章 3: A Suspiciously Familiar Project Partner
Luna yawned as he entered the lecture hall. It was a week after submitting the assignments for finals and everyone was already in holiday mode with term break right around the corner.
The lecture hall was unusually packed with students, some of whom Luna had never seen before.
"Hey Luna, over here!" cried out a familiar voice. Luna turned to find Judy his classmate waving at him from across the room, closer to the top of the lecture theatre.
Luna gave her a thumbs up and made his way through the tables to the empty seat next to Judy.
"Nice to see you looking slightly more alive than last week. Did you finally get a good night's rest?" Judy asked as Luna arranged his iPad and water bottle on the table to ready himself for the lecture.
"Eh, rest? I am always so paranoid Luka is going to show up with one of his weird club-going requests, I spend every waking moment I can get studying" Luna replied.
"Dude, you are so gonna get permanent dark rings. What if your prince charming turns up and sees you like this? You don't want to look like a racoon do you?" Judy teased.
Luna's face completely flushed at the thought of last week's kiss. "Urgh don't even remind me! I didn't even have two brain cells worth of sense to ask for his number!" Luna groaned and flung himself dramatically onto the table " I doubt I'll ever see him again, so it's fine if I look like a racoon"
"Well you never know, he might be a student here at the uni. You did say he looked about our age" Judy replied as she took out her notes.
Luna scanned the room. There were no blond boys with green eyes in sight, which made him sigh even more.
"By the way, where are all these new people coming from? I've never seen so many, colourfully dressed people since we started this course" Luna asked, sitting up as a bunch of students came in dressed kind of like they were walking right off a fashion runway. Was there were a lot of Japanese-inspired fashion pieces in the crowd too...and was that a goth as well? So many creatively inclined people at a business lecture, what was going on?
"Dude, don't you remember? This week we start the interdisciplinary project with the Arts Department! Lol, have you not yet got a project partner for your business project? You do know it is 50% of our credit for next term's score right?" Judy asked, snickering at Luna's shocked face " Oh you forgot, didn't you? This is what happens when you spend all your time studying and you don't turn up for any of the student meetings or activity sessions!"
"Wait that is today? When were we supposed to make connections with the other students? Shit, I…I didn't know!" Luna gasped, turning to Judy with fear in his eyes " Judy I can't fail, everything is riding on this course for me"
Judy laughed and patted Luna on the arm " Luna, just admit that you are entirely dependent on me. Say 'Judy, you are my lifesaver', and I will save you from yourself"
"Why? Do you have a project partner for me tucked somewhere up your very lesbian no-sleeve denim vest pocket?" Luna frowned, crossing his arms as he glared at his friend.
"Say it Luna, say it. I went out of my way for you to flirt with this one chick and get her to convince her friend to put off signing up with someone else. She could have been project partner to the hunky dork Joseph Blackmore, but I lured her away with the promise of an honour student who will do most of the work so that she can live her princess era in peace" Judy grinned, crossing her arms and raising an eyebrow to match Luna's disposition.
Luna signed and relaxed, "Fine, Judy you are a lifesaver, I am entirely dependent on you. Please give me my project partner, I owe you one, again…" Luna said and put his hands together in a begging fashion.
Judy's grin got even wider and rubbed her hands together gleefully as she leaned forward and said "Rachel Lovewin. Tall, blond, very ditzy personality so she is easy to get along with. She loves to eat pizza and plays basketball in her free time. She is self-conscious though, so she always wears a face mask wherever she goes, and she never takes it off, she says she has a weird disfiguring face scar, just don't ask her about the mask and you should be fine. She Majors in Fine Art Western Painting, and, she doesn't have a lab partner. Happy?" Judy grinned and sat back, looking like a smug cat.
Not only was Luna happy, but his eyes were also shining " So what you are saying, the perfect malleable creature to impose my ideas on so that I can make a Double AA grade project without having to fight for whether or not her stupid idea is good or not" Luna replied mischievously.
"Hey! Keep those opinions to yourself, you don't want the prey to find out you know all their weaknesses" Judy laughed and poked Luna in the shoulder.
"Juudddyy~!" A sing-song voice suddenly rang out near them.
Both Luna and Judy turned to find a petite girl with a black pixie cut and a huge tote bag skipping towards them with someone in tow behind her.
"I'm guessing that's your project partner?" Luna asked quietly.
"Yeah, cute, bisexual, and very keen on letting me do all the work, Anna, I pick them good don't I" Judy replied in a hushed whisper.
"Yeah, over here Anna! Did you bring Rachel?" Judy said louder as she waved Anna over.
It was at that point that Luna noticed the person who was being dragged along in tow by Anna. A tall blond girl with a pink mask covering most of her face was stumbling awkwardly behind Anna. She was dressed entirely in pink, with her blond hair in tight braids that swayed back and forth as she walked. Her pink skirt was just above the knees, which was cute but felt a little bit overkill as she was also wearing a frilly lacy pink top and matching frilly lace boots.
"Hi, you must be Luna, the one Judy was saying would be the perfect fit for Rachel?" Anna said brightly as she stopped at the empty seat next to Luna.
"Yeah hi, it's nice to meet you, sorry I wasn't there in person to say hi when Judy met up with you two the first time," Luna said and reached out his hand for a handshake.
Anna let go of Rachel and returned Luna the handshake firmly " It was nice to make your acquaintance, and also, I can finally deposit Rachel in your care! Hahahaha" Anna said and practically thrust her friend at Luna, before dancing around them to get to Judy.
Rachel made a squeak noise in surprise as she suddenly found herself standing alone in front of Luna, without her usual Anna-shield.
Rachel stood there looking at her feet as Luna also awkwardly looked at her, not sure what to do.
"Rach say hi! Use your words!!" Anna said, cutting through the awkward silence.
"Ah umm…I'm Rachel…um,mmm hi…" Rachel said, raising a hand to make a small waving motion, too shy to reach out a hand for a handshake.
" Hi, Rachel, it's nice to meet you" Luna replied gently, putting a hand over his heart instead of holding out his hand as a gesture of peace " I'm grateful that you agreed to be my partner even without meeting me first, I will try my best to make this project a success, I promise," Luna said as gently as possible.
Upon hearing how nice and gentle Luna was, Rachel looked up a little for the first time in the entire interaction, feeling a little bit more at ease since Luna seemed to be a nice patient person.
Luna, seeing Rachel slowly looking up, put on a gentle smile, hoping to come across as open and understanding, even though he felt a little bit on the cringe side as it seemed like Rachel was even more introverted than he was, but he needed to make sure the project started smoothly, so he decided to just grin and bear it. As long as Rachel turned up for the project meetings and sat quietly in the corner doodling while he did the actual work, he was down for this arrangement.
However, what happened next was entirely not something Luna expected at all.
When Rachel's eyes finally met his, a look of fear suddenly passed across those large green eyes.
Luna cocked his head to the side. There was something oddly familiar about the large green almond-shaped eyes, however, Luna couldn't quite put his finger on it…
Rachel on the other hand stumbled back as if something had hit her in the chest. A red stain suddenly appeared on her mask and started to spread.
"OMG. Rachel, Rachel your nose! You're bleeding!" Anna said and rushed over to her friend "Rachel what happened? Luna, what did you do? Did you punch her?" Anna asked harshly as she grabbed her friend by the shoulders and guided her away from Luna.
"Huh? No, I, I swear I didn't do anything!" Luna said, jumping up, shocked by the sudden turn of events.
"Rachel, did he do something to you?" Anna asked as she grabbed a tissue out of her purse and handed it to Rachel, who turned away and tried to discreetly stuff her nose to stop the bleeding.
"A-Anna I have to go to the bathroom, please let's go please" Rachel sobbed as she clutched her bleeding nose through the mask with the tissues in hand.
Anna shot a glare at Luna before wrapping her arms around her friend and guiding her towards the exit.
"What the hell happened?" Judy asked, just as confused as Luna.
"One minute I was trying to be nice and say hello, and the next minute she had a full-blown nosebleed! I swear I didn't touch her Judy" Luna said, turning to Judy and looking pleadingly at her.
Judy rubbed the bridge of her nose and sighed " Well you're on your own if you want to look for another project partner, cause everyone is already paired up! It's either Rachel or the Queen Bee Jeremy who will talk your ear off and run you like a little personal secretary, forcing you to make all his little business venture ideas come try instead of sticking to just one" Judy replied.
At that point the professor walked into the lecture hall and started to turn on the PA system, signalling the start of the lecture, so all the students who were milling around went to their seats.
Judy's phone suddenly buzzed and a message from Anna lit up on the screen.
Judy swiped her phone open and grimaced, then showed Luna the message.
" You seem nice, so I don't mind continuing to be your project partner, but Rachel is scared of your friend, so she declines. She is babbling on about him looking her up and down inappropriately or something, but didn't you say your friend is gay too? Maybe if you guys can meet up after class and sort this shit out, that would help, cause Rachel really can't afford to fail another class. Please get your friend to apologise for whatever weird thing Rachel thinks he did. I'm gonna give him the benefit of the doubt as Rachel is freaking paranoid about a lot of things, so even if he didn't do it, please please just ask him to apologise, so that we can move on. Thanks!" read the message from Anna.
"You were looking her up and down?" Judy asked, scrunching up her nose in distaste.
"No? I mean yes? I mean did you see her outfit? She was dressed head to toe like a Barbie! It was a sight! I don't hate it, but I do feel like she needs to break up the pink with some white, or maybe some baby blue, you know? It's pink overkill" Luna replied vehemently.
Judy's face palmed " Oh. MY. GOD. You gay little ****. Ok ok, I'll arrange a meetup, you BETTER apologise." Judy replied as she typed a quick message to Anna "By the way you have no right to judge other people's style while you sit there in millennial grey sweatpants and a brown T-shirt from Walmart" Judy added as she shook her head and pressed send.
"Sorry, how was I supposed to know to turn off my eyes when encountering other people? I promise to leave them in my book back later for the meeting" Luna grumbled as he opened his iPad and sat up straight as the lecture hall lights dimmed so that the PowerPoint presentation could be seen better.
Judy punched him in the arm " Don't screw this up! Your grades are on the line!"
"Ow!! Ok Ok, I hear you" Luna replied, looking sad even though the punch wasn't that hard.
Judy sighed and shook her head, looks like this project was going to be a lot more trouble than she realised.
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