You Are the Shell to My Tortoise | ✓

20

"Cody, I don't even know how to start solving this," Ashley said, tapping at a question on her math worksheet with her pen. "Can you help me?"

"Yeah, of course," he said, scooting his chair closer to her.

I peeked up from my fan fiction notebook and hid my smile at the sight of their heads leaning closer. Under the pretext of getting help with schoolwork, Ashley had been talking to him a lot more during our study sessions together. Of course, it probably helped that they definitely had many private conversations via text. It was a lot more common nowadays to find Ashley checking her phone every five minutes when we weren't in class.

My phone screen lit up with a notification.

'Hi, Chelsea. Not to rush you or anything, but I thought I'd just let you know that Nolan and I are both already here,' Cheryl's text read.

She sent another one right after that. 'Just to make sure you don't get lost, we're at one of the tables in the dining hall.'

One more slid into the text log. 'No rush, of course.'

I grinned at her latest text. She really did not want to be alone with Nolan. I sent her a reply reassuring her that I was on my way and then shoved my things back into my messenger bag.

"Okay, I have to go now," I said. "See you tomorrow, Cody!"

"Already?" Ashley said, looking up.

"Yeah, my history project meeting is going to start soon. See you at dinner, Ash."

"All the best with your project, Chelsea." Cody flashed me a quick smile before dropping his gaze back down at her worksheet.

"Have fun studying, guys!"

When I said that, Cody's eyes darted up from the worksheet to Ashley's face for just a split second.

If Ashley had laser beams for eyes, I would be reduced to a pile of ash then for wiggling my eyebrows at her and throwing glances at an unsuspecting Cody.

This meeting was the perfect excuse for me to leave them alone together without me being obvious about it. Everything was already working out beautifully, and I didn't even have to try all that hard.

Humming to myself, I set off for the dining hall with a spring in my step. When I arrived, the cafeteria was mostly empty. Only Cheryl looked up when I approached the table they were sitting at. Nolan was using his book bag on the table as a pillow.

"Hey, sorry for making you wait," I said, placing my bag on one of the chairs. "You guys are early."

"Hi, Chelsea. It's no problem," Cheryl said, giving me a tight smile. "Let's get started."

Nolan didn't stir.

"Has he been asleep this whole time?" I made a face at him.

Cheryl barely spared him a glance. "Yeah, he was already sleeping when I got here."

Shaking my head, I took the seat beside him so I could nudge him. "Typical."

"We don't have to wake him."

The words were spoken so softly I couldn't be sure that she wanted me to hear them. In an attempt to avoid an awkward atmosphere, I chose to ignore her and increase my efforts in waking him.

"Nolan, get up," I said. "We're going to start the meeting now."

A few grunts came from him as his head turned away.

"Maybe I should be using a book to wake you," I said teasingly, shaking him even harder. "What's your favorite subject?"

"Why not use the biology textbook?" Cheryl suggested, not looking away from her laptop screen. "It's the heaviest."