"Viv! Wake up! Your alarm has been ringing since god knows how long!"
I turned in my bed groggily and peered up at a very pissed-off Angie. "What?"
Angie sighed, like she was trying her hardest to be patient with me.
"Your alarm has been ringing for a long time now and I thought I'd give you some extra time to sleep instead of waking you when I got up, but now enough is enough. And oh, by the way, you have exactly ten minutes to take a shower and get ready for breakfast."
At that I bolted upright. "Ten minutes?! Bloody hell, you should never let me sleep in again!"
Yeah, I sort of liked spending more than ten minutes in the shower. It was peaceful.
Anyway, after managing to get ready on time, Angie, Kate and I went down to the dining hall. We sat down at our usual place at one of the tables and began to dig in.
As I savoured the delicious heaven that was scrambled eggs, Kate suddenly whispered, "Psst, Viv, Archer's staring at you."
I looked up from my food and indeed, Archer was staring. I raised my eyebrows at him and he, on discovering that he'd been caught, scowled at me. I smirked a little, which made his scowl deepen.
"Hey, what are we missing?"
I broke away from Archer's stare to look at Angie, who was giving me an inquisitive look. "What?"
Angie raised one brow at me. "What was that with Archer? All that smirking and raising your eyebrows...? Should we be worried?"
I groaned. "Ugh, guys no! I caught him staring and he didn't like it, which made me happy. There, that's it."
Kate shrugged. "Sure."
I merely glared at her.
°
That day, Archer and I both had Spanish in the fifth period. As we sat at our assigned desks, Ms Ramos entered the class and wished us.
"Okay, class, I have a project for you. ¿Demasiado trabajo, no? So we'll do something fun today, and in the following two weeks. I'm ahead of our schedule when it comes to finishing up our syllabus, so we have time for other activities."
The entire class sat up at her words. A fun activity sounded...well, fun.
"I will put you all in groups of four and you'll make a PowerPoint presentation either on Spanish football or on the different forms of Spanish music. You can choose between them. You have to make the presentation in Spanish and include some info as well as your own personal thoughts and preferences."
I perked up. This was going to be fun. I happened to love both football and Spanish music. I was in our girls' football team and loved watching the Premier League as well as La Liga. Plus I also listened to reggaeton music sometimes, so it was a win win situation for me. I could cover any topic. I just hoped I was partnered with the right people who'd be interested in the project.
"Vivian, Dean, Elaine and Archer. You guys are one group."
I stared at Ms Ramos, not believing my ears. "But ma'am--"
"No buts. I know you two don't get along, I think everyone knows that by now and that's exactly why I'm putting you in the same group. You two need to grow up and be civil with each other. You're the Heads of the school and ¡dios mÃo! This is the behaviour you display?"
I bowed my head in shame, and out of the corner of my eye I could see even Archer had cast his eyes downwards, although he still had a sour expression on his face. I rolled my eyes.
After that, we were asked to sit in our groups and discuss our project. It was due in two weeks. Archer, Dean, Elaine and I sat together. Dean was a good kid in our batch. He was responsible and I had considered his name among the prefects. Elaine was very enthusiastic but not always helpful since she sometimes tended to be a scatterbrain. But they were both decent enough and good natured. I couldn't say the same about the scowling boy sitting opposite me, though.
I began. "So which topic do you guys wanna cover? I'm into both Spanish football and music, so I'm okay with either."
Archer muttered, "Stop gloating about your infinite knowledge."
I turned to him, eyebrows raised, ready for a challenge. "Are you seriously going to lecture me about gloating? You? Stop being a twat and help out."
"Hey, look, I'm not in this group out of my own will, so I really don't wanna help you."
"Well, too bad you didn't want to be here, cause you are. Get over it and help us for a change."
"Why will I bloody help you?"
"Because you're part of the team! Are you serious right now, dumbass?! Stop being such a big baby!"
"I'll stop being a baby when you--"
"ENOUGH!"
We both stopped mid-duel and looked at Dean, who was rubbing his forehead, a thoroughly irritated look on his face.
"Look, you guys are my biggest inspirations in school and I really admire you both for what you've achieved, but now you need to sort out whatever issues you have cause otherwise this project will go nowhere and we'll all lose a grade for your pettiness."
It was then that I realised how immature we were being. We were Head Girl and Head Boy and we had to set a good example, not have such petty fights in public all the time.
I nodded. "You're right, Dean, we're sorry. We should've known better. We'll be civil with each other now, at least while working. Won't we, Archer?"
I stared hard at him, trying to get him to nod yes. Finally he said, "Yes. Dean we're sorry."
I internally heaved a sigh of relief. "So what's it gonna be? Música o fútbol?"
Dean and Archer simultaneously said, "Football" while Elaine just shrugged. "I'm cool with anything, just tell me what to do and I'll do it."
I smiled. "So it's decided then. We're covering La Liga!"
°
"Hala Madrid all the way!"
"No, are you crazy! Messi is the Messiah and FC Barcelona is his shrine!"
I stared at Archer. "You sound weird."
He rolled his eyes. "Say what you will, but we're doing it on Barca. And Messi."
I shook my head. "No, no, not so easy, mister. You can't always have your way. I love Real Madrid and I'm gonna cover that too. You can't do anything about it."
"You girls only love Real because of Ronaldo and because he's apparently hot."
I stood up from my chair in the study. "What did you say?!"
"You heard me."
I walked over to where he was standing by the fireplace and punched his arm. "Ow!"
"Yeah, that's right, ow," I glared at him, "How dare you suggest that all girls watch football only to stare at hot players! I love that sport with all my soul and I'd never support my favourite club only for Ronaldo! If that were the case I'd have moved on to Juventus by now. But do you see me wearing a black and white jersey during training? No! I wear white, my white Ramos jersey, and that's the colour I'll always wear, just like you'll always wear blaugrana. Stop being so sexist!"
Archer was still rubbing his arm when I finished my speech. "Okay, okay, god. I'm sorry, okay? Happy?"
I stared at him. "Did you just say sorry to me?"
He shuffled his feet and mumbled, "only to make you stop."
I grinned. "Sure."
"Okay, can we get this damn project over with?" Archer grumbled, clearly trying to avoid the subject of him saying sorry. My, what a moment to savour.
We both were currently working on our Spanish project in the study because we were done with the day's work as Heads, and there was still an hour left before we went to the common room before supper. So to kill the time we started working on the project.
"Here, I'll start my slides on Barca and you work on your Madrid slides on your laptop. Sound good?" Archer said.
I nodded. "Fine."
We both started working and for about twenty minutes there was silence and peace in the room. Then suddenly while sorting through my old documents on the laptop, i stumbled upon a file.
"Oh my god," I whispered. I thought Archer hadn't heard me, but he did. "What?" He asked suspiciously.
I looked at him and then darted my eyes away. "N-Nothing."
He raised his brows. "Okay now I'm definitely gonna take a look. You just stuttered."
He peered into my laptop before I could close it. On the screen was a file opened, named Vi and Arch's Football Debate. In it there was a lot of info about Real Madrid's achievements and trophies over the years.
I remembered this file.
Back when Archer and I were dating, we'd had a huge fight over FC Barcelona and Real Madrid, similar to the one we had today but even more intense. When we'd fought over our clubs it didn't even seem like we were a couple, we were so aggressive with each other. So to prove whose club was better we'd decided to have a proper debate with our friends watching and judging. I'd done my research to support my statements on Madrid and saved it in that file.
Ultimately at the end, our debate had become so heated and the opposite of civil, that it'd had to be stopped forcefully by our friends, who'd had enough of us.
I now realised I'd never deleted that file.
Archer stared at the screen, his eyes bearing a faraway look. I tried hard to decipher his look, but couldn't. After a long time, I couldn't take the silence anymore, so I just blurted out, "What are you thinking?"
Archer jumped on hearing my voice, and turned to look at me. He smiled slightly, shaking his head. "Nothing of importance. Just remembering the way we used to be. Come on let's get back to work."
I closed my eyes for a second upon hearing him. The way we used to be. I could see it clear as day in my head, the way we used to be.
Clear as day.
a/n: phew, that was a long chapter indeed! Sorry guys but i love watching football and listening to Spanish music so i just had to include some of that here! And if anyone's wondering which club i support, barca or madrid, check out my bio :) plus ooh, some viv and archer feels at the end huh?