Fragile Wings

Prologue

He sits in the stuffy classroom, cheek resting on the desk and his music blasting through his headphones. Feeling a tapping on his head, he looks up to find Principle Erwin glaring down at him.

"Levi, no electronics allowed in detention." He holds out his palm expectedly. "Hand it over."

With an exasperated sigh, Levi yanks the headphones from his ears and places his small, black iPod in the principle's large hands.

Seeming content, Erwin walks to the front of the classroom and sits behind the desk.

Levi watches him with a bored expression as his tongue subconsciously plays with the metal hoop that pierces the left side of his bottom lip. He reads the chalked out word "Detention" scrawled across the chalkboard over and over again, tracing the letters with his eyes.

He is so sick of being confined to this small classroom with the same dull people. It reeks of B.O. and gym socks and is littered with the outcasts of their high school. However, with the school being so big, he can only recognize a few of them.

Annie, a lower class man that takes gym with him sits in the far corner taking a nap, her blonde hair blowing from the gust of the air conditioning. She always gets there early to grab the only spot in the room that is not blistering hot. Though, she reserves that right, after all, she is stuck in this room more often than him. A fighter.

On the complete other side of the room is Mikasa, a quiet, Asian girl with guarded eyes. She is in here occasionally, usually when somebody, usually Annie, picks on her foster brother or his wimpy friend. A defender.

Staring out the window longingly, long fingers drumming against the plastic-like wooden desktop, is Ymir. She scowls all the time, a characteristic she shares with Levi, and is always looking for something to be cynical about. A rebel.

The only other noteworthy person in the room is the blonde boy that seems to have a personality disorder. Levi can never remember his name, but he knows it starts with and 'R.'

"Reiner, sit back down," the principle says while looking up from his papers.

Oh right, Reiner Braun. A recluse.

Time and time again, Levi has been sentenced here for "inappropriate behavior" as the authority figures just love to label it. Though this time, it was just Mister Pixis being an ass.

Soon enough, the bell that signals four o'clock – and the end of detention – rings, and Levi lets out a sigh of relief. The others scramble to stand up, as per usual, and shove themselves into the hallway, away from the boring, oven of a room. Levi however, takes his time.

He retrieves his book bag from the floor and slings one of the black straps over his shoulder. Then, he saunters up to front of the room, a bored expression on his face, and waits expectantly in front of the principle.

"I presume you want your music player back?" Erwin says as he reaches into a drawer and pulls out the old mp3 player.

Levi makes to grab it, but the principle pulls it out of his reach at the last moment.

"Not so fast," he says, his thick, blonde eyebrows rising in amusement. "Come with me first."

Leading him down the nearly deserted hallways, the principle comes to a stop in front of an ordinary classroom door, it's cracked open and it sounds as if there is some sort of meeting going on.

"The fundraiser last week was a huge success."

Peeking in, he sees a girl from his gym class speaking to a group of kids from the school. She holds up a poster board with a drawing of a coffee cup that has the word 'goal' written on it in large letters.

Her amber eyes light up as she speaks, and the movement of her pale lips reveals perfect teeth.

"That is Miss Petra Ral," Erwin says, diverting Levi's attention from the view of the room and back to the hallway. "She is the founder and leader of the Survey Group, the school's volunteer and service program. You, Levi, are the group's newest member.

"Are you fucking kidding me?" Levi bursts out, but quickly lowers his voice when he hears Petra stop speaking abruptly and realizes that everybody in the room just heard him.

"No, I'm not," the principle says before continuing in a more concerned tone, "Is everything okay at home?"

Levi responds with a bored expression. This man is the principle, not a fucking therapist; therefore, he does not have to discuss his home life with him.

"Look, I've seen your grades, you're smart, but universities also look at your behavior in school, and at this rate, your 4.1 GPA won't mean anything when compared with your detention record."

Levi looks away from the blonde principle and back to the girl in the room. Her gaze flits over to him, and the smile behind her eyes shines brighter.

"You will become an active member of the Survey Group and I will help clear up your record."

About to retort, Levi opens his mouth, but quickly shuts it when he realizes that the people in the room are stacking chairs and moving towards the door. They pass between the principle and himself, some pausing to shoot strange glances in his direction before quickly continuing down the hallway.

"Hi, Principle Erwin!" Petra's voice calls from the room where she is currently rolling up some posters and stowing them in one of the cabinets.

"Hello, Miss Ral, I see that last week's coffee shop worked out well for you."

"Yes it did!" She chirps out as she continues fluttering around the room, her copper hair practically floating behind her. "Thank you for approving it."

"It was my pleasure, and your coffee was quite good."

"Glad to hear it," she smiles before turning to Levi. He finds his breath catching and his mood lightening at the pure goodness that radiates through her. "You must be Levi, we have gym together." She holds out a hand and Levi shakes it, ignoring the tingling that comes with the skin-to-skin contact.

"Well," Erwin states before moving towards the door, "I'll leave you two to sort out the details, and I'll see you later this evening, Miss Ral."

When the door shuts upon his departure, Levi's slate gaze moves to hers. "What did he mean by that?" The question is out before he can stop it, but Petra appears unperturbed.

"Oh, I work in the office as a secretary after hours." She shrugs it off and sits down on one of the tables, her legs – clad in cream-colored leggings – swinging back and forth. "Anyways, so you're joining the Survey Group?"

"I guess," Levi replies, reverting back to his bored tone and ignoring the movements of her body.

"Cool," she smiles. "We meet every Thursday after school until 4:30 here in room 104, and often have weekend projects two to three times a month."

She grabs the clipboard lying next to her and begins scanning over the paper. "Our next project is next weekend at the mall. We are setting up a baked goods and beverage stand in the food court to raise money for the local homeless shelter that we regularly support."

She hands him a stack of papers. "These are some of the flyers for upcoming events as well as some forms that I need you to fill out. My contact information is somewhere in there as well so you can text or email me if you have any questions."

Glancing down at everything, Levi gets the feeling that he might be in over his head. After all, it seems more like a full-out job than a simple volunteer project.

"I still have to tidy up here," Petra says gesturing to the array of flyers, posters, and other nonsense that litters the room, "So, I guess I'll see you next week." At this, she smiles and, yet again, it feels a hundred percent sincere. It causes a strange feeling to course through him and he wants to reach out and touch her.

Maybe he would have, if he had known what was to come.