"Wait out here Chiara." Antonio told her smiling at her kindly. Antonio's tan hand held onto the bathroom door frame as part of him was already inside. Chiara took her post.
"You're our lookout. Make sure no one comes in." Gilbert said, his red eyes looking at her with playful amusement as he tried to keep a straight face and pretend to be serious.
"Yeah yeah I get it!" the girl shouted in annoyance before the third friend with long blonde hair could put something in. The three friends laughed lightly before entering the boys bathroom.
The auburn haired girl stood outside the door quietly. Why had she even agreed to this? She looked down at her hands and played with the hem of her pink skirt. Those idiots were always up to no good and it seemed one way or another she had been there to tag along in their trouble making. They were setting up some prank to pull. She huffed in annoyance, crossing her arms. For a long time she could only hear the noises from inside the bathroom, no one insight. School had ended quite some time ago, so the building was relatively empty. That was a relief. It seemed like she wouldn't have to encounter anyone. Chiara ran a hand through her rather long hair, sighing. She could hear the boys laughter inside. This was not fair. They were having fun doing whatever inside while she was out here by herself. She huffed and crossed her arms. She looked up and her hazel eyes widened as she saw the president of the disciplinary committee approach her.
…
Arthur was just ready to go home. Till he noticed the 2nd year fidgeting by the boys bathroom. He didn't know her name seeing as she was in the grade below. However he had often seen her with Antonio and his friends. They were known for trouble making so he walked over. The girl had noticed him walking over and looked a bit nervous. As he got closer she straightened up, making sure to furrow her brows and frown. Her hands were in fists at her side, she was trying to look tough and maybe a bit taller.
"May I ask what you're doing here?" He asked once he was right in front of her, crossing his arms. The girl stood her ground however, looking at him defiantly.
"Antonio's taking a really big shi he's got bad diarrhea. I'm only waiting for him because he's my ride home." She said glancing at anything but him.
"Is that so?" He raised a thick eyebrow
She nodded, still not looking at him.
"Well maybe I should go check on him for you." Arthur offered, reaching for the doorknob but she stepped in front of the door. "Is there a problem?" He said looking down into her hazel eyes. Yes she was looking up at him, but he could see that her mind was elsewhere. She wasn't really looking at him.
"The smell!" she suddenly blurted out and light blush crept up her olive skin.
"The smell?"
"It's probably really bad. So you probably shouldn't go in. I I don't mind waiting for him." Now she was looking him in the eye. She was gaining some confidence.
Arthur remained silent for a while, looking at her. She fidgeted under his gaze, pushing herself up against the door. The door swung open. Arthur reached for the younger girl, as she fell backwards. However she fell right into Antonio's arms.
"Antonio..." She said softly, looking up at him in surprise.
Antonio's normally happy green eyes looked at Arthur with annoyance? Or was that anger?
"What were you doing in there? You made this young lady wait an awful long time."
"What's it to you?" He said as the younger girl stood upright. She seemed to gape at him in surprise.
"You were the only one in there I presume."
Antonio was about to open his mouth to reply but then the door opened again and out came Gilbert and Francis was behind him.
Arthur looked down at the girl. Caught them.
"His shit was really bad so his friends went in there to help him." the girl blurted out
"Yes, I have such great friends." Antonio smiled
"You know Arthur school's been over for a while now. We're probably the only ones left and we're leaving now. You should go home." Francis said to him.
The group known throughout Gakuen Academy as the Bad Friends Trio all nodded and then stepped around Arthur. The younger girl didn't move however. Antonio looked back at her with a raised eyebrow at her.
"I-I left something in my locker. I'll meet you guys in the front." She said
Antonio nodded and Arthur watched him and his friends walk out of sight. He turned to see the girl still blocking the door. He crossed his arms and looked down at her expectantly.
"I- I..." She stuttered before muttering a 'dammit' and running her hand through her hair. "Just look, don't go in there."
"Why? Because of the smell. I'm sure I can a janitor to febreeze it."
"N -no!" She blurted out suddenly looking up at him before blushing and shrinking back into herself, averting her eyes. He had to admit she was rather pretty. "I don't really know what they did but they..." she trailed off, trying to choose her words carefully "They set up something and I...I don't want you..." Another deep breath and the blush on her face darkened "... to get caught up in it."
Arthur's green eyes widened in surprise. "Oh," was all he managed
"Well I gotta go now so," She said and Arthur moved out of her way.
...
The next day there was a loud shout of surprise that came from that bathroom. Out came a student covered in white cream from a pie. Arthur just happened to be passing by to see it. Gilbert was laughing his ass off.
"Hey, you did this!" the kid said pushing Gilbert. Gilbert didn't even fall back however.
"Don't be like that. It was joke, a pretty funny one too."
Well he was glad he had actually listened to the 2nd year girl. He thought as he gave both of them detention slips.
...
Arthur walked into the classroom and started working immediately. He noticed that Antonio kept sending him looks. What did he want? After a while Antonio made his way over.
"So what did you and Chiara talk about?" Antonio asked suddenly
"Huh?"
"Chiara, the girl outside the bathroom."
"Oh..." Well finally he knew her name. "What does it matter?" He couldn't see why Antonio would care.
"You seemed to be getting pretty close to her." Antonio crossed his arms. The girl Chiara had herself pressed up against the door and he had gotten pretty close in his attempt to intimidate her. Antonio had gotten the wrong idea. But Antonio didn't really think he would do or say anything like that to her, surely. Though it might've seem that was since she looked very uncomfortable and scared. But that was because she felt guilty right? "She was saying how relieved she was to get away from you."
Arthur felt a pang in his chest. Usually such things wouldn't have bothered him. But he had scared her. He really hadn't meant to. He wasn't even entirely sure why it bothered him. Many students acted the way she did around him.
"But all she said about your conversation was 'I was covering your stupid ass'."
"She was." Arthur stated simply.
Antonio furrowed his brows before walking away.
...
As he walked through the halls he noticed the girl... uh... Chiara.
"Oh please! She can suck my ass for all I care." Chiara said loudly to a girl that looked rather similar to her. She seemed to be completely different from the girl who was stuttering and fidgeting yesterday under his gaze yesterday.
"Ah Chiara..." The other girl said softly. Maybe the two were sisters? The girl who spoke softly hair seemed to be lighter than Chiara's and it was curly while Chiara's was wavy. Her skin was lighter and her eyes were brown, not hazel. They both had a strange curl that stuck out of their hair, defying gravity. The girl wrapped her arms around Chiara.
"H- hey! Let go of me!" She said squirming in the others grip. The girl from yesterday was still in there after all.
"You two should get to class." he suddenly heard himself interject
They both looked up at him, wide eyed.
"Uh...y -yeah." Chiara choked out, embarrassed and finally got the other girl off.
"See you later, Florencia." She waved and once again avoided looking at Arthur before speed walking off.
Florencia waved back, glancing nervously at Arthur before doing the same.
...
Chiara took her seat besides Sakura at the lunch table. She rubbed her temples in annoyance.
" is such a fucking bitch!"
"Oh?" the blonde girl from across the table laughed. "She's really nice."
"Yeah to everyone else but me."
"What did you do?"
"Nothing!"
Everyone at that side of the table stared at her.
"Okay okay but Sadiq was really being a dick!" She said "He kept pestering me. Every time I complained about it she just sighed and ignored me. So then I told the creepy bastard to fuck off and leave me alone. She got all mad at me and kicked me out of the classroom."
"Wow, she really just hates you, doesn't she?" Emma said, her green eyes wide as she thought about the event.
"Well as long as she continues to grade fairly I don't care." Chiara mumbled starting to eat.
"Are you sure Sadiq wasn't just flirting with you?" Sakura piped in
Chiara nearly choked. "Wha t?"
"I think he thinks you're cute."
Chiara had forgotten that Sakura and Sadiq were actually friends.
"Yeah right." Chiara rolled her eyes. Nobody found her cute. Except maybe the idiots in the Bad Friends Trio. But did that even really count?
...
There she was standing guard again. This time outside of a classroom door. She was looking around nervously.
"Will you guys hurry up?" She hissed turning towards the door so her back was to Arthur as he made his way over.
"Almost done..." Gilbert said from inside
"Now what's your excuse?" Arthur asked
Chiara jumped, startled and looked at him in surprise. "I- I..." She began already looking off at something else.
"Antonio can't be taking a shit in this classroom, can he?"
"He's...they..." She looked at the classroom door. "Godammit!
"You know a lady shouldn't say things like that."
She rolled her eyes. "Hell if I care."
"Then you won't mind me going inside."
She stepped in front of the door, pressing herself up against it just like before. Arthur sighed.
"I don't want to have to physically remove you."
"They're just doing homework."
"So why are you out here?"
"T -they get on my nerves ya know."
He sighed. "This is ridiculous."
"Oh shit!" Gilbert said and there was a loud crash.
Sure he had basically let the last one slide. But not this time. He really didn't want to have to do this. The blonde reached for the doorknob. Chiara's hand was already on it, keeping it shut. Her hand was warm. He looked up at her face. She was biting her lip looking nervous and guilty.
"Why are you helping them?"
"What does it matter?" she said trying once again to seem tough and angry
"If you don't like what they're doing then why do you tag along?"
He didn't want to put his hands on her to get her out of the way. But it was his duty to stop the troublemakers and she was very much in the way of that.
"Almost done, Chiara." Antonio called cheerfully.
Chiara looked back at the door and looked like she was going to say "alright" at first. But instead "Finally!" came from her pink lips.
More noises came from behind the door.
"Do you even know what they're doing?"
She blinked at him for a while before she shook her head. He turned the knob, his hand still over hers and tried to push the door open. She used all her strength to keep it shut. But he was stronger and the door was opening up. Till someone from the other side closed it.
"Woah it's a surprise. You're going to have to wait till tomorrow." Gilbert said
Chiara raised an eyebrow. "Wait...what the fuck are you guys doing?"
Arthur looked her up and down. Why did they have to use a girl to guard? There was just no right place to put his hands. He felt wrong just thinking about it. The girl was wearing a long sleeve cropped top and another skirt. A small bit of her stomach peeked out. He couldn't grab her anywhere. It was to risky and he feared her reaction even if it was just her waist. Had they done this on purpose? That was really low.
He felt Chiara's warm hand weasel out of his grip and now his hand touched the cold doorknob.
Why had she done something so stupid? Arthur wondered.
"...hurts..." She mumbled as if to answer his thoughts. He didn't realize he had squeezed her hand. Then she looked up at Arthur's smirking face. "Dammit!"
She grabbed his arm as he swung open the door. She fell back, taking him with her. Her hazel eyes widened. Arthur reached behind her to protect her head from the impact. Chiara hit the ground and he landed on top of her. Why did she have to wear a skirt? He had to wonder as he felt one of his knees between her legs. His arm hurt since she had landed on it. He slowly lifted himself up, looking at the younger girl beneath him. She really was beautiful. Her eyes were gently closed and her lashes were long and dark. Her pink lips were slightly parted. Suddenly her hazel eyes snapped open and looked into his green ones.
Suddenly he heard her shout, "Pervert!" And Arthur felt her shove him off. She got up and scrambled over to Antonio.
"Who knew that Arthur could be so aggressive?" Francis teased. "Can you not contain yourself around beautiful girls?"
Chiara frowned at that, looking a bit disgusted. He didn't want her to get the wrong idea.
"I'm not a pervert. You know it wasn't like that." He shouted and looked around at the classroom. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary. It looked like they hadn't done anything. "What were you even doing?" A tiny part of him just wanted to change the subject.
"Homework." Francis shrugged
Arthur glared at all of them. Then saw Antonio put his arm around Chiara. She blushed and before she could protest he said "Chiara will you come with us to this restaurant. It would be more fun if you were there."
"Well I guess since you want me to go so bad that I could go." she mumbled not
looking him in the face.
"Yay!" Antonio squeezed the girl into a hug and she blushed more.
Arthur had a strange feeling in his chest. He couldn't identify what the feeling was though as he watched the two.
...
"I can't believe you called the prez a pervert." Gilbert laughed as they waited for their orders to arrive. Usually the students just called Kirkland "the prez" or "president".
It suddenly dawned on her. She had! She put her face in her hands and groaned. The group laughed.
"It was the best thing ever Chiara." Antonio said placing a hand on her back
"Yeah. You're the real MVP." Gilbert gave her a thumbs up. She only knew because she peeked through her fingers.
"Well yeah I should be! After all the shit I do for you guys." she said removing her hands from her face.
"We're very grateful." Francis said
"Damn right." She nodded
They smiled. That's just how she was and they had grown accustomed to it.
Their waiter put the plates of food onto the table. They began eating and chatting respectively. After dinner Antonio walked Chiara home.
"Thank you."
"Huh?" She looked up at the older boy
"For being our look out, for tagging along with our plans and p "
"Oh, whatever." She cut in. She didn't really handle stuff like this well. "If you get my ass in trouble though I'm definitely gonna kill all three of you."
"Guess that's fair." He laughed
...
Chiara walked into Ms. Wilson's class. Sadiq wasn't there yet, thank god. She took her seat with a frown ingrained into her face. Why didn't Ms. Wilson just move one of their seats? Sadiq entered the classroom, a huge smirk on his face. Oh she wanted to smack it off. He went to sit down in his seat next to hers but suddenly the chair fell from underneath him and he was on the ground. So that's what they were doing. They had unscrewed the screws in his seat. Well now Chiara just couldn't keep the smirk off her face now. I mean the look of surprise was just priceless.
Those guys weren't really so bad. Somehow they had found out about Sadiq bothering her. (She had never revealed that bit of information to them herself.) And they had done this to surprise her.
"So you find this funny huh Chiara?" Ms. Wilson snapped
Chiara looked over at her in surprise. "No I..." Well she did a little bit.
"I bet you did this."
"No! I've never even used a wrench in my life!" Chiara shouted which was true.
"Detention!"
Well damn those bastards!
...
"Did you tell Antonio about Sadiq?" Chiara asked Emma at lunch
"Yes. I knew you weren't going to tell him and figured he needed to know."
"What? Why?"
"Because your boyfriend should know about these things." Emma teased
"He's not my boyfriend!" Chiara shouted, blushing.
"Yeah, yeah." Emma waved her hand. "I heard about what happened. I can't believe they did."
"Yeah, but I'm the one who got in trouble."
"Oh, Chiara at least it was only a detention."
Chiara huffed at this.
...
One annoying thing about being in the disciplinary committee was having teachers give you tasks such as now he'd have to watch over the kids in detention.
"There's only one." Ms. Wilson told him "But boy she's a firecracker." she joked before walking off, giving Arthur the key to the room. She had locked that poor girl in the basement. Arthur made his way over to the room quickly and unlocked the door. There alone at a desk sat a very, very angry Chiara.
"What did you do?" he asked. Surely seeing her who were friends were and her colorful vocabulary it didn't surprise him that she was the one sitting here.
She looked over at him. "Nothing! That stupid bitch just hates me!" She shouted in annoyance. "It's all those damn bastards fault. Oh, they owe me big time for this one!" she huffed
"You got in trouble for something those 3 idiots did?"
She glanced up at him again before looking off to the side.
"What did they do yesterday?"
"This guy who's a real big jerk always bothers me in that class. But won't move either of our desks. My friend told Antonio about it. But it was probably Gilbert's idea. Anyways yesterday after school they unscrewed the screws in his seat so that when he sat in it, it would fall apart." She yelled 's name in annoyance. The rest had been said rather calmly though.
Well that would explain why it looked like nothing was different and all the noise they were making.
"And she thought you did it."
"Yeah, as if I'd do something like that! I've never even held a wrench before."
"Screwdriver."
"Huh?"
"You'd need a screwdriver."
"Whatever!"
Arthur laughed. The girl frowned more.
"What are you laughing at?" She asked angrily. She was so different from the stuttering and blushing girl standing guard. Guess she was too angry to rethink what she was saying and who she was saying it to. Perhaps she was too wrapped up in her anger to remember the fear she held for him. He didn't bother with students who cursed anymore. There was just no point. They wouldn't listen or care and too many students did it. Plus he cursed quite a lot himself.
"At you,"
"You son of a- "
The basement window opened. They turned to look at it.
"Chiara we're breaking you out!" Gilbert's pale arms reached down.
"Gil!" She jumped out of the seat.
Well, Arthur could let her go. She hadn't done anything after all. had left. But for some reason he didn't want the girl to go. Chiara ran and jumped grabbing Gilbert's arms. There was a large contrast between her olive skin and his pale skin.
"Hey!"
"See ya!" She said as her albino friend pulled her up.
Not like he could grab her. He turned away as she tried to get out of the window. He didn't want to test where she was wearing shorts under that skirt or not.
"Bye Arthur!" The albino bent down and Arthur turned to see him waving.
He was pushed out of the way. "Chiara didn't do anything so don't worry." Antonio said
"Yeah. Speaking of which I should kill you bastards!"
"Ah but we saved you. Don't be so mean." Arthur could hear Francis pout
"Oh fine!"
"Bye Eyebrows." Francis said
With that he heard their footsteps walk off.
...
The group walked off school grounds,
"Thanks." Chiara mumbled softly
"What?" Francis blinked at her.
"I said thanks." she said a bit louder.
"Huh?" Antonio said
"What did you say?" Gilbert turned to look back at her.
"I SAID THANKS!"
"Aw Chiara!" the three of the said, squeezing her into a group hug.
"Get off!" She squirmed but slowly succumbed to the hug. She made no motion to hug back.
She was happy to be away from Kirkland. She had been a blushing, stuttering mess in front of him. Well she had never been a very good liar. Especially not on the fly. Her stuttering, fidgeting and blushing always gave her away. Plus he was intimidating. He stood close and made sure to look down at her and his striking green eyes would pierce her. Plus he was the fucking disciplinary committee president and her upperclassmen. She was supposed to be respectful to the guy. Well so much for that. She nearly called him a son of a bitch. Surely he thought that she was some delinquent, just as he thought Antonio, Gilbert and Francis were. The three let go of her at last, pulling her thoughts away from Arthur Kirkland.
...
Well the trio hadn't been up anything for quite a while now. That was a bit of a relief. He didn't have to concern himself with their silly antics.
"Hey come on." A masculine voice pleaded
"Get away from me you asshole." a feminine one replied.
Well he knew that voice. Arthur turned the corner to see Sadiq Adnan with his arms on either side of Chiara's head, trapping her. He was learning in, he was much taller than her. Chiara was trying to look annoyed but she was hugging the books in her hand close to her chest, shrinking into herself.
"Didn't you hear her? She said get away from her." Arthur said pushing him back.
Sadiq looked at him then down at the detention slip being given to him.
"Y-Yeah!" Chiara took a step closer to Arthur. "He's the president so fuck off!"
Sadiq frowned and backed away. "Fine, whatever."
"Uhm... thanks." A soft voice said behind him as Sadiq faded away, she was looking down at her shoes.
"If he's harassing you then you should tell an adult."
"I can handle him myself." she said looking at him for once.
"Oh, that's why he had you cornered like that."
"S- shut up!" She said, but rather softly. She really was scared of him. Or at least scared of angering him.
"What if I hadn't come around? Then what?"
"Then I'd deal with him myself!"
Arthur huffed.
"I can manage fine." She held up her first "I'd give him a good one." she said, punching the air to demonstrate. Arthur looked at her thin arm. Yeah she'd definitely give him a good one. He had to stop himself from rolling his eyes.
"You can't always deal with everything on your own."
Chiara paused and looked at him. For a long time they just looked at each other.
"Whatever. W- what do you know anyway?" she suddenly said after a long moment of silence, as if regaining herself. But she clearly regretted it, fearing the reaction of her upperclassman.
She wasn't scared of him. Of course not! She wasn't afraid of anything! He was just kind of intimidating. She had heard some nasty rumors about the guy and didn't want to experience it first hand. The disciplinary committee had been put in place to stop some rowdy gangs that would often fight on school grounds. The disciplinary committee at the time carried handcuffs to stop students like that. However things have mellowed down over the years. So they no longer had to. The committee still had to break up the rare fights that sparked up even if it meant throwing a few punches themselves. But they mostly just punishing kids for running in the hallways and handing out detention slips to unruly students.
Arthur frowned at her. "You know you should really watch yourself. That rash tongue of yours could get you in trouble one day." That is, if it hadn't already.
Some part of him was expecting her to fire something back. She was apparently a firecracker after all and seemed to act that way towards anyone else. But instead he watched as her shoulders hunched and her expression changed. She began playing with a ring on her finger. Chiara had given such a reaction because she knew he was right. But this big mouth of hers was all she had going for her.
"Eat my ass." she said and he watched her cringe as her voice shook.
"Excuse me?" He raised an eyebrow at her.
She gave a high pitched squeak. "I...I..."
"Is he bothering you Chiara? Cause I'll take care of him." Antonio said. They both looked as the curly haired boy came over.
Just like that Chiara was hiding behind the Spaniard. She peeked from behind him a couple times.
"What do you mean take care of me?" Arthur crossed his arms. Trying his best to ignore the feeling of pain. "I'm the one who takes care of trash like you."
"Well you're not very good at it are you?"
"H- hey..." Chiara's voice quietly piped in, looking concerned.
"You're not really trying to pick a fight with me are you? I wouldn't want to embarrass you in front of your girlfriend."
"I'm not his girlfriend!" She put in
And for some reason Arthur felt a bit relieved..? That feeling was quickly squashed as he watched Antonio squeeze the girl's hand.
"With Chiara by my side I won't have to worry about that. I definitely won't be the one who gets embarrassed. It'll be really sad to see the prez beaten up, wouldn't it?
Chiara's my good luck charm. With her support I'll definitely win."
"D -don't say stuff like that." The auburn haired girl said softly and blush on her face.
"Ah but Chiara it's true." He said smiling brightly at the girl then he brought her hand up and gently placed a kiss on it.
"W -what are you doing?" Her face was almost completely red as she pulled her hand away, looking down at the spot that he had kissed.
"No PDA. You guys can do that stuff off campus."
This was a private school after all so things were rather strict here.
Antonio frowned at Arthur.
"I... We aren't...ugh Antonio you idiot!" She shouted, completely flustered.
"Ah, so mean." He laughed
The blonde handed them both detention slips.
"Not fair." He heard the girl mutter.
Antonio looked him dead in the eye as he crumpled the slip up.
"Chiara there's this party..." He began but his green eyes never left Arthur's.
"Antonio..." Chiara hissed as he put the slip in the nearby trash can.
"It's on Saturday. You know Nicole right? She's in my grade."
Chiara nodded.
"Well she invited me."
"She didn't invite me though."
"Yeah but I got a plus one so I want you to come with me."
"Oh, I guess I could."
"Great."
"Antonio you shouldn't have "
Antonio took her slip and threw it out before turning away from Arthur. Hazel eyes looked at the blonde, waiting for a reaction. If Arthur had noticed the scared look deep in her eyes then he surely wouldn't have blown up. He didn't want to scare her further. But god damn that Spanish bastard.
"Antonio." Arthur grabbed onto his shoulder.
Antonio smacked his hand away, giving him a dark look. Chiara had never seen him act like this. She had heard from Gilbert and Francis that he could get pretty scary but she had never seen him like this. He always gave Arthur a frown or dark look.
"Don't get yourself or the girl into deeper trouble."
"Then don't bother me and don't talk to Chiara."
"You know I had to let the last two pranks slide. I even let you take the girl out of detention. But I won't let you keep getting away with doing whatever you want. There are rules to follow and I'm here to make sure people like you follow them."
"People like me, huh?" The brunette raised an eyebrow.
"Guys..."
Both of them ignored her.
"Yes, moronic people like you with no respect for anyone." Arthur said knowing he was pushing the other to the brink. Arthur couldn't be the first one to throw the punch. He could take a few punches and Antonio would get into deep trouble.
"ANTONIO!" She practically screamed as he lifted his arm to punch the Brit.
And the two began to fight.
"Stop it! Don't!" Chiara ran over to try and stop Antonio but strong arms held her back. She looked back to see Gilbert.
"I'll break them up." He said, looking serious for once. Then he pushed her into Francis's direction.
"Come along." Francis said gently putting his hands on her shoulders and leading her away
"Why does Antonio act like that with Arthur?"
"They have a long history. They hate each other. Maybe Antonio will explain it to you one day."
"Antonio's gonna get suspended!" She suddenly realized and turned to run back
Francis held her back. "There's nothing you can do." He told her.
She looked into his blue eyes for a while before letting out a sigh of compliance.
...
Shit! Shit! Shit! Fuck!
Chiara ran to school. Stupid grandpa had let her sleep in just because he didn't want to disturb her. He whined that she looked too cute and he didn't want to bother her. What an idiot! Now she had to make sure she was on time. Usually she walked with Antonio but he had gotten suspended just like she knew he would. She didn't need to be stuck in detention with fucking Kirkland. The Italian ran into the high school building.
"Hey! No running!" She heard someone yell at her, but she didn't have time for this. So she ran even faster.
Damn, that girl could run fast. But Arthur was going to catch up to her.
"Stop!" He shouted. The girl looked back at him and furrowed her eyebrows further before she ran even faster.
She ran into her classroom right before the bell rang. Arthur was standing at the door and handed her a detention slip stating her punishment for running in the halls. What an ass! Did he really follow her just to give her that? Chiara groaned, walking to her seat as she read the punishment. In the back of her mind she wondered what the PDA punishment had been.
...
This was so disgusting! Chiara's punishment had been to scrape the gum off the the bottom of desks. Surely the students who did such a thing should've received this punishment. She did not deserve this. Though she'd be stuck in that basement again if she had been late to class, probably with Kirkland as well. Maybe this punishment wasn't so bad after all?
She groaned as she had to put in more effort to scrape a certain piece of gum off the bottom of the desk, it slowly fell into the bucket that was filled with colorful assortments of chewed gum. If you couldn't run in the halls then there shouldn't be a punishment for being late. Is what Chiara thought at the moment. Why was this private school so strict? She checked all the desks, well that was thankfully the last piece she had to scrape off. Chiara walked to the janitor's closet and got a rag and spray to clean up the desks. She was much too caught up in the business of cleaning to realize she didn't have to do all that.
...
Arthur passed by a classroom and noticed someone still in there. He backtracked and peeked into the classroom. Chiara had her back to him, mopping the floor. There was a red bandanna tied into her hair to keep it out of her face.
"You know you don't have to do that." He said
She yelped in surprise and dropped the mop in her hands. She slowly turned to look at him, a blush of embarrassment on her face.
"Sorry, I didn't mean to scare you." He chuckled walking inside.
She grumbled something but Arthur didn't catch it as she bent down to pick the mop back up.
"You did a nice job." He pointed out
"Of course I did!" She shouted indignantly before continuing to mop, trying to ignore him.
"Why are you mad at me?" He asked after watching her angrily mop for a bit.
"Huh?" She looked up and raised an eyebrow before motioning to the classroom
"Who's fault is this, huh?"
Ah, she was too wrapped up in her emotions to remember her fear of him again.
"Yours. You know the rules."
"I was trying to get to class on time." She huffed before hazel eyes glanced up at him. "Plus now I gotta walk home by myself because of you." She said softly, turning away from him.
"Because your ride's been suspended? Why not ask one of the other two idiots."
"Francis had some date to go to. My sister already left with that stupid potato eater and Gilbert in his car." She grumbled the last bit, looking at something. She had slowly stopped mopping. Her hazel eyes clouded as she was deep in thought.
Potato eater? If that wasn't Gilbert then he wasn't sure who it was. Maybe it was another 2nd year.
"Well I could walk home with you." He heard someone offer before realizing the words had left his mouth.
"Chigi!" She dropped the mop again. She turned to look at him. "I don't w- want...you...don't need..." She took a step back.
"Why are you afraid of me?" He frowned taking a step closer.
"I'm n- not." She took another step back.
"So why do you keep moving back."
"I'm not! I'm just I..." She took a couple more steps backwards.
"You're going to fall." He said reaching forward to grab her.
She squeaked and moved out of his reach, squeaking again as she lost her balance and began to fall back. Arthur caught her however. His hands had grabbed her sides. He hadn't thought about it, just reached out to catch her. Hazel eyes stared into emerald green. They both blinked a couple times. A huge blush spread across Chiara's face.
"I've never seen anyone as clumsy as you."
"Shut up! I'm not."
He let go of her.
After moments of awkward silence and shuffling a voice spoke up. "I- if you want to walk home with me so bad then I guess I won't stop you." Her head was turned to the side and she was blushing a lot. Honestly how could anyone be so cute? Arthur found himself smiling.
...
They walked together in silence. Neither knew what to say to the other. However the silence felt a bit comfortable as well, as if they were just meant to be together like it was almost natural for them. But it was starting to grow awkward as Chiara kept glancing at Arthur and fidgeting.
"Uhm..." She said rather quietly
"Hm?" He looked at her
She looked into his eyes for a second before looking down at her feet.
"Any siblings?" She asked quietly with a shrug
Honestly he had never suspected she'd be the one to start the conversation.
"Uh yes, four siblings. I'm the second youngest."
"Four?"
"Yeah, we're all boys."
"Damn, must be a pain in the ass for your mom."
"I guess. Don't know how she manages, really."
Silence fell upon them again. Chiara was fiddling with her ring.
"That's nice. Who gave it to you?"
Wait a second...that couldn't be a promise ring right? It looked very much like a wedding ring. But she was only in her second year of high school. Chiara had said Antonio wasn't her boyfriend. That couldn't possibly mean he was actually her fiancé right?
"Huh? Oh this?" She looked down at the ring and stopped playing with it. "My grandpa did. It was my mom's wedding ring."
Arthur didn't know why he felt relieved.
"Your moms huh?"
"Yeah, she and my dad passed away when me and my sister were just babies."
"Oh, I'm very sorry to hear."
Chiara shrugged and they stopped, the road parted into different ways. More silence. They just stood for a few more moments.
"Well this is where we part ways." Arthur had said to break the silence, he needed to get home after all.
"Uh...yeah...bye." She waved shyly
They both turned and walked their separate ways.
...
Chiara fiddled with her ring as she walked the rest of the way home. Goddammit why did this have to happen to her? The smile on Kirkland's face and the way his green eyes had softened up when he thought about his mother it was...it was...
No! No! No!
She willed herself not to think it. She must have been going crazy.
Ugh! It had caught her off guard. He normally looked so intimidating. His features were always sharp and angry. But in that moment you could see he truly loved his mother.
Her heart was beating way too fast. She put a hand over her chest. What was happening to her?