Chapter Text
“Every year since freshman year, we’ve pitched in together to get a bouquet of roses sent to Akarsha on Valentine’s Day - and have it signed ‘from your secret admirer’,” Noelle explained. “We’re planning on doing it this year as well. If we split up the cost, we only pay two dollars each,” she finished.
“What for?” One of the freshmen who’d just joined the baseball club in January had spoken up. “Does she have like, horrible self confidence issues or something? Is it a charity project?”
“Exactly the opposite of a charity project actually.” Noelle said proudly. “It’s a methodical and well planned prank, intended to be executed over the course of four years for maximum effect,”
“And since we’re working together, we can do the whole dozen instead of just like one or two roses.” Sayeeda added. “It’s been sooooo funny every year. Last year, she spent hours looking through a phonebook checking the last names of the people who lived in the biggest houses within the school boundaries, and then went through the yearbook to see if any of them matched up,” Several team members broke out into giggles upon the re-telling of this story.
“I still think you should have to pay more since you’re actually in love with her Noelle.” Min said loudly. “Like, you do ten dollars, then the rest of us only have to do one,”
“For the last time Min-seo, I am NOT in love with her,” Noelle said, holding her head with her thumb and middle finger on her temples. At this point she knew she couldn’t convince Min and Diya otherwise, but it was still worth the attempt to save face in front of the team.
“Still, you get the most enjoyment out of it tho too. It’s like proportions. We should all pay how much we’d enjoy it, and since you’re evil and love it so much, you should pay the most. It just makes sense.” Min replied.
“Glad to see that you’ve finally internalized the concept of proportionality and percentages, but that’s not really relevant in this case. Plus, I do pay a whole two dollars more than everyone else, since there’s only nine of us, and last year you complained that asking for two dollars and twenty-two cents was ‘too complicated’ because ‘nobody bothers to keep pennies and dimes’, if I recall correctly,” Noelle said, unamused. Min responded by rolling their eyes and leaning back on the lockers, miraculously deciding that they’d back down for this one (or wait until later to resume it.)
“Where is Akarsha anyways?” Grace asked. Most of the team was there gathered in the locker room for their usual pre-warm up meeting, pardon Akarsha and Diya.
“I sent her and Diya to go pick up an equipment bag we left over at Niles when we played them last week,” Noelle responded. “She’ll probably be back in the next five minutes or so,”
Diya had wanted to run all the way to the opposing school (a full five miles), but Akarsha had obviously very strictly vetoed this. She was the only one of their friend group who had regular access to a vehicle, so it wasn’t abnormal for her to be assigned these types of tasks.
“We should have just asked Jun to grab it and bring it home and I coulda bought it back myself,” Min said. “How’d we even manage to forget it? You’re usually so anal about the equipment, I’m surprised that happened somehow,”
“Actually, I ‘forgot’ it intentionally, to be sure I had a believable errand to send Akarsha on today,” Noelle smiled.
“Insane, sick… twisted in the head,” Min said under her breath. Noelle chose to pretend she didn’t hear this, for the sake of not drawing out the argument any longer.
As the team finished putting on their uniforms and tennis shoes to prepare to go out to the field, Diya burst into the locker rooms, clearly having just been running. Noelle gave her a look of confusion as she jogged over to the drinking fountain.
“Asked Akarsha to let me out 2 miles before the school,” Diya said, pausing to take a long drink. “We raced. I won,” She smiled. After a second drink from the fountain, she’d already caught her breath and looked no worse for wear - remarkable for having just raced a car being driven by someone who had little regard for traffic laws outside of being ticketed.
“I’d say that’s impressive, but it’s pretty consistent with your track record,” Noelle replied with a grin. “About how far away is Akarsha?” she asked.
“Not too far. Probably get here in a minute or so,” Diya responded. “Would have been closer if she didn’t get stuck at a red light for fifty seconds,” She grinned. Diya was so easily pleased by things like winning a trivial race or seeing a dog being walked on the side of the road. The joy she got out of those things was contagious - Noelle always found herself smiling along with her in those moments.
Min had seen their girlfriend enter the locker room and ran over to greet her with a quick kiss on the cheek.
“I raced a car,” Diya reported to her excitedly. “Running,” She added. “I won,”
“FUCK YEAH you did! Show that car who’s boss!” Min yelled excitedly, showering Diya with several additional kisses. Noelle wandered back over to the equipment she’d been sorting for the day’s practice, only able to withstand close proximity to these public displays of affection for so long.
Sure enough, about a minute later, the locker room door banged open again, framing a very out of breath Akarsha, hauling the equipment bag behind her.
“Next time, you’re taking the equipment bag with you, as a handicap,” She said to Diya, still panting. “I woulda only been like ten seconds behind you if I didn’t have to carry this from the car,” Akarsha said, gesturing violently to the bag of bats she’d just thrown down in the middle of the room. Both Diya and Min were giggling at the state of disarray she was in.
“Akarsha, please treat the bats with a little more respect. They’re not exactly free to replace,” Noelle scowled, choosing to ignore the fact that she’d recklessly risked them by leaving them behind just a few days prior. She went over to the bag and attempted to pick it up and place it with the other two, but misjudged how heavy it was and was jerked back down when she tried to pull up on the handles. Diya moved the bag for her, smiling the way she always did when she was making up for Noelle’s embarrassing lack of upper body strength.
Akarsha was now standing at the drinking fountain, attempting to ‘cool off’ by leaning over and holding down the button so the water was splashing all over her face. When she stood up, water was dripping down her forehead and had splattered all down her front as well. She looked absolutely pitiful, like a kitten that had just fallen into a bowl of milk. Noelle struggled to bite back a laugh as Akarsha walked over to her.
“What’s on the docket for today, boss?” Akarsha asked casually, as if she wasn't half soaked in drinking fountain water. A droplet of water was hanging off one of her eyelashes as she stared at Noelle in earnest inquiry.
“If you bothered to check the google calendar I made, you’d already know, Akarsha.” She replied. At this point Noelle had to close her eyes and look away to keep up the act. “In fact, I do think you’re the one other person who should actually have that information ready to give out to others, co-president,” Noelle added.
“You’re the schedules and organization guy, and I’m the team mascot and comic relief guy. It works out perfectly,” Akarsha smiled. Since they’d stepped up as club presidents this year, Akarsha always acted like she was being a bother, but she was actually incredibly helpful, and had remarkable leadership and people skills at the end of the day, which Noelle really appreciated.
“What would Chryssa and Liz say if they saw us now,” Noelle said, making a point to sigh loudly, shaking her head.
“They’d ask why we’re not dating yet,” Akarsha grinned. After they learned Chryssa and Liz had been dating since their junior year, this was a common argument Akarsha made - the first time she’d done so it had nearly caused Noelle to have a heart attack, but after the same joke 20 times, she’d managed to mostly numb herself to it. “That's why they worked so well as a duo, their secret weapon! We could maximize our leadership power by like 200%, Frenchman,”
A strand of loose hair had gotten stuck on Akarsha’s wet face, right over one of her eyes. Without thinking much, Noelle reached out and tucked it back behind her ear, grazing her forehead with her fingertips slightly.
Akarsha’s expression immediately switched from mischief to surprise at the action. For a split moment they stood there, looking each other directly in the eyes. An almost itchy, prickly feeling lingered on the fingers she’d just used to brush the hair away, and she started to feel a tingle at her cheeks before she remembered she was supposed to counter the statement Akarsha had just made a few seconds prior.
“Actually, I emailed Chryssa just a week ago, and she told me you need to be checking the google calendar,” Noelle replied, attempting to course correct her thoughts. After another half second of surprise, Akarsha snapped back to her impish grin.
“Maybe if we were smooching once a day, I’d look at the calendar more often,” She teased.
“I’m not so sure,” Noelle said, making a very careful attempt to not meet Akarsha’s eyes so she wouldn’t see the tinge of pink in her face. “How about I hit you in the knees with a bat once a day instead?” She grinned.
“OKAY okay!! I’ll check the calendar more often, geez, no need to be such a meanie about it!” Akarsha said, cowering at the clipboard Noelle had just raised above her head threateningly. She gave her a small whap on the arm as they walked out to the field, and Akarsha pretended to stumble back and scream as if she’d been fatally injured.
One of the freshmen ahead of them was attempting to haul the ball bag down the small hill to the field and looked like they were struggling a little.
“Ooof, they look like they could use some help,” Akarsha said, her voice softer than usual.
Noelle let out a long sigh as she watched Akarsha run out of earshot ahead of her, grabbing the other side of the bag with a smile to help their teammate out.
“Dude, I’ve told you before and I’ll say it again. Literally all you need to is just tell her how you feel and you’re fucking golden. I don’t understand what the holdup is,” Min said, walking up behind her.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about Min-seo,” Noelle said, refusing to turn around to look at them.
“Then stop staring at her like a lovesick fool and quit that weird-ass flirting you do together where you like, threaten her with violence,” Min replied disgustedly.
“Where’s that bat bag at? I’ve got the urge to hit something real hard right now,” Noelle said, throwing a quick glare over at Min.
“EUGH! Don’t do it to me you sick bitch! Keep me out of your freaky kink shit!” They shouted. Noelle scowled, raised her wooden weapon (the clipboard) over her head again, waving it up and down threateningly as Min ran off toward the field.
The number of times they’d caught her staring at Akarsha was embarrassingly high - enough that she couldn’t even attempt to deny that she hadn't been doing it at this point. Her so-called resolve to control and tame her emotions had proved to be just as weak as her arms.
After the first year of the scheme, writing poetry had gotten a little easier for Noelle. Whenever she’d have a rouge romantic thought, she’d write it down as prank inspiration - leaving her with a bank of several heartfelt-sounding sentiments to draw from. She simply had to set aside the things that were a little too personal, or water them down to the point that it could be written by someone who only knew Akarsha at a surface or distantly observable level. She often found herself pitying the imaginary admirer as she did this, knowing they would never know the pleasure of being acquainted with the real Akarsha at all.
This year’s poem she had already completed a few months in advance. She had written it down so long ago, but it had been haunting her, echoing in her mind for weeks on end.
Sayeeda was helping with the organization of the whole valentine’s day rose delivery, so she had handed off the card to Noelle directly.
“Are you gonna add initials this time around?” She had asked.
“What?” Noelle replied, somewhat alarmed.
“Like, K.C. or something? Last year you mentioned putting some common initials on there so she jumps to the wrong conclusion and like, actually confronts someone random about it,” Sayeeda said, sounding confused that Noelle had forgotten that element of her own scheme.
“Oh… I did mention that, didn't I,” Noelle said. “Well, I’m not sure. I suppose I haven't had time to calculate which initials are the most common among the junior and senior classes. I’d want to be sure I was statistically using a set of initials that was shared with at least 30 students at the school,” She replied.
“Well if you do, it’d be super funny, but also maybe we shouldn’t do anything to rule out the lunch lady she’s held suspect for the past two years,” Sayeeda laughed.
In truth, Noelle had not spent the time calculating what initials to use because she had started to dislike the idea of Akarsha thinking she’d come to a specific conclusion. Last year, when Diya had sent her down the ‘they must be rich since the bouquets are so expensive’ route, Akarsha had nearly convinced herself that she’d discovered the identity of the admirer, and was about to try talking to them, until she’d discovered they were dating someone at a school in the town over, which ruled them out. Despite the fact that it had been absolutely hysterical to see the pyramid of reasoning she’d built on the foundation of absolutely nothing, Noelle had started to get a little worried that if she had tried pursuing them, she might’ve ended up hurt or brokenhearted - or worse, they come to like her back, and…
“I was thinking of asking if I could deliver it myself since I’m helping out with the deliveries too, but actually that might be too conspicuous,” Sayeeda added, graciously disrupting Noelle’s thoughts. “I don’t think I could hand it off to her with a straight face.”
“I’m honestly concerned that Min-seo might not be able to keep it together just being in the same classroom,” Noelle smiled.
Last year, Min had complained that she’d never been present for the actual delivery of the flowers, so Noelle had done extensive research into figuring out what class they would all need to take that year that was offered first period, and then suggested it to everyone under the guise that they’d be able to do the group projects together if they signed up for the same section.
Now, with the note handed back to the MSA along with the $20 composed mostly of crumpled $1 bills and a few quarters, all there was to do was wait until the classroom door opened at the end of the period for the delivery of the roses.
“I’d better not find a single Lightning McQueen temporary tattoo shoved into my backpack today,” Noelle remarked to Akarsha bitterly as they sat down at their desks.
“Oh, you won’t,” She replied - far too smugly for her to actually be insinuating that she hadn’t planned some kind of prank of equal or worse quality.
About twelve minutes later, Noelle opened up her copy of Things Fall Apart to read along with the class, only to find that it had been bookmarked with a gaudy pink and red card with one of those horrific yellow creatures from the Despicable Me movie that Akarsha had made her whole personality for three months after it came out. The text above the figure read ‘ BELLO VALENTINE! ’.
Noelle looked over to see Akarsha absolutely beside herself with glee upon her discovery of the card, and she cursed internally that class had already started and that she couldn’t berate the quality of the note out loud. Instead, she simply tried to convey her deepest disgust in a glare before turning her attention back to the lecture. Throughout the course of the rest of the period, she found four additional cards - somehow placed within her pencil bag, binder pocket, personal planner, and even one tucked into the label on the water bottle she’d brought to school with her that day.
The last card had been soaked through from the condensation of the cold water bottle, and touching it had caused the cheap ink to come off all over her hand, which she was now attempting to wipe off on Akarsha’s jacket. As she settled back in her seat, her quest to clean her hand unsuccessful, the delivery of the Valentines gifts started as seniors filtered through the door.
Noelle spotted Sayeeda walking in as well, and was momentarily worried that she’d decided to go through with delivering the bouquet to Akarsha - but was relieved to see she wasn’t carrying any flowers at all. Her concern rose again however after making eye contact with her, which caused Sayeeda to start shaking with laughter. She made her way over to the desks where her friends sat, then held out a piece of paper to Noelle.
It was another horrible ‘minion’ themed valentines day card - this time with a lenticular sticker of one of the vile yellow creatures attached. Behind her, she could hear Akarsha breaking out into fits of giggles along with Min, and Sayeeda was barely keeping it together herself, not even able to stand up straight from how hard she was trying to avoid laughing.
“Did you seriously pay to have this delivered to me?!” Noelle said disgustedly, turning around sharply to glare at Akarsha.
“I - I offered to do it for free, it just sounded too funny to pass up,” Sayeeda managed to get out, still beside herself with amusement. “Totally worth it,” She smiled, trying to regain her composure. Akarsha was still in hysterics, and a tear or two had started to come out of her eye from wheezing so violently.
“How incredibly thoughtful of you,” Noelle said, snatching the card from Sayeeda.
Out of the corner of her eye, she saw a large bundle of red approaching and felt the swelling feeling of anticipation rising in her chest again. She oriented herself in her chair to get a good view of Akarsha, being cautious to not do so too quickly so she wouldn’t alert her to anything afoot. Diya and Min were both grinning wildly as well, likely a consequence of the intersection between the delivery that had just taken place and the delivery that was nearly about to.
Akarsha must have caught the same glimpse of crimson between laughs, as she almost abruptly stopped giggling when the bouquet was about three feet away. Noelle wasn’t sure exactly what the delivery person had said - her whole attention focused on observing Akarsha’s reaction.
The way her cheeks flushed slightly and the look of absolute awe for a moment or two - Noelle didn’t think she’d ever get tired of it. She momentarily forgot to regulate her own expression, studying Akarsha intently as if she needed to commit the moment to memory for some test later on.
Akarsha was investigating the bouquet with her mouth slightly ajar, flipping over the card to read its contents slowly, as if to not startle herself upon discovering what was written. Noelle rehearsed the lines to herself again as she watched, hoping perhaps they’d no longer be stuck in her head now that they’d been read by their recipient.
Roses are Red
Violets are Blue
I’d spend hours of time
Just to listen to you
“AHUGH! Why’re you all staring at me like that!!” Akarsha said suddenly, looking very alarmed. To Noelle’s dismay, it seemed like all four of them had failed to act normally - Diya grinning as if she’d just seen a dog wearing a bowtie, Min looking as if they were watching Diya smiling over the same dog, and Sayeeda once again shaking violently with poorly suppressed laughter.
“S- s-so happy for you!!” Sayeeda attempted to say. An almost visible lightbulb went off in Akarsha’s brain, her expression changing in an instant.
“YOU!!” She yelled, pointing at Sayeeda with an accusing finger. “YOU KNOW WHO IT IS!” Akarsha had risen to her feet, a fiery look of determination on her face.
“I- I don’t I swear!!” Sayeeda said, still trying not to giggle. As Akarsha started moving towards her, she backed up slowly. “Akarsha!! I’m legally bound to secrecy!” Akarsha broke into a run, chasing Sayeeda around the classroom. “Legally bound!! I can’t go to jail, I just got accepted to Berkley! Mercy, Mercy!” She called behind her.
Over the course of the last three years they’d been friends, Akarsha’s house had become very familiar to Noelle. They met there with Diya and Min often to hang out together, or every once in a while, it’d end up being just her and Akarsha (Diya and Min were remarkably good at disappearing at convenient times.) Today, Noelle stood at Akarsha’s door with a bag full of small wooden sticks, some wood glue, and several printed images of various bridges.
In their AP Physics class, they’d been asked to construct a bridge of a miniature scale, which would then be pressure tested in class by stacking textbooks atop it until it snapped in half. Whichever pair’s bridge withstood the most textbooks would be awarded with both extra credit and a candy bar - but to pass the assignment, it only needed to support about ten pounds. Akarsha had been particularly excited about the prospect of the candy bar, so she had volunteered that they work on prototypes outside of class.
Akarsha opened the door after a single knock, as if she’d been waiting right beside it to let her in.
“Frenchman! What a surprise!” She smiled, gesturing inside to invite her in.
“We agreed on this precise time three days ago,” Noelle replied as she stepped through the door and removed her shoes at the designated shoe mat.
“I’m always surprised when you agree to spend time with me voluntarily,” Akarsha teased. Noelle rolled her eyes, almost amused at how silly that statement was, since she frequently went to unnecessary lengths to spend absolutely every second she could with her.
Upon walking into her living room, Akarsha flopped face first into a large beanbag on the floor. Noelle remembered that her family had got it that winter, and that Akarsha adored it for the very reason of being able to dramatically flop face first into it. She flipped over, sitting in the beanbag slightly more normally, one leg crossed over the other and her head propped up by an arm resting on the beanbag.
“Care to join me?” She said, wiggling her eyebrows and patting the beanbag suggestively. There was absolutely not enough space for two people to sit without being far too close to each other on it. This appraisal of the space caused Noelle to become flustered momentarily, simply at the prospect of being in such close physical proximity to Akarsha. Her reply came just a few too many moments late to not sound strange.
“I.. I think we need a bit more of a flat surface to work at for this project,” Noelle remarked.
“Oh,” Akarsha said, looking a little embarrassed. “Right. Also, my parents would kill me if we got glue on the couch,” She added, squirming in her seat to get to a position where she could exit the beanbag. “We can use the kitchen table over there,” she gestured.
Just as she had finally gotten to a place where she could pull herself back up to a stand, the garage door burst open, and her younger brother ran towards her and launched himself onto the beanbag, crushing her back into the seat.
“GAAAHH!! PRATIK!” Akarsha yelled, shoving him off of her. Pratik was dissolving into giggles on the floor now, clearly very proud of his surprise attack. Akarsha finally managed to rise to her feet, albeit with the grace of a dog wearing shoes for the first time.
“I’m gonna play Mario DDR,” He said, opening the entertainment cabinet to dig through controllers. “Oh, hi Noelle,” He mentioned, looking up quickly to notice her. She replied with a small wave as he threw a strange looking mat with several cords attached to it behind him.
“You’re playing Mario DDR right now ?” Akarsha said, concerned.
“Yah,” He responded, turning on the gamecube and plugging in one of the cords. “You wanna join?” He asked, holding out an additional mat.
“Noelle’s here to work on homework actually,” Akarsha said flatly. Pratik shrugged and threw the other mat back in the pile of controllers he grabbed it from. “Please keep the volume at a normal level?” She asked, a hint of desperation in her voice. Pratik’s expression turned almost comically sinister as he stood up to turn on the TV screen. “Please?” Akarsha said, looking incredibly worried.
Akarsha’s dad walked through the open garage door with an armful of tools and crafting supplies.
“Beti, close the door for us won’t you?” He asked, passing her on the way to the table. “Oh! Hello Birthday Girl!” He said, trying to wave to Noelle with an elbow since his hands were full.
“Dad!” Akarsha groaned, looking embarrassed yet again. Since they’d first met on her birthday two years ago, Akarsha’s dad had decided to call Noelle ‘Birthday Girl’ upon every single subsequent meeting, much to Akarsha’s dismay. At this point, Noelle thought it was rather endearing that he’d adopted a nickname for her. “Are you using the table?!” Akarsha questioned.
“I’m gonna fix the cabinet!” He said excitedly, holding up a hammer as if demonstrating the spirit of DIY. “I watched four videos about hinges online. You can learn so much on the internet,” He added. “What brings you here today, Birthday Girl?” He asked, turning to Noelle.
“We’ve got a physics project we’re working on,” Noelle explained. “We’ve been tasked to build a miniature bridge that will support over ten pounds of weight.”
“Physics!” He smiled. “There should be more bridges in the world,” He said thoughtfully. “Like a second passage over the top of the hinges section in Home Depot, so that the people there who can’t find what they’re looking for don’t block up the aisle,”
The gamecube Pratik had turned on had finally loaded the game, and an incredibly loud and jazzy video game song with a strong drumline blasted out of the TV.
“I think maybe we might need to go upstairs to work on our project,” Akarsha yelled, trying to speak over the stereo to both her father and Noelle. Pratik had chosen a bit-tune sounding remix of Mozart’s Eine Kleine Nachtmusik , and was now aggressively stomping on the plastic mat labeled with arrows, causing it to slide across the floor slowly.
“Good luck with your bridge!” her dad called after her as she left the room and gestured for Noelle to follow her up the stairs.
Once they had escaped the assaulting music by closing the door to Akarsha’s room, she flopped onto her bed with a sigh.
“Sorry about my family,” She said, a hint of pain in her voice. “They’re always so -” she gesticulated wildly with her hands, trying to convey some hidden frustration.
“Don’t apologize, I really don’t mind,” Noelle said gently. She thought it was silly that Akarsha was always so embarrassed by her family members - Noelle genuinely considered them some of the most charming people she’d ever met.
She walked over to set down their supplies on Akarsha’s desk, which looked like it would have more than enough room for bridge building. Through the walls she could hear that Pratik had selected a new song; this time it sounded like it was from a Mario game, but with several added record scratches and ‘ COME ON! ’ and ‘ YEAH!’ sound effects.
The bouquet of roses Akarsha had been given a week ago was on the desk in an emptied out jelly jar full of water, a corner of the accompanying note tucked under the glass. When Noelle looked up at the decorations covering the wall, she noticed something else that caught her eye.
“You kept the roses from the other years?” Noelle puzzled out loud. Two bundles of roses tied together with ribbon hung from another piece of twine strung between two nails in the wall a few feet apart. On each bundle, the notecard was still attached to the ribbon as well.
“Huh? Oh, yeah, I did!” Akarsha said, standing up and walking over to the desk. “My mom actually suggested I dry them upside down the first year and we hung up this string, but now even though they’re both dry, I just like the way it looks, so I keep them like this,” She smiled. “Actually, I should probably hang up this year’s bouquet before the roses start looking too wilty,” She added, pulling the jar closer to her and grasping the bunch just above the lid of the glass, then shaking the excess water off the stems. Noelle watched silently as she re-tied the original ribbon around them, then tied them up onto the string alongside the other two hanging on the wall.
After securing the third bouquet to the twine, she turned and quickly snatched the note off the table aggressively.
“Don’t look at it!” Akarsha said defensively, covering the written part of the tag as she threaded the ribbon through the hole, then tied it off in a bow.
“What’s so sensitive on those cards that you won’t even show them to me or Min or Diya anyways?” Noelle asked, quirking an eyebrow at Akarsha.
“It’s - they’re -” Akarsha started, sounding unsure of what to say. “Whoever wrote them, even if it’s a prank-” Noelle noticed Akarsha’s cheeks had a slight red flush to them trying to get out what she was attempting to say. “Well they’re personal. To me. Um… I guess I’m saying they… All you need to know is whoever this is is either madly in love with me or a very evil good writer. Because they make me feel special,” She finished awkwardly.
“Alright then, keep them to yourself, if that’s what you want,” Noelle said, smiling at the knowledge that not only was she well acquainted with every single word on all the cards, but that they’d been just as effective as she’d hoped.
“What’re you smiling about?” Akarsha asked, staring back at her with a concerned look on her face.
“They do look nice,” Noelle replied. “The hanging flowers I mean. They make for a good decoration,”
“Glad to hear you appreciate my taste in wall decor,” Akarsha said proudly.
“Not all of it,” Noelle said, giving a dirty look at the remainder of the wall littered with anime prints and posters.
As they started planning out their bridge structure, Noelle decided to prod one last time before leaving the subject of the roses to rest.
“Any new suspects for the secret admirer, by the way?” She asked, trying to sound only mildly interested.
“Nah, I haven’t had the time to sit down and sleuth out any new clues, but I’ve got some ideas for some leads I wanna look into once I finish my robotics midterm project,” Akarsha replied. “And I mean, there’s still the possibility that it’s fake,” She added, her face falling a little. “Still a little hard to believe anyone out there would have a real, genuine crush on me,” She said quietly.
For a moment, Noelle tried to think of the best way to reply - her heart rate quickly rising as she flipped through the possibilities.
“I definitely know of at least one person that has a real, genuine crush on you,” Noelle finally responded. Before Akarsha could reply (she looked as if about a hundred questions were about to spill out of her mouth) Noelle added: “By word of mouth! I don’t have any specifics or anything, so I can’t say who - but - there’s at least one person out there for sure.”
“Oh,” Akarsha said quietly, the same small blush from earlier returning to her face for a moment. “That’s - that’s nice to know,”
“Is the double pizza lunch lady from freshman year still on the list?” Noelle said, hoping to move on to a more joking topic before her own blush developed any further. “For secret admirer suspects, I mean.”
“Oh definitely,” Akarsha said, perking up. “I don’t really know what I’ll do if it’s her, I don’t exactly feel the same way,” She smirked, holding her hands out and shrugging. “Who knows tho! Maybe when her hair’s not up in a hairnet, she’s drop dead gorgeous,” She grinned.
At this, Noelle let out a loud clear laugh, forgetting to put up the unamused act she typically performed at this type of joke. When she finally caught her breath, the sight of Akarsha beaming brightly over the success of her set-up made her chest flutter nervously, and she secretly hoped to herself the project would end up taking them longer than she’d anticipated that day.