Before I start anything, the authors note at the end is important so please at least skim through it. Thank you. <3

"Freedom is never given; it is won."
-A. Philip Randolf

Chapter 16 - Problems

Another torturous day in prison- or school, whatever you would like to call it. I know it may be kind of boring seeing that everyone's like, "Oh my Irene, why do I have to go to school? It's absolutely terrible!" but I mean, at least they're telling the truth.

Now don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that there are not any positive outcomes from going to school. There's education, friends, and food. Even if it's not free and not exactly a five-star restaurant, it's still food. Anyway, education is important because otherwise how would you get a job? I don't think I want to work at a fast food restaurant forever, no offense. But if that's your life goal, you do you, I'm not here to judge.

"(Y/N), are you okay?" Garroth asked me, waving his palm in front of my face.

Gosh darn me and talking to myself. "Yeah, I'm fine."

"You know, last night when I talked to Laurance, he was acting really weird. Do you know why?"

I looked at Garroth perplexed, not really knowing what he was getting at. "I have no clue. Maybe he's sick, people can act differently when they're sick."

"Yeah, but he seemed a little... I don't know, irritated?"

I glanced over at Garroth who was staring into space, his mind somewhere else.

"Maybe someone tried to deflate his ego," Zane pitched in, laughing for a moment.

I looked over at Zane and chuckled too, finding his joke pretty funny. "Yeah, that was probably it."

Garroth tried not to laugh with us as he forced himself to keep a straight(ish) face. "You know, I'm trying to be serious here."

"Garroth trying to be serious?" I boasted, looking at him with wide eyes, "Is everyone changing around here?"

After a few minutes of cracking several jokes here and there, we made it to school. People were still staring at me, dodging me whenever I got too close. I guess that you could say they were a bit scared of me, or maybe scared of what would happen to me. I did, after all, hit Gene and basically humiliated him. I wouldn't blame them if they think that I'm next on his hit list.

It's either that or maybe they're ignoring me because I'm with Zane. I'd go with my first choice, it just seems more... legitimate, if you know what I'm saying.

But I could be wrong. Perhaps they're scared of his big build and deep voice. Note my sarcasm. Zane with a deep voice? Ha, I don't even think puberty can fix that.

I struggled to keep myself from smiling at the comment that I made inside my head.

"What's so funny (Y/N)?" Zane questioned me, eyeing me suspiciously.

"Oh, nothing," I flashed a grin at him, making him frown.

"Something you'd rather not tell me?"

"Yeah, something like that."

I looked at him confusedly whenever he made a disapproving noise while shaking his head at me. "You're so weird."

"Hey, I just like to be considered... different."

"Yeah, you're like extraterrestrial."

"No wonder I look better than everyone else," I boasted, pretending to flip my hair over my shoulder. Zane shot me a glare, obviously displeased by my confidence. My mouth straightened as I looked him in the eye, becoming completely serious. "I'm kidding."

"Good because I would have had to tell you otherwise."

"Excuse me?" I exclaimed, putting a hand on my chest.

"Everyone knows that I'm the best-looking person here," Zane shot at me, also pretending to flip his hair. Once again, he imitated me and looked at me seriously, "I'm kidding."

I chuckled and hit his arm in response, earning a quiet 'ow' from him. While he rubbed his arm, I studied the room, ignoring all of the people staring at Zane and I. Once I made eye contact with familiar light blue eyes, Laurence scoffed at me and looked the other way.

What's his problem? He was fine with walking me home yesterday and now he has an attitude? Maybe he was looking at someone else.

"Hey, Laurence!" I called out, waving my hand to signal him to come over.

He glanced over at me but never moved towards us, instead, he walked the other way, a sour expression present on his face.

"He really has a problem," I mumbled, earning a curious look from Zane. "Go ahead and go to class, I'm going to try and catch up with Laurance."

"Stupid Laurance," Zane grumbled, taking steps away from me, "Good luck."

I paused, gazing over at Zane in shock. Did he just wish me good luck? No, it must be my imagination.

Shaking my head, I strode over where Laurence disappeared, seeing him leaning on a locker with the same sour expression from earlier.

I was about to ask what his problem was but I decided to go with a more kind greeting. "What's wrong?"

Laurence spun around to look at me, catching himself from tripping. "What are you doing here?"

There was something off about him. He didn't have that upbeat vibe like he did yesterday, now it was more of a... downbeat vibe. "I came over here to look for you because I wanted to know why you're acting so different."

Laurance's expression hardened as he turned around to look at the lockers across the room. "I just found out that one of my friends have been basically taking advantage of me the whole entire time I've known them."

I gave him a solemn look, placing my hand on his shoulder. "Do you want to talk about it?"

He looked at me coldly and shook my hand off of his shoulder, "I would talk to anyone but you."

༺༒༻

Maybe a bit too intense, I dunno. I'm going to try my best to keep myself from rambling here.

Credit to:

ThatPinkPony2 : "Perhaps next chapter Laurance will start acting super jealous about what he heard on the phone towards (Y/N)?"

Thank you!

1. If you didn't notice, I posted a message for all of you on my board so if you want to check it out, please do. It wasn't really important but it was at the same time and I just wanted to get it out there. So please go and see that <3 (I really want you to see it, can you tell? 😂)

2. I don't know if I'll be able to write my next chapter in time to post it next week so I might have to skip posting it next week. It's either that or I'll miss posting chapter 18 two weeks from now. Or maybe a miracle will happen and I'll be able to write both.

All I have to say is that I'm extremely anxious and stressed right now and I hope you all can bear with me as I try to get things done.

I have band camp from 8:30am-8pm from July 17- July 21 but I also have some band on July 22 so I'll be gone for a long time that week. Plus I have summer reading that I'm really behind on so I'm kind of struggling.

I hope I see you soon Reader~Chans!

- Author~Chan

I tried to shorten it the best I could but I still kind of rambled, sorry.

I forgot to mention again, if you have any ideas/suggestions you want me to use, go ahead and comment them!