Curriculum 01: Troubled Life

It seemed like time was stopping around them, for neither of them found a need to do anything more than gaze at each other. Finally, Arie broke the stance as she turned her head away in embarrassment.

"Well, um... I..." she began to stutter, losing all of her earlier class. As she moved her hand to her left ear she froze in place, gasping. "No, where-... How?..." she muttered as she scrambled in place. Panicking she quickly ran out of the observation area and into the hallway on the opposite end.

Rusai stood there, with an expression on his face that wrote 'I'm a gawking idiot!'

"Huh?" he muttered to himself, trying to think if he had done anything at all to offend Arie. "What did I do!" Rusai grumbled to himself. Without thinking, he ran out of the observation area, trying to see what had happened to the girl he was having the conversation of his life with.

"How could I have not noticed it!" she said as she dropped to the floor in the hallway, not noticing the door open behind her. "It's the only thing... besides..." she placed her hand over the heart-shaped pendant around her neck. Clutching it in her hand, tears began to stream from her now sapphire eyes. Nothing else seemed to matter at the moment. She hated it. When things like this occurred in her life. For the pure fact that it was selfish. When it happened nothing else mattered, and close to nothing could bring her back. She was frozen in place.

The scene that graced Rusai's eyes was quite perplexing to him indeed. He was still baffled as to why Arie had run away from him earlier, but seeing her in this state made Rusai want to comfort her, somehow. Rusai was about to bend down to comfort Arie, when he noticed something glimmer a little ways away. He really didn't want to leave Arie like this, but his curiosity got the better of him and he dashed over to see what the object was. He found a flower shaped pin on the ground. 'Maybe, she'd like it. I could give it to her as a present to make her feel better, although I'm still not quite sure what's wrong...' Rusai thought and went back to Arie's side.

"Um...Arie, I have something for you." Rusai stated and held out the pin he had just found, offering it to Arie. From within her seclusion, Arie could hear a voice. A gentle one that was familiar to her. She made out the words slowly and turned to face the voice.

"Ru-... Rusai..." she said softly, yet the words were painful to hear due to the expressions on her face. Her eyes remained the deep sapphire. "Wh.. what..?" Her eyes moved to the glistening emerald pendant in his hands. Her eyes widened in relief, though her tears did not subside. Her hand moved slightly towards it, shaking the whole way. Quickly she swiped it from his grasp and huddled into an enclosed position.

"Ru-... Rusai... Please... Please don't look at me!" she said quite upset as she hid her face in her lap. "I didn't want anyone to... anyone to see me like-..." her tears ensued as it became to much for her to make out speech towards him. She wanted to talk, how she wanted to explain so desperately, but... Her secret had been revealed.

"Arie..." Rusai murmured. "It'll be okay, please don't cry anymore." He slowly knelt down next to her. Rusai was nearly overwhelmed by the situation, he had never been in these kinds of situations before and wasn't quite used to the concept of 'emotion' yet. All his life was spent trying to eradicate his emotions, while here he was kneeling on the ground trying to figure out how to comfort someone who was having an emotional breakdown. "Just tell me what's wrong Arie, I'm willing to listen..." said Rusai.
Arie heard his voice clearly this time. It hurt her to think that she had brought herself to look this way in front of him. She lifted her head as her breathing began to calm, but the tears continued to flow.

"I-... I'm sorry..." she said to him, though refusing to face him in the eyes. She knew the only reason for it was because she was hiding 'it' from him. The truth was, though, that she did not know if he had noticed. "I shouldn't have yelled... It's just that... no one can know..." with that her hair flowed down covering her face, her tears, and her secret...

"Well, is there anything I can do for you?" Rusai asked, feeling so helpless in this situation just made him feel, well, worse than ever, not to mention the fact that he began to get agitated about not being able to help. While trying to keep his temper in check, he felt as though she was hiding something important from him and he tried to shake the feeling off, but it just lingered there. Sure, at times, he was a dolt, but he just couldn't stand it when someone he remotely cared about was under such a huge amount of distress.

She could hear the helplessness in his voice, she could also sense a bit of his frustration. Taking a breath, she brought her head up once more, though he hair still covered her face.

"Rusai..." she began again. "There is something I have never told before... To anyone, not even the academy knows..." her voice was shaky and her tone was distant. "It is considered to be an unknown 'condition' that hasn't been found in... well, anyone." Opening her hand, she revealed the pendant and moved the hair that had been covering her face back as she placed it where it belonged.

"Anyone, that is... but..." she stopped her speech and finally turned to face him. As she did her eyes glowed pitch black as her hair slowly turned a light blue.

Rusai stared in disbelief at the strange scenario that was going on.

"Woah..." Rusai sputtered in pure amazement. "Oh my god..." Rusai murmured. He was totally lost in amazement by Arie's special 'ability'. So lost in fact, that he was beginning to feel a bit lightheaded. "Ugh..." Rusai moaned before blacking out and hitting the ground with a thud.