Just before I get into the chapter, Mary Williams is the OC of foldintothenight.
Phil, Alex, and Kaitlyn made it to class in time enough to not be counted tardy by their Biology teacher, Mr. Van Dam. Mr. Van Dam was different from most of the teachers in the sense that he was a bit more relaxed than they were when it came to establishing a relationship with his students. For instance, he was fine with students turning in work late as long as they weren't too late with turning it in for a grade. Also, instead of having the students call him Mr. Van Dam, he preferred it if the students called him by his first name, Rob. There were many students that still opted to call him Mr. Van Dam, but most students decided to go with calling him Rob. Because of his laid-back attitude, Rob had a great reputation with his students, as well as other students across the school for being one of the most chill teachers to get along with. This was why Phil liked Rob so much as a teacher. If he was falling a little behind in class, Phil could at least count on Rob to work with him on setting up dates for turning in assignments.
As the three made it to class, they walked over to join up with the friends that had Biology with them, Cody Rhodes, Mary Williams, Daniel Bryan, and Kofi Kingston.
"Well, it's about time you three showed up," Kofi said.
"Sorry for cutting it a bit close. We kind of got held up in the halls," Phil said.
"What happened? Did Alex get into another fight?" Mary asked.
"No. And, I'll have you know, Mare, Ryan was asking for it when I punched him in the nose. That man-beast should know better than try to look up a young lady's skirt and make passes at me when my boyfriend is standing less than a foot away from me," Alex said.
"He should know better, but did you really have to tackle him? I mean, I'm no fan of Ryan Reeves myself, but did you really have to beat him up so bad that he had to get stitches in his lip?" Mary asked.
"Mare, I'm sure you would've done the same thing if you were in my shoes and he was making passes at you while Ted was with you," Alex said, sticking her tongue out at Mary.
"Hmm, I guess you're right about that, Alex. After all, no one comes between me and my man," Mary said. "So, to change the subject before my anger flares up, what really held you guys up? We were starting to think that maybe you guys were going to cut class today."
"Phil got distracted and stopped in the middle of the hall when we were headed this way. Me and Alex circled back to see what the big deal was, only to see Eve Torres and the Bella clones picking on some poor defenseless kid," Kaitlyn said. "So, being the good students we are, me and Alex approached them and decided to let them know not to pick on students that can't fend for themselves."
"Haha. Looks like you two were trying to get your good deeds for the day done early," Mary said, laughing. "So who was the kid you two helped out?"
"It was that April girl in here with us. I can't see her right now, but she should be in here. She sped off so fast, we didn't even get the chance to invite her to come and sit with us," Alex said, shrugging.
"Well, can you blame her, Alex? I mean, imagine getting saved from bullies by two girls and both of those girls have some of the craziest hair in this entire school," Kofi said.
"Whatever, Kofi. Not all of us can grow our hair out into freakishly long dreads, now can we?" Alex asked.
Looking over to see Phil reading through the pages of a book, Daniel asked "Hey Phil, what are you reading over there? Is it a new issue of The Walking Dead?"
"Huh? Oh no. It's that April girl's notebook. She ran off before I could give it back to her, and my curiosity got the better of me, so I decided to read some of the stuff she wrote in here," Phil said.
"A personal notebook? Phil, I don't think it's the best idea to read through something like that. For all you know, you could be reading her diary or something," Daniel said, a slight authoritative tone lacing his voice.
"Relax, Danny. I mean, how could you resist the urge to want to read something like a personal notebook? Plus, the stuff she wrote in here is some pretty awesome stuff. Better than some comic books I've read before," Phil said.
"Oh, come on, Phil. Like you, I consider myself to be a fine connoisseur of comic books and other kinds of reading, but there's no possible way that a bunch of stories written by some random girl are all that great," Daniel said.
"You don't believe me? Well, here. Start at the top of this page and read all the way to the end of it," Phil said, handing the notebook over to Daniel.
Taking the notebook, Daniel decided to look at what Phil told him to read. At first, he couldn't seem to figure out what the big deal was about the stories in the notebook. But, after he reached a certain point in the story, Daniel was hooked on what he was reading. He almost didn't want to put the notebook down, but Phil snatching it from his hands snapped Daniel out of his intense focus on the story he was reading. "Hey, no fair! I was just getting to a good part!"
"Too bad, runt. I found it, which means, I get to read more of it," Phil said.
Looking over at the two boys, Kaitlyn said "Now, I know I haven't been paying much attention to what you two were talking about over here, but it seems like you both are pretty excited about something."
Phil and Daniel weren't even aware that their argument had gotten so out of hand, so when they saw that Kaitlyn and the others were watching them, they both tried to hide the looks of guilt on their faces. Phil then said "Well, we weren't really talking about much, but if you guys must know, we were talking about something we were reading."
"What were you two reading over there?" Mary asked.
"Well, you know how Alex and Kaitlyn said that they helped that girl April this morning with her mess with Eve and the Bellas?" Phil asked. "She took off for here so fast that she forgot one of her notebooks. Upon taking a closer look at it and reading through it, I've been finding that there's more to April Mendez than we once may have thought."
"What exactly could you mean by that, Philly?" Mary asked.
"What I mean is that April's got some serious writing chops. I mean, there's stuff she's written in here that's better than most of the best that's popular to read," Phil said.
"So, does this mean that you've finally found a prospective partner to write the story for the comic book that you want to do for the contest?" Alex asked.
"I believe that's exactly what it means. Now all I need to do is ask April if she'd be willing to be my partner," Phil said, as he and the others turned their attention to Rob as he began his lecture for the day.
…
April sat through Biology while Josh talked with her about their upcoming projects in Mr. Cole's class.
"I'm just really hoping the people that I get grouped up with will at least pull their weight with the work. The last thing I need is for there to be a repeat of Digital Media with Mr. Bradshaw and the infamous animation project," Josh said, as a visible shudder went up his spine.
"I'm pretty sure Mr. Cole will let us pick our groups. Maybe if we're lucky, we'll get put in a group together," April said, smiling reassuringly.
"Hopefully, you'll be right. Would you believe that Ryan Reeves tried to shove me into a locker before I came here?" Josh said, as he rubbed his right shoulder.
"He did what? Josh, that's horrible. Did you at least tell anyone?" April asked, concerned for her friend.
"There wasn't any need to. Before I could try to yell for help, one of the Hardy boys and one of their friends pulled Ryan off of me and made him leave. I may have overdone it a little when I was thanking them, but I felt the need to let them know how grateful I was," Josh said, blushing a bit.
"Do you remember which Hardy it was and which one of their friends it was?" April asked.
"Umm, if I remember right, the Hardy that helped me was the one that doesn't dye his hair and their friend was that guy they call JoMo," Josh said.
"Wow. That sounds a bit like how my morning's been. I was leaving Mr. Cole's class to go to my locker when Eve and both of the Bellas cornered me. Eve slapped my books out of my hand and they just laughed at me until two of the girls in this class with us came and saved me," April said.
"Eve's always scared me a little. She just seems way too high maintenance to be a student in high school," Josh said. "Do you know who it was that helped you out?"
"It was Kaitlyn Bonin and Alexis Hardy. They both seemed to be nice enough to help me out, but it kind of startled me when they asked if I wanted to walk here with them. Then, once I manage to get away from them, I walk around the corner only to bump right into Phillip Brooks of all people," April said.
"Kaitlyn's pretty cool and Alex is really nice, but it still confuses me when I think about the fact that they're both somehow friends with Phil. Don't get me wrong. Phil's pretty cool, but he's just a bit too hardcore for people like us," Josh said, adjusting his glasses.
"I know what you mean. It just felt so weird having those three fuss over me, so I peeled out of there as fast as I could. Which reminds me, I have to check to make sure I have all of my things. I ran off so fast, I forgot to double check to make sure that I had all of my stuff," April said. Going through her backpack, April saw that she had all of her pencils, her house key, her textbooks, and her notebooks. However, a closer look showed that she didn't have her journal. Taking her things out of her backpack, April's biggest fears were realized: she lost her journal where she had been writing down stories.
Looking over to see April slightly panicked, Josh asked "April, what is it? You look like you've just seen a ghost or something."
"No, no ghosts over here. I'm just extremely freaked because I seem to have lost my story journal," April said, trying to keep the panic from her voice.
"Your story journal? Oh man, that's not good. After class, I'll help you retrace your steps before we go to lunch. With the two of us on the look for it, I'm sure we'll be able to find it," Josh said, reassuringly.
Hearing what Josh had to say, April settled back in her seat and went back to paying attention to what Rob was lecturing about. While she was feeling better that Josh said he'd help her look around for her journal, April couldn't shake the creeping feeling that someone may have already found and read what was in her journal. If that were to happen, then April felt she would never be able to show her face around school ever again.
Phil and Daniel are such nosy boys, aren't they? Now, bear with me because next chapter's going to be when Phil and April have their first actual conversation with each other, so stay tuned. Don't forget to R&R please.