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English
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Published:
2020-06-12
Updated:
2020-07-01
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5,172
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3/?
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22
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Up North

Chapter 3: pizza

Notes:

i know its been a while, but i'm gonna try to keep updating as best as i can
i appreciate you guys reading so so much so thank you
and again, thank you to grace for proofreading!!

Chapter Text

“Hey… Noel?” Was the first thing Noel heard as he felt a light push on his shoulder. For a split second he forgot where he was until he opened his eyes.

“Huh?” He groaned, wiping his eyes as he sat up. Turning his head, he saw Aleena nervously smiling at him, her eyes darting between his. It took him a few seconds to realize that he had been asleep on her shoulder. His eyes widened as he tried to come up with an apology.

“It’s fine… I kinda fell asleep… too.” Aleena practically read his mind. Letting out a weak laugh, Noel nodded, trying to steady his breathing against his quickening heartbeat. God, if only he could slap himself.

He wasn’t too sure how long he’d been out, but apparently it was for most of that bus trip. Last thing that he remembered was the bus pulling away from the last campus and one of their teachers, Mrs. Adams, mentioning some pizza place.

Apparently that’s where they were, Noel noticed when he looked out the bus window. It was a small, brick building with a bright neon sign reading Vinnie’s sitting on the top. Squinting, he saw a few people walking inside .

“C’mon dude, hurry up!”

Noel jolted out of his thoughts when he felt a hand pat on his shoulder. He looked up to see Cody leaning over the seat, gesturing towards the bus door. “Where the hell is everyone else?” Noel asked as he stood up to stretch. The rest of the bus was empty except for Aleena, Cody and himself.

“Well, you two were out cold,” Cody’s pointer finger darted between him and Aleena. “Everyone got out like 5 minutes ago, let’s go.” he tied a jacket around his waist before making his own exit from the bus.

Aleena stood up as well, pausing to give Noel a small smile before following after Cody. Noel smiled back, maybe for a little bit too long, and made his way out to where they were waiting for him.

When they got inside the restaurant, they found Mr. Myers scrolling through his phone as he stood beside a doorway in the back. Through the doorway, Noel spotted a few of his classmates sitting at a few tables and laughing.

“Aleena, over here!” Noel heard Kay call out as the three walked through the door. She was sitting towards the back of what seemed to be a party room, sharing the table with Spock, Sam, Nat and her other friend Courtney. There was a spot next to her that she was clearly saving for Aleena with two empty seats on the other side, right next to Sam.

Not that he’d been planning to sit with her, but Noel felt a bit disappointed at the fact that Aleena wouldn’t be next to him.

“I thought you guys died or some shit. What even took you so long?” Sam scooted to the side as Cody and Noel both took their seats. “Maybe we did, bitch. How do you know we’re not haunting your ass?” Noel leaned towards his friend and made ghost noises, laughing when he got pushed away.

“You’re so fucking stupid.” Sam smiled as he rolled his eyes.

“Did we miss anything?” Cody cut in, reaching for one of the pitchers of soda they had lined up on the table.

Spock shrugged, taking a sip of his water. “Just talking about what we were gonna do one we get to the hotel.”

“Which isn’t much, right? They said we can’t leave our rooms after 11 or something,” Aleena leaned in. “..and putting tape on our doors.”

“What? Like the tapes gonna keep the door shut?” Cody frowned as he poured the pitcher of Pepsi into his glass before offering to pour some for Noel.

“No. If we open the door, the tape will break and they’ll know if we left. It’s so stupid.” Aleena ended that last part with an eyeroll.

“So?” Noel held out his cup to Cody. Aleena turned to him with a raised brow. “What?” She seemed like she was both confused and a bit insulted. Noel instantly felt guilty but made sure not to show it.

“We can just get our own tape and replace the broken piece. Simple.” He suggested as he took a sip of his soda.

“But how the fuck would we know what tape they use. Might be color coded or some shit.” Spock piped up.

There was a pause as they all seemed to take a moment to think. Two murmurs from Noel and Nat broke the silence as they both tried to speak at once. Noel closed his mouth and gave a nod to Nat. “You go ahead.”

Nat smiled and turned to the rest of the group. “What if we wait until tomorrow. If they tape the stuff tonight, we look at the tape in the morning and we see what they used. Maybe some store nearby will have some that looks like it.”

A few ‘yeah’s and ‘okay’s were muttered as the group looked at each other and nodded. “But wait…” Noel tried to speak again. “If we leave our rooms in the morning, how would they know if the tape broke from the night before or not.”

“I asked them.” Said Aleena. “They’re individually removing the tape from our doors and then telling us when we can leave. So basically, we’re stuck in there until they let us out.”

“That’s bullshit!” Cody groaned, rubbing his hands down his face. “So we’re basically prisoners.”

“Not really. I mean it is a 4 star hotel.” Kay pointed out. Noel could tell Cody wanted to roll his eyes, but decided against it. Kay was Cody’s friend, but he knew it was best to stay on her good side. “Well yeah, but the thought of not being able to leave is dumb as hell.”

“Okay, let’s say we do get the tape and get out? Then what?” Sam set down his glass after taking a long sip.

“I was thinking we would throw a little party in our room!” Kay smiled brightly as she gestured to Aleena, Nat and Courtney. When the other girls didn't oppose, Kay turned to the boys, obviously searching for some sign of agreement.

“A party? Wouldn’t that be kinda loud?” Noel asked. “Not necessarily. Just can’t have too many people and can’t blast the music.” Spock explained with a shrug.

“Then we should get snacks. Spock’s bag isn’t gonna make it to tomorrow, I feel.” Cody laughed. Spock frowned. “What do you mean? We got plenty of stuff to last us.”

“Not when we’re done with it!” Sam turned to give Cody a high-five, in which the latter enthusiastically received. Spock sighed with a smile, lightly kicking both boys from under the table.

When the waiter brought the pizzas to the table, the group spent the rest of the night talking about their day, occasionally laughing at a few jokes and just overall having fun. For the first time in a while, Noel felt a bit happy. It was weird but all he knew is that he didn’t want this to end.

And it didn’t.

Apparently the rest of their class has just as much fun as they did because once they were all back on the bus, everyone was in a good mood. Noel wasn’t sure who started it, but suddenly everyone on the bus started singing along to Party in the USA, poorly playing off of someone’s phone speaker.

Noel hated this song, but when he saw Aleena next to him, laughing as she sang along, he gave in. Aleena lit up once she heard his voice and kept looking at him as she continued to sing.

It was a nice moment, and for a second, Noel forgot about everyone else on the bus as he and Aleena sat there singing together. Noel’s voice wasn’t the best, but Aleena didn’t seem to mind. And he appreciated that.

When the song ended, Noel didn’t turn his head. Neither did Aleena. They sat there in silence for a bit until Noel felt Cody’s hand tug on his shoulder from behind. It wasn’t until he snapped out of his thoughts that he realized someone started playing some shitty minecraft song he and the boys always joked about.

With a laugh, Noel peeked over the seat and joined Cody and Sam’s sing-a-long. For a second though, he paused to look at Aleena. But she had already calmed down and was scrolling through her instagram feed. He felt a little bad, he didn’t want her to feel left out but he didn’t even know what to say.

Reluctantly, he brushed it off and went back to singing with his friends.

But in the back of his head, he knew he was gonna be thinking about the way the passing lights of the freeway glinted in her dark brown eyes for the rest of the night.

Notes:

@codelmillers on twitter