Part 5

 

    “Hey, Mandy!” Alissa ran over to where he was in the classroom.

    “Oh, hey Alissa,” he replied, forgetting about his friends.

    “I bought you a camera,” she said. “So that you can take pictures and stuff next weekend. Of course you could use your phone, but using old school cameras is where it’s at.” She handed him a standard black camera.

    Mandy laughed. “Thanks! I’ll take a lot of pictures.” And they stood smiling at each other like there was nothing else to do.

    Snapping back into reality, Alissa said “Oh, um, I’ll be going to dance now.”

    “Okay, have fun.”

    “Of course.” Alissa waved and left.

    “Oooohhh, your girlfriend is cute, Mandy,” a friend said.

    “Well, you guys didn’t seem to care before.”

    The group was silent. Guilt was written on everyone’s faces.

    Then Mandy smiled. “That’s okay, though, because now you can’t have her!” and his laughed was followed by mega-awkward ones from his friends.

 

    It was lunchtime and Alissa and Courtney were waiting for their friends to join them.

    And guess what they were doing?

    “OMG I CAN’T EVEN!!!!”

    Yes, fangirling.

    In the midst of it, Taehyung ran to the table, concern written all over his face.

    He was panting. Clearly he had run from his last class, with the bookbag on his back.

    The girls stared at him silently.

    “Are you okay?” Courtney asked.

    Taehyung looked at Courtney with wide eyes. “I was going to ask you the same thing!”

    “Why?” Courtney laughed, a little confused.

    Taehyung finally dropped his bag, then grabbed Courtney’s shoulders and bent over. “I heard… um…”

    “You heard what?” She became serious.

    Taehyung shut his eyes. How do I say this?? “I, uh, I heard you’re pregnant.”

    Courtney’s face wrote disgust and worry all over. “From WHO?!”

    “Everyone. Everybody’s talking about it. They said you were talking about it-”

    Suddenly, Alissa’s face lit up and she tapped her friends shoulder. “Remember last night?”

    Then suddenly, the two girls burst out laughing. “OH, YEEEEAAAAHH!!!”

    Taehyung dropped to his knees. What- what’s happening? What is with this country?!

    Courtney tried to keep from laughing any longer as she tried to explain to Taehyung. Shaking her head, and putting her hand on his shoulder, she said, “I’m not pregnant, don’t worry!... It’s just… Oh my god, you won’t understand…”

    “It’s, um, fangirl terminology.” Alissa laughed.

    “Why would you say that?” Taehyung looked so helpless.

    “We were watching a music video… oh never mind, you wouldn’t know!” Courtney gave up on explaining and kept laughing with her friend. “I can’t believe everyone took that so seriously!”

    “I can’t believe you said it that loud!!” Alissa said. “The place has an echo you know!”

    Suddenly, everyone came running to the table. Mandy and Joshua looked worried, but Angelica seemed to understand. She was grinning.

    “I tried to tell them, but they don’t get it.”

    “Neither does he!” Alissa pointed at Taehyung, who was in a daze, as if the confusion shut him down.

    “Well, I think we’d better go.” Courtney said. So her and Alissa stood up. “See you guys later,” and they walked out.

    While in the hall, Alissa suddenly began to slow down.

    “What’s wrong?” Courtney asked.

    “Hm… Taehyung seemed really concerned. You guys didn’t…”

    Courtney smiled. “Oh, no, of course not! He’s just caring. Or worried it will destroy his image. Or something. Haha, I’m not even ready for that, okay?”

    “Okay.” Alissa smiled, and they continued down the hall.

 

    Alissa and Angelica were studying together in their dorm for a world history test when they began to engage in a debate over the Gutenberg Printing Press.

    “I think that if there was no printing press, then there wouldn’t exploration.” Alissa said.

    “But someone would have gotten on a boat eventually and searched for China. Besides, The New World is a huge land mass. It couldn’t have been hidden forever. And remember, China discovered America first.”

    “But they say the proof was burnt. Meaning, there is no proof. My point being that China most likely didn’t come.”

    Angelica rolled her eyes. “It’s more likely that the printing press impacted Protestantism more. I mean, if Luther hadn’t printed the Bible ALL OVER Europe, then Protestantism wouldn’t have spread like a wildfire, and there wouldn’t have even been a reason for people to move to America!”

    Before Alissa could add anything, there was a knock on the door.

    “Hey, could you too stop arguing over lame stuff?” Courtney said.

    Angelica and Alissa laughed. Angelica said, “We did get carried away, didn’t we?”

    “Yeah, we did.” Alissa stood up and let Courtney in. “Hola, amiga.”

    “Yo, guess what?!” Courtney jumped on Angelica’s bed.

    “What is it?” Alissa closed the door, but excitement had taken over her and she couldn’t sit back down.

    “Mandy bought us tickets to go to the concert! Haha!” Courtne held them in the air like a prize.

    “The Laraku concert? OH MY GOD!”

    Alissa and Courtney began to jump up and down.

    “I think it’s a double date!!” Courtney screamed.

    They just continued squealing.

    Angelica, still sitting on Alissa’s bed, watched them. Why am I feeling like this? It’s not like I listen to Laraku… or whatever it is.

    “Hey, could you stop screaming over exciting things?” Angelica forced a laugh.

    Alissa and Courtney giggled and quieted down and continued to talk quietly to each other.

    “I’m going out.” Angelica said, but the two fangirls didn’t notice.

 

    While blindly wandering into the cafeteria for a late night snack, Taehyung noticed Angelica, drinking tea, alone. So, smiling, he walked over to her.

    “Yah, chingu, why are you drinking tea so late?”

    Initially shocked, Angelica smiled seeing who it was. “It’s sleepytime tea. I’m not looking forward to staying up any longer.”

    “Oh, ok, well I’m going to get a snack.”

    “Okay, good night.”

    “Good night.”

    Taehyung grabbed a peanut butter sandwich, but before he walked out the door, he glanced back at Angelica. She didn’t even drink her tea, she was staring into space and was endlessly stirring it.

    So he walked back over to her.

    “What’s wrong?”

    “What? Nothing.”

    “What is it? You can’t go to sleep with that on your mind.”

    Angelica sighed. She hesitated for a while before talking. “Well, I feel kind of left out because you guys are going to the concert.”

    Taehyung looked confused at first. “Oh, that rock concert? I didn’t even know about it until a couple hours ago. But I thought that you and Joshua were invited.”

    Angelica shook her head. “Courtney said it’s a double date.”

    “Really? Mandy said he invited all of us, and others. Maybe he only gave Courtney a few tickets, and she got the wrong idea.”

    “Oh okay,” Angelica nodded. Then she quietly laughed. “I’m sorry, I’m so selfish sometimes.”

    “You’re not selfish.” Taehyung smiled at her. “And don’t worry, I’ll never leave you out of anything, okay?”

    “Okay.” Angelica smiled.

    Taehyung gave her a kiss on the forehead, then got up and walked away.

    What was that? Angelica was left alone in the cafeteria again, stirring her tea, dumbfounded.