Chapter 11

The bell rang and Lisa headed outside to meet Chaeyoung and Jungkook for lunch. She'd been completely out of it all day, just thinking about everything that happened over the weekend and how Jennie reacted to her yesterday. She was certainly trying to keep her cool, but Lisa could tell that something has changed, between them.

Lisa suspected that she was the only one who knew this side of Jennie - judging by the absence of, her groupies at the party, even they might not know.

Something between curiosity and concern made Lisa want to crack the ice queen's hard exterior. Based on how shaken up Jennie was, whatever was bothering her was definitely not something light.

And she mentioned a guy...

Lisa approached her friends on the little hill outside. She sat down rather haphazardly.

"Something wrong?" Jungkook asked. "You're frowning a bunch."

"Is it about Jennie?" Chaeyoung pried. "You still haven't told us all about what happened Friday night."

Lisa grimaced at the sudden barrage of questions.

During the party, Lisa managed to find Chaeyoung and ask her if she could borrow her car to take Jennie home.

She didn't give a ton of specifics, and she'd already let Jennie hang out in Chaeyoung's car until she came back. It was overstepping to let someone in a car that wasn't her own, but she didn't know to do when the girl refused to go back into the house. She couldn't just leave her alone outside again.

Obviously, she had to tell her friends something, and she basically gave the excuse that she ran into Jennie who wasn't feeling well. But Chaeyoung knew that the reason had to be deeper than that for Lisa to personally take her enemy home.

"I just found her when I went outside and she was...in a bad way," Lisa replied, trying to be as vague as possible. She trusted her friends but telling them about Jennie's vulnerabilities seemed wrong.

"Where were her groupies?" Chaeyoung asked.

"I don't know. But she was in too bad of shape to go in and look for them.

Chaeyoung narrowed her eyes, knowing that there was more to this story. But she seemed to catch on that Lisa had her reasons for doing what she did and not explaining the situation in more detail.

"I wonder if you caught whatever she had over the weekend," Jungkook said, referencing Lisa's sickness.

Oh, you sweet, innocent child, Lisa thought.

"Maybe," Lisa laughed nervously.

"But thanks again, Chaeyoung, for letting me borrow your car."

Chaeyoung shrugged.

"You looked like you'd seen a ghost. And I wasn't about to leave when I was in the middle of grinding on my boo."

Lisa rolled her eyes. "He ain't your boo."

Chaeyoung smirked. "Soon, my dear, soon."

Lisa started suspecting that Jennie wasn't trying her very best to avoid her. She was sitting in front of her on Thursday afternoon in the study room. Although she acted like Lisa was some alien that she needed to lean away from at the table, it didn't change the fact that she'd showed up again.

"We just can't seem to get out of these tutoring sessions, can we?" Lisa said, breaking the silence that had been present since the two of them entered the room.

"We both knew that already," Jennie snapped, not looking up at the blonde.

"So why don't you just start tutoring me already?"

Jennie seemed to think about it before letting out an exasperated sigh.

"Fine, if it'll keep you from asking questions about my personal life."

Lisa put her hands up.

"Hey, I haven't said anything. Yet."

Still, Lisa was surprised that Jennie was formally agreeing to help her. Maybe she thought of it as some sort of thanks for being there on Friday night. Lisa figured she'd take this inch that Jennie gave her and slowly turn it into a mile.

She stood up and hauled her stuff over to the other side of the table. Then she sat in the seat right next to Jennie, their arms brushing in the process. Jennie leaned away like she'd just been approached by leper.

"What are you doing?" she hissed.

"You want to just lean over the table the whole time?" Lisa asked. "This just makes teaching me easier."

Jennie coughed awkwardly into her fist. "Right. So what sections are you still unsure of?"

Lisa slid her book over to the honour student and flipped through it as she explained the concepts, she was still unfamiliar with. Like night and day, Jennie switched over to her teacher-mode and started give clear explanations to the concepts, complete with diagrams and example problems sketched into Lisa's notebook.

Lisa was trying her best to pay close attention, but her eyes kept traveling up to the girl's face, studying her features and expressions. She's really pretty, Lisa thought absent-mindedly. And she's cute when she's teaching, too.

She started to wonder if the brunette had a boyfriend, but she held back from asking and pissing the girl off. Plus, what would Lisa even do with that information? It's not like she liked Jennie, and even if she did, there's no way her feelings would be returned. Plus, Jennie was a bully and a bitch and would probably be the most annoying and overbearing girlfriend.

"You're really good at this," Lisa muttered when there was a gap in Jennie's explanations.

Jennie gave Lisa an incredulous look. "Good at what?"

"Teaching."

"Well, I have an A in Calculus, it's only natural I'd be able to explain the concepts."

"But not everyone can explain it as well as you do."

Jennie turned her face away and Lisa could swear she saw the girl's ears go red. Reason was starting to escape Lisa and was being replaced with the inclination to push further. But she knew if she started asking about the party now, what little steps she'd taken to open Jennie up would be immediately reversed. She settled on some little subject matter instead.

"Isn't there a school bonfire tomorrow night?" she asked innocently.

Jennie turned to look back at Lisa. "Yeah?"

"Are you gonna go?"

Jennie stiffened a bit, then diverted her gaze once more. "I don't think my friends are going, so no."

"Are you worried that he's going to show up?" Lisa knew nothing about the guy that Jennie referred to at the party, but Jennie nonetheless flinched as if she knew exactly who Lisa was talking about.

"I have no idea what you're talking about," Jennie lied.

"You could go with me."

The words flew out of Lisa's mouth before she could stop them. There was no way the ice queen would take that proposal well - after all, she insisted that they were definitely not friends, and she's made every effort to continue treating Lisa like an enemy.

Jennie seemed genuinely caught off guard by the proposal, but her bitchy mask quickly replaced her surprised expression.

"And why would I want to do that?"

"Well, it's a bit strange that the top student will go to lame parties with underage drinking, but won't even show up to a school event..."

"You have a point," Jennie conceded, folding her arms over her chest.

"But why would I have to go with you?"

"Well, you said your friends aren't going, and mine aren't either." Lisa responded, deciding not to bring up the unknown guy that Jennie didn't want to see.

"And maybe you'll get a chance to throw me in the fire pit."

Jennie smiled at that, and the mere act was enough to quicken Lisa's pulse.

"You shouldn't joke about that, I might actually do it."

"So? How about it?"

Since it was the end of the tutoring session, Jennie stood up and gathered her things into her backpack.

"I might go, and if I see you there, I'll see you." Lisa smiled.

"That's good enough for me."