Luckily for me the wind that had been incessant these last couple of days had died down a little, making a tightless morning stroll a lot more pleasant.

When I reached the snackbar, I rang the bell of the house next door where the family who ran it lived. It didn’t take long for the lady of the house to open the door.

“Oh, Aurora, you are early.”

“Sorry about that, I thought I’d come and give you my books before heading to school.” I said, handing over the bag with my old school books.

“Ah! Thank you so much!”

“No problem.” I smiled. “But I’ll be heading off now.”

“Good luck at school.” The lady smiled back warmly. “Your next order will be on the house.”

“You really don’t have to do that, it was my pleasure.” -And I don’t really know when I’ll be visiting again, sooo….-

“I insist.” She beamed, with the kind of smile that meant you really didn’t have the option to decline.”

“Alright then.” I sighed. “I’ll accept your offer.”

Her smile turned back to normal as she waved me goodbye. “Don’t forget to call us when you need some help around the house as well, ok?”

“Yeah, yeah, I will.” I waved goodbye as well and started walking away. They were nice people but sometimes a bit intrusive when it came to offering help. Their help was definitely needed and very much appreciated when I was younger, but I had grown up and could pretty much stand on my own feet, which they often forgot. Well, when it came to work around the house at least.

I shrugged. “I guess I can’t really complain though.” And continued my walk over to Ria’s place.

As usual Ria-chan was already waiting on me in front of her gate, looking perfect in the morning sun, as though from a fairytale. It made my heart go crazy, and now that I knew why, it made me incredibly self conscious too.

“Rora!” She enthusiastically ran towards me and started hugging me immediately.

“H-hey Ria. Did you sleep well?” I stammered while hesitantly answering her hug.

“Is something wrong? You’re acting weird, again.” She distanced herself a little from me, staring questioningly into my eyes.

My face went red. -Shit, why did I have to realize I’m gay, this is making me feel hella awkward. Ok, Rora, breathe in, breathe out, cool runnings.-

“Uh, nothing much, I just didn’t sleep that well today.” It wasn’t even a lie.

“Again?” Her look of suspicion turned into one of concern. “Yesterday as well, if it doesn’t get better maybe you should go to a sleep clinic.”

“I think it’s just exam stress.” Ok, that one was and I felt somewhat guilty about it too.

“Mhmm, okay, but keep an eye on it, okay?” She hugged me again, this time I squeezed her against me as I would normally do.

“Thank you for caring about me.”

“Silly Rora, of course I would.” She started giggling and nuzzled her nose in my neck which pretty much made my heart explode.

“L-l-l-l-let’s go to school.” My stammer returned. -Breathe, Aurora! Breathe!-

“Hmmm.” I could hear the suspicion had returned in her voice but luckily she didn’t say anything else about it or I might have had to confess on the spot.

We stopped hugging and started walking to school, but not before she grabbed my hand into hers. Her hand felt so soft and warm it calmed my nerves a little, even though it really didn’t help my heart rate go down.

I peeked over to her and saw she was looking over to me, with a big, innocent smile on her face.

-Does she know? Maybe she just wants to calm me down even more? I mean, Ria-chan is pretty innocent... Or is there more behind it? I have no clue...-

“Let’s go.” Ria-chan said and started leading me on.

“Yeah, let’s.” I replied while debating internally what exactly just happened.

On our way to school I paid close attention to my surroundings, looking out for the people I saw yesterday evening while doing my best not to raise even more suspicion out of Ria-chan. I did not catch any glimpse of them but I did see a couple of people staring at us, and some of them even started to whisper.

Ria gently squeezed my hand. “Why are they looking at us? It’s making me uncomfortable...” She must’ve seen the people staring at us as well.

“Just try not to pay much attention to them...” I tried to just look straight in front of me for a while, knowing full well why they were staring at us and it was making me self-conscious as hell too. “Why can’t two people walk down the street hand in hand without the whole world staring at them. It’s 2020 for fucks sake...” I was thinking to myself until I heard Ria-chan reply.

“I’ll try...” A sadness in her voice made me quickly turn my attention towards her. She had some sort of sad smile on her face which made me want to hold her tightly.

Instead I just squeezed her hand back. “Maybe they are just envious of how good we look?”

“That must be it.” Her sadness made way for her customary cute giggling, making me feel warm inside. “By the way, I can still come over right? After school?” Ria looked at me questioningly.

“Of course! Why wouldn’t you?” Her question surprised me a little.

“Well, if you are feeling stressed, I thought maybe you could use some rest instead.”

“No no no.” I protested. “That’d probably only make it worse! And there’s no way I can do my homework well without you.”

“Oh? So I’m only useful for doing your homework?”

“No, that’s not what I…ugh.” I tried to work my way out of this but my brain just wasn’t helping.

“He he he.” She giggled again.

“Oh, you were pulling my leg weren’t you?” I pouted and looked at her.

“Mhmm. I’m glad to see my Rora is still in there somewhere.”

“I see how it is. Maybe I should revoke your house access anyway, now that I think about it.” My retaliation was swift.

“Nuuuuuu. I wanna see Shimaaaaa!”

“Ah, so I’m only useful for housing my cat?”

We both started laughing as we walked through the school gate, still hand in hand.

“Girls, quiet down a little!” Miss Hill called out to us.

“We will try Miss Hill.” The both of us replied, trying to hold our laughter but failing miserably.

Miss Hill sighed. “Well at least your uniform is fine now, go ahead to your class now.”

“Aye aye.” I replied as both me and Ria headed towards our classroom, only to start giggling again a couple of meters further.

When we arrived at the classroom all our friends were already present. The moment Emma saw me her face turned red and she looked away, making Claire look back at us as well.

“Ah, good morning little doves.” Claire was sitting on the desk and appeared to be in a playful mood as we walked towards the group.

“Good morning.” I put down my bag next to Ria’s who, as usual, sat down next to Karin. Emma however had taken up the seat in between the window and her sister, rather than her normal spot beside me.

I was lost in thought for a second before turning my attention towards Claire.

“Hey, uhm, Claire, could I speak with you during the break?”

She looked pretty surprised by my question and hopped off from the desk. Claire toned down her voice and looked a bit concerned. “Is something wrong?”

I took a glance over to Emma who was staring at the both of us, making her turn away in embarrassment again. “I wouldn’t say wrong necessarily.” I rubbed the back of my head. “I could use some advice though”

Claire took her chin in her left hand and gently leaned to the left so she could look at Ria and then to her right to look at Emma. “Does this have something to do with those two?”

“In a way…”

“I see…” She sat down on the bench and gently smiled at me. “I think I can make some time for you in my extremely busy schedule.”

“...You didn’t have anything to do, did you?”

She grinned. “Nope.”

We both started chuckling a little. “By the way, where is Pres?”

“I don’t know, when I entered she ran out, saying something about a life and death situation. I didn’t have time to ask what was wrong.”

“Ran out of tea.” Karin replied.

The entire group went silent and looked at Karin before we all concluded in choir. “Sounds like Pres alright.”

We all started laughing until only a minute later Pres came back into the classroom with a box of tea, closely followed by our German teacher, who apparently also had been recruited to carry a box.

“Sorry for the delay but I heard there was an, ahum, emergency.” He said while throwing his scarf and jacket over his chair.

“Here you go, Mister Jorgensson.” Pres handed him a hastily made cup of tea before heading to her own seat.

“Danke schön.” He sipped before setting his cup down on his desk. “Let’s get started, shall we?”