[CONTENTID1]Chapter 5[/CONTENTID1]

[CONTENTID2]Phoenix POV

"Phoenix!" Mom's voice rings out in surprise. "Chanyeol's waiting for you outside building! He says he's taking you to school?"  

"Just a minute, Ma!" I called back. "Let me put my shoes on first!" Struggling to tie my shoelaces, I stumble a few times trying to hop towards the front door. Finally tying my left shoe, I dash to mom, giving her a quick goodbye kiss. "See you, Ma!" I waved goodbye as I ran up to meet Chanyeol. 

"Bye sweetie!" She waves back. "Don't get into too much trouble, okay?" I didn't hear her though, I was already too far away. Stepping into the elevator, I looked at my reflection on the walls and sighed. Chanyeol was not kidding when he said he was going to give me a makeover. I looked incredibly different. My hair was no longer flat and combed straight, but wavy and fluffed to perfection (when I asked Chanyeol how he knew how to style hair so well, he just blushed and shushed me. Guess I'll never find out). My uniform, once worn properly, now looks like how a delinquent would wear it: loose tie, untucked shirt, and ed blazer. To put it simply, I looked like a kpop idol. A very pretty, very girly kpop idol. The elevator dings, waking me out of my thoughts. Walking out the door and lobby, I look for Chanyeol. 

"Phoenix!" A loud voice booms. 'Looks like he found me before I found him,' I thought, amused. Turning to the direction of his voice, I waved at him. "You ready for school?" He hollers.  

"Yep!" I scream back, equally loud, "Do you have to scream, though? My ears are going to bleed!" Chanyeol just laughs.  

"Let's go," he chuckles, no longer yelling. Putting his arm around my shoulders, he pulls me along with him. Too lazy to fight it, I just let him lead the way. "I usually ride in my friend's car," he explains, "Suho, he's a rich lil . Literally. Well, he's not literally a , but he's little. Like, 5ft 7. Like, shorter than you." I nodded, not really paying attention. "Anyways, while I usually go with my friends-- not that you aren't my friend, I meant the other ones, the lil s-- I decided to take the bus with you today. Yep. That's right. Feel blessed. Many would kill to be graced with my presence as you were."  

"Uh huh," I muttered. 'That's a really pretty butterfly,' I mused, distracted by my surroundings. 'It's so blue, and purple--' Chanyeol goes on, but I didn't hear.

"And that's how I found out I had a Hello Kitty birthmark on my !" Chanyeol finishes proudly.  

"Wait, what?" Finally registering his words, I stopped, confused. 'How'd we venture to that topic?'  

"Didn't you hear me?" Chanyeol raises his eyebrow. I chuckled nervously, nodding my head hastily. 

"Of course I did!" Forced laughter came out. Inwardly, I cringed. I really was a bad liar.  

"But then why did you--" 

"Oh look! The bus stop!" Running from his grasp, I sat down on the bench. "It'll be a while until the bus comes. Wanna sit?" I hopefully changed the topic. Chanyeol just shrugs and complies. I sighed, relieved. Well, that was one bullet dodged. 

"So what's your homeroom?" Chanyeol questions as we walked inside the school. 

"2A." Chanyeol makes an ugly face. 

"So we don't have a class together?" He whines. "What's worse, Suho and Kai are in the same class as you!" 

"We have lunch and band together," I offered. His face brightens up immediately. 

"Oh! That's right! You play percussion, right?" I nodded. "I play trombone! Sehun plays percussion too, you know. He's one of the little s I was talking about. Kyungsoo plays the sax! At first, I wanted to join percussion, but then I realized you had to play all these different instruments! So much work!" 

"We don't start playing until Thursday though, right?" Chanyeol nods his head eagerly. "Yeah! Mrs. Taylor hasn't finished setting up the band room! I can't wait until we finally play our instruments, though. Two more days!" 

I laughed. "Bye!" 

"See you!" 

"So you're strangely happy," Youngjae observes as I sat down. I smile sheepishly. 

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