Needless to say, I didn't get much sleep last night. The image of Tharja's smirk from yesterday couldn't escape my mind no matter how hard I may have tried. If I did get any sleep she was haunting my dreams, causing me to either have the most heavenly nightmares or the most frightening dreams, depending on one's own preference. Eventually I did drift into sleep, only to be awoken by Chrom slamming on my door. It was bad enough I was sick, but coupled with the lack of sleep I was just an utter mess as I walked out my front door.
"G' Morning Ro- woah, you don't look so good," Chrom being very encouraging this morning.
"I didn't get much sleep last night. Good morning to you too Chrom and, Lissa?" Somehow in my morning daze I didn't even notice Lissa was with him. "What are you doing here?"
"Eh, Maribelle was in a rush getting to school this morning and couldn't pick me up, so I decided to walk with you guys," Lissa explained.
"Thankfully now I don't have to suffer alone," Chrom said.
Lissa stuck her tongue out at him as the three of us headed toward Vaike's house. Chrom and Lissa's sibling banter usually was pretty entertaining; this managed to take my mind off of what took place yesterday. Thankfully nobody was asking any questions, so keeping the incident a secret was proving to be easier than I thought.
However one thing still bothered me. Tharja mentioned something I was supposed to remember, that's the thing that made the least amount of sense, yesterday had to have been the first time we met right?
After meeting up with Vaike and hearing him and Chrom argue the whole walk, we finally arrive at the school. Lissa runs off to look for Maribelle, and I told Chrom and Vaike I'd catch them in class. There was someone I needed to see, if anyone could get me answers it was him. I found him at his usual spot on the side of the school's entrance.
"Ah if it isn't Bubbles, how's my favorite bookworm doing this morning?" Gaius tells me as he sees me approaching.
"How long do you plan on calling me that?" I ask.
"As long as the sun rises in the morning, so I noticed Lissa was walking with you guys this morning, she say anything about me?" Gaius eagerly asks.
"When you going to learn Gaius, Chrom hates you, do you honestly think he would ever late you date Lissa?"
"Hey you let me worry about ol' boy blue alright? That girl just puts me in a trance like no one else can," I am dealing with a real poetic Gaius today apparently.
"Look, I need some information."
"Is this about that Tharja girl? I thought you were trying to respect her privacy?" Here I am being lectured about privacy from the school thief.
"That's beside the point, look I need to keep details scarce, I think Tharja knew me from somewhere before, but for the life of me I have absolutely no clue where," I explain.
"How? Didn't everyone just meet her yesterday?" Gaius asks.
"Do you think I would be coming to you if I knew all the answers Gaius?"
"Easy now no need to get testy there Bubbles, but that all sounds pretty vague, and frankly hard to believe. Although since you're a friend I willing to see what I can dig up, see if I can overhear anything."
I let out a sigh, "Thank you Gaius."
"However, you know I don't work for free, you are behind on some sweets, and this is a pretty tall order you're callin' for here," Gaius says.
"There's chocolate ice cream in your future if you get this job done."
"Consider it done Bubbles!"
"U-Um, Gaius?" A feint voice comes from behind me, Gaius and I turn to see Ricken approaching us.
"Ah Ricken, just the man I was waiting for, I have that info on Olivia you were waiting for,"
"Shush Gaius!" Ricken quickly uttered, clearly I wasn't supposed to hear that. Suddenly I recall the conversation I had with him and Henry the previous day.
"So Olivia was who you were talking about yesterday Ricken?" I must applaud his aspirations, most guys in the school had a thing for Olivia, makes you wonder why I've never seen her with a boyfriend, but I don't know her personally.
"Really Gaius? Just tell the whole school why don't you?!" Ricken replied, getting rather red faced.
"Hm? Oh Robin when did you get here?" Gaius said, attempting to be funny. Both Ricken and I face palm.
"Sorry about that Ricken, I promise I won't say anything," I assure him.
"Well, at least I know I can trust you Robin," He responded.
"Alright I'll just, let you two handle business, I'll just head to class. Gaius you know the drill," I say as I take my leave.
"Don't worry Bubbles, Gaius is on the case." Gaius says as I make my way to the class room.
As I enter the classroom I spot Vaike and Chrom, with my empty seat beside them, but just as quickly my eyes shift down as I walk.
There she was. Tharja hadn't seemed to notice my entrance yet, but I had to pass her to get to my seat. Eventually she looked up, our eyes met once again, causing the world around us to move in slow motion. However this time it was different as she shifted her eyes back down to her notebook. Before our random glares lasted much longer than that, or at least they felt much longer. Something was most definitely amiss here. She was acting the same as when she first arrived, as if that encounter we had yesterday hadn't taken place. Perhaps that is for the best, but that doesn't make me feel any less uneasy about the whole situation.
I finally take my seat, but things didn't seem to change.
"Is it true?" Vaike quickly asks me.
Frantically I respond, "Is what true?!"
"Were you unnaturally close to the new girl at your book club yesterday what do yuh think?" Vaike asks.
"Oh. That. We were just sharing a book, don't get your knee pads in a twist," I reply, relieved it didn't have to do with what took place after school.
"You better watch it pal, Tharja is mine Robin," Vaike assures as usual.
"Whatever you say tough guy, well at least you never got water thrown on you like Virion," Chrom says with a laugh.
Vaike just scoffs at him, knowing he has no good comeback for him.
The day goes on until lunch time, and everything seemed to be just as normal as ever. The three of us went off to meet with Lissa, Maribelle, Sumia, and Frederick for lunch as usual, but I told them to go on ahead as I needed to make a stop in the restroom. Once that's taken care of I make my way to the cafeteria, but on the way I pass by the library. In my peripheral vision I manage to spot Tharja of all people through the library door window, I tried not to make it obvious but she seemed to be reading a rather large book, it looked like a textbook, from what I saw she was staring at it rather intensely, but I couldn't tell what textbook it was, nor was I going to stick around to find out, I don't know why this brief moment had my attention, but after yesterday, Tharja managed to grasp my attention at every possible moment.
"Psst, hey Mr. President," A voice tries to get my attention before I enter the cafeteria, only one person calls me that.
"Henry, calling me that in the club is one thing but their quite literally is no other place for me to called that," I say as go to see what he wanted, Ricken was with him.
"Oh come on, who wouldn't take great pride in being called President?" Henry asked.
"Well what do you guys need?" I ask.
"So you know how Gaius blabbed my secret to you this morning?" Ricken explained.
"Yeah?"
"Long story short Robin, we are going to help our little Ricken develop some courage and become a man!" Henry exclaimed.