Chapter 4

       "I just had the best idea for a play we can do at the next hockey game," Dalton said as he sat down beside Lenora, who was sitting across from me and Justin. "It will be the best play in history. Nobody will be able to see it coming and we will win every game we play."

       "Someone sounds way too confident," Lenora said.

       "Some say confident, I say... No, you're right, I am confident," Dalton said. "And that's because with my idea for the play, there's no way we can't lose."

       "You should probably count me out of it," Justin said quietly, just staring at his lunch. "I'm probably not even going to be in the next game."

       I furrowed my eyebrows as I looked at Justin. I did notice that he was a bit quiet ever since English class ended, which wasn't even too loo ago. I couldn't believe I never pieced things together until now.

       Because before everyone left the English class, we were given back our essays we wrote last week.

       "I'm sorry, did you say you're not even playing next game?" Dalton asked. "Are you quitting the team? Because I'm just letting you know now that if you quit the team, I'm going to force Lark to break up with you."

       "Be quiet, Dalton," I said as Justin reached into his backpack and pulled out a crumpled up piece of paper.

       Justin first handed it to me so I could look at it. Judging by how upset he looked, I already knew he got a low mark on the essay. I just didn't expect it to be this low.

       "Oh... Wow," I said. "That's..."

       "Horrible, you can say it," Justin said before handing to to Dalton.

       "I'm sure it can't be that bad," Dalton said, looking down at the essay. "Seriously, Justin? How is a ninety-one a bad thing?"

       "You're holding it upside down," I said.

       Dalton flipped the paper the other way around as Lenora leaned over to get a look at Justin's mark. "A sixteen... Sixteen out of twenty?"

       Justin sighed. "Percent."

       "You got sixteen percent on an assignment?" Lenora asked, a bit too loud but thankfully, we were eating in the cafeteria today and it was already quite loud with all the students chatting. Nobody paid any attention to what Lenora said.

       "No need to announce it," Justin said, taking the essay back from Dalton and crumpling it up again before shoving it in his backpack. "I'll probably fail the class now."

       "I don't get it," Dalton said. "I know you just started learning English four years ago but you're already a fluent speaker. How can you fail this bad?"

       "No need to rub it in," Justin muttered.

       "Sorry, I didn't mean it like that," Dalton said. "I'm still curious as to why you can fail an assignment while being such a fluent speaker."

       "Being a fluent speaker is different than writing essays and learning literary devices like similes and onomomo," Justin said.

       "You mean an omonapotoeia?" Dalton asked.

       "Onomatopoeia, Dalton," I said. "It's an onomatopoeia."

       "I'm sorry, I didn't realize I asked for your opinion," Dalton said.

       I rolled my eyes and ignored Dalton as I looked at Justin. "You usually show me your essays and other assignments before you hand them in. How come you didn't show me this one?"

       "You were really busy with the article for the school paper," Justin said. "I didn't want to bother you."

       "Justin, asking for me help will never bother me," I said. "I already promised that I would basically be your tutor for English class. Maybe you can try to talk to our teacher about a make up essay. It won't be fair for you to fail the essay when English isn't your first, or even second, language."

       "Your teacher does know that, right?" Dalton asked. "Maybe he doesn't. Maybe if he does know, he would have went a marked a lot easier."

       "No, Dalton, our teacher doesn't know that Justin isn't a native English speaker even though he has a clear Polish accent," I said.

       "Well, then you should let your teacher know," Dalton said.

       "I think she was being sarcastic," Lenora said.

       "Yeah, whatever," Dalton said. "Wait, hold on a second. What about Ethan?"

       "What about him?" Justin asked.

       "If I recall, he can barely speak English because he just started learning it," Dalton said. "Yet he goes to this school. How does that work?"

       "He can easily understand English," Justin said. "It's just speaking it that's the problem for him, for some reason. He's also in some program. What is it? E... Something."

       "ESL?" I asked.

       "Yes, that," Justin said.

       "Why don't you go in it?" Dalton asked.

       "I'm too busy," Justin said. "Ice hockey, theatre, trying not to fail."

       "Ah, but if you take ESL then that will be considered trying not to fail," Dalton said.

       "I don't know..." Justin said.

       "How about if you fail another assignment, you go into ESL?" I asked. "Right now, even though you got a low mark on the essay, it's not going to be enough to drag your C plus down to an F. Our teacher even said it isn't worth that much. It was more of a practice essay to see where everyone stands with essay writing."

       Justin debated the offer for a bit before sighing. "Okay. If I fail another assignment, I'll take it."

       "You know what I don't get?" Dalton asked before looking at Lenora. "You."

       Lenora raised an eyebrow. "Me? And what don't you get about me?"

       "You are a year younger than Justin," Dalton said. "Only a year. Yet you're not struggling in your English class even though you started learning English the same time Justin did." He glared at Lenora. "Are you an imposter? What happened to the real Lenora?"

       "Oh, I kidnapped her and she's currently being held in my secret hideout," Lenora said. 

       "Where is this secret hideout?"

       "Well, if I told you, it wouldn't be a secret, now would it? But to answer your real question, I actually don't have an English class the semester. I can't struggle in a class I don't have."

       "Fair point, fair point."

       Amanda suddenly walked up to our table, sitting down at one of the few empty spots left. "I've been looking everywhere for you guys," she said. "Literally everywhere."

       "You're always on your cell phone so how come you never just text me to ask where we are?" I asked.

       "Okay, so I really wasn't looking for you guys everywhere," Amanda said. "Too much work. I just bought my lunch here and got lucky to see you all sitting here. So what are we talking about and can I join in on the conversation? Or better yet, can we gossip about how annoying Nia is?"

       "Nia?" Lenora asked. "The new girl in our dance class?"

       "Lark and Amanda's ex-best friend," Dalton said. "And let's just say that the friendship ended in an ugly way. Mainly because Lark was involved and she's ugly."

       Justin snorted. "One, she's pretty freaking gorgeous. And two, she's your twin sister."

       "Fraternal twin sister," Dalton said. "Twins of opposite sex can't be identical so I can insult her all I want without also insulting myself."

       "Well, you're not going to want to insult her," Justin said.

       "Awe, you're such a protective boyfriend," Dalton said. "So cute. And to change the subject because I'm bored and because I can, you're still going to play at the next game, right?"

       Justin sighed. "I don't know if I'll be allowed to."

       "You're not failing the class," I pointed out. "The only way team members can't play is if they're failing the class overall. You're not. You should still be at your C plus, or at least a C."

       "Besides, even if you were failing, I have my ways of convincing the coach to let you play anyway," Dalton said. "After all, I am the captain. I know my way around the hockey team."

       "And by having your ways, you mean annoying the coach until he agrees to it?" Lenora asked.

       "Hey, if it works, it works," Dalton said.

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ugh i missed justin and lark. this is only their 4th chapter but they're already my favourite straight ship. (only because i've had these babies for five years now. i just never started their story until recently)

notice how i have to say straight couple because otherwise, they wouldn't be my favourite. JERLAN IS STILL HOLDING THAT SPOT AND THEY WILL HOLD THAT SPOT FOREVERRRRRRRR.

i need to update this more. i started the book because my real life otp broke up and i was sad, but they got back together like two weeks later so i was no longer sad lol