The heartstopper

Chapter 21

"Happy birthday!" They shouted insync as Darcy led Tara into the shared room. In response, Tara had a huge smile on her face.

"Surprise!" Darcy yelled into her ear. The room had been decorated with the white hotel sheets hanging around the perimeter of the room while the mattresses from the beds were pushed onto the ground, in front of the TV.

"Jesus, Darcy!" Tara scorned.

"Haha," She laughed.

The others were seated on the mattresses and had finished setting up not long ago.

"Have a seat, we're going to watch the movie/show of your choice," Elle explained, motioning for her to sit down.

"Dinner will arrive in around twenty minutes," Darcy notified.

"And dessert will arrive in forty," said Tao. They'd planned for dinner to arrive twenty minutes after Tara arrived so they had time to settle and pick something to watch. Dessert would arrive twenty minutes after the pizza so they could begin to eat before what ever dessert Tao managed to get, arrives.

"The vodka's already here, no need to worry!" Darcy claimed, grabbing a bottle from a bag she'd brought with her from home.

"How did you even get alcohol?" Tara questioned.

"I have my ways," Darcy grinned mysteriously.

"Now, who wants some vodka lemonade?" She asked.

"Is it gross?" Charlie questioned.

"Very, wanna try?" Charlie reluctantly agreed, having the urge to try it at some point in his life. Disappointedly, it was as Darcy said, gross. He did still drink it though, sharing the substance with Nick.

Tao, Elle and imogen all poured a small amount of alcohol into their drinks as well before they turned back to the TV, which was still turned off.

"When did you guys have time to plan this?" Tara questioned.

"Last night," Nick replied.

"And this morning," Charlie added.

"That explains Darcy dragging me out of bed then," Tara smiled, taking a seat in the center of the mattress.

"I would have done that either way," Darcy claimed, joining her girlfriend on the mattress.

"So, what're we watching tonight?" Asked Nick.

It took Tara a bit to pick a show but they eventually did and by the time they were ready to start it, there was a knock on the door.

"Pizza!" Darcy yelled, before getting shushed by Tara, whose ear was right next to Darcy's mouth.

Isaac got up to answer the door, taking the pizza from the hotel staff member. They'd ordered a pepperoni pizza as that's all Darcy could get for free, Darcy really tried to get a stuffed crust pizza but apparently that 'wasn't doable'.

They sat around and ate their pizza while the show played. Dessert, - which was not a cake like planned - had arrived on time like Tao had said. Although Tao couldn't manage to get a cake, he did convince the staff to put a candle in a macaron.

The night was enjoyable until around eight forty there was a third knock on the door.

"Either open the door or go away!" Darcy shouted at the door.

"Darcy!" Tara exclaimed.

"You shouldn't do that when there's a killer in the building!" Imogen gasped.

"Hello?" Charlie called out, seeing as nobody answered Darcy's call.

"Maybe they left?" Nick questioned.

"It was probably some guys from our school trying to prank us," Tao reasoned.

They decided to go back to their show, the only people who'd knock would be their teachers but they'd have said something if it were important.

An hour later, there was another knock. They called out again but no one replied.
"Tao, open the door," Elle demanded.

"Why me?" He asked in a rather high pitched voice.

"You're closest to the door," Elle waved her arms to further show her point.

"You're just as close!" Tao countered. It was true, him and Elle were both about equally as close to the door.

"Tao, be a gentleman and answer the door," This time he did. He slowly got up, - struggling a bit - before swinging the door open a crack.

"No ones there," Tao opened the door the rest of the way so the rest could see that too.

"Maybe you took too long opening it, it doesn't matter anyway," Tara shrugged.

They continued to eat while they started the eighth episode of the show.

There was once again another knock on their door an hour later. They ignored it and went back to their show. The hour after that, it was the same thing.

They initially ignored the knock before the person knocked again.

"What!" Darcy screamed, very loudly.

"It's Mr. Ajayi and Mr. Farouq, we're here for the nightly check in," Mr. Ajayi called back, calmly.

"Oops, sorry!" Darcy apologized as Tao went to open the door.

"We know it's Tara's birthday but curfew is still intact, it's not our rules, it's the hotel's," Mr. Ajayi spoke softly.

"Sorry, someone keeps knocking on our door once an hour," Darcy explained apologetically.

"Thank you for telling us but I was referring to the students not in their designated room," He smiled and directed to Tao before motioning behind Darcy to the other three boys.

"Ooh, right, that makes sense,"

"We'll trade you pizza if we can stay," Tao offered. "I'd offer macarons but we ate those,"

"Unfortunately, we can not accept that bribe, we will compensate the alcohol that we can strongly smell though," The teacher grimaced, the room reeked of alcohol even though it had only been the eight students and it didn't look like they'd drunk too much.

"But Mr. Farouq, there's only like a sip left!" Darcy complained. At some point through the night, someone had accidentally nudged the bottle of vodka, spilling it all over the hotel carpet.

Mr. Farouq rubbed his face with his hands.
"How'd you gain possession of it in the first place?"

"I have my ways," Darcy said, a bit drunkenly. She wasn't going to reveal that, and it had nothing to do with her fake ID.

"Come on Youssef, don't pretend that you didn't do the same thing when you were their age. It's apart of growing up," Mr. Ajayi nudged the other teacher.

"Youssef?" Darcy went wide eyed with theories while Charlie turned and whispered something into Nick's ear.

"Why did I become a teacher?" Mr. Farouq question.

The two teachers ended up leaving, Mr. Ajayi gave in and allowed the boys to sleep in the girls room, just as long as they stayed there until morning. After finishing their rounds, he then took his fellow teacher back to their room.