~Author's note~
Hey guys! Thank you for all the support you guys show me ;) I am so very glad you like the fic so far! Wow, this was a quick update, no? I was just so exited to get back into the fic that I had to update it like rn. Haha, welp! I hope you all like this chapter and without further ado! *Drum roll* The newest chapter of Act Naturally!
Sincerely,
~Ms. AtomicBomb
Arturia trickled into her chemistry class and noted that Jeanne was already seated. Arturia frowned at her friend and approached her, "You ditched me during lunch, where were you?"
Jeanne crossed her arms over her chest and tilted her head, "Didn't you hear the announcements?" She lifted and eyebrow as she watched the shorter one circle the table and sit down.
"What?" Arturia shrugged, indicating that she had not heard the announcements in the morning.
"Student council meeting." Jeanne blinked and then turned to look at the teacher that was entering the classroom, "Guess who our History supply was?" She leaned back on the plastic chair and winked at her friend.
"Who?" Arturia kept her gaze on her friend, intently listening since it seemed to be intriguing.
"Yours truly," s deep voice rang and a paper was settled in front of her, "No gossiping you two, and see me after class so we can finally discuss this paper. I want to go over a lot of things." Diarmuid stood with his arms crossed over his chest and Arturia felt her heart flutter at the sight of the handsome man in a suit—he seemed to be a little more attractive today, but she was not sure what it was.
Arturia mentally shook her head and frowned, "Why can't we talk about this during class?" Truth be told, she did want to stay afterschool a bit, but she knew it wasn't a good move with Gilgamesh at her tail.
"This class is an entire lesson; there's no time for individual work. I'll make sure to kick everyone out so you don't have to wait forever." The man blinked and then turned around to face the board.
Jeanne kept silent because she had been caught trying to get the female next to her jealous, but she looked past that and leaned closer to her friend, "What? Noticed he was cute? You're all red."
Arturia shot her head towards her best buddy and widened her eyes, "What? Am I actually red?" She drew a hand to her cheeks to feel how warm they were, "He's not even that cute." She regained composure after a while and Jeanne could only laugh.
The class was spent mostly in silence between the two girls because of the fact that the lesson was quite long, they exchanged comments every now and then and would even get off topic and laughed about other things. It was his voice that stopped them from making another cheesy joke as he ended the lesson.
Everyone began to pack their stuff and Arturia had forgotten that she was supposed to stay after class, so she simply shoved her books in her bag as her and Jeanne were chatting.
"Where do you think you're going? You shouldn't always skip our meetings for that blond kid." Diarmuid leaned against the desk in front of the two girls.
Arturia sighed and looked up at the man, "I do hope you are referring to Gawain."
"Sit down," he smirked, "take out your paper and we'll go over it."
The short blond sighed and set her bag down on the desk again, "Fine, but let's not waste too much time, I have to be home early today."
"Bye-bye, bae," Jeanne waved at her friend and then turned to the teacher and bowed her head. "Thank you for the lesson, sir, have a great day." She had the tendency to always go about this usual routine every day and it made Diarmuid's day because at least someone appreciated his lessons. The girl with the braid to her upper thighs waved goodbye again and exited the room without further ado.
Diarmuid then let Arturia settle as he drove out all the other girls from the room and closed the door behind him, not needing to cover the window for Grainne had done so the day before. He slowly strolled back to the desk he was previously had been leaning against and then pulled out a chair and faced it toward Arturia before sitting down, "Okei-dokei then," he pulled the assignment she had set on the table toward himself.
"So why'd you give me such a bad mark? Like a fifty is horrible, why?" She was actually quite upset over the mark but she wasn't going to complain during the lesson—in fact, she had been waiting so that she could vent to Jeanne.
The male looked at her and regretted the decision to speak with her alone when he felt suddenly uneasy under her meadow green gaze. He gulped and flickered his eyes back to the paper, "First, you completely ignored the main point. You barely spoke of the dangers of these chemicals and your format was off. You also showed little knowledge on scientific compositions and terminology. I know you know what it is, but you did not explain it to the reader."
Arturia sat back on her chair and huffed, "I'm not really good at explaining things. Plus, I wrote this paper the night before because it literally slipped my mind."
Diarmuid shrugged, "Well, all the advice I can give you is to do the project as early as you can and send them to Jeanne or someone else for spell checking and structure improvement."
"Easier said than done," It was quite awkward as they avoided eye contact and it was as if they were speaking to the paper instead of each other.
The male let out a laugh, "You are quite right, I did the same in uni."
They both laughed a little more and their eyes finally locked gazes and they fell silent. They just stared at each other for a while and Arturia felt the urge to reach for his hands. A bright idea snaked into her mind and she smirked, reaching out and landing her hand on top of his slowly.
"A-Art-Pendragon…" Diarmuid was about to retract his hand but she held it.
"Diarmuid…" Was this really what she was thinking? Was she actually going to suggest this crazy idea? "I like you." So she admitted it, finally, but it wasn't going to leave this room or leave the mouths of the two individuals in the room.
Diarmuid turned his hand and held hers for a second before letting it go, "Okay, well, you can get going now. You said you needed to leave early so hurry along." It wasn't that he wanted to ignore her, it was because he did not want to start anything or let himself go.
Arturia grit her teeth and crossed her arms over her chest, "Diarmuid, come on."
"I'll lead you to the door," he stood from the seat and looked down at her. He bit his lower lip and ran a hand through his hair.
Arturia packed her assignment and hung her bag over her shoulder and rolled her eyes. She looked over at Diarmuid and then sighed, "You're going to ignore me?" She furrowed her brows.
The male let his lips purse together in a short frown before he spoke, "I'm very sorry Arturia, I wasn't able to hear what you said earlier." She got the hint, it was obvious that he wanted to look past her confession and so she did not push it.
They stood by the door in silence and then he opened the door for her. Arturia nodded in thanks and she exited the room, "Yeah, I like you too." Her head whipped back towards the door after it had closed behind her and then she tried to open the door but it was locked.
"Diarmuid, open this door, now." She could not believe that she had heard him actually confess to her but so silently that she could have possibly not heard him.
"Go home, Pendragon." Diarmuid buried his face into his hands and forced himself not to open the door.
She frowned and held her bag strap tighter, "Okay… I'm sorry. Just don't expect another chance." She turned on her heel and walked down the hallway a little depressed for she had wanted to fix her relationship with Diarmuid up a little more.
The next day wasn't any different than any other day. Jeanne had had another Student Council meeting so Arturia sat with Gawain, Lancelot and Guinevere during lunch. The cafeteria had handed out pizza and since it was free, Arturia was quick to jump at the offer.
"I see you've been with that Gilgamesh guy quite a bit," Guinevere winked, "Something going on that you haven't told me about yet?"
Arturia rolled her eyes and shook her head before swallowing the food, "Um, no. I swear, everyone always says we're dating but like you've only probably seen us together twice. Chill."
"Well, he's going around telling everyone that you belong to him or something." The brunette shrugged, "You should talk to him about it." Guinevere swirled the drink in her hand before reaching for the straw with her mouth.
"Is he actually doing this? Ugh, what the heck?" All the poor English girl wanted to do was eat, but Gilgamesh just had to be an asshole, didn't he?
"It's pissing me off." Lancelot frowned, he was visibly upset, but don't get him wrong—Arturia was like a sister to him, "If you call the order, we can deal with him for you."
Arturia smiled, "Thanks, but it's okay, I can deal with him." Then she caught the eyes of the people around her and noticed that quite a chuck of students were looking her way. She did not even realize that they had been looking at her for a while now.
"Why's everyone looking at me?" She whispered over at Gawain.
Gawain shrugged and looked about, "Probably has to do with Gilgamesh."
A pair of students walked by and she was able to catch what they had been gossiping about with the help of her ears and her ability to lip read.
"That's her, right?" One of the males whispered to the other.
"Yeah, Gil could do much better, she eats like a cow and has the stature of a chipmunk." The other replied and upon hearing the words, Arturia smacked the table and stood.
"I may be short and eat a lot, but at least my metabolism doesn't suck like yours. Now get lost." She glared at the group and the immediately sped past her. She looked down at her friends and sighed, "I'm going to find Gilgamesh."
She hurried out of the cafeteria and went through the halls asking around for Gilgamesh. After hearing that he was in the washroom from a kid who had just exited, she took a deep breath and pushed the male washroom door open, "Gilgamesh, you son of a—"
"Holy! Get out!" A kid yelled after he had jumped in surprise, "You're not a guy!"
"Anyone who is not Gilgamesh, get the hell out right now before I beat you up as well." All the men that had been hiding away from Arturia zipped up their pants, washed their hands and left the room.
Gilgamesh took his sweet time in doing the same, save for the leaving part. He thoroughly washed his hands and looked at Arturia through the mirror, "I see you're eager." He grinned and walked to the dryer, "What is it, babe?"
Arturia clenched her fists and glared at Gilgamesh once he turned around to look at her, "Why are you spreading rumors?"
"Whatever do you mean?" The male leaned back on the sink.
"You're going around telling everyone that we're dating, what is wrong with you?" She grit her teeth and furrowed her brows in anger.
The blonde mail gave a confused look and took a step towards her, "Oh, we're not?" He tilted his head, "I thought I made it clear the other day that we were together. You know, I found out some interesting things, about that teacher and you." He kept walking towards her.
She took a step back but her back hit the stalls behind herself, "There's nothing."
"You sure about that? I saw him get a little jealous that I was getting close to you." He took a step closer and now Arturia had regretted coming alone.
"Another step and I will kick you where it hurts." She warned, readying her right foot.
Gilgamesh bit his lower lip and shook his head, "Try. You know, I have the power to get that teacher fired, for you to get expelled and probably even get him in jail. Imagine that, that pretty boy behind bars won't even last a week. I really don't think it's a smart idea."
"There's nothing between the chemistry teacher and I. I don't have anything to fear." She glared at him as he did take another step and was only a few centimeters from her. Arturia brought her hands to her chest as a defensive pose.
"I beg to differ." The male took her writs in his left hand and pulled them over her head as the other caged her between the wall and the man.
"Are you blackmailing me?"
"Hm, you tell me."
Arturia shut her eyes tightly as she was ready to lift her knee and hurt him until her hands were freed and she noted the male that had her cornered had stepped away. "What do you think you're doing, young man?" She looked up to see a tall man with raven black hair in front of her.
"Hey! She was the one that voluntarily came into the guys' washroom." Gilgamesh argued, glaring up at the male.
Arturia noted that the dark-haired male had his jaw clenched and his hands balled into fists. He seemed to be red with anger before he took Arturia by the wrist and dragged her out of the washroom along with him. "Report to the principal's office, Gilgamesh." The male hissed before he continued his way down to the infirmary with Arturia's tightly in his hand. When they had left the washroom, there had been a crowd of students gathered around it—Guinevere, Lancelot and Gawain among them.
