Chapter 13

The first day Brief went to school since he was admitted to the hospital was surprisingly uneventful. The jocks treated him like shit and the girls ignored him or gave him a look of disgust. Panty was sleeping at her desk again and Stocking seemed preoccupied with taking notes.

"Hi Panty. Hi Stocking." He didn't stutter. After all he went through it seemed silly to him even though he was nervous inside. Panty either did not hear him or was too lazy to respond.

"Hi Brief." Stocking greeted not looking away from her notes.

The teacher smashed a book in his desk and every student immediately went quiet and sat down. Mr. Halco was not someone you wanted to be on the bad side of. Brief sighed and sat down. The lesson would have been interesting if Brief hadn't already finished the chapter he was explaining. This meant Brief was alone with his thoughts and he did not mind. He had some serious thinking to do.

Brief had been so sure of his feeling a week ago but not anymore. Remembering all the things that had happened up till now he felt again the pain of Panty's rejections. How he had spent more time with Stocking and had gotten to know her and had slowly fallen for her. "Does Stocking really have feeling for me?" Brief had been confident about this before.

Then Panty had asked him to go on a date with her and Brief had gotten hope he had thought was forever lost. "I still love Panty but…it's not the same anymore." The possibility of going on a date with Panty did not give him the same feeling as before. It still felt exiting but every time he imagined going out with Panty, Stocking popped up in his mind paired with feelings of guilt and a pain in his chest.

Stocking had seen Panty ask Brief out and had said she was happy for them. "She has tried to help me get together with Panty from the beginning." Brief thought suddenly and went over the last few weeks again in his mind. "She told me to make something for Panty, told him not to give up and had made excuses for me to come to the church." The signs Brief had thought he had been seeing. "Could I have been wrong? She rescued me from Scanty and Kneesocks but maybe she just felt sorry for me. Maybe she stayed while I was hurt because she pitied me and maybe she cried while I was in the hospital because she was guilty."

"She has never said she liked me that way and honestly why would she? She could have anyone." The possibility of Stocking liking him seemed smaller and smaller as the day dragged on. Stocking acted like nothing had happened between them. She still talked to him and smiled at him but she seemed more distant somehow and he noticed that she avoided touching him. "What was the point if after everything she still thinks I only want Panty? I need to talk to her, and to Panty."

The last class of the day had ended and headed out off the classroom intent on finding the angels. He pulled the door open and ran into the hallway without looking. Unable to break he slammed into someone walking by. Brief looked up to apologize but when he saw who he had crashed into he froze. He had just accidentally tackled Dwayne Davo the schools biggest and meanest bully. He would kick someone's as for no reason and Brief had just given him a very good one. "I hope he doesn't break anything. I just got out of the hospital." Brief thought as Dwayne's enraged eyes settled on him.

Brief was not the only one that had done some thinking over the last few days. Ever since she left the hospital Stocking had wracked her brain thinking about what she was going to do about Brief. "He loves Panty and not me but I don't want to lose him even if I can't be with him." And so in the end she decided to act like they were friends no matter how hard that would be.

When Brief came back to school she found out just how hard that was. She smiled at him and talked to him. When he talked back and smiled back she felt warm inside but the moment he looked away it hurt. It hurt so much to be so close and yet not being able to close that final distance.

Panty's thought process had always been a bit different and had only begun once she saw Brief in class. Now that she was unable to distract herself or ignore thoughts about Brief. Never having felt anything remotely close to romantic feelings she was scared. Panty being, well… Panty, she decided to face her fear head on. "Would it really be that different?" she wanted, no she needed to know.

Both angels were walking their way towards the exit when suddenly something shot past them at breakneck speed. Panty and Stocking looked at each other thinking the same thing. "Was that Brief?" The sound of loud thuds getting closer followed Briefs sudden appearance and disappearance. Panty and Stocking could feel the ground shake as Dwayne passed them following Brief. Concerned Panty and Stocking quickly got to the parking lot were the two had been heading.

Brief arrived in the parking lot surprised Dwayne had not grabbed him yet and risked a glance behind him. Dwayne wasn't there. "Did I outrun him?" Brief never outran anyone, his lack in any form of physical strength or speed was one of the reasons he was a frequent target of bully's. Dwayne appeared and Brief was surrounded by cars and curious student giving him no escape.

"D…Dwayne calm d…down it was just an accident." Brief started raising his hands up in surrender, "I'm s…sorry, I should have looked were I was going I…" he didn't have time to finish because he had to dodge Dwayne's fist.

Stocking watched all this happening and saw Brief dodge Dwayne with a speed she didn't know he had. He was still taking to Dwayne trying to apologize in between dodging his attacks. Brief dodged again and was trapped between two cars. Dwayne smiled thinking he had won and swung his fist and hit the car. Brief was suddenly standing behind him and shoved him against the car.

The moment Brief knew he was trapped his mind blanked out and he moved out of instinct. Now he raised his fist preparing to hit Dwayne but froze when he spoke. "Your eyes," he croaked while his showed pure fear, "they're…" Brief looked at his reflection in the car window and saw his eyes. He stepped back from Wayne in shock. There were red rings around his irises. He looked back at Dwayne, who was still looking at his with fear, and ran off.

The next day at school Brief is already in the classroom when Stocking walks in.

"Hi Brief" she greets as she walks up to him.

"Oh, Good morning Stocking" he looked startled for a second but then smiled at her. Class started and she sat down at her desk. She often glanced at Brief while taking notes and after a while she noticed he was very absent-minded and hardly paid any attention to the lesson or other people which was very unlike Brief. This continued through the day and she also noticed other odd little things. He kept breaking his pencils every time he was startled and one of them had been in a metal casing. Also every time a class ended he sprinted to the nearest bathroom. "Is something wrong with him?" Stocking thought concerned.

She wanted to ask him because she was worried and Panty had, off course, not even noticed anything was wrong. To make him explain what was going on but she could find an opportunity to do so. "How do I talk to him about it without seeming too concerned? He needs to think I'm just a friend, I don't want to lose him." This was Stockings biggest problem she didn't know how to talk to him anymore. Before she had just been polite and disinterested but she couldn't do that. And if she got to close she might upset him.

Stocking had thought that Panty hadn't noticed Brief was acting odd but she had. A couple of weeks ago she most likely wouldn't have but now Brief was on her mind often. "He'll tell me when there's a problem, he always does." Panty thought. She was more preoccupied with finding out Briefs' feelings. If he liked her more than Stocking she might be able to see what all that romantic crap was that he kept on about. But if he liked Stocking more than her… The thought made her wince and she didn't want to think about that possibility. "Maybe I should talk to Stocking about it. She must want to know too."

Panty saw Stocking go to the restroom and followed figuring thing was as good a time as any to ask. Inside Stocking was washing her hands when Panty walked in.

"Hey Stocking…"

"Hm?" she enquired focused on her hands.

"About Brief," Stocking dried her hands and focused on Panty, "I know what you said at the park but…" Panty saw Stocking wince and saw hurt and anger in her eyes.

"What about it?" Stocking said with a strained voice.

"Well, don't you want to hear who Brief actually likes?"

Anger was burning fiercely in Stockings eyes now and hey also became watery threatening to start spilling tears.

"Who he likes! You know he likes you! He has always looked at nobody else than you!"

"Has she really not noticed?" Panty was an airhead but even she couldn't miss how Brief looked at her at times and especially how he had acted after he rescued stocking.

"No it's not like that, I think that…" Panty tried to calm her down. This is not what she had wanted.

"Shut up! Shut up, shut up, shut up, shut up!" Stocking screamed clenching her fists and her eyes shut. "Don't you know how much it hurts? To be near him but knowing he likes you!"

"Stocking I…I just…"

"No! You don't deserve him! After all you did to him and the way you treated him. He has loved you from the first time you met and you never cared!" Tears were streaming down Stockings face. "She…She's right," Panty thought, "Why would he event still care about me. I have only ever hurt him." Tears were now also welling up in Panty's eyes as Stocking continued.

"He has always been kind. He was the only one that ever saw us for who we are and not just angels. And now, now that I can't stand to be without him, now you want him?!"

Stocking ran out of the restroom.

Name: Fanhair

Race: Ghost

Gender: Female

Appearance: Ghost: human shaped body, orange hair moving as if always in strong wind.

Human: Blonde, 'perfect' body and blue eyes.

Ability: Creating a vortex able to suck things in and shoot them out at high speed.

Death: Hair got tangled in one of the fans used during a photo shoot.

Occupation: Former model

Defeated by: Panty

Heaven Coins: 6

A/N: So this update is a bit later than the rest because off school assignments piling up.

For the same reason updates might be slower for a few weeks but they will definitely keep coming!

Thanks for reading and leave a review if you liked the story or for any other reason.