Monday came around much sooner than you would've liked and you were off to school again with your backpack over your shoulder.

"Morning (y/n)," Isen smiled with a milk box in his hand as the two of you met. The two of you had agreed to meet up in front of the dorms in the morning to walk to school together.

"Good morning Isen." You smiled back. A sneaky look came over Isen's face as he spotted Blyke's red hair. "Uh oh, what are you planning?"

He ignored you and proceeded to sneak up on Blyke, you let out an amused sigh and followed him. Isen was right behind Blyke and shouted "good morning!" while shoving Blyke's shoulders. You snickered as students turned to see what the commotion was, and ran up to the two of them.

"Isen, what the hell is wrong with you?" Blyke demanded and glared at said person, "you're so freaking loud!"

"You're not much better." You piped up and Blyke's head turned to face you, "good morning Blyke!" you smiled.

"Morning (y/n)," he mumbled and glared at Isen again.

"Woah, you look terrible." You noted the multiple bandages on Blyke's face and his face turned a little sheepish.

"Did Turf Wars kick your ass again?" Isen wondered and Blyke immediately retaliated.

"Shaddap!" he shouted while nearly spitting with rage, "at least I'm strong enough to make it onto the roster!"

Isen's face soured and he responded with, "hey, I could totally make Turf Wars if I wanted to!" both you and Blyke looked unconvinced, "I'm just not into that kind of stuff!"

Blyke gave Isen a sarcastic thumbs up, "yeahsurewhateveryousaybroibelieveyou."

You gave Isen a mournful pat on the back, "if that's what makes you sleep at night." You teased with a grin and high fived Blyke.

Blyke had a smug grin on his face, "anyway, I got to see Seraphina in action."

"What?" Isen gasped, "no way! You got to see her in action?" he shouted.

Blyke looked pleased with himself, "yuup!"

"Aww man, you are so lucky!" Isen mourned.

You frowned, "we were literally moments away from going onto the train, and now you're mourning about it?"

"Arlo is scary okay!" Isen retorted and you and Blyke snickered. Isen turned back to Blyke, "she must've wiped the other team out!" he gushed about Seraphina again and you rolled your eyes in annoyance.

"Well actually, she attacked Ar-" Blyke broke off as a shocked look settled on his face. You looked around to see what might've been the cause of it, but you didn't see anything out of the ordinary. "Erm...I just remembered, I'm not supposed to talk about it." Blyke finished quietly, but you noticed him sweating rather profusely.

"Seriously?" Isen asked in annoyance, "so you're just gonna leave us hanging?" Blyke squeezed the already crumpled piece of paper in his hand. You hoped that wasn't important.

"Come on, I know you can't keep a secret," Isen patted Blyke's shoulder and goaded him on, "spit it out, and you'll feel better." You shook your head at Isen's behavior, as much as you wanted to scold him for it, you were extremely curious as well.

"O-okay, promise you won't tell anyone?" Blyke asked uncertainly.

"Sure!" Isen smiled. You knew where this was heading, Isen could not keep a secret to save his life. Part of you wanted to remind Blyke of that, but the other part of you was viciously curious.

Blyke gestured for you and Isen to lean close to hear, "Sera attacked Arlo." He whispered. Your eyes widened in shock at the news, and Isen's face mirrored your own shock.

"What?" he shouted, "really? No way! Why would she do that?"

"Shhh," Blyke gestured for Isen to drop the volume, "Arlo told her that Agwin was the one who challenged us."

"That doesn't sound like something to attack Arlo for-" Isen started.

"Let me finish!" Blyke snapped back, "Arlo wanted to see what Agwin's new queen could do, which was why we challenged them, and he totally pushed her more than he should've. Agwin called multiple times that they lost, but Arlo wouldn't listen! He was full on choking her, next thing we knew, Seraphina had punched through Arlo's barrier."

"No way!" you gasped, "so Arlo would have killed her?" you asked in shock.

"It looked like he was about to." Blyke responded, "but remember, this has to stay a secret."

You glanced at Isen whose face was set in a frown, "Isen." You subtly threatened, and Blyke focused his own gaze on said person.

"Yeah, yeah. It's a secret." Isen nodded.

Blyke seemed satisfied with his answer, "good."

You glanced at your phone to check the time and nearly yelped, "we're going to be late!" you shouted and ran towards the school. You heard a couple cuss words behind you and the three of you sprinted to your first class.

☆☆☆

It was lunchtime and the hallways were teeming with gossip about Sera attacking Arlo. Next to you, Blyke was curling his fists and looking very angry, while Isen was looking a little sheepish on the other side of you. He was doing a good job at keeping you between him and Blyke. The three of you got your food and sat down. You glanced at Blyke uncertainly, you weren't sure how long he was going to keep his anger in, because it was obvious that he was seething. He sat stiffly in his seat and his jaw was set as he glared at his food.

There was a moment of tense silence, "that history test totally destroyed me." You tried to break the silence.

Isen groaned from next to you, "same."

"Isen!" Blyke bellowed which caused you, Isen, and a couple surrounding people to flinch. "I told you it was a secret!"

"It wasn't me!" Isen stuttered.

You gave him a deadpanned look and Blyke voiced your thoughts, "you're really bad at lying Isen! The entire school knows now!"

"Look, it was going to get out anyways." Isen tried to sooth Blyke, "you know gossip can't be held back."

Blyke shouted and lunged across the table at Isen. You yelped and pulled your lunch away from the two of them as they fell to the ground. "Woah, guys, calm down!" you tried to de-escalate the situation.

"It's his fault!" Blyke shouted.

"You already got chewed out by Keene just last week," you pleaded and grabbed at Blyke's shoulders to try and pull him away from Isen, "don't get in trouble again."

"Arlo's going to yell at me now!" Blyke continued to shout and tried to punch Isen, who ducked out of the way.

"He'll yell at you more now!" Isen countered and lunged forward to punch Blyke, who easily tore himself out of your grasp and out of the way. You stumbled and nearly stopped Isen's punch with your face, but thankfully your momentum got you out of the way.

"Stop it!" you shouted and your eyes glowed (f/c) as you increased the gravity around the two boys to make it harder for them to attack each other. Their movements nearly halted in their tracks as you made it extremely hard for them to move. They settled for glaring at each other while their chests heaved to catch their breaths. "Please, don't do this now."

"Tch," Blyke looked away from both you and Isen, "fine."

"He started it." Isen blamed and Blyke nearly threw himself at Isen again to punch him.

"Isen." You scolded, "you're not helping."

He sighed, "fine." You looked at the two of them seriously, upon seeing that they didn't look like they were going to punch each other, you released them and your eyes stopped glowing.

"Eat your food like normal people, please." You told them as you sat back down in your seat to finish your lunch. Around you, people were going back to their lunches as well. Fights weren't uncommon at Wellston. You glanced mournfully at the seat where Remi normally sat, and Blyke and Isen followed your gaze.

"She'll be fine," Blyke said quietly, "she's strong."

You nodded slowly, "yeah."

☆☆☆

It was weird coming back to your dorm room in silence. Remi always walked with you, or if she was busy, you knew she'd be back in the room before six. But now... You sighed and grabbed a sweater to go outside. It had cooled down and you had changed out of your uniform into some comfortable, but still somewhat representable clothing. You grabbed your keys, phone, and wallet and pulled open the door to see Isen outside, just about to knock.

"Oh," his face flushed, "hi. I, uh...this is awkward."

You gave him a small smile, "hi Isen."

"You wanna...grab some dinner with me?" his face was still flushed and he refused to make eye contact.

Your smile widened, "of course."

He smiled back and relief seemed to wash over his face, "good. I mean great!"

You shut the door behind you and made sure it locked, "you thought I wouldn't want to come?" you asked in a teasing tone.

"I uh. Yeah."

"Well don't worry about it," you smiled and leaned over to boop his nose, "I'll always come with you." His face flushed again but he returned the smile. "So I was just on my way to the convenience store, unless you had something else in mind?"

"Convenience store sounds fine with me." Isen nodded and he grabbed your hand so the two of you could hold hands.

"So, that history test." You joked, remembering how your conversation about that was cut off by Blyke and Isen getting into a fight.

Isen groaned, "don't remind me. I totally bombed it, and there's no way I'm going to get my grade back up before report cards come out."

You patted him consolingly on the back, "we'll get some sort of sweet at the store." You gave him a bright grin, "sugar always makes everything better."

"That must explain why you're so sweet." Isen replied without missing a beat.

You gaped, "how are you so smooth? When did you learn that?" you looked at him in shock.

"Ah, sorry." He sheepishly rubbed the back of his neck, "was that inappropriate?"

"No, no, of course not." You rushed to reassure him, "I was just surprised, that's all."

"Guess all of that journaling paid off." He smiled.

You laughed, "guess it did."

☆☆☆

"Soo," you and Isen were outside of the door to your room and you had a question that had been bugging you all night long, "was that a date?"

Isen's face heated up again, "I guess?"

"Then...it wouldn't be weird if I did this?" you shyly questioned before standing on your tiptoes to give him a quick kiss on the cheek.

If anything, Isen's face turned even redder, "no. Not weird."

You unlocked the door to your room, "thanks for tonight Isen." You smiled at him, "I had a lot of fun. Let's do this again?"

He nodded, "yeah. Sounds like a plan. Good night (y/n)." He smiled at you.

"Night Isen." You gave him a wave. There was a pause and then Isen quickly stepped forward to give you a kiss on the lips before sprinting down the hall and away from you. You froze, you definitely weren't expecting that. Before you could even say anything, he was out of sight. You laughed to yourself, "what a dork."

You went into your room and shut the door behind you, you still had quite a bit of homework to knock out before you could head to sleep. The room was dark and silent, and you were reminded about Remi and how she was out of town to attend a funeral. You opened up your notebook to the notes that you took in class today and took a picture of it to send to Remi.

Multimedia message from: (y/n)

Multimedia message to: Remi

Hey. Not sure if you're trying to stay on top of your classes while you're gone, but here are the notes from today. [Picture]

Message from Remi:

Message to (y/n):

Thanks. Could you do this for all the classes I miss?

Message from (y/n):

Message to Remi:

Of course. How are you doing? You don't have to answer if you don't want to.

Message from Remi:

Message to (y/n):

It's...alright. Both easier and harder with family around.

Message from (y/n):

Message to Remi:

I'm sorry.

You sighed and turned back to your notes. You groaned as you looked at your math homework.

☆☆☆

The next week passed by uneventfully. Remi was still gone. Blyke and Isen were still getting into fights. School was horrible, especially with the amount of tests that they were giving out. And you and Isen were getting closer to each other. The two of you continued to walk to school together in the morning, and you ate dinner together too. However, both of you decided it'd be better to not tell Blyke. You weren't sure how he'd handle the news, and with the amount of things happening right now, it was probably best to keep it on the down-low.

Message from: Isen

Message to: (y/n)

Hey.

Do you want to go on a date on Saturday?

Message from: (y/n)

Message to: Isen

Sure.

Where do you wanna go?

Message from: Isen

Message to: (y/n)

There's a quaint cafe in the area. Woaba boba.

Message from: (y/n)

Message to: Isen

Ooh. Sounds fun!

I'm down!

Message from: Isen

Message to: (y/n)

Cool. I'll come pick you up at 10?

Message from: (y/n)

Message to: Isen

Sounds like a plan!

You stood staring at your closet as you decided what to wear. You shook your head. You had gone on many dinner dates with Isen. Why was this so hard? You glanced at your phone to check the time. 9:30. You had to make a decision fast. "Ugh," you groaned and threw yourself back on your bed. You were tempted to text Remi, but you didn't want to disturb her. Maybe Elaine? No, you didn't know her well enough. You groaned again, you had been standing in front of your closet for ten minutes now, and you still hadn't made a decision. "Come on, think." You berated yourself, "he won't care about what you wear. He's seen you in casual-wear for the dinner dates. This is fine." You felt like the dog in the meme where he was sitting in a room on fire. "Ughhh." You gave up and grabbed the cute dress that you were looking at for the past ten minutes.

You put it on and went into the bathroom to comb your hair and brush your teeth. "Should I do something with my hair?" you mused as you combed it. You glanced down at your phone, "I've got time." You went to your pinterest board where you had been pinning hairstyles that you wanted to try but never got around to doing it. You picked one that looked simple enough and managed to pull it off. You nodded yourself, "nice." You finished not a moment too soon, as a moment later there was a knock on your door. You grabbed your phone, wallet, and keys and ran over to open the door. "Good morning Isen."

There was a moment of silence as Isen looked at you. You felt yourself get self-conscious and rubbed your elbows awkwardly, "ah yes!" he jolted and you jumped a little. "I like your hair, er-good morning."

You laughed, "thank you." You put on your Converse and straightened up, "shall we go?"

"Yeah."

The two of you exited the school hand in hand, "that math test was brutal." You groaned, "I totally forgot that secant was one over cosine."

He looked at you in shock, "that was like, half the unit."

"I know." You groaned unhappily, "and report cards are coming out. My mom is not going to be happy with me."

He gave you a consolidating pat on the back, "it'll be all right."

"How's the school newspaper coming? Any juicy news?" you asked excitedly.

"It's mostly been about EMBER, or report cards coming out, or this new club, or recognition for the team sports, or the most recent turf war." He shrugged.

"What's this new club?" you asked.

"Ocean Bowl."

"Ocean Bowl?" you asked in confusion, "we don't live anywhere near an ocean. We're land-locked."

"Right?" Isen laughed, "there's literally a desert a train-ride away."

You laughed, "that'll go down well." You wiggled your eyebrows mischievously, "what about the juicy gossip? What is there going around?"

"Funnily enough, it's about John." He replied.

"John?" you questioned, "why?"

"Apparently he ran into Arlo, like full on run into," Isen elaborated, "and Arlo didn't do a thing!" he told you excitedly.

You gasped, "what? No way!" your eyes widened in shock, "Arlo would never do that?"

"Right! Arlo would never do such a thing! But he did!" he told you animatedly.

"Hmm, maybe Sera talked to him?" you furrowed your brows and mused aloud.

"Even if she did, she doesn't have that much power over him." Isen contradicted and you nodded. He posed a good point. "I've been thinking about it too, it's weird. Why would Arlo do that?"

"Maybe there's something to gain from it? I mean, he wouldn't be doing it just to get on someone's good side." You wondered.

"And Arlo's someone who respects hierarchy. He would never bow down to a cripple." Isen shook his head, "but I don't know what he could get from John."

You laughed, "maybe Seraphina's friendship? We all know she only hangs out with John."

Isen nodded, "and we also know that the two of them are not on friendly terms with each other."

You thought about it some more, "but that doesn't make sense. Why would he want that? It's not like she has control over him."

"I wouldn't be so sure." Isen mused slowly.

"Oh?" you raised an eyebrow in surprise, "he's a year above us."

"But Seraphina's level is above his." Isen countered.

"Hmm, true." You nodded. The walk fell into silence as the two of you were lost in thoughts, "here's a crazy idea."

"Go for it." Isen nodded for you to continue.

"What if Arlo's scared of John."

Isen bit back a laugh, "that doesn't make any sense."

"Like you said, Seraphina's level is above his. She's friends with John. John could be ratting to her about Arlo."

"But she doesn't threaten Arlo's spot. It's Remi's spot that Sera would take." Isen argued.

"But she has a lot of influence on the school."

Isen shook his head, "it's a good theory, but I doubt it's correct. Oh, here we are." You looked up to see the cute building with the words 'Woaba Boba.' You were so lost in your thoughts that you didn't even realize how far away from the school you had gotten. "After you." Isen smiled and held open the door for you.

"Thank you." You smiled and entered the building.

"Welcome to Woaba Boba!" a girl happily greeted you, "table for two?"

Isen nodded, "yes please." The girl led you to a small table near the window and put the menu in front of you and Isen.

"Aww, this place is so cute." You grinned. You looked down at the menu. Obviously, the main thing they had was boba, but there was also coffee and some small snacks. "Any suggestions?" you questioned.

"Most of their boba is really great, but I'm not too fond of the banana one." He told you.

"Well which one do you like?" you questioned.

"I like the green tea one," Isen responded.

You nodded, "all right, I'll go with that then!"

The server from before came to your table, "what can I get you?"

Isen gestured for you to order first, "I'll take the green tea boba please." You told her.

"And for you?" she turned to Isen.

"I'll have the same thing." He replied.

"Great, anything else?" she asked as she wrote down the order.

You looked at Isen to let him know that it was his call, "nope. That's all."

"Alright, your orders will be right out!" she smiled and took your menus.