Chapter 15.1: Greeted by the harsh reality

All of Ivy's effort in preparing for the debate has undoubtedly paid off when her team won the competition again with Andrew as her second speaker as always. Despite who was their third speaker, it was always sufficient with this duo to beat their opposition team. Jason stopped by briefly to spectate her debate session and enjoyed her conviction. He managed to record the last bit of her debate before rushing off to meet the college's dean for another career talk.

As Ivy and Andrew walked out of the hall and were greeted by Sandra, who decided they should celebrate, Ivy realised it was her first time heading home with no one to share her good news with. On the way to Ivy grandma's old noodle stall, Sandra and Andrew began to pester Ivy about her secretive activities lately.

"So, tell us now. What have you been up to?" Andrew threatened playfully with an action of pointing an invisible knife at Ivy's neck while walking backwards.

Ivy giggled. "You're so funny Andrew! Nothing… just work."

"Are you that desperate for money?" Sandra pestered. "No I am not. I just needed some experience to decide my next faculty…" Ivy explained as they boarded the bus and headed for the back seats.

"So you're not doing the job for the sake of paying off the birthday parties expenses?" Sandra asked sternly. Ivy shook her head and placed her arms on her shoulders. "Extra income won't kill either." Ivy peeped at Andrew who seemed to ignore them. "By the way, I still need to shop for some formal wear. Would you help me?" Ivy whispered to Sandra while Andrew was still busy playing games on his phone.

"Alright!" Sandra giggled while the girls started scrolling the website they frequently shop for clothing all the way till they reached Ivy's grandma's stall.

"What exactly do you do at work?" Sandra casually asked as they both took a seat on their favorite corner when Andrew went to the kitchen to greet Auntie Soh. "Hmmm… started with some accounting work and preparing proposals to meet clients." Ivy replied while they were scrolling through the pictures of the formal wear.

"Hmm… pretty. Add to cart." Sandra said as Ivy nodded to a primrose peplum midi dress. "Sounds very administrative but at least the job scope could help with your accounts subject." Sandra complimented as Ivy nodded. Ivy moved on to another formal wear picture of a plain white blouse which was the same price as the dress earlier.

"Not bad." Ivy said as Sandra swiped left." "Why? It looks good!" Ivy exclaimed.

"Expensive. Not worth it." Sandra explained as Aunty Soh appeared with their noodles with Andrew.

"Hey why aren't you both helping out? Not hungry?" Andrew teased the girls who were busy looking into Ivy's phone.

Both of the girls shook their heads to indicate it wasn't true that they were not hungry. "Too late! All mine!" Andrew moved their bowl of noodles closer to him as both girls snarled at him and snatched each bowl in a nick of time.

"It's ours! Don't steal!" Sandra scolded as Andrew chuckled while slurping his noodles. Ivy continued to navigate on the clothing app and added another one blouse and a skirt while leaving her noodles to cool down first.

She beamed looking at a midi dinner dress which she thought would look great on Sandra as she added it to the cart and quickly checked out her shopping cart. Sandra noticed what Ivy did as she nudged Ivy.

"That's not formal wear… discard." Sandra said while swallowing her noodles and blowing on the next chopsticks of noodles.

"It's for you." Ivy whispered as she smiled and started to dig into her bowl of noodles.

"You don't have to…" Sandra retaliated quietly to avoid Andrew who was eating noisily from noticing.

"I want to. It's a gift. Too late, I checked out and shipped them too. "Ivy giggled watching Sandra rolled her eyes as they both ate another mouthful of noodles.

"Thank you…" Sandra smiled while munching as Ivy winked when Andrew caught them in the act.

"What's going on?" Andrew questioned as he put his empty bowl down.

"You have stains all over your face…" Sandra teased to distract him as both girls giggled and he quickly wiped his face.

"Cleared! I'm going for the second round!" He said while giving the girls funny faces as they both laughed at their secret still being unknown by him.

After dinner, Ivy headed home and stepped into the glass house instead. She lay on the plywood bed she made in the glass house with her grandma previously. She knew if she entered the house, it would only make her feel worse.

As she enjoyed the sight of the stars glittering the dark sky, she heard footsteps outside and scolded herself for not locking the glass house's door. She wasn't in the mood to greet anyone after the celebration and just wanted to enjoy being alone for the night as she tried to hear if the footsteps would walk away but it didn't. Her mobile lit up with a text message and it was from Lance. She knew whoever was outside would have noticed her in the glass house with a sudden light appearing in the dark as she sat up to read the message telling her he was outside her house.

She forced herself to greet him as she stepped out of the glass house. "Hey…" Lance greeted Ivy who was trying to force a smile.

"Hi… What are you doing here?" Ivy asked as she folded her arms and stood aside watching him fumbling to tell her something he was struggling with.

"I.. erm… I was at the debate. Congrats… queen of debate…" Lance gave an awkward chuckle as Ivy relaxed a little and smiled.

"Thanks… It was a friendly match anyway. It's getting late. You should head home and you should just text me. You didn't have to come all the way here just to congratulate me but I appreciate the gesture." Ivy wanted to walk away to the side entrance of the house when she felt Lance catching her by her right arm.

"Ivy… Wait… I have something I wanted to say and it's been a long while since I have been trying to tell you." Lance explained as he was holding on tightly to her wrist.

"What is it?" Ivy asked while trying to let loose her wrist but Lance kept holding on to them.

"Ivy, I know many would have mistaken me and Laura. It's not like what they have been speculating. I have never had any feelings for her…" Lance looked down on his feet in guilt as Ivy knew he was trying to confess as she looked up to the sky thinking of ways to stop him from the embarrassment.

"Lance…" Ivy said as he stopped her from saying anything further by standing closer to her.

"Ivy, you're a smart girl. I'm sure you know what I felt for you all those years. I like you and I…" Lance confessed as Ivy was trying to find chances to stop him but instead a loud voice was heard from behind them calling out to Lance.

"Lance!" Laura stood in anger and jealousy watching both of them standing so close to each other as Ivy quickly let her wrist loose from Lance's grip and went back into the glass house to collect her bag and phone.

"Laura, what are you doing here?" Lance asked as he walked over to her and held her hand but she harshly pushed him away when Ivy came out from the glass house. Ivy decided to walk towards the winding road where she parked her grandma's vintage car and go for a drive leaving the both of them to themselves to sort out stuff. Before she could step any further, she could hear a slap but she didn't bother to look back at who slapped who as she decided to mind her own business.

Her evening had just gone from bad to worse as she drove aimlessly and recalled it might be a good idea to drop by Jason's place since she would be starting her first day of part time internship the next day in his office. She could at least get an idea of her tasks as an excuse.