First Term: Ups and Downs

Tammy's POV:

I was laying in bed already with a smiling face yet nervous as hell. She just screamed confidence while walking over towards me. Her naked body was only covered by a near-see-through négligée. The heart-shaped neckline accentuating her breasts and her long legs and slightly swinging hips made her look like she was on a catwalk.

Leaning up on my elbows, I watched in awe as she leaned down, slowly crawling towards me on my bed. Her face getting closer and closer to mine as she moved up. I felt my whole body stiffen in anticipation. As her eyes came closer and closer, I closed mine and tipped my lips in anticipation for her soft lips to brush over mine. I could already feel her hot breath hit my lips and …

"MEMORY, YOUR LAMP LIGHT IS BURNING HOLES!"

My eyes shot open, and I sighed before rolling to the side that wasn't facing toward July's bed. She was quick at turning off her alarm and getting out of bed like every day.

Which cruel individual created alarms again?

I mean seriously, they always have the bad habit of going off and interrupting the best dreams. Not even in a dream, I could get any, that's just unfair. I could hear July rummaging in her closet and then heading out the door for her early shower. I just closed my eyes to enjoy the warmth of my bed a bit more. Of course, I was aware I would not be getting back to sleep. I never did. But the dream was gone anyway, and my chances of seeing it come to life were rather slim too. But hey, a boy can dream, right?

My half-asleep, half-awake state was interrupted again when July returned. I was already able to smell the delicious hot chocolate and my cupcake, so I sat up in bed and stretched myself yawning loudly.

"Good morning sleepyhead." I was greeted by July's smiling face as she sat down on my bed.

"Good morning, July." I gave her a once over while looking at her and taking my cup. "Uniform already? That's new."

"Yeah, I thought it might save me some time to not redress twice in the mornings and go straight to the uniform after the shower," she explained and took a sip from her mug.

Looking over at the clock beside my bed, I noticed the time and shook my head, "Apparently not. You're even later than yesterday. Got stopped by Veronica again?"

"No. It ... It was Vivian this time. I met her in the hall after getting our breakfast, and we had a short talk." July replied, seemingly a bit nervous.

I noticed that she often gets a bit nervous in talking about Vivian. She never admitted to it, but apparently, she did have a little crush on her. I didn't see the need to push her to tell me, though. It was her love life, not mine. Not that mine was that much different. Not wanting to be intrusive, we just talked about today's classes and what we were looking forward to before we got ready. Well mostly me since July was already in uniform and just brushing out her hair.

…

The first few classes of today were quite uneventful. I was sitting beside July in all of them, and we did some occasional whispering and snickering till Miss Adams was fed up with it and scolded us both. Nothing major happened though. The first class that changed that routine was math.

As we entered, I spotted an empty table beside Dia and Lucy, and also an empty seat beside Vivian. As I looked at July, she gave me an almost apologetic pout, and I sighed.

"Go ahead. I'm not mad at you." I told her with a smile.

"Thanks, Tammy," she said with a slight blush and a pretty cheerful smile, then made her way over to Vivian.

I seated down on the free table closest to Dia and Lucy, ending up with just the space between tables separating me and Dia, "Hey Lucy. Hey Dia."

My greeting made them look over and while Dia gave a rather weak smile, Lucy beamed one over, "Hey Tammy."

Someone cleared his throat beside me, and I looked up just to see the queen bitch herself.

"Can I help you, Veronica?" I asked, rather bored.

"Yes, you can, Tammy. I kinda want to sit there, so would you please move?" she had a huge smile on, but it was pretty fake, so I just rolled my eyes.

"There is a free chair there. If you insist on sitting at this table, go ahead, but I'm staying right where I am." I replied and began unpacking.

I heard her scoff, but she sat down, just glaring at me.

Great. Just great. In the one class I was not sitting beside July I got stuck with her. I hope my dear roommate is ready to get her ears chewed off about how awful this was.

Math wasn't even a bad class for me normally. Quite frankly, I was kinda good at it, so I didn't need to pay that much attention. It was kinda annoying that Veronica was constantly looking at my sheet for the answers to the equations we were doing. Like seriously, was she doing any work by herself like ever?

At some point, she shoved a piece of paper over to my side. It was folded once and Dia's name was written on it. Now, knowing those two did not get along, I refused to pass it over and just shoved it into a corner of my table. It didn't take her long to tap on my shoulder.

"What?"

"Don't even start that. Just pass her the note." Veronica insisted and looked pretty pissed at me.

"No. You constantly annoy her, so I won't. Now stop distracting me." I retorted and turned to the front again.

Veronica kept on poking my sides though. I tried to be the educated one and just ignore it, but at some point, I just flipped and turned toward her.

"Would you please stop that? You're annoying as fuck." I told her with a scowl.

"Only if you pass over the note," she remarked and kept poking me.

I was about to say something when Mr. Davidson interrupted us, "Would you two please be quiet? I don't want to send both of you to detention, so this is your last warning."

Veronica and I nodded at him and as soon as he turned his back we glared at each other. The rest of that class was quiet, but as I left it, there was no sign of July.

Guess she went ahead with Vivian, ugh.

We still had one more class before the lunch break, so I made my way toward the corresponding room. As I passed a hallway, I was suddenly yanked into it and came face to face with Veronica again.

"The fuck is wrong with you." she accused me.

"Excuse me? What's wrong with me? What's wrong with you?" I retorted and was about to walk away when she blocked my path.

"You constantly get in the way of me and Dia being friends. Stop that and stay away from her." she glared at me.

I blinked twice to make sure I understood that correctly before shaking my head, "I am getting in the way? Seriously? You are the one that keeps agitating her and getting on her nerves. I have nothing to do with your ruined chances of befriending her. That's all your doing."

"You could have just passed her the note and nothing bad would have happened."

"Matter-of-factly, Dia and I are ... we are friends, and she doesn't like you. So no I won't give your annoying little letters to her." I shot back and again tried to step around her.

"Just stay out of my way, alright," Veronica shouted after me.

Gosh, this girl is such a weirdo.

…

The first class after lunch was history with Miss Adams. I know history is boring as hell, but there were reasons why every guy in our class was paying close attention. At least to the teacher herself, that is. Melanie Adams sure broke with the old and cranky history teacher's expectations. She was young for a teacher. Probably straight out of college. But I don't think any guy here liked her for her brains. Light blue eyes that almost seemed like crystal and long wavy blonde hair falling over her shoulders. I mean I am a boy after all, and I lean toward girls more than I do toward guys, so yes, she was gorgeous.

I was not going to start some advances on a teacher, though. That would just be insane. Besides, I had other interests right now. The guys were practically drooling over her, though, which seemed to irritate her like zero percent. She was quite good at making that work for her, actually, and luring their attention in.

"I'm sorry for math," July whispered beside me. "If I had known Veronica would be sitting with you, I would have taken the spot instead."

"Please, I can deal with Veronica. Would not want to interfere with you crushing on Vivian." I retorted with a small smirk, resulting in a heavy blush from July.

"I'm not crushing on her," she stated and pouted a bit.

"No need to deny it, July. It's not like I'm mad about it. I just can't help myself and think she's up to something." I explained and focused on the lesson again.

Or let's say I tried to, but I got a bit distracted from looking towards Dia and Lucy sitting in front of us. I couldn't help myself being fascinated by Dia. She normally always kept her cool and was pretty chill to be around, but for some reason, Veronica got under her skin. Why though? Do they have a history? Maybe they know each other for a while.

July gave me a small jab in the side and I looked at her mildly annoyed, "What?"

"Miss Jones, would you please pay more attention to class?" I heard Miss Adams address me.

I could feel my face heat up and turned to the front again, "Sorry, Miss Adams."

She nodded and continued her lecture, and I heard July whisper beside me, "Just wanted to give you a hint, sorry."

"No need to be, thanks," I murmured quickly and made sure to listen to every word from now on.

The last class of today was psychology. Our teacher for that was an older woman that seemed strict at first sight but was rather gentle. Her graying, blonde hair was done in a kinda messy bun, and the thick glasses on her nose made her look way older than she probably was. She also decided to take the class outside since the weather was nice, and so we sat in the cool grass outside while she lectured us under the warm sun.

This also served for giving us way more freedom of seating, so I was comfortable between July, Dia, and Lucy. Of course, Veronica decided to sit as close to Dia as she could, but she was good at ignoring the constant whispered comments from behind her. Taking hints wasn't Veronica's strong side, so she failed to understand that Dia had no interest in hanging out with her.

The lesson ended after what felt like minutes. And since we were already outside, the girls and I decided to hang out for a bit at the fountain in the yard. We dangled our feet in the water while having some chit-chat.

"Today wasn't half bad. Most teachers were pretty chilled." Lucy remarked while smiling up towards the sun.

"Yeah. The guys shamelessly ogling Miss Adams was a bit pathetic, though. Don't you think?" Dia addressed us and cast a glance toward Veronica, who decided to sit close by.

She just smiled back an overly sweet smile and then turned away.

Following Dia's gaze, I contemplated giving the note to her now. I mean, we weren't in class right now, but still, those two didn't like each other, so why bother?

"Yup, guys can be so silly sometimes." I agreed with them.

"Well, not all of them." July chimed in, giving me an unsure smile.

"That's true. My boyfriend that lives in Vice City isn't at all like that. He's just hardcore." Dia commented and let herself fall flat, beside the fountain.

"Oh? You never mentioned you had a boyfriend, Dia." I said simply.

That was unexpected. Dia never seemed to be interested in any guys here. Guess that made even more sense now. At first, I thought she was just a classic lesbian, but maybe she was just in too much of a happy relationship to be interested.

"I never had a reason to. But it's not that strict anyway. We are both pretty open to it all. I can have my fun without him if I want, and so can he."

Open relationship, huh? That sounded like you need a lot of trust for that. I mean, what if you develop feelings for someone that are stronger than with your more or less official boyfriend? Or girlfriend for that matter. But then, I guess feelings are sometimes too complicated anyway. Maybe an easy-going and open lifestyle could be nice. But sometimes you want to be someone's one and only.

July's POV:

I was still chatting with the girls when Drew suddenly came up to us, "Hello girls. Nice weather, isn't it?"

"Yes, the sun feels wonderful. Maybe I will get a taint after all." Tammy greeted and joked.

Drew just chuckled, "Maybe." then he turned to me. "July?"

"Yes, Drew?" I perked up.

"A package has been put at the reception for you," he told me with a friendly smile.

My eyes grew wide at that, and I probably had the goofiest smile on my face. It was finally here.

"YES!" I screamed, basically jumping up and quickly redressing my socks and shoes before sprinting off towards the school building.

"H ... Hey what's up?" Tammy shouted after me, as I bolted away.

There was no stopping me right now. I have been waiting for it since I came here. It was supposed to come with me in the first place, but sadly I could not take it back then due to the hurry of my departure. Picking the case up from the reception with a lot of, possibly exaggerated, thank you, I made my way back outside to where I left my friends sitting with utterly confused faces.

"That's why you were so hyped? It's just a guitar." Lucy said with a puzzled face as I sat down with the case on my lap.

"Just a guitar? It's my guitar, Lucy. Or rather, it's now my guitar. I love to play it, and I was disappointed to not be able to bring it with me right from the start." I corrected her and snapped open the locks.

There it was. In all its glory. To the unknown eye, it was just an old wooden acoustic guitar, but to me, this old and worn-out 'Fender Jazzmaster' was my most prized possession. The scratched-up corpus had a sound so iconic and nostalgic, it always managed to drive tears to my eyes. Completely forgetting everything around me, I let my hand trace over the crudely carved heart that was in front of it. Inside the simple message of 'F+M'.

"Damn, that thing looks beat up as hell. Who the hell did that?" Tammy commented while leaning over my shoulder.

"My granddad did. He carved the message for my grandma and played it for her under her window to woo her." I told already feeling the feelings well up inside me. "He also taught me how to play."

"Aww. That's so romantic." Tammy remarked, while Dia just scoffed.

"What you wanted to say is corny."

I rolled my eyes and instead took out the guitar from the case, giving it a few gentle strums to make sure it was in tune.

"Can you play us something?" Tammy asked while sitting down beside me.

"Uhm, let me think. I know a few songs. Not quite ready to take on music wishes, I think. Let's go with this one." I answered before giving a few test strums again and began playing 'Grenade'.

I softly and very quietly tried to sing the lyrics along, so I would not lose the rhythm. Looking around, I could see that Tammy smiled and seemed to enjoy it. It probably wasn't a song Dia or Lucy listened to in particular, but they nevertheless closed their eyes and just listened.

My intention wasn't to draw a crowd or to make a show out of myself. I was never one to brag. But just sitting here and enjoying the sun while playing the guitar among my friends warmed my heart. As I ended, I looked up at the sky with a slightly sad smile.

You hear that, Grandpa? I'm not as good as you were, but I still value it above everything.