I uploaded an art illustrating the girls' party outfits from the previous chapter. For those of you who have already seen that art somewhere or are close to my (undisclosed) art account, you'll probably recognize my identity haha. The drawing is on the Tumblr site written on my bio, check it out if you're interested. It's in the artwork section, hope you guys enjoy it!
Song: If It's Lovin' That You Want (Rihanna)
Almost four weeks after the party, everyone in school is now adjusted and settled into their new school year environment. A lot of students didn't find it difficult to settle since most of them already knew each other. It's just probably going to be hard for new and transferred students.
All students and faculty staff are currently gathered in the school auditorium, waiting for an announcement to be made. They were told by the principal earlier in the morning that a school guest will be making an important announcement. The whole room was filled with unpleasant noises as everyone conversed with their respective groups until someone in the microphone started to speak.
"Attention everyone!" the school principal, Mr. Brown said, clapping his hands to get everyone's attention.
Mr. Brown continued, "Today, we are honored to be selected by the heads of NYU Tisch School of Arts as they are about to hold something special here this year," he announced. "Let me introduce to you, one of their respected school officials, Mr. Max Pelt!"
Everyone in the auditorium clapped as Mr. Brown offered the podium to the school guest. Mr. Pelt gladly accepted the podium, smiling at all the students in the room.
Dil raised his eyebrows after hearing where the guests came from. He nudged Tommy who was sitting beside him, gesturing that this event might be something for his liking.
"Good morning, everyone, and thank you Mr. Brown for giving us this opportunity," Mr. Pelt started and glanced at his fellow guests sitting behind him on stage. "We are delighted to announce that our annual film contest will be held in this school this year!" he excitedly announced, which was immediately met with enthusiasm and cheers from everyone in the room.
Everyone near Tommy's seat turned to him, looking to see his reaction to the said announcement. The entire school knows that he's a legend at producing and editing films, making this competition perfect for him. Some students even started to shout his name.
Mr. Pelt continued, "The winner of the contest will receive a full undergraduate scholarship at Tisch, which will be a good opportunity for students out there who are seeking a career in the film industry," he explained, already hearing some gasps of fascination coming from the audience. He then politely stepped down from the podium and gave the platform to the principal again.
"Thank you so much, Mr. Pelt," Mr. Brown said, stepping into the podium. "Following that announcement, we're also forming a committee to be in charge of the preparation needed for the upcoming contest," he added, asking the two girls in the front seat to come up to the stage.
The two girls immediately complied with the request and stood up from their seats. One of the girls in particular is already being familiar to some audiences.
"We are thankful to have Miss Williams and Miss Alcroft who already volunteered to be part of the committee," Mr. Brown said, initiating applause by clapping his hands before leaving the podium to the girls. The audience soon followed as everyone welcomed the two girls.
"Oh wow! She is everywhere," Angelica whispered to Susie who was sitting beside her. Kimi was nearby and heard her comment, thinking the same thing.
Rachel confidently took the podium and looked at the audience. Everything is going well according to plan.
"Good morning, everyone. I'm very honored to be a part of the preparation for this contest," Rachel started. "If you don't know, we will be having a premiere night early next year, so everyone will have an opportunity to watch the top entries. We will start accepting contestants later this day for those who are interested. Thank you so much and we hope to see you there!" she announced and smiled at the audience, seriously hoping she encouraged them to join.
After a series of unrelated school reminders, the announcement ended. Everyone headed to the auditorium's exit as they conversed about the upcoming contest. They talked about their school peers and ideas that can potentially win the competition. The gang, on the other hand, only knew one person who can ace the contest and is already eyeing him to join.
"You will get some serious gates for opportunities here, Tommy. You should join the contest!" Chuckie suggested, genuinely wanting the best for his best friend.
"I know! I mean studying college at Tisch? That would be insane bro!" Phil added, fascinated by the idea.
"The organizers of the contest came from a big institution. I'm not really sure how I'm gonna impress them," Tommy responded. "I have to think about it."
Lil chimed in, "It'll be crazy if you don't join this contest. I'm sure a lot of people will be looking out for your entry."
The rest of their conversation revolved around convincing Tommy to enter the contest. Most of his successful films are only made for middle and high school standards. New York Film University is popular in the country and has higher sets of criteria than any other contests he participated in before. It's going to be a long shot, but it will be beneficial in the long run.
The bell over the door of the Java Lava rang as Tommy, Dil, Phil, Lil, and Chuckie entered their usual hang-out place. The café is filled with Halloween-themed decorations in preparation for the said event already getting closer. Other general changes are also visible as the Finsters' decided to add and change several pieces of furniture to accommodate trends. It wasn't very drastic as the interior arrangements are retained to honor their iconic homey look.
Tommy walked to the counter after offering the gang to treat them today. They obviously didn't refuse and were more than happy to save some money. He was just about to choose an order from the menu board above when someone from the counter approached him.
"Hello sir, can I get your order?" Kimi formally asked, not looking directly at him as she was preparing to write the order on the note in her hand. The response is taking too long, so she decided to look up and was lightened up upon seeing him, "Tommy, hi!"
Tommy looked back and smiled at her. "Hey! I didn't see you at school today. Where have you been?" he asked casually, feeling happy that he got to see her today.
"I was busy with some required press activities, so I didn't have an opportunity to eat with you guys earlier. I'm sorry I didn't inform you," Kimi apologized, releasing a sigh. She tried to look away from his eyes as she waited for his response.
Tommy giggled. "It's fine, you didn't have to explain. I'm just curious," he said, comforting her. "I can ease your stressful day by letting you pick any food and coffee you want, my treat!" he smiled, staring at her beautiful eyes.
"You know I can get free food here at any time, right?" she bragged, crossing her arms.
"I know, but I want to experience paying for you just for once," he offered, deciding to flirt by looking at her with half-lidded eyes and lightly biting his thumb.
Why does he have to be so attractive? "If you insist then go ahead, but you have to guess my order so I can consider that as a treat," she requested with a smug face, confident that he can't guess the order she has in mind.
"I will treat you a..." he spoke, narrowly staring at her as she anticipated his next words. "Dark coffee and black forest cupcake," he smirked, knowing he said the right order.
"How did you know that?" Kimi gawked, genuinely surprised by his exact knowledge.
Out of nowhere, they heard another customer shouting from the line.
"Hey! Can you speed it up? I'm starving here!" a customer next to Tommy ranted furiously, getting impatient by the line's lack of progress.
"Sorry, sir!" Kimi said, apologizing to the man before resuming her programmed cashier work. She looked at Tommy in defeat and started to list his orders.
Tommy went back to the table while waiting for their food. He saw the gang venturing into their own little worlds. Lil is smiling at a message she read from her phone while Chuckie and Phil chatted about ways to impress a woman. He's mentally disgusted by all the advice coming from Phil, but it works for him, so he understood why he wants to share it with a guy who had no clue how to flirt.
The bell later rang again as another customer entered the café. Everyone saw it was Angelica, wrapping her arms possessively around a guy nobody in that café seem to recognize. She laughed with the guy as they search for a table for them to sit at. The guy is a few inches taller than her, has brown hair, and is Caucasian.
The whole gang bewilderedly stared at Angelica and her companion as they walked inside the place. Even Kimi who was wiping the counter stopped and examined the guy for a minute. They never saw this guy before, and he seems strangely close to Angelica.
The couple sat on one of the tables near the counter before Angelica stood up again to pick an order.
Kimi missed a chance to personally interact with Angelica as another employee is currently scheduled at the counter. She's wiping the other side of the counter while watching Angelica's movements, failing to notice that water from a small tub was rapidly spilling on the counter. She only noticed it when she felt a damp area upon placing her elbow on the surface. She quickly ran to the storeroom to fix the mess. Tommy saw everything unfold and immediately ran to her, intending to offer help.
"Let me help you," Tommy offered, helping her grab mops and buckets.
Kimi hastily turned to him, "You don't have to Tommy. I can clean this all up."
Tommy tightened his grip on the mop he was holding, "I want to, okay? Now let's go before any of the customers slip there," he instructed, rushing to the counter to start cleaning the mess.
Kimi took a deep breath and shook her head. She figured out she had no choice and just followed him there to quickly clean the mess.
The bell rang again as Susie confidently walked into the café. She immediately spotted Angelica and the unfamiliar guy she was currently having a conversation with and walked to their table. She curiously looked at them back and forth and placed her hands on her hips, preparing to interrogate them. "Care to introduce me to this man you're with?" she asked, watching Angelica stand up from her seat.
"Matthew, this is Susie, my best friend…" Angelica introduced. Matthew stood up and held out his hand for a handshake. "…and Susie, this is my boyfriend, Matthew," she said confidently.
Susie raised an eyebrow and politely shook his hands. There's nothing unusual about him. He's a very good-looking guy, which is not surprising about Angelica. Susie excused herself for a minute to buy her food before casually sitting at Angelica's table.
"She's one of the smartest people around here and will probably be president of this country if she wants to," Angelica giggled, casually talking about Susie with her boyfriend, ignoring the fact that she's on the same table. Angelica took a sip of her Frappuccino before Susie finally dropped her question.
"So, when did this love story begin? You never told me you're finally taking a risk by having a romantic relationship," Susie brought up, remembering the time Angelica told her she wasn't ready to enter a relationship and just wanted to do flings.
"I met him in a chatroom months ago and we got to know each other there," Angelica responded confidently. Susie's eyes bulged, nearly dropping her coffee from what she just heard.
Angelica possessively wrapped her arms around Matthew's neck and continued to speak, "He's currently pursuing a degree to get hired at NASA. He's a really smart guy, am I right Matthew?" she beamed at him and gave him a peck on the lips. Susie was confused by the sight but contained herself to show civility to the situation.
"What year are you currently?" Susie casually asked, holding up her cup of coffee with two hands.
"I just started my first semester in college for this school year," Matthew replied cautiously, getting terrified by Susie's presence. He actually recognized her from the space camp he attended four years ago, but he was not sure if she'll recognize him as they barely interacted there.
Susie comprehended his response and remembered something. "I felt like I saw you before. I've been attending space camps every summer vacation during middle school. Is there any chance you attended some of those?" she asked, putting down her coffee and placing both the back of her hands under her chin.
"U-uh, no. I never attended any of those. I just got hooked on astronomy recently," Matthew answered, nervously looking away from her.
Susie nodded slowly, still feeling unsure about this guy. She's not the type to easily judge a person, but the way he delivers his response sounds very suspicious to her. She decided to keep that judgment to herself and plans to bring it up to Angelica when she sees enough proof that validates her assumption. They then proceeded with more lighthearted conversation as the sun sets.
The gang just came out of their recent classes and is currently walking through the hallway on their way to the cafeteria. Chuckie isn't with them as he's already in the cafeteria, saving them a table.
Tommy's mind was deep elsewhere when someone suddenly bumped into him. He saw a few notebooks fall to the floor and helped that person pick them all up. The person lifted her face, and the gang immediately recognized it was Rachel.
"I'm sorry, I'm kind of in a hurry!" Rachel said, rapidly gathering all the notebooks that were scattered on the floor.
"Hey, what's the rush girl?" Lil asked, leaning down to also help.
"I'm kind of in a hurry to get to our office," Rachel responded. "We're also still accepting contestants for the contest," she added, looking at Tommy.
"Everything going well so far?" Tommy asked, helping her stack the notebooks in her arms. He's still surprised she joined the film committee, but then reminded that she's a very well-rounded person.
"Yes, we already recruited a lot, but you still haven't signed up yet. Are you sure you're going to miss this?" Rachel wondered, staring at him. She clearly remembers him being passionate about filmmaking back then.
Tommy definitely didn't forget about the film contest. He has been thinking about the genre of his potential entry since it was announced. There are a lot of concepts and ideas that have been running through his mind, and one genre is already standing out for him.
Tommy looked down at the floor, mentally finalizing his decision. He won't deny that he's feeling a little pressured about joining the contest. Everyone will be expecting the best from him and he's still unsure how he's going to live up to it. He then remembered all the experiences he went through, helping him finalize his answer.
He smiled, looking up to finally say his decision.
"I'm in!" He announced, already expecting the outburst of reaction he will get from saying that.
Everyone nearby lightened up and gushed in excitement upon hearing his decision. Tommy giggled from the reaction. He grabbed a pen from his pocket and wrote his name on the paper Rachel presented to him.
The competition has now begun.
"Thank you, Tommy. This is a big honor," Rachel said, surprising him with a hug. Tommy was caught off guard and didn't know how to respond.
Tommy turned to the gang to see their reaction. Most of them gave him a sly look, except Kimi, whom he doesn't know is just forcing a smile. Rachel then pulled away from the hug and stared at him momentarily.
"I thought you were in rush to go to your office?" Tommy wondered, hitting her with realization.
"O-oh yes," Rachel responded, stepping out of the conversation. "Excuse me as I have to go!" she said before finally running off to her original destination. The gang got too caught up in their moment and briefly forgot that they were supposed to be heading to the cafeteria.
They started to walk again but were now quiet as some of them don't want to talk about what just happened moments ago. The twins couldn't contain their thoughts and started to express their reactions.
"Thinking about getting back together with your old girl?" Phil teased.
"No, and I don't plan to," Tommy responded honestly, feeling uncomfortable by that question.
"You know, she really got so much hotter now than she was back then. Not that she wasn't attractive then, but still," Lil commented, getting that thought out of her mind.
"Now that we know Tommy is not interested in her, I might try to perform some of my moves on her sometimes," Phil commented, wiggling his eyebrows.
Lil cringed, playfully punching her brother's arms, "You're really a certified flirt!"
They finally got to the cafeteria and were presented with groups of students already eating at their respective tables. The whole place was packed as usual. The gang quickly headed to the counter to get their meals before searching for Chuckie.
As they silently walked through the crowded place, a woman from a table they just passed by suddenly grabbed Kimi's arm. Kimi was initially surprised until recognized that she was a fellow press editor.
"Miss Finster, I'm glad we saw you here. Some people from the press will have some discussions in this place and we're about to start in a minute!" The woman announced, pointing to an empty chair for Kimi to sit in.
Kimi turned to the gang, "I guess I have to skip lunch with you guys for today. Don't worry, I'll be with you tomorrow," she apologized.
"No need to apologize girl. Now, take your seat before anyone beats you to it," Lil suggested, encouraging her to go to the seat.
Kimi smiled at the gang first before completely heading to the reserved seat.
The gang resumed finding Chuckie, which didn't take long as they immediately saw him waving his hands from an empty table afar. They all gathered at that table and started to eat their lunch.
Chuckie noticed Kimi's absence and started to wonder why she was not having her lunch with them.
"Where's Kimi?" Chuckie asked.
"She needed to participate in a press discussion, so she had to skip lunch with us today," Lil answered, chewing a meal in her mouth.
Chuckie believed the explanation and was actually relieved. He decided now is the best time to talk to the gang about something her sister shouldn't know about for now.
"It's Kimi's birthday in a week and we're planning to have a surprise party for her right?" Chuckie reminded, taking advantage of his sister not being around. He wanted to talk to the gang about his planned surprise birthday party. They just have to do it as subtly as possible to avoid his sister from hearing it.
Luckily, she was too far away from their table to hear any of their conversations.
Chuckie continued, "I expect you guys to be there by seven and maybe bring some gifts if you can."
It has been over a month since he informed the gang about his plans for her sixteenth birthday. A lot of progress had already been made. Chuckie already negotiated with their parents to use the café for that day and the rest of the gang is already in the process of finishing their respective tasks.
Chuckie was satisfied with the progress but wanted to discuss some things that still needed to be done. He then turned to his best friend who was assigned to do his sister's birthday video. "How's the birthday film montage going, Tommy?"
He is personally enjoying working on that film project more than he should be but has no plan to tell the gang about that thought.
"It's doing great. It will probably be finished by tomorrow," Tommy responded excitedly, getting stoked for the event.
The rest of the gang lightened up upon hearing that update. They all turned to Chuckie to offer more help.
"This is exciting bro! Do you still need something more for the surprise party?" Phil asked, feeling the need to take responsibility for the remaining tasks.
"Yes, I still don't know where to buy her Black Forest cake. I've been so busy with academics," Chuckie replied sadly.
"We'll take that task," Tommy assumed. "It will also be a great way to practice your baking, Phil," he added, turning to Phil who's already looking forward to doing the task.
"Okay, so everything was settled," Chuckie smiled. "Just make sure she won't have a clue about this. She just expects a simple birthday this year, but I thought it would be better if we get her a full-blown celebration," he explained, pulling out a note from his pocket to write everything they just agreed on. They then proceeded with their conversation by talking about ideas for gifts that Kimi would like.
Tommy decided to just listen to their conversation, already having the best gift in mind.