05 | his intentions

725 24 185
                                    

If I were at a hospital, the doctors would've seen an alarming spike in my heartbeat rate and temperature.

My body goes into autopilot, kicking Funneh under the chair as I say to Calix, "Nobody! My art teacher! Mr. Moore!"

My voice sounds too chirpy, too bright. My lie is so easy to see through, since Mr. Moore is a math teacher who has not a single artistic cell in his body, but Calix just shrugs and accepts it. "Oh, cool. I didn't know Mr. Moore teaches art."

Funneh, having recovered from my attack, smiles at Calix. "Hello! I'm Funneh. We have English together."

They have what together?

Calix grins. "Yeah, I remember you. I didn't know you two were in Art!"

Art is the only class on my schedule that I'm actually excited about. I'd chosen this course because I wanted to learn art—Funneh only joined because she lost a bet with Draco.

"We didn't know you were in Art either." I grumble. I mean, Calix is fine, but after my awkward and abrupt departure last night? I just want to avoid him. Yet here he is, sitting right in front of me.

The bell rings and Calix turns to face the front. I'm not as short as Rainbow, but Calix's tall body still manages to block my view of the whiteboard.

I duck my head to the side to see better, but he chooses that moment to do a full-body stretch, blocking my view. Shooting him a glare that he can't see, I wiggle my head the other way, but he stops stretching and leans over, blocking my view once again.

"Lunar? Is something wrong" Ms. Norris asks from the front of the class, looking at me over the top of her glasses. I freeze mid-way of leaning to the other side.

Oh crap.

I try my best to hide behind my hair as I say a muffled, "No, sorry."

It might've been in my imagination, but I swearI saw Calix's shoulders shake with laughter.

He did it on purpose.

I walk to the cafeteria, hugging my textbooks close to my chest as the jumbled noise from the school's most popular social place grows louder. Gold has her second period off, the privilege of upperclassmen, so she usually walks with me to lunch.

She knows I hate being alone in this place.

Funneh and Draco are already there, fighting over Funneh's poptart.

"I'll trade my fruit roll-up!" I hear Draco shout, waving a piece of purple plastic.

"No! That's the berry flavour one! I hate that flavour!" Funneh argues back, wrinkling her nose.

"Funneh, come on! Rainbow always gives you yummy snacks!" Draco persists, crossing his arms.

We stop before their table and I grab the fruit roll-up from Draco's flailing hands. "Thanks," I say, plopping down across from them.

"Lunar!" Draco screams, but I slide him my pop tart and his face lights up in a grin.

"What! Lunar, you got the marshmallow-flavoured one?" Funneh makes a grab for my pop tart, but Draco slaps her hand away.

"Back off. That's mine." He smugly takes a bite, making sure to groan at how yummy it is.

Funneh's glare is deadly enough to kill.

And that, my friends, are my siblings.

Gold catches us up on all the latest gossip as we eat, occasionally ducking misaimed objects from the sporty kids in the middle.

I'm rifling through my backpack for next period's textbooks when a shadow falls over me. Looking up, I see the exact face I don't want to see.

I groan.

"Hi to you too, Lunar." Calix says cheerfully.

"Who are you?" Draco asks bluntly, sounding repulsed.

I feel Gold kick him under the table. "Calix! Feel free to join us," she says, and Calix settles himself beside me.

"Do you guys usually eat here? I've never noticed," he comments, and I don't blame him. I mean, we do sort of sit at the far corner of the cafeteria, near the emergency exit—that's a coincidence, I swear.

"Get to the point." I say, then wonder if I'm being too harsh. Rainbow has always said I speak without filter and without thinking.

Calix doesn't seem to mind though. "I wanted to invite you and your siblings to my dorm tomorrow and make pizza. What do you say?" He asks, bright eyes looking at us.

"I-" I start to say, but Gold cuts me off.

"Of course! We'll bring our older sister, Rainbow, too."

"Great! See you guys this weekend. Feel free to invite your friends too, if you want." And with that, Calix leaves to join the table in the middle, where a haggle of boys are arm-wrestling.

"God, can he be any more obvious? Even Gold's picking up on his intentions." Funneh mutters, unimpressed, watching his retreating figure.

"He doesn't have any intentions other than to have his apartment set on fire," I argue. "Anyone who knows us knows not to invite us in the kitchen at the same time."

"I mean, I'm down to set his apartment on fire," Draco says helpfully.

"It's settled then!" Gold declares. "I'll tell Rainbow when we get home. I'm sure she'll be thrilled!"

Despite what I said, I find myself spending the rest of the day wondering what Calix's intentions are. I've only experienced romance—if you can even call it that—from comic books. And most of the time, one of the main leads dies and ends the relationship tragically.

I've never thought about what I would do if someone likes me. I have enough trouble hiding my true form from four close people, what would I do with a fifth person?

Lunar, you're just overthinking it. He literally invited your whole family and told them to invite more friends. What intentions can he really have?

With my head a jumbled mess, I wait for my siblings at the front of the school to walk home together. For some reason, I'm noticing Calix everywhere I look now: laughing with his friends in front of the school, running around the field, smiling at me– wait what?

I snap my head away, my heart beating loudly against my chest.

"Lunar! Over here!" Funneh's familiar yell alerts me and I scurry to join my siblings. Alec and Kyran are also there.

Together, we walk home together. Funneh says something and they all laugh, then suddenly they all sprint off, backpacks bumping.

Oh crap, are we having a race?

"Hey!" With my stubborn dignity I race after them, determined not to lose.

I try to ignore the feeling of his gaze on me.

Conceal || ItsFunneh AUWhere stories live. Discover now