"YOU SHOULDN'T TRY to avoid fine g-guys like us," I joked to Ella,smiling.

It had been a week since we had gone to her house and she was back in school now.
The Christmas festivities were approaching so the school had been decorated with red and white everywhere.

Ironic how exams were also approaching but it seems no one was thinking of that.

"I just came to school yesterday," she explained.

David and I sat down at her lunch table and I waved at Grace. She was sitting with her two best friends, with her hair tied and over her left shoulder.
This girl sent signals to places on my body that no else did.

I looked over at her brothers' usual table and surprisingly, Jason nodded his head at me in acknowledgement.

"Don't listen to Jade," David punched me, drawing my attention back to them.

"Hey! That h-hurt a lot," I touched my shoulder. It really did hurt.

"That's a taste for your own medicine," he laughed.

Ella was smiling and I would have taken a hundred more blows if it meant she would smile like that every day.

"So what's up Ella?" I asked her.

"Uh-- eating. Obviously" she pointed at her food and smiled at me.

"Well, I'm sure that's c-c-contaminated with spittle with all the t-talking we just did."

"Jade!" she shrieked and threw her fork at me.

"Sorry. Sorry," I raised my hands in mock apology.

After a while (a long while of David and Ella exchanging furtive glances), David asked her,

"How is Lois?"

"Doing better. Thanks for asking."

"No problem. I was thinking my cousin could spend some time with her. They're around the same age and she always home after school."

Ella's face lit up when David said that. It was a brilliant plan really. Jane, David's cousin was always at home with her mom. She could keep Lois company and chat about stuff girls their age chatted about.

"I'll ask my mom and see. I'm sure she'll be okay with that," Ella said with a smile.

The siren blared and we got up to leave for our classes. I gave David and Ella some space as they continued talking.

I didn't want to be a third wheel so walked over to one of the twins.

"Hey man," I said to Calvin.

"Yeah?" he looked at me without anger in his eyes for the first time in forever.

"No m-more animosity b-between us right?" I asked.

"Your dad and my mom are no longer a thing so I'll say yeah," he smirked.

"Nice. Then I want you and Jason to know that I like Grace and I'll be asking her out soon. I wanted to tell you guys because I know you are very protective of her." I said in a rush before my stuttering decided to take a peek.

Calvin stared at me dumbfounded, his forehead creased into a frown. To avoid being late, I patted him and rushed to my next class.

Hopefully, the twins wouldn't kill me after class now that they finally had confirmation that I liked Grace and wanted us to be together.

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