Riiiinnnggg! Lunchtime was finally here. She had made it through a half a day of the pointless questions of teachers, The stupid answers of the "cool kids", the indecipherable answers of the "smart kids", And the glares of hate and lust thrown at her by girls and guys, respectively. Sitting by herself under the Sakura Tree in the school courtyard, where she always ate her lunch, Faye thought to herself bitterly "only an year of this torture left to deal with than I can disappear and start over and forget everything that has happened to me here." Deep inside she knew that she would never be able to forget everything, she would never forget all the good times she'd had with Spike, or the event that had changed her whole life. Even now she still had nightmares and breakdowns because of that single night.
There she sat he thought. As the most popular senior he had full decision making power over where the popular students sat. He choose this spot different than the one he and Faye picked out last year, but if any one noticed they knew enough to not mention it to Spike, or ask why, and he gave them no explanations. Secretly he chose it cause he wanted to be able to watch her, maybe even watch out for her, as much as their difference in station permitted. He still cared about her a lot and wanted to make sure she was ok even if they couldn't be friends any more; no matter how much he wished they could be.
"Students! Students, may I please have your attention? Now I know you are all anxious for school to be over today, but I do get to hold you hostage for another fourty-five minutes so I suggest that you behave and listen up
"Blah, blah, blah", Faye heard one of the jocks behind her whisper to his buddy.
The teacher glared at him and continued, "As I was saying, I will be assigning you partners for different activities we will be doing this year in class." She dug through some papers until she found what she was looking for and turned back to the class. "As I read your name raise your hand and figure out who your partner is for the firs project of the semester. Okay…Vincent and Sara, Ed and David, Lia and Lucas, Tanisha and Duo, Jet and Libby, Spike and Julia, Faye and… oh we appear to have an uneven number of people in this class hour…wait what is this we have a transfer student that will be joining us from…England." By this time the whole class was staring at Faye and snickering as she stared straight ahead pretending not to notice. Spike who knew her, could see the tears of humiliation in her eyes, and for some reason it made him mad, even though he knew it shouldn't and really had no right to feel that way.
After digging through the papers some more the teacher continued, "It doesn't say his name here but he should be here…"
She never got to finish what she was going to say because the door opened and the principle motioned for the teacher to come out in the hall. As soon as the door shut the comments started flying.
"A transfer student WOW!"
"That's probably the most exciting thing that is going to happen all year."
"That Faye slut is going to be with him for the first big project."
"Yeah she'll probably scare him off within the month."
Spike was watching Faye throughout this whole thing and saw the single tear that traced its way down her cheek, even though she hid it well. Spike knew that she wasn't a slut but had no way of knowing how the rumor got started except from pure spite. Faye was by far the most attractive girl in school and everyone, male and female, knew it. The guys all wanted her, and the girls all hated her because of it, especially since with all the work they put into how they looked they could never look as good as she did naturally. With her deep purple/black hair and sharp emerald eyes she was the exotic beauty they could never hope to be.
"Students!" The teacher's shout brought everyone's attention back to the frount of the room. "Alright, I was a little off with what I said earlier about the transfer student, apparently you all will probably know this young man. He was in a study abroad program last year in England an is now returning to Bebop high…."
Spikes eyes met Faye's. It couldn't be him could it, he left the same summer Faye changed but maybe it was. Spike's eyes went from the teacher, to the door, and back again.
"…You have probably guessed already but lets welcome back Vicious!"
Spike and Faye were both practically out of their seats at the name. Spike with a grin practically ran to the front of the room to greet his old friend. Looking back at the class, or more specifically at Faye to gauge her reaction. He was a little shocked by what he saw in her eyes, when they were younger the three of them had been inseparable, in fact Faye had been going out with Vicious when he left and had been very upset at the time, but when Spike looked at her now he swore he saw pure terror in her eyes for a moment before her carefully stoic mask fell and hide any clues to what he swore he had seen.
"Now that the excitement is over lets return to our seats, students. Vicious why don't you sit by Faye since you will be partnering with her for the assignment I am about to announce." Faye's head snaped up and she scooted away from vicious as he sat down next to her.
"Okay this assignment is not going to be a short, easy one so get those ideas of doing it the night before the due date out of your heads now. This is going to be an in-depth get to know you composition about your partner. To get a good grade on this paper I want you to really get to know the person you will be writing about…"
Spike looked back and saw Vicious whisper something to Faye, he couldn't tell what had been said but what ever it was she visibly paled and she had that frightened, trapped look in her eyes again.
"…To get an A on this assignment you will have to do seven activities with your partner and write on the things that happened and how your partner reacted to the events. You will have three weeks to complete this paper and I want the paper to be at least ten pages double-spaced, size twelve, and no fair using a big font to fill space. You will now have the last ten minutes to talk with your partner and get some background information on them."
Students slowly moved toward their designated partners and started talking to them, very little said had to do with the project.
Faye was mentally hitting herself. "Why did I sit so far back were the teacher can't see me"?
"Hey pretty Faye. How nice to see you. I see you're looking as sexy as ever." Vicious said in a voice that Faye found way too friendly for comfort.
"Hello Vicious, what are you doing here? I thought you left because your family was worried about lawsuits, isn't that why they hid away in that "lovely" estate in England."
"Oh Faye, just as feisty as ever," He said as he scooted closer to her and putting his hand on her thigh.
"Vicious, you are making me uncomfortable, please back off."
"And if I don't…?" He said with a dangerous glint in his eye.
She tried to scoot further away, effectively dislodge his hand, but realizing he had sat down on the isle trapping her in the corner with only so far to move back. "Please, just leave me alone and lets get our project started," She pleaded her eyes wide with fright.
"Okay, if that's how you want to play so be it but remember what I said before and how much power I hold in the student hierarchy," He said menacingly.
"Okay we both already know about each others backgrounds so we don't really have anything to talk about now do we. So why don't you go and talk to one of your admirers." With that she turned toward the wall and started working on the homework she had for math class.
Spike looked over his shoulder at where Faye and Vicious sat, seeing how close they were sitting and how pale Faye's face had turned shocked him. Something was wrong and he was going to figure out what it was. He didn't like Faye being upset, even if they were not friends anymore he still worried about her.