2.4: 69 Woodworks and 96 Filmworks to Declare Undying Love

I could sense it before my alarm go off. People. Stampede. Door. Privacy. My really good dream about me meeting Doctor Who ending.

Oh... no.

"Apriiiilll, waaakkeeee upp!" the voice hollered from outside my room, accompanied with really scary rapping on my door.

"Waaakeeeeuuppp!" the voice boomed again.

I bid adieu to the Doctor as I felt my dreamworld falling apart. I was supposed to have another five minutes of this. I was supposed to at least get into the Tardis*.

"C'mon sleepyheeeeaaadd!" the voice kept on yapping.

For a second I considered that there might be a secret society of assassins sent to kill me in my sleep, but then most assassins wouldn't bother to wake the potential victim before killing them. That, and they'd probably know how to deal with a locked door.

My housemates, on the other hand, thought that a locked door meant that they get to rap and kick and slam at it until I had to give in and open the door for them.

"Why are you so loud in the morning?" I said while putting a hand over my mouth. My morning breath is nobody's business but mine and sometimes Ryder's, only.

Trisha, Lauren, and Mindy all looked like they had one hour to get ready and another hour to put on their makeup and do their hair. Trisha, in particular, was brimming with so much energy that I could almost see it wafting around her body.

"We should go to the campus together!" despite the door being open, she still didn't lower her volume.

Lauren looked prettier than the night before, and her eyes somehow became bigger from the amount of eyeliner that she put on her monolids. "C'mon, get ready. I'll give you ten minutes."

"My alarm is supposed to ring in ten minutes," I said through my hand.

"What?"

I put aside my hand a little bit. "My alarm is supposed to ring in ten minutes."

Trisha grabbed my wrist, but I held my hand over my mouth in fear of them fainting because of my dragon breath. "No, please, I smell bad in the morning."

The three of them somehow let out 'awww' voices in response of my honesty. They all stepped in to hug me, which felt really uncomfortable and I hated how their clothes have really weird textures, and then they sent me back to my room.

"But be ready in 10 minutes!" the three of them reminded me. "I'll give you some mint for the bad breath- gosh, she's so cute!" the last comment was in a hushed giggle.

I didn't understand what inspired them to actually think that bad breath is cute. Even I didn't want to deal with it, and it's my own breath. And then I remembered what Alex had told me last night and felt a shudder.

"Just be your wonderful, socially-challenged self, and they'll love you."

I knew that I should be offended with most of his words. I knew Ryder would.

But even as my alarm ring, even after I brushed my teeth and drink a cup of orange juice (the bitter taste wakes my brain up) and try to get offended, I couldn't.

———

You got a text message!

April to Ryder the Great:

'There's something that doesn't make sense. Let's go poke it with a stick!'

-

Ryder to Kitten:

'as much as I enjoy ur doctor who references, am still annoyed abt yesterday. I need to see u today. 2:30 on campus cafeteria?'

-

April to Ryder the Great:

'I'll be on the lookout of your cute butt!'

-

"Trisha!" I was horrified as I saw Trisha hit 'send' on that text. We were on Mindy's car, and I was texting Ryder when suddenly Trisha grabbed my phone and typed up a reply for him.

"Cute butt?" my eyes were now watery because how much it widened as I saw her text as me. "I will never think that butts are cute! It's the place where poop comes out!"

"Seriously, sometimes I wonder if you're really loose in the head or if you're just pretending to be a cute, innocent baby," Lauren said from the passenger seat. And then she glanced at my Little Pony t-shirt and blue crocs and then she rolled her eyes. "Nevermind. You're legit freak."

Trisha pouted at Lauren, but then she recovered quickly into her energetic, smily self. "I think you're super cute! It's so rare to see an 18 year old behaving so... cutely like you. Even Mindy, quiet as she looks, is a fucking scary tiger."

"The tiger thing is a metaphor, right? I'd.. Rather not... hear any metaphors because I tend to.. Think that the metaphors are real...?"

"Of course it's a metaphor! And do you actually text like that with your boyfriend?" Trisha asked.

"Yeah?"

"So you never told him that his butt is cute?"

"Butts are the place where poop comes out so-"

Trisha cut me off. "How do you even flirt with him?"

I thought about it. "He seems pretty happy with my quotes collection, right? I mean, he did say he enjoyed my Doctor Who references."

Lauren snorted a laugh. "Poor guy."

For the first time, Mindy joined. "Poor guy."

Trisha, too, shook her head. "No wonder he has really bad temper. Poor guy."

I rolled the mint that Lauren had previously gave me under my tongue. "I really don't think that a cute butt qualifies as a good flirting either."

My phone beeped, and the three girls screeched. I made a mental reminder to buy ear plugs so that I could minimize the chance of getting involuntary panic attacks from their sheer volumes.

"Tell us his reply!" Trisha demanded. "Tell us!"

"Can't wait to get my hands to your cute butt, too, sweetcake." I read the text on my phone.

The three girls looked even happier than before.

"Somebody will make a scene today!" Trisha's voice, if possible, got even higher.

"Oh wait, there's more," I scrolled the screen, and found that there's more message from Ryder. "Is that what you all want to hear? Give the phone back to April, women." My heart blossomed as I read it. He knew which message was mine and which was not.

Trisha, Lauren, and Mindy's attention quickly diverted elsewhere, and as they started talking about which classes they're going to take, I got another text from Ryder.

'I was serious, tho. I know u like it when I pat your butt. See u later kitten'

He knew me too well.

-

-

-

Getting into administration and then meeting new people never felt so... easy.

Even I was baffled at how easy everything was. The administration people showed so little care about me. They just asked me questions and then checked the paper after I answered. We didn't even have to make eye-contact. I had signed up my major (Film) and even signed up to a few extra classes and clubs (they have an exclusive club to discuss television series and the discussion starts ten minutes after the airing was done. This is going to be the best club that I'd ever attend ever). My first club will start next Thursday, and every communication would be handled via Skype chats. The leader specifically said no voice calls. I'm really starting to really love colleges.

And then the 'new people'.

Trisha, Lauren, and Mindy had so many friends. In high school, you know a lot of people, but they're just people you know. You don't sit with these people after class. You don't hang out with them. Most of the time, you only know limited amount of information about these people. Even Quentin, who was popular, athletic, and a self-proclaimed Party Animal, didn't hang out with a huge amount of people. They had their own cliques.

It's totally different here.

Everywhere we walk, there will be people. Sometimes they go solo, sometimes in doubles, but rarely in groups. Then the girls will greet them, and then they will greet the girls back, and they all hug and catch up. They're just not 'people you know'. They're friends.

It's really scary.

Here's the typical 'HEY FRIEND' script that Trisha, Lauren, Mindy and I had to undergo in the last two hours.

—

The four of us walk around the campus. I really wanted to find a library to sit and watch my torrented series on my phone, but the girls insisted that I come with them.

Then some people greeted Trisha, Lauren, or Mindy (60% Trisha, 30 Lauren and 10% Mindy).

Stranger:

"Heeeeyy, how you've been?"

Trisha/Lauren/Mindy (TLM):

"Heeey, I'm good."

Stranger:

"Party. Inside joke. Shared memories. Mutual friends."

TLM:

-laugh as happily as if they just heard that Stranger Things season 2 had just been renewed-

"BTW, here's April. She's cute and psst... she's got special condition."

Stranger

"OMG LET ME BE YOUR FRIEND!"

April (aka me aka the girl with 'special condition')

-Shudders and immediately shuts eyes to imagine a happy place filled with Power Puff Girls of every colors and a lot of 90s Cartoon Network characters-

—

In two hours, Trisha, Lauren and Mindy managed to get around 15 people to sit with us in the Campus Park.

A lot of these people didn't dress normally. About 55% of them had tattoos, 90% of them had unnaturally dyed hair colors, and even there's one girl who had piercing on her nose. I had never been surrounded by these kind of people, and to be frank, I was pretty scared that they're secretly part of a dangerous cult.

Things became twice as worse because most of them seemed to be more interested to converse with me than with Trisha, Lauren or Mindy.

Did I say that things became twice as worse just now? Make it thrice, because I could see Alex's incredibly thick hair trotting to our direction.

He kissed Trisha on the cheek, but when he smiled, I could feel that something was off. This was a 'what-the-hell-is-going-on' smile.

"It's crowded here," he said.

"We're just introducing April around," Lauren said. "They like her."

Alex frowned, and I could feel his eyes bored towards me. I was too busy concentrating on how to slip back to my room surrepttiously when I felt something cold touching my hand.

"You can borrow my ipod," Alex said. "Don't touch my podcasts, though. Those are sacred."

To be perfectly honest, his music choice was pretty... questionable at best. But music was non-threatening and music doesn't ask personal question and that's good enough for me.

Since the main attraction, aka me, wasn't entertaining the crowd, the group of people slowly tethered off. I had already stopped listening to Alex's weird music by the time there were only five of us, but I waited until Lauren and Mindy went off too before I took off the earpods.

"Finally, the Royal Majesty is giving us her undivided attention," Trisha said sharply. "Oh, we're not worthy, Your Magnamaious Goddess."

"I think you pronounced magnanimous wrong, Trisha," I corrected her.

"She's being sarcastic," Alex told me. "Basically she's trying to say that you've been pissing her off."

Oops.

Trisha's face was red. "I'm just trying to help you to get on your feet, April. These people like you and they want to get to know you. But noooo, you just have to put your damn earpods and pretend that you're listening to music."

"How did you know that I'm not listening to anything?"

"I leaned in close enough," Trisha snorted, proud of her stunt.

"It must have been hard," Alex said.

"Yeah, it's hard to gather all those people," Trisha leaned her head to his shoulder.

But Alex didn't make any movement that was expected when a girl lean to a boy. Instead, he looked at me. Not directly into my eyes, just around my direction. I knew that it was deliberate in his move, and I appreciated that. "I mean for you."

"I'm okay," I said. "I mean, most of the time I'm okay with people because I have superactive imagination and I can literally will my imaginary TV characters out of my head and have them re-enact my favorite scenes from TV," midway through my monologue and I can already see Alex look like he had regretted ever talking to me- "but mostly I'm just overwhelmed because I've never had so many people gathering around me and actually wanting to talk to me."

"I told you, you're like a unique combination here." Alex said.

"Like Harambe?" I offered.

"Harambe died."

"Harambe before he died, I mean." Bless his pure, huge primate heart.

Alex slapped his forehead, but I could see him smiling imperceptibly. "She's impossible."

At this point, I just realized that Trisha had gone from leaning her head on his shoulder to full-on sitting on his lap and clutching on his torso so hard, one would think she's trying to imitate koalas. "New girlfriend here, Alex. Pay attention to me."

"Trish!" Alex finally gave in. "Come on. Don't tell me you're jealous of April?"

"Well, you've been talking to her for the last five minutes, while I'm rubbing my body all over you."

"You're the kind of crazy I like." Alex stood and supported his girlfriend to stand, too. He winked at me and said, "As scintillating our conversation is, I must go cater the needs of my girlfriend."

I waved my hand to them, and then went back to the earpods to continue the pretense of listening to Alex's bad music choices.

———

Ryder promised to come at 2:30, but he was already here by 2:10. I've never been so happy to see people breaking their promise.

I was about to admire his superhero jaw and the subtle scruff that embellished his profile, but Ryder already made all of my senses go kaput when he kissed my cheek.

"I got something for you," he said, "But you have to guess what it is."

"Stuffed animals."

He leaned in closer, the smell of iron getting stronger. "Nope."

"Truffle cake."

"Ew. No," he put his forearm on my shoulder, and pushed my hair to the back of my ears. I still couldn't believe that we've been dating for so long and this simple move still break me apart. "Plus, I can't afford truffles. Not yet."

"Um. Your mighty body and super intoxicating smell?"

A wood plate was in front of me. It had my name engraved in a familiar handwriting. Not Helvetica or Times New Roman. Ryder-esque handwriting. It says:

April's Room.

Don't Come in if Not Invited

P.s: unless your her extra handsome boyfriend

"There's a typo here," I pointed at the word in offense.

"I know, it's driving me crazy that I just realized it after I finished the gloss!" Ryder was ruffling his hair so much it made the mess of his previous hairstyle. I liked it better when his hair was messy, though. I wished my mother could see him ruffling his hair because it would drive her motherly instincts into a full berserk.

"So you know I've been working on my grandmother's workshop for almost a year now," he said in a small-ish voice that was so unlike Ryder. "Mostly I work with metals and wrecked cars. But sometimes I dabble in woodwork, too..." there was a pause. "It's kind of my passion right now. Um. Kind of."

I nodded and nodded, unable to find a good sentence to follow this through. He was also strangely quiet, while still looking and holding me. Three minutes in, and I was feeling so comfortable with the silence and with him around me that I started humming the Star Wars opening song.

"At this point, you're supposed to say if I'm doing great or if my work is shit, April." Ryder said.

"I'm nodding approvingly," I nodded approvingly. "There's still the 'your' typo, but the wood finish is flawless," I said while grazing my hand through the wood. "And the cutting is really neat, so you actually care about me not getting any splinters from this" I now grazed his arm. "And I like this little curve at the top of the plate. It must have been hell to work for."

The curve was shaped like a heart, but not quite. It was not exactly symmetrical and it was a little rough in the edges. But it was still, inherently, made with good intention and its shortcomings became charming.

"It's a bitch to work on," Ryder said. "Thanks."

"And it's also the very first time you give me something that you made," I said, and as I heard my voice saying this, I suddenly found an epiphany. "I want to give you something that I made with my own hand, too."

"May I remind you of the 69 movies mashup that kept getting more and more tear-jerker worthy?" Ryder tapped my temple gently. "Plus the 96 audiobooks mashup that you gave me whenever we have a fight, big or small?"

I smiled at the sight of his smile.

Ryder scoffed. "If I didn't know better, I would have thought that you're giving me some kind of a code."

"What code?"

"You know.. 69 and 96... it's a popular position."

"Yeah, because when you flip 6 it becomes 9, and when you flip 9 it becomes 6, that's why I really like 69," I said.

We stared at each other for a very long time after that.

"You knew what you're talking about," Ryder's really dark eyes darkened. And then, he repeated his words with louder voice. "April, you knew what you're talking about."

"I never try to really look for it, but everybody on tumblr is always making a big deal out of 69!" I defended myself. "So I typed it in wikipedia..."

"All this time," Ryder's hands were on my waist. "I thought you're an oblivious little innocent bird who don't know shit," he scooped me up and then kissed me hard and everything around the world fell apart except for him and me.

"All this time," he breathed after our lips pulled apart.

"I.. Honestly thought you didn't knew about it," I confessed. "I thought I could, for once, be the naughty one in our relationship and then you'll eventually ask me why I keep sending you things in the amount of either 6 or 9, and then I'll reveal my secret and then you'll make a stupid 'Oooo' face."

But then he was making that stupid 'Ooo' face right now, despite him knowing my dirty joke beforehand.

"I love you so much," he whispered.

And I him.

——

"So... the cute butt stuff?"

I shook my head. "It's Trisha's."

"Are you sure it's not you, because you knowing and advocating 69 but not appreciating butt is a bit weird, you know."

"Butt is the place where poop comes out, Ryder," I frowned.

Ryder made a face. "Just give it time."

-

-

-

A cute fluffy chapter for youu :) Happy Idul Adha for those who are celebrating. I actually did this chapter in only two days. Wish the next chapter can be done as fast. I don't understand why you guys think that Alex is trying to woo April or if I plan to make it a love triangle between Alex, April and Ryder? Don't worry about that. Even if there were any love triangle, I'll try my best to not make it forced or anything.

This story is about April and Ryder growing up. Most likely, this story will be about April trying to fit in a society that has categorized her as 'special' and Ryder trying to deal with the fact that he's kind of an outcast now that he's not a college student and only making minimal money. That, and of course about them growing together as unity.

Thank you for all of your supports of my works. I really appreciate your messages and constant prodding to keep updating. :) I can't wait to shell out the next chapter for you guys again.

Demonicblackcat logging out!

p.s: btw I feel the need to announce that what the characters do