It was a warm August evening. The sun was on its way down towards the horizon, in a matter of an hour or two, it will be gone for the day. The singing of the last of birds for the evening fill the late Summer sky as small clouds slowly row their way across the golden atmosphere. Below the clouds laid Briella and Nadia, in their usual spots, on the steep hill. Briella with a flower in her hand, while Nadia had her eyes out on the big river a couple of hundred meters in front of them.

Big ships and boats made their way into and out of the busy harbour, therefore making the view that bit more appealing and memorable.

"He loves me, he doesn't love me... he loves me, he doesn't love me... he loves me, he doesn't love me..." Briella sang gently as she pulled the petals of the daisy apart from the flower before throwing them elsewhere, away from her.

From the river, Nadia turned her gaze towards Briella, she chuckled gently as she watched her work her way with the flower.

"You still using that outdated way to determine your love?" Nadia asks.

Briella halts her actions, milliseconds later, she raises her eyes to Nadia.

"Well... yeah..." she replies before immediately going back to what she was doing only seconds ago, picking the petals off of the daisy in her hand.

"This is about that guy... isn't it?" Nadia asks. She doesn't even have to use a name for Briella to know who she is talking about.

"Yes... of which we will not mention his name..." Briella replies.

Nadia once again lets a smile grow on her face as she lowers her eyes to the flower in Briella's hands. "Alright..." she begins. "Do you still like him?"

"Well..." Briella begins. 'To be honest... I don't even know myself...' she thinks to herself. "Well... I... I don't know...".

"Hmmm... I could have sworn that you told me you didn't like him..." Nadia replies.

"What!? When did I say such nonsense??".

"Well, every time I ask you whether you like him or not... you reply with 'I don't, are you crazy!' and then that is usually followed by a high pitched laugh..." Nadia says.

Briella widens her eyes in surprise. 'Well, that's some close analysis of my behaviour!' she thinks to herself.

"Also..." Nadia begins. "What number is he? Crush One? Crush Two?...".

"Don't tease me...its not my fault that I fall for attractive people... very attractive people..." Briella replies, but seconds later, Nadia erupts into laughter.

Briella looks at Nadia as she laughs more and more.

"What? What's so funny?".

"Oh, nothing..." Nadia begins, trying to calm down. "Just the fact that you find Dylan attractive...". She just about finishes her sentence before bursting into another fit of laughter.

"And here I told you merely five minutes ago not to mention his name..." Briella replies.

"I know. I'm sorry, I'm sorry!... But you gotta admit, he looks as ugly as a toad...". Once again, just as Nadia calmed down, she broke into laughter.

"Ahh... don't say that!" Briella replies, but the more she thinks over the words, the funnier they become. 'I-I see her point. He does rather look like a... a toad...' she thinks to herself, and it was that exact thought that caused her too to chuckle along.

"See! Even you are laughing!" Nadia points out, still half laughing, mainly because of the fact that she is out of breath.

"No, I am not!" Briella tries to convince her, but she is failing miserably as another chuckle comes out of her.

"Mmm, sure you are not!".

"Okay..." Briella begins. "But he does have a nose like a toad...".

Silence...

Suddenly they both burst into uncontrollable laughter. They laugh so hard that the two girls lay back onto the grass they hug their stomachs.

"You... you shouldn't have said that..." Nadia says through her tears and laughter. "Now... every time I see him, I'll remember this... In my head, he'll be known as 'toad face'.".

Nadia's words cause Briella's laughter to intensify as now she too has tears running down her face.

It takes a couple of minutes for them to settle down.

"Wooooo..." Nadia yells out as she takes a deep breath.

"Wow... my stomach is in bits..." Briella sighs tiredly, as she too takes a deep breath.

"I'll tell you what, I certainly was not expecting that..." Nadia says before sitting up. Briella follows only seconds later. "But yeah... even if you do like him... it's not worth it. He is moving away soon...".

"Yah... I know. It wasn't like I have this... hmmmm... intense crush on him, but it was strong enough for him to leave an effect on me..." Briella responds.

"Mh-hhm...".

Then, Briella returns her attention to the flower that is still in her hands. She goes back to plucking the rest of the petals off of the flower.

"But tell me..." Nadia begins. When Briella raises her eyes up to her, she sees a smug smile on Nadia's lips. "I never got to ask... Who was that 5th year you always had your eye on last year?".

Immediately, Briella's face becomes red as she knows exactly who Nadia is talking about.

"Ryan... was that his name??" Nadia questions.

'Ryan...' Briella thinks to herself. 'His name... it brings back all those memories... The first time I saw him was when I was in 2nd year. He was with a group of fellas when his eyes landed on mine and me on his. It was that one look that made me want him. Although he didn't grow on me at first, by the time I got to my 4th year, I had an intense crush on him...'.

"Hello? Earth to Briella... Briella are you okay?".

"Huh??".

"You zoned out..." Nadia starts, with a smirk slowly but surely growing on her face. "You were thinking about him, weren't you?".

"Who? Ryan??".

"Mh-hhm...".

"Pfff!" Briella begins. "Me? Thinking about Ryan?? Are you crazy!?". Her words were quickly followed by a high pitched laugh. Once Briella realised, she froze before looking Nadia in the eyes. "Now I see what you mean...".

"Yeah..." Nadia replies.

"But... I was not thinking about him...".

"Mmm, sure you weren't..." Nadia says.

"I wasn't!" Briella retorts.

"Alright! But we better get going, it's about eight, plus, we have school tomorrow...".

A look of dread develops on Briella's face. 'School...'.

"Come on! Let's go!" Nadia says as she stands up.

"Okay, okay! Give me a sec," Briella responds as she stands up onto her feet. She plucks the final few petals, with it ending in 'he doesn't love me'.

Her eyes widen, but soon a deadpan face was to be the most dominant expression on her face. 'It's all just a stupid game anyway...' she tells herself, prior to throwing what's left of the flower, before turning towards Nadia and catching up to her.

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"Alright! See you in school tomorrow, Briella!".

"Sure thing, Nadia!". With that, Briella enters the front yard of her and her parent's house, before entering the house itself.

Immediately she rushes up the stairs before getting herself ready for her first day tomorrow.

'I'm Briella McNamara, a 17-year-old secondary school student... My favourite pastime is to read. But I'd also get my source of entertainment from singing, playing instruments and acting. With me being 165cm, I can confidently say that I was not the tallest in my class...'.

Once Briella is done with her preparations, she dries her hair from the shower, and after that does she allowed herself to delve into the world of literature.

A smile of contentment grows on her face as her favourite author just released a new chapter for his book 'Poisonous Love'.

"Lena! No!..." Briella reads through. "Jack... we simply can't live like this... I- I have to leave... I'm sorry...". "No... please, Lena... Lena!!!!".

By the end, as always, the author manages to touch her heart, she feels her eyes tear up a bit.

"Wow... R. C. Hale... you are one good writer...".

With that, Briella powers off her laptop before going under the covers. Just as she was about to turn off the lights, she heard the front door open. By the sigh that came seconds later, she figured it was her father.

"Night, Dad..." she says under her breath before turning off the light, laying onto her bed and falling asleep.

It's morning, the sun has risen above the horizon and it will only continue rising before beginning to descend again, sending the day away and darkening the sky back into the night. But until then, a long day of work is to be done...

The birds sing peacefully and melodically before...

Briella's alarm goes off.

She moans and groans before reaching out and dismissing her alarm. "Just five more minutes..." she whispers under her breath.

Suddenly, the realisation sets in...

"Oh crap, today I have to go to school!!".

She jumps out of her bed before rushing to the bathroom, after that, she comes back into her room where she rummages through her closet to find her uniform.

'I should have found and set the uniform aside for today... The only thing I forgot to do for today...'.

Finding her uniform, she puts it on. She puts on her dark grey leggings, before wrapping and buttoning the upper half of her body with a white shirt with a cute, mediocrely large tie. She then finalizes her uniform by putting on her knee-length school skirt and school blazer.

From there, she quickly brushes her hair before going to her main drawer and opening the first shelf. In there she found ribbons upon ribbons.

Choosing the colour that will suit her outfit, she ties her hair into a high ponytail with the ribbon. She fixes her hair in the mirror, and when satisfied, she moves onto her next task. Making breakfast.

A couple of minutes pass before she walks into the kitchen with her bag on her shoulders.

Laying it beside the door of the big kitchen, she races her way to the fridge before taking out milk. She then opens a counter right beside the fridge and fetches out a box of cereals.

Mixing the milk with the cereals in the bowl, she returns everything to its place before microwaving her food. While the microwave is doing its thing, Briella goes to the hallway to get her footwear. She puts on her cute flat-bottomed black footwear.

She comes back into the kitchen just as the microwave finished.

Within minutes, her plate is empty.

Placing it in the sink, she goes to pick up her bag. She is ready to go.

She reaches her front door when she suddenly remembers...

'Phone!!'.

She races up the stairs, into her room before grabbing her phone. While in her room, she grabs a perfume bottle before applying a single spray onto her.

Now she is ready to go.

She goes back downstairs before taking her key for the house that's hung beside the door.

With that, she goes outside, locking the door behind her, and gets her bike. Before riding off, she checks the time.

8:00 AM. School begins at 9:00 AM. She has lots of time.

... And she is off...

She rides through the countryside as it offers the most beautiful view, right by the huge river. Not many people are out and about, the same could be said about cars.

The tweets of birds fill the peaceful cloudy sky as, at times, the moving clouds manage to cover the bright sun.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ten minutes later, Briella arrives at her school and slows down by the bicycle rack.

Hopping off the bike, sudden dread fills her. She realised she forgot her bicycle lock. Although theft is pretty much non-existent in her school, she likes to keep her things safe.

"Hmmmm...". She looks around her, suddenly something caught her attention. A branch!

She fetches the branch, before trying to secure her bike with it. She manages to knot the branch around a pole and her bike.

Moving away, she keeps a close eye on the branch as it slowly began to slip. Suddenly, a feeling of accomplishment filled her, but it didn't last for long, disappointment was soon to replace it.

The branch unties and falls down to the ground.

With a sigh of surrender, she turns around and makes her way into the school.

Walking into the building and wandering down the hallways in which she was hurrying through only months ago, it doesn't take long for her to find Nadia.

When Nadia sees Briella, she puts her hand up and waves at her.

"Briella!!!" she roars as she begins to sprint her way to her.

"Good morning, Briella!".

"Good morning, Nadia. You seem in a very good mood today...".

"Yeah?... What's wrong with that?" Nadia asks.

"Umm... well, we are back in school... Sooo...".

"Oh yeah, wait... on the topic of school..." Nadia begins before taking a step back. She looks at Briella, from her legs up to her head and back down.

"What???" Briella asks.

"Nothing... it's just that you look different...".

"WHAAA?! What do you mean!?!" Briella exclaims as she looks down at herself.

"Hmmm... wait..." Nadia begins. "Nevermind, it has just been a while since the last time I saw you in a uniform..." Nadia adds.

Briella lets out a sigh of relief.

"But..." Nadia begins, once again. "It does look like you have gained a bit... you did look thinner yesterday...".

'Wait what!? How is that possible???'. "As you said, it's just the uniform!!" Briella replies.

"Okay... anyways, we should get going, we don't want to be late for the opening ceremony!" Nadia exclaims.

"Ummm... it's not a ceremony, it's just an assembly... please tell me you know that Nadia. Do you?".

"But still..." Nadia begins. "A 'ceremony' sounds so much better! It sounds so... magical... so special... so... unique..." she adds.

"Ummm... Nadia, are you sure that everything is okay?".

"Yeah, why?".

"I don't know... you seem like you might be...". Briella suddenly stops before her eyes widen. Omg, it can't be, can it??? "Wait, Nadia, are you in love!?".

"Wait what!?". Nadia's face is full of surprise. "No! Of course I'm not!".

Briella sighs with relief.

"But please... don't even ask me such non-sense again..." Nadia says.

"Of course! Sorry...".

"Anyways!" Nadia begins, "come on, we'll be late!!".

And before another thought could enter Briella's head, Nadia drags her into the main hallway of the school. There, chairs upon chairs upon chairs are laid all across the big area. Flowers decorate the walls of the hallway.

'It really does look like a ceremony!' Briella thinks to herself, surprised.

"So, where should we sit??" Nadia asks.

"Huh?... Ummmm... I don't know..." Briella replies. "Maybe somewhere in the middle...".

"Hmmm, just where I was thinking!!!" Nadia replies.

They both settle and sit down, their bags in between their legs, on the ground.

Briella looks around her as more and more students fill the seats.

She keeps on looking around until her eyes land on someone. It only takes her a second to realise who is it.

It's Ryan!

He is still standing, talking to his friends, his broad back facing Briella.

Seconds pass before they too move and sit down. Till now, he never looked back, giving Briella no reason to not look away. But it was almost as if he finally felt a pair of eyes on him, he glanced back and immediately, their eyes meet...

Even though quite a distance separates them, she could still feel his gaze being as sharp as glass.

The sensation of his eyes piercing into hers... it reminded her of the first time they looked at each other, it seemed like years ago now...

It was Briella who broke their eyes contact as she quickly moved and hid behind Nadia. Her heart couldn't handle it!!

"Huh???". Nadia looks at Briella before looking back forward. "Hey look!! There's Ryan, Briella!... Briella? Is everything okay?".

Briella lays onto Nadia as her heart has had a meltdown. "Omg...".

"Briella???".

It just passed twenty to two when Briella comes out of the school building and into the wide schoolyard. She immediately makes her way to the usual wall where she spent her breaks throughout her education in this school. 

At first, she is alone. She looks around, turns around and looks behind her. 

People are scattered in groups of threes or fours, some even fives. Above that would be rare on the school grounds, but, of course, not that it never happens. It would usually be the mass of people returning from the lunch they had downtown, that would return in groups of eights, not commonly would there be more than that. 

She continues observing her surrounding, looking for something to do. It doesn't take long before her heart almost jumps out of her ribcage... 

She sees Ryan... 

He is sat by a trunk of a tall tree, with a notebook on his lap, and a pen that is constantly moving... 

'I wonder what he is writing or maybe even drawing...' Briella thinks to herself. 'Whatever it is, I bet it takes a lot of concentration and focus... he looks very invested in what he is doing...'. 

Then, before anything else could be done, she hears panting behind her. 

Briella turns around just to see Nadia approaching her, breathless. When she stops by Briella, she allows herself to slump downwards and anchor her hands against her thighs. 

"What exactly happened to you???..." Briella asks. Seconds pass before scenarios began to play through Briella's head. She widens her eyes upon a possible cause to her being out of breath. "Don't tell me you went back to your old ways, Nadia, did you?... Who was chasing you now? Also, let me get one thing straight, it wasn't a teacher, right???". 

"Chased? No, I wasn't chased..." Nadia replies as she manages to get a hold of her breathing. "I was just trying to find you...". 

"So, you were running... just to look for me?...". 

"Yeah..." Nadia replies. 

"Wait... Why? Why exactly?". 

"Well..." Nadia begins. "I wanted to, obviously, look for you, but I am also working towards a summer body, hehe!". 

"Hmmm... You... you do know we are still in Summer, right...". 

"Yeah, but for next year, I mean..." Nadia replies. 

"Ah okay..." Briella begins. "Wait... is it not a bit too early for that?... We still have Autumn, Winter and Spring to get through...". 

"Its never too early... nor is it ever too late..." Nadia replies. 

"Okay... I'll give you that one..." Briella says. 

"Anyways... what were you doing so I couldn't find you for a good ten-fifteen minutes??" Nadia asks. 

"Well... to be honest... I went around to all my extra-curricular activities and signed back up for the new academic year.". 

"Ah okay... I see... while on that, I really need to remember for one of the following days to sign back into drawing and singing...". "Last year, I totally forgot to do so...". 

'Ohhhh okay... so that was why I didn't see Nadia in drawing and singing...' Briella thinks to herself. 'All this time I thought she was avoiding it for some reason unknown to me...'. "All this time, I thought you were avoiding the clubs..." Briella ends her sentence with a gentle chuckle as she rubs the back of her head in some sort of relief. 

"Oh, I'd never..." Nadia suddenly stops. "No... I take that back... because of that one weird guy from two years ago... I think he had a crush on me... a huge one..." Nadia says. 

"Who?... was it the one with light brown-ish hair, with that fringe???". 

"Yup, that one... still can't get the way he stunk out of my nose..." Nadia replies. 

"He didn't smell bad! He just has tons of cologne on..." Briella responds. 

"That is what I mean... he had some much of it on that it actually made him stink...". Then, as if it was a sudden moment of realisation, Nadia's eyes open wide. "Wait... tell me, while on the topic of crushes... what happened to you this morning???" Nadia asks, she can't help but let out a chuckle or two... 

Instantly, Briella's face reddens. 

Subconsciously, her eyes move away from Nadia onto Ryan, who is still sitting by the big tree, as the top of his pen moves swiftly. 

Then, as if he felt her eyes on him, he looks up from his page and directly at her. He once again looks right into her eyes. It was that one look of his that caused an explosion-like feeling to radiate and circulate all around Briella's body. 

Just like this morning, Briella is the first one to look away and break their eye contact. 

Her eyes point towards the ground as a darker shade of red appears on her cheeks. Her heart begins to pound against her ribcage like crazy. 

It only takes her a few minutes for everything to calm down. It must have been that within those few minutes, Ryan had picked up his stuff and left, because when Briella looked back up, he was nowhere to be seen by the tree trunk... 

"Briella?... Would you be so kind as to tell me what has just happened, also please don't hesitate to include any details from this morning..." Nadia says, with a blank, yet humorous, facial expression. 

"Well... To-to be honest..." Briella begins. "I don't really know... its like... I feel strong, but every time Ryan looks at me... I... I" Briella says. Suddenly, her face turns deadpan as her eyes become half-closed, "I... I feel like I get winded in my stomach..." Briella adds. 

'Well, that became oddly graphic!' Nadia exclaims in her thoughts as her jaw lowers ever so slightly. 

"But yeah..." Briella says though a smile that shows off her slight discomfort. 

"M-maybe you are in love?" Nadia says. 

"Look who is talking nonsense now..." Briella replies as her deadpan face returns. 

"Look... I'm just trying to say that love too can make you feel that way..." Nadia retaliates. 

"I think its also worth mentioning that he is my crush, although I do want for him to love me and me to love him, I have to face the reality..." Briella says as disappointment is expressed across her face. 

"And the reality of this situation is what exactly?...". Now Nadia is the one with the deadpanned face. 

"Well... I... I just feel like I might not be his type...". 

Nadia lets out a gentle sigh. "Well, you will never find out if you don't try! I mean you-" Nadia suddenly got cut off by the school bell. Her face returns to an emotionless gaze at Briella. "... That's the bell for class time... isn't it??". 

"Yeah," Briella begins before turning back and looking up at the cathedral bell. "Looks like its about... 5-10 minutes till class starts, I think we should get going..." Briella says. "Through, I understand what you were trying to say. I must try in order to find out...". 

"Ehhh, there, there about... You have got the gist of it, one way or the other..." Nadia replies as they both begin to make their way back inside of the school building.