This chapter has been reposted after being edited and cleaned up.
Rock on, readers!
PH34R /NY L4CK 0F 4U7H0R N073Z! PH34R 7H3/N! MWUH4H4H4H4H4H4H4H4H4!
Sin High
Chapter 7 - How to Catch a Mocking Bird
"Aww come on, it's like, five minutes after class should have started!"
"Where the fuck is Havoc? That guy's in some deep shit if he isn't here in two seconds."
"Oh, and what are you gonna do Manes? Beat him to death? Yeah right."
Ed was leaning up against his locker, watching his older classmates get more and more agitated as the minutes crawled by. Havoc-sensei was very late, and most of the class that had shown up for the day or hadn't already left out of agitation were starting to argue and fight amongst themselves.
Ed didn't see Envy anywhere, and was rather thankful that he'd apparently skipped. He wasn't in the mood for the green-haired teen right now. Especially not after Saturday's episode.
He'd been reflecting on what Envy had said to him, the full extent of his words only really hit him after he'd kicked the older male out of the house and talked to his brother about not letting him in anymore.
Ed had realized that Envy may actually try to make passes at him, and Ed was VERY unhappy with the possibility. Envy was no pushover, and Ed didn't know the teen well enough to confidently deal with him. If Envy was seriously going to try and create some kind of a relationship, wanted or not, Ed wasn't sure how hard the other would try. HE for one wasn't going to let it happen.
Most everyone turned when a voice called out from down the hall. They all saw a short brown-haired lady rushing towards their room waving frantically and calling out sorries, and the familiar image of Envy walking at a much more relaxed pace behind her. (Ed's heart sunk a little at that.)
The lady doubled-over and panted heavily when she reached the crowd of students. Some of the more perverted guys of the class were elbowing one another and snickering.
"Umm, miss, are you a supply?" One of the girls asked, leaning over and asking innocently. The lady righted herself up only to bow back down again to the students.
"My apologies everyone, please let me get you all settled before I explain everything!" She said eagerly, taking out her keys and fumbling with them until she stuck one in the door's lock. Most of the students were grumbling their displeasure and a few took off at the mere word of, "supply".
Said supply was short, with short brown hair, glasses, and wore a formal blue outfit. She didn't look too much older than the students however, she appeared to be in her mid twenties.
When she got the door open and let herself in, she was embarrassed by the mild insults thrown her way from indistinguishable sources.
On the other side of the flow of students however, a more interesting topic was happening. Ed had just received his first "attack" from Envy's side of the game.
Ed pushed his way through the throng of students, trying to get to his desk. A long, harsh shiver ripped up his spine however, when he clearly felt a hand slide up his arm languidly. Even through the material of his grey jacket-like shirt, he could feel the heat from the contact. He whipped his head around, trying to find the owner of the hand, which disappeared, though he knew very well who it had been.
Not finding his culprit, he glared at nothing in particular and grumbled when he reached his seat. He plopped down and set his book bag under the desk.
Someone tapped his hesitantly on the shoulder, and Ed turned around in his seat to see Shuun, the quiet teen who'd had to switch with Envy last week. The boy wore black pants and a white shirt, and his short black hair showed a small hint of being gelled back.
"Ano, I noticed that Envy-san was still bothering you. I've known him for a while now, and I believe that it's practically in his nature to tease people. If you act as uninteresting as you can and ignore him with all your strength, he'll probably get bored and leave you alone." The teen said quietly, and leaned back looking around to make sure no one saw him helping the 'new kid'. (When I picture Shuun, I see that emo-kid from Neon Genesis. Picture him if you want for Shuun. I'll be seeing NGE soon, the whole series and all the movies have been on my comp unwatched for like a week now. OOCness is irrelevant though, he's OC for all I care.)
Ed smiled gratefully, and said an equally quiet, "Thanks."
The movement and shuffling and general noise of the classroom was starting to subside, as students were starting to actually take their seats instead of chatting and taking their time. In the confusion, Envy appeared beside Shuun's desk, and told him flatly to, "Move it."
Ed turned around, seeing that Envy was right there, and glanced at Shuun with a worried expression. The older teen looked up as defiantly as he could at Envy, and said;
"Envy-san, please go to your own seat. The teacher will figure you out anyway, she has the seating plan." He knew he looked much braver than he felt, being such a timid student and all.
"No, I have the seating plan. So move your ass or I'll drop you like a bad habit." He sneered, waving a sheet of paper in the teen's face. Shuun sent an apologetic look at Ed, and mouthed, "With all your strength", at him. Envy didn't notice, he was too busy chuckling at the minor cheers around the area, since some people had heard what he'd stolen from the teacher and the news was being sent along the class grapevine.
Envy took his old seat and sunk down, crossing his legs and his arms as well. He looked like the perfect example of a predator on the hunt, if his wide smirk had anything to do with it. He was surprised however, when the chibi spared him not even a glance, and sat up grade-A student straight in his seat. Ignoring him.
His attention was momentarily diverted to the teacher, who was trying to get the class to listen. Surprisingly, the class did quiet down, as most of the students who were familiar with Havoc knew that he couldn't possibly be away from illness. The guy came in no matter how sick he was, unless it was contagious.
"Ano, please listen, everyone! Your teacher, Havoc-sensei, was in a car accident over the weekend, and he will be excused from his teaching duties for a few weeks. His injuries are mild, but he has a risk of making them worse if he were to move around too much. I will be supplying for him during this time." She said, glad of the general quiet that was given to her as she relayed the news.
"You may call me Ms. L." She continued, "I will be following the same work schedule that Havoc-sensei was on, he was courteous enough to brief me on the classes, and their schedules. I-"
"Hey miss, can we call you by your first name?" One of the boys at the back interrupted. The new teacher sent him a disapproving look.
"Please do not shout out, I want you to raise your hand when you are speaking. And if you would like to call me by my first name, you must spell it out on the first try. My name is Scieszka." She smiled a small smile to herself as the class made it's own small reaction to the difficult name, and some laughter was directed at the student who had asked, since he clearly looked like he wouldn't even attempt it. The class had a bit more respect for the new teacher.
"Alright, I have a seating schedule and some notes for this class, please allow me to take a moment to match your names and your seats." She opened the desk drawer and searched for the seating plan that was supposed to be in there. Ripples of chuckles and giggles ran through the class as Envy threw an arm up and motioned it around like a Miss America waving, signalling to the class who was responsible for it to go missing. Scieszka couldn't see due to looking in the bottom drawer now.
Standing up, the new teacher glanced around the class and saw the many amused faces. She understood what must have gone on.
"Does anyone know where Havoc-sensei keeps his seating plan, please?" More chuckles and giggles. She sighed.
"Alright, never mind then. If there are problems, I guess I'll just move you. I'll be making a new seating plan soon then, so please do not move around. I'll be taking role-call now."
The class groaned, Havoc never needed to take role-call, since he knew pretty much every student in the class, and memorized the name-to-face of those he didn't. He was very sure to be familiar of his pupils.
Scieszka called out names and ticked off where there was no response. Most of the class was here, so there wasn't too many people to tick off as absent. After she was done, she looked around for her class notes that Havoc had given to her, and glanced over them quickly. She'd read all the class notes a few times, and had an excellent memory, but you never know what might jump out at you.
Seeing something important, she looked up at the class and asked, "Please tell me which one of you is Envy?" Laughter roared out and Envy stood up and took a deep bow. Scieszka was surprised at the teen's appearance, but didn't say anything about it.
"Thank you. Now, I'd like to start off the class with a simple assignment." She announced, 'So I can take the time to get my things in order and send around a seating plan paper..' She added to herself.
She passed out the "Emergency Time-Stallers" paper that Havoc had given her. There were about thirty different types, and Scieszka was amazed at his level of intellect of his students and how to handle them. Even though the class wasn't too thrilled, they worked on the assignment. Seeing as it was easy, though long, most of the students knew everything in Havoc's class was marked, so it was easy points to their grade.
Scieszka drew up a rough diagram of the classroom and gave it to Jean, the football-player right beside the door. Passing it around and writing your name to co-respond to the seat you were in was a quick, and easy task, so the paper went around the class rather smoothly. After the first five minutes of the assignment had passed by, and the sheet given, the class more or less silenced with the exception of the low whispers every once in a while.
Scieszka was glad that the class seemed so well-behaved. But just how much of this "Well-behaviour" was she not seeing?
'Ignore him. Ignore him. Ignorehim. Ignorehimignorehim. Ignorehimignorehimignorehim. IgnorehimIgnorehimIgnorehimIgnorehimIgnorehimIgnorehimignorehimignorehimignorehimignorehimignorehim."
The words forcefully repeated themselves in Ed's head. They were starting to lose their meaning as mere words and acted more like a chant from a long-lost language. It was the only thing keeping him from losing his mind. Or his cool.
It was half-way into the class, and Envy had been driving him to the brink of insanity. At first, he'd tried to just be generally annoying, poking him, tugging lightly at his braid, whispering things, etc.
But seeing that Ed was trying to fake a will of steel, he moved on to a more... interesting approach.
The poking became lazy trailing of fingers over his neck and back, the tugging turning into attention to the sensitive spots behind his ears. The whispers become low, spoken offers and mental images.
So Ed chanted.
..0..
Envy was having a riot with his new game. He figured that since the chibi was tense and completely unresponsive to his treatment, someone must have tipped him off that he got bored easily, and ignoring him might work.
Well, he hated being ignored.
Instead of getting pissed off and beating some sense into the chibi, Envy was amused and quite enjoying himself since Ed's attempt to ignore the green-haired teen was obviously not working. Envy knew this from the rock-hard tenseness he was feeling through the chibi's two shirts (muscle sleeveless and the grey coat-shirt), and the fact that he kept flinching and squirming ever so subtly.
It was quite fun.
Envy also realized that he was constantly on the chibi's mind, as well. He was taking even longer than the rest of the class to do his work (he was about two pages behind), and Envy swore at some point he heard the blond whisper, "-gnorehimignorehimign-" under his breath.
Even leaning forward gained him no where; Envy could lean forward too and rest his head on his hand casually, not thrown off in the least.
By now, many students had noticed the gestures, but no one said anything. Smart classmates. No one dared deprive Envy of his toy.
"How long 'till you crack, chibi? I can go all period..." He whispered, and lightly trailed a finger behind Ed's ear, earning a very slight shiver. He grinned. Besides that, there was no response. Ed seemed to think that any kind of comment or movement would only egg him on. Little did he know that the mere reaction to his touch that the blond was probably not even aware of did the job just fine.
"Remember what I said about flirting, back when I walked in on you on Saturday? I was joking then. But I'm starting to really like you. Maybe I really will make you mine." He whispered with a grin. No reaction. How disheartening..
Envy tugged off the small band holding Ed's braid together, and set his fingers to work. It wasn't long until his golden hair was spread out and full, free of it's tightly-wound restrictions. Envy heard a deep, angry sigh, a sure sign that Ed was pressing himself to make no indications that he cared at all about the attention. His pencil was clenched very tightly in his hand, Envy could see his knuckles going white.
"Fight back chibi, or are you liking this too much?" He whispered. He saw a small bit of relaxation claim the blond, and he cursed himself. The shorter teen must have caught on to the beginning of Envy's frustration. Yes, Envy had a short attention span, and even the blonde's attempts to ignore him were getting boring. And starting to tick him off. It was fun, yes, but he wanted more...
He slipped a few fingers over the skin just under Ed's jaw, feeling his way around and familiarizing himself with the area, going as far as to run a finger over warm, dry lips. He felt a curious need to go further, go down and feel that well-built upper-body he'd caught an eyeful of only two days ago..
But not much could be done now. No no, it was only his skillful surveying of the teacher that kept her from noticing his actions. Any attempt to feel more of his opponent in this game was not very possible. And to be honest, Envy didn't want Ed to be immobile during the game-play.
Sure, it was the point to match his will against Ed's, but the current situation was limited. He felt almost cheated against since he was so restricted in his moves. Like taking half the pieces away in chess.
Envy became more and more disheartened as Ed was now very aware of Envy's lack of enthusiasm anymore, and was almost perfectly ignoring him. He knew he was winning.
With an annoyed growl, Envy dropped his arm and slumped onto his desk, glaring at the blonde's back with tired eyes. Several chuckles and low murmurs of approval dotted the class, as some people realized the sign of forfeit. Ed felt himself grinning, and started to focus back on his work.
"You won this round, Edo-chibi, but we'll see how well you can ignore me when I have more options available..." Ed heard from behind him. He turned his head just slightly and whispered back, smugness laced throughout;
"Bring it on." (AN: Que mortal combat theme..)
Marcus chuckled and whispered, "Owned.." to Envy. The green-haired teen merely snorted and jabbed Ed in the back harshly with his thumb, making the blond jump. He didn't continue the assault however, and turned his head to lay it on his arms to sleep for the rest of the class. Screw the assignment.
Ed sighed a breath of relief. He'd have to thank Shuun later for the advice.
After the assignment time was up, everyone handed their papers up. Most of the people who'd been aware of Envy and Ed's 'game' (through the grapevine, and pretty much everyone had seen the pent up frustration on the teen's face), were rather disgruntled to see that the chibi had been stalled for almost half the class, and still managed to be finished on time. No one was surprised that Envy didn't do the work however.
For the rest of the class, merely ten or so minutes after Envy gave up, Scieszka gave a lecture for them to copy down, and by the time she was finished, the class was over. Amidst the noise and movement of the class getting up and chatting, ready to move on to second period, Envy woke up and stretched like a cat. He too got up and joined the bustle, but was too fogged down by sleep to offer any usual commotion.
Just as the class was leaving, Ed caught Shuun's glance and grinned, mouthing, "Thanks!" The other boy nodded discreetly, and turned to head out the door.
"-and that's the stairway to the third floor."
"Okay. How many are there?"
"Just two."
"Ah."
After an uninteresting 'Med/Phys-Ed.' class, Ed followed the general throng of students down to the lunch room, and ended up meeting Russell along the way. As he'd promised when they first met last week, he took Ed around the school for a tour. They each bought an easy lunch to deal with, so they were eating as they walked around.
"Okay, we're going to have to finish these up here. No food allowed past the second floor." Russell said, downing the last few bites of his burger. Ed nodded and finished his hotdog, throwing the trash out into the garbage bin on the stairs platform. They continued up the flight, Russell making comments and Ed listening intently. He wanted to memorize everything about the building.
When they reached the third floor, Russell made the turn around the hall that immediately rounded at the doors, leading down another hall. Ed followed, but quickly grabbed the taller teen and yanked him back around, back to the doors.
"Ite, what was that for?" Russell said, rubbing his arm.
Ed apologized and looked sheepish. "Sorry, I saw Envy at the other end of the hall. I really don't want to get near him right now."
Russell nodded his head in understanding, and asked Ed the reason as they went in the other direction, to another hall.
"-nd so he was bugging me all through first period. What a jerk, taku... Tch, I beat him though, he finally gave up after half-period. That showed him!" Ed grinned widely and walked with exaggerated smugness, proud of his little victory.
"Aren't you worried he's going to try and get back at you?" Russell asked, not quite sharing Ed's enthusiasm. Ed shrugged and calmed a bit.
"He did say something like a second round... Oh well. I'll worry about it when I get to it." He said, grinning again. Russell sweat dropped, realizing that his new friend was a little too egotistical for his own good.
Third period, as usual, was boring. Even by Ed's standards. He finished the work, yes, but Science-Math was boring no matter which way you looked at it. Fortunately for Ed, Envy not only sits way across the room from him, but tends to sleep for most of the period.
Ed caught himself glancing at the sleeping teen a few times, and beat himself up mentally for it each time. He passed it off as anxiety of the other male's next move. He was aware that Envy thought the whole ordeal was a game, he'd said so in first period, and the more Ed thought about it, the more he wanted to win.
Once, when Ed glanced over at Envy (and he could be discreet about it too, they were on opposite sides of the room, but in the same column), he jumped when Envy was looking back at him. A sneer met a glare, and Ed looked at him no more.
But that's enough of "Events from Sci-Math", let's move on to fourth period with Envy.
"Alright guys, break's over. What's the game?" Roy called out.
Roy's classes were rather uniform. Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday were as follows: Intensive warm up and exercises, then finally a ten minute break for the first half of the period, and then a game of some sort for the second half. Wednesday was all drills and exercises unless he had another type of program planned, and Friday was an all-period game. Being Monday, they'd done their first half, had their break, and now it was time to start up a game.
"Dodge ball!"
"No way, we did that last week!"
"Blind tag!"
"Yeah!"
"What are you, babies!"
"Roy, teach us more karate!"
Roy rounded on the student who called him by his first name and yelled at him for being disrespectful.
"Run a suicide around the gym, you've got one minute."
"Aww, come on, you're too-"
"RUN YOUR FUCKIN' SUICIDE!"
The student ran his fuckin' suicide.
The students all talked amongst themselves and eventually decided to play "Fish in a Barrel". It was a childish game, and since it was an all-male gym class, at the end of the day no less, most of the guys were feeling childish.
All but two members of the class gathered into a large circle that was textiled into the floor. They were going to attempt not to get hit by the ball that the two people on the outside were going to try and hit them with. Feet only, no shots higher than the chest.
Duo and "K" were on the outside to start, and the game began quickly. The circle was big enough for easy movement, but not so much that the people "trapped" inside could maneuver too well. The two on the outside kicked the ball viciously between them, kicking it across to the other and vise-versa.
"Hey Parkers, heads up!" Duo yelled and kicked the ball right at the called teen. He was about to get creamed when Envy shot out of no where and smashed the ball with his foot, sending it right back at the poor teen and knocking him flat on his ass when it rammed him in the stomach.
The group of students, "OOOH!"ed and cheered, slapping themselves high-fives. Roy called on Envy to leave the circle and become the next "shooter", since he could kick the ball back if he wanted, but he'd still be out. Roy wasn't teaching any sissies, they could just toughen up if they couldn't take the heat.
Envy grinned and helped Duo up, slapping him on the back.
"Aww shit, Envy. That's gonna burn a while. You gonna get it, man." He said jokingly, grinning with a bit of pain in his eyes.
"Suck it up." The green-haired teen commented, and got ready to continue.
Envy only took one shot to switch someone with him, as his kick was far too fast to dodge, and the game started to pick up as the time went by. It wasn't too long until the bell was due to go, and Roy announced the game over, telling them to hit the showers.
Envy went along with the rest to go 'freshen up', when a hand on his shoulder stopped him. He turned slightly to look up at Roy.
Roy, who was in his late 20's, and was well-built and handsome, had very a simple relationship with Envy.
They HATED each other.
"If you start another fight in the showers, I'll personally continue whatever you initiate." He said darkly, referring to last Friday when Envy had gotten into a fight with one of the other guys (and beat the shit out of them for anyone who's interested).
"Whatever, sensei." Envy grinned sardonically, and shrugged Roy's hand off. He headed for the rest of the class, but everyone stopped when the PA came on.
"Excuse me, students. This is Principal Bradley speaking."
The whole class shut up from a combination of Roy telling them to shut up, and the fact that Bradley was known to be a playful man, and only ever announced things himself over the PA when there was a very interesting topic. Or when something was terribly wrong.
"As a late present to show my sincerest 'welcome back to school' for you all, there will be a surprise talent show this Friday. You do not have much time to prepare, so I suggest you decide quickly whether you will or will not join. The show will run for all of your last two periods, and a minimum two entries is asked for per homeroom class. I hope you all are having a great start here at West Rain, and have a nice week!"
Noise and general chatter rose from the males, as they crowded into the showers. Envy pondered over the talent show for a brief moment, and then smirked at the opportunity. Perfect day to skip.
Steam filled the large white room as many showers started up. Envy pulled off his shirt, shorts, fingerless gloves, shoes, and headband and threw them over in the corner with his bag (which he only ever retrieved from his locker after lunch). He walked over to the shower area and pushed one of the smaller seniors away from one of the jets of spray to claim it as his own, enjoying the feel of the warm water run down his pale skin. (This is my third shower scene so far. I think I have a fetish..)
Marcus came up and took the shower beside Envy, seeing it was empty (the other senior kinda ran away upon Envy's arrival), and nudged him with his elbow.
"You going to enter?" He asked, referring to the talent show. He turned the knob on his shower to cold, liking the refreshing change. The cool water caressed his tanned, almost-over-muscular body, so unlike the one standing right next to him.
"No way, why would I? What a lame 'present' to receive. Bradley's losing his touch." Marcus laughed.
"Yeah, silly question I guess. Everyone knows you're not talented." He roared his laughter and the shorter green-haired teen shoved him off into another showering guy.
"Yo, jokes, man, jokes. Anyways, want to crash it, or you just want to skip? We could bike down to Rad's and hang out or something."
After he'd enjoyed the feeling of the water run down his androgynous body enough, Envy turned off his shower and went off to grab a towel, Marcus right behind him.
"Yeah, actually. I haven't seen that ass for weeks." Marcus chuckled and grabbed a towel from the rack. They continued to chat about plans and other stuff for the talent show day.
"Yo, is that the guy? The guy you fought last week?" One of the guys on the other side of the room asked another.
"Yeah, that's the fag that nailed me. Yo, get Chuck and Kuriichi over here, let's bust him up." The first guy that asked went off to go find the said people, and the second glared at Envy. He was seething. The guy was rather short in comparison to most of the class, looked like a twig, and his hair made him look like a dammed girl when it was wet. All bunched together and running down his back like that.. What a joke. He got kicked around by a joke. Well, joke's on him, now..
(AN: I'm 2nd POVing this character's opinion, most of you probably realized already that I do this often. This guy's opinion does not reflect my own. I love Envy's sexy twiggy body!)
Envy stood up, now donning his usual tank top, skort, and other accessories. He was about to start drying his hair when, "He even dresses like a fag, too." met his ears. Four guys lined up around Envy and Marcus.
"Hey Chi, move it or you get dropped too." The guy who Envy had beaten up snarled. Marcus went to smugly reply a negative, but Envy elbowed him.
"Bug off, I needed a workout anyways." He said. Marcus looked just a bit skeptical, but he didn't argue. Moving off to the side, he joined the ring of students that were gathering around to watch the impending fight.
"Maa, a bunch of insects gathered around. I wonder what they want?" Envy taunted, crossing his arms.
"You're gonna get your little fag ass kicked, you little bastard. What do you think you can do against four of us, huh?" The guy yelled angrily, pissed off that his target was so uncaring of the unfair situation.
"Ooh, this bug is loud.." Envy merely replied, grinning sardonically.
The first guy rushed forward and tried to punch Envy, but a quick dodge made the guy go flying by him and trip over the bench, right into the wall. Laughter from the crowd only made him madder, and he yelled at the other three guys to rush the green-haired teen.
Punches, kicks, twists, and skillful dodges later, and four students from the gym class lay on the semi-wet floor, unconscious or not willing to move for fear of getting kicked back down again.
Envy pushed the guy who'd challenged him over onto his back with his foot, then lowered down until he was squatting. He picked the guy up by his collar so he was face to face with Envy.
"So, why did you want to re-challenge me again?" He asked cruelly, cocking his head to the side.
"Y-you.. little.. gay bastard..." He muttered, not moving an inch for fear of Envy socking him in the nose again.
"And proud of it." Envy smirked, and with an evil thought, kissed the guy roughly on the lips. General noises of disgust or pity swept through the onlookers, and the guy quickly broke his bout of stillness to push himself away from Envy in panic and horror. The wild teen was laughing his ass off, and got up. He gave one final harsh kick to the fallen male's side, and went to go get his bag. He left, Marcus catching up and chuckling about Envy's joke. (The guy was probably scarred for life..)
The fight was over, so no one paid any more attention to the guys on the floor, save some of their buddies who got them up and helped them wake up a bit. Lucky for Envy, Roy had gone into the gym office, putting away some papers until everyone was out of the showers. He missed the group of guys walking away last, half leaning on the other for support.
They wouldn't be bugging Envy again anytime soon.
And so, the day ended. Envy had since first period planned on meeting Ed after school at some point, to continue his 'game', but now he didn't quite feel like it anymore. He went home briefly and left again to hang out with Marcus and some guys, and Ed left school looking over his shoulder every two seconds, watching for Envy.
Isn't he cute when he's paranoid?
Cat: Yay! Another chappie done!
Kit: (wakes up) What? Another one?
Phoenix: Cat, how long is this arch going to be? It seems like it isn't going to be four chapters long like your intro was.
Cat: No, it won't be. The intro is short in comparison, the regular Archs can be like, eight chapters long, give or take. Maybe way longer.
Phoenix: I see.
Cat: Oh, before I forget, the 'Secret Topic' I mentioned earlier will be given out very very soon! Be on the look-out for it!
So yeah, hope you guys liked the chappie, and look forward to the next chappie! And the Secret Topic that's coming up!
Next time;
Sin High
Chapter 8 - Bird of Many Talents
R&R!
Bai guys! You rock!
