A/N: Yes, I am behind, but I'll be updating a lot on the weekends, at least I hope so, and I apologize PROFUSELY for the late update! ; And I hope I can finish schoolwork fast so I can write more! But for now, here's chapter 4!
Disclaimer: We all know I don't own Gundam SEED. Or else Mwu or Nicol wouldn't have DIED.
Day 4 – What a Miriallia Haww Wants
Another day was upon the city of Elsmere Bay once again, and another school day for the students of Elsmere High. Unlike the day before, this day proved to be sunny, with the puddles fast drying. But since no one really cares for the scenery, we shall focus on the Math teacher, Mwu, who currently, sat at his desk, desperately trying to figure out a way to save his beloved car, which sat at its respective parking spot, gleaming in the bright sunlight.
Ah, the Ferrari 360 Spider… it was truly magnificent, and that was why Rau Le Creuset wanted it. Every time the overly calm PE teacher looked at it, his head would be filled with images of him driving down a Caribbean coast line in the beautiful car. Oh yes, he would boil with anger every time he saw Mwu in the driver's seat, extremely livid that he couldn't have the Ferrari. Yes, it was quite obvious, that Rau Le Creuset was deeply and madly in love with the car. Enough to give up his prized teaching position. Rau dreamt of himself in the Ferrari's driver's seat, had posters of the car in his house, he even had asked the jolly old Saint Nicholas to bestow the car to him for Christmas.
It also helped that the Ferrari belonged to Mwu, and that should Rau win this bet, which he firmly believed he would, he cold dangle the fact in Mwu's face. Forever and ever, as long as both of them were alive. However, Rau kept this little obsession to himself, and no one else knew.
Behind the aforementioned Ferrari, in the student parking lot, Miriallia Haww drove in, staring blankly out the windshield for a few minutes whilst a blue Mustang convertible skidded to a stop beside hers. The driver, none other than Dearka Elthmann, stared at her, wondering why she was staring blankly out the windshield, hands still on the steering wheel.
Dearka got out of the car and contemplated knocking on Miriallia's window, but decided against it. If he planned to have Miriallia as his date to the dance, which was ten days away, he really needed to start respecting Miriallia's wishes and 'stay the hell away from her' as she so kindly put it.
Dearka sighed. He couldn't lose his motorcycle! He worked so hard for it! And it also didn't help, that every time he looked at the motorcycle, he could see Miriallia and himself on it, cruising down the breezy highways of Elsmere Bay. Ah, yes… it would be Dearka's dream come true. A dream that wouldn't happen unless he could figure out a way to transform into Miriallia's dream man in ten days.
But here came in the big, huge problem: Dearka had no clue what the woman wanted. All he knew about Miriallia was that she was the honor student, the junior student body president, truly stunning, righteous, and unlike ANY other female species he had ever encountered in his life.
Dearka absentmindedly headed up the stairs, in deep thoughts about how he could be Miriallia's dream man. If you haven't figured it out yet, Dearka was head over heels for the brown-haired girl. He had no clue when or how it happened. One day, he just looked at her, and BAM! It just seemed that she seemed different to him. She plagued his mind, he couldn't get her out of his thoughts, and she seemed perfect. During classes, he was resorted to drawing challenged-looking stick figures of Milly and himself holding hands, with cheesy saying all over the page.
If that didn't convince people that he was in love with Miriallia Haww, Dearka didn't know what would. He didn't know what would convince Miriallia.
In the state of deep, deep, deep thinking, the young man had failed to notice the teacher walking toward him, looking equally like Dearka, thinking very deeply about what would happen if he lost the bet.
SMACK!
Mwu and Dearka slammed into each other, staggering back a few steps.
"Oh shit!" Mwu yelled, looking at his precious last cup of heavenly coffee losing its life in front of him. He was absolutely dismayed! This was the last cup of coffee left in his pot, and Andy was absent today! "My precious coffee!"
Mwu could have wept at the unfairness, had Dearka not been there.
"Oh, I'm sorry, La Flaga-san!" Dearka apologized, wondering why his Math teacher was so worked up over losing a cup of coffee. "I can pay for another one if you'd like."
"Oh never mind. It's one of Andy's coffees," Mwu sighed. No caffeine for the day, he thought miserably. "What were you thinking about so deeply, Elthmann?"
Dearka frowned, his mind debating on whether or not to tell his Math teacher about his crisis. Mwu was trustworthy, and he did act more like a high schooler than a teacher, and it didn't seem like Mwu had any trouble with women…
"It's Miriallia Haww," Dearka blurted out after minutes passed by.
Mwu slowly grinned. The day had just gotten ten times better…
-
Carys Walker cursed, banging on her car's hood, which wouldn't open. Her messy black hair fell forward as she banged the hood once more. "You damn, disobedient hunk of junk!" she grumbled. "Do you have any idea how much I paid for you!"
The hood finally lurched open, hitting Carys' jaw as it did so. "Oh SHIT!" she cried out, glaring at the silver hood, gleaming so evilly innocently in the sunlight. Grumbling, she peered in, searching for the problem all the while muttering curses under her breath. "…I hate this car, I hate the color silver, I hate Yzak Joule… yes, and this is his fault. Knowing him, he probably did something to my car!"
"Who did what?" a smug voice demanded.
Carys glanced back to see none other than the aforementioned Mr. Joule, standing there, looking all posh, arms crossed, leaning against his black convertible. "Leave me alone, Joule. I don't want to be seen talking to you," she said flatly. Oh, how she hated him!
"You think you're better than me?" Yzak demanded, cold blue eyes flashing angrily.
"Why, yes I DO, Mr. Joule! What the hell are ya gonna do about it?" Carys demanded hotly.
Glaring and sputtering incoherent words, Yzak stomped off, steam escaping his ears. Carys smirked triumphantly as she watched Yzak stomp off, probably to take out his anger on some poor civilian, most likely Dearka.
"You know, they say there's a fine line between love and hate," the ever familiar voice of Lacus Clyne said amusedly.
Carys looked up and scoffed. "Oh, don't pull that on me! Yzak and I will forever hate each other's guts!" she replied out of reflex. "It's been like that ever since kindergarten! Just because I messed up his precious little sand castle!"
Lacus giggled. "Still, Carys! There must be some part of you that has feelings for him, even if it's just a tiny, teensy, weensy bit!" she insisted.
"Oh no, Miss Clyne! You're preaching to the wrong person," Carys waved Lacus off, slamming down the hood.
-
"…That's the story, La Flaga-san. Now, do you think you can help me?" Dearka asked a look of absolute desperation in his voice. "This is a matter of life and death!"
"Yes, yes Dearka, it does sound very serious," Mwu agreed, nodding wisely. He closed his eyes and entered his 'deep contemplation' mode.
After the deadly silence made its mark of thirty seconds, Dearka gripped the edge of the teacher's desk. "Well, La Flaga-san? Can it be saved?" he demanded urgently.
"Hmm…" Mwu remained still, arms crossed, and beads of sweat forming that could only signal the 'deep, useful contemplation' the man was in. "Hmm…"
Dearka slid to his knees and cried out in a pleading manner. "I CAN'T TAKE IT ANYMORE! Can it be saved or not!" he demanded, clinging to Mwu's ankles.
"AH!" Mwu cried trying to pry Dearka off his ankles. "DEARKA! GET OFF! What I someone sees? Like MURRUE!"
Just then, the door slid open, and the two looked up in surprise.
"Oh um, am I interrupting something?" Murrue asked, looking at Mwu and Dearka oddly. "Because you know, I can come back later…"
"NO!" Dearka and Mwu cried in unison.
"You're not interrupting anything!" Mwu said hastily. "Elthmann here needed some help,"
"Oh I see. I'll be back later," with that, Murrue walked out, wearing a confused expression.
"Gah… well, Elthmann, I do believe it can be saved," Mwu said, nodding.
Dearka looked hopeful. "Really? You seriously think so?" he asked. "You seriously, really think that it can be saved?"
"Yes, Elthmann, I do believe your non-existent romantic relationship with Haww can, indeed, be saved, given the right treatment," Mwu repeated.
"Oh! Thank you! You saved my motorcycle!" Dearka sighed in relief. So he would be able to take Miriallia on that cruise down the coast after all… "What do I do?"
Mwu handed Dearka a piece of paper labeled, What a Miriallia Haww Wants. "We make a list," Mwu explained. "We have to find out what Miriallia wants. You know, her favorite color, her birthday, favorite movie, you know, the basics women expect their significant others to know."
"Well, her favorite color's orange, like mine, her birthday is February 17, 1988, her favorite movie is Titanic," Dearka answered.
Mwu glanced up at him, pen poised above the paper. "Uh… well then. Do you know her favorite flower?"
"Daisies," Dearka answered immediately.
"What brand of perfume she uses?" Mwu suggested.
"Starlight Daze,"
Mwu looked up again once more, a disbelieving look in his dark blue eyes. "What did you do, take a whiff and go around the perfume section in the mall and take a spray of every single one of the perfume they have?" he asked jokingly.
Dearka remained silently, possessing the ever famous 'shifty eyes'. At Mwu's startled gaze, Dearka said defensively, "Hey! Zala did that too!"
Shaking his head, Mwu chuckled. "Well, you know your Miriallia facts one hundred percent, kid," he said.
"No," Dearka shook his head. "I have no clue whatsoever as to what Milly wants! She certainly doesn't want me!"
"That's not true, now," Mwu said uncertainly. "Try, err… experimenting, you know?"
Dearka snorted. "Like what? Some idiot who brings his guitar to the cafeteria, in corny tights, standing on a table and professing his undying love in an equally cheesy song?" he offered jokingly.
Mwu remained silent, finding that counting the holes in the ceiling was very entertaining.
Dearka sat up straight, jaw dropping. "La Flaga-san, you can't be serious!" he cried.
Mwu started to cough extremely loudly, as if he was choking.
-
Lunch
"Oh shit… I cannot believe I am DOING THIS!" Dearka seethed, looking at himself and sighing in dismay. He was head over heels for Miriallia. But this? He wasn't quite sure if he could stand the humiliation. There was a mirror, but Dearka couldn't bring himself to look. Oh no… if he was going to do this, he was NOT going to look at himself. Because he knew if he did, he'd run all the way across the world and spend his days as some drunkard, reminiscing about his non-existent romance with his first love.
"Elthmann, come on out already," Athrun Zala's irritated voice said from outside the small dressing room.
Dearka had brought mental support. Anyone's first guess would have been Yzak, but let's all face it: as much as Dearka treasured Yzak as a buddy for life, he was not the kind of person Dearka would want to share this with. It would either have been Yamato, Shinn, or Athrun, and Athrun just happened to be the first person Dearka came across.
"Shut up, Zala! You're not the one in this, this, THING!" Dearka snapped heatedly, grimacing. Oh Miriallia had BETTER fall head over heels in love with him right after the minute he finished this… or else Dearka would die…
A slight growl could be heard and footsteps as Athrun yanked open the dressing door, just as Dearka made to lock it, saying, "Oh dammit, Elthmann, it can't be that-"
Dearka hung his head in shame as Athrun scrutinized him. "-bad," he finished.
Exactly a second later, Athrun burst out laughing, slapping his knee, and tears leaking from his eyes. "Oh my goddess! Holy shit! Elthmann! You! AHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAH!"
Dearka gritted his teeth in annoyance. "Some mental support you are, Zala," he grumbled. "Now come on, let's get this over with…"
"Oh no, Elthmann," Athrun said, brandishing a camera, an evil glint in his emerald eyes. "This is absolutely perfect blackmail material!"
"What-"Dearka said, jaw dropping and eyes widening horror as flashes attacked his eyes swiftly.
"That's it, Elthmann! Keep that pose; it's absolutely marvelous!" Athrun said whilst clicking the cameras, imitating a photographer as he took shots from all angles while Dearka remained in the same position throughout, stunned. "Give it some variety, Elthmann! More life here, dammit! Different poses! Come on now, let's go! One for the special lady!"
At that, Dearka regained his senses. "Oh no you're not!" he said, lunging at Athrun.
Athrun snapped the last shot with a triumphant grin. "Ah ha! Perfect! Magnifique! Simply marvelous!" he exclaimed, with a perfect foreign accent and a sweep of the hand.
Dearka dragged his hand down his face miserably. "Ugh… let's just go," he grumbled, grabbing a case that sat on a stereo and dragging Athrun by the collar, who was still raving about his amazing picture-taking skills.
-
Miriallia hurriedly jogged through the hallways, which was surprisingly devoid of any students. That's odd, she thought. Usually there are people all over the place, just eating and chattering!
She rounded a corner, realizing that she was late in meeting Cagari, Lacus, Stellar, and Carys. As she neared the cafeteria, she found that all the missing students were there, all whispering excitedly about something that was going on inside. Was there a pep rally today? She wondered as she pushed through the crowd.
What was stranger is that as soon as the crowd saw her, they began to whisper to each other and immediately parted to let her through. She saw Lacus' pink head at the front of the crowd, Cagari's and Stellar's blonde heads right beside her and Carys' messy black hair beside Stellar.
"Your boyfriend is one hell of an attention grabber," some girl she had never ever seen before said enviously. "I wish mine would do that…" she glared at her boyfriend, who was snickering with his friends.
NOW Miriallia was beyond confused. Since when did she have a boyfriend? "Hey, guys, what's going on?" she asked as she finally reached her friends.
"Take a look yourself," Carys motioned with her head toward the table in front of her, an amused smirk playing on her lips.
"Huh?" Miriallia looked up and nearly died of fright and shock. "Elthmann?" she mouthed in shock, jaw dropping.
There was Dearka Elthmann, in all his smug glory –well, he looked like he wanted to kill himself at the moment, but who wouldn't- standing in what could only be described as a fashion sense worse than Peter Pan's tights, with one of those odd hats from the Middle Ages, also holding one of those instruments that olden day poets owned, clad in a yellow and lime green tights (Miriallia was immediately reminded of those clothes that Shakespeare wore). It took a few seconds for her brain to register that he was also singing. Singing a dismally cheesy and badly written love song of centuries ago, accompanied by poorly played music.
And it took even longer to register that the song was about Miriallia herself.
"Miriallia?" Stellar waved her hand in front of the teen, looking worried. "Miriallia…?"
Miriallia slowly snapped out of it, her mind blank. She shook her head; so maybe, this would all have been a dream? An extremely horrible nightmare?
But oh no… no matter how many times Miriallia blinked or shook her head, Dearka was still standing on that table, still singing the weird song. For a flash of a second, Miriallia saw Tolle standing on that table, belting out the weird words, but it soon morphed back into Dearka Elthmann…
"Milly!" Miriallia heard several voices calling after her, but she bolted through the crowd and the halls, blindly running. She nearly rammed into Azrael and Mwu, but didn't seem to take notice as she practically threw herself inside her car, gripping the steering wheel, crystal tears falling down.
"No, no, no, NO!" she screamed, banging on the steering wheel. After her little fit, Miriallia's shoulder went limp as she flipped down her visor to see a picture of her and Tolle, smiling brightly for the camera.
Oh Tolle… she thought wistfully. You said you wanted me to be happy… what the hell did you mean? I can't just up and forget you!
Her mind flashed to the day she had lost her fist love, the day she saw her future flash before her eyes and crumble. 'Tolle was a fighter', the doctors had said. 'But I'm sorry… it wasn't enough', they had added. Oh, how she screamed and cried back then and weeks to follow. A part of her deeply loathed Tolle's last words: "Be happy, Mir. You'll find someone who'll stay around, you'll move on."
"You bastard!" Miriallia yelled, glaring at the picture. "I can't be happy, you evil jerk! How can you leave me like that? We were supposed to have a future together! I hate you, I HATE YOU, TOLLE KOENIG! YOU HEAR ME!"
She knew she didn't mean it, but it certainly felt good to say it. The anger she felt at Tolle's death shifted onto Dearka. "I hate you, Elthmann, I hate you! You make me want to stab the nearest thing to me every time I see some girl hanging near you…" she mumbled, fists slack. "Even Tolle couldn't do that…"
-
"Well, Mwu, that didn't seem to have worked out too well now, hmm?" Rau smirked, arms crossed arrogantly.
Mwu cleared his throat. "Shut up, Le Creuset," he said.
Rau chuckled. He pointed his forefinger at Mwu Sailor Moon style. "Come on now Mwu, you know you want to give your car to Rau," he wheedled, eyes glinting. "Why don't you save yourself the humiliation and hand it over already, hmm?"
"Never!" Mwu declared, flames erupting around him. "You just wait and see, Rau, soon, it'll be you sitting in that drab of a classroom teaching half-dying kids!"
"Ha! Never, La Flaga! I shall be getting acquainted with your car sooner than you can add two and two together!" Rau exclaimed, laughing maniacally.
Their fellow teacher sweatdropped, as the two began to battle it out using spoons as swords and spouting off insults at each other.
"Murrue, how do you put up with this?" Natarle asked incredulously, eyeing Mwu and Rau as they clashed their spoons and growled at each other.
Murrue sighed. "You just do," she shrugged as Rau successfully whacked Mwu over the head with the all mighty spoon.
Azrael was cheering from the sides, waving a red flag and a green flag that appeared out of nowhere with pictures of crudely drawn Mwu and Rau on each of the flags, acting as a cheerleader.
Nicol inched away from Azrael, who oddly, was doing an exceptional job as a cheerleader, with the crazy stunts and cheers. "Is anyone else doubting Azrael's masculinity?" he asked.
"Where has he been all those years he Elsmere High Cheerleaders needed a coach?" Murdoch asked, waving his mug.
"Oh my! Don't tell me Elthmann converted into a woman!" Aisha snickered as she spotted Dearka on the table. Then she noticed Azrael. "What happened to him!"
"Ugh, don't pay attention to them," Natarle groaned. "We're supposed to be setting an example for the students as respective leaders! But they're acting like a bunch of kindergarteners high on sugar!"
Murrue chuckled. "Relax, Natarle. We only live once, don't we?" she said.
That brought on an evil and scheming smirk on Aisha and Natarle's faces.
"Yes, yes, Murrue, we do only live once!" Aisha agreed.
"Yes, Murrue, that also means that you only get one chance to profess your undying love to a certain, blonde, immature teacher and nail him!" Natarle cackled.
Murrue blushed bright red as Murdoch and Nicol gave Murrue odd stares. "Natarle!" she cried out, panicking. "You swore you wouldn't tell anyone! But you just practically screamed it out!"
"But I didn't," Natarle said innocently, a halo forming around her head.
"Murrue! You have a thing for little old Mwu, eh?" Nicol asked slyly.
"That's uh… what would you women call it? Ah right! That's so 'cuuuuttteeeee'!" Murdoch laughed.
"Natarle! Look what you've done!" Murrue said miserably.
"But it's true, Murrue!" Aisha said, smiling.
"What happened to Mwu and Rau?" Murrue asked, diverting the subject.
The teachers turned to look just as Mwu and Rau began whacking each other with pots and pans in the kitchen, chasing after one another. Azrael was right on tow, still in his I-must-cheer-until-I-die mode.
-
Dearka couldn't believe it. Oh no, he could not. Miriallia hadn't even shown up to his little 'gig' in the cafeteria. He sighed in defeat. He had endured the little humiliation and what for? She hadn't even seen it! Instead, people had been congratulating and mocking him ever since lunch had ended. And he hadn't seen the object of his affections ever since Math.
Man… what a waste… he thought dismally. He looked up to his locker and nearly died in joy. There was Miriallia! Waiting by his locker out of her own free will! Looking extremely livid and looking like she wanted to stab something! Dearka's joy instantly evaporated. He had an odd, sinking feeling that Miriallia had seen his little act. And she obviously didn't like it.
"Uh… hello, Miriallia," Dearka gulped, inching to his locker.
"Elthmann! What the hell was that!" she demanded, blue eyes on fire. Angry, burning fire.
"Uh… what?" Should he die right now, Dearka wished to prolong it. Oh no, as long as Death would allow it, he would play dumb.
"Don't play dumb!" Miriallia yelled shrilly. "Your little stunt! What the hell was that about!"
"You didn't like it?" Dearka asked. He mentally smacked himself. Oh, good going Elthmann. She must have loved it and that's why she's about to kill you!
"Oh I LOVED it, Elthmann! That's why I'm here yelling at you!" Miriallia shrieked.
"All the other girls liked it," Dearka said defensively.
If it was at all possible, Miriallia only seemed to be angrier. He could see the steam out of her ears and he could swear she was the scariest thing he had seen during all his life time. Even Yzak's temper tantrums at its worst weren't this scary!
"Well guess what! I HATED IT!" Miriallia shouted, delivering a good smack onto Dearka's jaw. "And I hate YOU!"
With that, she stomped off, still fuming and leaving Dearka on the floor, rubbing his jaw that was sure to ache with a bruise the next day.
"Oh shit…" Dearka mumbled dejectedly.
A/N: Oh poor Dearka! Next chapter is focused on Yzak (my sister thought he wasn't getting enough attention ;) and Athrun Cagalli for all the fans!