What A Coincidence

After Josh left, Jean went back to her room to inspect it. Her bedsheets and her pillow reeked of the smokey smell but everything else was fine. Surprisingly, Josh hadn't knocked over the trash can that was right next to the bed when he fell off which was quite lucky.

'I guess I'll wash the bed sheets sometime tomorrow since it's kind of late now.' Jean decided to just spray something on the sheets to counteract the burnt smell for now. She grabbed her bag and dropped it on her desk and took out her homework. After taking out everything, she took a look at the pile and let out a sigh. 'This is going to take a while.'

Time passed by very slowly for Jean since she didn't have the energy to keep focus on her homework. She kept getting distracted every few minutes or so and had to splash her face to stay awake.

After making somewhere around 20 trips to the bathroom to wash her face, Jean finally finished her homework and crashed into her bed. At this point, not only was she too tired to care about the burnt smell but she had also gotten used to it.

Jean tried to stop herself from falling asleep several times since she still had things to do for the day, but eventually, she couldn't resist the urge and gave in.

***

The next morning, Jean wakes up to the sound of the alarm clock. She stops the alarm, gets up, and waddles to the bathroom to take a shower. After she finishes her shower, she dries her hair and goes to the kitchen to start making breakfast and finds that there is already food on the table.

'Is today dad's day off?' Jean wondered. Well, considering that breakfast already had been cooked, it probably was.

"Dad!" Jean called out. There was no reply. She waited a few seconds before calling again. Once again, there was no reply.

'Huh?' Jean walked her to her father's room, confused about why he wasn't responding. She knocks on the door while opening it and finds that it is empty. 'What's going on?' Jean walks back to her room and checks her calendar to see what day it was.

It was Wednesday. Now Jean was even more confused. Her father's off-day was Friday and he was in charge of breakfast during those days. Normally, it was she who makes breakfast every single other day.

While Jean was trying to figure out what was going on, her phone suddenly started to ring. Samantha was calling her again.

"Hello?"

"Is there something wrong?" Samantha asked.

"No, why?" Jean said as she walked out of her room and back into the kitchen.

"Well, it's because it is 9:20 again and you still aren't here."

"What!?" Jean could've sworn that it was still 7... wait. She had forgotten to change the time on her alarm clock again. She was over an hour behind in time.

"Crap! Sorry, I'm hanging up, Samantha." Jean ended the call and rushed into her room.

***

Jean planted her cheek against the desk and let out a tired sigh. She barely managed to make it to school on time. It was a repetition of what happened yesterday morning.

Jean heard her stomach growl. She had skipped breakfast again and in addition to missing dinner yesterday, she was not only tired but also starving.

"What kind of bizarre diet are you on?" Samantha asked jokingly. "It looks interesting."

"Shut up..." Jean muttered. She didn't have the energy to argue with Samantha. Actually, she didn't have the energy to do anything at all.

Jean hardly paid attention to her classes today and when lunchtime rolled around, she immediately rushed to the cafeteria to get something to eat. She randomly chose food off the menu since she too hungry to be bothered with making decisions. She found an empty table, sat down, and instantly started to gobble down her food.

"Here you are." Samantha and Zack sat down at the table and watched her as she stuffed the food in her mouth. They were fascinated at the speed that she was eating.

Jean tried to tell the two to go eat because she felt comfortable about them staring at her while she ate, but because her mouth was full, all that came out was, "Mphmm, mmmph."

The two started laughing and Jean squinted her eyes at them. She swallowed the food and then said, "If you don't start eating your food, I'll eat it. I don't think I can get full from just this."

The two stopped laughing but continued to smirk as they started eating their food.

Now that Jean had something in her stomach, she slowed down her eating. She stopped cramming her mouth with food and ate in small bites instead. Jean scooped up a piece of chicken and put it in her mouth. 'The chicken is kind of bland.' She hadn't noticed the lack of flavor because since there was too much food in her mouth but there was no point in being picky with her food now.

Jean looked at Samantha's and Zack's tray then around the rest of the cafeteria to see what other people were eating. Then something caught her eye, or rather, someone had caught her eye. There was a boy with a patch on the side of his head just a few seats from them. Although the hair was different, Jean was sure that it was the boy that she had rescued yesterday. Well, it really wasn't all that surprising that he was in the same school as her, considering that she had found him by her apartment building.

Jean stared at Josh. Unlike yesterday where his hair was wild and tangled up all over the place, his hair today was pointy and neat. Jean found it surprising how different Josh looked from yesterday just from his hair alone.

"So that's the type you're interested in?" Samantha saw Jean's gaze and followed it with her eyes. "Not a bad choice."

"I thought you said you weren't interested in guys," said Zack, who was also looking at Josh.

"Stop staring!" Jean leaned over across the table and turned both their heads around.

"Heh, are you embarrassed?" Samantha smiled and made a very teasing face. "So when was it?"

"No, that's not it."

"There's no need in denying it. It's not like we-"

"No really, that's not the reason why I was looking at him."

Jean explained to the two what had happened yesterday and how she had found Josh lying in some alleyway close by her apartment. She excluded the part where she carried him back to her apartment and lied, saying that he had woken up after she shook him in the alleyway. She didn't want them to know that she had carried him all the way to her room.

"That explains why he has a patch on his head," said Samantha. "But getting into a fight against people with torches? I find that hard to believe."

"Well, his clothes were burnt when I found him so I don't think he was lying about it." Jean also remembered that Josh's entire body had smelled of smoke, so what he said probably really did happen.

Zack kept quiet throughout the conversation and just ate his food. He was pretty entertained by what was being said and didn't want to interrupt it.

"I think he's on one of the teams," said Samantha. She pointed out that some of the people that Josh was sitting with were from different sports teams which meant that he was likely on a team as well. "Do you know his name?'

"He said it was Josh."

"Is that short for Joshua or something?"

"I don't know, I didn't ask him about it."

"Hm, I think you should stay away from him," warned Samantha.

"Why is that?" asked Jean. It wasn't like she was going to talk to him but she was curious about Samantha's reason.

"Are you serious?" Samantha gave Jean a weird look since she thought it was pretty obvious why she wanted her to stay away. "He got into a fight with torches. I don't know about you but I find that pretty dangerous. He probably has people after him."

"Oh." Jean didn't think of that. What Samantha said made sense about why she should avoid him.

Zack interrupted the two and said, "That sounds like a good plan, but unfortunately, he's coming this way."

Jean glanced over at the other table and saw that what Zack said was true. Josh was heading their way. The two of them met eyes and Josh smiled and waved while continuing to their table.

"Well, this is bad," said Samantha in a low tone. She and Zack kept eyes on Jean so that they wouldn't look suspicious.

"Hey!," said Josh.

Before Jean could reply, Samantha said, "Who are you, and why are you here?"

Josh's eyes widened. He was stunned by the sudden hostility shown by Samantha.

"Samantha..." Jean glared at her and shooked her head. "Sorry about that, my friend doesn't like strangers," Jean apologized to Josh.

"Ah don't worry about it, I was just surprised that we're in the same school."

"Yeah, I'm surprised too."

"Hmm." Josh put his hand on his mouth and his eyes stared into the distance for a moment before saying, "Ah, I think I found a way to thank you."

"Thank her?" asked Samantha suspiciously.

Jean didn't like where this was going.

"Yeah, you see. she helped me yesterday when I was in a little predicament. She even took me to her apartment to patch me up. What a coincidence for us to be attending the same school. I can repay the favor now."

'Crap, why did you have to say that part!?' Jean yelled out in her head. She immediately glanced at Samantha and Zack. Samantha had a confused expression while Zack, on the other hand, looked pretty amused with what was going on.

"You don't have to, it's fine," said Jean while thinking to herself, 'Please don't, you really shouldn't.' Yesterday and today had been a mess, she didn't want more things to deal with.

"Well, I insist, but don't worry, it won't be anything complicated. I'll give it to you here tomorrow during lunch, it'll be a surprise so look forward to it."

"Okay, thank you then," said Jean. She really wanted to say no but it was had to refuse him when he was being so friendly.

"You don't have to thank me, I'm just repaying you," said Josh while smiling. He then thanked Jean again and then went back to his table.

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