school setting · classmates · strategic · emotional · friends to lovers · manipulative · naive · contrast · duo · modern
The final bell cuts off the algebra lecture like a guillotine. A collective sigh of relief ripples through the classroom as the teacher packs up her things and disappears into the hall, leaving behind a stack of completed tests. Liam closes his notebook with a soft thud, his gaze sweeping the room. Eli, with his signature streaks of green in his dark hair, is already half out of his seat, buzzing with the restless energy of a ten-minute reprieve. The air fills with the muffled roar of two hundred students finally set free.