Harmonious Infatuation

"Laila, how nice of you to join us, I'm Ms. Richards." A warm voice greeted me. The young teacher clasped her hands together and smiled.
I pointed to the bag on my head and apologized, "I fell."
"It's alright, just go sit down at one of the eisles so we can begin." My painting teacher explained as she ushered me to an empty canvas and chair.
"Okay!" She clapped her hands together one more time and looked wide-eyed and excited around the classroom at the twenty some students. "Paint!" She threw her hands in the air and twiddled her fingers. It was at that moment that I really wanted to know what the heck she was on, and where the hell she got it.
The minute she walked into her office, chatter started up about how no one knew what they were suppose to paint. I decided to be a dare devil as I reached for the green paint on the table and squirted some onto the painters pallete beside me. People began to stare then, and I decided I might as well speak up if I was already being a rebel, "um, she said to paint?"
They all stopped staring then and shrugged, spewing paint from the bottles onto their palletes and feathering their brushes across their canvases. I was relieved at the idea that Ms. Richards didn't brag about my efforts and winning the letter contest like Mr. Brown did.

"Hey Lai." A smooth familiar voice called the minute I walked out the door. I stopped dead in my tracks and looked at the boy leaning against the wall. Parker.
"Um, hi?" I walked over to him.
"Want to go get a couple smoothies?" He asked and bit his lip, obviously expecting some sort of form of a "no". But he was too cute and nice to me earlier that day that I couldn't just say no.
I let out a long breath and nodded.
He smiled broadly and grabbed my hand as we headed out of the building. I felt bad because I was almsot positive that Drea expected me back in the dorm rooms so we could hang out or something. But we never exactly made plans, so it wasn't my fault, right?
After a few minutes of ranting on about how great the academy is, we finally made it to a Robeks. I was pleased to see that there was one so close by. He opened the door for me and I walked past him. Luckily I loved all the smoothies here so choosing wouldn't be as difficult as usual.
"Hello how may I help you?" The lady at the register asked.
"One small Strawnana Berry smoothie, no boost and-" He nodded toward me.
"-and one junior Pina Colada, no boost." I finished.
The lady punched the order in and said a price I didn't hear and Parker passed her a ten dollar bill. I decided to sit down at the tables near by and wait for our order.
Parker slid in the seat across from me and leaned back, his hands behind his head, "so, do you think your boyfriend would be okay with you coming here with me today?" He smirked at his question, holding back a chuckle. I knew what he was doing. It's in, like, every romantic comedy...Guy asks girl about boyfriend, she says "i don't have one!" and he pretends to be taken by surprise considering her effortless beauty.
An evil smile grew on my face that I tried to hide, "yeah, I'm not quite sure how he'd feel about it."
He straightened up in his seat and scratched his head. "Oh." He seemed surprised.
I giggled as I walked over to the counter to grab our smoothies.
"Thanks," he said as I slid his drink toward him, "what's his name?" He asked after a long sip.
"Aiden." I said and I pushed the straw into my drink and moved it up and down to crush any pieces of fruit that weren't demolished by the blender.
"Cool." He said simply.
"Yeah well, I think he'd be cool with it. I mean, it's not like we're here on a date..." I hesitated, awaiting his reaction.
"Oh god no!" He huffed and flicked his hand at me, chuckling. I laughed and hit his arm.
After fifteen minutes of chatting and drinking smoothies, we headed back to the dorms.
"Hey, thanks for the smoothie and all, I'll pay you back." I said as we neared the academy.
"Hey, no biggie. My treat." He put his hand on his chest as he walked me up to my dorm room door.
"Welp, see ya later." I said as I placed my hand on the door knob, about to open it.
"See ya, Lai." He said rubbing the back of his head.
We stood there momentarily in silence, but then he wrapped his arms around me and held me in a friendly hug. I hugged him back and then we went our seperate ways.
As I walked through my dorm room door, a loud gasp escaped Drea's mouth who was laying awkwardly on her bed. "Where were you, missy!" She shouted and pointed a finger at me and walked quicly toward me.
"Sorry, Dre. I was....Out." I said nervously.
She threw her head back in laughter once she saw the terrified look on my face and planted herself on her bed again, patting the empty space below her. I walked over and sat at the end of her bed.
"Where'd you go?" She asked as she ripped some of her Twizler off in her mouth.
"Robeks."
"By yourself?" She questioned and laid awkwardly on the bed again, head off the bed and feet planted on the wall.
"No, with a friend."
"Who?" She sat up quickly.
"Parker Howard?" I picked at my nails, something I had done out of complete habit now.
"OOooooo, how was it?"
"It wasn't anything." I replied, sounding harsher than I had hoped.
"Sorry for asking!" She held her hands up in defense.
"No, no, sorry about that. It's just...I don't want to give him any ideas, because of Aiden and all....."
"Aiden?" She looked at me curiously and I swallowed hard.
I had forgotten to tell Drea about my boyfriend.
"My boyfriend? I didn't tell you?" I tried to play it cool, like it wasn't a big deal.
"Um, NO!" She said, upset and girly.
"Sorry. Aiden's my boyfriend."
"Awesome, is he cute?"
I threw my head back on her bed and gazed at the ceiling. "No."
She looked at me, her curious eyes growing wide and her brow furrowing with confusion.
"He's flawless." I sighed.
"Ah, I see." She smiled and ate the last bit of her Twizler and then dove into her ziplock freezer bag for another. She offered me one and I graciously accepted.
"Well...If you don't want to give Parker any ideas. Why'd you go with him? He's not the type to be use to rejection. You may want to lay low..."
"I went with because he's really nice and he helped me earlier today. And yeah, by his looks, I'm aware getting turned down isn't something he's use to. And yeah, I know. I'm trying to make it obvious that we're JUST friends." All the responses flew out of my mouth and Drea looked confused again. After a while of absorbing what I'd said she finnaly asked, "Great, can I have him?"
I threw a pillow at her and she laughed. "Go for it." I said.