Hello lovelies! Glad to be updating again. Life's been very up and down, but I'm doing well right now. Unfortunately, due to having a full time job and severe ADHD, I almost never get around to writing, so it takes a long time to update. I hope you can bear with my very slow update schedule. Anywho, enjoy!
The rest of the morning was about as predictable as any other day. After showing Rayla to her class, he then went to his own. He sat down, and tried to focus on what Professor Fen was saying. Keyword there being tried. No matter how hard he tried to focus, his mind continued to wander. No matter how hard he tried to take notes, his hand would refuse to do anything but sketch. Rayla, that is. His hand would do nothing but sketch Rayla. Rayla was all that would occupy his mind.
And so the day went on. Get to class, sit down, try to focus, sketch Rayla. The cycle repeated itself twice more before it was time to go to lunch. Callum was never like the typical student, who's daily highlight was lunch. It was great, don't get me wrong, but nothing spectacular. And of course, he would spend it with Claudia and Soren. He always had. It was tradition by now. Callum, as per usual, was the first person to sit down, since his third period was closest to their table. He pulled his lunch out of his bag, and as if on queue, Soren plopped down next to him, and punched him on the arm.
"How's it going Cal'?" He said with a grin.
"You know that doesn't hurt any less than it did the last time, right?" In spite of the sore spot on his arm, Callum was grinning back at his friend. "But aside from that, I'm doing… fine."
"What's with the tone, man? I might not know much, but I know that's not the tone of someone who's 'fine'." He accentuated his 'fine' with air quotes. "So what's eating ya?"
Callum sighed deeply. "I'm that easy to read, huh?" He was rewarded with a nod, and a 'go on' sort of gesture. "Well, I guess I just have been really… distracted is all. I can't focus on my classwork, I can't take notes, all I can actually do is draw, and of course all I can draw is-" He cut off as he saw Claudia practically running towards them. But that wasn't what caused him to stop. What caused him to stop, and caused his heart to jump out of his chest, was who Claudia was dragging alongside her.
Rayla.
"O-M-GOODNESS! Guys, you are never going to believe who's in my chem class!" Claudius gushed.
Soren turned around at the sound of his sister's voice. "Whoa there sis, take it easy. And I'm gonna have to guess it's the girl you're holding hostage?" He smirked at his younger sister, who proceeded to stick her tongue out at him. To think she was a junior in high school.
"First off, I'm not 'holding her hostage', we're friends now, so I offered to let her sit with us. And secondly, this is Rayla. You know, the foreign exchange student!"
Rayla smiled, tilting her head as she did so, and waved at the pair. "Nice to meet you… " she trailed off, looking towards soren.
"Soren," he said, extending a hand out, which Rayla shook. "Nice ta meetcha."
Rayla smiled as she released her grip. "Good to see you again, Callum," she said as she turned towards him.
Callum, of course, had already entered panic mode. "I, er, uh, I mean, its uh, good to see you too!" he said, way too loudly. He chuckled awkwardly, and waved.
Rayla giggled, which made the butterflies in Callum's stomach move twice as fast. Soren smirked at him, waggling his eyebrows knowingly, which didn't make the situation any better.
Claudia sat next to Soren, leaving the seat next to Callum open for Rayla, which she graciously took. Great. As if Callum wasn't nervous enough already.
"Wait, how did I not know that you two had already met?" Claudia seemed exasperated.
Rayla spoke before Callum could, "Well, to be fair, you didn't give me much a chance to talk once you decided I'd be sitting with the lot of you." She was smiling with amusement, so they all knew there was no ill will in the comment.
Of course Claudia, being Claudia, put on her best pouty face, and fake grumbled, "Well when you put it that way, it makes me sound like the villain here." Her fake pout didn't last long, of course, and was followed quickly by her boisterous laughter. Boisterous, and contagious.
Within a minute, they were all laughing and talking like they'd known each other their whole lives. Although, to be fair, three of them had. However, throughout the conversation, Callum was quiet, only speaking when he was addressed. It wasn't uncommon for Callum to be quiet, but never this quiet. This wasn't lost on either Claudia or Soren, but they chose not to mention it until later. But it will be mentioned later.
"So, Callum?" Rayla turned to talk to him.
"Huh? I mean- uh- what's up?" Dang it! Why can't he keep his wits about him around Rayla?
Rayla chuckled lightly, a sound that sent Callum's heart fluttering even more. "I was just goin' to ask for your help again. I'm starting to get to know the layout here, but I have no idea where the M buildin' is."
"Oh, um- yeah. I have class in the M building too. It's a weird one to find, that's for sure, so I'm happy to help you out. You'd think it'd be by the L building, right? But nope. It's clear around the corner and a ways away. Which class do you have there?"
"It's…" She paused as she checked her schedule, "Culinary with Mr. Barius in M-215" She slid the page neatly back into her binder, tucking it away in her bag.
"Oh, perfect! That's exactly where I'm headed, so you can just come with me!" Callum said. He felt a nudge to his right, and looked over to once again see Soren waggling his eyebrows. Callum said nothing, elbowing him back. He turned back to Rayla, then said "If you'd like, I can show you where the rest of your classes are before lunch ends. There's only a few minutes left anyway."
"That would be great! I know where one of them is, since I've already been in that building, but I could really use a hand finding the Q building. Aside from that, it's just Culinary." Rayla slung her bag over her shoulder, before standing up and waiting for Callum. He was up shortly after, and they walked off.
Soren watched their backs slowly shrink as they left the cafeteria. "Huh. Looks like Callum's got himself a new girlfriend!" He laughed as he turned in his sister's direction. "Although, I suppose it would be his first girlfriend."
Claudia almost spat out here drink at this. She swallowed, then said, "Pffft, whaaaaat? Callum? And Rayla? Naahh. Not yet anyway…" There was a mischievous glint in her eye.
"Clauds, please don't go causing trouble." Soren sighed, recognizing the scheming look.
"Pfft, what? Me? Never…" Claudia waved her hand, but her tone of voice gave away her mischievous intent.
As Callum walked out of the cafeteria with Rayla, he felt moderately nervous. Why did he feel nervous?! He just didn't get it. It made no sense. He was just helping a new friend find her classes. A very… pretty new friend, with an amazing laugh, beautiful white hair, pretty purple eyeliner…
"-lum? Callum?" Callum shook his head, realizing he had zoned out while staring at Rayla's face.
"Sorry, what was that? I was distracted by… something." He spoke, once again, too quickly.
"Yeah, I noticed. Did you zone out or something?" She laughed slightly. The look in her eyes was one of knowing, which Callum did not like. He hoped that she couldn't tell what he was thinking. "Anyway, tell me about Mr. Barius. What's he like? So far I've had nothing but decent teachers."
"Oh, yeah, for sure! He's pretty laid back. He never fails anyone, as long as they participate. It's primarily a hands-on type of class, except for Mondays where we go over food safety. Thankfully, today's Tuesday, so you get to start with the fun stuff."
Rayla smiled at his words. "Yeah, they wanted to get me here yesterday, but paperwork and yada yada boring stuff. The important thing is hands on with food! I do enjoy cooking. Of course, my cooking is different from anything I've had since I got to Katolis, so I'm excited to learn about the food here!"
"Yeah! Maybe you can teach me some Xadian recipes sometime?" He stopped and pointed as they passed a building. There is a faintly visible outline of the letter Q on it. "That over there is the Q building. It's not labeled properly, some stupid freshman thought it would be funny to throw rocks at the letter until it fell off, and the school hasn't dropped the funds to get it fixed. I'm sure they will eventually, but not any time soon."
"Perfect, thanks so much. And yes! I'd love to teach you some Xadian recipes. Do you know if there's anywhere around here to buy moon berries? They're native to Xadia, specifically the Moonshadow province, and they are so good! I could show you how to make moon berry surprise!" Rayla was obviously excited at the thought of making something from home.
"Moonberry surprise, hmm? What's in it? Obviously moonberries, but what else?" Callum wanted to see her excited like this more, so he tried to focus on what she seemed to enjoy.
Rayla smirked, which made Callum's cheeks go lightly red. "Well, that's the surprise now, isn't it!" She chuckled, adding, " You can't ruin the surprise in a moonberry surprise!"
Callum smiled a bit. "Yeah, I guess it wouldn't be a surprise anymore, huh?"
"Exactly!" Rayla still was being very animated, which Callum found quite endearing. "What I will tell you is that it's my all time favorite! You'll love it!"
They continued walking, making light conversation until arriving at the culinary classroom. Somehow, Callum had a feeling that this would be a good year.
Thanks for reading! Bye! Till next time when I eventually update again.