Before I start the story, I want to point out a certain scene near the beginning of chapter 8. I would have thought someone else would have pointed it out (because I know there are a few dirty minded people reading this). After the part where Albel and Nel nearly got caught eavesdropping on their dads, Albel wasn't angry when he stormed off, in fact he really needed to use the bathroom due to a certain …problem 'downstairs.'
This psycho doesn't own (insert video game title) or any of its characters. She also doesn't own (insert favorite blue haired character) and (insert the perfect pairing to favorite blue haired character).
Chapter 11
The week went by fast with nothing out of the ordinary, save for Fayt's unusual disappearances before class. It was already Friday and everyone was eagerly awaiting a fun filled school day…Yeah right.
"Maria! Wake up! It's your turn to go first," Cliff shouted as he shook his sister awake from Fayt's shoulder. During most of the week, they had done a pretty good job avoiding being last off the bus, but it seemed that they were unusually late today.
"Cliff, it's nobody's turn. You make it sound like we volunteer to get hit in the face," Fayt scolded as he sat up.
"Why don't we just go ahead and skip to plan B? That way we'll get out sooner," Sophia suggested in a sly tone. Roger hadn't shown any signs of a crush on Peppita, though he had stopped stalking Nel. She wanted one more test done before she took things to the next level. Nel's sanity depended on this because although Roger had stopped stalking her, he was still trying to annoy her. Or was he trying to annoy Albel?
"Good idea," Cliff agreed, not catching the tone in her voice, before he pulled down the window, "WOO! GO NEL! TAKE IT OFF! I DIDN'T KNOW YOU HAD THE SAME CUP SIZE AS MIRAGE!"
Everyone glanced at the Menodix and nearly died of shock when he didn't react at all. He only sat there and stared back at them. Sophia couldn't help but notice that he was staring more at Peppita than anyone else. Speaking of the actress, she now wore her hair down more often and was catching the eye of a few high school students. If Roger didn't hurry, he may not ever have a chance to be with her.
"Um, Cliff?" Maria started as she stared out the window, "I think Mirage heard you."
"Oh crap!" he exclaimed as he ran down the aisle to beg for mercy. Suddenly he screeched to a halt halfway to the front, "Wait a- …Nice try Maria, you almost got me with that."
"Darn it!" she pouted as Fayt and Sophia chuckled.
"That was pretty good though," Fayt complimented as he touched her shoulder. She glanced away and slightly blushed at the contact.
"So now what?" Sophia wondered. She was happy that Roger didn't care about perverted things anymore, but she was starting to regret that there was no one to trick into going first. No one seemed to notice that Peppita was getting more frustrated at both the hold up and the fact that no one was listening to her when she volunteered to go first.
"Okay! Fine, don't listen to me!" she shouted in a grouchy manner, "I'm leaving, excuse me Sophia."
She brushed past Sophia and met no resistance from Cliff as she marched to the front. There was an evil glint the bus driver's eyes as he saw her coming through the rear view mirror.
"There goes one brave circus freak," Fayt muttered as he bowed his head respectfully.
"Circus freak? I thought she was an actress?" Maria said with a brief glance at the blue haired boy.
"It's gotta be the same thing, after all, Sophia's one of them."
"Meanie!" Sophia snapped as she whacked him in the back of his head. Roger held in a rather unmanly whimper as he watched his current crush head towards her doom.
"Peppita! No!" he yelled desperately before he ran under everyone's legs and jumped in front of her as the bus driver slammed the door shut.
"YES!" Sophia cheered as the young actress blinked down at Roger. Everyone glanced at Sophia before she began to run to the front, "Wait till I tell Nel about this!"
Peppita took pity on the Menodix and helped him off the bus as Sophia approached. Once they reached the ground, Peppita heard a strange sound and looked behind her to find the bus driver was still gripping the door lever.
She gasped, nearly dropping Roger in the process, before warning, "Sophia! Watch out!"
The unfortunate victim squeaked as she brought her arms up before the double doors came charging at her. She managed to shield her face from the blow but the impact made her fall back into the staircase.
"S-Sophia!" Fayt called out before he rushed to her side, pushing Cliff out of the way as he passed him.
"Hey!"
Maria watched as Fayt helped the brunette up before she turned away. It hurt to see them together like that. She was so disoriented at the moment that she didn't notice that Cliff had stopped in front of her and leaned against the back of a seat.
"Hey," he called out softly to catch her attention, "Don't misread the situation. I used to run to help you when you fell down and got hurt too."
"But you're my brother, you're supposed to care," she reminded him.
"Yeah and so is the sister, but you don't seem to care about me much," he replied cynically, "Besides, what makes you think that Fayt's feelings for Sophia aren't similar to my feelings for you."
"Because they're not related," she responded bluntly.
"Yeah? Well neither are we if you wanna get technical." Cliff wandered away to let her think over his words. He knew when he was not needed. If she didn't want to be reassured, then let her suffer.
Maria was surprised at Cliff's words. Either he wasn't as much of an idiot as he let on or Mirage told him to say that. She had never thought of it that way though, maybe Fayt and Sophia did share a sibling bond. But then again, why does Sophia cling to him like that? Maria was never that close to Cliff. Maybe it was Sophia trying to catch his attention and start a relationship. If that was the case, then maybe Maria still had a chance in getting Fayt to notice her. Maria shook her head and followed the others out. She was trying to get over him, not trying to win his affection. Nel had mentioned that she was an independent person and she was happy with that kind of life before the bothersome feelings appeared. Plus, Sophia was a good friend to her; it would be wrong to go against her like that.
The bus driver decided that two victims were enough for one morning and allowed them to leave peacefully. Fayt kept his arm around Sophia to make sure she was still able to walk, resulting in Maria glancing away from them again. Once it seemed that the brunette was going to be okay, he backed away and fell in step with Maria.
"Great," Fayt muttered near her ear, "Now Sophia is really going to get brain damaged at this rate."
Sophia was rubbing the back of her head when she heard that and turned abruptly, "Hey!"
Maria giggled before she remembered why Sophia was rushing to get off the bus, "What were you going to tell Nel?"
"I was going to tell her that Roger has a crush on Peppita now, but then I remembered that I set them up as a birthday present for her. I should probably wait to tell her on her birthday," Sophia explained.
"Nel's birthday…?" Maria froze, "Nel's birthday is next week! We don't have any gifts for her yet."
"Oh yeah, I forgot about that. So who's gonna hang out with her this year?" Cliff wondered while casting a look that said 'if you pick me again, you're going to regret it.' With Nel being the daughter of a spy, someone had to distract her so the others could buy her gifts to surprise her. It was a difficult task to watch her and if you didn't do well, then on the day of her party she could name the gift before she opened it and not be surprised.
"Actually, Albel has already taken care of that. He's taking her to some concert tomorrow," Sophia replied as Maria raised an eyebrow and smirked.
"Oh really? How did you convince him to do that?"
Sophia's eyes widened at the thought before she held out her hands in defense, "Don't look at me! I had nothing to do with it. The tickets were Albel's present for her."
"…The only concert happening tomorrow is the Nuclear Crucifixion concert in Kirlsa. I never figured that they were heavy metal fans," Fayt commented as he gazed at the sky.
"Heavy metal?" Maria echoed in surprise before her voice darkened, "So Albel was the one who poisoned Nel with that crap…"
"Here we go again." Cliff rolled his eyes. This happened before when they first discovered Nel's love for heavy metal, "Let it drop. You can't tell people what to like."
The pop singer calmed down as she thought it over, "You're right…If I left things alone, then maybe Nel could convert him. He should be really good at the electric guitar."
"Maria, it would be a hot day in Airyglyph before Albel would join the band," Sophia muttered dryly.
"In the words of Mr. Wicked himself 'well said, fruit, well said'," Cliff chuckled at his Albel imitation.
"Cliff?" Fayt pointed above them. No one realized that they were already next to the front staircase and when Cliff glanced up, he met the furious ruby gaze of Albel the Wicked.
"Watch your back, maggot. I will deliver a swift demise to your pathetic life if you keep it up."
"Yeah, yeah," the blonde teen shrugged as he trudged up the stairs, "You'd think with all those big words you know, you'd come up with better names to call people."
"I don't call people names, maggot. I call them by what I classify them as," he growled. Suddenly it all made sense to Nel.
"Oh I get it now," she said as she crossed her arms, "People he consider to be extremely annoying and stupid are called 'maggots' and 'worms' are for people who are just stupid."
"And what are 'fools'?" Fayt inquired with a grin.
"I think that's for people he's not sure about. Or maybe they are for people who are just ignorant…" she guessed with a shrug.
"So that's why he teases you with the name calling crack every time you use his words against him," Mirage smiled as Albel huffed and faced another direction. He hated it when others talked about them. They sound like they were making fun of him.
"Exactly, and now I have a classification for you, Nox: you're an asshole," Nel said as she poked him in his back.
"That's very original, cerise," he replied sarcastically.
"What does 'fruit' mean, then," Sophia inquired as she stood beside Nel.
"I don't know, that one is fairly new."
"They are people who may go missing," Albel sneered as he glared at the brunette. Sophia gulped and backed away.
Nel soon realized that Albel was more hostile towards Sophia than to Cliff. Maybe she knew some secret of his or he was afraid she would find out a secret. She was good at that. If Albel was nervous to be around Sophia, then Nel briefly considered hanging around her more often. Nel fixed her gaze back on the crimson eyed teen to ask one final question, "And let me guess, 'cerise' is a word for people you want to remain angry?"
"Actually, I think it's his pet name for you."
"SHUT UP, FRUIT!" Sophia squeaked and then hid behind Fayt. Cliff sniggered before he walked over to them to give the girl a high five.
"Good one, Sophia. You got a nice reaction from him with that one!"
"Uh, I don't think she's going to move for a while," Fayt said as he tried to glance at the trembling girl. Albel, clearly angry at the remark, stormed off inside. Mirage watched on with a grin until he disappeared into the school.
"Really nice job, you got him to blush."
Nel blinked at her, "You mean she got him angry."
"No, he was blushing," she reassured. Sophia finally gained some courage to peer over Fayt's shoulder.
"I hit the nail on the head, didn't I?"
"I'll say," Maria commented with a proud smirk, "You deserve a treat for that, come with me to my locker."
"You guys…" Nel sighed tiredly as everyone headed inside. She refused to believe that he was blushing. It had to be anger, which means she will be on the receiving end when he vents it out later, "…Sophia, I can't tell if I want to use you or destroy you…"
Maria led Sophia to her locker for some rock candy in Sophia's favorite flavor. Maria was proud of her for making Albel blush. She was still bitter over his influence over Nel's choice in music. But there was another reason why she had called Sophia out here. She really didn't want to admit it, but she wanted to get Sophia away from Fayt.
"Maria? Do you think he was joking about the 'people going missing' thing?" the somewhat evil matchmaker asked nervously as she followed her best friend.
"I'm sure he wasn't serious. I mean, Nel wouldn't let him harm you, especially not after she hears what you did to Roger."
"I hope so…there are so many people I haven't set up on dates. I'm not ready to die yet!"
Maria chuckled as she rolled her eyes. When her locker was in sight, she opened the door and was suddenly bombarded by the sight of a beautiful bouquet of white irises. Her book bag fell off her shoulder as Sophia held her breath in shock. It was the middle of autumn. How could anyone find flowers that grew in the spring?
"Oh how pretty!" Sophia breathed, "Who sent them?"
Maria finally moved to look for the card, "…From…my secret admirer?"
"They must be from someone who pays close attention to you, because only Cliff, Fayt, and I know that irises are your favorite flower."
Or they could have asked Cliff or Mirage since they still had her diary. But then again, she never mentioned her favorite anything in her diary. Wait, Mirage said that Luther asked about her favorite flower. Could he…? Nah, Cliff refused to tell him anything and he couldn't possibly know what her favorite flower was out of the blue. Could Lieber have done this? She had been so careful to make sure he didn't know her locker number and there was no way he could have followed her without her knowing.
Her heart fluttered at the thought that Fayt could have done this, but that was wishful thinking. In fact, Fayt just passed them without so much as a glance in their direction as he headed towards Clair's classroom.
"Sophia, do you know who could have done this?" she asked desperately.
"Not a clue… I'll start investigating immediately. All I know right now is that this mystery man is very charming and must be cute at least. Most homely guys wouldn't have the confidence to leave flowers, even anonymously."
"I just hope he's not another creepy stalker like Lieber," Maria shuddered as she grabbed the watermelon flavored candy and gave it to her companion, "And now that I mention it, this will also be payment for getting Lieber to fall for someone else like what you did to Roger."
Sophia sweat dropped nervously, "I'm not a miracle worker, but I'll see what I can do."
"Cliff."
"Yo momma."
"…Go to the office."
"I was just kidding! Jeez!" Cliff laughed as Clair rolled her eyes.
"Mirage."
"Hier."
"German, got it," the teacher's aide replied in a bored tone.
"Sie werden immer besser, Frau Clair (You're getting good at this Miss Clair).""Thanks…I think. Fayt."
"Here ma'am!"
"Good…" Clair continued down the list and found everyone present, "…Fayt, could you stay behind after class for a few minutes? I'll write you a pass to your next class."
"Sure Clair," he replied enthusiastically. Everyone gaped at him in surprise. Only Nel called Clair by her first name and that was because they were good friends. No one could really question Fayt about the subject while the young teacher's aide was present so they could only let it go.
Nel decided to study for Count Noppen's make up test and pulled out her book to read, but was interrupted when a paper wad hit her on the nose. She instantly glared at Albel and found him writing on a piece of notebook paper, but she still caught the smirk. She smoothed out the crumpled piece of paper and found a note inside.
It read, 'I told you they were having an affair.'
Nel growled and pulled out her pen, 'They are not! Fayt has been asking her a question and she probably has the answer to it now.'
She re-crumpled the paper and threw it at him, hard. Only Clair looked up at them and blinked as Albel read over the contents, wrote a response, and threw it back at her even harder.
'How do you know that? You only made an assumption and there is no proof that it was true.'
'And how do you know they're having an affair? Have experience in the area? No wonder you moved to Aquaria.' This time it hit him in the eye. He narrowed his eyes at the words on the paper before he wrote down a reply and aimed for her ear. Clair was turning red from holding back her laughter as everyone else surprisingly remained oblivious to the paper argument.
'Don't take your anger out on me. It's not my fault that your best friend has a boyfriend and you don't.'
"Why you…," Nel muttered under her breath. Albel caught the note before it could hit him in the face.
'Maggot! I'm not jealous over something like that! Besides, there isn't anyone attractive around here to consider going out with.'
She wondered how he would respond to that. Would he be offended that he wasn't excluded from the 'not attractive' comment? Now that she was paying attention, she was able to catch the next note as easily as he did. What she read made her furious.
'Name calling again, cerise?'
'Oh, I'm sorry. I meant to write asshole!' She opted to get up and stuff the note in the back of his shirt over throwing it at him again. Only Clair watched on as he squirmed around in his desk to get the paper wad out. Once it was in his hands, he smirked. Albel didn't bother to reply to it. Instead he leaned over, grabbed the front of Nel's shirt and stuffed the wrinkled paper in her bra.
This time everyone noticed Clair when she let out a sound similar to releasing her breath and a chortle as she fell out of her chair. Nel's face was the same color of her hair as she slapped Albel across the face. The students in the room didn't understand why Nel had done that, but Cliff managed to put two and two together when he caught a glimpse of Nel pulling a piece of paper out of her cleavage.
"So Albel…What color was it?" he inquired casually as the dark teen smirked.
"Black and lacy."
"You are going to be dead 5th period, Nox!"
Clair crawled back into her chair when her breathing calmed down, "Okay, settle down. I don't want any fights within the classroom."
"Attention all students and teachers. I have an announcement," Lasselle's voice boomed over the loud speakers.
Suddenly Steeg raised his hand, "Miss Clair, can I go see the councilor? I'm hearing voices in my head and he sounds like a real idiot."
The class erupted in laughter before the principal continued, "All classes are canceled for the mandatory assemblies. As an added treat, we will be having the 'Don't Drink and Drive', the 'Be Cool and Don't do Drugs', and the 'Practice Abstinence and Avoid STDs' assemblies all in one day to get them out of the way. If they are done before the final bell, then we will have an early dismissal. That is all."
"So what, if they are not done by the bell, does that mean we have to stay after school?" Maria wondered before the door opened and Coach Adray came in.
"There isn't enough chairs in the auditorium for the whole student body so I need all the men in this room to come assist me," he ordered, earning groans from most of the boys.
Why are you taking your book bag, Fayt?" Cliff asked as the blue haired boy carefully cradled his back pack and put it on his shoulders.
"I need to stop by my locker," he explained before the muscled teen grabbed his bag and placed it back on the desk.
"You can do that later."
"I guess so," Fayt agreed hesitantly and headed out the door.
"Fayt! Since we can't talk later, I'll leave my e-mail address on your desk and we'll talk about you-know-what tonight," Clair called out before he could leave.
"Okay."
Once all the boys were gone, the girls sat in silence as Nel fumed. Mirage had a plan forming in her mind. It was a brilliant plan of revenge for Nel if she was willing to do it. The results should be …amusing should she agree to it.
"Oh Nel," Mirage purred when her brainstorming was done, "I have an idea that is worse than death for a certain Nox."
All eyes turned to her before Nel said, "I'm listening."
With the task done, Cliff, Fayt, Steeg, and Lieber were playing around as they headed back to class. Albel walked ahead of them, silently cursing under his breath over the headache he was getting from listening to them. He didn't bother looking back when the group behind him suddenly got quiet. The boys were debating on who would go push Albel into the girls' restroom. Soon Lieber was shoved forward before he tried to sneak up on the quiet teen only to run face first into a locker door when Albel opened it at the last second. Cliff and Steeg started laughing at Lieber as Albel glared at them. Fayt quickly elbowed Steeg to get him to help his brother before they ran off, leaving Cliff behind. Once the prankster realized that his friends were gone, he walked past Albel to catch up with them.
When Albel reached the classroom, a seductive voice purred his name. When he found the source, his headache suddenly vanished.
"Z-Zelpher?" Nel smirked as she slowly sauntered over to him. Her shirt was slightly pushed off her shoulders to show off even more cleavage than before.
"What is going on here-" he demanded before she pressed a finger over his lips.
"Shh… Before that paper fight, I didn't know you wanted to see me that badly. You should have told me sooner, I would have loved to get some alone time with you." She trailed her fingers gently down his chest. His face reddened slightly as he backed away.
"What are you talking about, fool? It was just a joke!" he protested as his back made contact with some lockers. The red head then slid her body against his and whispered in his ear.
"In that case you should do those 'jokes' more often. I like them."
"What are you saying, Nel! You're supposed to get angry!" He squirmed when he realized he was trapped.
Suddenly he heard suppressed snickering and saw some eyes peering through the small rectangular window in the classroom door. Great, there was an audience finding this amusing. Then it all clicked in his head. It was an act so Nel could catch him off-guard. Nel softly gasped when she felt his hand on the small of her back and glanced up to find his usual evil smirk gracing his features. What's worse, his shaggy mane of hair was obscuring his eyes, meaning that she was really in for it now. Why did she let Mirage and the others convince her to do this? Better yet, how did they? She immediately began pulling away, but his arm tightened around her waist and his free hand cupped her chin.
"Now I get it," he muttered as he brought his head closer to hers. Her eyes widened as he pressed his lips against his thumb which happened to be placed over her own lips. To the eavesdroppers at the door, it really looked like he was kissing her. Fayt was so shocked at the scene that he lost his balance and fell on top of Sophia. When Sophia fell, her leg accidentally kicked out and tripped Maria, causing her to fall on top of them. After that, there was a whole domino effect and the door gave away from the sudden weight, making the pile of students tumble out into the hallway.
Albel pulled away and let out a dark chuckle as he headed into the classroom, leaving Nel there frozen to the spot, "…Foolish worms."
"That wasn't supposed to happen. He's craftier than I thought," Mirage admitted as she tried to get out of the mess. Once everyone was able to detangle themselves from each other, Lasselle made one final announcement ordering the students to go to the auditorium for the assemblies. Knowing that it would be awhile before they could even get into the auditorium, the group gathered their things and split up.
Nel, not wanting to see Albel's face anytime soon, followed Maria and Sophia back to their lockers while she grumbled about Albel. She revealed to her friends what had really happened in the hallway and grumbled more, earning wide grins form them.
"You're just mad that he didn't kiss you for real."
"Shut up worm-I mean-Maria, UGH!"
It took all of Sophia's will power to not laugh at the red haired woman's frustration. It sounded like she needed to get laid by her tormentor, "Nel, I think you have been spending too much time with Albel."
"You think I haven't tried to get away from him? I'm lucky enough that I managed to lose him right now."
"But I thought you wanted 'to get some alone time' with me, cerise."
Nel cringed and peered over her shoulder. Much to her horror, embarrassment, and secret delight, there was the Wicked One in all is arrogance. She blushed and quickly looked away before she placed her hands over her ears.
"No…no…I'm not going to talk to you, I'm not even going to listen to you-" she was cut off when she felt him pull some of her shirt over her shoulder.
"Your bra strap was showing." She whirled around to face him.
"YOU POMPOUS-!" Nel stopped herself and then stormed off when she caught a glimpse of his triumphant smirk. She had forgotten that she was not supposed to fall for his ploys to get her angry. Albel only watched her leave before he pulled out her MP3 player. He had sneaked it out of her purse when she wasn't paying attention. He proceeded to mess around with it, most likely erasing all of the songs on it, as he slowly followed his furious cerise.
The sight of the MP3 player reminded Maria of why she was going to her locker in the first place. She wanted to get her MP3 player so she could listen to it instead of the guest speakers. She left Sophia, who was finishing up her notes on Albel and Nel's last encounter for future matchmaking opportunities, and opened her locker. She was greeted by the sight of her flowers, but then found yet another gift within.
"Huh?" Maria pulled out a box of what looked like very expensive foreign chocolates.
"Another gift?" Sophia inquired wide eyed as she dropped her note pad into her purse, "Who ever he is, he moves fast and has a lot of money."
A lot of money… That narrows the possibilities down to a handful of boys, one of which was Albel, but unless the chocolates were poisonous, it wasn't likely. The other candidates were not much better and the chance that it could be Luther was unnerving. She had nothing against Luther, in fact she did think he was attractive, but the only one she actually liked was Fayt and she couldn't see herself falling for anyone else.
"That's it!" Maria shouted as she slammed the door shut. Sophia backed away before her friend stormed off.
"Where are you going?" she asked as she tried to catch up.
"To make a deal with my brother," Maria replied, successfully keeping a worried tone out of her voice.
Said brother was currently selling tickets to an after school fight by his locker when the two girls found him.
"Why if it isn't my baby sister and her persnickety friend. What brings you to this side of the school?"
Maria raised an eyebrow, "Do you even know what 'persnickety' means? Never mind… I need a lock for my locker."
"What for?" he inquired with suspicion in his voice.
"None of your business. I just need a lock," she snapped, but then added as an afterthought, "please."
"Well since you said 'please'… How much are you going to pay me?" Maria inwardly smiled in relief as she realized that she got through to him.
"I'll take 20 percent of the picture profits instead of 50."
"Ooh, deal," he said as he pulled out a medium sized lock with a key attached. He then took out a spare key to free the other one before he handed them to Maria.
"Thanks."
"Um, Cliff? I have a question," Sophia began to ask before Maria could leave.
"Shoot."
"Who do you love more? Mirage or money?"
"Mirage, duh," he answered immediately without thinking it over, "There is a reason why I'm trying to earn a lot of Fol, but that's a secret."
"I like secrets," Sophia commented before adding in a darker tone, "But I love finding out the secrets."
"Well you won't have to 'cause if you promise not to tell Mirage, I will tell you this secret right now."
"Really!" Sophia squealed excitedly with stars in her eyes as Maria became skeptical.
"Is this a secret I haven't already read from your diary?" she inquired dryly, earning a sour look from him.
"1. It's not a 'diary' it's a journal. 2. No, this is something you don't know about. And 3. Don't go talking about reading my journal when I still have your diary."
"…Granted, so what is this secret?"
Cliff glanced around for any sign of Mirage before he pulled the girls closer to him, "I'm planning on using the money to buy something special for Mirage."
"Aww, how sweet!" Sophia cooed as Maria rolled her eyes.
'Something special' usually means a new whoopee cushion or a rubber chicken to Cliff, but she couldn't help but ask, "What special gift did you have in mind?"
To her surprise, his cheeks were dusted with a faint shade of pink as he bowed his head and mumbled something under his breath. What he said made Sophia gasp in shock and delight as her hands flew up to her wide smile. It even threw Maria off guard.
"W-what did you say?" the singer stuttered as she backed away.
Cliff looked sheepish as he grinned in his usual dopey manner, "You heard me. Now what ever you do, don't tell Mirage. I want it to be a surprise."
"My lips are sealed!" the brunette chirped as the troublemaker walked away.
He said that he was earning money to buy Mirage an engagement ring. Who knew Cliff could be romantic let alone committed enough to decide on a permanent relationship with Mirage?
The assembly was as mind numbing and boring as everyone had feared. Those who didn't have music players or hand held video games suffered or passed out from boredom. When the final assembly came around, the students who were 18 had the option to sign a form saying that they were not comfortable with the subject of pre-marital sex and STDs and be released early. Unfortunately, the majority of them didn't want to admit that they couldn't handle the subject and ended up staying to suffer with the rest.
As promised, they were released two hours early. The weekend had finally come. Maria stopped by her locker one last time to pick up her things. The lock was still there, without so much as a smudge on it. When she opened the door, she found nothing out of the ordinary, not even an anonymous letter. Pleased with the results, she closed the door and replaced the lock before she started to leave.
"M-Maria?" Maria turned to find a rather pale Sophia across from her.
"Yes?" The brunette then pulled out a box wrapped in shiny blue-green paper from her locker.
"There were instructions to give this to you taped to the back of my locker."
Maria hesitantly took the gift and read the card. Like all the other presents, it said 'From your secret admirer.' Apparently, this person was determined to give her this gift. She eventually stuffed the box into her bag with the intent to open it later, but she knew deep down that its future was to sit upon her dresser, collecting dust. Was she really that afraid to open it? Whatever was inside the box might be a major clue to who was sending her these things. But the question was, did Maria want to know who?
I had an assignment in my psychology class where I was supposed to act out a disorder so my partner could diagnose what I had and I used my traditional 'Take over the World' Speech. After I gave my speech and got my results, I had an idea and modified my speech just for fun. Remember, this is just a joke, I'm not serious so please don't take any offence to this.
The Alnel Take over the World Speech
I, Sorceress Myst Dragonspell …WILL RULE THE WORLD AND ALL ALNEL SUPPORTERS SHALL BE MY MINIONS!!!!!!!!!!!
Under this new world order, all people may keep their religions and traditions, but I will confiscate all weapons, especially the nuclear ones so people will play nice. It will be mandatory for all people to watch Anime and have to have English and Japanese as their second/third languages (if either one isn't already their first/second).
When I take my throne in Japan I will make Square-Enix produce a sequel to Star Ocean where Albel and Nel are the main characters and there will be romantic endings for said people as well as for Cliff and Mirage and Fayt and… I dunno… Maria, I guess.
The following Alnel supporters shall earn these lands in reward for their support for the best coupling ever (Not all are listed because there are a lot of people):
darkladyxion959 – The U.S. minus Utah
IceBlueWings – Australia
Blue Persuasion – Ireland
BlueTrillum – Spain
xKuroSeraphimx – Germany
mendokuse na – ½ of China
The Adversary – The other ½ of China
NelZelpher88 – Brazil
Anarchy Sky – Greece
Shadow Chakra – Malaysia
lil-creator – Philippines
Demoneyes14 – India
Somnion – France
vox shade – Egypt
Fluffymadness – Sweden
Echoa – 1/3 of Russia
MelanieStar – Argentina
Zosocrowe – Switzerland
Kitsune-Li – Other 1/3 of Russia
Raven the Dark Angel – Poland
Harbinger Loki – Italy
Lor – Chile
The Crazy Authoresses CAT and AMS – 7 islands of her choosing
Dawn (Not a supporter, but she is still my best friend) – Canada and England (She gets England only until P.M. proves herself)
P.M.(aka Yuna) – Utah (Because I don't think she's ready for the big countries yet)
And finally, vampireprincessz (aka Rikku) – gets…NOTHING! (Because the agreement was that she would live in Japan to be a second rate psychotic body guard/human pet and get to visit Anime town everyday) Haha! Take that Rikku!
…In case you're wondering, I was diagnosed as bi-polar and manic. Good thing I'm actually eccentric and just plain psychotic, otherwise I'd be taking therapy and won't have time to write fics…if I could write in that condition. C ya next chapter!