Bloom

35. critical guinea pigs

Haven

Rushing over to the right classroom, I blew a strand of hair out of my face once I abruptly stood still in front of the closed door. Taking a deep breath, I knocked and waited for Professor William to allow me inside.

It were only a few seconds later when the door flew open, a frown plastered on William's face. "Haven Sparks, never thought you'd be late. Got a valid reason?" He questioned, though, still allowed me to walk inside.

"My guinea pig. My brother Jude lost it when he escaped from his cage this morning. He screamed so hard that Cookie ran off and hid underneath the couch! How on earth was I supposed to get him?" I rambled, letting out an exasperated sigh. "That guy is something else, seriously. He doesn't even want to pet it but he does remove wasp nests and insect pests. Hey, that rhymed." I chuckled, but when I looked up at William, it changed to a sheepish smile.

"Good morning, Haven. I'm glad you're present now," he laughed, an amused expression visible on his face. "Interesting reason. Find a seat, we were just talking about our weekends."

Scanning my classmates, I simply smiled at Norah, finding out she was seated next to Abel- Ittarah and Luke together as well. My eyes searched for him, his ochre coloured beanie was the reason I hadn't seen him right away.

His eyes were on me and I smiled once we had briefly made eye contact. Zephaniah looked down, but I could see the corners of his mouth curling up, lightly. Pulling back the chair that stood beside him, I plopped down. "Zepho!"

"What?" Zephaniah chuckled softly, his eyes meeting mine for a split second.

"Yeah, I don't know." I laughed, covering my mouth when William gave me a warning look. "How have you been? Is it alright if I sit here, beside you?"

Zephaniah nodded after a brief moment, glancing at me. "Of course, Haven." He blushed lightly, his fingers fiddling with the pen he was holding. "Don't you want to sit next to- next to Louis?"

I scrunched up my nose, quickly shaking my head. "No way, why would I?"

"I don't know," he whispered, staring outside the window. I thought about it for a while, figuring he asked this because I usually sat down next to either Norah or Tara, he must've thought I hadn't wanted to sit with him.

He usually sat alone, which saddened me. But, since I was such a chaot at times, it simply hadn't really crossed my mind before. Norah and Tara were my friends, but so was Zephaniah. It made me decide that I had to sit with him more often- Tara and Norah would find a replacement fast enough.

"Well, I want to sit here." I shrugged, glancing at him. "Even if you don't want to."

Zephaniah frowned and looked at me, his eyebrows raising as he wanted to speak up- probably to defend his answer- until he noticed my cheeky smile. "I want to, Haven."

"Just teasing, Zeph." I yawned quietly and retrieved my notebook, opening and flipping to the right page.

"Uhm," Zephaniah started out of nowhere, making me innerly smile. Our long talk seemed to have worked- when it came to him speaking up first more often. "What did your guinea pig do?"

I couldn't help but laugh softly, it turning to a warm smile when I searched for his green eyes. "Usually when I feed Cookie, I leave the cage open because I need to grab some hay and all as well, so I know he will jump out- obviously- but I can always get him because he's always calm and all. But, my brother Jude isn't very fond of him so he started screaming loudly, it startled Cookie. He ran off when I tried to grab him, lied down underneath the couch and well, my arm doesn't really fit there, so I had to wait until he left his safe place, no one else was home besides Jude, after all."