Chapter 50: Happy New Year

This exact brand of coconut candy was incredibly common.

Julie could basically guess the mechanics of the trick, but she absolutely refused to embarrass him. After all, if Vincent Judge could screech his way through an aggressively off-key pop song and she could clap like a trained seal and call him a musical genius, she could definitely hype Warren up.

"That was amazing! How did you do that?! I didn't see a thing!"

She showered him with praise, hyping him up so hard it sounded like he was destined to headline the national televised New Year’s Gala next year.

Warren looked incredibly relaxed. He kept his hand extended toward her. "Do you want it?"

"No thanks." Julie shook her head, already looking down at her notebook to officially write "Magic - 3 Minutes" next to his name. "It sticks to my teeth."

The packaging for Coco Coconut Candy was iconic and hadn't changed in years.

It was highly addictive—you could easily eat five in a row—but it brutally glued your teeth together.

She was so focused on her notebook she completely failed to notice his hand hovering awkwardly in the air before he quietly pulled it back.

"Weren't you going to get water?"

When Julie finally looked up and realized he was still standing there, she assumed he had forgotten his original mission and helpfully reminded him.

"Yeah. Are we done here?"

"All done!"

Warren took his thermos back and started walking toward the boiler room. After taking a few steps, he stopped. He raised his hand, looking down at the coconut candy with a helpless sigh. Just then, an old friend of his walked out of the bathroom. Warren called his name and tossed the candy to him.

Thinking he was being thrown something valuable, the guy caught it effortlessly. He looked down at his palm, his face instantly twisting in disgust. "Warren, are you messing with me?!"

Warren just clapped him on the shoulder, laughed, and walked away.

Because it was winter, the line for hot water was long. As he stood near the back, he heard someone call his name from a distance. He turned around to see his homeroom teacher, Miss Bell.

Seeing the thermos in his hand and the long line in front of him, Bell smiled. "Come with me to the office. We need to talk."

Warren instantly understood.

She was giving him a VIP pass to use the water dispenser in the teachers' office.

It wasn't just Warren; if Bell saw any of her students suffering in a massive line, she fiercely protected her own and brought them inside.

Warren followed her toward the office. Even in front of the strict teacher who deeply respected him, he had a playful side. "Thanks for the rescue."

"You need to drink plenty of water in the winter," Bell replied. Remembering something, she slowed her pace. "How is Julie handling the New Year's party? Is she taking it seriously?"

"Incredibly seriously," he answered.

Bell looked genuinely surprised. She raised an eyebrow. "She did a great job last time. What's the vibe in the class?"

"Everyone is really hyped for it," he told the truth, a warm smile reaching his eyes. "They're all really looking forward to it."

"Then it sounds like everyone is giving her high praise." Bell had a great relationship with him, so she teased, "If we run another election for class committee, you might actually have to hand your title over to her."

Even if Julie was just a normal classmate, Warren wouldn't have been phased by that joke. But now that she held an entirely different place in his heart, he was perfectly at peace with it. He replied effortlessly, "I'd step down. She's incredibly capable."

Bell wanted to laugh, but suddenly, the painful memory of Julie's Rank 21 monthly exam score flashed in her mind, and she let out a heavy sigh instead.

She had been a teacher for a long time. She couldn't help but think: She's such a wonderful girl. So warm, so passionate, so smart. If she could just grit her teeth, push through the pain, and get into a top-tier university... her future would be so incredibly bright.

"She's working really hard."

Hearing his teacher sigh, Warren instantly knew exactly what she was thinking. He felt a desperate urge to defend Julie, to make sure everyone in the world knew how hard she was fighting. "She asked us about the tutoring center a while back, and she's taking classes there now. And every morning, she wakes up incredibly early to memorize her textbooks."

"Her mom told me the same thing." Hearing Warren validate it eased the last bit of Bell's worry. As they reached the office, she dropped the subject completely. "Go get your water. Class is about to start."

"Okay."

It was hard to reinvent the wheel for a high school New Year's party. Julie's only real goal was to make sure every single student participated and actually had fun, because this wasn't just a party for a select few—it belonged to all of them.

Terrified of forgetting a crucial detail, she obsessively checked her notebook every single time she had a free second.

She needed absolute control over the progress of every single segment.

So when Warren Gale walked up to her desk, she didn't even notice him. It wasn't until he knocked twice on the wood that she finally snapped her head up, staring at him in utter confusion.

It was late December. The guy who had arrogantly claimed Bayview's winters "weren't cold" was currently wearing a thick black puffer jacket over his light grey sweatpants.

The only difference between him and a normal human being was that his jacket was completely unzipped, exposing his chest to the freezing air.

"Do you need something?" she asked, putting her pen down.

"I heard people saying today is Christmas Eve," Warren said. He pulled a massive, perfectly pristine, beautifully red apple out of his jacket pocket and placed it gently on her desk. "Apple. Do you want it?"

Julie frowned slightly.

Warren's heart instantly violently seized in his chest. Should I not have given her this? Was this too much?

As their eyes met, Julie aggressively slapped her own forehead in sheer frustration. "Oh my god, I am going to die! How could I forget something this important?! Warren, hold on a second!"

She frantically dug into the deep storage cubby of her desk, pulling out an absolutely massive plastic bag completely filled to the brim with apples!

Warren's eyelid twitched violently. Where the hell did she get a mountain of apples?!

"I have been so unbelievably busy!" Julie complained, tearing the plastic bag open and beaming up at him. "Warren, pick one! I originally bought these specifically to give to you guys, but I completely forgot! Thank god Christmas Eve isn't over yet!"

Entertainment in high school was incredibly scarce.

That meant every single holiday was treated like a massive, sacred event. On April Fool's Day, you had to aggressively prank your friends. On Children's Day, you gave out candy. And on Christmas Eve, giving an apple was an absolute mandatory tradition—but only to the friends you were genuinely close with, because buying them actually cost money.

"You..." Warren stared down at the massive bag of apples. For one of the incredibly rare times in his life, he was completely, utterly speechless.

—

For the highly anticipated New Year's Gala, Julie actually had a decent amount of budget to work with. There were forty-two students in Class 3. The class funds sat at roughly six hundred dollars. Miss Bell had aggressively thrown in another four hundred from her own pocket, bringing the total to a massive one thousand dollars!

To stretch every single dollar to its absolute limit, Julie dragged the ultimate human calculator, Warren, along with her. She also dragged Beth, the undisputed queen of haggling.

They marched to the wholesale market to buy supplies. With Beth ruthlessly negotiating the prices down to the absolute floor, and Warren calculating the exact cost-per-unit in seconds to prevent them from getting scammed, Julie felt completely invincible. They bought a massive haul—tangerines, peanuts, sunflower seeds, an insane amount of snacks, and all the decorations they needed to transform the classroom.

Beth aggressively haggled a vendor down for ribbons and balloons. "Boss! The shop next door is selling these for half the price! If you don't lower it, we're leaving!"

The vendor looked like he was going to cry. "Fine, fine! Take it!"

Warren stood quietly in the background, carrying the massive bags of supplies they had already bought. Watching Julie and Beth operate like a ruthless cartel, he couldn't help but smile.

On the afternoon of the 30th.

The second the final bell for the day rang, the physics teacher calmly put his chalk down. His thinning hair blew gently in the winter wind as he chuckled. "Alright, class. I don't have you tomorrow, so the next time we see each other, it'll be next year."

One of the quick-witted boys in the back instantly yelled, "See you next year, Mr. Li!"

"Happy New Year," the teacher waved. "See you next year."

The second the teacher stepped out the door, the classroom erupted. Students were aggressively slamming their hands on their desks, howling like wolves. They had no idea exactly what they were so hyped about, but the energy was absolutely infectious!

Warren stood up. Julie didn't even have to ask him; he was already aggressively directing the boys to shove all the desks to the edges of the room to create a massive open space in the center. The girls had already started stringing ribbons and colorful banners across the windows and walls. Julie's sharp eyes caught Andrew Cantu trying to stealthily sneak out the back door. She absolutely refused to let him escape. She screamed, "Director Cantu! Don't you dare move! Get over here and blow up these balloons!!"

A few days ago, she had accidentally slipped up and called Andrew by the nickname the class gave him in their post-graduation group chat in her past life: "Director."

Back then, Andrew would constantly send massive, two-minute voice memos complaining that they were aggressively mocking him.

In this life, when Andrew heard the nickname, he froze and demanded to know why she called him that. She smoothly lied, telling him it was because he carried himself with the heavy, commanding aura of a government official, and he clearly looked like a man destined for massive political power. She even offered to upgrade him to "Secretary Cantu" if he preferred.

Andrew: "..."

He acted annoyed, but deep down, the absolute power trip of the nickname thrilled him to his core. He had been smiling like an idiot all week.

"My queen, I literally need to eat dinner!" Andrew begged for mercy.

"Nobody moves!" Julie ordered her left-hand enforcer, Dan, to physically restrain him. "Relax! I already sent people to buy dinner! And we have a literal mountain of snacks! Absolutely nobody is starving tonight!"

Every single little ant in Class 3 was locked into Julie's sights. She ruthlessly assigned tasks to everyone. Absolutely zero slacking allowed. Total participation was mandatory.

It was chaotic, but highly organized. In just over an hour, the boring, depressing classroom was completely transformed into a vibrant, festive party space.

Beth was still at the front of the room, meticulously drawing a massive New Year's mural on the chalkboard. Julie kept checking on her, occasionally running up to practically shove a piece of a meat bun into her mouth so she wouldn't starve.

Dan was putting in massive work too. He was running around with Julie's camera, aggressively snapping photos of everything. After Field Day, Julie had begged her aunt to help her find a used camera. She actually found a great deal and bought it, though it had brutally decimated her secret savings. She was officially broke again.

Seeing Dan sprinting around the room like a feral dog, Julie threw her hands on her hips and screamed, "Dan Butler! If you break my camera, I will literally end your life!"

She chased after him, but wasn't looking where she was going and crashed violently into Warren.

He instantly caught her by the arms to steady her. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine..."

Dan obediently trotted back over. Seeing the two of them standing together in the hallway, a brilliant idea hit him. "Hey! Julie, Warren! Let me take a picture of you guys! You literally don't have a single photo together!"

Warren's body went completely rigid.

Still trying to catch her breath, Julie turned to look at Warren. She smiled brightly. "Sure!"

Taking advantage of the empty hallway, she grabbed his sleeve and pulled him over to the wall. Having received a masterclass in photography from Julie during Field Day, Dan aggressively directed their poses. Finally, looking through the viewfinder, he sighed in absolute exasperation. "Warren, bro, the person standing next to you is Julie, not a literal kidnapper holding you hostage. Can you please just smile..."

Hearing that, Julie instantly remembered the exact same struggle during Field Day. She turned her head, looking up at him, and burst into a bright, unrestrained laugh.

Warren had absolutely no idea why she found it so hilarious, but his eyes followed her. He couldn't look at anything else. Subconsciously, a soft smile touched his lips. It was still restrained, still quiet, but it was incredibly genuine and undeniably happy.

Dan inexplicably felt that the scene unfolding in front of him was profoundly perfect.

Channeling all of Julie's teachings, he pressed the shutter button, capturing the moment and freezing it in time forever.

That night, every single face in the room was stretched into a wild, completely unrestrained smile.

The sound of hands slamming on desks, the roaring laughter—it spilled out the windows, up into the winter sky, echoing far, far into the future.

Quiet, unremarkable boys suddenly threw themselves into the center of the room and aggressively hit flawless breakdance routines, instantly becoming the coolest guys in the school.

Shy, quiet girls who barely spoke revealed terrifyingly beautiful singing voices. Blushing furiously, they sang their hearts out, shining brighter than anyone else.

One guy tried to aggressively show off his nunchuck skills, instantly smacked himself directly in the face, and collapsed in agony, sending the entire class into screaming fits of laughter.

But the absolute most mind-blowing moment of the night was Miss Bell.

She was the grand finale. Absolutely no one could have ever predicted that the terrifying, ruthlessly strict homeroom teacher knew how to play the acoustic guitar! Teachers usually never participated in these student parties, but Julie had relentlessly begged her. The forty-two students shoved their desks together to form a massive circle, squeezing tightly together as a chorus of absolute awe washed over the room.

"THAT IS SO BADASS! I LOVE YOU MISS BELL!"

Someone ducked under a desk and screamed it at the top of their lungs.

With someone leading the charge, the rest of the class completely lost their minds, howling and screaming like Class 3 was a literal tiger enclosure.

As the night drew to a close, a heavy wave of melancholy hit the room. Nobody wanted it to end.

Sensing the mood dropping, Julie and Beth perfectly timed their strike, blasting party poppers into the air. The glittering confetti rained down under the fluorescent lights like a shower of indoor fireworks.

Every single student raised a cheap plastic cup filled with juice, screaming at the top of their lungs—

"HAPPY NEW YEAR~~!!!"

"HAPPY! NEW! YEAR!"

Julie's cheeks were flushed bright red—partly from the heat of the packed room, and partly from pure, overwhelming adrenaline. She was so incredibly happy.

She tilted her head up. Through the raining, glittering confetti, her eyes met Warren's across the room.

She couldn't help it. A massive, beautiful smile broke across her face. Across the distance, he smiled back, gently raising his plastic cup in a silent toast just for her.