Chapter XXI: We Meet Again

I went inside my room and change into the red shirt out academy was wearing. Minutes from now the Opening Ceremony will start. We will also introduce ourselves in front of them all. Johnson and Rye were already there on the venue. I headed to the open grounds where the ceremony will happen. I sat on an empty chair way far from Rye. The seats next to them were taken already so I had no choice but to seat here. I was in the last row of seats. "Why isn’t it starting yet?" I mumbled to myself and fumbled on my seat No one was seating on both sides of the row I was in. I was the only student seating here not until an unexpected person came. "Oh?" my brows creased and looked at him to make sure that my eyes weren’t deceiving me Seated on the farthest end was Carl. He was low key dozing off while trying to wake himself up. Both of his hands were in his pocket and an earphone was plucked on his ears. His eyes landed on me and his brows also creased before turning his gaze away. I did not bother to speak with him because we weren’t really in a good term and plus because the ceremony was now starting. They announced that we’ll be doing activities for the rest of the days. It will be a team building. We will be teamed up with strangers from other schools and for some reason, the students kept on glancing on me and Carl. They were staring and whispering to each other as if there was something strange going on here. "Aren’t they from the same school? Why aren’t they talking with each other?" "I wanted to ask the same thing. They are seated far away from each other." My eyes bawled when I heard two of the girls from the other school said those. It was true that we’re from the same school but not all students from the same school are friends. Why are they suddenly stereotyping? But because I was bothered with what they just said, I tried to get Carl’s attention. "Hey!" I shouted in a whisper kind of voice but he wasn’t budging at all. His head was bopping but his eyes were close. I had no choice but to transfer to the seat close to him. When I was just one chair away from him, he suddenly looked at me weirdly. "What are you doing?" "I’m seating beside you." "Can’t you move away? I don’t like you to seat beside me." that kind of hurt my pride as the student council president How can he resist seating beside he student council president? I mean almost all the students even wanted to befriend me. Why was he acting so indifferent? It’s not as if we weren’t friends back then. I just rolled my eyes and continued seating there. "I told you to not seat beside me. Are you deaf?" The ceremony ended with us bickering at each other to shut up while he forces me to stay away from him. It wasn’t the most peaceful but at least the day ended. The next day we went to a strawberry field. I was seating on one of the benches here on the strawberry field when I felt somebody sat beside me. My eyes locked with his and our eyes grew bigger. "Oh? You look familiar." he said and I rolled my eyes when I remembered that unfortunate event again, that was the last thing I wanted to remember here on our leadership training "The name’s Piper. Nice to see you again, Aiden." I just said that it was nice seeing him again but what I am feeling right now is the exact opposite of it. Who would feel nice seeing the guy who stole your book? No one. As in no one will ever greet you a good morning after you did something wrong to them. I wasn’t a saint to forgive him that fast. "Yeah. Nice seeing you too." He briefly said and focused on what the facilitator was saying. We were sent to a strawberry field to pick strawberries as our mission. But the mission doesn’t end there. It would be boring to just pick strawberries normally so the facilitators somehow came up with something fun and exciting. We should send five representatives from each school to do the mission. First you got to hold onto your nose while your arms are in a criss cross and the outcome will be as thought you are imitating an elephant. Then, you should bend down before spinning around for ten times. When the ten spins finished, the facilitator will blow the whistle as a signal to start and you will be given a ten second limit. Whoever gets the most fruits wins. "Do you want some strawberries?" Aiden suddenly asked and I just looked at him "No." I simply said and he still stared at me before going as the last representative from his school I watched him as he casually walked his way to the strawberries after spinning ten times. It was as if he wasn’t dizzy at all. As expected, he got the most strawberries and lift up the ranking of his school. When he went back to the bench beside me, he literally fell down that I had to catch him. "What the hell?" I asked and helped him sit down "I’m dizzy, gosh. Lay me down, girl." "But-----" "Enough with the talking, just let me lay down." he said and lay down on the bench I was so startled when he used my thighs as his pillows. "H-h-hey....." I tried to call him to let him know that it was making me uncomfortable but my conscience got the best of me and let him be like that until he was fully okay. When he sat up I started dissing him. "What was that? You acted all strong and mighty out there but in fact, you were so weak." "I am weak, Piper. Oh gosh, I feel nauseous." he said and acted as if he was about to vomit that’s why I panicked "Should I call the medic for you?" "Nah. It’s fine, Piper. I’m fine." "If you were that bad at this, you shouldn’t have gone there to participate." He smirked at me and turned his gaze at the strawberry he was holding and gave it to me. "You also said you don’t want strawberries, but your eyes tell the opposite. You’re also ironic, Piper and don’t deny that." I pouted and rolled my eyes at him when I saw the same hands that grabbed away the book I wanted. "Annoying." I said and focused on the games being played in front of us.