Chapter 14: Chapter 14

Isabella's pov;

"How was the preparation for the test going?" Mr Martinez asked me while we were holding hands together while I was helping him to sleep.

"Yeah, good. Big brother was really good at teaching. I bet he'll be a great teacher if he works in a High school or maybe college. I understand clearly whenever he explains to me so it's easy for me to memorise the topics."

"Big brother?"

I let out a nervous chuckle while saying, "Yeah, since he and my friend share the same name, I get confused a lot so I turned Noah into my Big brother."

"When is the test?"

"Tomorrow."

"Are you prepared?"

"Yup! I got everything in my head. I bet I'll get a better score this time." And laughed and continued, "Sorry, was I disturbing your sleep?"

He shook his head. I continued studying for the test tomorrow.

After some time, he fell asleep.

I walked out of Mr Martinez's room and found Big brother standing beside the door.

"Did he sleep?"

I gave a nod and started walking downstairs.

"Where are you leaving?"

"Um... To my house?"

"Aren't you going to stay and study?"

"You helped me in the evening and I revised again while I was with Mr Martinez. He helped me with some topics and I'm fully prepared now. Don't worry, I'll get high scores in the test tomorrow, Big brother."

"Okay. But revise again once you get home."

"I will, Big brother."

I left home after receiving today's money from Big brother.

On the next day,

After finishing the test, Sophia asked me, "How did you do it?"

"Not so good."

"Why? You seemed so enthusiastic before the quiz but what happened now? Was the question paper hard?"

"I don't know. I don't know how I did my test. Don't ask me. My mind is pretty confused right now. I really want a chocolate drink so badly."

I stood from my place and started to walk out of the class.

"Where are you going?"

I shouted back, "CAFETERIA!"

Sophia ran to me saying, "Wait, I'll come with you too."

In the cafeteria, using the meal pass, we bought the food and I bought the drink I wanted. While I was drinking my chocolate milk, Sophia asked me, "Are you using the phone?"

"What phone?"

"The phone you bought. Did you forget it already?"

"Ah! The phone. Sorry, since I'm not used to it, I forget that."

"Then why did you buy the phone?"

"Um... I..."

"What are we having here?" Harry sat beside me.

Though I hate his existence, he saved me today.

"Don't you have any place to sit? Are you blind? Take a look around the cafeteria. There are so many seats, get out of here."

"Woah! What a sharp tongue you got there."

I stood from the place and said to Sophia, "Get up. Let's find another place to eat since this place got dirty by some grimy people."

Harry banged on the table and asked, "Who are you calling grimy?"

"I'm not talking about Sophia so which leaves... you."

Harry and I gave a death stare at each other.

Sophia held my hand while saying, "Bella, let's go. Come on."

When I was about to go, Harry placed his leg in front of me suddenly, so I tripped and fell on the floor. He laughed along with his friends seeing me on the floor.

My food and drink were all dropped on the floor.

Sophia placed her hand on my shoulder saying, "Let's go, Bella."

I stood from the place and took the strawberry drink from Sophia's plate and poured it over Harry's head. He got mad and grasped my shirt collar and stared at me.

I whispered, "Are you going to tear off my shirt? Well, Go on."

Liam came out of nowhere and separated us saying, "What are you doing? Did you two forget that there's CCTV here?"

Harry gave a death stare and left with his friends.

Liam asked, "When will you stop fighting with him? Are you insane? What if he really tears your shirt? What will you do then?"

"I don't care about that."

I walked out of the cafeteria.

Liam grabbed my hand and said, "Don't do that again, please."

I pulled out my hand and said, "Don't act like you care for me!" And walked away from him.

I came to the terrace of the school building to relieve myself from what happened in the cafeteria.

I took the cigarette and smoked it. Because of that Harry, I got into trouble with my friends too. He's the one who pushed me on the floor and started it, didn't anyone see that? I don't know why everyone is trying to calm me down when he's at fault.

"When did you start to have this habit, Ms Garcia?"

I was shocked to see Ms Devlin on the terrace. Did I get caught?

I dropped the cigarette and said, "T-That... That was..."

"Don't get scared. This terrace is off-limits for smoking so you can smoke here but isn't it bad for your health? How did you get this habit?"

"While I was working in a club, a customer forced me to take a puff. After that, I tried for myself."

"How much do you smoke per day, Ms Garcia?"

"No! Not like that. I'm not a regular smoker, Ms Devlin. I smoke only when I get angry."

"What happened to make you this angry?"

"I fought with Harry."

I thought she was going to ask me who started it but she asked, "Do you hate him?"

"Um... No. Why do I have to hate him? He's not my rebel or something."

"Then why do you constantly have trouble with him?"

"I don't know. In the beginning, when he made fun of me, I let it go that he would get used to it and get bored of me at some point but he wasn't stopping it. I try to be good to him sometimes, but he always makes fun of me or bullies me."

"So you started to fight back?"

"Yeah, what do you want me to do? I can't just pretend like the world is all bed of roses, right?"

"Fighting back wasn't a bad thing, taking a stand it's good but if you start doing what he does. What makes you different from him?"

That's right. Ms Devlin was right.

"Then what are you expecting me to do?"

"Make him your friend."

"What!?"

"If he tries to bully you again, treat him how you treat your friends."

"That's weird."

"Actually, weird things do end up good. You should try that. And I have a class to go to so I'll leave now. And try to reduce smoking, you may think smoking a cigarette once is bad for the body but you won't know when it'll turn out to get addicted. Do you get it?"

I gave a nod while making a little smile at her. Ms Devlin left. After hearing her talking like that, it felt like a friend. Maybe Ms Devlin was right about Harry, I'm going to try that.

In the class, Sophia whispered to me asking, "Are you alright?"

"Yeah." And made a wink at her.

She gave a confused look and returned to listening to the teacher. Why did she give me that look?

When I looked at Liam, he looked upset. I let out a sigh and listened to the class.

I leaned on my chair and looked at Harry to check what he was doing. He was looking at his phone.

I got an idea!

I took my phone and opened the class members group and found Harry's number in it.

I sent him a friend request and looked at Harry. He gave a shocked look when he looked at me. I waved at him and signalled him to accept my request. The game begins.

When I checked my phone, he rejected my request. How dare he? No. Be calm. Are you rejecting my request? I'll make you accept it!

The class ended.

As I expected, Harry came over to my place.

I looked up to him and asked, "What is it?"

Sophia, Noah, Evelyn came to my place seeing Harry standing beside me.

"It's okay. We're not going to fight. You people can go. We're just going to talk."

Sophia, Noah, Evelyn went back to their places.

"What is it?" I asked Harry.

"Why did you send me a request?"

"Why do people send requests to others? Everyone knows the answer to that. Don't you know that?"

He gave me a death stare again.

"Okay. I'll answer it. Since you're not that brainy to figure it out yourself. It's because I want to become your friend."

"What!? Are you crazy?"

"Why? Do you have any phobia of being around a girl? Because your gang only has guys in it. Or... Don't tell me that you're gay."

He banged on my table, "Are you trying to get on my nerves?"

"I think you should put ointment on your palm since you banged harshly on my table. Oh! I have one in my bag? Do you want it or Do you want me to apply for itfor b ?"

"What got into you?" He left for his place.

I laughed out loud and took my phone and sent another request to him and shouted to him, "I will make you accept it somehow, babe."

The whole class looked at me and gave me an incredible look. I laughed and stuck my phone inside my pockets.

Mr Brett came and started his class.

Finally, the school got over.

Sophia asked, "What was that?"

"What are you speaking about?"

"We know how you and Harry are. You two look like rivals whenever you speak with him. Today, You called Harry 'babe' in front of the whole class. What's got into you?"

"Hahaha. That was called reverse therapy."

"What?"

"It's just another way to treat the bully. Don't mind about that. I'll take care of it."

"I don't think it's going to end well."

"Hey, why do you sound so scared? I'll take care of it. Come on."

After Sophia left for her home, I went to the basketball court.

I changed my clothes and joined them. I couldn't see Noah around.

I asked Ikea, "Where's Noah? Did he leave early?"

"No. He didn't come."

"Did he say anything about the match we're having?"

"Yes, he said the match is in the fourth week of March."

"What about the date?"

"Because of the musical event, they're finding it difficult to set the date for the match."

I turned to the members and asked, "Does anyone have a music department secretary's number?"

One of the freshers came forward and gave me the number.

Seeing the phone in my hand, Serene asked me, "When did you buy the phone?"

"Two days before I think."

I took the phone number from the fresher and thanked her.

"Give me your number."

"Noah has it. Ask him. I have to go now."

"Where are you leaving?"

"To the music department."

I came to the music department secretary's room, Greta.

"Hello, can I come in?" I asked her.

"Yeah, yeah. Come inside."

"My team said that you're struggling to fix a date for the music event."

"Yeah. We couldn't figure out when to plan it."

"What about having a music event and basketball match on the same day?"

"What? How is that even possible? Don't the events get wrecked and people get confused on what events to go to?"

"You will be conducting many games for the music events, right?"

"Yeh."

"Okay. I have an idea in my head. I don't know if you'll like it or not but hear me out. Our basketball match goes for thirty-two minutes which is less than an hour plus fifteen minutes at halftime. So if you conduct every event in my morning, we can have the match at the end of the day, like the final event of the day. Because the match was conducted in the morning, it'll be difficult for students to attend music events after that. So we'll have the match as the final event of that day. And you can also use the half time for any solo performance or group performance for your members. Do ya like it?"

"That was really good. We can follow your plan."

"Really? So can I talk to my coach about this?"

"Yeah, go on. We'll plan the events like you said. I'll talk with the basketball and music club about the date and inform you."

"Thank you. Thank you so much."

"Thank you too."

I left the secretary's room for the basketball court and told the coach about what I talked about with the secretary. He praised me and sounded happy with that.

Saturday morning,

I got up to the sound of the alarm. Why did I forget to turn it off? I turned it off and looked beside me. Mom wasn't in the bed. Where did she go?

I looked around the room but she wasn't in there. Did she leave early to work?

I spotted a post-it on the side of the bed saying, "Go to go early, mom."

I let out a sigh and lay on the bed again. Mine starts at eleven, an hour before noon. I looked at the clock on the wall to check the time. It's eight in the morning. I feel too tired to get up right now. If I was in Mr Martinez's house, the breakfast would have come to my bed itself.

I got up from the bed and took a shower. I let out a yawn which made me drink water a lot. Don't sleep, Bella. You have work today. But I feel so sleepy and tired, even after taking a shower. How will I work if I'm like this?

I got a call. It displayed an unknown number.

I answered the call, "Who is it?"

I didn't get a reply from the person on the other side.

"Hello, who is this?"

No response again.

"Can you hear me?"

The call ended. Weird.

Coming to breakfast, what should I prepare now? Should I prepare? Let's eat in the cafe. I'm too lazy to prepare breakfast.

I got ready and left home.

I came to the cafe.

"Wow! You're early." Charlie said.

"Because I'm hungry. What's here to eat?"

"You started working here for more than a week. Don't you know what is served here?"

"I came here as a customer. Do you treat customers like this, mister?"

He let out a laugh and said, "What do you want to eat, customer?"

"I'll have... Um... Two pretzels, one cinnamon bread, one muffin, two doughnuts and a sandwich. Ah! I forgot. Finally, a Latte."

He gave a stunning look.

"What are you looking at? I haven't had my breakfast yet. Go and bring it."

"Okay."

Charlie went to the counter.

While I was waiting, I got a call from an unknown number. I answered it but no one responded. Why does it feel familiar? Ah! I had a call like this in the morning too. After comparing the numbers, I found that it was the same person.

Charlie placed doughnuts and muffins in front of me. Doughnuts and muffins are prepared in the morning because half of the people who come here ask for doughnuts and muffins a lot to eat along with coffee so we prepare it in advance and serve it to them.

"Hey, Charlie. I got a call from an unknown number but they didn't say anything. What should I do? Shall I make a call and ask them?"

"Maybe it's a spam call, better block it."

"Oh. Okay."

Should I block it as Charlie suggested? I let it go and started eating the doughnuts. My other menu came after some time.

Charlie sat on the stool opposite to me and asked, "Why didn't you eat your breakfast?"

"I am now." And continued eating the sandwich.

"Are you going to wait here till your time comes?"

I looked at my phone.

"It's 10 already. It's only an hour so I'll start working after finishing this."

Charlie gave a nod and left to the counter.

I finished eating and started my shift. People began pouring in as time passed by.

When the clock struck five. My shift ended.

I took the bus home. On the bus, to my surprise, I saw Harry in the front on the right side of me. I looked around to see if his friends were with him but they weren't there. It looks like Harry is alone now.

I stood up from my place and took the empty seat beside him. He was quiet. I think he didn't notice me yet.

I moved closer and whispered in his ears, "Hello, Harry."

He got startled when he heard my voice and

looked at me, which made me laugh out loud. He stood from his place and tried to go out but I didn't allow him.

"What are you doing? Take your hand from the handle!"

"I won't. What if I fell if the bus goes weeeee..."

The people behind him shouted at him to sit down and asked not to make a fuss. They look like an elderly couple.

He ground his teeth which I heard from my place clearly even though I was a few centimetres away.

"By the way, where are you going?"

He kept silent and didn't even look at me.

"You're friends aren't here. You can talk to me. Don't worry, I won't say that you talked to me to anyone."

He gave a death stare and asked, "Why are you doing this? What do you want from me?"

"Accept my request."

"I won't!"

"Then I won't stop nagging too unless you accept it."

A stop came.

He stood from his place and got out of the bus and gave me that death stare again.

I got a call from Big Brother, "Hello?"

"Yes, Big brother."

"How was the test?"

"Yeah, I did well."

"Okay."

"Big brother?"

"What?"

"Why did you ask me?"

"What if you get a bad score and blame it on me? That's why I called you to know how the test was."

I laughed and said, "Big brother, you can tell directly that you're worried about me."

"W-What? I wasn't. I-I just wanted to make sure."

"My mom said if a person stutters, it means they're lying. Are you lying, big brother? Anyways, thank you for worrying about me, Big brother."

I ended the call with the happiness that filled inside me. Big brother was so cold outside but he's very caring inside.