"An assembly?"
Nami brushed a hand through her hair, and obsercing the notice in disbelief. The A3 sheet posted at the center of the corkboard in the foyer of the main building of GrandLine stood out amongst the other yellow sheets.
"Looks like the dean is looking for a chance to explain his sudden disappearance."
Zoro commented.
"That was suspicious,"
Nami agreed. She turned her head towards the stairs, and noticed a flash of blue hair.
"I've got some Maths to do, so I'll see you later."
She said quickly, and winking and patting Zoro on the shoulder, she turned and hurried after her friend.
Zoro took another glance at the notice before shaking his head, and turned to exit the complex when he remembered - he had Maths to do as well.
"I nearly forgot about that,"
He thought. Climbing up two flights of stairs, he searched for his locker. Several people were there, digging through loose-leaf papers while cleaning out their lockers, and some trying to kick their locker-doors shut. Upon finding his own locker, Zoro spun the dial to his combination number and easily found his Maths papers. His locker was pretty empty - he had only gone through Maths and Music so far, after all.
He closed his locker with ease, and turned around to leave the floor, when his view of a corridor with students and concrete floor was suddenly intercepted with a huge blur of greyish-silver. The blur was so big, it filled his entire vision, and it was so fast in coming he had no time to react before it smacked him straight in the face.
His hands found their way to his head, his eyes screwed shut with the pain pulsing from his nose to his ears. He stumbled into his locker, and waited for the pain to subside. After a minute or so, when the stinging faded, Zoro opened his eyes, wondering what the hell had hit him, when he saw the huge grey-silver thing right next to him.
It was the locker door beside his own. Grumbling and tugging his bandanna lower, he stepped sideways to see which student had flung their locker door open so vigorously. His eyes widened in surprise.
Tashigi obviously had no idea what she had done to the person next to her. A small stack of books and papers lay at her feet, and she was having great difficulty trying to pull out a textbook from the huge mess of a pile from within her locker. Tugging at it, she gasped as the books precariously balancing atop the textbook started to topple. She slammed her palm against the books, and quickly pulled out her textbook.
Zoro found himself watching the girl, highly entertained by the way she was completely oblivious of him looking at her trying to balance her pile of books and folders. Finally, when she had the books in a somewhat manageable stack, she took a deep breath before stepping back and slamming her locker shut. Zoro could hear the things inside tumbling down against the door, but Tashigi was already hastily spinning the combination lock.
She held her breath as she lifted her hands off the door, but let it out in relief when it didn't burst open. Bending down, she scooped up her books and stood up, but as it was quite a pile, they started to over-balance. Tashigi let out a small cry as her stack started to fall apart, when Zoro stepped over and took the pile of books from her. She blinked in surprise at the sudden appearance of muscular arms, and her eyes travelled to his face.
"Zoro!"
She said in surprise. Then, her eyes looking furtively from her locker to his amused expression, a heavy blush filled her cheeks.
"Err... you didn't see that, did you?"
Zoro grinned, starting to walk with the stack of textbooks across the corridor.
"Actually, I find your level of disorganisation quite charming,"
He said lightly. Her blush deepened as she grabbed her bag and hurried after him, slapping him on the shoulder.
"That's not funny!"
"Plus, I've never seen anyone quite so charmingly open their locker. You hit innocent people on the face with enough force to knock down a building, young lady."
"W-was that you? I didn't know what the smacking noise was..."
"Right."
"I'm sorry, I didn't know--"
"It's quite alright. It was a charming experience."
"Stop-- stop talking like that! Stop using that word!"
"You stop whacking me first, Miss. Charming."
As Zoro hurriedly walked forward to avoid Tashigi's thwacks, they didn't notice Jenna and Carrie pass by.
The two girls narrowed their eyes at the sight of the black-haired girl arguing good-naturedly with Zoro. Jenna's fingers with its long, purple-coated nails curled into a tight and shaking fist as she let out a curse with a long hiss.
"Vivi!"
Nami finally caught up to the girl, who stopped walking, but didn't turn to face her.
"What is it?"
Vivi asked icily.
"Listen... I'm not good at apologising, Vivi... but I... I didn't mean to get you so pissed off at me this morning."
When she didn't say anything, Nami continued,
"I'm serious. You're right; I don't know anything about Sandy White. But--"
"It's okay."
Vivi interrupted. Nami blinked as her friend's eyes met hers.
"I... I guess I was just hurt, Nami. Because... well, it's none of my business, I guess, whether you hate the guy or not. But it's not like you, Nami, to judge someone so quickly. And if you do have a reason for having something against this guy -- why don't you tell me what it is?"
Seeing and realising what the pain reflected in her friend's eyes meant, Nami took Vivi's hand, squeezing it gently.
"I'm sorry Vivi. It's just that it's so confusing."
She started, when Vivi stepped on her foot, making Nami yelp in pain. She looked at Nami irritatedly.
"What the heck do you think I'm here for? Hellloooo, I'm just a little thing in the back of Nami's mind, something she doesn't even want to bother explaining things to..."
Nami laughed, holding her friend's hand tightly.
"It's not like that! It really is confusing... but if you really want to know, I'll attempt to explain it to you."
Vivi smiled, replying,
"Now, that's more like it."
"Yeah, but I warn you... it's going to give you a bit of a headache."
Vivi raised an eyebrow, and Nami held her hands up in mock surrender.
"Okay, you win, you win! Anything to avoid Vivi, the scary ice-woman."
"Hey!"
"I'm only kidding! Well, sort of... No, seriously, Vivi, I'll explain everything to you."
"After the assembly?"
"Yeah. And just to be safe... you better bring an aspirin."
Sanji yawned.
'Man... when will the dude shut up?'
The model thought irritably as the dean made a wide and sweeping gesture, trying to describe the night's events. Mr. Harrison walked in long strides across the stage of the now cleared auditorium. So far, the dean had just finished describing how awful the event was. He was now talking about security.
Bored, Sanji scanned the audience, and noticed unsurprisedly that no one was listening to the dean. His eyes caught a flash of orange somewhere at the front seats, and he focused to see Nami sitting. He felt relief seep through him at the fact the girl looked fine. She also looked like she was listening with rapt attention.
Amazing, Sanji thought with a shake of his head. Vivi, next to her, was sitting relaxedly and twiddling something in her fingers. He squinted to see that there was a cord between Nami and Vivi, connected to something the blue-haired girl was holding idly--
Sanji had to stifle his snort of laughter when he realised they were listening to Vivi's MD player while pretending to listen to the dean on the front row seats. Now that is truly amazing.
His eyes travelled along, and he saw his room-mate sitting wih his arms crossed sitting at the right side of the hall. He was leaning against someone, who looked extremely flustered. Sanji recognised the rhythmetic rise and fall of the green-head's shoulders - he had fallen asleep, and was now unconciously leaning against a girl.
Sanji scowled - how dare he use the innocence of a girl! - when he realised that probably wasn't it because the girl was practically burrowing her elbow into his ribs to no avail. And besides... this was Zoro he was thinking about.
The blonde watched interestedly as Zoro shifted position to lean more comfortably, causing the girl's face to turn scarlet.
I wonder who the girl is?
Sanji thought with an amused smirk as the girl tried to sock Zoro in the stomach, only to have him yawn but not wake up. He heard scuffling beside him, and turning his head away from the green-head, saw two students scrawling tic-tac-toe into a notebook.
'I hope the dean shuts his trap soon.'
He thought, sinking into his chair, when the dean cleared his throat and announced,
"Therefore higher security measures will be taken. Teachers will regularly patrol floors at nights. If you have any information about those-- those motorcyclists, please report it to my office immediately."
Mr. Harrison paused before finishing,
"You are dismissed. Good night."
The auditorium erupted with chatter and shifting students, accompanied by the sounds of chairs scraping across the floor.
"Finally!"
Sanji grumbled, and made his way to the aisle. He craned his neck, hoping to catch a glimpse of tangerine amongst the heads, but failed to do so. He had been thinking about seeing her later on at her dorm room, but now wondered if the new security measures would restrict him from doing that. Muttering to himself in annoyance, he let the students infront of him and behind jostle him forward.
'Oh well... I can visit Nami-san tomorrow.'
He decided.
Accepting without realising what he had just called her.
"Wake up!!"
When there was no reaction, Tashigi finally reached the end of her tether, and stood up abruptly. The green-head smacked into the hard plastic of her chair, and promptly sat up, blinking stars out of his eyes.
"Eh?"
He rubbed his eyes, getting to his feet. He looked around, oblivious to Tashigi glare.
"Is it finished?"
He asked. Tashigi rolled her eyes, and walked towards the aisle. Zoro followed, still trying to figure out why he been woken up in such a brusque way.
"Man, he just droned on and on..."
Zoro commented, stretching his arms.
"I know, but you should at least try to listen."
"Well, what was he saying?"
"Uhm... something about new security measures,"
She said vaguely. He laughed.
"See? You weren't listening either."
Tashigi had to bite her lip so she wouldn't punch him again. Normally she'd listen to the dean, and if it hadn't been for the green-head leaning on her to sleep, she would have. His gentle breathing against her collar-bone had been strangely unnerving. Re-adjusting her glasses to hide her blush, Tashigi replied,
"Well, at least I was awake."
Zoro seemed about to answer her, when he noticed a certain blonde somewhere in the front of the line of students edging through the aisle. He remembered he wanted to talk to the model before he fell asleep.
"See you."
He clapped her on the back absent-mindedly before weaving through the crowd of students to reach Sanji. Tashigi had to pause in order to get some air back into her winded lungs.
The small boy stumbled along, his sneakers tangled in his laces. He struggled to try to stand without tripping, but ended up slamming face-first into the gravel.
"@#$%,"
He muttered, trying to pull out his laces, and grimaced at the dirt caking it.
"@#$%ing laces..."
Something deep inside his chest began to tug at the attention of the irritated boy.
"What is it?!"
He hissed. He felt a warmth tug urgently at his right ear. Sighing, he turned to face his right. Two youths were skating about on skateboards, performing stunts and cheering whenever another spectator joined the crowd around them.
One of them struck a chord in the boy. He raised an eyebrow.
"Oh, him. Right."
He rolled his eyes as he unknotted his sneakers to retie them again.
"Listen, we're not to concern him. At all. Okay?"
The eagerness in him dropped almost immediately into disappointment. The small boy ignored the high whining in his head.
"Look, we haven't got time for this,"
He muttered irritably,
"We've got to leave that guy alone. Understand?"
The whining ceased, sinking into depression. Ignoring the dark aura, the boy stood up, his sneakers now properly laced up with double-knots.
"Cheer up,"
He muttered, and duck down into an alley. Hoisting himself over the wall, he found an overgrown garden, spilling with weeds and white flowers. He nimbly climbed up a tree and lay across a branch comfortably, well hidden amongst the knobbly bark and thick blanket of leaves. Moonlight barely filtered between.
He pressed his hands behind his head and closed his eyes. Finding the feeling in him unsettling, he murmured,
"We'll find them tomorrow, I'm sure of it."
Finally satisfied, the depression turned to contentment. Smiling, the boy let himself drift into deep sleep.
[A/N: T-T Gomen ne... this is getting boring, isn't it? ;;; Sorry... I'll try to pick the storyline up again into a faster pace. It's proving to be difficult - but no worries, it's getting there. I assure you, it's getting there. ^_^;; And I thank you for bearing with me uptil now, as usual. *huggles* ^^* I have seen Fushigi Yuugi by the way, Uots, so I'll read your 'Damsels in Distress' sometime. ~.^]