She watched her old circle from across the canteen, laughing and chatting with one another, as if they never cared about her to begin with. She used to sit in the middle of them, laughing about anything from their incompetent teacher to off-colour comments about each other in camaraderie. Now she sat alone, only with a bowl of bland-tasting noodles to accompany her.

And then someone interrupted her mid-sob. She looked up to see Sam across her with a buzzer in hand, displaying his signature ‘worried-father’ look. Warmth radiated from the corners of his face, and this time she decided not to fight off the invasive hand on her shoulder.

“What’s wrong? Why are you crying?”

“Nothing! It’s just, all my friends took my stupid ex’s side and I’m just… alone here with my stupid noodles… and-” She paused. In all honesty, her tone made her sound much more miserable than she truly was. She would only whine in this manner to herself in bed.

“Oh, forget them! This just shows they never really appreciated you anyway. Their loss!” For some reason, his words were always so potent in boosting her self-esteem.

She smiled, wiping another tear away. “Thanks Sam.”

“Anytime. And hey, we can eat lunch together if it helps?”

“Ha… sure.”

If only Sam could take classes with her too, she thought, secluding herself to the back row with the other social rejects of the class. One cocooned herself in a hoodie, and another had his phone poorly hidden underneath his bag. Is this her status now?

To add salt to injury, the class received a huge assignment today. For the past few weeks the teacher had been teeing up an upcoming project for their final examination, nagging them to form teams before the official release of said project. She was already paired up, but unfortunate events now left her groupless. Even the social rejects managed to weasel their way into the other groups as third wheels, leaving her to fail alone.

The teacher made extra care to stress everyone out by outlining its importance. “And if you don’t want to retake this module next year and graduate, you will take this project seriously! Understand, Honey?” Being the teacher’s punching bag didn’t do much to help.

She racked her head for solutions, wondering how she could complete a group project solo, creating an entire short film on her own when her club couldn’t even do so for months. Would she need to resort to cheating, piggybacking off the other team’s works? Or did this spell the end, and all she could do is wait until this module appeared in her schedule again six months later? The pity-party resumed as she thought back to her lonely lunch, and then she found a nifty solution to the problem.

**

Following Sonia’s advice to rehearse lines, the acting process eased up. She continued taking her notes on her methodology, and as she slowly changed her performance, she found the lines delivered to be more naturalistic. For once, she felt like a good actress who genuinely acted. Still, the arguments between Sam and Sonia slowed things down, this time arguing over Sonia’s rejection towards the girl with the terrible script. She had seen this coming from a mile away.

After a few gruesome hours of filming, she made her move. Standing next to Sam as he packed up, she flashed her best smile and requested to pick his brother up with him. He agreed almost instantly, face brimming with hope and lust. It warmed and chilled her heart to know how much he liked her. She could see Sonia watching from the shadows, but couldn’t care less of what she thought.

Sonia held her back for a second, giving comments no one asked for, “Where are you going?”

“To pick up Joe with him, why?”

“Don’t do anything dumb.”

“Oh wow, so I’m dumb? Thanks.”

“Promise me.”

“Why? I don’t owe anything to you.”

Sonia stared deep into her eyes, which shook her to her core. Message received. “Ok… I- ok.”

“There are people doing much worse off than you. Don’t flatter yourself.”

“Ugh.” She ignored Sonia and left.

“Yay!” She clapped her hands together in celebration, now acting as annoyingly adorable as possible. Hooking Sam in with her siren song, she rode off with him to pick his brother up. The trip there made him fluster, causing him to ride more carelessly than usual. She would press her body against his, blending her warmth with his, hitting him in his weak spots.

The child greeted her with slight unease, and they rode back to Sam’s place. She thanked him with a wink as he entered, and watched television with him on the couch. A terrible romantic comedy from the last century played over a deafening laugh track. She wanted to mock him for his entertainment preferences.

“I don’t watch this by the way.” Sam defended weakly. “Our TV subscription comes from our cousin’s, and whichever channels we get is up to them. This is what we got.”

“Oh. Ok.” She stared deep into his eyes. “I kind of like this show, the guy always gets the girl in the end, it’s cute and wholesome.”

“Ha… yeah. I -ahem. Yeah. I like this show too, it’s ahem- really good.”

She shifted her legs about, and saw his gaze divert almost immediately. Both warmth and chills went down her spine. Her gut dropped one level, and she pulled her skirt down. His gaze returned to her eyes. “I wish I had a boyfriend… that won’t cheat on me after a few months, you know?”

“Mhm. Same. I mean, as in, I wish I had a girlfriend that wouldn’t- I’m not gay. And I wouldn’t um- cheat on my girlfriend, future girlfriend, if I had one… you know.”

“Aw! So you’re the loyal type huh?”

“Yeah.”

“That’s kinda my type.”

He made a weird laugh, and excused himself to the bathroom. She pondered a little, and decided to wait a while longer before making the request. She sat on the floor, joining the kid as he played with a depressingly small train set.

“Rawr…” He went, completely ignoring her presence.

“What are you playing?”

“Grr… Ah! Swoosh!” He sent the train flying through the air and back down. She pointed a finger gun at him and fired a round.

“Ah!” He played along, feigning death. “You shot me. Now I died. And now I’m the zombie. Your turn!” He now shot her, and she feigned death too. He giggled.

“Why are you at my house again?”

“Your brother invited me here!”

“Will he cycle to your house again at night?”

“Probably.”

“No!” He crossed his arms. “I don’t want to. I get very tired and your house is very far away.”

“Ok… Well, I can go home on my own Joe, don’t worry.”

Sam returned, and the flirting continued until evening came. With Sam’s endless praises and compliments, her confidence sky-rocketed, and she felt more ready than ever to make her request. She dragged him into the first room she found, sending all the messages the boy wanted her to send. “Sam…”

“Uh huh? What are we- what are we um-”

‘I have this school project where I need to shoot a short film and it’s really hard because I have no one to team up with, could you help me?”

“Oh.” Visible disappointment ensued. “Uh… I mean, would your teacher allow that?”

“Probably not, but she doesn’t have to know, and she won’t. She’s pretty new here, I doubt she knows the school even has a film club.”

“Oh… uh, but if you get caught, you could get expelled! And me too potentially, and I can’t get expelled, I need to get my diploma, otherwise how else will I find work and succeed in the future?”

“Sam, but it’s really hard!” She turned her voice up to eleven. “We’re supposed to film a five minute short film.”

“Ok…”

“Exactly! I don’t know what to do! And if I fail this project my GPA will drop even lower, and I-” She laid down, covering her face.

“Hey, hey, hey, it’s ok. It’s ok.” He got handsier each time she expressed distress. She sat back up, swatting his hand away. Where the hell did his hand wanna touch this time? “I can give you ideas and stuff but I can’t help with like the actual filming or whatever.”

“Ah!” She squealed. “Thank you so much! But I don’t know how to use the camera or whatever.” She frowned dramatically.

“How? Don’t they teach you that in class?”

“Sam! Please help me with the whole thing, please-please-please-please-please-please!”

“I just- it’s cheating!”

She huffed in anger, mind already calculating her second strike. After an evening of television with him, she secretly hailed a cab home as he excused himself to the toilet. She did not want him to cycle to her place again.

**

During shifts, she would be texting him non-stop, ignoring the calls from customers or the warnings from her manager. Carefully however, she would hide her phone whenever Sonia came by to prevent confiscation, and then continued after she left, laying the groundwork for her second attempt.

On the weekends, they would call for several hours, leaving the phone on speaker as they went about their day. He would talk to her about boring technical details of his camera, and she would chime a sound of awe every few seconds in response, which seemed to fulfil him more than enough. Anytime he began feeling down or expressing some doubts about his work, she simply had to mother him with words of encouragement and appealed to his masculinity to cheer him up.

Today, she told the story of her failures in finding a classmate to do her project with. The teacher apologised for her struggles, then chided her for not finding a group earlier despite her numerous warnings, before finally deciding to simply give her an extension on her deadline, and to pe. Sam replied with his condolences, and then her phone disappeared from her hands.

“The manager is calling for you.” Sonia thundered.

She kept her head down as she went to him, receiving a more stern warning now. And then Sonia decided that it wasn’t enough, giving her another scolding, now about Sam instead of her work ethic.

“You two are dating now?” She began, holding her phone up which displayed cringe-inducing flirts.

“Tsk. If you’re just gonna judge me, can you not? This doesn’t concern you.”

“Yeah it does! It concerns you so it concerns me!”

“Ok… Mom! Give me my phone back.”

Sonia kept it in her back-pocket. “Break up with him.”

“No! He would hate me.”

“So what? You actually like him now?”

“No… I mean, I don’t know, he’s nice to me okay? Unlike someone.”

“Look, I know breakups are hard, but don’t do something stupid just because you feel a little lonely?”

“Wow, a little lonely? That’s the understatement of the century.”

“You promised you won’t do anything stupid!”

“And this isn’t stupid! I know what I’m doing.”

“Do you?”

“Give me my-” The two engaged in a cat-fight over her phone, throwing hands at each other in a mess. Sonia pulled her punches, hesitant to subdue her during work, and let her win. “I know what I’m doing. Ok? I do! And you’re wrong about Sam, he’s not insane or whatever you say, he’s just nice okay? Plus, it’s not like he can beat me in a fight anyway.”

“What? You got a black belt?” Sonia jabbed.

“No, but- whatever!”

A blast of cold air wafted from behind, and ominous eyes radiated from its source. The manager sent the message with zero words needed, and the two frantically returned to their duties in shame. After their shift, the two would receive a reprimand, and had to clean up the whole restaurant by themselves as punishment. .

**

On her second visit to his house, she invited him into his parent’s bedroom with a few winks, and played the final card in reluctance. She knew this might result in collateral damage, but all other options had been exhausted by that point.

“Sam… Do you like me?”

“Wh-huh?”

“You know… do you have a crush on me?”

“Why are you asking this?”

“Because I don’t know… you’re always so nice to me… and you keep looking at me all the time.” It’s creepy, she thought. “It’s kind of obvious… and sweet.”

“I- well- I- uh- ah- a little?”

“A little! Only a little?” She feigned frustration. She knew the crush was beyond simple butterflies in his stomach whenever she walked by, but she had no clue on its intensity.

“Ok, ok, a lot. A lot. I can’t stop thinking about you.”

“You can’t?” More chills. She now regretted playing the card, but she couldn’t possibly take it back. This project dangled expulsion over her head tauntfully.

“I like you. Yeah, I’ll admit it. I really like you.”

“Aw! Sam! That’s so sweet!” She grew more concerned than ever. This would be the first time a romantic attraction from a boy startled rather than flattered. Or maybe it was both? “Well… I mean, I don’t know. That’s what Ryan said when we first started dating… and then he-”

“Well he was lying. I’m not.”

“But how do I know that for sure though?” She drew circles in the mattress, only now noticing its floral patterns.

“I mean, you said you noticed me staring… Isn’t that obvious? And all the nice things I’ve done for you all year?”

“Yeah well, not so nice…”

“Huh?”

“You wouldn’t help me on this project…”

“Because it’s cheating, I don’t want you to get expelled.”

“But if we were sneaky about it, no one would know!”

“I don’t know…”

She sighed. “Forget it. I just thought you would be different from all the other guys…. But- forget it, my fault for being stupid.”

“Wait, wait, wait. Ok, ok, fine.”

“Hm?” Bait taken.

“I can help you… a bit more… but I still won’t like… film for you, I’ll just like tell you what to do… that technically won’t be cheating.”

She shrugged. “Ok I guess, better than nothing.”

“Yeah… sorry.”

“Thanks Sam!” She squealed. “I love you!”

Sam froze, no longer present in the living realm.