AN: Reviews! I has them! Seriously, you guys are awesome.

So is anybody surprised that this got super long? I ended up breaking it into two chapters. But that does mean that chapter 5 is practically written. There's just one more section I want to add and then I need to proof read the thing, so it should be out some time next week.

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Chapter 4

Sesquipedalian

I really, really, really didn't want to go to school today.

After Mr. Bumbleburg got carted off by the paramedics yesterday, Mr. Faraize had come rushing into the chem lab and told those of us that still remained to stay put. Then principal Shermansky came in and demanded to know what exactly had happened…que awkward pause. Of course it was Nathaniel that eventually gave her a complete and succinct rundown of events, after which he left with the principal to speak with some cops or to fill out paperwork or something. I'm really not sure where they went as I couldn't understand a word of what the principal was squawking, but Nathaniel seemed on top of things and knew what needed to be done…which kind of makes me wonder how often things like this happen here? Anyways, Mr. Faraize sort of tried to keep the class going but even he realized that that wasn't going to happen, so he released us an hour early out into the wide open world.

I went back to the apartment, made some tea, did my homework, went to the basement to fix the hot water heater...again, ate dinner with Auntie, had another argument with her about the bedroom, had a mini nerf gun war with her about the bedroom, took cover in the coat closet (not the bedroom) and stayed there, therefor winning todays argument about the bedroom, read a book, got distracted by a couple dozen cat videos on youtube (the only case in which I actually like those flea infestations), and crawled into bed.

I hadn't thought I was having any issues, I really did think I was fine. But…I couldn't sleep last night. I kept thinking about Nathaniels apology, and how completely unexpected it was. And then I kept thinking about how I hadn't said anything in return. Should I? I mean I know that'd be the polite thing to do, but Nathaniels and I's relationship didn't involve a lot of politeness…at least not on my end. But should it? That didn't seem like a thing rivals did. But Nathaniel had a way making animosity polite, which was weird, and it made him weird, and it made me feel weird. The jerk.

I wanted to just write his apology off as him attempting to be Mr. Moral Paradigm Perfect Goody-Two-Shoes again, but… I honestly don't think that was it. I mean, he seemed sincere, and I didn't know what to do with that!

So here I was walking to school the next day, tired from the lack of sleep, and dragging my feet because I really, really, reeeaalllyy didn't want to go to school and deal with it all today.

"Hi Malory!" Iris's cheery voice cut into my thoughts as her and Violet came up behind me and started keeping pace. "Did you do the math homework yet?" the red head asked, all chipper, "Because I got stuck on question 4, and the extra credit part completely confused-hey what's wrong?"

"Huh? Nothing." I said, a little stunned. I didn't think I was projecting my mood that much, and I wouldn't really associate Iris with the word 'perceptive'. But now Violet was looking at me with a concerned crease in her brow too.

"I'm fine" I quickly said. I wasn't lying…My stomach was just off today, that's all.

Iris stopped walking and looked at me, "Rory" she said simply. Violet had stopped too.

I fidgeted for a moment, this is exactly what I didn't want to be dealing with. I knew that I was a bad liar but I was always pretty good at covering up my 'moods', so I thought I could at least make it to second period before anybody picked up on anything. And really I figured I only had Lysander to worry about in that class so I'd just planned to distract him by throwing paper wads at him all period, I know for a fact Castiel would join me.

But right now Iris and Violet were looking at me, and school hadn't even started yet…damn.

"I…just have the collywobbles…a bit" I finally admitted.

Violet cocked her head and scrunched her face in confusion.

Iris squinted at me, "Rory, are you just making up words to avoid the subject?"

"What? No! It means butterflies in the stomach" I said.

"Wait, seriously?" the red head asked, surprise clearly evident in her voice.

"Yeah, it's a 19th century word. It comes from colic and wobble, you know colic being intense abdominal pain, usually in reference to pregnancy, so obviously this is a fanciful use of the word, and wobble clearly meaning the unsteady-"I suddenly realized that they were just staring at me.

Oh…crap. I didn't mean to go into encyclopedia mode. I really needed to get a handle on that. I tried to think of something normal to say, but then iris smiled and burst out,

"That's awesome! What other words do you know?"

I was a little stunned, no one had ever taken an interest in my big vocabulary before. I generally tried to hide it because people always just called me a pettifogger, well okay no they didn't because nobody ever knew what that word meant either. Instead they'd called me a pompous jerk, or an arrogant brat, or my personal favorite; a stupid know it all. Which no one ever even realized was an oxymoron.

But here was Iris smiling at me and Violet looking interested with her big eyes, both encouraging me to go on.

"Well-" I started.

By the time we made it to the schools front gates we had decided that Lysander had a lovely furbelow, that Peggy had a penchant for gonzo journalism, that Amber the quean and her jackanapes friends put way too much fard on their faces, and that our entire cultural class was probably going to be nothing but folderol today and that it would therefore be in our best interests to quickly find the rooms vomitory.

"I mean Madam Langster is such a fuddy-duddy" Iris was saying, in reference to our cultural instructor who had a reputation for being stuck up and old fashioned.

"And Mr. Faraize is a bit of a gobemouche for being tricked into helping us today" Violet said.

We all giggled at poor Mr. Faraizes expense who had been both bullied and duped by Madam Langster into helping us with our dance lessons for the next few weeks of culture class.

"Hi girls" Kim sidled up next to us as soon as we entered the courtyard.

"Hi Kim" Iris said, "Say how's your fartlek going?"

"My what now?" Kim raised a disconcerted eyebrow at a giggling Iris.

"Don't worry Kim" I said, "it's the reason you're so callipygian."

"Oh you haven't taught us that one yet" Violet said through her own giggles. Kim just looked more confused.

I explained to them how it basically meant having nice buns, and for Kims benefit I let her know that fartlek meant training regime, not any kind of passing gas. She seemed pleased by the silly, yet sincere, compliment. As we walked through the courtyard and approached the school Lysander and Castiel, who were standing by front steps, took notice of us.

"What are you three twittering about?" Castiel asked, ever the polite one.

"Oh Castiel you're such a hobbledehoy" I said with a smile.

He raised an eyebrow at me, "you just insulted me didn't you?"

"In a friendly way. It's okay, Iris says you're also a goombah," I responded, before turning to the other boy, "but Lysander, you're a bit of a maverick".

Lysander smiled, obviously humoring us, "meaning?" he asked.

"Someone who's outside the box" Violet supplied.

"Ah, well in that case I do believe we are all somewhat mavericks" Lysander said.

Castiel rolled his eyes, "yeah, gods forbid that anybody at Sweet Amoris might be normal. I think our lovely dear principal might just flip her lid for the hell of it if she didn't have some oddball to yell at everyday".

We all looked across the courtyard were Mrs. Shermansky was currently in full on gorgon mode, with her hair going wild, and her beady eyes focused on two unfortunate boys who seemed to have been attempting the beginnings of a tree house in one of the courtyards small maple trees.

"You know, she is a bit of a cockalorum" I said.

Iris turned her head towards me "I thought you said that was a small, haughty, man" she said.

There was more screeching and we all looked back to the principal who was now yelling at the boys to find some sticks so that they could knock their 'creation' down, only, because Sweet Amoris had an excellent janitorial staff, there were very few suitable sticks to be found. So mostly it was just Shermansky standing there yelling and pointing wildly at the ground as the boys would pick up whatever flimsy twig she'd indicated, only to have her then squawk about how that would never do find another!

"She could pull it off" Castiel said.

I was so focused on the principal who now had the boys throwing small rocks at their tree house that I didn't even notice the footsteps of someone coming down the stairs. That is until Iris's chipper voice broke through my thoughts.

"Oh, hi Nathaniel" she said brightly, "hey, while I remember it, you should know that I think you're an osephalous"

I quickly straightened up and snapped my attention to the blonde that came down the steps and ended up standing between Violet and Kim. My collywobbles were back.

Nathaniel nodded his head in acknowledgment to Iris, "An egghead? Well, because it's from you Iris, I am going to take that as a compliment" he smiled kindly, but he was looking kind of tired so it was just a brief tilt of the lips.

"It was" Iris assured him, giving her own, much brighter, smile. "What's that for" she asked, pointing at the giant wooden bamboo looking thing he held at his side.

Nathaniel raised it enough that we could better see it, and now that I looked I could see that he was holding what was clearly the handle piece of a nearly six foot long practice sword.

"Crap" Castiel said, "Is the principal allowing caning now? She realizes this is just going to make people skip more not less, right?"

Nathaniel sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose with his free hand, "no Castiel, caning is not suddenly allowed, neither at Sweet Amoris, nor at any school in this country as it is illegal."

Castiel scowled and looked about ready to retort but Lysander opened his mouth first, "so why do you have a practice sword with you? Is it one of yours?"

Nathaniel shook his head, "no, it's from the old kendo club that was here several years ago. There's still a bunch of equipment down in the basement, this sword is actually pretty long for me." I looked again at the giant stick, if stood on its end it would be almost a foot taller than me. "But" Nathaniel continued, "I need something to knock down that ridiculous carpentry project those two idiots made over there and this was the longest sword I could find".

He huffed in an annoyed way. I figured it was just because of the tree house and because he had to deal with our mc crazy pants principal but Iris was giving him a concerned look, much like she had to me earlier.

"Hey, are you okay?" the red head asked.

Without even a pause Nathaniel nodded politely to her and said "Thank you for your concern but I'll be fine." His eyes briefly flicked towards me and I tried not to gulp as those golden orbs came my way. And then he was gone, walking towards the principal.

"Jerk" Castiel said, not caring if the blonde was out of earshot or not.

"No he's not" Iris said with slight admonishment, she was one of the few people Castiel allowed to do such things. "He's just…under a lot stress I think" she finished.

Castiel shrugged, indicating he didn't care and walked away. Lysander nodded towards us girls in goodbye and followed him.

"We should probably go," Violet said, "first bells going to ring soon."

"Uh, yeah sure, you guys go ahead" I said, glancing at Nathaniel.

As much as it pains me to admit it, I think I need to apologize to him too. Then my gut would stop being all twisty and things would be fine between us, or well, not fine, but back to normal.

And if I wanted to apologize, I should really just get it over with. Now would be a good time, because I could say it, be done, and then get away. I had better things to do than talk to him and he had better things to do than listen to me.

Violet and Iris exchanged a look, before leaving me with an "okay" and "see you in class".

I took a deep breath, and started walking across the courtyard.

I didn't need to make this complicated. It's not like I had to curtsey or anything…I think. All I had to do was walk up to him and say: I'm sorry too. Simple, easy, no problem. I could do this!

Nathaniel was at the base of the tree with the construction mess in it, the principal was still yacking but it wasn't clear if it was at him, the two remorseful looking boys, or at the squirrels that scurried left and right frightened by all the commotion. Nathaniel eyed the wood, positioned himself somewhat beneath and to the left of it, held the sword at an angle, and then with one fast strike smacked one of the beams holding it up. A loud crack filled the courtyard, followed by a disjointed noise of snapping limbs and smashing falling carpentry as the entire thing came crashing to earth. The principal shut up in her ravings and the two boys forgot to look contrite as they all starred at the broken mess that came down with just one swing.

I however, stopped mid-step and turned on my heel.

Maybe it'd be best to bother blondie later. I mean nothing said that I had to do it right now.

Not that I think Nathaniel would ever hurt me, but I like to think of myself as a somewhat intelligent individual (when I decide to be), and it just doesn't seem wise to bother him when he's so clearly in a bad mood and carrying around a fancy stick that was literally designed to hit people.

Besides, I'm sure there will be plenty of opportunities to apologize today.


Apology attempt #1

…or maybe this is attempt #2. Did my retreat in the courtyard this morning count? You know what, no, no it did not. I didn't say one word to him, so that didn't count. This was attempt #1.

And it would be the last and only attempt, because there he was, getting his things out of his locker. The bell for second period would be ringing any minute now and since we had different classes this period, I wouldn't even have to look at him for the next hour after I got this over with.

Okay, easy, breathe just breathe. Just walk up to him, there you go. Now just reach your arm out and tap him on the shoulder to get his attention, and-

WHAM!

…I just ran into a door.

Or maybe it ran into me. I'll figure out who's at fault once the world stops spinning.

Oh wait…where'd Nathaniel go?...crap.


Real Attempt #1

Okay this was attempt #1, there had still been no talking so none of the previous encounters…counted.

We we're in 3rd period 'chemistry', but seeing as our teacher had taken off for the looney farm yesterday, it was mostly a free period. Which made it the perfect opportunity to talk to Nathaniel, especially because he and I sat right next to each other.

He should be coming in any minute now, and speak of the devil, there he is. (I may or may not have been watching the door out of the corner of my eye). Alright, here we go, he's coming closer, breathe.

And-

…where the hell is he going? Why is he sitting with Melody? That wasn't part of my plan! So what if it's a free period, he could still be bothered to sit with me for like a minute right!? Yeah we don't like each other, and okay, yeah, he's probably still mad at me, and yes, I know Melody is his friend. But he could still be polite and say hi to me at least!

Gods there was something wrong with me.

Okay, don't panic, I can still salvage this! All great generals are able to alter their tactics based on their enemy's movements.

I got up and made my way to the table Nathaniel, Melody, and Melodies partner: Iris, where sitting at. When I got there I very, very casually (I can do casual) leaned on the side of their work table.

"Hi guys" I said.

"Hi Rory" Iris said brightly.

Melody acknowledged me with a Smile. Nathaniel just gave me a nod.

Okay here I go. "So Nathaniel-"

I took my hand off the table to cross my arms, but then my center of balance changed and my hip slipped along the tables side…right along the built in Bunsen burner nob.

"MY HAIR!" Iris shrieked.

…crap.


"I am so sorry Iris" I said, for probably the millionth time.

We were walking out of the nurses office and back into the hallway. Mrs. Ramsees, the school nurse, had kept us there for the entire period, wanting to make sure Iris was fine. But the only part of her that had sustained any damage was the singed tip of her braid. I still felt awful.

Iris waved away my apology. "Its fine" she said, "no harm done, and I've been needing to get it cut anyways."

"I'll totally pay for it" I quickly said. I wasn't at all sure where I'd get the money, because as I remembered it haircuts could easily be around 40-50 dollars, and the really fancy salons would laugh at anything under 100. But I was terrified that this little incident was going to make Iris begin to resent me, and that she was just too nice to admit that she was upset.

"Rory its fine, stop worrying" Iris laughed, "And my mom usually cuts my hair so it's no big."

I was still fretting as Iris laughed some more but I wasn't so distracted that I didn't notice the blonde over Iris's shoulder, making his way through the crowd and coming right towards us. I quickly made sure to hold my hands at my sides to keep from fidgeting.

"Hello Iris, I came to see if you were alright" Nathaniel said as soon as he reached us.

"Yeah, I'm good. Thanks for putting my hair out!"

"My pleasure" Nathaniel said with a wry smile. Then his eyes bounced to me, still standing frozen like I was some constipated lawn gnome.

I quickly shook it off and stood up straight.

Alright here we go-

Apology attempt #2…well sorta #2, maybe 2.5.

I opened my mouth to finally say-

"Heads up!" someone shouted.

I looked over my shoulder just in time to duck the basketball that came rocketing towards me. Nathaniel managed to duck too, mostly out of reflex.

Iris-

"Well, at least we're already at the nurses office" the singed red head said while she sat on the floor and her eyes rolled around trying to find focus.


Attempt #...okay is this one 3 or 3.5? Should I just round up to 4?

It was lunch time and I still hadn't managed to apologize to Nathaniel. This was starting to become a matter of pride as well as necessity. I mean, was I really going to just lay down and let the universe foil me again and again? No. I was going to do this dammit! So bring it on universe.

As I sat down and opened my lunch bag I realized that someone had decided to dump about five cups worth of salt into the bag completely ruining all the food inside.

Not what I meant universe.

I sighed and rolled up the bag. I had a pretty good idea who was responsible but I didn't have the time or energy to come up with a suitable revenge right now. The best thing to do at this moment would be to follow all that bullying advice I'm always getting and to act like it didn't bother me.

Honestly, the lost food part really didn't bother me. Missing meals was nothing new for me or my stomach. But the prank part of it did bother me. And there most certainly would be retribution for that…later. Right now I need to focus on apology attempt #3. . . 4.

I pretended to be engaged in the conversation Iris, Rosa, and Kim where having but really I was keeping an eye on the food service section of the cafeteria. Nathaniel had a hot lunch everyday, like most everyone at this school, so I just needed to wait for him to come out.

So I waited.

...

And waited.

...

Wait...ing.

...Where the hell is he?

25 minutes before lunch was over I stormed into the student council room surprising just about everyone in there. But not Nathaniel, because he wasn't there either!

20 minutes before lunch was over I clomped into the library, causing all the librarians to 'shhhh' at me, but no Nathaniel.

15 minutes before lunches end, I raced into the gym interrupting a basketball game.

At 10 minutes I was trying wheedle Castiel into checking the boys bathrooms for me.

5 minutes and I was closing my eyes and sticking my head into the bathrooms anyways to shout for Nathaniel because Castiel was a big doofus and decided to laugh at me rather than help me out.

And at 1 minute I finally saw Nathaniel…as he was walking away from me and into class.

…Okay universe now you're just messing with me for your own amusement.


Apology attempt #...5?

Health class, 4th period. Mr. Lumbean was setting up the projector for some slideshow, but as he was a bit technology impaired I knew that I had a few minutes.

I turned around in my seat to look at Nathaniel who sat right behind me this period.

"Hey blondie" I whispered

He looked up from his book and our eyes made contact.

I gulped, "so I just wanted to say-"

"There we go!" Mr. Lumbean said just as the projector turned on and displayed a picture and side diagram of the most male aspect of the male body. "Oh no, this is slide is for my senior class!" Mr. Lumbean spluttered as he quickly tried to turn the projector off but instead started cycling through various pictures of genitalia.

I didn't say anything. I just turned back in my seat and refused to look and Nathaniel for the rest of the class.


Apology attempt #5 and/or #6

We we're doing geography and Mr. Faraize was letting us work with our friends on our 14th century maps.

I took a deep breath and walked over to the desks Nathaniel and Melody had shoved together.

"Um Nathaniel, can I talk-what is that?" I suddenly noticed his map, and the elaborate lines he was outlining to crisscross over the many countries.

"Trade routes" he said leaning back and crossing his arms with a confidant air.

"Remember" Mr. Faraize called out, whoever creates the most detailed map, will have it displayed in the hallway".

Blondie smirked at me. Oh it was on!

"Yeah well I'm labeling all the different shires and counties on top of the kingdoms" I said, clenching my fists, and hurrying back to my table.

It wasn't until fifteen minutes later after frantic scribbling that I remembered that there was something I was supposed to do this class.

And then the bell rang.

Crap.


Attempt #7…I think.

There he is. Okay I'm doing this thing dammit!

"Nathaniel!" I called

"KIKI!" the voice of our principal yelled much louder.

Something took my legs out from under me. I landed on my butt and saw the orange and white blur of a very happy corgi take off down the halls. A very unhappy Shermansky taking off after it and yelling at random students to give chase, one of those students being Nathaniel.

I really hate that dog.


Attempt #7? #8? Oh screw it, with my luck I'm just gonna say I'm on #13.

An hour into the last period of the day and after the twelfth time I stepped on my partners toes during the dance lesson of our cultural class, Madam Langster finally said we could be done. Mr. Faraize looked happy, my partner, Daniel, looked even happier.

He quickly dropped my hands and scurried to the other side of the room where his art group was gathering. The second hour of class was to be spent "elevating ourselves through creative and imaginative scholarship". Basically it was classical art study, which I was very bad at.

I do think I'm decent at art in general. When living with someone like Auntie that was kind of inevitable. But Auntie didn't really do…traditional. Seriously the only instrument we had in the apartment was a digeridoo, unless you also wanted to count the dozen or so rainbow colored kazoos in the kitchen drawer.

I went to the side of the class that was set up like an art studio and joined Kim and Violet at their table.

The class was working on our midterm projects and the whole room was filled with the usual noise and chaos that came with group projects. I kept sneaking glances at Nathaniel, Melody's, and Capucines table trying to pick my move. Kim rolled her eyes at me, and at one point she even mumbled, "seriously girl?" Violet just giggled.

I stuck my tongue out at them and continued my furtive glances towards Nathaniels table.

Finally, my opportunity came. He was getting up and going for the side of the room that had all of the art supplies. I quickly stood, blurting out something about needing more crepe paper, even though we were doing a sculpture. I think Kim mock saluted me.

I quickly made my way to the other end of the room. I stood right next to him while he was grabbing paint, trying to make myself look busy while I collected my thoughts. All day I'd been rehearsing and revising my apology. It kept going back and forth between , its original 'I'm sorry' all the way up to 'please forgive my callousness kind gentleman', and everywhere in between. And now that I was here, I couldn't get my mouth to work. Should I say it? What if he didn't want to hear it? What if a simple 'I'm sorry' wasn't enough for him? I mean, he had bowed to me with the whole stolen key debacle, so should I be curtseying? What did he consider proper?

While I tried to remember what foot was supposed to go in back when doing an official curtsey, Nathaniel was carefully trying to fit one last paint can in his arms without spilling any on himself. So, without thinking, I blurted out the first thing that came to mind, "do you need help?"

Nathaniel looked at me out of the corner of his eyes and for a moment I thought he was going to tell me to get lost, or well, he'd probably say it a bit more eloquently than that. Something like, 'don't trouble yourself, I can handle it', but the meaning would still amount to 'beat it brat'.

Only, he didn't say any of those things. After the considering look he simply nodded and handed me two of the six paint cans. They were heavy, so I wrapped my arms around the base of each of them and held them to my chest, glad that our teacher kept the outsides of the tins clean so that no paint got on me. Nathaniel meanwhile was able to get each of his hands around two handles and carry the four cans easily with just his arm muscles. I huffed and blew a strand of hair out of my face. Stupid male physique.

"So um" I started to say as we neared his table. He looked over his shoulder at me. Damn those golden eyes for being so piercing.

I subtly gulped, but didn't look away "I kind of have been meaning to talk to you".

"Okay" he said as we reached the table and Melody stood to take two of the cans from him. She shot me a look that I couldn't read but I didn't really care enough to try.

I took a breath, faced him fully, opened my mouth and-

Something hard ran into my lower back and my torso was thrown forward…as were the two cans I was holding.

Melody shrieked, jumping away and knocking over one of her own paint cans, which splashed across the table. There were more shouts of surprise from nearby tables and the scrapping of chairs as other people stood too.

When I regained my footing, I looked down into the now empty orange cylinder I'd managed to keep a hold on, my eyes darted to the floor where the other can I'd held was slowly rolling away leaving a sludgy blue trail in its wake. I glanced at the table where the beautiful handmade model of Diala, goddess of peace and serenity, now had wild splotches of paint all over her, the many papers around her quickly becoming soaked in a puddle of paint that dribbled off the table. I even watched those dribbles as they seeped into the grout in the floors tiles. I tried looking everywhere, except for up.

Because when I finally did, I immediately regretted it. Nathaniel stood in front of me, his arms held away from his body, his lips pressed together, and his eyes boring into me as if to say 'really?'

His perfectly white button down and fancy tan dress pants were now a decorated mess of orange and blue. There was a big smear across the left side of his face that slid dawn his jaw and dripped occasionally off his chin. Several small globs of orange had gotten into his blonde hair making it look poka doted on one side.

The entire room was dead silent.

"Uh…at least they're complimentary colors" I said, trying to smile.

Nathaniel's glare did not falter, in fact I think it got a little worse.

"Malory!" Capucine shrieked from behind me, I looked at her over my shoulder. She was glaring at me through all the red paint that now covered her face and dress. Apparently the can Melody knocked over had sprayed a little farther than I'd initially thought.

I tried to hold it in, I really did, but it was just too funny seeing her like that, and then she had to go and petulantly stomp her foot, and I couldn't help the spluttering snicker that escaped my throat. Yeah, that didn't smooth things over.

"MRS. JONES!" Madam Langster shrieked, her face turning red as she spluttered "you-you…the disrepute, the uncouth, the-the indecency! You will be staying after school! And serving-"

"Detention, yeah I figured" I said resignedly, cutting her off before she could begin ranting. The old woman had a tendency to talk down to her young pupils, in a very haughty, you are all beneath me manner. Her eyes narrowed at me, but she didn't say anything, instead huffing off to her desk to fill out one of the detention slips she always kept handy.

Nathaniel, Capucine, and Melody left to get cleaned up, and I spent the rest of class cleaning the area around their table. Madam Langster had called the main office to have a janitor bring me a rag and a bucket of water but nothing else, and I think she took a perverse amount of pleasure in watching me hastily scrub away what I could before it managed to dry. Because according to her, I wouldn't be allowed to go home this afternoon until it was all spotless.

I also tried to salvage what I could of Nathaniel and Melodies project, I suppose I gave Capucines stuff an attempt too but it wasn't exactly my focus. But with ten minutes left of class Melody came back in, and told me to 'just leave it alone', before shuffling me out of the way and cleaning it up herself. She didn't look at me once. Melody and I have always been at least amicable towards each other and we actually get along pretty well. But if there was ever a chance of the two of us becoming friends, it had now flown the coup.

When Nathaniel and Capucine came back (better but still tie-dyed) just as the bell rang, I quickly rushed back to my own table. Kim and Violet shot me sympathetic looks but I didn't want to hear whatever kind things they had to say so I told Madam Langster that I'd finish cleaning up after I went to the bathroom. I shoved all my crap in my bag and darted for the door. Langster tried to stop me, probably wanting to give me that lecture, but I pretended not to hear her over the throng of bustling students.

I really did go to the bathroom, but that was only to hide until the after school programs got underway, since I knew that the student council was meeting today.

After I finally finished cleaning, I spent the rest of the hour in gardening club, helping water the various plants around school. It was just my luck that the student council was also moving around the school hanging up posters, and taking wall measurements or something.

So the rest of the day was spent avoiding Nathaniel like the plague. It was pretty easy to spot him with the obnoxious coloring, so it wasn't too hard staying out of sight. I bobbed and weaved through students, ducked behind lockers, and made sure to always have an exit strategy. (Pretty sure I was weirding Jade out.)

I think it worked, Nathaniel didn't seem to notice me all day. Then again that might have been more in thanks to his effort than mine.


I saw Malory out the corner of my eye ducking behind yet another group of lockers. All afternoon since classes ended and after school programs began she'd been doing that, which was fine by me, because I didn't want to talk to her either. I'm not exactly sure why she's hiding, rather than coming out and laughing with the rest of the student body. She probably thinks I'm going to stoop to her level if I see her and try to exact some kind of retribution for what she did in cultural studies.

I won't of course, but dammit if the idea wasn't appealing.

As I put in the combination to my locker I heard Castiels barking laughter start up somewhere behind me…again. Every. Single. Time. He caught sight of me he started busting a gut. Apparently my troubles were the funniest thing since Looney-Tunes for him, but what else was new.

Why didn't I listen to my head when she'd offered to help me? Being an idiot, I'd gone with my gut instinct, and given her the benefit of the doubt. Here I thought we were getting past things and moving on and then she had to go and pull this. I mean really.

I knew she had a penchant for pranks, but they were usually directed at Amber and her friends. And those were relatively harmless. I didn't care how mad she was at me, this was taking things just a little too far.

As I grabbed a book, my arm brushed the inside of my locker, leaving a blue smear of paint in its wake. Dammit, I thought I'd gotten the worst of it all out.

At least the day was finally over.

I somehow managed to keep my arm from slamming my locker shut and turned around to glare at the obnoxious red head still laughing. There was a scathing remark on the tip of my tongue, at least my dyed mess is an accident, not a purposeful cheap choice of home hair dye. Seriously, what did the box say? Essence of Rooster? But, like every other crass comment that came into my head, I held it back, and instead stood straight and merely glared at him.

This got him laughing further.

That's it I'm going home. I'm going home, and changing, I don't care if I'm late for kendo.

I left the school, the sound of Castiels laughter following me till I was out the doors.

I trudged home through the many puddles that still permeated the streets. They reminded me of the rain storm two days ago and I felt the infantile desire to blame the weather for all my current misfortune. If it hadn't been raining, then I wouldn't have felt the need to walk Malory home, than we wouldn't have had our argument, and then she wouldn't have got it in her head to cover me in paint today!

I still couldn't believe she'd done that. It was another case of my logic and my gut telling me two different things. Logically, when a stacked up everything she'd done in the past to Amber, and when I considered how our entire rivalry relationship worked, then yes, this was exactly like something Malory would do. But it still felt out of character. And I'd apologized yesterday so I thought we were good.

I sighed, shaking my head. Maybe it was just my usual goody-goody self expecting the best of people and having it bite me in the ass. Felt like the story of my life some days.

I did my best not to think of anything for the rest of my walk home. I eventually made it to the little forested hill that my community sat at the top of, there was a shortcut through it that let out into a field that connected to my family's back yard. I usually didn't use it, both because I wanted to prolong my walk home, and because it was impossible to go through the trees without getting mud on the bottom of my pants and shoes. But what did a bit more filth matter to me today.

I was soon hiking up the staircase to the second story of the back porch pulling off my dirty shoes when I reached the sliding glass door. I paused to look longingly at the hot tub that took up nearly half the upper deck. It sat 14 people and had the most amazing jets, and the banister around it was intentionally designed to both block the wind and allow a beautiful view of the surrounding valley.

My back begged me to simply skip kendo and relax in that divinely hot water. The muscles had been bugging me all day, putting me in a bad mood since the moment I woke up this morning.

It would be so easy to grab my suit and just slip in. Neither of my parents were expected home for hours.

I shook the thoughts away and went inside.

What was I thinking? One of them might come home early, or Sensei Isadora might comment on my absence when my mother made her weekly call to be updated on my progress, any of our houses staff could mention seeing me to my father, heck Amber was home because of her suspension. And with her still peeved at me, there was no way she wouldn't remark on something that could get me in trouble. Ultimately, it didn't matter how my parents found out the result would be my back becoming even worse. Sort of counterproductive.

I carefully crept through the house in my socks, not wanting to alert Amber to my presence. I didn't want to deal with her scathing remarks, or the twinges of guilt they brought. I still felt kind of bad about getting her suspended. Yes she deserved it, heck according to the rules she deserved far worse, but I knew that she had simply made a decision with her emotions rather than her head, as she was prone to do. She was mad at me, and she lashed out, and like the crappy brother that I am, I made the situation even worse.

I really had just been trying to teach her that there were consequences for her actions. But when I tried to explain this to father after he'd asked me what I'd been thinking, he had looked at me like I was an idiot.

"Are you really so full of yourself that you think you can laud such things over her?" he said, his eyes blazing. "You are not her father! It is not your responsibility to decide things for her. It is not your responsibility to decide things for anyone!"

I winced slightly at his incredulous tone, I'd hoped he hadn't noticed but by the narrowing of his eyes I was certain that he had. I'd taken a deep breath and tried to explain,

"She broke school property" I said, referencing what I had actually gotten her suspended for. Some girl apparently ticked her off by making fun of her hair so she broke the girl's locker door earlier this week. "I'm the student body president. That means that it is my responsibility to-"

"I don't want to hear excuses" Father said with an edge that declared the discussion was over, "she is your sister, does that mean nothing to you?" he hissed. "We are family, and family stick together before all else, especially in the face of the public. With your impulsive actions you have cost her more than just a few lost days of education. If such trivial things were all your mother and I cared for then the both of you would be kept home with tutors. We send you there so that you both can learn how to properly conduct yourselves and behave under the constant scrutiny of the public and of those you work with."

"But she wasn't behaving properly!" I blurted out, indignant to the unfairness of it all. The second it was out of my mouth I knew I'd made a mistake. I wasn't supposed to speak, I knew that I wasn't supposed to speak, yet I did anyways, stupid. Was I ever going to learn?

Within seconds Father was in front of me. I almost stepped back on instinct but I managed to hold my ground and maintain eye contact. He absolutely loathed it when I wasn't being a man.

The slap was expected, as was the sting. He was speaking so I quickly brought my face back and looked him in the eyes again.

"I told you I didn't want to hear it!" he said. "As long as you are living under my house you will obey my rules! What you did today embarrassed your sister in front of her friends, you embarrassed your family to the public, and you embarrassed yourself with your pettiness! I don't care if you felt she deserved it, you two are supposed to be a united front against the jackals of the world. You are to support her in her decisions, and if that means seeking retribution on someone who defamed her than you are to help her not weezle your way behind her back to help yourself cozy up to your superiors! It is high time you ceased this paltry sibling rivalry. Your sister makes the effort, can you truly not stop thinking yourself above her long enough to even attempt it!"

I stood there and took everything he said, biting my tongue to keep from saying anything more that would only worsen the situation.

The lecture portion of the evening was over at that point. Everything that came after…

I sighed, coming back to the present day and time. I didn't want to think about it. My aches reminded me enough of that night on their own without my brain and emotions dwelling on his words also.

I carefully crept down the second floor hall, towards my room. But just as I was passing Ambers door I heard the knob start to twist. My stomach dropped.

I dashed down the hall towards the only open door, which was the bathrooms. I ducked inside and slid behind the open door. And then almost immediately I wanted to smack myself, because why else would she be leaving her room except to go to the bathroom?!

Holding my breath, I listened for the faintest sound of her footsteps, and trying to work out what the hell I was going to say to her. But all I heard was my hammering heartbeat.

I waited…and waited.

The front door suddenly opened and closed.

Huh?

My curiosity took hold and without even thinking about possible consequences I stepped out of the bathroom and ran down the hall, across the banister, and to the sitting room on the other end of house. The very sitting room that gave a perfect view of the front driveway.

Our house was sort of horse shoe shaped, and it wrapped around the circular driveway that had a modest yet stylish fountain in the middle. It was off right now. Our butler turned it on and off throughout the day based on visitors coming. The fact that it wasn't on now, meant that whoever Amber was meeting, they were not expected by Sinclair.

I saw Amber walking down the front steps, a triumphant look on her face. I cracked the window slightly, just enough to hear her heels clacking as she approached the main gate. She opened the door portion and in came Li and Charlotte and…Capucine? Amber never invited her over, she only faked friendship with the poor girl because of her family's connections (and because I'm pretty sure Amber enjoys having someone worship her).

The fact that Amber wasn't inviting any of them inside only made me more curious. I leaned against the window edge slightly to better hear their conversation.

"Well, how'd you do today" Amber said, sounding gleeful.

Charlotte was the first to answer in her usual impassive tone, "three chairs pulled out from under her, stole her history notebook, reset her locker combo, after school-"

"That's the boring stuff" Amber said waving her off. Charlotte didn't seem to mind, granted her face never seemed to change anyways so who knew.

Li went next, "Well because we we're able to get into her locker, just before lunch started I got a hold of her bag and dumped four whole salt shakers in it. That was after I opened up all the bags and containers inside."

Amber laughed, "ha ha! What was her face like when she bit into it?"

"Unfortunately she didn't" Charlotte said.

Li crossed her arms almost like she was offended, "yeah, she just opened it up, looked inside, and then left it on the table and kept talking to her stupid friends. She didn't even look at us. Then she threw it all away."

"Damn, alright fine. Capucine how'd you do?" Amber turned to the smaller girl placing her hands on her hips as she did.

"Weelllll" Capucine said with that prissy little smile of hers, "I got her stuck with a massive detention."

"You what!?" Amber said in shock, "how did you manage that?"

"He-he, during Cultural studies I shoved my chair into her back when I stood up and it caused her to dump three cans of paint all over."

"Is that why you were covered in red earlier" Charlotte asked.

"Whatever" Capucine huffed, "at least I got her, that's what matters. She's probably still at the school cleaning. In fact I wouldn't be surprised if she has to clean the whole room. Madam Langster hates her. She's always answering all her questions, even the ones Madam wants us to get wrong. She even corrects Madam sometimes. But we all know how completely uncivilized she is, and Madam hates that even more".

"Wow, Capucine" Amber said, "I must admit I'm impressed. Two detentions in as many days".

"And to think, all you had to do was get spit on and get paint dumped all over yourself. Good job" Charlotte said.

Capucine looked ready to retort but Li started talking, "I can't wait till you come back on Monday Amber, then we'll really get her. It's going to be the best prank in Sweet Amoris history."

The girls giggled, or perhaps cackled, together for a minute before the conversation changed to making plans for the weekend, with Capucine looking absolutely delighted to be included in the conversation. I carefully shut the window, and crept my way back through the house and to my room.

By the time Amber came back inside I was already gone.

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AN: So I was kind of surprised that nobody noticed that at the start of this story Malory was in a bedroom and that in the last chapter she went to sleep in a coat closet. I guess that's good because I was sort of intentionally rolling right over the fact without commenting on it because that's how the characters would view things. Still I was totally expecting someone to be all, 'waits a minute! This does not add up?' and then I could go, 'oh ho ho, you are correct sir or madam, indeed there is something amiss here, any theories on to why that might be?'. But no, none of you caught it.

That, or you did notice and you're all just too polite to mention what clearly looked like a goof up.

Anyways, the English language is full of silliness that is usually very frustrating, but today I got to use some of that silliness for amusement purposes:

Collywobbles - Butterflies in the stomach.

Pettifogger - A person who tries to befuddle others with their speech.

Furbelow - A fringe or ruffle.

Gonzo - Far-out journalism.

Quean - A disreputable woman.

Jackanapes - A rapscallion, hooligan.

Fard - Face-paint, makeup.

Folderol - Nonsense.

Vomitory - An exit or outlet.

Fuddy-duddy - An old-fashioned person

Gobemouche - A highly gullible person.

Fartlek - An athletic training regime.

Callipygian - Having an attractive rear end or nice buns.

Hobbledehoy - An awkward or ill-mannered young boy.

Goombah - An older friend who protects you

Maverick - A loner, someone outside the box.

Cockalorum - A small, haughty man.

Oocephalus - An egghead.

Bonus points to anybody who knows what the title means without looking it up on google. Thankyou, and be sure to have a magnificent day!