Chapter 2
~ Illness ~
She tried to wipe the memory of him hearing her sing. She remembered feeling her eyes widening, then stalking away later.
Aisha decided to take a shower; if anything could settle her storming thoughts, water could. Just as she reached for the silver cross that hung from her neck, a shock of confusion jolted through her. Her fingers grasped thin air, where the chain was supposed to be. When the realization hit her, she was already checking her entire body for it, panicking.
I can't have left it at school. It was under my jacket. I never take it off. She didn't really know why it was precious to her. Maybe because it was something that had nothing to do with her life; nothing to do with her family, her memories, her past or her future. It was one normal thing that she could hold on to without feeling sadness, rage, or pain. And that was why it had become part of her.
She swung the door open and heard it slam behind her as she dropped down the stairs. Her father, a mess of dirty blankets and clothes, drowsed on the old leather couch. A tuft of tangled brown hair was all that could be seen beneath the covers.
Aisha didn't bother being silent. That man sleeps like a pig. Wish he could be one at times, so I wouldn't have to deal with staying with him.
She was out of the house in a flash. The sky, so blue and clear before, had turned stormy and was an angry shade of grey. As she retraced her path back to the school, her eyes were searching all over. Looking for signs of the edges of the cross within the swaying grass, signs of a chain on the dull cement. She didn't know why it caused her so much despair; only that she had to find it.
She heard it before she felt it. Lightning forked in the sky, momentarily blinding her. Thunder resonated throughout the neighborhood as the first drops of rain pattered onto the ground around her. She stood there, not wanting to move, not wanting to breathe. The clouds cried their tears out as she let the liquid fall on her. She felt the rising urge to sing in this, then pushed it down. That's what you thought last time. The rain started to seep into her clothes, clinging to her delicate frame. She sniffed, trying to contain it, then sneezed. It's gone now, something inside her mind whispered.
Just another memory to be forgotten...
When she awoke in the morning, a cough escaped her lips. I can't get sick now. Not now. Her trip through the rain the previous day had taken its toll on her. She felt frozen to the marrow, her bones were creaking, and her constant light shuddering didn't help. Pulling herself out of her barely-warm bed, she checked to see if her father was still in the house.
He was gone, but he had left a mess for her to clear up, causing her eyebrows to furrow.
In the middle of the kitchen were several large pieces of broken glass, with the suspicious shade of forest green that indicated it was from a wine bottle. A sharp smell from the mess told her that it was, indeed, wine. She growled softly to herself as she bent over to pick up the glass, then dragged a trash can over to dispose of it. Now that the more noticeable pieces were gone, she had no idea what to do with the smaller fragments. Their rackety house didn't have a broom to sweep them out. Aisha tried to pick one up, but was rewarded with a pin prick of pain and a droplet of scarlet. Screw this. I'll just leave this and let him step on it when he comes back. She tentatively licked the cut before rushing over to the rusting sink to wash it clean. Without glancing at the old black grandfather clock that had started hooting, she flicked the droplets of water from her hand and hurried to school.
Vanessa greeted her with a nod of her head when she entered the room. Before she was even seated, she had started writing several words on the whiteboard in different colors. "Sine is the trigonometric function equal to the ratio of the side opposite of a given angle, in a right triangle, to the hypotenuse." While she went ahead to explain and write down the definition of cosine in orange, Aisha stared down at her open notebook. Memorizing the definition of both terms and scribbling them down in the first page, she proceeded to doodle in the top-right corner. She thought for a moment, hesitating on what to draw. Then she figured it out.
Aisha watched her hand grip her pencil, create curves, lines, shadings. As she outlined them in a shade so dark it seemed black, her lead snapped and skittered across her desk, dropping onto the tiled floor below. Glancing up to see if Vanessa was disturbed by the distraction, she looked back down at her doodle.
It portrayed her in a short-sleeved dress with ruffled edges. Her hands were outstretched in front of her, cupped as if her fate was falling into them. Her face was tilted towards the unseen sky above, her eyes full of some landscape she was caught in. But where she was tracing her fingers was where the lead had broken. It left a stray, ugly mark on the once-unblemished hands, ruining the dream.
She left the girl, herself, there on the corner. It would tell her everytime she sat down and opened this notebook that her fate would never be decided by her own free will. That this drawing would never become true, like it was originally hoped to be.
"Aisha, define cosine," the trigonometry teacher suddenly said. She moved her eyes up, towards the board, and noticed how she had erased it. But it wasn't as if she hadn't listened to her at all. "Cosine; the trigonometric function equal to the ratio of the side adjacent to an acute angle, within a right-angled triangle, to the hypotenuse."
"Thank you for paying attention, taking account that you even did a small sketch there." Aisha smiled slightly; Vanessa was sharp and hadn't missed a single detail.
Throughout P.E., she had to muffle the coughs that racked her body. Even when she was running, she lagged at the back.
During Chemistry, Allegro stressed out several rules and theories. Elsword dropped a vial containing an unknown liquid and was sent to the infirmary with a swelling hand.
At some point in Arts and Crafts, Helen bent over her to peer at her drawing of a girl crossing her legs on a staff with an axe-like blade. A small figure was suspended in the air next to the girl, looking suspiciously like a bat.
When the students filed in for History of Elrios, Lento struck an epic pose with his foot on the edge of his desk, declaring that the Nasods had been too dependent on the humans and did not survive the war because of that. Ignoring the joking tone within his voice, someone named Eve in her class sent him reeling back with a red mark on his face. She, of course, received no consequences.
In Japanese, Stella started with numbers. "Ichi, ni, san," she said, writing them in romaji on the board. "So what is san minus ni?"
"Estacxz terrestiom namera keliaste-"
"Thank you for saying 'I am being very sarcastic' in Elfin, Amelia," she cut in. "You take Japanese, you stick with it. No point in taking it and then end up speaking another language that no one understands."
Amelia grew flustered, apparently realizing she had accidentally started speaking in her foreign language. "H-Hai! G-Gomenasai!"
"That's much better. The answer was ichi. Three minus two equals one, for those smartasses out there. Now, continuing on. What is..." Aisha's vision swam as she zoned out on Stella's voice. She had to fight to stay awake and continue staring blankly at the board, but it was getting harder every moment. Just as she was about to raise her hand and ask to be sent home, the bell interrupted the teacher and let them outside.
She stumbled into the corridor, her hand sliding along the smooth white walls of the hallway. It hurt to walk, hurt to breathe, hurt to think. When she pushed the door open to exit and flee home, a hand snatched hers. "Miss, where're you going? That's the gym..."
"Wait, what?" Her voice was raspy, and she couldn't project it any louder.
"That's... You-" A cough interrupted him as he pulled her towards the school gates. The boy looked back and saw that the hand she had coughed on was smeared in blood.
"I...I'm-fine." Her words shook as much as her body. As if to prove her point, she straightened and walked outside.
Aisha took slow, measured steps. Almost back to the house, she attempted to convince herself, even though she knew it was a lie. Just a few more steps. The world around her grew hazy; she felt like she was overheating.
The boy caught up to her and saw the unmoving purple heap on the ground. "Miss!" He wrapped his arms around her and lifted her up. I don't remember seeing her last year. Is she someone new? I can't take her to the nurse either; she just left the school. I can't take her home...but...ah!
Aisha blinked her blurry eyes, finding something wet slapped across her forehead. "What the..." She shook it off and lifted it up to see that it was a towel. And in the background...
She sat up abruptly. The walls weren't peeling their beige plaster, the bed wasn't lavender, the floor was carpeted in soft grey.
This was not the old apartment she lived in. It was too nice to hold that man she had lived with all her life and despised every single moment.
Whose house is this?
I'm sorry that this is short. That this chapter was bad and boring. TT^TT (Well. I think it is. In fact, when I reread them, it makes me uninterested because I already know what I wrote. .w.) Oh. Yus.
Shoutout to reviewer xColorlessQueenx for being the first to say the previous chapter's song name: Bad Apple! ^o^
And here are my replies to my reviewers~! :DDD
Kuro Hano: Thanks! :D Because sometimes I don't know if I put too much detail or not enough. And that was the first verse of the song Bad Apple.
BlAxDiA: Thanks, too! ^o^ I hope you enjoyed this chapter, actually! :3
Hospes: Sure! XD The classes are as following: Lord Knight, Void Princess, Wind Sneaker, Blade Master, Code: Battle Seraph, and Deadly Chaser.
RubyCrusade/RC: OAO WUT. YOU GOOD WRITER TOO! I love your ideas, especially since I'm getting none at all due to writer's block...*slumps in defeat* You make me nutella too~ (Lol sorry if you don't get it XD Jelly and nutella! :D )
xColorlessQueenx: You got it! Bad Apple! C:
Reaper53: I'm trying! XD Although it might just abruptly pause, cause...writer's block...;~; But I'll try to continue this Elsword x Aisha fic! ^o^
Elsha lovers: Yerp! :D And interesting pairing name, Elsha...o-o I likez it! :3 Yep, Bad Apple is right! Who'd have thought so many people memorized the lyrics...0-0 But, anyways. The classes are: Lord Knight, Void Princess, Wind Sneaker, Blade Master, Code: Battle Seraph, and Deadly Chaser. Hope you enjoyed this chap! XD If not...feel free to tell me anyways... ^^""
Guest: OAO Thank you! TT~TT That compliment means a lot to me, because I have like virtually no faith in my writing at all. XD
xX Sybella Xx: :o ! Perceptive! You'll see what it means later on in this fanfic~ Thanks for the compliment! :3
MarioFireRed: LOLOLOLOL What, you want me to do a college fic instead? XDDD First to say Aisha was VP~! Well. Bat earbuds. Gives everythin' away. .w. And I'll see what I can do for Elsword and her father... *evil gleam*
Seraphic Nightmare: Yus yus, it ISH Bad Apple. .w. I never listened to the English version...should try that sometime. And I'll try my best to continue this..~ :D
An0n Author: Woah! OAO Nice! You learned it on guitar? I have no instruments, so I can't do much... Thanks for the compliment on the first chapter! ^o^
Next question: Who carried Aisha? Remember, there's not only the original six, but there's also the epic NPCs in there!
And to all those who're reading...
Thanks as always! :D
