C h a p t e r 2 1
p e r v e r t
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NATASHA'S POV

"Ow, my back.." Parul, sat up extending her hands over her back and twisting sideways, "it's beginning to spasm up."    

Watching her, my body coiled up as well. It asked me to extend and help my own clogged up muscles. So I too sat up straight from my slouched state and imitated her.  

Ester looked up at us and then cast a worried look around at all the other girls present in the assembly hall. Scattered over every inch of free space, Working on their respective banners and posters. She turned her wrist over to glance at her watch and then slowly stood up.

"Let's call it a day then. Besides It is nearly 6" she said to us before facing the other girls.

Clapping her hands uproariously to get their attention, she said, "all the hostelers and day scholars can leave now. Any boarders who have other works to attend to are free to go as well. Just remember to sign the attendance sheet before you take off" 

Hearing her announcement and a collective sigh rolled across the hall. Almost all the girls quickly started packing up to leave. 

"Yes!" Trina squealed jumping up with relief. Her red curls bouncing over her shoulders as she did so. She quickly disposed of her brushes, then moved on to carefully place paperweights on the corners of her poster before sticking a still wet post-it-note at the bottom of it. 

"Aren't you coming?" An exited Parul asked me, as she hopped over to where I was working on my banner.

"I invited Josie and Trina over to our hostel to complete our group project. If we submit it before Monday, Mrs. Kerem said she would give us extra points." She continued when I didn't immediately reply.

She like many others had already safely placed their pending works in the corner or passed it on to the remaining boarding girls to work on. 

Josie came and stood behind her holding mine and Trina's bags in her hands, as she waited on us.

I smiled up at them and shook my head no, "you guys can go. I am staying back. I'll leave after I finish this. Besides, I will only really be sitting around while you guys work on it."

The three of them shared ashamed looks, recalling the last time we had tried to work together on the project.
Let's just say they had gotten a little too pissed at me for not getting their ideas for the project and had practically ordered me to stay as far away from the project as possible.

Realizing how my comment sounded like I was throwing a shade, I quickly gave them another reassuring smile.

"Relax it's all good. I know I am a nuisance when I don't get shit. And I really do love getting credit for doing nothing in group projects" I said with a wink. Relief was immediate on their faces.

"Okay then... I'll ask the driver to come back for you" Parul offered, while Josie silently went back to place my bag on the far side of the stage with others.

"Nah... Don't bother. I want to walk back! Just let Mrs. McLean know" I said. 

"Will do!" Parul said, giving me a mock salute.

"Alright then. See you later. Bye!" said Trina waving goodbye.  

"Bye!" Selen, Ester, Kate and I waved back before quietly turning our attention back to our task.

Kate finishing her poster, got up to clean the brushes and came back to help Selen, while I completed painting the word 'Mary' with a dark red shade.

"Finally it's done." Ester sighed admiring her own work with a proud smile.

I crawled over to her side on my knees to check it out. It was indeed impressive. She had very cleverly divided the school emblem into four parts and then painted each one according to the house colors. Further inspecting it I realized that she had painted them in the order of the current ranks. Green color being first, followed by blue, red and yellow. And to make it more alluring, she had then outlined it using golden color.

"Wow! It looks amazing. Good job Esty" I gave her a high five and then caught her hand, "now help with mine."

"Okay, let me first check if everyone signed the attendance sheet," she said, setting aside her poster to dry like Trina had.

The yearly midterm or as everyone in Mt. HoneyTop called it, The Annual Yarra Term— because that's what it is; a crazy term—had sort of commenced.

This midterm held a special spot in the heart of every student here. With only a week more left before the official start of the Yarra Term, everyone was super hyped up and willing to work extra hard to make this year's Yarra Term bigger and better than the previous years.

Unlike the rest of the girls, this was my first time experiencing a semester filled with everything other than studies in a school. none of my previous schools had this system. Maybe that's what made me slightly more excited than them. Throughout these past two weeks, no one would shut up about it. Yarra Term was all anyone talked about.

At school, at the hostel. Even the teachers and the holy nuns seemed in an uplifting mood than usual. And all of their excitement and eagerness was rubbing off on me. Making me just as giddy as them about it.

Yarra Term did sound like an early Christmas gift after all. Starting next week, right after the Badging ceremony, where this year's Head Girl, House Captains, and Department Heads would be announced, the official Yarra Term will begin.

Numerous events and competitions will replace the daily life of homework, tests, and assignments. The school will also have its annual picnic day, founder's day and Fate week.

With the upcoming events and competitions that need to be well organized along with ensuring every student gets enough time to practice and participate,  the school hours will be cut in half. Instead of eight classes per day,  we will only have three-morning classes. With the rest of the day free for students to work on their respective extracurricular activity.

Even those who had no wish of participating, in any event, would be given a free pass to either cheer the other students or leave for their respective, hostel, home or dorm room immediately after the morning classes end.  To top it all off, we would also get to go on our winter break right after we have our Fates at the end of the Yarra Term.

No homework. No classwork. No exams. No surprise tests. No compulsory school uniform. Plus the more events you take part in the more credit points you get. Now, this was what I called the best freaking school life ever. Now, why couldn't they have it for the whole year and not just for one term?

I really understood, why this was the best term of the year for all the three boarding schools now.

Cleaning my paintbrush thoroughly to remove the red paint from it, I simultaneously opened a new bottle of cobalt blue with my left hand. I then took a minute to check out my work so far, before beginning to work on the next part.

The words 'St. Mary School' looked well painted in dark red. The simple font style that Josie had picked out for me, would be easily readable even from afar. All I now had left to do was, paint the Welcome written below it and my banner would be complete and ready to be hung up tomorrow.

This year, Mt. HoneyTop was the hosting venue for the Yarra Term. All the other boarding and non-boarding schools from our region would be coming over here to compete. There was even news traveling around the three schools about Ms. Famina and Father Joseph, with the current dean of St. Terence Mr. Shepherd; having a hard time make staying arrangements for all the participants from the other schools. Apparently, this year the number of participants were said to be triple of what they usually are. Which wasn't a big surprise considering how this year there had been more admissions in every school and more kids participating in more than two events and competitions.

I too had signed up for multiple events and competitions. Almost every St. Mary girl had. No one wanted to be left out. Even those who were not good in any particular field were sighing up for talent competitions or volunteering as assistants to help manage the competitions.

The only ones who wouldn't get a chance to play an active part in all these were the seniors. I truly felt bad for them. I do understand how they had to prepare for their biggest exam yet and were asked to get good grades by everyone, to get into the college of their dreams. Figure out what even was their dream. But it sucked to be on the sidelines. They could still take part and compete in events but only if they were looking to book a scholarship through it or wanted something to add on their college applications. They were still encouraged to come and cheer for the school during tournaments against other schools.

"Which color do you want to do the outline with? White or Black?" Estar asked me suddenly, drawing me back from my own musing. 

"Umm..." I pinched my lips and thought over it.

"I think black. White will look faded from far."

"I was thinking the same."

Nodding, I started coloring the letter W with cobalt blue, when an idea came to me, "Let's do a shadow effect on it too. But like instead of gray we can use silver to give it that sparkling effect. What say?" I asked the girls excitedly.

"Yeah! Great idea!" Kate smiled and giving me a high five.

"I'll start outlining from here then. Since the paint on these letters has dried and then you can do the silver shadow while I outline welcome" Ester offered.

I gave her a thumbs up without looking away from my work. I needed full concentration while painting the sides of the letters. One small slip and the whole banner could be ruined.

This banner was the main thing after all. It's what's going to be hung up in the middle of our great big stage. And stay there for the whole term. I could not afford to screw this up even a bit.

"Sel you are all out of black" Ester whined, looking inside the three bottles of black color that Selen had beside her.

"Well, I did have to paint two side boards. Can't you see the size of them! They are 8 feet tall!" She said, pointing towards the side boards that a group of junior girls were currently busy painting silver and golden stars on.

Ester sighed and turned around on her knees, "does anyone have black color" she asked the other girls.

"Here" I looked behind my shoulders to see a girl from Kate's class pass us a bottle of black color that already looked like it was almost all used.

Ester opened the cap of the bottle and showed it to me. There was only a little color left inside but it looked enough for our work.

"Will this be enough?" she asked frowning.

"Yeah, it will do. We only have to outline the text" I shrugged.

"What about silver,' I rummaged through the scattered bottles of color besides us to see if we had any.

"We need silver!" I yelled over my shoulder to the junior girls who were painting the stars to get their attention, after finding none with us. 

One of the girls started looking inside the bottles of silver besides her and shook her head, "we are all out of silver. We still have a full bottle of gold if you want" she offered.

"No thanks. We need silver" I called back turning back to my banner. "There is already enough gold in this banner. Any more would overkill it." Ester, Kate, and Selen bobbed their heads in agreement.

"I need some turquoise and magenta too. Esty gives me the keys to the storage room, I'll go get us some!" Selen offered, putting her paintbrush down.

Ester quickly sat up and dig inside her skirt pocket for the keys Sister Prudence had trusted her with. Taking out a big set of keys she threw it at Selen, "Its the key number 116" she said, getting back to outlining the letters.

Selen got up and started dusting her black sweatpants while lazily sticking her feet half inside her sports shoes.

"Anyone needs anything, I am going to the storage room," Selen asked the other girls. 

I took in all the dirty brushes I had. Realizing I didn't have any thin brushes that I would require work on the borders of the banner, I asked her to bring me a set.

Few more girls started hollering different color names to her. Some even asked for a particular type of masking tape and colored streams.

"How will I remember all of this" I chucked hearing Selen's hushed complaint and started looking for a piece of paper I had used to plan out my banner in. finding it tucked beneath, Kate's poster I gently took it out and passed it over to Selen.

"Here! Write it down" I said.

She gave me a thankful smile, kneeling down beside me. She picked up the nearest brush beside me and then placed the paper on my back.

"Hey! If you get color on my t-shirt I will kill you!" I poked her nose,  faking a glare.

In truth, my t-shirt was already dirty and covered with God knows how many shades of color.

"Okay," she smiled sweetly as she purposely rubbed the brush on my sleeves. Coloring them red.

"You didn't!" I gasped.

I wrapped my arm around her neck like a hook and painted her nose cobalt blue. We laughed as she in return painted my cheeks too.

"Oh God please don't start a color fight now. If you must, go in the corner. Not here. If you two spoil anything I WILL DEFINITELY KILL YOU TWO!" Ester yelled at us in her 'don't test me' tone; covering the banner with her hands, to protect it from us. 

But it didn't work on us. We both shared a look. The same mischievous idea popping in our heads. Kate saw us and tried to warn Ester but it was too late.

"EST-!"

Selen and I splashed our brushes on her face. Her red and my blue color ended up mixing and covered half of her face in a dirty green. She looked even funnier when she tried to look angry at us.

"Esty you look like Hulk" Kate laughed pointing a finger at her face. Making us laugh harder.

Selen fell into me hollering with laughter as we continued to watch Esty miserably fail at seeming pissed. After a few minutes, she gave up. Dropping her angry expression she wore exasperation instead.

"You lot are seriously worst than kids sometimes!" She shook her head at us three before joining in on our laughs.

I then looked at Kate who was still laughing and dipped my brush in the nearest bottle of color. Ester and Selen quickly caught on and did the same.

"Now it's your turn kit kat," I said making a creepy smiley face. She stopped laughing and gasped. 

"MUHAHAHAHAHA" Selen did a horrible impression of an evil laugh beside me. Making Ester and I throw our heads back in laughter after hearing it. Kate used that opportunity to run off, screaming.

Carefully—to not ruin our banners and posters—we three got up and ran after her holding a bottle of color each.

_______♡_______

Taking a walk alone was such a calming experience. It brought peace to my mind. Made me feel at ease. Which seemed a lot more difficult to find these days.

I wasn't exactly in some really big life-altering crisis or anything. But living under the same roof with Blaze Warner required a lot more stamina and peace of mind then I had originally anticipated. It only got more complicated as each day passed. 

There was this weird tension around us. This awkwardness that would leave me feeling frustrated and annoyed for some reason.

I knew for a fact that he felt the same way. Because we both acted exactly the same around each other. We keep oscillating between ignoring each other's existence and constantly irritating the fuck out of each other through any means possible. Be it squeezing shampoo in each other's toothpaste tubes or using books, pillows, doormats, spoons, or anything on hand really, as a tool to whack the other's head with. 

I wouldn't lie. It did help. Sometimes. 

But most of the time, we were just these two awkward beings trying our best to not look awkward by acting even more awkwardly or brashly. The worst part was, not knowing what gave birth to this awkwardness in us. It can't just be because of a silly kiss. It feels like it was more than just that. I think something had changed in us when we were in Delegres. A change neither of us wanted or knew how to cope with. 

At least these last week, the awkwardness had been somewhat nonexistent between us. Which I think was solely due to the Yarra fever. We were two too busy to pay attention to each other. And that's why even when we were around each other we were too out of it to worry about our uncomfortable thoughts.

At least that's my view of our situation. I have no idea what's going in Blaze's head though. The awkwardness and feeling uncomfortable around each other was understandable. So were his irritations and various mood swings. What kept throwing me off are the moments where he acts and looks as if he is hurting and sad. Or times when he comes off as possessive or jealous. And then sometimes he is just so angry. At everything. It scares me a little if I am being honest.

It scares me because I feel like the Blaze who I thought is a guy who doesn't give a fuck about anything. Looks like this another guy. A stranger who is bottling up a lot many things than he deserves to. And I am afraid that they both will end up hurting the Blaze that I believe is locked up somewhere between these two.

The one I keep seeing glimpses off, every now and then.

"Boom! You see that one!"

I stopped walking and whipped my head from left to right. Where did that voice come from? The road's empty.

Did I imagine Blaze's voice right now?

I took a few more steps ahead and then turned back around to see if he had been following me and was trying to spook me or something. But no matter how hard I looked, there was no one around.

That's it N! You have officially thought about that Duffus far too long than what's healthy. No more thinking!

Nodding at my own pep talk, I took longer steps to walk faster, when I heard it again. Someone had clearly called out Blaze's name this time. But the voice was not his this time. It sounded different. Familiar, but different. 

Curious, I walked closer to the wild tall bushes covering the left side of the road and tried to create a hole to look through them. And that's when I realized that the wild wine like bushes were actually covering up an old secluded and worn out basketball court.

Now, what the hell was a basketball court doing in the middle of nowhere? I picked at the bushes to create a bigger hole to see. Inside I saw two guys running around with a ball but I couldn't make out their face. 

If my ears had heard right, then I knew one of them was Blaze Warner. What was he doing here?

I took two steps back to assess the place. How did they even enter inside? I walked back but saw nothing so I kept walking ahead until I saw a small wired gate with the same wine bushes all over them. The gate was half open though and the wines around it cut and ripped apart enough to let it be opened.

Jogging, I ran inside and found Blaze and Adam laughing at something.

"Adam! HI" I squealed to get his attention. I had been wanting to see him again so bad. 

Spooked by my sudden entrance the boys whirled around surprised. Blaze frowned upon seeing me but Adam flashed me a bright cheeky smile.  

I sighed at the sight of his smile and the way his smile lit up his whole face. He was so cute and his smile always made me want to smile and dance around silly.

"Natasha!... Hey!" He called back and waved me in. I skipped over. My eyes locked with Blaze. He let out an irritated snort. Taking the ball from Adam, started playing on his own, leaving us alone. I rolled my eyes at his back before giving my full attention to Adam. We both took a few steps ahead so we could stand closer. 

"Hey!" I said again.

"Hi!" He said again.

We both smiled at each other. Again.

Then we both got hit by a bush stem in the face by Blaze.

"HEY!"

"WHAT THE FUCK!"

"You two were looking creepy," he said, throwing the stem away.

"Do you want to die?" I crossed my arms, fixing him up with a glare. He looked unbothered by it. He always did this. Every time I tried and wished to have a cute moment with Adam he would ruin it. 

He tucked the ball between his waist and arms and lazily strolled towards me, "Have you started stalking me now? Can't get enough of me Glazer?"

I scoffed at that. "As if! The day I stalk you is the day, I have planned to kill you and stash your body Warner" I said, placing a hand on my hips and doing my best to stare him down, even though I had to look up at him.

"You volunteered for the decorations didn't you?" Adam quickly butt in, pushing Blaze away to make some space for him to stand in between Blaze and me.  

Reluctantly, I looked away from Blaze's still smirking face and looked into Adam's warm grayish blue eyes instead. My smile returned back to my face in an instant. 

"Yeah, how did you guess?" I asked, batting my eyes to look cute.

He pointed at my colored uniform. I formed an 'O' with my mouth before bitting my lips in embarrassment.

He chuckled and asked, "guess what?" He turned around and showed me his back, "I did too!"
It was covered in color and some mud too. Someone had even drawn a clown face in the middle.

"Oh, you did" I giggled.

"Oh, you did hehehehehe" Blaze mimicked me from behind Adam in a ridiculous squeaky voice, while making a weird face.

I glared at him as he stopped dribbling his ball to look at me with a weird look in his eyes that I couldn't quite decipher.

Why does he look angry? 

"Does he trigger your split personality or something huh? You never giggle like that in front of me" he complained. Sounding pissed.

U H... W H A T? Is he trying to start something with me? Is he mocking me? What right does he have to be mad at? What is he even mad about? 

"Why?...did you think you are the type of guy I would giggle over?" I bit back.

Why is he so irritating.

"Why not? All the St. Mary and St. Terence girls do! Do you not know how popular I am among girls in general? Are you blind!" He barked back.

Where did that come from? could he be jealous? No. That's not..

My heart started beating really fast at that thought. I could feel my blood rush to my ears. 

What are you doing stupid heart...Stop it! Quickly think something cleaver.

"Yes but... you see... most affordable goods are often the ones that are more in demand in the market," I retorted back, flipping my hair in attitude.

As soon as I finish saying those words, I feel my heart cooling dawn its pace. Yeah, that's right, just keep biting his tale. nothing to get jumpy over. It's just regular picking. Nothing else. 

"Did you just...Tsk tsk tsk...you are blind and stupid," he said, petting my head in pity, "May God help you poor thing," I scrunched my nose at it and flicked away his irritating hands from my head.

This guy really was too narcissistic for his own good.

As if I had forgotten and just recalled, my eyes darted towards Adam's. He stood four steps away from us now and observed us with musing eyes. His lips pinched to hide his laughter. catching me staring at him, he winked at me and then slowly reached over to pat his friends back in sympathy. Then placed his hands on his face and leaned into me to whisper a secret. 

"Be nice Natasha, we haven't yet told him that he is not a total babe," he said.

I chortled hearing that, while Blaze rolled his eyes at Adam and stalked off to play all by himself. Leaving Adam and me alone.   

"So...do you guys have any idea who Ms. Famina is going to pick this year as the Head Girl?" Adam continued to chit chat, while I placed my bag down beside him and Blaze's, on a dry ditch.

"Yup! We think it's Ester. She is the top student in our class, is already a stand-in prefect at school, plus all the teachers and nuns love her. She is like the best choice really" I said, getting comfortable on a block of concrete that was discarded at the side of the court, "what about you guys?"

"We have three people we think could be the Head Boy this year," Blaze said, joining in on our conversation, "Parker, Adam, and Div."

"I know Parker, who is this Div guy?" I asked.

"Our mascot" Adam provided.

"Oh, the funny knight!" I chuckled recalling him.

"You think Father Joseph will make you the Head Boy?" I asked after a while of watching them chest past the ball back and forth.

"I doubt it," Adam said, passing the ball back to Blaze.

"Why?" I asked. 

"The majority of us think Parker will be the Head Boy" Blaze answered, for him and Adam nodded along.

"Do you want to be the Head Boy?" I further inquired.   

"No, not really. I doubt I have the nerve to check in with Father Joseph every day. Plus I heard a lot of boys voted for me to be our house caption so..." Adam rubbed the back of his neck shyly. 

"That's so cool!" I sang smiling and betting eyes at him.

"What about you? Think you will get any position?" He inquired.

I shook my head no, "who would give me any such responsibility"

"True. Who would trust this crazy bat" said Blaze laughing. I picked a small chunky piece of fallen concrete near my leg and threw it at his back.

"I don't know. All the other positions besides the Head Boy and Head Girl is decided on the basis of votes, "said  Adam picking up his water bottle from near his bag. Taking a gulp.

I pointed at myself, "Yeah, but who would vote for me?"  

He shrugged.  

"You really think people would vote for me?"

"I would," he said. 

I blushed.

he smiled.

"You two sicken me," Blaze said from the side, making gagging noises.

Adam and I both looked at him with annoyance. He rolled his eyes and threw the ball towards Adam in irritation, "If you two are done flirting can we continue the game?"

"Yeah let's see Adam kick your Ass" I hissed, picking up another chunk of concrete to throw at him.

He looked at Blaze with a raised eyebrow and both boys had a stare off, challenging each other with their eyes. 

"Oooohhhh how intense!" I sang before blurting out, "take your shirts off!"

Shit! Why did you say that? 

My filter is broke down!

"WHAT?" They both whipped their heads to the right to look at me with their confused 'the fuck' looks.

"Just kidding, Just Kidding!" I said with a stupid grin to cover it up. 

Once the boys looked away from me accepting my lame attempt of calling it a joke. I covered my face in embarrassment and muttered into my hands with disappointment, "they didn't have to look so offended though."

I looked back up after a minute and found Adam smirking and Blaze muttering "pervert" under his breath. 

They didn't hear that, did they?

They started their match soon after. Blaze got the ball first so he started dribbling his way to Adam's side but before he could ready himself to throw it in the basket Adam snatched the ball from him and rushed over to Blaze's side.

"Yeah, Adam!" I cheered for him, running alongside them with excitement. Blaze did his best to grab the ball from Adam's hands but he did an equally good job of dogging him. They kept going back and forth like that for two whole minutes. Neither of them making a goal.

As a final resolve to take the ball back from Blaze, Adam tickled Blaze in the sides to distract him. I laughed alongside Adam as he finally managed to get the ball from Blaze. He aimed a shot but Blaze too tickled him, making him miss the shot.

The two of them continued to grapple for the ball laughing when I felt the need to acknowledge their current situation. The way Blaze stood hunched over Adam from behind, with his hands around his waist, both smiling as if they were in love gave my head some interesting ideas.  

"Awww how cute. When did you two start dating?" I teased. They both stopped paying attention to the ball and looked up at me with confusion, "You two should do these things behind closed doors though."

"What?"

"huh?"

They asked together, then looked at each other without realizing what an awkwardly close position they were standing in. When they both turned their heads to look at each other, for a split second their noses almost touched. Then both yelped and jumped away from each other. Dropping the ball.

I clutched my stomach hollering with laughter while the two tugged and adjusted their shirts and pumped out their chest to seem more manly.

"You!" Blaze grabbed the ball that had rolled off behind him and aimed it at my head, "you need to get your head fixed pervert."

"Flushhhhhahhhh" I screamed something gibberish and dashed behind Adam for cover.

"Dude move! This one is getting it this time."

I grabbed onto Adam's shirt tightly and hid my head completely behind his back. Making him my human shield, "no Adam don't!" I yelled from behind him. 

Laughing together with Adam. I pulled him away with me as I ran away from Blaze.

"Come out from behind him chicken!" Blaze yelled. 

"Catch me if you can stupid!" I yelled back, pocking my head from behind Adam's laughing shoulder to stick a tongue out at him. 

"You are dead for sure today Glazer."

______♡______
apparently, Blaze wants a head for his ball.