Second Semester

May's POV

"May Dearie!" I heard Mom calling me from the kitchen. It was seven in the morning and my five-year old body was just freshly clean and cool from the early morning bath. "Time for you to meet a new playmate." She added.

New playmate?

I dropped the white stripped towel from my body and quickly changed into my simple white one piece dress laced with a bright big blue ribbon in the chest area. I happily hopped down the stairs from my room and took a peek at Mom by the door of the kitchen.

"Playmate?" I inquired Mom. She gently placed the plates on the table and undid her apron. She approached me and bent down. She held my face in between her loving hands.

"Yes Dear, he's just as old as you and very lovable too." She smiled. "I bet you two could easily get along."

"Really?" I asked in amazement as I embraced her. "I can't wait to meet him!" I smiled as wide as possible.

Mom gladly received my embrace and stood up carrying me. "Then let's meet him now shall we?"

"We shall!" I exclaimed as Mom carried me all the way to the door leading outside our house.

...

I woke up by morning feeling a lot way better than last night. By the works of the gods, I was cured of my cold.

The sunlight pierced through the near-transparent glass of my windows. The cold November breeze danced the curtain in a not-so-welcoming manner.

This is gonna be one cold semester.

I sleepily got up of bed and slowly walked to the right side of my room to close the windows to prevent my room from becoming into one huge refrigerator. As soon as I did it, I stretched my body in victory, only to notice that it was already quite bright.

7:15 AM

"Crap! I'm late!"

I shook all of the drowsiness clinging on me and quickly took a towel in the drawer by my room. I made it out in a nick of time when I accidentally bumped into someone I wasn't really expecting just as I was about to open the bathroom door. Since I was quite quick in my pace, I was forceful enough to actually pin him down as I soon followed on top of him. I closed my eyes and braced for impact.

It went super awkward right off the bat.

I tried to identify what I was actually holding on to. With both eyes still closed, I slowly retracted my grip which I thought was somewhere near his biceps (which was actually BARE) and opened my eyes bit by bit.

Of course, deep down I knew it has to be Drew no doubt about it since I am living with him. But the thought that I am holding onto someone I am pretty sure bare, I couldn't help but hope somehow that it isn't him.

Uhm I don't know, Dad perhaps?

What my eyes saw by the moment they were fully opened was indeed the image of Drew in nothing but his boxers with a piece of washcloth over his head. From the sweet aroma of aloe vera shampoo that reached my nose with an enticing passion, it was very clear that he have just finished taking a bath.

Then in less than a mere second of realization, I felt my face burn up red.

"Wha?"

I was about to sit up suppressing a screech when he suddenly held both of my arms and pulled me in closer instead.

"Feeling quite aggressive aren't we so early in the morning." He smiled and whispered in my ear haughtily.

"PERVERT!" I screamed and slapped the smirk boldly written across his face. "Perverted cabbage-brain!" I violently shook off his grip on my arms. I stood up abruptly and slammed the bathroom door behind me.

Despite the sudden offensive attitude that I showed, I felt no regret. I could still practically feel his sneer behind the wooden door.

"Ugh, I can't believe he was able to pull that off!" I grumbled and slowly took off my pajamas and welcomed the rush of warm water from the shower.

As I felt the warm water course through my body, I unconsciously covered my flush face remembering the texture of what I just held earlier.

Since when did he have such nice biceps?

"Gaaaah!" I screamed.

What the heck am I thinking?

I almost wanted to hit my head against something metallic. Really hard.

"May!" I heard Drew calling out from the other side of the door. "You okay in there?"

"It's your entire fault you sick pervert!" I screamed. "Don't even try to force yourself coming here!" I alarmed. "Leave me alone!"

"Who said I was gonna push my way through?" He answered coolly. "I just want to let you know that it's already 7:30."

"WHAT?!"

I fastened my pace even more. I rubbed the soap against my skin forcefully imagining it was his face. "This is entirely your fault! Your fault! Your fault!"

"I'm late and it's your entire fault!"

"Don't worry!" I heard him chuckle from the other side. "I've already prepared your uniform on your bed." He followed. "I didn't know you have such cute set of undergarments."

What I just heard was probably the worst thing someone could ever tell me.

"THAT'S IT! YOU ARE FOREVER BANNED FROM ENTERING MY ROOM!"

"I was jus-"

"AND YOU ARE NOT ALLOWED TO STAY WITHIN THREE METERS FROM MY ROOM!"

"I said I was jus-"

"GOT THAT?!"

"I said I-"

I angrily slammed open the door with only just the towel covering my body. I could vividly see steam coming out wildly from every pore of my body. I gave the sickest person right in front of me my most deadly 'I'm-gonna-maniacally-strangle-you-to-death-in-glee' stare.

"DID YOU FREAKING GET THAT?!"

He raised both of his hands and nodded in defeat. "You still got a little bit of soap there by the way." He said sheepishly, pointing to a spot near my neck.

"SHUT UP!" I went back and slammed the door close again, partially hoping that I wasn't able to destroy the poor thing.

After the bath, I think he was trying to tell me that it was just a joke because when I entered my room my uniform wasn't prepared and the room felt empty ever since I got out from it. But I was still pretty mad at him nonetheless. After I was done changing and all, he was no longer around. I think he mentioned to me before that he'll visit his mother and talk about where he will continue his study.

Without further much to think about, I picked up my bag and raced myself to school. I could have had my breakfast if I weren't living alone.

How sad.

How I wish I could just return back home. I guess Mom really wanted me out of the house that badly. I couldn't really blame her though since I didn't do many chores anyway. But thinking really hard about it, it's still really unfair to kick me out.

Anyway on the positive note, because of the cold season I amazingly made it to school just barely late without sweating too much. I heard the bell rang as I entered my classroom on the third floor.

"You're not usually this late May." My perky redhead seatmate Misty asked when I took a seat beside her. "What happened?"

I would love to say 'I don't usually live alone with myself either, more so alone with a sick perverted childhood friend'. But sadly I couldn't, so I just heaved myself a sigh. "I just had a bad cold yesterday." At least that was true.

Misty was about to say something when Dawn came rushing in from the door with heavy panting. "I'm not late! Praise the heavens!" She screamed happily, but her little display of victory vanished immediately when she noticed Solidad right behind her bringing the class manual. "Sorry Ms. Solidad!" She squeaked and made her way on the other side of Misty.

The class started with Solidad introducing herself as our adviser for the second semester. It was then followed by a roar of cheers since a lot of class wanted her to be their own adviser. She's really that famous despite being new to the university. Beside me were both Dawn and Misty who chatted animatedly throughout the class. I was more of a concerned-with-grades kind of student so I rarely bother talking with these two during class hours. All they talk about are the new students enrolling in our university every now and then.

Our university is originally an all-girls high school, but after the school's 5th anniversary just last year, it was decided then that it had to become a co-ed university.

For what reason?

I don't really know, but most of our teachers said that it would make the university a little bit more colorful. Yeah right, that's some kind of acceptable reason there.

And slowly, few males have started to appear within the campus. Our class of thirty students has actually five boys. And the tendency of getting famous and the topic of rumor within the campus for simply being a boy isn't that new and shocking.

Scary, if you ask me.

"Don't you think that Paul guy is a little bit weird for having purple hair?" I heard Dawn asked Misty.

Paul Blackwell, by the way, is one of the new students here who just enrolled last semester. He's quite famous among the girls for being somewhat cool despite his rude and apathetic attitude. He's also one of the top ten students in our class placing second, more reason for a lot of girls to be falling heels over head for him. They would just swoon over him every time he would just stare at them in annoyance, though I consider it more of a death glare. Sorry I'll take that back, MENACING death glare. What has this society become?

"Wasn't your favorite color purple?" Misty teased.

"Ahh well yeah, but it's only second to blue actually." Dawn suppressed a blush. "By the way, how are you and Ash going along?" She asked, trying to change the subject.

"We go home together always, come here to school together always." She answered casually. "The usual." Misty yawned.

Ash Ketchum is a spiky raven-haired boy of our class. And just like Paul, he just enrolled last semester. But unlike him, he's actually a pretty nice guy despite being dense, you know, the typical you-tell-a-joke-and-he-doesn't-get-it-so-you-try-to-explain-it-therefore-ruining-the-joke-and-its-purpose-so-regret-is-all-you-have-left kind of guy. He and Misty were childhood friends who happen to move by our neighborhood ten years ago. I and Drew met them when we were seven and we used to play a lot together. Within the university, he's really approachable and helpful which made him quite as famous as Paul among the girls.

"Wow, it must be really cool to have a boy childhood friend." Dawn awed.

I saw Misty shift her gaze towards the right end of the room, a certain raven-haired boy who was already sleeping so early in class. "Well, it actually depends." She answered nonchalantly.

I knew Misty so well. She loved Ash ever since middle school. When she said 'it actually depends' I knew Ash wasn't getting any real affection from Misty. But who could blame him? The guy's really dense, I bet he wouldn't even float in space. Which I could understand why she hits him often times. He should really be thankful for the school for prohibiting students to bring anything that would REALLY hurt, such as a mallet or even boxing gloves.

Things that I often see in her bag when we go out once in a while.

That girl is bat-crap crazy.

I think you just made me love you cabbage-brain.

I suddenly felt a headache sprout in my head. "Stupid, Sick, Perverted Lettuce." I muttered to myself. "Making me say stupid things I shouldn't have, he even made me do something stupid I know I shouldn't have." I pouted and waved off the embarrassing memory of kissing him.

"May?" I heard Misty beside me. "Are you still sick?" She asked worriedly.

"I agree with Misty!" I answered looking up at them, ignoring her question. "You wouldn't really be lucky if that someone happens to be a sick pervert would you?"

"What are you talking about?" Misty asked. "And are you really sure you're fine?"

I was about to say that I was perfectly fine when Dawn cut me off. "Say May! You mentioned a couple of times before that you had a childhood friend." She stated happily.

Then the headache that sprouted in my head became worse. But before I was able to say anything, I heard the school intercom.

MAYBELLE MAPLE. MAYBELLE MAPLE OF CLASS 3-A. PLEASE COME TO THE PRINCIPAL'S OFFICE RIGHT NOW. THANK YOU.

Talk about headaches.

"I'm just okay." I answered while smiling lightly at them. I felt relieved when I saw both of them smile. I felt my temple as I stood up and excused myself. The principal's office was just at the near end of the third floor so I didn't walk too much. I knocked twice before entering.

"Glad to see you looking so lively at the start of your final term Miss Maple." Mr. Wattson, our school principal, happily greeted. He scratched his thinning grayish hair. "Or should I say, Mrs. Hayden?" He smiled innocently.

I stood there shocked, speechless, and flabbergasted. And for a second, I felt my heart stopped beating and figuratively screamed 'How in the hell did you know that?!'

Since I wasn't able to respond, he continued.

"I think it was very clearly written in our student manual that being married is highly prohibited in our university." He mentioned thoughtfully. "Being the top ten student of Class 3-A, I think you're very much aware of that."

I gulped noiselessly.

I felt an incapacitating weight fall on me.

Of course! How could have I forgotten? Being married or having a job was against the school rules. Damn it! I mentally cursed. Damn it all!

I couldn't help but curse mentally because if I wouldn't I would break down and cry. And that would be something really unsightly.

I bowed my head and silently balled my fist.

This is all that Sick Pervert's fault! Damn him and all the chlorophylls in his hair!

"Let's have a little talk about it shall we?" He suggested and offered a chair across his table.

First I was forced into marrying, and then I was kicked out of my own house. Now I'm in danger of being expelled just as I was about to graduate by the end of this term.

God, I really didn't think you hated me, but, how could you let something like this happen to me?

Why?