DISCLAIMER

The following is a fan-based

FICTION

Las Lindas and other products set in the same universe are all owned by Chalo/Chalosan and SoulKat.

Please support the official release.

Chapter 18: Brain and Brawn (2)

Beta-Reader: Ant0nius

~Hope's POV~

Shin had decided to go back to his room once their duties were completed. With Naerie excusing herself with the fact that she needed to get hold of some papers back in his room, this predicament saw a certain Gazelle Prime that decided to tag along for the walk just to chat.

At least, that was the excuse Hope had used as she carefully planned out a 'brilliant' effort to get an important matter finally solved for once. Something that should be easy to ask considering how much time had passed and 'how unexpecting' the young man was over the matter itself.

Quietly watching as the blond went through his books to recover a couple that would've helped for the next few hours of lessons, the girl's green eyes scanned around for anything that either could've disrupted her efforts or make even things more awkward than she needed them to be. After delivering a soft sigh while mustering up all the courage she had within her heart, Hope spoke up.

"So, how are you enjoying your time at Prism Uni?" The girl asked with a mostly calm voice. "I mean, beyond finding teachers and their subjects nice and all, did you end up making any friends while I wasn't looking?"

Pausing from his little search, Shin looked up to Hope, his eyes shining with a confused glint as he spent the next couple of moments pondering over that query. While it was true that there wouldn't have been a chance for him to have befriended anyone with both her and Frankie keeping an eye over his actions at school, the real reason behind the question was to slowly coax him to talk about his current social life. From there, Hope would've asked about any 'romantic' interests and maybe get some clues on whether her attempts had left a lasting effect on the boy's heart.

"I… I actually met a couple of nice individuals," Shin answered with a quiet tone, drawing a curious look from the fellow Prime at the unexpected answer. "They were from the chess club, and they wanted me to join their club."

Maybe it happened while Frankie was with him. She couldn't recall anything of that kind, yet this wasn't too bad. Making more friends meant that he was going to eventually build some awareness about his social situation and… possibly spot more clues for what she was trying to do with their friendship. Sadly for her, that notion was dashed with a sigh from the younger student.

"I decided to decline the offer. They accepted rather graciously and-"

"Wait, you- why?"

Why would he do that? There didn't seem to be any reasons plausible enough to refuse this opportunity. Sure, the Chess Club wasn't shown nicely by TV comedies, but that didn't mean it was a horrible place where to learn and 'fight' those that had a good grasp on the game. And being familiar with Shin's mind, it seemed odd to wrap her head about this new development. She really needed some answers.

"Uh? Why what?"

"Why did you refuse to join that club?" Hope elaborated with a confused frown. "I thought you would've been happy to be part of a group like that. Didn't you tell me you like chess?"

"I like it… but not enough to join a club dedicated to it," The boy answered readily. "Plus I don't feel like joining a club."

That got a perplexed look out of the girl. "Are you having some troubles with the notes and lessons?"

Despite her mind bringing that up as a possible reason, she already knew that Shin had only recently got a proper handle over that tight schedule. He would still waver from time to time, but not as much as he used to back during a couple of weeks earlier.

"Not as much as I had early on. No, that isn't the reason," The blond responded, confirming her own line of thought. "No, I just… feel like I wanted to do something a little simpler. Something that could become a good hobby even after we're done with our studies."

Now that was a concept that wasn't truly difficult to understand and agree to. In fact, this very reasoning was the same as the one driving her to actually going through her interest with the Singing Club. After contacting the students that were administering it, Hope had decided to set up a little appointment in a couple of days, at least to see what kind of standards she would've to uphold if she wanted to be part of a club of that caliber.

On the same note, Shin was perhaps evaluating the chances of expanding on an interest he knew he could make into a proper job or… even something to back up to in case his first attempt at the difficult world of workers ended up in a failure. Still, her curiosity increased at that comment, and she decided to inquire about it some more.

"And that is? Do you have any specific interests in any clubs in particular?"

He hummed, outright stopping with his actions to give more serious input about the topic. Knowing how devoted he was about these kinds of stuff, the young woman wasn't too surprised by the fact he was actually paying so much effort to get through with it.

"Well, there is the photography club," He pointed out with a sliver of nervousness. "I've heard that once in a while there are contests of different subjects to take a picture of and the best one wins a cash reward."

"I've… heard of that too," Hope admitted, her eyes narrowing as she noticed how 'suspicious' Shin was appearing in that specific situation. "From Frankie. He said he was making plans to join it as well a couple of days ago."

And now the blond was mentioning his own interest in joining that same club. This was enough to remind the Gazelle Prime of a curious situation that was going on involving Shin and Frankie. Something that she wasn't unsure how to tackle without the human's own intervention on the matter.

Shin was, by all means, an independent guy. He would work to find balance in a new situation, make friends when needed, and even stop 'playing nice' if the circumstances called him to do so. He was an all-around good person with many qualities… but also a couple of flaws that weren't non-negligible. Starting from his incapacity to spot any romantic interest was shown to him through indirect means, to the fact he would prefer to stick to a small group of people he knew and trusted instead of trying to reach out for himself for more people to befriend.

This last detail was mostly evident when it came about Frankie. While the human didn't do anything noteworthy in the eyes of many, the fact he managed to treat Shin as a fellow student while also being rather open to support the fellow guy in any difficult situation was enough to warrant some degree of admiration from the younger Prime.

If there was something that was easy to pick up from the blond, it was that he fit the idea of a perfect 'young brother' to anyone that could've worked to obtain that curious surrogacy. Frankie was someone that was helpful with those he cared a lot for, and wouldn't shy away from pressing onwards to know if there was a problem with anyone. This worked well with the fact that their short mutual friend seemed to have an easier time when a comment or a question was delivered in a more direct manner.

With the human being a mix of genuineness and bluntness, that made him a curious element for Shin to keep track on. Not only did Frankie help him when necessary, but he wouldn't shy away from asking for help for himself. That was more than enough to draw them into a pleasant status quo that was not limited by that friendship, but also not too deep to make an awkward siblings duo.

And while these two being this close in such a simple way shouldn't be anything to worry about, the real problem stemmed from the fact that, by being this close to the human, Shin was also easy to follow any initiative taken by the trusty roommate. Like a baby duckling trying to follow around a mama duck, copying anything that it would consider an example to strive for.

In this case, Shin was picking up that club mostly because he knew someone he could put faith behind was also joining that group. The issue here though was that this meant Shin was going to be less inclined in making more friends beyond those introduced by Frankie himself. Thus he was going to be unable to pay attention to her if he was distracted by his own roommate during most of his free time.

"Would you believe it if I said that Frankie's decision to join it too wasn't relevant to this?"

The fact he had to ask instead of confidently following through with that part of the conversation was enough to get Hope to frown at him.

"Nope," She flatly replied. "In fact, I would say you're lying an awful lot over the last few weeks."

"T-That's not true."

"Then tell me that you hadn't been following around Frankie and actually tried to make some friends other than him."

Even though she already knew the answer to that, Hope wanted to believe Shin actually made an effort to get some more people to trust and care about. Maybe it was her love that caused her to speak up in her stead, or maybe it was common sense finally flaring after so long. In the end, this could've been handled much better than like this, especially with how easy it was to get Shin to think about how he was being in the wrong.

"I did?"

She sighed, making a monumental feat by holding herself from facepalming at the response. Even with all the love she had for him, the Gazelle Prime had to be honest with him about this awkward predicament. All for the sake of giving herself the best advantage possible out of this odd circumstance.

"You know better than me that you would fare much better if you didn't limit yourself to only a small group of friends."

"'Small'? I don't think I should try to befriend half of the school to fit that quota of yours, Hope," He quickly remarked, getting a hum out of the fellow Prime.

"I think you're willfully failing to spot an issue with understanding how things are. Most of the new people you might consider friends right now are more… friends to Frankie," The girl delivered the harsh truth despite the fact her chest ached at the fact she had to say this. "He is the one that befriended them first, and the one that they are more accepting of such titles when this is brought up."

"I… I guess I haven't interact much with them much, but-"

"But you really need to have something more than just a handful of us," Hope pressed on with a more determined voice. "You're easily one of the most likable individuals someone could meet. The only thing holding you from actually trying is yourself."

"S-Still, when should I do something like this?" He inquired once again. "I've been busy and… I just can't ditch one of my responsibilities just like that."

"Hm, I think I can call someone I know in our classroom if he can get all notes down while we're busy now-"

"N-Now?" The boy asked in a mix of surprise and confusion.

"Yes, I can't just leave you to try and 'forget' about this conversation once I'm back in my own dorm room. As I said, you really need to make more friends out of this experience. You can't just expect for people to just accept you as a friend on a tiny whim."

…

"F-ine, but can you tell me who is this friend you're going to ask to write down the notes?"

Hope merely smiled, deciding not to reply to that query as she knew that answer wouldn't work well for the two of them. And despite knowing how much of a 'desperate move' it was for her, she still decided to entertain it. So, once she decided to walk out of that room to call her 'friend', she prepared for something quite tough considering she was aiming to employ the services of a lazy individual.

For some bizarre reason, Miles started to sneeze a lot, drawing some attention right at himself as he tried to appear cool with a couple of ladies.

"Are you sure everything's alright, Tiggs?" I asked with a confused look, trying to make sense of why the girl seemed so unfocused today. The young woman merely sighed, a little dejected for some reason, and her capacity of answering questions on the matter was met with a tired look and either a shrug or a long sigh. In the meantime, I tried to keep our station working properly as we went through the latest lecture with Professor Cracco.

Differently from the last couple of lessons we had with him, the older Prime had decided to move something tamer. Today we were supposed to try and prepare some steaks. Those weren't meant to be sampled by anyone except the teacher himself, with the man bringing up how this was perfectly normal to find during culinary contests. The plates would barely be tested by the judges, all for the sake of not wasting too much time in the voting phase of these competitions.

By bringing this topic up, he also went through a heated rant about his rival and 'enemy' from time to time. I had heard about Alsadia and her culinary school, but I was caught off-guard when I realized that the two had been at each other's throat for decades now. Both were incredibly talented and experienced chefs, but I wasn't sure how and why these two came to hate each other this badly for so long.

A surprise to be sure, and one that did little to soothe my current worries about my usual partner. So while I kept attentive enough to still understand what the main theme of the lecture was about, I still had to give a solid look over the task at hand and the current plight left by the Tiger Prime. Tiggs looked rather defeated, her mood and presence in the station reaching an almost brainless state. She still worked on a small section of the counter, but she was only making the minimal effort compared to what I knew her to be capable of.

The more I looked at her, the more I could tell that I was somehow implied to the cause of this, especially with the couple of looks she spared in my general direction from time to time. I was still recovering from the jogging session I had gone through with Vixy, my head still hurting a little at how intense her efforts to make her interests were. The more I interacted with the Fox Prime, the more I was compelled to find Hope as fast as humanly possible to ask her to stop giving the fellow girl these kinds of ideas.

I could appreciate the drive, but I was slowly growing uncomfortable by how pushy and flawless her efforts were being at the moment. It would've been a brilliant way to be interested in a proper date, but knowing what was going on in Traci's mind, I couldn't allow myself to do that to her just yet.

"Tiggs… come on, don't make this more difficult. Did I do something to get you this angry at me?"

"I'm… not angry," She muttered distractedly. "I'm just… angry at myself."

"But why?" I pressed with some extra worry in my voice. "I want to help you."

"I… I know. It's just that I did something silly that you might not like."

"I will not be angry."

"You should be," She shot back with a sigh. "It has to do with… Vixy."

...Could it be that-

"Did you perhaps tell her how to talk with me with… confidence and a general sense of understanding about how I act?" I inquired, getting her to look even more terrible at that reminder. "I'm not angry at this. This is just a minor annoyance at best."

"I shouldn't be helping that misconception," The big girl reminded with a sigh. "Yet I spoke too much, and she ended up inquiring about anything she could use to get your attention when I mentioned knowing a lot about you."

"If it can help, I can say it was a piece of some very good advice you gave her. She had me on the edge most of the time during jogging," I admitted, getting a small snort out of her.

"It doesn't, but I'm glad to know I'm not wrong about the kind of girl you find interesting."

I nodded. "Well, I'm happy that I have someone that knows me so well then. Now, I feel like I should make my own effort to see what puts you in a good mood."

"Good luck with that," Tiggs muttered quietly. "Right now, I'm very gloomy and sad and-"

"Rather melodramatic. I was planning to give you a hug."

She frowned at me as I said that. "And now you're not?"

"I will hug you later. Once I'm sure you're ready for that embrace."

…

"If I say that I wouldn't mind if you went for it now, would you do it?"

My smile widened. "Is that an invitation."

…

"Yes."

I chuckled, halting with my current tasks for a brief moment just so that I could reach and give her a quick hug. She hummed, enjoying the closeness for a moment before sighing tiredly.

"I thought you would've hated the fact I'm literally making your life harder," The Tiger Prime admitted. "You know, helping Vixy with that whole situation-"

"I know you're doing this because you're close with her too. I don't mind this since I know you don't intentionally mean it as a way to annoy me… and I appreciate your honesty," I added with a nod. "I swear, your sweetness will never stop astonishing me."

She huffed, her cheeks flaring a pretty red. "That's mean."

"Why? I'm telling the truth."

A groan left her lips as she had to concede on that point. Eventually the station started to regain momentum, our pace picking up as we made the proper number of steaks that the teacher had requested from us. Time passed by rather quickly, with no more issues coming up as we passed the test with flying colors, getting a round of applause from the classroom as Professor Cracco ended up relenting and allowing the others to try out the steaks we had made.

Still, as we prepared to leave the classroom with the rest of the students, we found ourselves stopped by the teacher himself.

"Mr. Parker, Ms. Biggs. I believe we have a long-overdue conversation between the three of us."

We did stop, walking up to the man's desk while looking at him with confused looks. I couldn't remember anything I did that could be worthy of this situation, and for a moment I thought it might be something to worry about with how intense the professor was looking at us.

"If you both remember, I had to wait confirmation before giving you an answer over the chances of you two being hired as chefs at Shark Bites," The Dog Prime explained with a sigh. "The owner was interested in this possibility, but still had to give me a day when she was available to have you two interviewed for the job."

"I almost forgot about that," I admitted sheepishly, with Tiggs following my example by nodding in agreement to that awkward realization. These last days were full of so much stuff that I couldn't keep up with everything. "Still, I guess she gave you a date for us to visit."

He nodded. "Tomorrow, between the lunch shift and dinner shift."

I was surprised by the timing, but before I could say anything about it, I was beaten to it by the Tiger Prime.

"I don't have cheerleader practice, so I should be able to do that," She said as her green eyes shifted to look at me. "Are you free tomorrow?"

"Yes," I muttered. "Just a little surprised by how close it is, but I guess the owner has her hands busy with her job."

"Yes, she is rather busy most of the time and has to rely on her workers to get the property running smoothly and without any major issues," The professor admitted. "Still, she was able to make time for a simple interview with you two. Pass it, and the job is yours."

"Understood, sir," I muttered with a nod.

Tiggs was smiling mirthfully at the news. "Yes and… thank you, sir."

"For what? You still have to go through the job interview. The first one at that."

Yes, that was going to be quite a problem. While I did have experience with part-time work in the past, I've never had a serious job interview until that very point. Dad's reputation and my own were enough to make me stand out as a trustworthy and capable individual, but it was mostly because those weren't jobs that require much education or anything specific.

Still, it was an opportunity I wasn't planning to waste. Especially with how important that could become for both Tiggs and I if we went well through that interview.

Just as we ended up accepting this, the teacher's expression and demeanor seemed to change into something more serious. The sudden switch got us to tense up again, and this time we knew that something important was soon going to be said.

"I have a big favor I need to ask you."

"Sir?"

He gave a quick nod, then a sigh.

"Around summertime, there is going to be a culinary competition between Prism Uni and Alsadia's Cooking School. It's a yearly appointment that is usually a reason to receive funds for the cooking classes here in this school and the two schools have been rivals ever since Alsadia decided to create this independent establishment," The man explained with a serious tone. "I would normally not allow young students to compete, but considering how well you've fared until now and from the potential I can pick up from the last few tests, I can tell that you might have just enough to bring us to victory."

"So… how does that exactly work?"

"I will set up a schedule of extra lessons after Christmas Break. I will help you learn even more than what the class usually teaches so that you will be ready to take on the challenge with a determined smile on your faces and pride at heart," The professor continued with a nod. "I know this will be tough and that might sound like I'm asking a lot from you, but I believe you two can do it."

"This… is a tall order," I pointed out, looking up to Traci for confirmation. The girl nodded silently and I resumed my response. "But I suppose we can give it some thought. Do we need to give an answer now or-"

"You can think about your responses until the beginning of Christmas Break. I would prefer to receive it a couple of days before that, if it's not asking too much from you two."

"We will keep that in mind," The Tiger Prime commented quietly. "It's a big step, but I feel confident the answer will be positive. We just need to..."

"Check if this new task would not be too much for our current situation here at Prism Uni," I concluded for her.

Professor Cracco nodded, smiling happily at those responses.

"I'm glad to hear that. Then I will await with interest how your interview will go tomorrow," He added with a friendly tone. "Also, I wish to say I'm sorry I might have taken away too much from your time together. I glad to see a young couple forged through a love for cooking-"

"Sir, we're not a couple," Traci quickly pointed out, drawing the man to a confused look.

"What?"

"We are… not dating," I slowly replied. "We're just really close friends."

"Oh? Is that so?" He muttered with a dejected tone, looking at the desk with a defeated look. "This is… quite a surprise."

"Is that a problem?" I asked with a confused look, noticing how his mood had deflated at the discovery.

"Not for you. Just… my wallet might not be feeling well for the next few days..."

That allusion eluded my mind since I couldn't understand why us not being a couple had to do with his wallet. In the end we didn't press for more, realizing that whatever was going on was either too insane or private to warrant any further questions about it.

Still, why did I feel like I should've been angry at all teachers?

AN

Do you want to talk about this?

What is 'this', Hope?

The fact you're making me appear this…

Mature?

I would say with my priorities lied out this well. I didn't expect you to do this kind of work after what happened last time.

*Sighs* I'm not someone that holds grudges.

A pity. Would've make this whole situation a little less… awkward.

Did Ambar really pull you off from one of your concerts just for this?

She actually proposed. I was the one that wanted to check on you.

I… I'm fine.

You don't sleep a lot.

I'm working on it.

I believe your lone working isn't doing it. I believe I will keep around until you get some proper sleep hours.

Now, that's cruel.

Says the one that hid my bikini a while ago to-

Don't say that! I don't want people to know.

...So that I would be forced to stay in the room with you!

Dammit Hope!

Heh~ Gotcha~!