"Hey!! No running in the halls!" she yells as Shai and I walk towards our table.
"You sound like the principal," I say before sitting down. Shai laughs and mimicks Rei. As we sit down, Leo was already there. He's currently working on his sketches that I don't know what it is since he doesn't show it to us.
"Did Kael told you about the announcement he's going to tell?" Leo says after hugging his sketchpad when Rei tries to see it.
I nodded at his question and Shanaia speaks. "I'm betting it's about the benefits."
Leo was about to say something but then looks at something, like realizing it and then agrees at her statement. "Or maybe it's about the signaturesㅡ we've accomplished the number of signatures!"
"Leo," I say while making a face. "It was Shai and I who handled the signatures earlier, not Kael."
Shanaia laughed. "We didn't even get over a 50 yet!"
Leo scratches the back of his neck, realizing the things we said. Rei on the other hand speaks while scrolling to her phone. "It might be about the members, though."
Everybody went silent as Shai snaps her fingers. Leo fixes his glasses and while he's busy on it, Rei stands up and takes a quick, a very quick to be exact, picture of Leo's sketch pad. But she failed doing it because Leo's reflexes are more faster than hers.
"Can't you wait?" He says to her.
"You've been telling that since yesterday," she replies with bored expression. The topic went off with Leo's drawing because Shai asks about it. He didn't mention anything and he just puts his sketch pad back to his back pack. "It's a thing you wouldn't understand by now. By the wayㅡ I'm hungry. Shall we order our foods or.."
Before he could finish his sentence, coincidentally, we three pulled out each of our lunch boxes. He was taken back with his words. Rei cooked mine and hers in our dorm room since I cooked for ours last day.
Rei laughs before opening her lunch box. "Want some, Leonardo?"
Leo frowns. "I wouldㅡif it wasn't you who asked."
Rei closes her box after hearing it. We decided to wait for Kael before eating. That was a hard decision for the rest since we're all pretty hungry but that's just a thing we should do in exchange for Kael's announcement. I was hoping it would be worth as our hunger, you know.
"Did Kael lost his way while running to catch us?" Shai asks, lost in her thoughts after a few minutes. It's like we're the only ones in the cafeteria having the silent energy unlike the other students in their tables. They're loud even when they're eating. I can already smell the newly cooked chicken by the counter. Rei is looking out of nowhere and I think I saw her sniffing the air, too.
"Don't you guys think we should eat now?" Leo asks with hesitation on his face. I look away and stare back to my lunch box.
"I think we should," I say, still staring at my box.
"But don't you guys think we should wait for Kael?" Shanaia asks too, also not removing her stare from the table.
"But don't you want to eat first? Aren't you hungry?" I look at Shai, seeking for agreement. "Do you want to be unhealthy? Or.. are you on a diet?" I joked as I gasp.
She looks at me with her chin up. "You can't test me."
I sigh and look at Rei. "Rei! What do you think?"
She suddenly lays her head on the table. "I don't think I can think properly now. I'm torn in between."
"So that beats it! Two against one, Shanaia." Leo snaps.
"She said she's torn in between so I still have two votes including mine," she laughs like she knows she's defeated but she still continues to defend her self.
"It's just the same," I boredly say. "She said she's torn in between our decisions so it's two votes for you and three votes for us. The final decision is still in ourㅡ"
"Mind if I sit here?"
"Not now!ㅡ" I quickly say to I don't know who. "The final decision is still in our hands, Shai. Let's just eat, okay?"
It's like I'm talking to air. Nobody's listening. "Okayyy??" I repeat.
Leo puts his fist infront of him and coughs. Shanaia sits properly and Rei just boredly stares at something behind me.
"Guysㅡ"
"Shh!" Shai silents me. I touch my chest while looking at her. "Yeah! Of course you can." She awkwardly laughs while talking to someone. After that, she points at me with her eyes wide open. Realizing something, I take a look behind and look up. He's holding a plate of cheese pizza and a chocolate milk. After widening my eyes when I saw who it was, I immediately look back at our table. It's Cedric!
He walks towards Leo since there's an empty seat beside him but he soon stops when Rei speaks. "That seat is already taken."
He apologizes and tries to find a seat. Shai points the seat beside me. I look at her with eyes, asking for sympathy. She just ignores it after trying to guess what I'm trying to say. As soon as he walks towards me, I moved a little for his space. Suddenly, Rei points at us.
"Hey! You can't sit there!"
He takes a bite of his pizza before answering, "Why not?"
"Why can't he?" Leo interferes and eats the pizza that Sid gave him. I look at him, feeling betrayed. Shanaia also looks at him with a face. Leo just sticks his tongue at us before grinning. Rei seems distracted after the pizza passing so she got lost in her words. When she can't express the words she's trying to tell, she sighs. "Forget it."
After she said that, Shanaia and I flinched when someone from behind tried to scare us. I glare at Kael when I see him.
"Sorry for the wait, guys," he says.
"Long wait," Rei corrects him. Shai nudges her arm.
"Yeah, yeah. I know you're all hungryㅡ and I am, too. So since everybody's here, why don't we start with the announcement?" He says as he guided the guy beside him to sit beside Leo. Kael walks towards the other side of the table and sits just infront of us. I take a look at the new guy beside Leo. I think I saw him once. I just couldn't figure out when.
Kael puts his hands together as he says these words. "Everyone, meet Cedric and Darren."
"I think I know where this is going," Shai leans and whispers to me. Rei just looks at us like she already said what's going to happen.
"They're the last members to complete us!" Kael exclaimed. "Clap your hands everybody! I know you're hungry but let us welcome them."
After clapping, we all frowned. It was the lamest claps that I heard in my whole entire life. Leo coughs again to ease the awkwardness. "Hi Darren. Hi Cedric. Nice to meet you two."
Everyone starts to introduce their names and shakes hands with them. I did the same thing to Darren. I greeted Sid but I didn't shake hands with him.
"Hi, Yvaine. I'm more than glad to be in this group," he looks at Kael after mentioning the word 'group'. He sticks out his hand for a handshake when he noticed that I didn't do it first. I start to form a thin smile at him. He does the same with his brows raising. With no other choice, I sigh before taking his hand and shake it.
I pull it out after a few seconds. Shanaia is the next one to introduce her self to the others. "Hi I'm Shanaia. I hope we'd all be good friends." She smiles as she takes Darren and Sid's hand.
"Hoping to be good friends with all of you as well," Darren smiles.
"Do you have a girlfriend?"
Kael, Leo and I almost choked with the water we're drinking when Rei suddenly asked Darren that question. Shainaia's jaw dropped. I heard Sid's small laugh while looking at Darren. Darren who's now the center of attention is taken back with the sudden question but soon recovered and answered, "What about you? Do you have a boyfriend?" He's saying those words while sipping his juice box. Rei squints her eyes. It seems like she has found her match.
"We don't do flirting here." Leo drinks his water.
"Let's talk sometime," she says while pointing at Darren, ignoring Leo. Darren just looks away and grins. Kael cringes.
"You can't," Sid beside me, talked. As if recalling the words that Rei told him earlier. Rei must have realized that both Darren and him are friends already so she just rolled her eyes. "Shut up."