I wake up the next morning to a text from Shanaia. Hey. I’m outside!
I rub my eyes and blink away sleepiness. What’s she doing here so early? As I think about this, a gasp escapes me as I remember. The group study! Rei and I are supposed to meet her today to go to Leo's house with the others. It was decided last friday but I fell asleep last night and completely forgot about it. It's just 8 in the morning. She probably came here early to wake us up. I should respond. Okay. Be right down.
I brush my teeth, get dressed fast, and skip breakfast. I did that all before waking up Rei. When I come inside her room, I find Rei sitting on her bed, drinking a mug of I don't know, maybe coffee. She's staring at her laptop. I noticed the large blanket hanging by the window, preventing the sunlight to come through the whole room.
"What in theㅡ"
She almost spits her coffee on her laptop screen when she noticed me. She takes off her head phones and awkwardly smiles. "I know."
"Take these off, it's hardly pass eight thirty! Don't you want to get up already?" I say while taking off the blanket. It's still 8:10. I just made that up to convince her on getting up.
"Hey! Wait! Iㅡ Oh, C'mon!" She closes her laptop and rolls herself on her bed. I start to arrange her bed and slaps her back with a pillow.
"The sun! I hate it, I hate it!"
"Get up already! What's with the blanket thingy?" I hear her groan.
"Can't you see?" She looks up to me with despair. She points at her shoulders. "My skin tone isn't even anymoreㅡbecause of my brother's training. It should've been inside the house not at the fields!"
She went to her hometown yesterday and told me about all the things she did there. Coincidentally, her older brother came home too so they had the time to train taekwondo again. It was all fun with their mom and dad but then the heating sun was a distraction. That's her problem until today.
I shrug my shoulders after looking at her shoulders. It is still the same skin tone as before. What is she overreacting about. I shake my head. "Can't see the difference."
"Look at thisㅡAnd thisㅡNow thisㅡ"
"You still look the same! Wear a sweater or somethingㅡ not a sleeveless.. spaghetti strap or whatever women calls that."
She just stares at the ceiling while I'm busy dragging her feet. So she's being heavy now. I suddenly imagined Shanaia's face right now. She's been waiting for about 10-minutes now and the last respond of my text is me coming down to go to her! And because of that, I gather all my strength to bring Rei's feet on the ground.
"You can always bring back your skin tone! Which isn't a big of a deal!!"
Right after I was just close to bring her feet down the floor, she stood up. "Nah. I'm just being dramatic."
"Yesterday was tiring!" she added and lays back down.
"Argh!" I flop down the floor when she lays back down the bed. "Shanaia's waiting outside, get up already!"
As soon as I tell her that, there was silence before she decided to talk again. "What the hell.. Did I just forgot about the group study?"
I sigh, still on the floor. "Just get up."
After consuming so much time, we finally went down the hallways, to the stairs and another hallway. I almost bumped into another student who's also in this dorm. Rei also accidentally hit someone in the face while she's trying to put on her backpack. She tries to run ahead of me to tie her shoelaces. I almost laugh when a small dog starts to bark at her while she's sitting to tie her shoelace infront of an open dorm room. I pat her shoulder as she stands up and we both run down the staircase.
When we reached the front garden, Shanaia was already there sitting alone on the porch step with her back facing us. Her head leans against the porch rail as she stares out at the lawn. She doesn’t say anything when I step out.
"Heeeyy.." I try to make a smile while waving my hand infront of her. Rei came after and did the same as what I did. Shanaia looks at us with a bored look. Rei and I exchanges looks and when I can't think of something to say, I told her.
"It's Rei's faultㅡ"
"Whatㅡ?!"
"HEY! It doesn't matter who's fault it is to be LATE. It's almost nine! We have to go before the others do." Shai walks first after slipping her hands into our arms, being in the middle.
"Wait.." I pause to think. I thought we were the only ones left that's still not at Leo's house. "So we're going there before Kael does?"
Kael should be there first since it's already his third time going there. I haven't talk in person with Mrs. Morgan, yet. She looks sweet and caring in her portraits at the flower shop but I'm still shy to face a fine mother like her. But I don't think I need to worry about it because I have the others with me there.
It was Leo's idea to have a sudden group study since the quarter exams are coming up. I hesitated on agreeing at first because I thought it would be better if we study aloneㅡof course that's how I'm used to do and no, I did not tell them that since it is, on second thought, and maybe fun, to have a group with you to study.
Everyone agreed and Kael reminded us that it's okay if you can't come. And it's fine if they're not comfortable studying with many people. For a moment, I thought he was talking about me since they all know my situationㅡ that I'm a very quiet person when studying back in the days. And I guess until now. But what's the worst that could happen?
"Is that it?" Rei points at a house with a blue gate. It's the gate that Leo described for us to find their house. We hesitated to ring the doorbell. It's still confusing if this is the right one since we also saw a blue gate right accross another crossing street.
"Should we call Leo?" I ask.
"What could go wrong? Let's just get this over with."
"I'm suggesting we should call Leo firㅡ" Before Shanaia finishes her sentence, Rei already pressed the doorbell. And then someone from the window peaks through. It was Kael. Rei shows a thumbs up at us and eventually opens the gate. "ㅡGood."