Chapter 17: Serendipity

[6 hrs before the surprise party]

Class 1-A's math time had just finished and they're in the middle of break. Dean and Evan(two leader-like figures in class) ask the whole class to gather around to plan the surprise party for Winter today. Despite some not even knowing her and most having not even talked with her yet, they were surprisingly cooperative.

Glenn felt overjoyed on the inside to know that the others were willing to help since they supported Glenn's quest of love and the others were curious to find out what she looked like so they also decided to help with the party.

Arby is also part of the planning since he was informed early on along with Winter's two friends who were tasked with distracting her until school ended. Evan also managed to(abuse his power as part of the student council) persuade the teachers to allow them to decorate the class and for the remaining subject teachers after math class to not have class for the day. 

"Let's start with the decorations."

The whole class suddenly started working and since it was break time, Arby was also there to help out for a while. The fujoshi trio and some other girls from class 1-A started cutting papers while Glenn, Arby, and Dean were folding the papers and Astrio, Elijah, and Marco were putting up boards. Lastly, Evan and Mei(who is also a student of class 1-A, she serves as a sort of secretary to Evan in the student council), the two were awfully close as they were playing around and painting each others' faces which they didn't do before which made the class curious.

"Evan, aren't you awfully close with Mei today? Did something happen between you two?" Arby asked for the whole class since everyone wanted to know. The class suddenly turned silent as they looked intensely at the two, anxiously anticipating an answer.

"Uhhhh, oh yeah, I almost forgot, we've actually been a couple since last month." Evan said with ease. This caused a major uproar in class with them interrogating the two as Evan just laughed it off while Mei was too embarrassed to tell the class how it happened. In the end, Evan told a summary of the story:

"Me and Mei were about to leave school like usual because our student council responsibilities had just finished when all of a sudden I nonchalantly asked her to go out with me and she said yes."

The class had mixed feelings with the boys congratulating Evan and telling him he did a good job and with the girls telling Mei that she should have said no cause the confession didn't seem like it was thought through. 

It died down a bit until Dean's phone rang, Dean panicked as he told Glenn that Winter was on her way here looking for me and was pushing him out the door to distract her.

Glenn's POV

"Hey, wait! What am I even supposed to do?" I asked.

"I don't know, talk with her? Just the normal relationship stuff, now go!" 

Winter was walking toward the class when I saw her and rushed toward her to prevent Winter from finding out the surprise. We ended up walking around school as I constantly loosened my necktie anxiously. How am I supposed to distract her? Oh, I know? 

"It sure is cold, huh?" I awkwardly said. 

"I suppose." She replied quite slowly. 

What's with the cold ass reply? How am I supposed to keep conversation flow when she's this socially inept?

Winter wondered why Glenn was acting weird while they walked around school when he'd usually scold her for cutting class or something like that. 

"Oh yeah I remember, we had a history quiz last week, right? I wasn't able to study with you the past couple of weeks, which I'm sorry abou-" 

I noticed Winter froze in place as she slowly turned her head away from me. As soon as I noticed this sudden change in attitude, I immediately knew that she got a bad score. 

My voice turned awfully cold as I said to her, "So, what'd you get? (returns back to normal voice as I see Winter sweating from fear) I won't get mad just tell me."

"Ze... ro" She said with an unhopeful voice. 

It was so unbelievable to me that I just started laughing instead of scolding her.

Guess we're back to square one. We were already making progress with my tutoring, she was reaching scores in the 50s and 60s already but it's now even worse than her former 1 digit scores. 

"Stop laughing, it was a hard test!" Winter shouted irritatingly, she even poked me a couple of times for making fun of her. 

"Ow, ouch, but seriously, how did you even get into this school?" I asked her as I kept laughing. It had been a long time since I laughed that hard. I thought even more of a future with her where we are both happy. 

"My family's influence." Winter said with a smirk.

Because of said smirk, I looked at her with disgust while thinking of what an incredible abuse of power it was and why I envy the rich and powerful. I later sighed in middle classness. 

"You're disappointed, aren't you?" Winter said with a sure voice and accepting look. 

"Nope. Not at all, I don't really hate the idea of using what you have to your advantage. It might seem unfair to the people who don't have anything but that's not your fault anymore. At least that's what my brother told me."

"I didn't even know you had a brother. Speaking of, I haven't even been to your house or met your family, so how about I go this weekend?" 

"Uh-uhh, how about let's not? My parents don't really approve of me having a relationship, haha" 

*laughs nervously*

"Eh? Isn't that usually the girl's parents? First time I heard it from a guy, lol." 

While we had our conversation, I caught a glimpse of Dean as he gave the signal that the surprise party was already finished. I rushed to grab Winter's hand and ran to class. 

"W-wait, what's the hurry?"

I gave her a very big smile as I said, "That's a secret, hehe." 

As we reached the room, she panted heavily and I said sorry for forgetting that she wasn't really the most athletic. 

I opened the door for her, suddenly party poppers started popping and the many people there greeted her happy birthday. She was in awe of seeing the lots of people her age actually celebrating her birthday with her even if it was advanced. The party continued on even though she hid behind my back or talked with her two only friends because she was shy of the others as they continuously talked to her. 

Winter's POV 

Woahhh, there's so many people. I feel bad for Glenn for setting this up but I'm too awkward to even manage a conversation with them but I hope he knows I'm really thankful. I haven't felt this feeling before so I don't know how to react.

I'm not sure I could get used to this, it was almost always only my family, our business partners who celebrated my birthday, and like one or two friends. I know for sure that today will be happier than tomorrow's actual celebration. Meeting him was unexpectedly something lucky, and I wish this pure and bright light from him would stay forever.