^^Tree chandelier

I blinked my eyes as Andrew and I stared at each other awkwardly in silence. I didn't know why, but I felt some kind of tension in the air. After a few minutes, I cleared my throat and padded out of the storage room. Before walking out, I glanced back at Andrew and saw him shaking his head at something.

I blew a breath in relief when I walked outside and saw everyone wrapping up for the day. I packed my stuff and Nate thanked me for helping, at which I blushed.

"You don't have to thank me, Nate. I was going the same as others." I said, adjusting my glasses.

"Few people here are willing to volunteer so I need to." He smiled.

I nodded, and we walked out of the ballroom. We said our byes at the gate, and I strolled to my cycle. I never thought working would be fun, even though Andrew did most of my work, but still.

The next day the painters drew the art while the others worked on the chandelier. I watched as the craft team cut the plywood to give them a shape of a fake tree for the chandelier. It was the major attraction of the theme.

"Why didn't you just buy it?" I asked Nate.

"The thing is that Principal Morgan wants everything to be made by students to show the guests their talent. Since they have little performance on the academic side, they'll get into some college at least for their extracurricular activities."

"I had no idea Principal Morgan cared that much about the students."

"No, she doesn't." Nate scoffed, crossing his arms. "She just cares about the school and its reputation. Why do you think she gives scholarships to students easily? Because she knows no one from here is that talented in studies. And if she doesn't work well for the school, the board will dismiss her. She's just a wicked witch who doesn't care about anything but money." Nate grunted.

I blinked my eyes at him. I knew Ben hated his mother for leaving them, but I never assumed his friends will hate her too.

Someone from the council committee called Nate that Miss Grace was looking for him. Miss Grace was the in-charge of the student council and she was the one managing the fundraiser with Nate. Nate excused himself and walked out of the ballroom.

I sighed and looked around, not sure what to do. I didn't know how to spend time with Nate when he was busy with everything. My eyes locked with David and Andrew, who were carrying stuff with their narrowed eyes at me, making me gulp. The whole time I avoided getting any close to them and stuck with Nate, now he's gone...

My eyes darted to Louis, who was painting on the wall, and I went to him. I glanced back at the boys and saw them going into the storage room and sighed in relief.

"Hi, Louis." I greeted him after a few minutes. He was engrossed in the painting that he didn't notice me.

"Oh hey, Lilly." He smiled. "What's up?"

"Nothing..." I returned his smile. "I uh... I was wondering if you need help."

"You're on time." He beamed and extended the big paint tray. "Can you hold this while I paint? It's getting difficult to paint with this big thing."

"Sure." I took the tray and watched him paint. "What are you painting?"

"A wolf." He said and my eyes widened.

"Wow." For a few minutes, I watched him as he made the base of the wolf's face. "You're good at this." I praised.

His ears turned red and he mumbled. "Yeah... Uh, this is the one thing that I'm good at."

"I'm sure that's not true-"

"It is... I mean it's the only thing that'll let me graduate otherwise I have to repeat a year." He sighed. "And I can't afford that." He whispered the last part, but I still heard him.

My brows knitted in confusion as I scrutinized him. "Everything okay?"

"Ye-yeah." He shrieked and gave a nervous laugh. "I- I just want to graduate with my friends, you know?"

"Oh..." So that's what he meant. "Of course." I smiled.

He returned my smile, and we worked till it was done for the day. We stepped back and gazed at the wolf's face he painted. It was a beautiful white wolf with sparkling green eyes.

"I painted her eyes green." He smiled.

"And they're beautiful." I looked at it, awestruck.

"No, you don't get it." He chuckled and pointed at my face. "I painted your eye color."

My eyes widened, and I glanced back at the painting. "Oh... that's..." I didn't know what to say.

"I like your eye color." Louis beamed, then pouted. "And here I have plain brown eyes. Do you know girls dig for guys with eye colors?"

"Not all of them do," I answered, thinking of Chloe. "I mean I know girls that go for guys with dark eyes."

"Really?" His eyes lit up like a kid.

"Yeah." I chuckled and he gave me a toothy grin.

"That's good."

I helped him wrap things up and thought of Chloe. She asked me to question Louis about the fundraiser and his date.

"So... Um, who are you going with to the fundraiser?" I asked Louis.

He shrugged. "No one."

"Are you planning to ask someone?" I cautiously inquired.

"Nah... I'm going alone." He said making me pause.

"Alone?"

"Yeah." He chuckled. "It's not like I have anyone to ask."

"What if a girl asks you?"

"I'll politely decline it." He shrugged. "I don't want to go with anyone because it gets tense with a partner. I've seen my friends and they all get... Clingy and that's from Andrew's experience."

Uh oh...

~•~ • ~•~ • ~•~

The next day at lunch Chloe, Toby, and I were sitting at our usual place under the tree and I told Chloe about Louis and his plan.

"He wants to go alone!" Chloe screamed. "But but... I planned so much and I was about to ask him tomorrow!" She howled. "Why doesn't he want to go with me?!"

I watched Chloe as she cried her eyes out. It broke my heart to see her red eyes and puffy face. Everyone around us stared at Chloe and some came and asked if she had a breakup or something, at which Chloe cried more.

"It's not you, Chloe." Toby patted her as she put her head on his shoulder. "He doesn't want to go with anyone."

"But... but I want to go with him and no one else!"

"You could still try..." I suggested. "Maybe he'll say yes to you."

"No, he won't. I heard from the cheer team that Carolina asked him too but he said no." She sniffed. "Maybe it's a good thing I didn't ask or else it would have been awkward."

"We can indirectly ask him." Toby offered.

"No! No one will do anything! I'm glad I didn't ask because why would he say yes to the girl who puked when the bottle pointed at her!"

"Chloe-"

"Nah, uh." She shook her head, looking determined.

"Then what are you going to do?" I asked.

"Toby." She turned to him. "Are you going with someone?"

"Uh..." Toby side glanced at me. "No..."

"Good, because we are going to go together." She grinned, putting her hand over his shoulders.

"What about me?" I asked, pointing at myself.

"Ben is obviously going to ask you." She said as a matter of fact.

I frowned. "Why would he ask me-"

"Perfect!" Toby cut me off and grinned. "He'll ask you and we all can go together."

I knew what he was trying to do. He was already worried about Ben going with someone else because they couldn't go together.

"We don't want to intrude with them, Toby." Chloe rolled her eyes.

"That's a great idea." I beamed. "We can all go together." Toby grinned while Chloe blinked her eyes. Then suddenly her eyes lit up.

"Omg! That's genius! We can do a group matching costume too! And then we'll win the best costume of the event..." Chloe went on with the ideas of costumes and I was glad she got distracted from Louis.

~•~ • ~•~ • ~•~

On Thursday, I observed Lillian as she worked with Louis. I tried to help her and be nice to her in the beginning, but it didn't work after one day. She looked at me like I lost some screws.

I sighed and watched the tree chandelier almost complete. We assembled the woods to form the shape, and now everyone was attaching the lights to it.

"Can you connect these two?" A girl asked me about the circuits and pouted. "I don't know which one to attach."

"Sure." I shrugged and helped her. When I was done, someone tapped my back.

"Hey, Drew..." I squeezed my eyes, and a rough groan left my throat at the familiar voice.

"Fiona." I slowly rotated towards the grinning redhead.

"How are you?"

"Not good." I jerked my thumb towards the chandelier. "Been working here for days."

"Oh..." she mumbled, looking around. "Is it that hard?"

I shrugged. "Depends if you know what you're doing."

"Ok..." She bounced on her steps and I knew what was coming. "Are you free right now?" She asked, looking around. "I want to talk to you about something."

"I'm working-"

"Of course, he's free!" Nate came and put his arm over my shoulders, grinning.

"I'm not." I gritted through my teeth.

"We are almost done for the day, you can leave early." Nate gave me a side smirk and shook my shoulders. "I'm sure what Fiona wants to talk about is important that she couldn't wait for you to finish."

"Yes, it's really really important." Fiona bit her lip and blinked her eyes at us.

"It can wait-"

"Go." Nate pushed me forward. "You can take as long as you want." He winked at Fiona, who gave her a giggle. "Have fun." I scowled at him and followed Fiona out of the ballroom.

I knew Nate was taking his revenge on me for spilling the paint over him earlier. He was giving me a headache with all his orders that I had to make him shut. When I was carrying the paint earlier, I spilled the bucket over his head. I thought it would take long for him to come back, but he was on time when Fiona came.

"What is it?" I crossed my arms when we stopped outside the ballroom.

"I was wondering about the fundraiser." She licked her lower lip. "You have asked no one and I've said no to whoever asked me because I wanted to go with you and... Well it's on Sunday and we have only a few days and we also have to decide the costume..." I blinked my eyes and watched as she babbled.

I like her confidence that she thought I'll ask her.

"Fiona." Calmly, I stopped her from ranting. "I'm taking Brittany and, it's weird you haven't heard that?" I pouted and patted her shoulder. "You shouldn't have said no to the guys who asked you."

"Wait... What?" Her brows knitted in confusion.

"You know what..." I tapped my chin. "Maybe you should go to the guys who asked you and say yes." I plastered a smile on my face. "We don't want you to be the loner."

With that, I walked out, not in the mood to work anymore. I have asked no one, but I was definitely not going to ask Fiona, that's why I lied about Brittany.

The next day at lunch, I tried to convince Brittany to come with me.

"But why?" She frowned. "You can take any girl you want."

"I know but I'm not in the mood to take anyone you know how clingy they get after one date."

"Then go alone." She growled.

"I'm not going alone and it's not like you're taking anyone either." I sighed in frustration. "We'll go as friends like Maddie and Jordan," I said, pointing at them. They were busy playing their game.

"You can go alone like Nate and Louis." Brittany rolled her eyes. "You know Ben and I always go together with a twining theme."

"Actually..." Ben came from behind and plopped in front of us on the sofa. "I'm going with Lilly."

"WHAT?!" we all screamed simultaneously.

"Yeah..." He shrugged like it wasn't a big deal.

"You better be ready for it, David." Maddie mocked David, who scowled at her.

"And what? I'm supposed to go alone-" Brittany said but was cut off by Ben.

"You can go with Drew." He grinned. "I'm sure you both can pull the twinning costume."

"But that's for siblings!" Brittany snapped. "Drew is not my brother you are!"

"Come on, B. We always go together." Ben rolled his eyes. "We need some change."

"Whatever," Brittany growled and snapped her angry gaze at me. "We are going to do it and we will win the costume of the event."

"Don't be so sure, B." Louis beamed. "You won last time because of Ben and your whole twining thing, but he's not doing it with you so I'm winning that."

"We'll see that later twat." David smirked, putting his arm around Tiana. "We will win it."

"Jordan and I are going to win so don't get your hopes up, people." Maddie grinned. I rolled my eyes as they fought over who was going to win.

I'm friends with a group of dumbheads.

After classes, David, Louis, and I walked to the ballroom and saw Lillian walking in front of us. Louis ran to her and I watched as they greeted each other walking ahead.

"I don't get why Ben is taking her?" David grumbled.

"Why does it matter to you?" I raised my brows.

"Because I'll lose the bet if something happens between them." He huffed.

I remembered David and Lillian talking in the storage room, and they were standing really close to each other. I didn't ask him earlier but there was something in my stomach that kept bugging me to know.

"What were you two talking about in the storage room on Monday?" I asked David and saw his shoulders tense.

"Nothing." He mumbled.

I scoffed. "It wasn't nothing, Dude. You were close to her-"

"Alright, I'll tell you something." David stepped in front of me, making me halt. "But you won't tell anyone about this." He looked around to see if anyone was listening.

My brows knitted in confusion. "Okay... Spill."

"Lillian is crushing on me."

"What?!" I shrieked. "This is bullsh*t."

"She is, I'm telling you, man!" He ran fingers through his hair and looked me in the eye. "She asked me earlier how I feel about Tiana and all that... I told her I love her and I'm never going to leave her for anyone."

"And..." I urged him to continue.

"And she threatened to tell lies about me." He said. "I don't know what is going in her head but we have to be careful of her."

"Then why is she with Ben?" I cocked my head.

"I don't know..." He shrugged. "Maybe to make me jealous." He said and walked inside the ballroom while I stood there frozen.

It was really hard to believe David, but he didn't look like he was lying. I scratched my head, and my blood boiled in anger.

Is she f**king with Ben?!

I took a deep breath to calm my anger, but it didn't work. I went inside the ballroom and looked around for Lillian, but she wasn't anywhere. Stepping down the stairs, I observed everyone as they hung the tree chandelier. I saw Nate instructing them and stomped toward him.

"Where's Lillian?" I asked him.

He raised his brows at me. "What do you want with her?"

"She came here with Louis, have you seen her or not?" I gritted through my teeth, ignoring the look he gave me.

"Dude..." David came beside me. "Wasn't I clear before?"

"What's going on here?" Nate eyed us.

"Nothing," I mumbled and gave David a side glance. "I have something to clear up with her."

"Drew... Ben has already warned you to stay away from her." Nate sighed, shaking his head.

"Yeah..." David crossed his arm and leaned his back on the pillar behind him. "You'll get in trouble-Ah!" he halted when the pillar almost fell behind. Nate and I grabbed the big white column and steadied it.

"What the f**k?!" David screamed. "Why did it move?!"

"Because it's not fixed yet, sh*thead," Nate growled. "We are setting the pillars, for now, to see where to position them, and then we're going to fix it."

I observed the stone white pillar. The student committee ordered the columns for decoration because... Let's be honest, we weren't that talented to make it ourselves.

"Is the chandelier ok here?!" We turned towards the voice that came from the stage. Around five to six students were pulling the rope and hanging the heavy chandelier in the center of the room.

"Lower it a bit!" Nate marched towards to instruct them.

I glanced around and saw Lillian with Louis painting the wall. Narrowing my eyes, I strode to her. David called my name to stop me, but I ignored him. Lillian turned around to walk toward the storage room, and I stepped in front of her.

She tensed and peeked at me while I crossed my arms and glared at her.

"Uh... I uh need to go there..." she said nervously.

"And I need to talk to you."

"About?"

"What game are you playing here, Miss Lillian," I sneered.

"I don't know what you're talking about-"

"Don't act innocent with me." I snapped, cutting her off. "I've seen you flirting with Nate and now you didn't find anyone so David." She opened her mouth, but I continued. "Ben is stupid and blind that he couldn't see all of this but I'm not."

"I-I don't-"

"Ben is my best friend," I growled and leaned into her height. "We've been friends since we were kids we care about each other and he's like a brother to me."

"I'm not getting what you're trying to say." I let out a humorless laugh.

"I've been with enough girls to know how they act." I continued to step forward, and she stepped back, maintaining the space between us. "I don't know what you want or what you have on him, but I'd be damned if I let a girl like you break his heart!"

She flinched back and her feet stumbled, out of instinct I tried to grab her arm but failed. Her back hit the pillar behind her, which I didn't notice before, and my eyes widened as I watched the pillar fall over the other like a domino effect they hit the other until the last one near the stage was about to fall on the students, who were still holding the rope of the chandelier. They let go of the rope and jumped away, saving themselves.

"LOOK OUT!"