Chapter 5

Few weeks had passed, Danielle totally forgot her so called 'seriousness'. No homeworks, no projects, no notes and a big zero in her quiz. But thanks to her loyal best friend with his undying support. If it wasn't because of Terence, she would be kicked out early. There was a time, when she was late and never had any idea about the recitation. The worst scenario for those who weren't able to answer was singing in the entrance gate wearing a cardboard labelling 'Am I serious?'.

"Oh! A round of applause for Danielle, everybody!" Ms. Mckittrick exclaimed.

Everybody was applauding as she was entering the room. She glanced her watch and realized she was late for about five minutes.

"G~Good morning Ms. Mckittrick. I'm sorry, I'm five minutes late," she had that kind of pale smile knowing the fact that there would be a consequence for her tardiness. As she was making her way to her seat, the teacher halted her.

"Where are you going?"

"T~To my seat, Ms. McKittrick," she stuttered and almost tremble.

"Not that fast, young lady. Since you're late, you'll recite first!" the teacher had emphasized her authority again.

Startlingly, Danielle had closed her eyes and took a deep breath to regain her strength and poise. She had a notion from the look in her teacher's eyes that disaster was already coming own it's way toward her. So, she was so scared to death for she had no idea about the topic. Plus, she didn't even scan her notes. And how could she possibly scan her notes when she was not even taking down notes? Perfect student!

She can't let herself be humiliated in front of James this time.

"Brain, oh brain! Please be useful and help your owner," she said silently.

"Okay, question. What human system provides the shape and form for our bodies? It protects our internal organs and allows bodily movement. It allows us to walk, run, hold and do things."

"What?! Am I still on this planet? I don't know these things. I don't even heard about these," she said silently while her eyes was rolling back and forth, forcing her brain to provide a perfect guess.

"Ugh! Brain, come on!" she bit her lower lip as she was commanding her brain silently.

"You don't know? That's very basic! You wanna go outside and humiliate yourself?"

"I uh..." she was forced to utter a word just to let herself remain in the class. As she was looking to Terence's direction, he shrewdly and discreetly used his hand to signal. A sort of sign language. Thankfully, they used sign language whenever they had secret talk. So, she understood perfectly what he was signaling.

"Uh...S~Skeletal system?"

"Is that a question or an answer?"

Danielle only responded a smile because she, herself was not so sure about the answer.

"Okay, next question. What is the third planet in our solar system?"

"System again? How many systems are there?"  Danielle uttered silently.

"Earth." Of course, she was just reading Terrence's hand.

"Lastly, what is the red planet in our solar system?"

"Grrr! I'm starting to hate this 'system'!"

How she had wish to blurt it out but she couldn't. She needed to practice good manners and right conduct as her mother taught her. 

"Uhm...Mars." Terence had a big smile knowing that she perfectly read all the signs.

"Okay. You may now take your seat, young lady. This is your first offense for being late, you got it?"

"Yes, Miss. I got it."

She had felt so much relief after that death defying recitation! That so was close to a disaster but she made it. No. Actually, it was Terence who made it. Without Terence, how could she possibly survive in school? He was a gift, a kind of help in times of need. She had owed so much to this guy.

Time had flied so fast and they were dismissed. She had survived another challenging class again. Of course, she was not an ingrate person, so she approached her generous  best friend.

"So, how was my sign language so far?" Terence started the conversation as she was getting closer to him.

"Never better," she projected a sweet smile to him.

"How will you be able to survive without me?" he said in a serious tone.

"I don't know...Anyway, thank you for saving my life, literally. I have this feeling that, I'll be needing your help for the rest of my life,'' she joked.

"No worries. We're best friends, right? Friends help each other."

"I don't remember myself  helping you. You're good in everything. I am the one who is always in need. I'm just a parasite."

"You just don't know how much you helped me in many ways. So, it's your treat?" Terence smiled at her. And she had just realized that this guy was so cute. Sad to say, James already had a place in her young heart.

"Sure! Let's go!"

As always, food was their weakness. They really love food as much as they valued each other. Maybe that was one of the reasons of their closeness. Whenever they had a fight, food was the instrument of reconciliation. Cute, wasn't it?

They really enjoyed each other while eating their favorite pizza. There were burping, laughing, and selfies. After eating, Danielle ordered for a take-out. Not for them, but to a certain individual as she had said.

They called home not to fetch them, so they took a cab and dropped few blocks away from their houses.

"And why did we get off here?" Terence asked confusedly.

"We're giving this to a friend."

"Who? As far as I know, I'm your only one friend."

Danielle remained silent until they found themselves facing in the door of an unfamiliar house.

"Hey, would mind telling me who is this friend?"

"Shhh. Keep quiet and push the button," she was pointing at the doorbell and obediently, he did it.

The door swung open and there exposed to them a very familiar person. Suddenly, Danielle handed the pizza to Terrence. So to his shock, he was caught dumbfounded and had willingly accepted it.

"Hi,'' James greeted them.

"Hi," Terence was still gaping because he couldn't believe the situation he was in.

''What are you guys doing here?" out of curiosity, James asked.

"Give him pizza," Danielle whispered at Terence's back, and he was so obedient to her.

"Are you courting me? So gay!" James laughed out loud that made Terence gained his senses.

"No!" he said abruptly, and turned to Danielle with a scary glare.

"Then, what is this for?"

"He's here to offer friendship. We just live around the corner. So, we're thinking if we could just hang out sometime. He plays basketball too," Danielle bravely interrupted.

"Basketball...yeah," Terence nodded as he was repeating the word 'basketball'.

That was crazy! He never had chance to hold a ball in his entire life. Ever! And now, she said he could play basketball? Was that a joke?

"Oh. Sure! Let's hang out sometime," James said while grabbing the pizza.

"So, uh...see around. Bye," Terence had finally cut the conversation.

"Thanks."

As James had entered their house, Terence dragged her exiting the premises of the said house. He couldn't believe what she had just did.

"Awww!" she yelped, so he let go.

"What was that?"

"Oh! Uh...A sort of bait. If you befriend him, I would have a great chance to get closer to him," she frankly said that.

"Are you using me? No! I won't do that!"

"Of course, you will!"

"Why would I?"

"Because I'm your best friend and you love me."

"So confident, eh?" Terence pressed her forehead because he knew he can't refuse his beloved best friend.

Then, they continued to walk on their way home while their arms were on each other's shoulder. Wasn't that cute?