Welcome back to Thirty Days! I'm so sorry that it's late, I had something come up and I wasn't able to post. I would appreciate if you would read this chapter, heart and star, and share with your friends if you'd like! :D First: https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/1351083197/ Next: Out Soon! Previous: https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/1353079938/ To read, please scroll down :) Ｔｈｉｒｔｙ Ｄａｙｓ ~ ᴀɴ ᴏᴛʜᴇʀᴘᴀᴡ ꜱᴛᴏʀʏ ~ ᵂʰᵉⁿ ᵖʳᵉᵗᵉⁿᵈⁱⁿᵍ... ˢᵗᵒᵖˢ ᵇᵉⁱⁿᵍ ᵖʳᵉᵗᵉⁿᵈ Chapter Four: Leigh Tuesday, September 1st, 2026 About a week later, Leigh and Jay were chatting at their lunch table, as everyone arrived. “Michaels was so much fun yesterday,” Jay said. “Yesss,” Leigh agreed. “Ooh, remember the cashier?” “I can’t believe she actually asked us if we were therians. I can’t believe she even knew what they were!” Jay replied. “And you left me in the dust to answer her,” he said in mock sadness. Leigh chuckled and nudged him playfully. “Sorry! I didn’t know if you wanted her to know, or not.” Suddenly, a hiss from Adair made Leigh turn the other way, and her heart skipped a beat. “Why is Fern coming towards us??” Leigh asked frantically. “I don’t know, but she’s not going to like it.” Adair growled. “Bro, chill out. She hasn’t done anything yet.” Jay reached out to brush Adair’s shoulder. “Not this year.” Adair narrowed their eyes, but listened to Jay and relaxed a bit. Fern came over to stand in front of the lunch table. All eyes turned to her, some curious, but many of them furious. Fern had a clearly fake, toothy smile on, that made her look devilish. She tapped her foot on the ground as she spoke. “Hi, guys… Can I sit here?” Adair turned to the rest of the table. “Not happening, right?” They whispered. Most of the others nodded in agreement. They opened their mouth to speak, but Leigh interrupted. “Yes! You can.” Leigh declared, quickly. Adair shot a confused look at Leigh, but she just whispered, “I’ll explain later.” There was a seat open in front of Leigh, and Fern walked over to take it. Still, everyone was looking at her. Leigh could tell Fern was nervous, although she couldn’t name why. Knowing Fern, it could be a million reasons. “Why are you sitting here??” Adair snarled. “I just wanted to try something new,” Fern responded, raising her head up in confidence. “You? Really?” Leigh asked in disbelief. “Yes, me. This year I’m trying to branch out more.” “Probably just to gain more popularity,” Jay whispered in Leigh’s ear. She shook her head, but she couldn’t deny that it made sense. Leigh also noticed that Fern looked very uncomfortable. She tried to be confident, but there were little moments where she would slip and recoil a bit. “I think this calls for another Passing Day!” Knox announced.
“Knox, no. Please.” Marlin pleaded. “Fern deserves to witness our natural behavior!” Hasina defended Knox. Knox grabbed one of his apple slices and dipped it in his cream cheese. “Here, Stace. I’m trusting you to pass it along, and pass it well.” He reached across the table and handed the apple slice to Stace. “It will be my honor,” Stace said seriously, before breaking out laughing. So did Knox. When she had finished, she added chip crumbs on top of the apple slice and passed it to Jay, on her left. “Oh, great. This again.” Jay added a bit of cheese from the bosco stick dip he had, then passed it left to Leigh. “This always disgusts me, but it’s tradition.” She put a strawberry on top of it. It was getting a bit topheavy now, but it still wasn’t enough for it to fall over. She handed it to Adair. Adair didn’t speak, just put a large cucumber on the top. The pile on top of the apple slice was now clearly wavering. They quickly gave it to Fern. “Ack!” She pinched the edge of the apple slice, but it was so heavy that it fell over and spilled onto the table in front of her, and some fell onto the food in her lunchbox. “Oh, darn! Let me help clean that up.” Leigh sprang up and ran to grab some napkins. She came back, and everyone stared at her in disbelief as she helped Fern wipe up the mess. When Leigh had finished, Fern didn’t say a word to her, not even a thank you. “You’re welcome,” Leigh spat. Fern wrinkled her nose subtly. Leigh noticed that Fern still had hand sanitizer at the ready. She resisted the urge to comment on it, although she wanted to. Because although she was trying to be nice, she still hadn’t forgotten what Fern did. And though she wouldn’t admit it, sometimes, she did want to be mean about it. End of chapter.
