Having purchased a few items of clothing the previous day, I was skint for the time being. As such, I almost declined an offer to go out on Thursday, instead I restructured it to be postponed until Friday and to include Sakurako. That way I wouldn't be poor, due to me receiving money on Fridays every week, my allowance so to speak. Of course I had a lot of money hidden away, but I wasn't planning on tapping into those funds.
After school on Friday, we went out as a group of 7, the 6 with Sakurako and Mieke included. We were celebrating the end of the
Trimester, with one person missing from the 6, Holly. Looking back to Thursday.
"What's this letter?" Holly came to me when I was speaking with Sakurako. Randan came up with the same letter and a grim look on his face.
"Open it" Sakurako said with a sly grin on her face, like me, she knew EXACTLY what this letter was.
"Letter of Censure?"
"Read on"
"10 hours of mandatory service to the school.. FOR EACH FAIL?!?!"
"Yeowch, 40 hours"
"And I have ten.." Randan was depressed by this, but it could be worse.
Holly fell to her knees in utter despair at the prospect of 40 hours of forced studying or labour.
Back to now, Holly had been forced to stay back after school today, she was doing cleaning duty for 2 hours. Our merriment was not to be disrupted by her failure today though, as we waltzed into a cafe and took our seats. I was next to Sakurako on my right and Santhush on my left, opposite us were Randan, Macsen, and Mieke. Oliver sat at the end of the table.
We put in our orders on a tablet, meaning it'd be a surprise as to what everybody got. After 20 minutes both drinks and food arrived.
"Cake again?"
"It's lemon"
"Do you always order cake when you go out?" Sakurako wondered.
"Absolutely I do" As the waitress placed the exact same lemon cake I ordered in front of Sakurako.
"Oh my god we're twinning!"
"We really are~" Sakurako said, looking into my eyes.
Randan and Macsen just looked back and forth between us two like they were desperately trying to investigate something. It was clear what they were looking for.
"There's nothing going on here guys. Mind your own business"
"Pretty defensive there, are you hinting something?"
"Randan, you're really something else man"
"I totally am"
Other than that, conversation surrounded what we were doing over the Summer break before school restarted on the 5th of September. Most people had some plans, like going on holidays, studying, or whatever.
"This group should absolutely do something together!!" Randan exclaimed! He was overexcited.
"Any ideas then? Anyone can go for it"
"Hmm, how about we all go to the beach!"
"You wanted that from the beginning Randan"
"Maybe.."
"Well I wouldn't mind going down" Oliver chimed in.
"I'd love to go" Macsen responded.
"Yeah why not" Santhush gave his answer.
"I'll message Holly but I'm down for it, I'll bring this one with me" I said, pointing at Sakurako.
"I'd be happy to tag along, I assume Mr Arquette will be joining us"
"I'll come"
It had been decided that the group was going to go to the beach. I assumed Randan would invite some more people to tag along, probably his new girlfriend and a few others. As I pondered this, I noticed a fork entering my periphery.
"Damn.." I had grabbed her wrist lightly, Sakurako was not stealing my food.
"You sneaky woman, not on my watch"
"Please.." She put on a very elaborate 'cute' act for this request.
"Fine.." I grabbed my fork and took a small slice out of my precious treat.
"There you go" I said, holding out my fork to her. I had not thought this through as Randan was staring at me with a stupid little smirk.
Too late to go back though, she'd already eaten it.
"Mmh" She mumbled giving me a thumbs up. This kind of behaviour must seem very out of place for her to my other friends.
"Oh yeah, by the way Sakurako, when was that meeting supposed to be?"
"The one with the student council?" Oliver responded to my question, as she wasn't finished with my cake, of which she had stolen my fork from me, and taken the liberty to eat the rest of my food.
"Yeah that one"
"It's next term"
"Damn that's ages from the exams"
"Yeah apparently your brother was otherwise engaged, and the president
was ill for the last couple of days"
"Wonder what that guy's up to.." I muttered to myself.
"I'll tell you later" Sakurako whispered into my ear, I didn't jump back this time.
Holly had responded to Randan that she'd be fine to go, but wasn't sure when the school would make her do the service hours, realisation set in for Randan as he was in the same, slightly worse predicament.
"I'll bring along some other people too" Randan said.
"They're all girls aren't they?" I responded
"You really like tarnishing my reputation"
"Literally what reputation"
"As a kind and cha-"
"You're a womaniser no other way about it buddy"
"Okay.."
"I'm right though aren't I? Your girlfriend and her friends, am I correct?"
"Yes you're exactly right"
"Bingo"
I knew how to read that man like a book, he could hide nothing from me.
"It's good to balance the ratio though, so kudos for that I suppose"
"Yeah see, I'm a genius"
"38"
He piped down after that.