Perception

Part 59

Sang POV

Once North and I join the others in the courtyard, it seems most of Luke's and my fun is at an end. The guys no longer blush, and glance away when I look at them, and I'm assuming that the offer of undergarments was made to all of them. Strangely enough, nobody had socks on. Luke catches my eye and raises his eyebrow in question. What he's trying to ask, I just don't know. He casually leans back on the stone bench, and I follow his lead.

I see his hand moving near Silas' backside and let my eyes follow his arm to the gestures he's making. He asks if North gave me something to put on, and I pinch my index finger and thumb together in the sign for 'no'.

"Did you just tell Luke to pinch Si's ass?" North booms from my other side. Luke promptly falls off of+ the back of the bench, choking and laughing. He then narrows his eyes from his spot on the ground and squints toward...well, I guess that's debatable.

"Stop looking at my ass! Only Aggele is allowed!" Silas growls at Luke whose ears begin to turn red. He muffles more laughter, then shakes his head.

"I wasn't! Honest!" Luke sputters through his stilted laughter. North leans back and aims a glare at Luke.

North is the only one that knows about my improvised underwear, and I feel no compunction to tell Luke. I'm still a little mad that he started our prank with me! Oh, I know what he's thinking...the same thing I've been thinking about him and the others all day, except he only has one person running around without underwear that he's attracted to. Maybe. I don't know. All I know is it's extremely distracting for someone you like to not be wearing underwear, and I'm going to make the most of it. I know where I stand, but I need to know where they're at. If what he said of them all is true, then this will be a lesson for all of us.

Lunch is almost over, and I decide to test things out. I offer to take the garbage to the bin, then wander around gathering everyone's wrappers, and such. North offers to help carry, and we make our way over to drop the junk off.

"You know Luke was looking at you, Baby. Don't you think it'd be better to, you know, change into that thing I was trying to give you before?" North asks quietly, almost bashfully. 

"Well, I certainly didn't choose to have to wear what I am today, but I'm going to make the most of it if it has Luke acting like a goofball and falling off chairs. He wanted to know if you gave me something," I tell him with a huge grin on my face. He looks at me with surprise, then outright laughs. It's such a change from his normal serious expression that I drop about half of my items. When I bend to pick them up, I hear masculine groans from behind me. I'm pretty sure that Meanie just dropped the f-bomb, and Silas said something similar in Greek. North is on his way back to me from dropping his handfuls of trash off, and is watching the guys with amusement glinting in his dark eyes.

"You're going to kill us one of these days, Baby," North says and shakes his head with a half smile still playing on his lips. I quickly stride over to dispose of the garbage and walk back to where North is waiting. Glancing past his shoulder, I see the other guys attempting to watch us surreptitiously.

"At least they won't have a stroke with all of their blood heading elsewhere," I say then slap my hand over my mouth. I can't believe I said that! I know my face is red, and my eyes are probably the widest they've ever been. North stills, his eyes also wide, then folds in half with his laughter.

"Oy! What the fuck did you say to him? I've never seen the big grump laugh like that," Gabriel says laughingly, hooking his arm over my neck and pulling me back to Silas.

I look around the group, and see everyone's eyes wide, smiles blooming across their faces. I finally find the humor past the embarrassment and laugh along with North causing a case of the giggles to spread through our family. We are still chuckling when the bell rings to signal the end of lunch.

Silas and North are talking to each other in Greek while we walk to the doors, and Silas lets loose more body rattling laughter until he has tears running down his cheeks. He snorts throughout biology, but the teacher ignores him. Silas is kind of a star on the football team, and some teachers are more lenient with the athletes than the rest of us mortals. I don't think it matters though. Mr. Lucas seems to adore Silas. He has the best grade in the class, if I'm not mistaken.

Silas resumes chuckling once class is over, and walks me to Japanese with his arm over my shoulders. Every time he looks at my bright red face and wide eyes, his laughter shakes us that much more. I have short bursts of giggles, but try to reign in the full-on laughter. Silas gathers me in an all-encompassing hug, rocking us back and forth while both of us laugh happily the entire time. It's no longer what I said, so much as the infectious sense of joy that pervaded our family that has laughter falling from my lips like water over a cliff--it can be diverted, but never really stopped. It just pools until it overflows.

Dr. Green has his phone out, facing the door when I enter the classroom. I can't be sure, but it almost looked as though he took a picture of me as I walked in or something. I smiled wide, and gave a finger wave before seeking out Victor. For some strange reason Victor has taken the second seat from the front in our column, instead of our normal last two seats in the farthest from the door.

"Hi Victor! How was your last class?" I ask as I take my seat in front of him in the front desk of our column. His eyes spark flames at me as he cheeks turn a gentle pink, but he smiles happily in return. I see him inhale visibly, then clear his throat before speaking.

"Good, Princess. How was biology?" he asks politely. The blush remains longer than it should have, in my opinion, for him having what he thinks was a glimpse of my backside, so when the thought of North spilling the beans of our lunchtime conversation tickles my brain, I know I'm right.

"Biology was fine. How was your group text?" I ask, already knowing the answer. His heightened color gives him away. I raise my eyebrow in my best Mr. Blackbourne impersonation, but ruin the affect when I burst into giggles. Victor joins my laughter sheepishly.

"Hey, now. Japanese is no laughing matter, Miss Sang!" Dr. Green says playfully as he approaches my desk with fun-filled eyes. He opens his mouth to say more, but the bell rings to begin class, so he stops a couple of feet away to address everyone. "Alright class, today we're working with partners. I want you to conjugate the verbs 'eat', 'sleep', and 'play'. Those are the only verbs that matter in my opinion!" he says and claps his hands to signal to us to get started.

I obviously turn around in my seat to work with Victor. I place my knees on my seat and lean over so that I'm sharing Victor's desk while we work. We quickly work through the verbs and example sentences, writing them down as we went. Most of the class hasn't even started the second word when we complete all of ours, but Victor and I use the spare time to discuss this coming weekend once he turns in our paper.

He tells me about a charity concert he has to do--a 'small' one where there's seating for only 600 patrons. I ask him if I can go, and he says we'll have to talk to the others about it. Even the small chance of seeing him play lifts my previously great mood into the stratosphere. I'm practically dancing where I kneel!

By the time the bell rings to end class, I feel as though nothing can bring me down. I know I still have to decide how I want to continue my education, but knowing that I'll be out of here, and with the guys has me believing I can face anything and not only do well with it, but own it! I gather my notebook, and stuff it and my pens into my backpack before standing. Walking the short distance to the front of the classroom, I spot Dr. Green sitting behind his desk flushed, and sweating.

"Are you alright Dr. Green?" I ask feeling a flood of concern dampening my high spirits. He swallows audibly, then nods.

"I'm fine, Miss Sang. Nothing a bed couldn't fix," he tells me, and mutters under his breath something about a shower. I give a half-smile, but nod in agreement.

"Doctor, heal thyself!" I tell him. For some reason he chokes on his laughter and wipes his forehead. I shrug and allow Victor to tug me out of the door.