Bubble Gum Kisses
CHAPTER 51

**Kapittel 51** ***Vanessa***

**My mood immediately lifted upon Mrs. Birmingham's statement.** Baffled and surprised, Friso hurriedly fixed his sitting and hastily reached for his back. We snickered watching him. He took out the paper and a smirk crept to my lips when his brows furrowed and his forehead scrunched, his lips satisfyingly curved downwards to one fat scowl upon reading what was written.

He crumpled the paper and shouted: "Kobe!" as he proceeded to do a shot with it on the trashcan that was a significant distance away from our group circle. Unastinoshingly, it got in. He was always gifted with athletics. He was near perfect with his intelligence, charisma, and pretty face. His current personality prevented him from getting in the cut though.

"Hah," I scoffed while some laughed, and others applauded, obviously impressed.

I glanced at our teacher and watched her turn her back. I couldn't miss her lips mumbling: "They're definitely gonna be a handful." I know right.

"All right. Leaders, come right this way and draw lots to get your prompts." She faced us again, holding a jar with some papers in it.

"I'll go." It was Jersey who volunteered. No one else got the chance to object since they got on their feet and proceeded to participate in drawing lots. It didn't take them long to return with a puzzled look on their face while reading the thin strip of paper. "What does it say?" I asked.

"Ethics. Value. Morals. Ends. Object," they answered, their puzzled look retained as they sat down on their chair. Our other groupmate, Kyla, grabbed the paper from her grip. I heard that they were close friends, so I didn't wonder about the unceremonious deed.

"What do these mean?" she asked, clueless as well.

"I think it meant our play should be all about ethics, and the words after it needed to be mentioned between the lines." It was Alexie who answered. "I remembered a senior who cried because she didn't get this right. It was under this class too," she continued.

"Now, any questions?" Mrs. Birmingham opened the table for asking questions.

One classmate raised his hand. "Ma'am, how much is the duration of our presentation?"

"It should be more than five minutes, but less than ten minutes." A skit more than five minutes?!

Another lifted a hand. "May we ask for the criteria, Ma'am?"

Other questions were raised. I utilized the time for brainstorming. Five minutes wasn't enough time for planning a good skit. I was sure Mrs. Birmingham knew it as well, she just probably had high expectations for us. As for me, I didn't know if I could pull off a good performance with an awesome idea. But the others? Probably.

"So, what do you guys have in mind?" I asked.

"I actually don't have any idea right now." Alexie shook her head. Now there went my expectation, down the hole.

I pursed my lips. "Well... it's good that you're honest."

"How about you, Jersey?" I turned to the person next to her who shook their head as well.

"I don't have any ideas yet too. I'm a Leo, I'm not that creative," they said, looking at their ringed fingers absentmindedly.

"Uh...huh." Yerp, expectation's down the drain. One more and it'd go down a sinkhole. "And... Kyla?" I looked at Kyla who was looking at me with anticipating, shining eyes. I suddenly felt like an adult giving attention to an excited child. "I was thinking about..." she began to share her ideas. We all began exchanging ideas, integrating suggestions, and even closely bickering, especially Kyla and Jersey. But a complete, full-blown plot wasn't made yet.

Time was ticking, but thankfully there were lots of questions raised. Others even repeated questions and asked those that had obvious answers that Mrs. Birmingham could almost roll her eyes at us. It gave me that hint that the other groups were doing it on purpose, so they could buy time.

"Your five minutes start now. I expect a good output from each of you." We all panicked at the announcement, especially Kyla, who was close to getting hysterical.

"5 minutes, is she kidding? We can't make an entire play for 5 minutes!" she whisper-yelled. "And we haven't thought about what to play!" she began to fan herself with her hand.

"It's a skit, Kyla. Not an entire play," Jersey retorted, rolling their eyes in vexation. "Whatever it is, it doesn't change the fact that we can't write a script within 5 minutes." "How about we stop the talking and start planning, so we wouldn't waste these 5 minutes?"

"Shut up, Jersey!"

"No. You shut it, Kyla!"

I looked around. The other groups were already discussing amongst themselves as well. The two were still arguing while Alexie was busy watching them argue as if she was watching some peak cinema. Friso, unlikely, was busy staring at me like some sort of spectacle, uncaring of our presentation. It looked like Kyla and I were the only ones who had more than an ounce of care for the output.

"Okay, guys. How about this? We continue discussing the plot. But this time, with the ideas we had suggested. Then, we make an outline, with just enough details to make up anything related to it. One will narrate and the others will act. The lines will be ad-libbed," I interrupted. I looked at the time, we only had roughly 4 minutes left. "We're losing time," I added.

"Sounds good. What was our topic again?" I looked at Friso with a bewildered wince on my face. Wow, now he'd decided to function?

The others' attention was back on the presentation again. "We got ethics. We have to hit the following words: value, morals, ends, object," Jersey recalled the words on the paper.

"Hear me out. How about our play should be about..." I began to discuss the plot that I'd thought about. Incorporating ideas of the topic, including the words, suggesting lines that they'd say, and writing down the outline. Miraculously, they were listening to me intently, even finally giving useful suggestions.

I acted all confident to continue the cascade of ideas but I was uneasy. Friso's attention-fixed stare perplexed me. I had to admit, the way he ogled was bothersome sometimes. It rendered me feel like I was naked in his eyes. No, not even naked. It was as if he was scrutinizing through the deepest depths of my core, into my soul. As if he was painstakingly studying the etched lines and curves thoroughly with a coarse finger yet a gentle touch. I tended to ignore him most of the time. But the way he stared right now, the irrevocable attention he was giving me... I didn't know but it was making me embarrassed. Here, I thought I was somehow in control of my emotions. But this feeling right now?

This feeling that was making me go all giddy and weak in the knees with my blood flushing all over I was all hot and nervous that I was breathless like oxygen was carbon monoxide, starving me of my poise, drowning me in unknown anticipation mingled with anxiety. This feeling that was making me so conscious that it was difficult for me to make one single move because I might end myself getting embarrassed- that one embarrassing motion would make me a goner. This feeling that I felt naked, bare. This mix of complicated feelings was one to prove me wrong.

"Sounds good. I'm taking the maid's role," Kyla raised her hand. It was the one with the smallest lines, of course, she'd take it.

"I'm taking the dad's role," Jersey presented. That one was the second to have the least lines too.

"I'm taking the narrator's role." Alexie proposed.

"So, uh... who's taking the female lead?" Kyla asked innocently. It was at that exact moment that everybody's eyes fell on me. Silence ensued.

In fact, it wasn't silent at all. I could still hear the other groups talking, but it was eerily silent in our spot. All dead air. I was like a performer with cold feet before a blank-on, silent audience. I looked at each one of my group mates. They were all looking at me with expecting stares, including Friso. It was making the hairs on my back stand. They wanted me to take the female lead position, I realized. I had no choice either since the only people left were only Friso and me, and the roles left were the lead ones too.

"I guess it'll be me." I gave up with a sigh. Why did this seem like everything was already fixed?

"Nice!" the three cheered and made a high five. "It's okay if you're the male lead, right, Drew?" my apparent happy-go-lucky turned to the only male in our group.

Then again, silence ensued. I was no longer put in the hot seat, but I was unknowingly nervous about his answer. It was taking a long painful moment that I got to look at him as well. Of course, he could reject the role and take the others' role with his overbearing personality. But still.

From sitting with his back tense and legs spread wide like he was some thug, Friso suddenly reclined his back relaxingly on the backrest. His grey orbs laid from Alexie to Jersey, then to Kyla, and finally to me.

The waves hounded forcefully like a storm was winding the oceans accompanied by a raging tempest, attacking the wall that I had built, edified strong, swaying it- no, going over it. Like a tsunami. My heart thumped as a bell rang on a ship to alert the turmoil. But his eyes remained all steady and calm like the static moon that watched over the disaster during the reign of peaceful darkness. My resolve... my anger... they seemed to have dissipated all over one single gaze. His lips curved. "Sure. I got no problem with that," he answered, his eyes never leaving mine.

"Great!" Alexie cheered.

**

Thank you for reading Bubble Gum Kisses! To keep up with my work, future works, and endless frustrations on my social media accounts:**

**https://twitter.org/RiosMorpheus

https://instagram.org/riosmorpheus

tiktok.org/@riosmorpheus**