Birch and Hayden

May's POV

"MAAAAAAAAAY!" Dawn immediately took strong hold of my shoulders and started to shake the hell out of me just as I took my seat right beside her on our usual lunch table. "I ENVY YOU SO MUCH!"

"What?" I asked, confused by what she meant.

"Don't you dare 'what?' me missy." She sharpened her eyes at me. "I'm talking about that sexy beast of a transferee with jade eyes!"

"Sexy beast?!" My voice caught unwanted attention nearby. "The hell Dawn?!"

Dawn moved her seat closer to me. "Now you listen here." She threatened and pointed a spoon at my side. "You've GOT to tell me EVERYTHING that happened between you and Drew or else suffer the bane punishment of the tickle monster."

I sighed and felt my head. Why does he have to transfer here?

And why do I have to be so damn ticklish?!

And why does Dawn demand to know that well-hidden secret I've treasured?!

"You're being serious aren't you?" I asked, hoping somehow that I wouldn't have to explain to her everything like she wanted me too. And of course in hopes of not suffering from the bane punishment of the tickle monster.

I looked behind and saw Drew seated together with Ash, Paul and Gary on their usual lunch table about four o'clock from our position. I didn't know if it was just pure coincidence but by the moment I saw him he was also starring at me, incisively.

Is he still upset that I corrected his equation during algebra? But that was like hundreds of minutes ago.

Speaking of minutes ago.

...

"Wait wait wait, please just wait." I cut him off. "Let me just collect my thoughts for a second." I felt my head as the headache from the past seat work ruckus made it even harder for me to process what was actually going on. "You're the one who wrote that letter below my desk right?" I asked, trying to have some sort of clarification.

"Yes." He smiled, trying to build up a light atmosphere between us.

"Then why the hell did you pick this venue among all the other SAFE places here in the school?" I narrowed my eyes at him. My thoughts crashed back to my series of deduction during class, that this baby face here sure was some kind of nasty stalker. His smile faded as he witnessed me getting closer, I could see that he was starting to panic as he tried to squeeze out some unshady reasons.

I was suspicious from the start and of course he have the right to know that I am still suspicious of whatever is going on and whoever he is.

"Like the cafeteria?" I continued, walking up to him closer and closer.

"Uhm.. hehe." He laughed nervously and tried to hide his panic. He failed so horribly at this.

"Or the school open court?"

"You see, uhm.."

"How about even just outside our room, or your room for that matter?"

"Well, uhm..."

"Do all of these places seem, hmmm." I paused and feigned naivety. "Has too many witnesses?!"

"And most of all, why didn't you write your name?" I stopped and stood straight in front of him. I cocked an eyebrow and clipped my hips.

I am trying to make an impression. But I don't know if I am doing it right though. I might just look stupid now that I think about it.

He didn't answer. I only heard how he gulped nervously.

"Well?" He has to have some dark motives. I know I was being too bold for someone I just barely knew, but I just showed him that I was not just some pretty face, that I'm someone who doesn't like to be messed with. "Cat got you tongue?"

"Ah, eh.. Y-you, I'm so sorry Maybelle!" He immediately bowed apologetically and scrammed away from me. "I'll see you again sometime!"

And then in a split second he was gone.

What the -

...

"Hey Dawn, do I look scary or intimidating somehow to you?" I asked her immediately after shaking the absurd memory off of my head.

"Nope, but why?" She replied and made a quizzical face. "And hey! Don't change the subject and start talking!" She pointed the spoon at my side.

I soon heard Misty gave a slight giggle while I gave myself a little sigh.

How do I tell her everything?! That's like explaining how the universe started.

"Well you see Dawn, our relationship isn't really what you think it is, I mean me and Andrew." I said after clearing my throat. I opened my bag to get my lunch when I saw the other two have unpack theirs. "Yeah we were childhood friends, but I think there's nothing much so special about that. This is not some anime stuff."

"Really?!" The bluenette exclaimed in disbelief. "I thought you played prince and princess a lot when you both were younger?"

"WHAT?!"

"As an anime connoisseur I can assure you, that is some anime stuff."

I instantly covered my mouth when my accidental shriek seemed to have caught another batch of unwanted attention nearby. "Where did you get that?!" I hissed.

"Misty said so." She replied. I then narrowed my eyes at the redhead who just ignored me and ate her lunch salad.

"Isn't it dreamy when you have that one childhood friend that will protect you always? The one that keeps on saying that he will protect you no matter what?"

"And I'll be your personal guardian ready to protect you from any dragons!"

"It's okay, as long as I'm here nobody will dare harm you."

I mentally agreed. I have always thought starting middle school that living a troublesome life wouldn't be really bad if Drew was with me and that's what made me sad when he and his family left.

"Well, sort of. Drew was always so protective of me when we were young." I followed after agreeing mentally to her.

"SEEEE! TELL ME EVERYTHING PLEASE!" She cried out.

"Ssshhh, just calm down!"

And I soon palmed my face remembering that I was living alone with Drew and that meant that I had to prepare for my lunch on my own. I can't believe I forgot that I bought my lunch the previous days.

It seems like I will never get used to living a life without Mom making lunch for me.

I sighed and stood up. "I'll just go and buy a quick sandwich guys."

To my utter surprise, I didn't notice Brendan's presence right behind me. I was caught off guard that I fell back. I would have kissed the floor in a nasty and lame accident if he didn't catch me perfectly in time. He wrapped his arms around my back.

Damn, it was like a movie!

Time seemed to have paused. I just stared at the boy who held me. "Brendan?"

"I'm sorry again Maybelle Maple, and also about earlier." He apologized and helped me stood up straight. "I came here to apologize." And again he bowed down.

The cafeteria started to look like I was putting on an obviously fake magic show as everyone, I mean every girl, started to glare at me for putting up such a situation.

Not that I was scared. That was embarrassing!

"I know, please stand up." I whispered to him. "Everyone is staring at us." I told him.

He perked up and stood up straight. "Here, you can have this, since you don't seem to have lunch." He smiled brightly again.

It was the first time in my life feeling flustered about someone else. Because in my life, I thought that only Drew was capable of that. "T-thank y-you." I stuttered. I gladly took his offer, an egg sandwich and orange juice.

"It's payment for what I did earlier." He remarked and scratched his head. "It's just that I get really nervous around girls I really like." He chuckled, which was really cute.

Wait, did he just said that he liked me? As in like like me?

"You like me?" I whispered, my face started to glow red.

He was about to answer when the Lettuce Head interrupted our moment.

"Sorry but she won't be needing it." Drew exclaimed, standing adjacent to me. He took the sandwich and the juice box from my hand and returned it to Brendan. Drew gave me an egg sandwich and an apple juice. "Don't you know that she hates orange juice? You should probably be more thoughtful about trying to give someone something." He then glared at him. "It could ruin your impression."

Wow, I can't believe he's still really mad about Algebra earlier. And who does he think he is claiming things about me? I officially love apple juice but that doesn't mean I like orange juice a little less.

Brendan was also caught off guard by his sudden appearance. "Sorry, but, it seems this is the first time I saw you. Are you new here?"

"Does it really matter to you?" Drew deadpanned.

I wasn't able to move a finger as the tension Drew was pulling off was creating a heavy stormy atmosphere. I don't know what I should be more worried about, whether it's Drew glaring at Brendan or this whole crazy thing starting to gather a very large group of audiences.

Especially the girls.

Excuse me, especially the hormone-crazed girls!

I could even hear the sentences 'Who is that girl next to Andrew?' and 'Did I just hear Brendan say he like her?'

I am so dead meat!

Amidst the spark of lightning from Drew's eyes and the even more threatening sparks of death from all the other girls in the cafeteria. A certain redhead climbed her way on top of our table and stole the stage.

And it was at this moment that I knew I was going to plunge into my horrific doom.

"Hold your horses everyone!" Misty cleared her throat as she tried to catch everyone's attention with a fork in her hand as a microphone. "Well you see Andrew Hayden here is my friend's childhood bestbudd." She exclaimed pointing the piece of utensil at me. "Andrew has been this close to Maybelle ever since, like since they still pee in their pants. And if you didn't know they have been dat-"

"T-thanks Misty! I I g-guess t-t-that was more t-t-than enough." I laughed nervously while cupping the mouth of the redhead that almost signed my death warrant.

'Pee in their pants.'? Seriously?!

She tried squirming her way out but it only made me grip on her tighter. "Heh heh heh.. That's all everyone! Just bestbudd, nothing else. No peeing in pants, just a bunch of baloney."

I started crying on the inside.

It was like being a sprained seal surrounded by a horde of hungry sharks. The pressure made me perspire a lot and I even perspired more at the mere glimpse of everyone who tightened their grip on their spoon and fork.

I could become their lunch!

Thankfully I didn't tell her about my secret. I just couldn't imagine her telling everyone to have their noses away because Drew and I were already married instead of dating. Heck we didn't even have a date!

I cringed at the thought of the whole school knowing about it. That's like the worst case scenario! She even managed to tell Dawn about me and Drew playing prince and princess a lot when we were young!

"Are you trying to get me killed here?!" I hissed at the redhead who struggled for air.

"C-c-can't b-b-breathe..." She choked out. The pressure was pressing me so hardly that I didn't notice I was cutting off Misty's supply of oxygen. By the moment I released her she fell flat unconscious on the table.

"Misty! Are you okay?! Oh god I'm sorry!" I alarmed. And soon I heard Dawn gave a faint response.

"May....and..Drew, are already dating? Y-you didn't tell me anything a-about it?" She managed to say as she soon fell flat unconscious as well on her seat.

"Not Dawn too! And we are not definitely dating! Why is this all happening?!" I screamed, internally uprooting all my hair.

It was then a moment later on that my scream caught the attention of Sir Brock, our clinic personnel in charge. He claimed that he felt my distress. It was unbelievable because the clinic was a building away from the cafeteria, there's no way my scream could have reached that far. He even mentioned that he has a heart that easily responds to any damsel in distress.

But of course I didn't buy it. He was just probably on his way here for lunch.

Anyway, he texted some of his crew to help carry both Dawn and Misty all the way to his clinic and everything just went back to normal like nothing ever happened. Right, everything went back to normal except the fact that I couldn't get around without having to deal with a bunch of ugly glares from all the girls in the cafeteria, and hopefully not hoping, soon to be the whole school.

Welcome to my life.

Brendan said his farewell and Drew left me with a notice that her Mom will be visiting us tonight to check how well we're doing.

I sighed again.

Lunch ended up with me alone, not that it really bothered me anyway.

The class that followed afterwards was thankfully stress-free since Drew and I have different PE class. I can't believe I'm saying this but for the first time in my life, I am actually looking forward to having more PE sessions.

Both Misty and Dawn came back around 4PM which was exactly on time for our last subject, Music. It was also the time I knew that Brendan wasn't just some average student. Dawn told me that he's the school's girl soccer club president. I never knew he was this famous among the girls as well.

I somehow, miraculously if I might even add, managed throughout the day with Dawn pestering how lucky I was to have both Drew and Brendan. And her insatiable hunger for information about my childhood years with Drew. I kept on telling her that Drew was someone annoying in my life and Brendan was just probably mistaking me for someone else he knew.

Dawn managed to accurately predict about ninety percent of my childhood experiences with Drew like protecting me from my bullies, that time when we play sand castles, and even that moment when we actually felt happy about being married together someday when we grow up.

It was scarily accurate!

When I asked her how she knew about these kinds of stuff, of course without telling her that I actually experienced them first hand with Drew, she just shrugged and told me that's what usually happen in most romantic anime she watched. The very reason why she was so jealous.

Maybe I should give that anime a try someday. Who knows it might probably help me.

I guess desperate times call for desperate measures.

At the end, my mind would always wander about Brendan's words earlier.

Did he really just said that he liked me?

...

"Mom! Could you pass me the soup?" Drew happily asked. I just couldn't help but notice that he was unusually this cheerful that it almost freaked me out.

Celia happily handed him the bowl of soup. "O my, it's like you haven't eaten in years!"

"I just missed your cooking!" He replied and continued on slurping his soup.

Today is the start of December and snow had been falling lightly since this late afternoon. I ate silently feeling unusual to the whole son-mother relationship going on. I was feeling a little bit out of place. I don't know why or how.

Drew and I have been living together for more than a week and I've never seen him this happy, it gave me a weird feeling that I can't explain. Am I making him homesick? Does Mom also missed me? Am I homesick? Am I sick?

"Don't talk like that in front of your wife Drew!" Celia scolded him. "Say you're sorry."

"That's okay Mrs. Celia!" I chuckled. "This soup you made is extremely good!" I happily remarked.

"Thank you Dear!" She smiled. "It's a recipe I learned from my mother. You could say it's a recipe of the Hayden family."

"That's so cool!" Both Drew and I said together.

"I would be really happy to teach this to you May." She suggested. "It's actually really simple."

"Really?!" I asked disbelievingly. But why me and not Drew? She did say it's a secret recipe of the Hayden family.

And I can hardly cook!

"Duh because you're a Hayden now." Drew rolled his eyes.

Oh, crap, I mean yeah guess I really am now.

She placed her spoon aside and looked up. "You see, Andrew used to ask me to cook this every dinner when he was younger." She then set her eyes on Drew who sat next to me before continuing. "You wouldn't believe he would bawl on the floor because I didn't have the time to make it." I snorted my soup as my sudden outburst almost suffocated me. The image of Drew childishly crying on the floor like some spoiled brat, I just couldn't imagine it without being on the verge of suffocation.

"Mom you're just giving May more blackmailing suggestions about me!" He pouted beside me.

"I can't believe you Drew!" I laughed as I wiped my mouth with the tissue right beside my plate.

"I'm not trying to!" Her mom replied, she stopped laughing and looked at me. "Wouldn't it be really great if you could cook this to Drew someday? That would make him really happy." She gleamed a smile that got me bewildered.

I instantly held my cheeks and slowly looked at Drew. Cook for him? And not just any cook but his favorite soup. I blushed madly thinking about the possibility of being wifey to him cooking in the kitchen his favorite soup while lovingly welcoming him home from work.

That's so not us! Not even in the slightest! He looked away feeling embarrassed as well, at least the feeling was mutual.

After dinner I volunteered cleaning up the dishes to give Drew and his Mom some time to talk. My mind was heavily damaged by the series of unexpected events that occurred today. Why did I even suspect Drew being the one behind the letter? I don't even think he knew where the gymnasium was.

And Misty! 'Pee in our pants.'? Seriously?! I'm so gonna smack her with her own mallet tomorrow.

Two thoughts clung to my head as I scrubbed the plates. Brendan saying that he liked me and cooking Drew his favorite soup.

Wait a second.

Since when did it matter whether I should cook Drew his favorite soup or not? He has been nothing but a big pain on my back!

And why in the deepest pits of hell am I starting to have some kind of back and forth feeling with Drew?

Ugh I'm starting to not like myself. I bet it was Miss Solidad's idea to have Drew with me in the same class. I could almost vividly picture her squirming in adoration saying 'Hey let's put Drew and May together in the same class! That's would be so sweet!' Then she and Mr. Wattson would grasp hands and dance in glee.

What has become of my life.

Drew's mom was about to leave as soon as I was done with the dishes when snow started to fall heavily. And without other choices she was left to stay with us for the night, which Drew and I gladly accepted.

All was perfectly fine, except for the fact that it would mean sleeping together in a room since her Mom would be taking the other one.

Drew suggested his room for his mom and he would just sleep on the couch. But of course I didn't accept that, I mean him sleeping on the couch. I still have the just and sane May functioning in me even though I barely made it through this crazy day.

It is a step towards being a lovey wifey. Whether I may or may not want to be one. Who knows?

"Just don't touch anything Cabbage Brain." I told him as he laid out a futon on the floor beside my bed. "And stay there." I glared at him to show that I was being serious before flopping down to bed.

"But this is not the way how married people sleep!" He playfully whined and turned off the lights. "I'm so lonely down here."

"Har har." I replied.

The day tired the hell out of me that I was already ready to be asleep when Drew suddenly talked.

"Hey May, you asleep already?" He asked.

I moved a little bit. "Not yet. Why?"

"I can't seem to rest, can I ask you something?"

"What is it?"

"Was that guy bothering you?"

I crunched my eyebrows for a minute. Who was he talking about? Did he mean Brendan? My thoughts crashed back when I saw Drew on the same path to the gymnasium. He couldn't have possibly saw us back there right? "No, but why?" I answered.

"I see, I thought the guy was giving you a headache." He replied. "I mean his beanie cap or whatsoever was giving me a headache."

Definitely Brendan.

"Hey! His knit cap was cute!" I retorted.

"So not! Who wears knit cap nowadays?"

"People who are not perverted and narcissistic?"

"I am not perverted! And neither am I narcissistic."

"You so are." And he's the one to talk about giving me a headache! "And nobody can give me a bigger headache than you Cabbage Brain."

"Of course Chocolate Freak!" He proudly remarked. "I should be the only one allowed to!" He added.

"You're so annoying!" I chuckled as the light and soft atmosphere seemed to have erased the weariness of my body.

For some surprisingly unknown reasons I find myself wanting to talk to Drew more, and what's even more surprising is that I want to talk to him about our childhood years. If he still remember our playtime together, or that time he promised me that he would always take care of me. And about marrying someday.

But I refrained myself, I am too embarrassed to talk about such stuff.

I bet he would only laugh at me for still treasuring such petty childhood moments.

"You know what's funny?" He replied as I felt him move. "Mom said that a couple is married because the love they both share becomes something they want the most."

Then suddenly I felt myself pulled to him. I instantly moved to the edge to look at him below in disbelief. "Your mom said that too!?"

For a brief moment, this was the very first time that our eyes met that they were neither in angst nor in anger, but just perplexed. Yes it was pretty dark but the little light coming from the windows was enough to make me examine his eyes. And they were as perplexed as mine. My eyes locked to his and his eyes were locked on mine. What was weird was that I didn't seem to care that I was in fact exchanging stare with him without blinking.

Without. Blinking.

Even though I have always been mesmerized by his eyes, seeing it always feels like the first time. It was that beautiful. A beauty that can't be explained and understood. A beauty that can only be seen and appreciated.

He really has the most beautiful eyes I've ever seen.

I wonder if he finds mine attractive.

"Don't you know your baby blue eyes are really sexy May?" He said slowly and lightly smiled.

"Sexy?" I said slowly. "SEXY?!" I quickly reeled myself back and covered my whole self with my blanket. I can not believe he said that! Did my ears just deceived me?! Oh god, he did say 'sexy'! "You're such a sick pervert Cabbage Brain!" He really did have a thing for ruining a moment! "You really ARE perverted!"

"That was a compliment you know." Unfortunately, I could imagine his smirking face. "A wife should feel honored or at least thankful to be praised like that by her husband." He added.

"Shut up! I'm trying to sleep here Sick Pervert!" I covered my head with my pillow.

"Good night my wife!" He teased. "Where's my good night kiss?"

ARGH!

I mentally screamed. I could never understand him. Was it really fun to play with my feelings like that?

I took back what I said about being okay living a troublesome life if there was him. He's clearly the reason for my life being even more troublesome than it already is!

Damn you Andrew Hayden! Damn you and your beautiful green eyes!

I officially hate how you make me like you!

Like you in a crazy way!