Where the Lines Overlap
ByaRuki 1There he was, sat in the library and absent-mindedly perusing a collection of Shakespeare's sonnets. She caught her breath; his quiet presence was overpowering, almost unbearable. Ducking behind the nearest bookcase, she breathed a sigh of relief and felt grateful for the bookcase's ability to completely conceal her small figure.
She couldn't face him; he was Byakuya Kuchiki- one of the most important and influential men in the school, head of English and leader of the Poetry club; members of which usually turned out to be insanely successful. He also happened to be her teacher.
Her name was Rukia and having been abandoned in childhood, had no last name. Because of this, she decided to take the name of where she grew up as her surname, so all of her official documents read Rukia Inuzuri.
To say she was scared of Mr. Kuchiki was an understatement. His presence was so overbearing that she often merely got on with the work without making a sound. "Maybe that was his way of controlling the class?" she often wondered. Not surprising, seeing as she shared a class with both Renji and Ichigo, her closest friends who (although they were great people outside of the classroom) didn't usually pay attention and had no motivation to study what they called "mushy, lovey-dovey poetry crap."
It wasn't that she disliked English; she really enjoyed it. Rukia loved the intricate art of writing, the way words flowed off her pen and onto the page. Of course, most of her writing was done on the computer now, but in lessons she was stuck with paper and pen.
Not wanting to look like a complete stalker she pretended to examine a book titled "Human Adaptations Through Time", opened on a random page with the heading 'Ramapithecines... Human or not?'
She kept glancing upward through the rows of alphabetised books, peering through at the mysterious man reading Shakespeare. His face had a serious expression on it, his eyes glazed as if he was lost in the pages of his book. He reclined gently on the back of his chair, his leg crossed over the other and his elbow resting on the arm of the chair. Mr Kuchiki always looked so calm but he never had to raise his voice; everyone knew if they put even a toe out of line, the consequences were too horrific for words. Mr Kuchiki meant business.
A strand of his long black hair managed to stray from behind his ear and fell softly in front of his eyes and obstructing his view. He brushed it back gracefully and returned to reading.
Breaking Rukia out of her thoughts the bell rang, making everyone in the surrounding area head unwillingly to their next lesson. Checking her timetable, she looked at which lesson she had next.
"Oh shit" she said "English."