I sighed in relief at the large A scrawled at the top of my English test paper.

"What did you get?" I whispered to Nolan, who lifted a corner of his paper to show me his grade.

He got an A, too. Of course, this wasn't surprising since he always did well, anyway. English was probably one of the few classes in which I could actually give Nolan a run for his money, mostly because of my love for reading and writing.

With a proud smile on his handsome face, Mr. Jameson said, "Every single one of you improved from the previous test. Great job, everyone. Keep it up."

It took everything in me to suppress drool at the sight. His brown hair wasn't gelled back today, which made him look even younger. If he hadn't gone into teaching, he could probably have made it big in modeling.

Beside me, I heard Nolan mutter, "He's not that good-looking."

"Huh?" I turned to look at him.

There was a slight scowl on his face as he stared at Mr. Jameson.

"What?" he said, a tinge of defensiveness in his tone. "He isn't."

Nolan was better-looking than Mr. Jameson, I'd give him that, but it wasn't like I was going to let him know that.

I froze for a second in sudden realization of what had just gone through my mind.

I actually found Nolan more attractive than Mr. Jameson, the latter of whom I'd been admiring for the better part of the school year.

Abruptly tongue-tied, I looked back down at my textbook instead of responding to him.

------------------------------------------

"Are you sure you don't want to come with me later?" I grinned cheekily at Ashley, who shoved me lightly on the shoulder. "Someone is going to be there, you know."

I'd been inviting her to join my book club meetings ever since school started again. Despite trying to entice her with Cody's presence, my attempts kept failing.

"Are you sure you don't want to stop asking?" she said, narrowing her eyes at me. "Maybe I should invite Nolan on your behalf instead. I'm sure you'd appreciate his presence more—"

"I'm sorry! I was wrong!" I wailed, flinging out a hand to stop her before anyone else could hear what she was saying.

I couldn't imagine if Nolan just happened to walk past us right then. I would probably die right here in mortification.

She laughed at my reaction—the audacity!

"How could you just say that out loud?" I demanded in a whisper, glancing around to make sure that no one was paying attention to us. "What if he was nearby?"

"But he isn't," she said. "And I didn't actually say anything of worth. Relax."

"It was implied! The whole world could interpret it even without context," I said, gaping at her nonchalant attitude. "How could you?"

"Wow, you really have it bad." Ashley shook her head. "Also, you were basically doing the same thing to me! You can't talk."

I frowned at her. "I didn't name names!"

"I didn't exactly shout his name for the whole school to hear," she said. "How about this? If you stop, I'll stop."

"Fine!"

We went round a corner into a hallway with slightly more students streaming through.

"No more names," I practically hissed to Ashley, who only snickered some more.

"You know what, Chels? I think I'm starting to see why you had so much fun teasing me," she said.

My glowering had absolutely no effect on her.

"Why not?!" An extremely familiar voice reached my ears.

I could probably recognize it even in my sleep.

Both Ashley and I looked around for Melissa, who was definitely somewhere here.

I recognized Derek's light gray cap before Ashley did and pointed him out. "They're over there."

His snapback cap stood out in a hallway full of beanies and trapper hats. In fact, he usually wore beanies during winter, but I had noticed that he'd been wearing the cap that Melissa picked out for him with increasing frequency even before winter break.

After school started, he wore earmuffs along with the cap when he got cold instead of putting on a regular winter hat.

I kind of had my suspicions about this bizarre behavior, but I wasn't holding out for any changes in his relationship with Melissa considering that my bet with Ashley had been ongoing for over a year.

"Because we'll probably get detention," Derek was saying when we got within earshot.

"Since when did you ever care about stuff like that?" Melissa said, rolling her eyes. "Come on, it's the perfect time right now! It won't be as fun without you there!"

"Is it that hard to believe that I don't want to spend two hours cleaning classroom windows or reorganizing the sports equipment storage room?"

"Yes?" she said. "Actually, I'm having a hard time believing you're Derek right now?"

"Hey, guys," I said from behind Derek. "What's up?"

He jumped a little before turning around.

"Oh, hey," he said, with no trace of the easy smile he always gave us in greeting.

I didn't have time to ponder the reason for his neutral expression, because Melissa spoke up immediately.

"Great timing!" She flashed a mischievous smile at the two of us. "The guys are planning a snowball fight behind the dorms, want to join us?"

"I can't. My book club meeting's in an hour," I said apologetically.

Besides, Derek was right. Snowball fights weren't allowed in school. If we got caught by a teacher, we'd probably be serving detention for the next few hours before we could blink.

The weird thing that caught my attention about this was that Derek, her partner-in-crime for almost everything, was the one trying to prevent Melissa from doing it—no wonder she was astounded.

"No, but thanks," Ashley said. "I don't really want to get into trouble."

Neither of us bothered trying to convince her out of it. Nothing could stop Melissa from doing whatever she felt like doing when she was in this mood.

Derek turned to her. "See? Even Ashley and Chelsea know that it's a bad idea. You shouldn't do it."

Coming out of Derek's mouth, the statement sounded wrong somehow. Ashley and I stared at him.

"Seriously, what is up with you?" Melissa complained, scowling at him. "You normally jump at the chance of snowball fights!"

"Look, you just shouldn't," he said. "What if you get caught?"

"You can't tell me what to do," she said, crossing her arms over her chest. "I'm going, whether or not you're coming along!"

"It's just a snowball fight! You don't have to do it today! Why do you have to be so stubborn?"

Yeah, that was definitely the wrong thing to say. Melissa was oftentimes obstinate, but she abhorred being called out on it, and made sure to double down on her obstinacy whenever that happened.

Her voice grew just a tad louder. "What are you talking about? Of course we have to!"

Correspondingly, his voice did too. "Why do you 'have' to? That doesn't even make any sense!"

My jaw was starting to ache from hanging open so wide. Sure, they bickered a lot, but Derek had never tried to stop Melissa from doing something, even if it was something that he wasn't personally interested in doing. She'd once failed utterly at trying to rope him into stalking Mr. Jameson for a day with her, but even then, he still hadn't told her not to do it.

"What's going on?" Ashley whispered to me.

"I have no idea," I whispered back, before moving a little closer to them. "Hey, guys, maybe you should cool down a bit."

It was as if I hadn't spoken. They merely bulldozed over my voice and continued snapping at each other.

They were starting to draw attention from the other students in the hallway. I could only be thankful that no teacher was present right now, but that didn't mean that one couldn't show up any time soon, especially with the noise that they were making.

"You can't guarantee that the snow is going to fall this thick on other days! And why does the day matter, anyway? I can't believe I was begging you to come with us," she said. "You're being such a killjoy today!"

I drew a sharp intake of breath.

Maybe this whole scene was just taking place in a dream. I would probably wake up any moment to realize that I had been sleeping all along. It would make more sense than this being reality.

"Oof," Ashley said, sounding equally taken aback.

Derek didn't even appear stricken. He was too carried away retorting.

"I'm the killjoy? What about you? I'm literally just asking you for one favor—"

I was pretty sure that Ashley's lost expression reflected mine. I had no idea what was going on.

Melissa hummed and put a finger to her chin. "Why don't I recall anything like that? Right, because you didn't ask!"

"Oh, are we playing it like this now? If I remember correctly, the way you ask me for favors is you straight up telling me what you want me to do!"

"Well, I would never tell you not to have fun in the snow as a favor!"

"Would it kill you not to do it today? Would it kill you not to ruin my plans?"

"Oh, the irony. You're the one trying to ruin my plans! Care to explain how I'm ruining yours?"

"Because I was going to confess to you!" he shouted.

The hallway fell silent.

Melissa's mouth snapped shut.

Derek looked stunned by what he'd just admitted.

Every single student had stopped in their tracks now to look at him.

My lower jaw was officially buried into the ground.

------------------------------------------

AN: 22k reads, guys! thank you all SO MUCH for all your support! /sobs gratefully this part was a little shorter, but the next one will be a bit longer, i think. hope you enjoyed it anyway! may you all have a wonderful blessed week ahead (｡'▽'｡)♡ heaps and HEAPS of love, take care and stay safe, all of you ♡✧( ु•⌄• ) i'll get to replying your comments soon!!

i will dedicate part 52 to toxicccoffeee for being such a sweet reader ^^ your comments are so amusing LOL and relatable to boot! i'm glad you're having fun reading this, and i'm sincerely thankful for your support!! （●'∀｀）ノ♡