Someone's Back

On the following day, Grant left to go to class while Alice was left with Justin. "Now what should we do?" Justin asked.

"A movie marathon sounds good, if it's alright with you." Alice suggested.

"I would love that," Justin nodded.

Meanwhile at school, "It's different without Alice," Lance sighed. They were unusually quiet, it made him theorize whether Alice was the main source of the noise at most times.

"But at least we have a one day guarantee that we won't be punched right?" Gerald tried to lighten up the mood.

"You're not helping," Josh grunted as he punched Gerald's shoulder who groaned in response.

"Two idiots are having it worse," Alex said as he pointed Mark and Grant who were both surrounded by a gloomy atmosphere.

"The poor souls," Matthew almost felt sorry for them… almost.

Grant hurriedly comes back home the moment that they were dismissed. "I'm home," Grant said as he went into the house. "What the?!" a vein throbbed on his forehead once he entered the house. It was already six and the lights were all closed, he went to the living room and he got even more annoyed. Food was scattered on the coffee table, the TV was left open, and worst of all he saw Alice and Justin asleep on the couch with Alice resting her head on Justin's shoulder. "Wake up!" Grant yelled and the two woke up quickly.

"Oh hi Grant," Justin greeted.

"Welcome home," Alice said with a yawn.

"What's up with this?!" he roared, Justin and Alice flinched. The maids got frantic and they quickly cleaned the coffee table and turned on the lights.

"We just watched movies since morning, we never left the couch so the maids just brought the food here, plus no lights so that horror movies would be more thrilling." Justin narrated. "But I guess we fell asleep halfway through the last movie we're watching,"

"Wanna watch?" Alice asked.

"No," he pulled her off the couch and he knocked on her forehead. "You still have to rewrite the notes that I took for you today," he stepped out of the living room. "And someone please prepare dinner," he ordered as he climbed up the stairs.

"Someone's a bit grumpy," Justin and Alice said in unison.

For the following days, Alice got better. She started to memorize her lines for the play whenever she had free time and on some days, Grant would force her to study with him. Whenever she is at school, Mark would also force her to recite their lines together.

"I memorized half of them," Alice sighed.

"What? You only have two more days till you recite it in class," Mark said.

"Well I can't just focus on memorizing, Grant forces me to study sometimes, plus I'm too lazy." Alice explained.

"You are an idiot, but at least we know that you'll do fine with your studies. It's the lines for the play that we are worried about. What are your plans for that?" Lance asked.

"I shall procrastinate, it's what I'm good at," she shrugged.

Finally, the day of the examinations arrived. "I can't believe this, she still looks as relaxed as ever!" Josh thought.

"That girl has got to be cheating!" Alex muttered as he and Josh looked at Alice while taking their Chemistry test.

"What?" Alice noticed the two.

"Answer in number four?" Alex gestured.

"Josh and Alex face the front, eyes on your own paper," their teacher said. The two flinched and they resumed on answering their own tests.

"Today is the results day," Gerald gulped.

"And the day we'll recite the lines," Mark added.

"This is such a pain," Matthew groaned.

"Hey guys, the students are crowded at the corridors." Lance pointed.

"Moment of truth," Alex squeaked.

They squeezed through the sea of students outside and there they saw the results.

Rank---- Name ------------------ General Average

#10 Marie Allison Villanueva 92.38

#14 Mark Zachary de los Reyes 89.67

#15 Gerald Lopez 88.89

#24 Joshua Ocampo 86.08

#28 Alexander Torres 86.01

#33 Lance Fernandez 84.65

#35 Matthew Manzano 84.54

#38 Vincent Arceo 83.05

Everyone was in a state of shock. "Alice is still the one with the highest grades?!" they whined but they saw Alice sulking which confused them.

"My grades were better last time," she gaped. "Who's got my former rank?" she asked no one in particular.

"That's okay Alice, just be happy that I got your former rank," Grant chuckled as he went near her. Alice's aura only got darker, on the other hand, most of the guys were celebrating since their grades kind of improved.

"This is Miriam's fault. If only I don't have those damn lines to memorize, I'll teach her a lesson." Alice said as she cracked her knuckles.

"Whoa wait, you did good Alice. What if we treat you to some bubble tea?" Grant said as he pulled her towards him.

Alice's mood suddenly changed from dark to light. "Yeah sure, I'd love some bubble tea. I heard they improved their honeydew flavor!" she said happily as she pulled Grant towards the bubble tea shop.

"Hey wait, we want some too!" the guys followed.

Once their vacant time was over, they returned to their classroom. The other students were allowed to go home but in their case, their classmates will have their heads if they dared to skip on the meeting. "Okay let's start the meeting," Miriam clasped her hands.

"Alice, please begin reciting your lines," Gail said much to Alice's surprise. "Don't tell me you still haven't memorized them."

"Don't give me that crap, I memorized the lines. My grades even suffered because of that! I messed up on my exams," Alice seethed.

"What do you mean messed up?" Miriam curiously asked.

"On some items, I accidentally wrote the lines of the play and on one of the questions in the history test, I accidentally answered Peter Pan." Alice whined.

"Well, that isn't our fault" Miriam laughed.

"Seriously, you people owe me big time if my mom gets mad because of my grades." Alice glared.

"Yeah sure, tell that to us once we've won." Miriam gestured.

So Alice proceeded to recite her lines together with Mark and surprisingly, she did great. Everyone wondered whether it was because she was so pissed that she was in the zone. "Okay, great job Mark and Alice, you have natural chemistry. For now, we'll do some general cleaning so that next week we may begin decorating." Miriam preached.

"Hey Miriam, I'm heading home early but I'm stopping by the mall to buy the stuff for the café," Alice said, she was still clearly pissed.

"Okay then, ask some people to accompany you, and you did a great job today. I'm sure the play will be a success," Miriam smiled. Somehow it lit up Alice's mood.

"We'll accompany her," Grant and Mark said, Miriam nodded.

"See you," Alice said, apparently she wasn't in the mood to object.

"Where are we headed to?" Mark asked.

"To the mall, I can't believe you even volunteered, I could've handled it myself," Alice replied.

"But Miriam said two people should accompany you, and as a young gentleman, it's only appropriate that I accompany thee." Grant smiled.

"You speak in a funny way," Alice chuckled.

"Sorry, I guess it's because of the lines of the play." Grant smiled sheepishly.

In a well-hidden area, a bunch of people was watching them. "Watch out Alice, trouble is coming," one of them smirked as he watched Alice through his binoculars. "Just follow them, make sure everything goes as planned." he added.

"We're finally here," Alice said cheerfully. Mark and Grant sighed in relief, the fresh air must've cleared Alice's mind. The trio entered the mall. "Okay then, division of labor. I'll buy the stuff for decoration and you two go grocery shopping," Alice said as she handed them a list. "Here is the money, try to fit it in that budget okay?" Alice smiled.

"You're a natural at these Alice, you should've been a class officer." Mark commented.

"Nah, don't wanna," she said.

"You sure you'll manage?" Grant asked.

"Yup, besides you won't know what to buy since there is no list," Alice assured.

"We'll meet at the parking lot, be careful," Mark said.

"Of course I will, I'm not a kid. See ya!" she chuckled.

Alice left the two and a very tense atmosphere surrounded them suddenly. "Why am I stuck with you?" Mark grunted.

"That's my line idiot," Grant scowled.

It didn't take long before Alice finished her shopping, so she waited in the parking lot. "Those two are so slow," she said to herself.

"Well if it isn't Alice Villanueva," a familiar voice greeted. Suddenly Alice found herself in a tight situation, she was surrounded by very familiar people. She gulped as she thought of different scenarios on how she could get herself out of the upcoming mess.

"So it's you," she narrowed her eyes.