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A/N: Here’s a picture of Paul to brighten up your day/night. Thirst in peace😉.
The Christmas vacation flew by like the sands of time and before anyone was ready, the second term had begun. The atmosphere was both excited and downcast as the students arrived and began to settle in their dorms, regaling each other with tales of their Christmas exploits.
Jayden had hardly opened the door to his dorm when a figure barrelled into him, crushing him in a tight hug. He blinked and looked down to see Noel smiling up at him. The smile, however, turned into a frown as he stepped away and fixed him with a piercing glare.
‘It’s been four weeks and I didn’t even get as much as a text. You could have been dead for all I knew. I could have been dead for all you knew.’
Jayden rolled his eyes and moved to his favourite spot on his couch. ‘And whose fault is that?’
Noel crossed his arms and scoffed. ‘You, of course. Who else?’
‘I asked you to give me your number and address but you didn’t. You even left without a goodbye, I woke up to find you gone.’
Noel uncrossed his arms. He had the grace to look sheepish. ‘I didn’t want to disturb you.’
He huffed. ‘Besides, it’s not my fault you always sleep in late.’
Jayden shot him a disbelieving look.
‘Alright fine,’ he conceded. ‘It’s my fault but you should still have done something.’
‘Like what?’
He shrugged. ‘I dunno.’
Jayden shook his head and turned, nodding his head to Henry as he entered to place his things in his room.
Noel plopped beside him on the couch. ‘Anyway, how was your vac?’
‘Boring.’
‘It couldn’t have been. How did you spend it?’
‘Sleeping.’
Noel sighed. ‘I don’t understand your obsession with sleep.’
‘It’s the closest thing I’m going to get to death.’
Noel shot him a worried look. ‘Should I be worried?’
Jayden rolled his eyes. ‘I’m not suicidal. I may not like living but I am not done living. I’m just curious about death. It’s an unknown void filled with uncertainties and adventure. I just want to explore it. I mean don’t you want to know what comes after?’
Noel looked unsure. ‘I want to know but that doesn’t mean I’m eager to know.’
Jayden sighed and shook his head sadly. ‘You lack an inquisitive soul.’
‘Forget all about that. At least you were alone for the vac. When you have all eleven of your siblings running around pestering you, how would you be able enjoy yourself? Can you believe my…’
Noel spent the rest of the day and a greater part of the night recounting stories of his vacation. Jayden sat patiently through it all with polite interest and when Noel finally fell asleep, exhausted, he carried him to his bed before turning in himself.
The next day, they were trudging down the hill on their way to class when Noel raised the question that had been bugging him for a while.
‘So…,’ he began nervously.
Jayden turned and looked at him curiously. ‘So?’
Noel bit his lip. ‘Have you checked your results for last term?’
Jayden cocked his head to the side. ‘No, I don’t think I did. Must have slipped my mind. Why do you ask?’
Noel groaned in frustration. ‘I haven’t either, I’m too nervous.’
Jayden shot him an incredulous look. ‘Nervous? What the hell do you have to be nervous about?’
Noel sighed. ‘I don’t know but it’s driving me insane.’
‘Fine then, we’ll look at it together. Come on.’
Jayden didn’t wait for a response. He quickly took off in another direction causing Noel to huff in annoyance before rushing to catch up with him.
‘Where are we going?’ he panted trying to match Jayden’s quick strides.
‘They post the results at the notice board in front of the administration block, don’t they?’
‘Yes, they do, but we are going to miss first period.’
Jayden shrugged nonchalantly. ‘Never liked Chemistry anyway.’
‘But that’s my favourite,’ Noel whined.
‘Tough luck.’
Noel huffed again in annoyance but continued to follow him and after a while, they arrived in front of the old manor house.
Noel frowned as he looked around. ‘Where is it anyway?’
Jayden nodded to the corner of the building where a shaded platform stood. They made their way over and stared up at the large board mounted on the platform.
Jayden’s eyes quickly scanned the board as he searched for his year and rolled his eyes as they lighted upon it. As expected, Noel had topped the year with an average of about ninety-five percent and directly below his name was…
‘Oh my god, Jayden you came in second!’ Noel exclaimed as he turned to stare at him with wide eyes. ‘I can’t believe it.’
‘Thanks for the vote of confidence,’ Jayden responded dryly.
‘No it’s not that,’ Noel replied hurriedly. ‘I knew you were smart but not this smart.’
‘Again, thank you.’
Noel huffed impatiently. ‘You know what I mean. I have never seen you learn, hell, I’ve never even seen you pick up a textbook or take any notes. How did you manage to pull this off?’
Jayden shrugged. He turned back to the board and his eyes widened in surprise when he saw the name that came after his. It couldn’t be right, could it?
‘Will you look at that! Samuel was third. I didn’t know he had it in him. I thought jocks were dumb especially the extremely hot ones. Who knew God gave with both hands?’
Noel remarked absently as he scanned the board looking for one name in particular. Jayden was still in shock at that revelation. He shook himself out of it and turned back to study the board.
‘Huh, Paul was tenth.’
‘Hmm?’ Noel replied absently. ‘Oh, right. Yes, it appears he is. How come he is also smart. He is also a jock and he is very hot. It isn’t fair; I thought God didn’t give with both hands!’
Jayden shrugged. ‘Well, he has to be very smart. He is the Crown Prince after all. Princes are supposed to be perfect. Besides, he could lose his throne if he even appeared to be of slightly below-average intelligence.’
Noel groaned. ‘It’s still not fair.’
Jayden chuckled. ‘Nothing ever is. Now come on, we have to make it back in time for second period.’
Noel’s eyes widened. ‘No, no wait! I have to look for something.’
Jayden huffed. ‘Then you have to look for it later. I already detest gym I don’t want to make it any worse by having Coach Asiamah on my arse the entire time for being late. Now, come on.’
He dragged Noel away from the notice board as he turned to try and catch a last look.
They arrived at the changing rooms barely in time to change and quickly join the class out in the field. When they did, Coach glanced at his watch and shot them a dirty glare but luckily, they had made it in time with a few seconds to spare.
‘Alright, listen up!’ he barked. ‘Arrange yourself and give me four laps around the field.’
The entire class groaned.
‘EIGHT LAPS! NOW WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR? RUN!’
The class didn’t wait for another second. They arranged themselves quickly and began to run around the field. By the end of the second lap, Jayden and Noel were far behind the rest of the class.
‘I… c…can’t take this,’ Noel panted. ‘I can’t believe I… I’m so o…out of shape.’
Jayden snorted. ‘Really? You can’t believe it?’
Noel threw him a glare and flipped him off weakly. He glanced at Jayden who still seemed perfectly put together and was matching his strides easily. He wasn’t even sweating.
‘You don’t have to do that you know.’
‘Do what?’ Jayden replied absently.
Noel gestured at them. ‘This. You don’t have to hang back for me. Stop holding yourself back, go ahead and catch up with the others. I’ll be fine.’
Jayden scoffed. ‘No, you won’t. Besides, I’m doing it for myself too. Unlike you, I’m in perfect shape but I lack stamina. I’m going to get tired after a while and I’ll be a straggler. At least with this, they’ll think I’m a straggler because of you.’
‘Glad I could be of some use to you,’ Noel bit back.
‘Sarcasm doesn’t fit you, you are too cute for that.’
Noel didn’t reply. He suddenly stopped running and collapsed on the ground causing Jayden to halt in alarm. He rushed over and knelt by him, patting his cheeks worriedly.
‘Kid, hey kiddo, are you alright?’
Noel groaned and blinked his eyes open. His chest rose and fell heavily as he stared up at Jayden.
‘I can’t.’ He rasped. ‘I can’t do it. I can’t go on. Leave me, here. Leave me to my faith. You must go on without me. You must complete the task.’
Jayden rolled his eyes. ‘Glad to know you’re fine enough to be dramatic. Come on, let’s get you to the bleachers and get some water in you.’
He helped Noel to his feet and they turned to head back to the bleachers.
‘WHERE DO YOU LILIES THINK YOU’RE GOING?’ Coach roared from the sidelines. ‘GET BACK ON THE TRACK!’
Jayden threw him such a withering glare that the Coach even flinched a little. ‘If you didn’t notice,’ he sneered. ‘He can’t. Look at him, he is going to faint any moment from now.’
Coach returned the glare with one of his own. ‘So what? He’s too weak. He’s gotta learn and this is as good a way as any. Leave him, if he faints we’ll wake him up to go again, and again, and again.’
Jayden’s eyes blazed. ‘That’s madness!’
‘That’s character building!’
The entire class had stopped to watch the stand-off between them. Charles was snickering into his hand, pleased with the turn of events as the rest glanced uneasily from one to the other as they wondered how this was going to end.
‘We’re leaving,’ Jayden stated with finality.
‘If you do, I’m going to fail the both of you for the rest of the term and that means you’ll have to come back and do it till you pass.’
A triumphant smirk formed on Coach’s face as he stared them down knowing he had them.
Jayden was shaking with fury. His eyes blazed and his face, which was usually emotionless, was so filled with rage that even Noel was frightened. He took a step forward and opened his mouth to retort when a calm voice cut in.
‘I’ll do it.’
Everyone turned in surprise to stare at Paul. He stared calmly back.
‘You’ll what?’ the coach barked.
‘I’ll do it,’ Paul reiterated. ‘I’ll finish his laps for him.’
The coach sneered at him. ‘And why do you want to do that?’
‘I want to.’
Coach smirked at him. ‘Fine. But, you’ll have to do triple his laps plus triple of yours. That will make forty-eight. Still want to do it?’
Paul looked him dead in the eye. ‘Yes.’
‘ALRIGHT EVERYONE SHOW IS OVER GET BACK ON THE TRACK!’
The class scattered and rushed back to finish their laps. Coach shot one last glare at Jayden before storming away leaving Jayden, Noel, and Paul alone.
Paul walked over and gave Noel a worried look. ‘Are you alright?’
Noel nodded slowly. ‘I’m fine but you didn’t have to do that. I can finish by myself.’
Jayden snorted and Paul just chuckled. ‘I know you can but now you don’t have to.’
‘But-‘
Noel was cut off when Paul picked him up over the knees.
‘What are you doing?’ he asked breathlessly with a panicked look on his face.
Paul glanced down at him as if it was obvious. ‘Carrying you, what else?’
‘W…why?’ he stammered.
‘You are in no shape to walk.’
B…but y…you d…don’t ha… have to. I c…can-‘
‘Just shut up and let him carry you.’ Jayden cut in impatiently from behind them.
Noel snapped his mouth shut and hid his burning face in Paul’s chest as he carried him bridal style to the bleachers. He placed him down and turned to leave when Noel stopped.
‘W…will you be alright?’
Paul turned and flashed him a charming smile. ‘Don’t worry, this isn’t the first time I’m running this many laps. Not all at once though but I’ll be fine.’
He flashed him one last grin then he was gone. Jayden glanced worriedly at him before turning to follow him back to the field.
He soon finished his laps and rejoined him for a brief moment before Coach called the class back into the gym.
Noel continued to sit in the bleachers, refusing to go back inside when Jayden came back out to get him. He sat there watching Paul anxiously as he continued to run.
The sun increased in intensity, beating down mercilessly below. The blistering heat caused a haze to rise from the ground, causing Noel to mop his brow repeatedly but still Paul run on.
He finished after Jayden and Noel had sat there for several minutes. His shirt was drenched in sweat and rivulets run down his forehead. Beads of sweat sat on his lips and he swiped his tongue to lick them as he jogged up to them.
‘You’re still here.’ He panted. ‘Why didn’t you go in, the heat must have been unbearable for you?’
Noel stood up to hand him a towel and a bottle of water. ‘For me?’ he asked incredulously. ‘You were the one who had been running non-stop in it, how must it have been for you?’
Paul shrugged and lifted the bottle to his lips, downing it three gulps. ‘Come on,’ he said after he was done. ‘Let’s head to the cafeteria for lunch, I’m starving.’
They turned to walk back but Noel hung back.
‘Paul,’ he called nervously after a while.
Paul turned to look questioningly at him.
‘Thank you.’
Paul flashed him a charming smile ‘Don’t mention it.’
He turned back and Noel paused before walking after him.
‘Really,’ he said softly after he had fallen into step with him. ‘Thank you.’
Paul smiled softly down at him. ‘Anytime.’
AUTHOR’S NOTE: Sorry for the late update. I was struggling to get back my flow to transition to the next term.
This chapter is not the best but I didn’t want to keep you waiting any longer.
So… what do you think?
I’m sure there are now some Paul and Noel shippers out there. Sorry to the Charles and Noel shippers 🤭.
What are their ship names? Lemme know in the comments.
I really don’t know which ship I’m in and I don’t know how it’s going to end. It’s very possible he might not even end up with any so…
P.S: Don’t forget to vote and comment if you enjoyed this chapter they really boost my motivation. Thanks.
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