⌗ 2

"Admit it, you totally blushed right now." I look up at Mara with a gaze that could potentially pierce right through her. "You like her."

Mara shuts her locker closed and looks back at me, "Hey, you promised not to tell," She whispered. "I still don't know if she—"

"Feels the same?," I answered for her. "Don't worry, your secret's safe with me. Besides, you have mine—and so do the other two. Not like I planned on them knowing though..."

Mara and Ellie can keep a secret. Mavis? Depends on the situation—bit of a chatterbox that one. And sometimes it's not a good thing.

Mavis figured out my feelings for Riley all on her own. From that one night she practically trespassed my own home while Riley was over.

By the end of the night—it was a headline. In the group chat of course. They know well enough to know that I'd be capable of anything if they let it slip out of our own little group chat.

"I really don't get why you think she likes me," Mara began. "It's not like she's showing any signs of herself reciprocating my feelings."

I press my palm against my forehead, "Mara, you can't be serious. No signs? She's as subtle as ink on paper. Seriously, she reciprocates."

Mara and I walk through the halls—not too crowded and just the perfect opportunity for me to see Riley before class.

We take a left turn at the end of the hall where Mavis and Ellie are waiting by the gym doors for their P.E lesson looking keen as ever (not really).

"That must suck," Mara laughed. "Quick, what's more unfortunate—P.E at nine thirty in the morning or our silly little Biology class?"

"Biology." I answered.

"Seriously, who even are you?"

"P.E would be great—gives me the perfect opportunity to throw a dodgeball at your face and get away with it. Besides, who wants to do bio at nine thirty in the morning. Not me."

I lean my back onto the row of lockers behind me, a stack of my textbooks cuddled up in my arms as I watch Riley make way to her locker.

Riley punches in her combination and quickly finds a book sitting in the bottom compartment of her locker. She gasps softly as she was pulls it out—The Summer I Turned Pretty.

Riley turns around and shows me the book, "Do you know who put this in here?" She wondered. "It's got a note on it but the writing's unfamiliar. And how did they get my locker combination?"

"I'm not sure," I shrugged. "Mara and I got here just before you did. I didn't see anyone."

The book takes me back to last weekend. Riley had a small diary on my desk—under lock and key. She told me that her diary had a list of things wished for. Riley was careful not to tell me the contents of her wish list. A cute little secret.

"There's a list of things in here that I really want," She smiled. "And I don't know if it sounds silly or not but... one day I hope that someone can get me these things."

I smiled at the mention of her wish list—it wasn't an ordinary wish list that she hoped to tick off on her own. It was a wish list that she hoped her special someone (that in the future) would get her all these things. Small yet meaningful.

It told me a lot about Riley. How she cherished even the small things. It's one of the many things I like about her. How, as I stand here watching, she looks down at the book in her hands, with a smile on her face. It was excitement mixed with happiness and joy. A look that's so great on her.

I spend most of the lesson exchanging notes with her. It was thrilling as much as it was frightening. We wouldn't want these exchanges getting into the wrong hands. And by the wrong hands, we mean our teacher. After all, we're meant to be handing in a one page report on our hypothesis.

Mara takes a quick glance over at my notebook, and then over to Riley's. "What?"

She points to the blank page in my notebook. Nothing but the date and the heading. In comparison, she had half a page on hers.

"Haerin, your page is completely empty," Mara said. She only calls me by my Korean name when she's mad or annoyed at me. This time, she just wants to be the one to annoy me. "What have you been doing all lesson?"

I watch her pour the liquids out of the test tubes and rinse them with water before placing them in the bucket beside our table.

"I've been doing the work." I answered proudly.

She waits till Riley walks off back to her desk before she speaks. "Admit it, you've got no clue what you're doing."She whispered.

"What do you mean? I know." I lied.

"Right, so what exactly did we do today?" Mara tested. "You've been so well focused in class today," She teased. "With all this."

She takes a handful of the torn pieces of paper sitting on the right hand side of my notebook and throws it above my head like a flower girl.

"Mara," I whispered. "What are you doing..."

I hurriedly pick up the pieces of paper before they meet the ground or land in someone else's hands—I'd be terrified. I shove them into my pocket and turn back to Mara—who now has a devilish grin across her face.

"You two are flirting." She giggled.

I furrow my brows as I watch her stomp her feet like a little kid in the candy aisle, "What?"

"Are you deaf? You're FLIRTING."

I turn my head so quick I feel my head start to spin, "Couldn't have said that any softer could you?" I rub my fingers across my temple.

"I'm sorry," She whispered. "But admit it—you two were actually flirting. Like seriously."

I shake my head in disagreement, "We are not flirting. We were just talking about the work."

Mara releases a puff of air as she blinks rapidly, "You are a terrible liar," She laughed. "If you knew what the work was you would've written down more than Hypothesis in your book."

"Why don't you go target Riley for a change."

Mara tilts her head to the side, "Why?"

"So you can tease her too. She hasn't written much either." I explained.

Mara bites down on her lower lip and chuckles lightly. "You do realise that she's got a full page of work right? Like she finished her work."

"WHAT?," I say loudly. "How is that possible? We were writing notes all this time... how..."

"Just admit that you were too focused on your love hypothesis than the one we just did."