Chapter 20
Diana walked down the halls towards the library after all her Monday duties. Silently cursing at herself when she checked her phone to find 52 missed calls and about 107 texts from Akko while Professor Woodward's letter was still unread, neatly tucked inside her coat's pocket. She still hasn't found the free time to read it.
Hannah and Barbara noticed her parading and immediately accompanied her. A routine Diana essentially found solace to.
"Good morning Diana!" they both greeted. "How was your weekend?"
"Good morning, Hannah, Barbara," she greeted back with a smile. "It was productive as it could be."
Before Diana could take a further step, she heard someone whistle from a distance. She spotted Amanda and her companions sprawled upon the grassy floor of the courtyard: Constanze doing experiments with her AI robot, Jasminka sharing her sweets to random passersby and Amanda dancing around, holding a flag baton as she twirled it around.
"Look at those students, horribly advertising their confectionaries. They are disrupting the community." Hannah expressed disgust at the sight of them. "I wonder what prompted them to decide to do that here."
However, Diana gave no attention to her friend's ramblings. She never knew that she'd found the mischief trio by the courtyard of their department rather their respective ones. She wasn't prepared to see Akko's friends in the campus grounds and certainly don't know how to casually act with them even though she wanted to show to everyone that she is genuinely interested at the Japanese girl. She knew she persuaded herself to explain herself to Akko's friends and at this moment, the chance was given to her, a lump of air got stuck in her throat.
"It's them." Diana murmured.
"What?" Hannah asked.
"It's them," Diana said louder and clearer this time, gathering valor. "I need to have a word with them."
"Diana," Barbara snickered. "Are you going to tell them off?"
"No, I am acquainted with them."
"EHHHH?" the girls gave a collective gasp.
"Miss O'Neill!" Diana called and failed to remember the surnames of Superwoman and the German girl.
Heads whipped up towards the caller. Amanda, Jasminka, and Constanze were unperturbed with her while the other students in the vicinity had their eyes bulging out at the sight of Diana Cavendish calling people casually.
Even Hannah's and Barbara's eyes widened slightly, sculpted brows shooting up for just a second before they must have realized they looked like a deer in headlights. It took them a moment to wipe the expression clean, replacing it with smiles.
Diana didn't ever approach anyone just to greet them. Matter of fact, Diana never approached anyone, period. People were always coming up to her with greetings and salutations, presents and gossip.
Somewhere along the line, something changed. And while it momentarily confused her, she decided some changes simply needed to be made.
To her surprise, the excitement pulsing through her doesn't last long.
"Hey, Cav!" Amanda hit the end of the pole to the ground. "I haven't seen you since yesterday!"
"Cav? Yesterday?" Hannah echoed. She confronted Diana who looked at her warily. "Did you ditch us to hang out with them?"
"I didn't—" Diana decided to tread on her words carefully. "—ditch you, it's a long story, I was looking for a chance to tell you," Diana said.
"Join us!" Jasminka offered. "Your skinny friends are welcome!"
"Excuse me?" Hannah said, offended.
"How dare you call us skinny?" Barbara added.
Jasminka walked over to them with a tray of pastries. "Would you like some?"
"Those are full of calories!" Hannah crossed her arms. "Do you want us to get fat?"
"They are actually organic and sugar-free sweets!" Jasminka said. "These are leftovers from my Final exam so I'm sharing it with everyone."
"Oh!" Barbara's eyes roamed over the sweet-smelling cakes and chose one strawberry shortcake that was provided with a plate and fork and took a piece to chew on. "In that case, they look lovely!"
"What?" Hannah couldn't believe that was happening.
"Come, have some!" Jasminka shoved a forkful of Belgian chocolate cake to Hannah's mouth.
Amanda laughed loudly at the sight. Diana searched Constanze's eyes for a simple explanation but it seemed the German girl also had no clue when she shrugged. Diana was prompted to believe that seeing her two bratty friends had their mouths full of cake slices was amusing to the American to no end.
"Umm, Miss O'Neill..." Diana began.
"Oh come on, Cav. Give me a nickname. You don't have to be formal all the damn time."
"Then I will take your suggestion. I shall call you Mandy."
This resulted for the American to cackle out loud, holding onto her stomach. Diana feared that the redhead would lose air any moment. Something worse happened, Amanda fell on the ground as she continued to laugh and hit the floor from her outbursts.
A wave of embarrassment flooded through Diana at the prospect of every passerby's attention at their uncanny group. They weren't violating school rules but they weren't just used to seeing the prim and proper Diana Cavendish next to Amanda O'Neill. She wondered what more these people would think if they knew about Atsuko Kagari.
She decided to look back to Constanze to try to read her to see if she shares Diana's sentiments. Constanze merely twirled a finger on the side of her forehead, indicating that Amanda's gone crazy.
Diana sighed at that.
So when Amanda's laughter died down, she cleared her throat. "So, as I was saying, I never had the chance to ask as seemingly that we were interrupted."
Amanda's eyes widened at the recognition of this topic. "What's this? Are you being chummy with me, Princess?"
"What's Akko like?" Diana asked in a soft voice, she wouldn't want Hannah and Barbara yelling at her ears when they heard her, "as a friend for you?"
Amanda gave her a knowing smile. "Ah, she was just such fun to be around! The place could get really boring and tedious without our combined antics or banter. Listen if you want to talk about that stunt you pulled yesterday, you don't have to explain to us. You have to head straight to Akko, she's the stupid one."
"I would prefer if you stop calling her that."
"What?" Amanda egged on. "She is stupid. But I'm super glad you like her that way, finally, someone is attracted to her. I don't understand why you like her though. Maybe because you two are opposites and opposites attract?"
Diana hasn't presented the opportunity to answer when a familiar voice sent electricity down her spine.
"Diana! Hey Diana!"
"Who's that calling?" Barbara asked.
"Blimey, it's that Japanese girl again." Hannah narrowed her eyes at the upcoming brunette.
Diana's face heated up at Akko's voice. But still, she couldn't gather the courage to talk to her about the kiss yet. Despite the fact that it was just on the cheeks, it was still a bold declaration.
"Wait," she hissed at Amanda. "She's here? You didn't tell me she will be."
"Well yes?" Amanda's eyebrow rose to her hairline. "We are a squad after all."
Diana huffed then mustered up her bearings to walk away.
"Walking away from her won't help you, Cav!" Amanda yelled at her.
"Diana, wait!" Akko continued calling after her.
Akko's sweet bubbly voice made it harder for Diana to ignore her. She was afraid that if she stared at Akko's eyes, she would melt.
As much as she wanted to turn around and face Akko, she has an image to uphold at school. She was Diana Cavendish in this school: the best student, the student council president, the model student. An act of PDA would surely be frowned upon, no matter what her sexuality is.
Yesterday, when she was with Akko in the garden, she was just Diana. She could unshed her responsibilities and act freely, but at the present, they are in their old environment. It's not that easy to adapt.
Akko's influence changed her, changed her so much that Diana doesn't know if she still liked it.
"She seems to be in a hurry Akko, she might be busy." She heard a meek voice telling Akko, probably her doting professor. "You can talk to her another time."
"Professor Ursula's right, Akko," Lotte added.
"More like never," came Sucy's retort. "I told you she won't bother being seen with you in public."
Guilt gnawed at Diana's conscience. Then anger overcame the guilt. But she never stopped walking away. Hannah's and Barbara's pleas for her to slow down and let them catch up were completely disregarded.
She tried her best not to look at Akko, yet she knew the Japanese girl was emotionally distraught when she snubbed her. Diana wasn't able to fight off her resolve so she glanced back and met Akko's red eyes which she managed to capture in her painting.
Just as she feared, pure passion overwhelmed her, frighteningly trying to control her. In a wisp of breath, she could walk towards Akko in a heartbeat. Like what drew them closer each time they were alone.
"I'm sorry, Akko." She whispered then ran off.
Ever since yesterday, her communication with Diana wavered a little. She continued to ignore what Sucy told her that Diana was deliberately ignoring her.
At this moment, when Akko saw Diana personally on the school grounds, she immediately shouted her name. She wasn't fond of the idea that the possibility of Diana ignoring her could happen.
But as Akko watched Diana leave, her friends struggling to keep up with her, really meant that she doesn't want to face her at all.
"What was that about?" Akko asked, searching for answers as she looked at her friends.
"I don't know." Amanda shrugged with Jasminka and Constanze.
"She's just being herself," Sucy said, being the devil's advocate. "I bet she hates you now, considering she barely acknowledged your existence."
Akko's jaw dropped to the floor. Disbelieving what Sucy said, but it was proven that Sucy's intuitions are spot on. Maybe it was true. Diana hates her.
Still, Akko wanted to be friends with Diana on any kind of level—or was it because Akko was too much of a pariah for Diana to ever be seen with in public. It was so silly, and Akko didn't even know why she cared.
Okay, so that was a lie.
She did know why she cared. A part of her wanted to have a place in Diana's world. Tear down the entire self-righteous, narcissistic and superficial mask that the blonde donned every day she wakes up and caged the true self that for a long time.
"Maybe she's upset about yesterday, Akko." Lotte offered a reason.
"Why would she be?" Akko asked, a little louder than she should. "She's the one who kissed me!"
"Well," Lotte pushed her glasses up the bridge of her nose. "You should try to understand her side. She might be embarrassed too. She'll come to you when she's prepared."
Akko was so lost she decided to regard Lotte's suggestion. She knew she could be insensitive sometimes—always failing to read the signs and signals. She was no mind reader but the fact that she cared about Diana so much, she couldn't help but wonder that the thing that separates them was their social status.
No wonder Akko stuck to her friends who were outcasts like her. But, Diana was different. Surely, Akko knew there was more to Diana than the role she played for the masses.
Diana had depth, something Akko would've never even considered before Diana pulled her on a walk to search for inspiration and she found out a little something about Diana's childhood.
"She's being difficult!" Akko said, frustrated. "If that's what she wants, I'm going to have to chase her." She sauntered away in a hasty speed.
"WHAT AKKO?" Lotte asked frantically, Amanda and the rest kept cheering and hollering.
"I AM GOING TO TALK TO HER!" Akko replied back, running the halls as if she's on an Olympic race.
"Akko's brave." Professor Ursula said, causing the rest of Akko's friends to gape at her. "Uhh, I mean. Akko's brave enough to actually communicate with Miss Cavendish. I admire that she has too little hesitation in her fiber."
Amanda scoffed. "You speaking from experience, Teach?"
Ursula's mind wandered to a particular lilac haired Italian woman. "Yes, yes I am."
A/N
Heya guys! Thank you so much for reading until now. I read every review and don't worry I share your sentiments. Since technically the awaited nude scene isn't a spoiler, I will reveal that it will happen after the Samhain festival.