Chapter 35: XXXIV

Laia didn't let her taking back the top spot get into her head and stop her from studying during a Saturday.

Much to her mother's chagrin, of course.

"Honey, do you really have to study even after getting the first rank? How about we spend our day in a spa or go shopping--"

Laia turns to her mother with a frown. "First of all, we don't have money," Closing the book she was reading a bit rougher than she should, the girl internally curses. "Second of all, I cannot be complacent. There are still two more quarters after all. And lastly, you forgot again that I only allow myself to take a break on Sundays."

Not that it disappoints the girl. She's already used to her mother forgetting what she deems irrelevant.

Well, irrelevant to her but important to Laia.

The older woman sighs. "Honey--"

Laia was quick to turn away from her mother's sad expression. "Just don't forget to not spend everything. I'll stay home."

Just like how it was often, the girl's mother didn't insist further and leaves the room. Laia presumes that based on how her mother had already worn her favorite dress, she was going to leave either way with or without her daughter.

Again, Laia doesn't mind. Despite her mother being a social butterfly, Laia is definitely her complete opposite.

After drinking from the glass of water she placed on her side table, Laia resumes studying. 

It didn't take that long for the girl to finish studying for an upcoming Mathematics test next week since she already studied beforehand and even took notes of everything that came out of their teacher's mouth. 

Excessive and irrelevant some may say, but it's how Laia had always been.

And well, it's not like it didn't benefit the girl in the long run.

The girl stretches her arms and yawns loudly. She sighs in disappointment. It's barely one in the afternoon and she's already tired and unmotivated to continue.

But nevertheless, Laia slaps herself in the face with both hands as a way of motivating herself to continue and fight against the impending forces of sleep that might cost her newly regained first rank.

She decides to study History next. It's not the best subject to study when someone's feeling sleepy already, but Laia begs to differ when memorizing and familiarizing all the historical figures during the 1800s made her feel like she wasn't sleepy just a few moments earlier.

Laia studies three more subjects before she decides that she did enough for the day. The girl checks the time on her phone and was surprised to see that it was just around four in the afternoon.

Looks like she still has time to watch the new film she saw the other day--

Her phone rings loudly.

Or not, Laia thinks as she picks up her phone, grumbling.

"Hello?"

[Hey! It's Niel!]

Oh. Definitely not someone Laia expected to call her, especially when it's supposed to be her day off today. "Is everything okay?"

The girl hears scattered noises from her coworker's line. [Yeah, it's just a bit rowdy today.]

Is that supposed to be Laia's problem, though? However, Laia stopped herself from being rude regardless of wanting to be. This phone call ruined her supposedly movie-watching time, after all.

"Well, it is a weekend.."

[Fuck, I'm really sorry to impose on you during your day off..]

But you're still gonna impose, either way, Laia couldn't help but think as she rolls her eyes.

[But can you please come over? You'll get your payment for coming in even if it's your rest day, I promise!]

Well, Laia can work with that. She is in need of some school supplies she's lacking and she'd rather not ask for money from her mother who's probably spent a lot on her shopping spree or from the spa.

Looks like Laia won't be watching the new film she downloaded today.

"Okay, be right there. Give me ten minutes."

[Thank you so much! I definitely owe you one!]

Laia drops the call after that, grumbling once again under her breath.

But it's not like all her grumbling will amount to anything, so she made her way to the bathroom to fix her appearance to some extent.

"Ugh," The girl groans when her comb becomes entangled with her hair. "Fuck this hair--"

This is why Laia hates sleeping with her hair in a ponytail, but alas, she'd always forget about it when she's laying down on her bed.

The girl continues combing her hair quite roughly, to the point that some strands fall but it's the least of Laia's concerns.

All the girl wanted as of the moment was to tie her hair in a tight bun and dress up moderately, just enough to look decent.

Decent being a t-shirt and her jogging pants that she bought on sale last week. She pairs the outfit with her rundown sneakers and she's good to go.

Laia rides her bicycle to the coffee shop to save money instead of riding a taxi or the bus. It did make her perspire a lot upon her arrival, but oh well, it's not like anyone cares about what she looks--

"Did you go through a desert without water for days or what?"

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Okay, maybe Niel cares.

"I rode my bike," Laia replies after dismounting her ride.

Niel frowns. "You do realize you could have had ridden a taxi, right?"

The short-haired girl waves her coworker's concerns off. "The fare's too expensive,"

"Girl, it barely reaches--"

"Niel, please."

The boy raised his hands in surrender. "Okay, okay, sorry,"

Laia walks towards the entrance of the coffee shop and wasn't surprised to see that they really had a lot of customers.

Niel wasn't exaggerating at all.

Brewing was packed with customers of all ages. Some were even openly murmuring about the lack of space but didn't leave and instead continued complaining. 

Laia also noticed how one customer was already in a middle of a fight with whoever is on the counter and she immediately makes her way there.

"... I said I wanted a pumpkin latte! Why did you give me a pumpkin spice latte?!"

The person on the counter was apparently Keith, who Laia noticed was torn between continuing to smile at the customer or slapping the customer in the face for disrupting the already long line behind her.

"Good afternoon, ma'am! May I please know how can I help you?" Laia decides to push Keith subtly behind her, effectively hindering the customer from seeing Keith's enraged expression.

The customer, who apparently had such difficulty realizing that a pumpkin latte and a pumpkin spice latte are the same, once again screams on the top of her lungs. "You are all ignorants! I want a pumpkin latte, not this one you gave me! I want and need to talk to your manager this very instant--"

Laia cuts her off with a newly made pumpkin (still spice) latte handed immediately on her hand. Niel apparently caught on the whole fiasco and made a new one (and included a food dye of the color orange) in it so it would look like.. a pumpkin. "Here you go, madame. No need to shout."

"Oh," The customer's eyes widened and she blinks twice before regaining her senses. "You should have had done this earlier!"

The short-haired girl inhales deeply and flashes another smile. "We do apologize for the delay. May you please come to the side for us to entertain the customer after you?"

Grumbling openly, the lady makes way for the person after her who, fortunately, ordered the easiest drink to make. 

The rest of Laia's supposed day off went okay. No other customers except the pumpkin spice lady made an appearance and Laia was very thankful for that.

Regardless of how she took care of the fiasco from earlier and kept her anger issues in check, the girl would rather not go through that again.

One pumpkin spice lady is enough for the day.

The number of customers gradually decreased after an hour or so. Apparently, the reason for the sudden increase of customers was due to the new batch of drinks that they released and even put advertisements for on various social media platforms, therefore catching the attention of much more people than they have initially expected.

Laia grumbles after Niel tells her. "I told you not to advertise without taking precautions!"

"You're acting like we advertised a forbidden government secret--"

The short-haired girl narrowed her eyes at her coworker, effectively shutting him up for a good five minutes before he started ranting about the whole fiasco from earlier. "That lady from earlier was intense,"

"She was crazy," Laia adds. "And also a bit dumb if you ask me."

"Not everyone can be as smart and wise as you are, oh ranked one--"

Laia turns to the boy with a skeptical look. "How'd you even know about that?"

It was Niel's turn to look at the girl with a perplexed look. "Didn't you tell me about it?"

Definitely not since it wasn't like Laia to tell everyone about her achievements. She would rather let her achievements speak for herself than vice versa.

Keith suddenly appears behind Niel and ruffles the shorter boy's hair. "Laia didn't tell us about it, we heard it from some of her classmates earlier this week,"

Niel pulls away from the taller boy's hands and glares at him before reluctantly nodding his head in agreement. "Yeah, I guess it would be weird to hear it from Laia herself."

The short-haired girl rests her head on her right hand. "Which one of my classmates decided to gossip about it so openly?"

She wasn't angry, per se, but she did want to know who talked about it since it would depend on the identity of the person on whether Laia can be sure that they were talking about her reclaiming her top spot in a good way or were they backstabbing her.

"Hmm," Niel bites his finger which he usually does when he's thinking deeply. Keith pulls the other boy's wrist away from him, making Niel turn to him with a scowl. "What the hell?"

"Don't bite your fingers, they'll bleed." Keith scolds.

"Are you my mom--"

Despite how much Niel pulled, Keith's grip on his wrist didn't budge. Niel groans in defeat. "Fine, I won't bite them anymore,"

Keith releases Niel's wrist shortly after that. Laia couldn't restrain a smile as she watched how obvious the two boys were but decided not to say a word.

"So, who was the one talking about me?" Laia decides to ask when Keith excuses himself to attend to a customer who arrived.

Niel, contrary to what he told the other boy earlier, bites his finger again. "The handsome guy? Sammy?"

The asshat?

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