As she was about to enter her classroom, Uti suddenly froze, startled by Novan's presence. The boy blocked Uti's path, standing right in the doorway.
Uti looked up and held her breath. Then, the girl tried to remain calm, controlling herself so as not to get upset.
"Move aside, I want to go in," she said curtly, Novan immediately stepped aside as soon as he heard Uti's sentence, which sounded very sharp.
Uti immediately waltzed away from Novan, for some reason, she really didn't want to deal with that boy because she was embarrassed to remember what happened at that boy's house. Even Uti shook her head again, she didn't want to think about it anymore. It was too embarrassing, making her reluctant to meet Novan.
After putting her uniform under her desk, Uti looked at Weeby, who was walking towards her.
"Let's go to the field directly."
Uti rose from her seat as she smiled and nodded quickly. "Let's go!" The girl replied excitedly.
Then Weeby flanked Uti's arm, the two of them walked side by side, their steps fast, until they passed Novan just like that. Neither Uti nor Weeby paid any attention to the boy, not even to say hello, they were busy chatting and interspersing the fading laughter.
Novan, who saw that, was even stunned for a moment. Then he pouted, his lips twisting forward.
"Do I think they're ghosts or what?" said Novan with an exasperated sigh. He shook his head weakly. Novan had been deliberately waiting for Uti to return from the bathroom. Willing to be left behind by his friends who were already on the field first, Novan took the opportunity to get closer to Uti. However, his expectations were too high because Uti actually left with Weeby.
Novan was disappointed with that, but he couldn't do anything about it either. His hopes dashed, he swung his legs limply. Novan was now walking alone.
Arriving at the field, Novan immediately joined Erza and Marcell, who were currently taking shelter under a mango tree. Seeing that, Novan shook his head while chuckling softly.
"You two are just like girls. It's still morning; there's no need to be afraid of the heat!" Novan was being blatantly sarcastic.
"You've just arrived, and you're already making a fuss," Erza said, sighing softly. "I'm too lazy to get angry, I want to save energy, otherwise, I'd have unboxed you all earlier."
"How scary!"
"We're both waiting for you!" Marcell said, "That's why we're sitting here."
"Cell, this kid is really annoying," said Erza again.
Novan, who was still standing, folded his hands in front of his chest, then lowered his head to look at Marcell and Erza's faces in turn, one after the other. "You can't just wait for me under the mango tree, just tell me it's just an excuse for the two of you. Isn't it? The excuse is that you're waiting for me, but your real intention is to be afraid of the heat, to cool off."
Novan's long words fully made Erza glare, and his body was shaking slowly. "Try saying that again, louder. Let me duct tape your weak mouth."
"You know, I'll gang up with Erza to see how you feel!" Marcell, who was just as angry as Novan, immediately joined in. "Come forward, Van, I'll punch your lips to make them bleed, so that your teeth fall out too."
"After that, I'm going to punch you in the stomach, so that you moan in pain."
"Crazy, how cruel you guys are. With these psychopathic candidates, the seeds are already emerging, and the signs are already scattered." Novan widened his sense of sight.
"Whatever, just so you don't mess with us anymore. Yes, Za?" Marcell nodded once to Erza, asking for full support.
"Yes, that's true."
"You bastard!" Novan sneered.
Marcell exhaled softly, "After all, we're waiting for the class leader to go to the teacher's room to call Mr. Dodo, who knows there's an assessment today, right? We have to save our energy."
"That's why we're sitting here first. Are you using your eyes or not? Don't you see that others are also sitting on the sidewalk? Why are you only nagging us?"
"There it is." Marcell snapped his fingers, agreeing with Erza's words a few seconds ago. "You're mad at our other friends too. Do you dare?"
Novan just grinned while scratching the back of his head. He didn't dare answer Marcell's question.
"Why are you silent?"
"I'll be ganged up on later, one class anyway, my life could be at stake, I'll die immediately after that." Tired of standing still, Novan finally joined in, taking shelter under the mango tree. His actions clearly succeeded in making Marcell and Erza immediately scoff.
"Why are you sitting here? Did you eat your own words or something?"
"After mocking us like before, you should lie down in the middle of the basketball court, on your back there. Hurry up." Erza lifted his chin, pointing at the basketball court in front of him.
"Alright, let's not talk about it anymore." Novan waved his hand, knowing full well that he would soon be the butt of the joke. It's better if he stops it from now on.
Marcell and Erza both sighed while rolling their eyes compactly.
"How about it? Did you meet?" asked Erza finally, changing the subject. He looked straight at Novan.
Novan's brow furrowed in confusion. "See you? What does that mean?"
"Your phone," said Marcell.
"Oh, about that." Novan nodded slowly, "I found it, it's in the front of my bag." Novan was lying, it was obvious.
Earlier, when Erza and Marcell invited him to go to the field together, Novan refused on the grounds that he wanted to look for his cell phone that had suddenly disappeared, and he also told his two friends to go first without him. Even though both Erza and Marcell had intended to help Novan, Novan himself did not want to, so he forced his two friends to go first, without him. Novan said that he was able to find it himself. But what actually happened was not like that, the loss of the cellphone was just a cover, and the cellphone was safe and sound in the bag. Novan's real purpose was that he was waiting for Uti to come back from the bathroom, giving him a chance to walk across the field.
And now, Novan was upset that the plan had failed miserably.
"Yes, that's good. If you really lost it and didn't find it, would you cry?"
"You probably won't cry, just like I'm sorry." Novan answered too casually, and without realizing it, his eyes fell on Uti. The girl was chatting with the girls in her class.
"Guys, stand up, I have an announcement to make."
Novan, Erza, and Marcell's heads snapped up in unison, as did all their classmates-when a voice from their class president boomed into their ears.
Everyone immediately gathered as instructed.
"What's going on?"
"Mr. Dodo is taking the students to the competition, and we're told to exercise on our own, freely." The class leader explained.
After that, everyone cheered and immediately looked for their own sports. Especially the boys, who were very excited.
"Let's just play basketball."
"Come on, come on! Divide the group."
Meanwhile, many of the female students chose to return to the shade instead of participating in sports. They preferred to tell stories, talk, and joke around until it caused laughter.
Weeby nudged Uti's shoulder lightly, and Uti glanced at her quickly.
"Why?"
"I'm bored, let's play badminton? Play with me. Do you want to?"
Uti didn't really want to play sports, she didn't like this subject. In fact, when the class leader said that Mr. Dodo wasn't coming to teach today, Uti was thrilled. She preferred to sit around and relax like this. Uti was sure that many of her classmates agreed with her.
You see, almost none of the girls were playing sports, only two were skipping, three were running around the field, and two were playing volleyball thrown up by themselves. The rest? Shelter under a tree!
"How about it? You want to, right?" asked Weeby once again, having yet to receive a response from Uti.
Uti could see that Weeby's eyes were flashing with hope, and she didn't want to disappoint Weeby. Finally, she nodded with a smile.
"Alright, let's go with me."
"Great, let's hurry up!" Weeby immediately pulled Uti to stand up. Then, Weeby excitedly led Uti to the sports warehouse, where all the sports equipment was stored.
Weeby was really excited this time.
"By the way, I'm not very good at playing minton, so don't be too nimble, I can't keep up with your game for sure," Uti said quietly. "Instead, the ball just falls. It doesn't hit the racket."
A soft chuckle escaped Weeby's lips. "Don't worry , we're just playing for fun. We don't need to keep score, just throw it slowly. We're not playing in a badminton tournament."
"Ready."
They started to enter the warehouse, looking for a shuttlecock and two rackets. Once they found them, Uti and Weeby came back out and started to enjoy their game. Uti wasn't very good, several times the shuttlecock didn't hit the racket, even though Weeby's shots were not very fast, unlike Weeby, who was very skilled and agile.
Weeby was the perfect girl, that's what Uti had in mind. She was too perfect, and Uti felt inferior and insecure when compared to Weeby.