My Firsts With You

Chapter 6

RACHEL'S POV

"KENNETH!" I yelled as I entered the classroom. Everyone was startled and they all looked at me as if I was a ghost. Who cares? This guy didn't let me have a good morning. "Yes?" Kenneth innocently asked and I exhaled frustratingly. So he's acting innocent now, isn't he?

"Yes? YES? You freaking left me in your stupid car! I told you to wake me up once we arrived, but you didn't. You could've left with the aircon on, but instead, you left me to suffocate, and now I'm sweating like hell!" I angrily told him and he just stared at me?! I feel like I'm in a hot oven when I woke up! Well, I slept on our way to school because I wasn't able to sleep much last night.

"Are you seriously mad about that?" Jeremy asked with one brow raised. "Oh, yes. I am so mad about his stupidity. One of the things I hate is sweating this much, you understand?" I sassily replied. I know you're thinking the same thing, but hear me out. Can you handle being left in a car for 10 minutes? With no aircon or any ventilation? Because I can't, but Kenneth made me experience it. I woke up feeling very hot and the next thing I knew, I was sweating so much that my eyeliner smudged a bit, so I had to do it again.

"Look, I was just worried when you told me you couldn't sleep enough last night, so I let you sleep longer," Kenneth calmly explained. "Yeah, but you let me sleep in an oven. You could've just opened the windows to let the air in, you know?" I replied, still frustrated at him. Kenneth shrugged his shoulders as Jessica decided to grab me and made me sit on my seat. I can still feel my head burning when I think about how hot it was in Kenneth's car.

== SKIP TO LUNCH ==

The morning classes ended earlier than I thought. I'm not a good student if you ask. I listen for the first half of the discussion, then my attention will gradually fade for the second half until I'm not completely listening. I don't listen or recite in class, but I do very well in our written activities, especially the essays we do.

"How was your family trip?" I asked Claire as we sat down with our lunch. It was a dish with beef in it, a salad, and milk. "Oh, we had fun. We went to visit my cousins and I hung out with them all day," Claire said with a smile on her face. She must be close to her cousins. It's kind of hard for me because there's a bit of competition among us, but we're pretty close, I guess. "What did you do with your cousins?" Jessica asked as she took a bite of her beef. "We went camping and fishing the next day," Claire responded. I wish I could go camping alone or with Claire and Jessica.

"That sounds fun," I said while smiling at Claire and she chuckled in response. "That sounds boring," Jessica said with a bored expression and I shook my head at her. She likes to party that much, huh? "Hello, ladies. We should sit with you," Jeremy greeted us and sat beside Jessica. Martin sat beside me and Kenneth sat opposite him. "I heard something from the other class," Jeremy said in a gossiping tone. "Make sure it's something serious," I replied.

"I heard that our music teacher will announce a musical play as our task and it will determine our grade for this whole quarter," Jeremy explained as we listened intently. A musical play? Music is not even our major subject, but we have to stress about a musical play that will determine our grade in the subject. "We have to think of something now, then," Claire said in her presidential tone.

== AFTERNOON ==

"Good afternoon, class," our music teacher greeted us with a smile on his face. Music is our last subject and the subject that attracts my interest. Besides my looks and skills to be a model, I can also sing and dance. To be honest, I was thinking of becoming a performer when I was 13, but ever since I got into fashion, becoming a model has become my final decision.

We greeted our teacher back and sat properly. "Today, I will be giving you your final task for this quarter. This task will be the basis for your grade, is that clear?" our teacher asked and we all said yes. "For your final task, you will be doing a musical play. It could be an adaptation of a famous movie or an original story. You are free to do any genre as long as it's musical. I will give you time to talk about what you want to do for this task," our teacher explained and Claire stood up to initiate the meeting about our musical play.

"Do any of you have a suggestion about what our musical play could be?" Claire asked everyone and a few hands were raised. "We could do an adaptation of Moana," our classmate, Paula, suggested. "Or we could do it with Coco," Scott suggested. Claire wrote Moana and Coco as options for our musical play and each student said something about why that one is better than the other or why we shouldn't do that one.

"Rachel, what can you say about our two choices?" Claire asked and all eyes were on me now. This is awkward, but they will do that since they're waiting for me to say something. "Uhh, how about we just go for an original story? I think I have one in mind if you guys are okay with it," I suggested and waited for their answer. "Go tell us about it," Trisha said and I smiled at her. "So, it's about this teenage girl wanting to become a singer someday, but her parents are strongly against it because they wanted her to be a lawyer just like her older brother. Her mom is kind of okay with it since that's what makes the protagonist happy, but her dad doesn't understand how much she loves singing. There was this singing competition in their school and she joined without telling her parents and with the support of her friends and classmates. There's also this one guy, who is her rival in singing, but in the end, the guy confesses to the girl," I explained and I just noticed now how attentive they were while I was sharing my idea.

"That's a great plot and I bet some students will relate to it because they are dreaming of becoming someone that is the opposite of what their parents want them to be," our music teacher complimented and I bowed my head a bit like a thank you. "Do you guys like Rachel's original story?" Claire asked everyone and they all nodded. "Then, Rachel is our protagonist, then. She's the only one with a great voice," Trisha said and winked at me as she said the last sentence.

"If she's your protagonist, she can't direct the play at the same time," our teacher informed us. "But I can still be the playwright, right? I can make the script with Paula and make her the director," I explained and our teacher nodded. I looked at Paula to know if she agreed with my suggestion and she nodded at me. Paula is one of the best writers in our class and I trust her with co-writing the script and directing the whole play.

"You're all settled, then. I'm going to leave now and let you do the script. You can also start practicing as soon as your script is done. Now, class dismissed," our teacher said and left. Claire went back to the front of the class to start talking about the musical play. "So, Rachel will be our protagonist who dreams of becoming a singer. Who do you guys want to play the protagonist's rival who ends up falling for her?" Claire asked and everyone looked at Martin. Even I looked at Martin. He's also good at singing and his voice is as sweet as honey.

"Me?" Martin asked in confusion while pointing at himself. I nodded at him and he sighed. "Martin is the male lead, then. The rest will have their roles once Paula and Rachel finish the script, but remember that everyone will sing, okay? I know that Rachel will make everyone sing whether you like it or not," Claire explained and dismissed our meeting. Since that was our last class and we talked about the musical play, we all left the classroom and went our separate ways to leave the school.

"Hey, Paula. I will just message you later to start the script, okay?" I informed Paula and she nodded at me. I then left the classroom with my five friends. "You girls going somewhere or going straight home?" Jeremy asked. "I think we're going home now. I'm exhausted too and in need of beauty rest," Jessica replied and Jeremy rolled his eyes. "Beauty rest, my foot. I bet you'll be out all night," Jeremy mocked her and this time, Jessica was the one who rolled her eyes.

"Rachel, you want me to drive you home?" Martin asked, who was standing beside me. "Rachel's going with me," Kenneth interrupted before I could answer. For your information, I'm still annoyed with what he did this morning. "No thanks. I'm going with Martin this time. You might leave me sleeping in your car again without ventilation," I sassed him. He scoffed and just ignored us. He should learn his lesson and not do that again.

After walking for a few more minutes, we arrived at the parking lot and went our separate ways. I went with Martin to his car and left the school, now on our way to my house. It was a comfortable and relaxing car ride since it was Martin and we chatted about things we could think of talking about. Martin is truly my favorite among the three boys and if I were to protect one of them, I would choose Martin without second thoughts.

END OF CHAPTER 6