloria Jackson liked, aesthetic and vintage.

"Look, I don't fucking care about how we integrate "x", it's meaningless," I started, slamming the heavy book shut, hoping to never open it ever again. Sighing, he closed his book too.

"Need something more or finally done studying?" Commented Amelia, the waitress who had been diligently serving us for the past three hours.

He snorted haughtily, slightly annoyed at how satisfied Amelia looked as she noticed how our books were closed. I looked back at him smugly, politely explaining how we were done with the "calculated" torture.

My phone, with its plain blue cover, hadn't buzzed for the past fifteen minutes and it had started to bug me for no good just like Calculus had. Dad had been constantly texting me in the Benedict-Hemmings group chat about how I am hanging out with "a guy with hormones" alone, driving me nuts. Pa was so frustrated he had to hide his phone away. I didn't know what I would have to face once I reached home, but I was sure that it wouldn't be mildly good.

"Let's call it a day, then," Lucas finally complied and I pumped my fist into the air in victory, which made Lucas laugh a bit. I shoved the book back into my bag, zipping it properly. Lucas's eyes were set on me as I packed my bag, as he smiled like a goof he was, looking somewhere behind me. I turned around to see it was just a plain beige wall behind us.

"Do I look like a clown, Mr Livingston?" I queried, folding my hands in front of me, eyeing him weirdly. He leaned in front, his perfectly chiselled face right in front of my round one, a funny expression plastered on it.

"It's not that, I was just thinking about something." he merely shrugged, shifting uncomfortably in his seat, stretching his limbs. "About what?"

"Well," He drawled, taking a deep breath, placing his hands back on the table. "Just stuff." he briskly replied, engaging himself to pack his bag, without even glancing back at me.

"Like?" Maybe I was too invested in our ongoing conversation or maybe I was just being my curious self, which always ended up with me making someone immensely pissed with me.

He fidgeted with his fingers, hesitant to answer me but then he sighed, his green eyes staring back at my brown ones. "Just some memories, call it nostalgia, probably." Even though he sat right in front of me, he looked lost in his trail of thoughts which pained him.

"Enough of questions for the day. Allow me to drive you back home, Kaia," He abruptly stood up from his seat, throwing his backpack on his shoulders, looking ready to leave. It was then my cue to stop interrogating him. Following his lead, I stood up from my seat, leaving behind empty juice cups and plates.

As we had already paid for all the greasy food we had consumed for the past two hours, we directly walked out of the cafe towards the parking lot. "So Kaia, how do you feel about the gang? "

Lucas looked at me from his shoulder, leading the way to his jeep. "Now it is you asking me questions."

Not many cars were parked outside the cafe. Few cars were parked scattered around the whole arena while Lucas had parked his old sea green jeep near the cafe's exit.

"It feels like I know everyone for years. Especially Zeta, she's my unofficial twin," I replied, as I opened the side door of Lucas' jeep and sat there. The interior was antique but Lucas cherished it nonetheless. Throwing my backpack into the backseat, I leaned back into the brown seats, which smelled of sweat and apples, with a lingering smell of mint.

"Sure, Zeta and you would be dynamic sisters," He agreed, pulling himself into the driver's seat and throwing his bag into the backseat. "What about others?"

"Sierra is pretty cool and she's like a telepath─" Lucas stared back at me, leaning towards the steering wheel, his arms propping him up. "─it's like she can sense what someone's feeling. If I feel out of place, she finds a way to fit me in. She makes me feel at ease."

I looked towards the sky, which always served as a perfect distraction to me from the real world. The orange-blue shade of it during sunset would be my favourite. How carelessly the clouds would float over us like balls of cotton, unaware of the discrimination people would do based on almost everything. If it was possible, would the human race discriminate among the clouds too?

Why does the world have to be so crooked?

Lucas sighed, as he turned the key, as the jeep vibrated as if back to life. He had his hand over the gear but then stopped and turned towards me. Leaning closer, he muttered something incoherently but I was too distracted by the lack of space between us to pay attention to it.

His face was just inches from mine, making me hold my breath. I could feel how his warm breath had made me turn scarlet, and yet I was unaware to say something to him as my heart hammered inside me.

"What -uh- are you-" I stammered, inhaling deeply and praying to merge with the seat, simultaneously.

"Seat belt," His voice sounded rather deep and rough, as his lips were near my ears. He bent forward, his hand fixated on the seat belt but his gaze was on me. His cologne was a strong smell of woods and mint, a weird yet exotic smell.

His cologne was highly intoxicating, just like him. He swiftly sat upright, pulling his seatbelt after putting mine on. I focused outside the window, afraid of what to make out of the scene which happened moments before. I could hear my own heart, thumping inside of me, nerves filled with a rush of adrenaline. It felt intimate and brutally personal, but it felt simultaneously natural. I suddenly realised an urge to ask a question which I knew I wouldn't be able to do.

Are you single, Lucas Livingston?

Diverting my mind from the thoughts of a certain brunette guy, with captivating green eyes whose name starts with an 'L' and ends with 'S' and has 'UCA' as the middle letters were one of the hardest things I've ever tried. And I knew I was failing miserably at it.

I heard Lucas clear his throat, and just that single action made my heartbeat pace faster. Stupid heartbeat. "What do you think of the rest?" He asked, trying to pacify the sudden tension which had formed between us.

"Nick can gobble down anything, except the secret he's told not to talk about," I said making Lucas snicker. I felt that the tension between us was finally gone and we could talk like nothing happened.

I can keep this incident to think about the whole goddamn night.

"But he has a special ability to appear out of the blue and save them," He admitted the fact too, as we knew how he'd always have our back, except for Addison as he was afraid of her.

"Felix is a gentleman and Addison is a furnace."

He turned around the corner, my house just fifteen minutes away. "You won't elaborate on Felix and Addison?" He glanced at me for a moment, slyly smiling at me.

"Why elaborate when that sums them up?" I answered, not before sighing, focusing on the outside. The houses were lined perfectly, the vivid colours brightening up during the sunset.

The whole ride back home was filled with content silence, with me navigating Lucas in the correct direction.

It took us fifteen minutes to reach my house.

Its light blue exterior and maroon roofs were what my fathers had preferred. Dad's obsession with blue had rubbed off on me, while Pa would stick with various shades of red.

Fifty shades of red, Dad would say.

Pulling my bag from the backseat, I opened the side door, jumping out of his rusty jeep. Walking around the jeep, I noticed how Lucas had climbed down the jeep too. "What are you─"

"I'm walking you till the door."

He stood right next to me, our arms slightly brushing as we walked towards the wooden door, which was closed shut.

"Chivalry isn't dead yet," I muttered under my breath, which made Lucas laugh as his eyes wandered around the exterior.

Quickly moving forward, I held the doorknob after putting the keys in it, which I always had in my pocket, before Lucas held my hand, pulling me away from the door.

I looked around but caught no one, but Lucas's gaze has already captivated me. "What─"

Suddenly, Lucas held my chin, making me look at his eyes, his eyebrow arched perfectly. His eyes pierced right through me. My stomach somersaulted, with my heart hammering inside me like a mad animal that I could feel its impact right in my ears.

"I'll leave you for the day. Good night, Kirlia." Hearing him say my real name was rare. But it felt like music to me, soothing and making my stomach do another somersault inside of me.

I'm sick.

Maybe it was the greasy food we had consumed or maybe it was all because of a certain green-eyed boy, who makes my heart flutter.

He stood straight now, and I realized how I was holding a breath and I deeply sighed. "Take care, Hemmings," He turned around, walking towards his jeep and smoothly entering it.

I waited for him to leave so that I could stop my heart from racing faster than Usain Bolt.

"Bye to you too, Lucas. And take care of you too," I shouted at him and he winked back slyly.

He turned his jeep on, ready to drive away but he stood there, smiling at me." What is it?" I finally queried him, realizing how he wanted to ask me something.

"You asked me something and I want to answer it."

"I didn't ask you anything─"

"I'm very much single, Kirlia Hemmings." With that he drove away, leaving me confused as to when I asked him that until it clicked to me.

The thought which I had. The question which I thought I'd ask him but did I say it out loud─

Shit.

To all those, who had been patiently waiting for this update, I'm sorry.

It's very much delayed but at least it's there.

I wanted to update but I didn't feel motivated enough to draft and I didn't want to rush this story- so pardon me.

But don't y'all worry now cuz I'm back to regular updates. Like regular updates, for real. No bluffing.

I guess, just keep me motivated by your votes and comments T-T

Peace out,
shreya

P. S.- Get ready for the drama to start.