A/N: So...how was everyone's month been?

Chapter 20:

Tick. Tock. Tick. Tock.

The sound of the clock ticking above the chalkboard behind Professor Stein's desk was the only audible noise inside the classroom other than the sound of pencil lead etching answers into scantron forms from the hands of Maka's classmates who sat around her in the rather stuffy, warm space.
Maka sat in the far back of the room which was unusual considering she normally took her spot in her 'unassigned, assigned' desk at the very front, but today she decided she didn't particularly want Professor Stein in her direct line of sight. Her test packet sat completed atop the smooth surface of the her desk, naturally finished earlier than the rest of her classmates considering all the hours of studying she had put in. She rested her chin in the palm of her hand as she sat back in her chair, peering down into her lap where her free hand was holding her cellphone, it's screen dimmed to not cause attention. She glanced up and over the heads of girls sitting hunched over their tests in front of her to Professor Stein who sat uninterestedly gazing out the window, silently tapping his desk with his right hand as the glare of the sun reflected off his glasses.

A message popped up on her phone.
"Soul: You're sure Crona won't back out of this tonight? He seems kinda worried about doing it, I'm with him out behind the school right now."

She tapped the glass face of her smartphone. "Convinced him to skip class?" Maka texted back as she hid a small grin that appeared on her face with the sleeve of her school blazer, "He's stronger than you think, and he seemed really into doing this. He wouldn't back out, especially not now…" Her eyes hovered over her message before she hit send. She sighed silently to herself before peering out the dirty glass of the classroom windows, a pit of anxiety swirling in her gut.
It was Friday and in a few hours when classes ended the kids of Shibusen will head to their dorms or rented apartments to get ready for Turnabout tonight where they will meet up with their friends and lovers so they can listen to cheesy throwback music and dance together. However, tonight is also the night where Headmaster Death will formally introduce Arachne as his fiancee, but what Death doesn't know is that Crona will be there amongst the crowd ready to expose Arachne.

"I don't know," Soul texted her, "It takes a lot of guts to do what Crona's planning on doing, can't he just write Death an anonymous letter or something?"

"He's not just exposing Arachne but what his mother has been doing to him, too," Maka wrote back, "He wants to show everyone in person what's really been going on. He can do this, trust me."

"I'm just afraid this'll all backfire on him, you know? He's been flipping through this journal he stole from his mother's office and won't stop muttering about it. I honestly think he's already lost it..." Soul texted her, his messages coming through slower and slower for some reason, probably because Soul and Crona were wandering deeper in the woods behind the school. "Are you sure we shouldn't go with him tonight?"

"Standing in a crowded, sweaty gym listening to old Katy Perry mixes is one of the last ways I want to spend my Friday evening," Maka texted back, "Besides, Crona will have Kid there to back him up, it'll all be good…"

"Alright, I'll trust you guys on this if you really feel like it'll work out...," Soul wrote back. A pair of ellipses appeared under his recent message to indicate he was still writing something back to her. "Hey, but since everyone's gonna be at Turnabout tonight do you maybe want to g-"

*Bam!*

Maka's eyes flashed up from her phone screen to Professor Stein standing in front of her desk, glaring down at her with his right hand slammed onto her desk. "Cheating, Ms. Albarn?" he asked her as he swiped her test packet off the desk.

"W-what?" Maka stuttered in shock as Stein grabbed her cellphone as well and made his way to the front of the room. Her cheeks burned red as her classmates stared back at her with surprised expressions.
"Maybe that's why she always gets such good marks…." she heard one of them whisper.

"You know, you are the last person I would think to jeopardize their grades by doing such a foolish thing such as texting during class," Stein muttered at a tone that was just barely audible from her seat in the back.

"I wasn't cheating," Maka defended, gritting her fists as Professor Stein slid her phone into his lab coat pocket. "You know I wouldn't cheat."

Stein shook his head. "Rules are rules, Maka," he began. "It states in the school handbook that any form of communication during a test or exam is grounds for cheating which is not taken lightly here, especially when who will be determined as the class's valedictorian is at stake," he said clearly before tearing Maka's test in half and letting the remains fall into the recycling bin.

"You can't just trash my test!" Maka said as she shot up out of her seat, digging her fingernails into the soft skin of her palms and nearly drawing blood.

"Why?" Stein questioned, crossing his arms. "Because you're in the running for class valedictorian and this may ruin your chance completely?" He chuckled and shook his head. "You shouldn't expect special treatment all the time, at least not from me. I've helped you before, but that doesn't mean you can just continue messing up without consequences. I'm sorry."

"But Professor-" Maka began, her anger melting into desperation as rough calculations of how receiving no credit on this test will affect her grade point average.

"Enough!" Professor Stein said, raising his voice enough to cause everyone in the rooms to snap their heads forward with their attention aimed at Stein. "Maka Albarn, you will respect my decision and be grateful that I did not call Headmaster Death into this matter as I have mentioned at Shibusen cheating is a deep concern-"

"Like you'd know a thing or two about cheating," Maka murmured curtly under her breath, glowering at the man that had lost a great deal of her respect over the course of a few weeks.

"Excuse me?" Stein said rigidly, narrowing his eyes at her. "You want to repeat that, Ms. Albarn?" he challenged, pushing his glasses higher up the bridge of his nose as he stared at her through the lenses, "because I feel the last thing you need right now is my personal life on your lips."

"How can men just be so nonchalant about these kinds of things!?" Maka said to Stein, shaking her head slowly and causing her blonde pigtails to sway gently against her jawline. "You cheated on Marie, and the only thing you care about is making sure you can hide your new girlfriend from her! How can you just carry on when you know how bad Marie must be hurting right now!?" she said harshly, an old feeling of hatred and disgust bubbling up inside of her.

"Mhm, is that so?" Stein murmured deeply, a small smile curling the corner of his mouth upward. "I assume Mr. Evans told you this, am I correct?" he asked, straightening up and crossing his arms over his chest.
The sly small on his face dissipated into a tight frown followed by angry, drawn eyebrows, "And then I further assume it was the two of you that informed Marie on my personal matters?"

Maka scoffed. "We didn't need to say anything to Marie for her to find out," she said bitterly, "Maybe you shouldn't have made out with Medusa out in public for the whole world to see-"

"That will be all, Ms. Albarn!" Stein yelled as he slammed his fist onto his desk, causing it to rattle slightly and send a few stray pencils rolling off onto the floor. The classmates around Maka instantly ceased their whispers, bowing their heads in silence as the only audible sound was the wooden edges of the pencils hitting the tile. "I will not stand here and be told what do by my own student," Stein said. He sighed deeply as he lolled his head to the side to peer out the window. "Two hour detention today at six," he said without a hint of expression left on his face, "I hope you weren't planning on attending Turnabout tonight, Miss Albarn…"

Maka gritted her teeth.
"No, I wasn't," she said before storming out of the classroom, slamming the door shut behind her and running off down the hall.

Soul

Soul sat leaning against the interior of the brick wall at the edge of the field facing the school, picking at frail violet wildflowers that were sprouting up from thawing earth as he watched the group of upperclassmen rough house and tease each other under the pavilion. For the first time since what seemed like forever ago, Soul ditched spending his free in Professor Stein's classroom.
"Wonder why Maka never texted back…" he thought idly, pulling the petals off the small flower he held in his hand as the groups of upperclass room suddenly went a few decibels softer as they turned their heads in a similar direction.

"What are you doing back here?" Soul called out to the boy who was making his way down the field as the upperclassmen started with curious and surprised expressions, almost as if they've just seen a ghost.

"Just decided to stop by, I guess," Kid shrugged as he leaned against the brick wall Soul sat against, staring out idly at the groups of students situated on the other side of the field at metal picnic tables underneath the school's pavilion. "It feels like forever since I've been here…"

"Your father actually let you out of the house for the day alone?" Soul asked, as he watched the discarded petals of the flower he dismantled flutter away in the light breeze.

"Nah, I just felt like if I spent one more day watching reruns of Family Feud I'd literally lose it all over again," Kid teased with a hint of a grin pulling at the corners of his mouth. "Besides, you've seen how observant my father's staff at home is."

Soul chuckled and shook his head. "You're looking a lot better, you know," he said, looking Kid up and down from the corner of his eye. The circles under his eyes faded to a pale purple and his bruises from his fall off the roof shrunk to no larger than a dime.

"I'm feeling a lot better," Kid murmured, glancing up at pavilion and then further up to the red cone formations at the very top of the school. The pale early spring sun lit up his golden eyes and it looked as if he'd let go of all the anger and rage that had built up inside him.

"Think you're coming back to school again soon?" Soul asked, standing up and looking over to him as he shoved his fists into the pockets of the light jacket he wore over his uniform polo.

Kid sighed as he picked at the fraying edges of his cast.
"I honestly hope so."

(A few hours later…)

"What do you mean you have detention?" Soul called out moments after the final bell of the week rung out, sending a swarm of students rushing through the halls to get home and prepare for Turnabout later that night.

Maka paced up and down next to Soul's locker as he sloppily dumped the contents of his bookbag into his locker. "I mean Professor Stein gave me a detention!" she huffed angrily, crossing her arms over her chest, "And he took my cellphone and completely failed me for the exam we just took!"

Soul shook his head and chuckled as he swung his backpack over his shoulder. "Well I mean, you did expose him as a cheater in front of his entire class just because he caught you texting during a quiz…"

"Since when are you the voice of reason?!" Maka complained as Soul sighed and slammed his locker shut. "And he deserved someone to put him in his place after what he did. No woman deserves to be put through anything like that, especially Ms. Marie!"

"Well, was it worth your spot of being ranked first in class rank for Sophomore year?" Soul asked as he clicked his lock shut.

Maka leaned against the adjacent locker and shrugged, looking down at her shoes. "I don't even care if Ox tops me. He's such a prick as it is, just let him get what he wants and maybe he'll just shut up about it."

"I doubt Ox will ever shut up about anything," Soul said with a tight smile as he squeezed Maka's shoulder. "C'mon, don't get all pouty over this, and since when do you give up, especially to Ox?"

Maka shrugged as the two of them walked down the hall, pushing their way through the crowd of chattering students towards the staircase that lead down to the front entranceway.
She sighed deeply when they stepped outside into the school's courtyard, breathing in the spring air that held a certain chill and was heavily damp with moisture. "You know, maybe if graduating valedictorian isn't worth getting all the fun sucked out of high school."

Soul paused and whipped around to face her, his backpack swinging against his back and nearly hitting a few passersby. "You sure you're feeling yourself today, Maka?" he teased, raising an eyebrow, "Isn't getting out on top your life goal? Like your mom did or something?"

Maka chewed her lip in thought and stared out at the groups of students pouring out of the school's doors and filling the courtyard as they laughed and congregated in cliques around them.
Hadn't that been what Maka had been striving for all along? Her mother's face flashed through her mind. Hadn't Maka's goal all along been to complete what her mother couldn't accomplish?
Her mother…
Her mother who had spent her young life studying and striving for perfect grades.
Her mother who had landed herself her dream job as a reward for all that hard work.
Her mother who accidentally cracked one day and had a daughter she didn't need nor want.
"I'm not my mom," Maka said, relaxing her fists as she turned back to Soul. "You know, growing up my mom always filled my head with ways to be successful and study tips and what colleges want to see in young women, but she never had any happy stories about friends or her birthdays or her first concert or just life in general. It's like if something didn't get her ahead, then she regretted doing or having it at all."

"Hm," Soul hummed as a smirk grew on his face. "Well, if you want endless stories and jokes about Beatles concerts and family birthday parties you can talk to my grandfather." His smile faded almost as suddenly as it appeared, "Well, he doesn't really talk about the past anymore…"

"Why?" Maka asked, the crowd of students begging to thin as their peers began heading back to the dorms.

"Don't worry about it," Soul muttered, waving her off with his hand. "But about the whole valedictorian thing, I think you should just do what makes you happy, you know? You can't live forever being pressured by your family to be a certain something, like you have to squeeze yourself in order to fit a certain mold or shape they created."

"Is that how you feel with your family?" Maka questioned, "With Wes and everything?"

Soul kicked at a stray pebble. "Yeah...yeah it is," he murmured, "You just can't truly be happy in your own life if all you're doing is trying to please the ideals and standards of someone that isn't you." He stared hard into her eyes, "You understand me, Maka? You're a smart girl, like really fucking smart, don't get me wrong, but you can be so much more than just a people pleaser. Don't just be valedictorian because you think it'll please your mother or whatever, do it for you."

Maka nodded and blushed. "Thanks, Soul," she giggled, "I guess I have a lot of soul searching to do about what I want in my life, huh?"

"If you feel like you do," Soul chuckled.
"Oh hey," he began, "Did you ever get a chance to read my text 'bout this weekend before Stein snagged your phone?"

"No, he refuses to give it back until after detention tonight," Maka said, rolling her eyes with over-exaggeration, "What'd you wanna say?"

Soul cleared his throat and shrugged. "I guess really nothing important, just forgot I asked, okay?" he said with a small, tight smile.

"Whatever you say," Maka laughed as she adjusted her backpack strap. "Alright, I should head back before Jackie burns down the dorm by leaving her straightener on."

"Yeah, talk to you soon," Soul called out before they each turned around and headed their separate ways, pushing through the crowd of students as they traveled in opposite directions under the gentle warmth of the pale spring sun overhead.

Maka

"What happened in here?" Maka said, furrowing her eyebrows as she pushed the dorm room door opened and stepped inside to find herself encircled by discarded dresses and shoes covering the wooden floors.

Jackie sat leaning against the dresser in nothing but her undergarments with her hair pulled up in a messy bun. Streaks of dried mascara tears left streaks across her pale cheeks. "Did you not get my text during lunch?" she murmured, not bothering to look up at Maka as she remained staring off into space.

Maka shook her head as she closed the door shut with a soft 'click'. "No, I don't have my phone on me," She shrugged and crouched down in front of Jackie with a small smile. "It's a long story, but, uh, what happened? It looks like your entire closet threw up."

"I think I'm going to throw up," Jackie said, offering up a weak smile as she hugged her knees close to her chest. "Everything's too tight on me…" she whispered, nudging her chin to the piles of clothes discarded on the floor.

"Jackie…" Maka began, reaching out to squeeze Jackie's shoulder as she frowned.

"I'm not going to Turnabout," Jackie said, shrinking away from Maka and dodging her touch as she slid up and plopped down onto her unmade bed, face-first into the pillow.
"I can't stand the way I look Maka," she sobbed, her words muffled by the cotton pillowcase pressed into her face, "My thighs, my arms, my butt," she cried, "I'm so ugly."

"That's not true, Jackie," Maka sighed as she slowly sat down on the bed and gingerly rubbed Jackie's upper back, "I honestly think you're one of the coolest looking girls here, I swear. You're hair and makeup is always perfect, your outfits always match, your nails are always freshly painted…."

"That's not what I mean," Jackie said, rolling over onto her back as stray strands of her hair stuck to her wet cheeks, "That stuff is all fake: the make-up, the straight hair, the polish...I just use it to cover up who I really am because I can't stand the look of myself bare in the mirror, I just can't take it anymore, Maka."

"I-" Maka began as the door was opened once again with a slight creak.

"What the fuck happened to our room?" Kim said as she stepped inside, nearly tripping on a stray red stiletto that was missing its partner.

Jackie sat up and combed the hair out of her face with her fingers as Kim scoped the room, taking in the mess with a soft sigh. "I-I couldn't figure out what to wear tonight…"

Kim looked down at Jackie sitting on the bed next to Maka and frowned. "Hey, are you crying?" she asked suddenly, plopping down onto the bed opposite to Maka and putting her arm around Jackie's shoulders. "Jackie," she demanded, "Tell me what's up."

Jackie slumped and buried her face into her hands as Kim shot Maka a worried expression, chewing the edge of her lip as her eyes showed concern.

Maka shook her head, hiding her surprise at how much Kim softened around Jackie instead of being blunt and abrasive like she usually is around everyone else. Maka whispered to Kim about what Jackie had told her earlier as the two of them rubbed Jackie's back as she cried.

"So it's this self-conscious shit again, huh?" Kim huffed when Maka finished, rolling her eyes with her usual callous expression.

Before Maka could say anything, Jackie shot up off the bed and pointed a finger at Kim. "You don't know crap, Kim!" she shouted at her, "I hate how you keep blowing off my feelings like they don't exist because they do exist and they're killing me!"

"What I don't understand is how you keep moping around here caring so much about some fucking number on the scale, Jacqueline!" Kim said back angrily, standing up and gritting her fists.

"Uh...guys?" Maka interrupted.

"I can't help that fucking number is controlling me, Kim!" Jackie countered, "If I could stop caring, trust me I would, but I just can't and having you not supporting me is just making it so much worse."

"Who said I wasn't supporting you?" Kim muttered, the anger on her face cracking as she gritted her fists.

"Look at you right now!" Jackie said, crossing her arms, "Whenever this gets brought up you talk and act like you don't even want to try and understand how I feel…"

Kim smirked. "It is hard for me to understand, I guess," she shrugged, "I don't get how you can see yourself as ugly or useless just because you ate an extra slice of cake last night or weigh ten pounds heavier than some other random girls in the school. Everything about you Jackie is so wonderful and I hate how you can't see that because you're blinded by your size."

"Kim…" Jackie whispered, looking to the ground.

"It's true, okay? I think you're beautiful, and I've thought that about you since we first became friends years ago" Kim said, "You change your style, your hair, your nails, but what's never changed is how you hold yourself and just the way you walk and talk and act in general. You light up a room, Jackie, with just the smile on your face, honestly."

A final tear ran down Jackie's cheek as her frown melted into a small smile. "Thanks," she whispered.
Kim walked over and wiped the tear away with her thumb as she looked over to Maka, "C'mon, let's get this girl ready for Turnabout," she said with a smile.

"No, I can't," Jackie whimpered, "I'm a complete mess and I don't have anything to wear. And if Soul is there and he sees me all alone-"

"Fucking forget, Soul! It's his loss he left you," Kim laughed and hugged Jackie, "Now c'mon, you'd never let an ex or some dress ruin my night, would you?"

"No, I guess not," Jackie sniffled as she rested her cheek on Kim's shoulder.

"Good," Kim chuckled, "Besides, I'm sure Maka wouldn't mind going with you tonight. Right, Maka?"

Maka shuddered at the thought. "I actually have detention tonight with Professor Stein."

Kim nearly doubled-over in laughter. "Maka Albarn...in detention? That's a funny joke," she said, shaking her head, "Now c'mon, Maka, I think you'd better go find yourself a dress for tonight, too."

Soul

"Who's at the door?" Black-Star asked as he stood in the center of their dorm room, straightening his tie for the dance as a knock sounded at their door.

"I fucking knew this would happen," Soul muttered to himself, ignoring Black-Star as he swung open his room door to Crona standing in the hall dressed in his formal clothes for the dance, clutching a small leather-bound journal.
"Let me guess," he asked, leaning against the door frame with an unimpressed expression, "You're getting cold feet in exposing your mother and aunt tonight?"

Crona nodded and swallowed hard. "Yeah...t-that's kind of exactly what's going on…"

"Oh jeez," Soul said as he rubbed his forehead with his palm. "I told Maka this would happen…"

"No, wait," Crona began, "I really, really want to do this, Soul. I have to do this, not just for me but for the entire school. I think...I just need some backup…"

"Back-up?" Soul asked, raising an eyebrow. "Isn't Kid going to be there with you?"

Crona shrugged. "Yeah, but he'll be up on stage with Arachne and his father, I don't think I can handle being all alone in the crowd with everyone watching me. What if they all think I'm nuts?"

"They've all met Professor Stein, they know what nuts truly looks like," Soul teased which only seemed to put Crona more at edge.

"You have to come with me," Crona begged, pulling on the sleeve of Soul's sweatshirt, "You don't even have to do anything except stand in the crowd with me-"

"Crona," Soul began, shaking his head, "Turnabout is in ten minutes and I'm in sweats and an unwashed t-shirt that smells kind of like soured milk."

"C'mon, just throw on your uniform polo and some slacks, no one will notice," Crona pleaded, "Please, Soul, you're my only friend other than Maka and Kid."

Soul sighed deeply. "Fine, but I'm leaving right after your little speech thing," he huffed, "Give me five minutes…"
He shut the door behind him and looked over to Black-Star who was giving him a weird stare.

"Well who was it?" Black-Star asked, raising an eyebrow as he finally managed to correctly tie his tie, "What's going on?"

Soul ripped off his sweatshirt and foul dairy-scented t-shirt and shrugged as he grabbed a slightly cleaner dress shirt that was hanging on his desk chair. "Looks like I'm going Turnabout after all…"

Maka

After what felt like hours of begging from Jackie and Kim, Maka Albarn stepped into Shibusen's gym which was decorated in cheesy heart decorations and washed in a hot pink light coming from above.
Jackie followed close behind her, wearing a turquoise flowy dress that seemed to completely contrast the dark-colored, tight dresses she normally wore. Her hair was not straightened and instead fell in her natural dark loose curls that framed her bare face bar a few coats of lip gloss and some mascara. Kim stomped in behind them, unhappy that Maka ended up dragging her along as revenge for forcing her to go.

"You should wear dresses more often, Kim," Jackie giggled, "You have nice legs."

"You're just lucky I shaved for once," Kim spat, crossing her arms over the fuchsia colored top of her dress, walking uncomfortably in a pair of black pumps.

Maka laughed at the two of them, but was engrossed in scanning the crowd for a certain someone. "I hope Crona didn't really back out…" she thought to herself, waving a few hello's at some familiar faces that passed by her.
One of the nameless staff members sat at a booth near the edge of the gym offered them cups of punch along with a life story about being once young that they only listened to out of pity.

"Me and Kim are gonna go write down some song requests by the DJ booth before Headmaster Death comes on stage," Jackie said to Maka, having to shout to be heard over the chattering and noise going off in the gym.
Maka nodded as Kim and Jackie scattered off, a soft smile on her face at the sight of Jackie laughing and hopefully already having a good time. Now, if only she could find out where Crona was…

"Maka?" a familiar voice said behind her.
She turned around, the edges of her pink floral dress ruffling in a circle as she did so. "Soul?" she said shocked, "I thought you said you were ditching the dance?"

"I thought you had detention?" Soul smirked, examining Maka's hair that was twisted into an updo paired with simple pearl earrings. She shrugged and Soul laughed in response, shaking his head. "Maka Albarn, not only actually getting detention with Professor Stein, but also skipping out on it, too. Do you have a death wish or something?"

"Maybe I'm just hanging out around you too much," Maka giggled, "Bad influence," she teased, playfully punching him in the shoulder.
Before Soul could think of a witty reply, the music ceased and the lights around them dimmed, living only a bright halo of light in the center of the stage positioned at the head of the gym.
"Have you seen Crona?" Maka asked him, looking through the crowd with a worried expression as Lord Death took center stage with his fiancee's arm linked to his right arm and with Kid trailing a few paces behind to his left. In his hand, Headmaster Death held a clear cup of the same pink punch juice Maka had in her hand, smelling strongly of sherbet ice cream and Orange Crush soda.

Soul shook his head as an eruption of applause broke out between the students. "He came over my dorm about 15 minutes ago all nervous and shaky about tonight so I told him to wait a minute for me to throw on a clean shirt, but after I changed he just disappeared."

Maka chewed her lip and hung her head as Lord Death tapped the microphone sitting on stage before giving a speech quite similar to the one at the Homecoming dance. Arachne remained latched onto his arm, gazing out into the crowd with an intimidating stare.
Death's formal announcement of his engagement formally concluded the speech, causing another uproar of applause. He raised his glass of punch, calling for a toast as a wicked smile spread on Arachne's lips. However, before he could sip, the double doors at the back of the gym bursted opened as Crona stepped in, causing everyone to turn around and face him.
He marched up through the crowd, still gripping the leather-bound notebook in his hand. "Stop!" he shouted to Lord Death, "Don't drink!"

To be continued…

A/N: I know, I know, I haven't updated in sooo long. I honestly feel like I'm losing interest in this story, but don't worry, I'm determined to finish it :) Just another huge thank you to everyone who's still reading even though my plot is shit and my dialogue is repetitive to the extreme, I can't believe how much has happened in my life since I began this story, Sophomore Year is definitely a wild time...