Chapter 5

By Friday morning, I had officially decided that Noel Carter was a problem. Not a serious problem or a life-threatening one. He was simply the kind of problem that appeared out of nowhere and somehow made everything more complicated than it needed to be.

For example, before the Pink Razor Incident, I could walk through school without immediately wondering whether Noel was nearby. Now I couldn't seem to stop noticing him everywhere, which was extremely annoying.

Naturally, I blamed him for it.

The school festival was scheduled for the following day, which meant the entire campus had transformed into organized chaos. Students were running around carrying decorations, teachers were shouting instructions nobody was listening to, and every club seemed convinced they were responsible for saving civilization.

Personally, I had planned to avoid all festival preparations.

Unfortunately, life rarely consulted me before making decisions.

"Frankie."

I looked up from my desk. Aurora was standing beside me. Whenever Aurora smiled like that, trouble followed.

"Stop whatever you are planning!"

"I haven't even said anything yet."

"You have the face."

"What face?"

"The volunteer face."

Aurora gasped dramatically. "I don't have a volunteer face."

"You absolutely do."

Five minutes later, I somehow found myself helping set up festival decorations. I still wasn't entirely sure how she'd done it. Well, I suppose blackmail was my leading theory…

The courtyard looked like a construction site run by overly enthusiastic teenagers. Banners hung from every available surface. Tables were being moved. Booths were being assembled. Nobody seemed to know what they were doing, especially me.

I was carrying a box of decorations toward the student council booth when somebody stepped directly into my path. I looked up, recognized the person responsible, and immediately regretted my entire morning.

Of course it was Noel.

"Morning, Frank."

"Go away."

"That's becoming your catchphrase."

"Maybe because you keep showing up."

His grin widened. I was supposed to find that annoying. Unfortunately, the fact that I kept noticing it was a completely separate problem.

"Helping with the festival?" he asked.

"No. I'm being held against my will."

He laughed, "That sounds about right."

Before I could respond, somebody called his name from across the courtyard.

Noel glanced in that direction, then looked back at me.

"Try not to start any security chases today."

I narrowed my eyes.

"Try not to tell the entire school about my business."

Noel nodded as if that was a perfectly reasonable request. "I'll do my best."

Then he walked away.

The annoying thing was that he looked completely satisfied with that exchange. The even more annoying thing was that I did too. Naturally, I blamed sleep deprivation.

Around an hour later, I was standing on a ladder.

This was already a bad sign.

Years of experience had repeatedly proven that I could not be trusted on ladders, chairs, stools, or, frankly, anything that required even a basic sense of balance. Unfortunately, nobody had asked for my opinion before putting me in charge of hanging decorations.

I was trying to hang a banner above one of the festival booths while Aurora held the ladder below.

"Left," she called.

I moved left.

"Other left."

I moved right.

"No, your other left."

"I only have one left."

Aurora groaned.

"I don't know why I expected this to go smoothly."

"Because you're optimistic."

"Because I'm stupid."

Before I could respond, disaster struck.

LITERALLY.

One corner of the banner slipped from my hand. Instinctively, I lunged for it. That turned out to be a mistake. The ladder immediately began to wobble beneath me. Aurora yelped from below, and several students nearby jumped backward as if they were anticipating a disaster.

For one terrible second, I became deeply aware of gravity. The shaking stopped before I could fully panic. A second later, I looked down and found Noel was standing there…

"Again?" he asked.

"I was fine."

"You were absolutely not fine."

"I had it under control."

"The ladder was trying to leave."

"The ladder was overreacting."

Noel looked unconvinced. Honestly, so did Aurora.

Ten minutes later, the banner was finally hanging correctly, largely because Noel had taken over and refused to trust me with anything important, which was irritating. I should have appreciated the help. Instead, the fact that he was being helpful only made the whole thing worse.

The real disaster happened after lunch. The drama club had built an elaborate decorative archway for the festival entrance. It was impressively huge. And somehow I managed to break it. In my defense, it wasn't entirely my fault. The wheel on a supply cart got stuck. I pushed harder. The cart suddenly lurched forward. The corner hit one support beam. The support beam hit another support beam. Then the entire structure began leaning sideways.

Slowly.

Very slowly.

Like it was giving everyone enough time to appreciate what was happening. A horrified silence spread across the courtyard.

I watched as the archway began to wobble. For a moment, it looked like it might stay standing, but it did not. The entire structure chose violence and collapsed straight into the middle of the festival setup. For several seconds, nobody moved. Then somebody shouted.

"WHO DID THAT?"

Unfortunately, everyone immediately pointed at me.

Traitors.

All of them. Including Aurora. Especially AURORA.

"I panicked," she explained later.

The student council president looked ready to cry. Teachers looked exhausted. The drama club looked murderous.

I briefly considered fleeing the country. Then Noel appeared. Because apparently he sensed disaster the way sharks sensed blood.

"What happened?"

I pointed at the wreckage.

"I refuse to take responsibility for any of this."

Noel glanced at the collapsed archway, then back at me, as if comparing the evidence to my statement.

"I leave you alone for two hours."

"Not helping."

His shoulders started shaking.

I narrowed my eyes.

"Are you laughing?"

"No."

"You are."

"I'm really trying not to."

I crossed my arms.

"Noel."

That only made things worse.

He looked away so suddenly that it was obvious he was trying and failing not to laugh.

At that point, even I wanted to laugh a little.

Just a little....

The situation became significantly less funny when the teachers announced the entrance needed to be rebuilt before tomorrow morning.

And since I had accidentally destroyed it...

Guess who got volunteered?

Exactly.

Me.

Noel somehow got volunteered too. I suspected karma had finally decided to help. The two of us spent the next several hours rebuilding the structure. At first, we argued constantly.

"No, hold it higher."

"It's already high."

"It's crooked."

"It's not crooked."

"It is."

"It's not…."

Five minutes later, it turned out to be crooked. I didn't mention it. Mostly because Noel wouldn't stop smiling.

As the afternoon passed, something strange happened. We stopped arguing quite so much. Not completely. That would have been concerning. But the conversations felt different. Lighter. Less like a battle and more like two people talking.

At one point, I accidentally got paint on my cheek. I didn't realize until Noel started staring.

"What?"

"Nothing."

"Why are you looking at me like that?"

"I'm deciding whether to tell you."

"Tell me what?"

He pointed toward my face. I immediately wiped my cheek. Wrong side.

Noel laughed.

"The other side."

I wiped again. Still wrong. By now he was openly laughing.

"You're enjoying this."

"A little."

"A little?"

"Okay, a lot."

Eventually he reached over and brushed a small streak of paint from my cheek. The gesture lasted less than a second. Barely anything. Yet somehow my brain completely forgot what conversation we were having.

Thankfully, Noel stepped back before things got weird. At least we both pretended they didn't.

By sunset, the archway was finally finished. It actually looked good. Better than before, if I was being honest.

The courtyard was mostly empty now. Students had gone home. Teachers were finishing up.

For the first time all day, things felt peaceful. I stepped back to admire our work.

"We did it."

"We did."

"I still think the first one wasn't entirely my fault."

"It was one hundred percent your fault."

"Ninety."

"One hundred."

"Ninety-five."

"I'll give you ninety-eight."

"I can live with that."

For a moment, we simply stood there smiling at the finished archway. A teacher walking past happened to glance in our direction. Her eyes moved from the decorations to the two of us, and a knowing smile immediately appeared on her face.

"Oh."

Neither of us liked that smile.

"Oh what?" I asked.

"You two make a very cute couple."

My soul immediately left my body. I froze so completely that I briefly forgot how to function as a human being. Beside me, Noel had also gone suspiciously silent.

The teacher continued walking before either of us could respond. An awkward silence settled between us. My face felt suspiciously warm.

This was a nightmare. An actual nightmare.

Slowly, I turned toward Noel. Part of me expected him to laugh. Another part expected him to immediately correct the misunderstanding. At the very least, I expected him to say something.

Anything.

Instead, he rubbed the back of his neck and looked away shyly.

And for reasons I couldn't quite understand, he never corrected her.