System Nullification

Chapter 18

 "Damn it all, are my help sessions even working?" I groaned.

 I don't even know how long it's been since Reed revealed his interest in Brianna. But I was slightly annoyed with his lack of initiative. "Uh, they help my mental state of mind," Reed honestly stated.

 "Who's making more attempts, you or Brianna?" I asked.

 "It might be Brianna, I don't even know, she could just be being friendly," Reed said.

 I facepalmed. "Damn it, Reed."

 "I mean, after all," Reed said. "It's not like you're counseling Brianna."

 "Skylar does once in a while, and Brianna actually learns from it," I sighed. "Besides, she could just be being friendly because YOU'RE not sending enough signals. If you hide yourself, she'll hide too. Or she'll try to look. But she's probably hiding."

 "Hey guys!" Skylar greeted us.

 I looked at her a bit weirdly. Usually Zephyr arrived before her. "Hey, Skylar," I said.

 "What's wrong? You seemed like you were yelling at Reed, kind of," Skylar questioned.

 "Reed's being..." I sighed dramatically, throwing my arms up in the air. "Reed."

 "Hey, what's THAT supposed to mean?" Reed protested.

 "It means a lot for Brianna," Zephyr coaxed. "Ask her out already."

 I glared at Zephyr, who supposedly stole the show. Then I laughed a bit and looked back at Reed. "Yeah, what he said," I agreed.

 "I'll ask her on her birthday, I guess," Reed reluctantly said.

 "Really?" Skylar squealed.

 "Yeah," Reed grinned.

 "I ship it," Jackson said. "Where's Will?"

 "Oh, hi Jack," I said. "Will... apparently isn't here yet."

 Jack leaned over to me and whispered, "By the way, Will randomly disappeared right in front of my eyes while we were programming stuff. Any idea what happened to him?"

 I replied, "Probably Cameron."

 "What would he need Will for?!" Jack asked.

 "I don't know, ask Cameron when or if you ever get the chance," I said.

 "Hey guys!" Brianna perkily said. "What's up?"

 "Nothing!" Reed squeaked, then cleared his throat. "Nothing. Let's go inside the school."

 I strolled along the hallway with the group to first period. Zephyr gave a dirty look to Cole, and Cole flipped Zephyr off and laughed. "Why is Cole even bothering with you? What an asshole... after what he did..." Skylar scornfully said.

 "Wait, what do you mean?" I asked.

 "Iris, what do you mean what does she mean?" Jack sighed. "Did you seriously not figure out—"

 "Iris. Can we talk after school later?" Zephyr asked, interrupting Jack and giving Jack a slightly sad look.

 "Don't we always do that?" I laughed a bit.

 "No but like, it's like... I need to tell you something," Zephyr said.

 I was tempted to read his mind to find out what it was, but we already reached the classroom. Mr. Fal went on another boring lecture on essays. When the bell rang, I quickly picked up my stuff and walked to Spanish class. To be honest, I didn't know why I took Spanish in the first place. It was one of those classes I checked off just because one of those options were required. Not much of the U.P government system had people that didn't speak English, so it wasn't like I was going to use a foreign language sometime soon anyway. Screw the school system. Theater was fun, and I could perform many of the stunts Brianna wanted me to perform when we partnered up. However, I only just realized that Cole was in my theater class. "Hi Iris," he said as Brianna gave him the death glare.