Chapter Three

Lily's goal for third period biology was simple:

-Do not look at Jack.

-Do not think about Jack.

-Do not draw hearts in the margins of your notes like a Disney princess with a gel pen addiction.

Spoiler alert: she failed all three goals by minute six.

He sat next to her as usual—same hoodie, same smell of mint gum and boy-shampoo, same habit of balancing his pencil across his upper lip like a moustache while the teacher wasn't looking.

“Pssst,” he whispered. “Are mitochondria still the powerhouse of the cell, or did that get canceled like everything else?”

Lily snorted and scribbled in her notebook:

> Mitochondria \= overachievers. Like me. Before feelings happened.

Jack peeked over her shoulder and grinned.

“I saw that,” he mouthed.

Mr. Thompkins, their forever-exhausted teacher, trudged in with a stack of worksheets and a large mug that said “I Teach, What’s Your Superpower?” except someone had scribbled "Regret" underneath it in Sharpie.

“All right, children of chaos,” he muttered. “Pop quiz.”

Half the class groaned. One kid actually wept into his hoodie. Jack whispered, “We live in a society.”

Lily scanned the quiz.

Name three parts of a plant cell.

What is osmosis?

Why do I hear screaming in my soul?

Wait. That last one was in her brain. Not on the paper.

********************

Halfway through the quiz, Lily caught Jack tapping his pencil in a rhythm.

Tap... tap-tap.

She glanced at him. He raised his eyebrows and pointed at her quiz with a subtle nod that screamed:

“I have no idea what I’m doing, please send help or answers or snacks.”

She rolled her eyes and silently mouthed, “Chloroplast.”

He mouthed back, “You're my hero.”

She rolled her eyes again but her cheeks were doing that warm blushy thing that needed to chill.

******************

After class, Jack held the door open and said, “You saved my grade. I owe you.”

“You owe me so much,” Lily said. “Like, ten friendship points minimum.”

Jack nodded seriously. “I shall repay my debt in the currency of cafeteria fries and bad jokes.”

They started walking to lunch together, and Lily found herself… smiling.

A real one.

Not a fake “yes I understand mitochondria” smile, but a real, actual, goofy one.

Because for the first time ever, class wasn’t just boring and stressful and filled with Latin words she didn’t care about.

It was kind of… fun.

Because Jack was there.

And Jack? Jack made everything more complicated and chaotic and kind of—ugh amazing.

***************

Lily had a favorite lunch table.

It was near the window, next to the weird radiator that hissed like a grumpy teapot, and it had just enough distance from the chaos of the popular kids to avoid being hit by rogue ketchup packets. It was her fortress. Her safe space. Her spot.

But today?

Jack was already there.

Feet on the bench. Tray balanced like a three-year-old with no spatial awareness. He was lounging.

“Oh no,” Lily said, setting her tray down dramatically. “You’ve colonized my table.”

Jack grinned. “It was unoccupied when I got here. That makes it fair game.”

“You were here seven seconds before me.”

“Seven seconds in cafeteria time is like three years in real life. That’s basically squatters’ rights.”

Lily narrowed her eyes. “You’re lucky you’re cute.”

Jack blinked. “What?”

“NOTHING. I SAID CRUTE. LIKE… LIKE A CRUMBLY FRUIT.”

“Did you just invent a word mid-sentence to avoid emotional vulnerability?”

“Yes. Let me have this.”