Chapter 105 – Activity
On the following morning, Benjamin started his routine again. After waking up early, he headed to school for his daily learning session with Sasha. She was always very passionate on Mondays, after two days of missing him. One hour later, he exited the infirmary to go to his class. On the way, a lot of students recognized and greeted him, either cheerfully or with affection, similar to caring for a little brother. After his two sports matches the week prior, he felt that most of the students knew about him now, especially the girls. He tried to always greet everyone back with a smile, which only made even more students greet him every day.
Curious, he checked Sarai's blog and was surprised to see that the number of views and comments had increased by many times. However, the most perplexing part was probably one of the comments on last Friday's blog post. While the content of the post only talked about him having a normal, if very angelic, day at school, the comment said that they had spotted the angel and his two friends going to 42-Answer's concert. And here they were trying so hard to hide it. By now, probably most of the school knew about it. The problem wasn't the students in general, though, but the ones in their class in particular.
As expected, as soon as he opened the door to his classroom, he saw a bunch of girls crowding around his friends.
"How did you get tickets to the concert?"
"You guys are so lucky. I want to go to one of his concerts too."
"You have to tell us next time. Had I known, I would have bought a ticket from a reseller, no matter how expensive!"
"I wanted to join too!"
His two friends seemed overwhelmed by the girls' quick talk, barely able to answer anything at all. Benjamin greeted the whole class with a simple "Good morning" as he usually did before going to help Nathan and Julian. When he was next to them, he tried to ease the girls down a bit.
"Calm down, girls. It's normal to do some activities with just us guys, right?"
They nodded reluctantly but one of them added.
"Fine, but we have to do something together today."
She was the second most assertive girl in the class after Sarai and was named Noemi. She was often leading the girls after the incident with Sarai. Speaking of Sarai, she was now in the periphery of the girls together with a group of friends who had a similar interest to her new hobby. The girls in that group always had their eyes fixated on Benjamin and monitored every one of his movements, sometimes writing something on their phones.
Back to the girls' wish, Benjamin asked his friends for their opinion.
"Well... What do you two think?"
Nathan sent a quick look at the group of girls around them and replied.
"I don't mind."
Julian seemed less interested and answered with a question instead.
"What about you, Ben?"
"I am also okay with it."
"Alright, I will join too, then."
The girls looked cheery at their success and high-fived each other right in front of them. They still needed to decide on what to do and Benjamin queried them.
"So, what's the plan?"
They looked at each other, desire obvious in their eyes, and one of them tried her luck.
"What about a disco? I know one where they allow people our age."
Julian and Nathan frowned while Benjamin gave his best smile.
"Dream on."
Somehow, his rejection made them happier than before. The girl did not expect that it would work but managed to get to see his smile in exchange and they all thought that the trade was profitable. Proud of her achievement, she tried once again.
"Bar?"
Judging by her questioning tone, she already knew the answer even before asking and Benjamin only grinned without responding. After a few seconds, she blushed and added.
"...Sorry."
Seeing that it wouldn't be that easy, the girls started to think seriously about it. Finally, a different one gave a suggestion.
"What about a movie?"
"Too long. I need to be home before seven to start cooking dinner."
She looked sad that her idea was rejected and gave way to the next girl.
"Since it is sudden and we don't have a lot of time, what about something simple? Let's go to a café, eat something sweet, and chat."
That was a surprisingly good suggestion and Benjamin checked on his two friends' expressions. After some eye communication between them, Julian concluded.
"Sounds fine. Let's do that."
The girl who had her suggestion approved looked glad and the whole group cheered. Since most of the girls in class wanted to join, the three friends also invited the other boys in class, and a few accepted to come. The final ratio was still greatly in favor of girls but it was still better than just the three of them.
After that, the teacher entered the classroom and class started. The rest of the day was spent normally, with Benjamin focusing on the content being taught. Anything he managed to learn and remember directly in class would be something he wouldn't need to review later on, allowing him to spend his time on more interesting activities.
After the last period ended, the classmates who had planned to participate in today's activity regrouped before heading out together. They were about twenty people and had to find a café that would allow them all to sit together. One of the girls knew a place not too far from the school and they decided to go there. After ten minutes of walking, the group arrived at the location, a colorful café with a stylish entrance. They went inside, surprising the waiter with their number. Not long after, they became seated at three tables close to each other.
Benjamin's group was at a large table sitting eight people. The other boys in the group were seated at other tables and so they had five girls with them. The three friends' order of sitting was Nathan, Julian, and Benjamin, meaning that Benjamin and Nathan were sitting next to girls while Julian was being sparred this time, which he seemed to be content with. Benjamin was seated next to a girl called Selene and Nathan was sitting next to Noemi, both girls looking particularly merry to have gotten those seats.