Emi's POV:
"Emi get up! Your going to be late!" Airi pulled me out of bed. "I'm not kidding. You've got twenty mintues to get out the door."
"Hmm..." I sleeply rubbed my eyes. "It must be Saturday if your waking my up." I climbed back into bed. Calex always walks to school with me. If he's not here, it can't be a school day.
"Wrong, Calex isn't here and you've got school in thirty mintues." Airi shoved her cell in my face. "See?"
I sprung up in alaram after seeing the date and time. "Why didn't you wake me up sooner?" I bolted for the bathroom, no time for a shower.
"Your a teenager now, your old enough to wake yourself up." Airi sat on my bed, as I dasked around getting ready. "Where's Calex? I haven't seen him in a while. Did you guys have a fight?"
"No." I poked my head out from the closet. "Is this really the time to be asking this?"
Airi shrugged, "You've got four mintues."
Dang it.
"Your late." Ms. Caron, our homeroom teacher stated. "Take a seat." I went to take my normal seat beside Calex, but Sylive was thre. Luckily, Illya took Sylive's spot by Mara. Which left me oneop tion, Alexei. He had the good sense to remain quiet throughout morning lessons. When lunchtime came, I grabbed my bag and dashed out of the classroom.
Normally, I'd wait for Calex and we'd have lunch together. But with the things have been going lately, I'm not going to chance being left out. That's why I went to find Alya and Marinetter. The best friends were heading for the bakery, like usual. I've tagged along a few times with them before.
"Hey Em." Alya greeted. "Where's your other half? You two are partically joined at the hip."
I shrugged, "Don't know. We've been doing our own things lately." I can't remember the last time we hung out. Anytime spent together recently included school or other people. I miss our sleepovers.
"You guys finally get sick of each other?" She asked.
"Alya!" Marinetter scolded her best friend. "That's rude. Something major must've happened to them."
"It's okay Mari." I reasured her. "I've been busy lately and Calex has found other things to do in the mean time. Maybe it's time I found somethings to do by myself. At least for when I have free time.
"Well, your always welcome to hang out with us." Marinette offered. She took my hand and lead us to the bakery. Her father greeted us in the shop. Upstairs, Mari's mother had food waiting for us.
"Hello Emi, it's been a while. How are your siblings?" Sabine asked. My sister, Airi, comes to the bakery three times a week. The owers known my sister pretty well because of this. Airi also takes photos for the bakery and posts them on the online blog she runs. Airi runs a side advisierment blog buiness with Keyn. Makes sense, condisering Keyn's majoring in advierment.
"Their good. Airi's working on a new project. Keyn's been studying for finals." I took the sandwiches offered/ Best part about having lunch at the bakery, the bread and pasteries are always fresh.
"Emi when were you going to tell us your Noble's personal photographer?" Alya asked once Sabine left.
"You work for Noble?" Marinetter dropped her sandwich at the news. "Their just behind Jagged Stone in popularity. Their music is awesome."
"How did you find out?" I asked the blogger.
Alya fixed her glasses with a sly look. "I've got my sources."
"She saw you coming out of Miracle Entertainment with Knight one day." Calex stood at the enterance, a small grin on his face. "Alya pestered me for info. I swear I said nothing."
"When'd you get here?" I asked, only partally surpised to see him. Calex has a way of randomly showing up. This 'talent' is how he discovered I'm Blue Jay.
Calex walked over and grabbed the plate of food Marinetter offered. "Super powers?"
"Alya texted him on our way over." Marinette answered. "She's probably wants to intergate you both about Noble."
"Hey!" The blogger looked up from her phone. "It's called determintion."
"It's also called being a pest." I added. "Use that 'determintion' and find out when our next chemsity test is."
"I will. Soon as you give the info about how you know Knight." Alya got that look in her eye. This is going to be a long lunch.
Lunchtime ended and the four headed back to school. Afternoon classes normally consisted of math and chemistry. Today's chemisty lesson involved creating chemical reactions. Ms. Auclari, our science teacher, gave out instrutions, than allowed students to begin working with their partners. Since pairs had been randomly selected, the groups were unusal.
Lazy Mara, who let's Sylive do all of the work, is paired with Aero. While not a slacker, Aero sat back and let Mara work. He wasn't going to let Mara take credit for doing nothing. Once she did her 'fair' share, than he'd step in.
On the flip side, Sylive got paired with Devin, who was earger to start working. Devin grabbed all of the chemicals and began pouring things together. This caused Sylive to hurrily move things out of his reach. The last thing she needed was him causing an explosion.
At the back of the room, Floral and Mason worked carefully and slowly. Floral normally instruted Ania when they worked together. Likewise, Mason did the same thing when paired with Issac. This time Mason had to instrut a slightly neverous Floral on when needed to be measured. It was slow going, but they were making progress.
Strangely, Illya and Alexei weren't paired with anyone else. The two worked together like normal without any differecults. The station beside them was a different story. Ania had been partnered with Zoey. Being new to the class Zoey was often left out or the last one picked. For this reason, Zoey waited until everyone had a partner, before being a assigned to whoever was left.
Zoey glanced at Ania from the corner of her eyes. The bruntte quickly worked through the list of instrutions and tasks. Ania moved from one thing to the next, all without talking to Zoey. Chemical wasn't Zoey's best subject. It was her worst, right next to math. Even with tutors, she struggled to keep up. That's why she enjoyed group work. She could ask for help, while also contrubing.
"Stop staring at me." Ania looked at the blond in annoyance. "You'd better get started, I'm letting you use me just to get a good grade." When partners were annouced, Ania nearly stormed out of the room. The mayor's neice is just like his daugther, a spoiled brat who doesn't do any work. Ania had few interactions with Zoey in the month she'd joined the class. Obsevreing from the sidelines, she noticed several things. Zoey often kept to herself, never interacting with the class. Ania was convinced the girl thought she to good for 'common' people herself. When Floral invited the class to see her family's acting troops' new play, Zoey sneered and turned her nose up. The girl was a grade A snob.
"We're suppose to be working together." Zoey said forcefully. She didn't get it. Why was everyone treating her like a plauge? She did the best she could to include herself among her classmates. They weren't out right rude or bullying her, but Zoey felt they wanted nothing to do with her. Zoey knew that if she could get one chance to hang out with everyone, things woulc change. An opputiy came in the form of a play. Floral invited the class to see her family's new play. The kind girl even invited Zoey.
Zoey remembered that day.
"Come on Zoey, it's the new collection is out." Chole pestered. "So what if you miss a class or two. School's boring anyway."
Zoey slammed her locker closed. All day Chole had been bugging her to skip school and go shopping. She didn't even like shopping! "No, Chol. Unlike you I actually care about my grades." She may have been the mayor's niece, but she couldn't afford slack off. Part of her mother's agreement to let her move back to Paris is that she keeps her grades up. Zoey didn't want to move back to Germany.
Chole huffed, "Why're you so lame? You weren't like this before."
Zoey resisted rolling her eyes. "Maybe you were to self aborsbed to truly notice me." Unlike Chole, Zoey tried to pay attention to her cousin. She noticed the way Chole's eyebrows dipped before she goes on a tautum. The way Chole's lips move into a smirk when she's plotting something. Or like how Chole crosses her arms when she's annoyed. These small things allowed Zoey to how to apporach Chole. "Go have fun."
"Uck, mother was right." That smirk, followed by the arms crossing signaled something was about to happen. "Your just like your father."
Zoey began to see red. The subject of her father was a touchy one. She hadn't seen him or her older brother in two years since their parnets divorce. Chole knew better than to bring them up. "You self aborsbed brat! What do you know about my father? At least he didn't run off to another county and stopped speaking to me." Zoey's smirk vanished. Tears misted over Chole's eyes, almost making Zoey regret her words, until Chole opend her mouth again.
"I'm telling daddy about this!" Chole said, as she stormed off.
Zoey was done with her cousin. She didn't have the energy or time to keep swaying to Chole's wims. Sure, Chole was fun to hang out with. But even she found Chole to be a bit much at times. She knew that they'd make up, eventually. Until than, if Chole came back it would only end in a screaming match. That's how it always happened when the two were angry at each other and stayed in each other's presences.
So when a voice called out her name, Zoey didn't regester the difference in users. "I said no. I don't want to go an I never will." She whipped around, her voice full of frustated anger. Just once, she'd wished Chole would take a hint. But it wasn't Chole. Instead it was the girl from class who always wore something with a flower print, Floral. Her hand dropped the invite she'd held. Without a word, she turned away.
Zoey moved to go after her, to explain she thought Chole was back. Ania blocked her. The girl looked her up and down with a sneer that told Zoey execgly what she thought of her.
"What do you know about working together?" Ania sneered, than went off to grab more supplies.
Near the front of the room, Lyla and Emi worked together. "Is this the right amount?" Lyla set the measurements on the table. For her, chemisty was akin to baking. A differculy task that requires expact measurements. Otherwise, the results could be distastours.
"Your asking the wrong person." Emi looked up from her notes. "Calex is my brain for math and chemisty."
"Did I hear my name?" Calex leaned over their work station. "Need some help ladies?" He asked in a 'charming' voice.
"We're not damsels in destress." Emi rolled her eyes at her best friend's antics.
"Besides, I think your parnter could use the help." Lyla pointed to the smoke coming out of test tubes at the other station. Calex dashed over to help Issac. They worked together to put out the smoke. The rest of the class didn't fair much better. All around various stages of smoke broke out. One group was even making smoke signals.
A loud explosion rang through the room. All eyes turned to Zoey on the ground covered in glass and cuts. Ania stood over her, a broken bearker in her hands. Their work station was chatoic. Chemcials were spatter everywhere and equiment tossed in disary. In the center, a scroth mark from the explosion.
"Ania!" Ms. Auclari stormed over. "What is the meaning of this?" She gestured to the scene before her. "Why is Zoey on the ground? And injuried?"
"Ms. Auclari," Zoey moved to stand, but the glass percing her leg prevented that. "Ania-"
"Calex and Issac, could you take Zoey to the imfarmy?" Ms. Auclari asked, than refousced her attention on Ania. "You and I will have a nice long talk with the princpal."
Ania clinched her jaw. She needed to calmly explain herself. The explosion was a mistake. Zoey had mixed the wrong chemicals. Had Anina not pushed Zoey aside, the blond would've ended up with worst injuries. "Why do you assume I caused this?" Not the best start, but she hadn't yelled. Baby steps, Ania, baby steps.
"Everyone saw you standing over her with those broken beakers." Mara slyly said. "Your feelings about Zoey aren't expectly a serect."
"What did you say, you twit?" Ania felt the familir win throb in her forehead. "If anyone wants to hurt Zoey, it's Issac."
"Don't drag me into this you loon!" Issac moved away from Zoey to confron Ania. "Devin's the one who wanted to prank her."
Aero glared at Issac, "Watch you mouth, that's my friend your talking about."
"Or what?" Issac gave a cocky grin. "Your little stick is harmless." Other than jouralism, Issac also praticed Aikido. Use to watching and analzying oppenents, Issac found himself doing just that whenever he had to cover fencing practice. Aero's movements are swift and effienct. A useless strength if he couldn't hit anything. Aikido had taught Issac how to read an oppents movements and redirect their attack mountum. He was confindent of the outcome if a fight broke out with Aero.
"Bug talk for a lame Reporter." Aero thew the words carelessly, not caring how much they'd hurt Issac.
Issac cliched and uncliched her fist, they itched to land in Aero's face. The Reportor indicent had been several months ago. But it was still freah in his mind. He was Panda Mime's and Blue Jay's first oppent. It was him who captured friends and civilians. His dreams that harmed people.
Knowing how Issac was still blaming himself and his act first methods, Mason steeped in. He placed a gnelt hand on Issac's shoulder. "Calm down Issac, he's all bark and no bite."
"What was that?" Aero was one of the few people who never treat Mason's blindness as a hinderance. The two oftened team up when playing basketball. Hence, Aero was willing to 'throwdown' with Mason also, if it ever came to it. "Careful Mason, I've got no beef with you. But him," Aero sneered at Issac. "he's another story."
"Chill Aero." Devin seeing the tension involved. "He didn't say anything untrue. Let's move on."
"Yeah Aero, mind your own buiness." Issac ordered. "You'd have no friends if Devin hadn't taken pity on you. Although, now I'm questioning his taste in friends."
By this this point things had esclated to where everyone was involved. Floral was the next person to step in. She knew Ania hadn't meant for this to happen. Ania had a mild temper and didn't think before speaking. "Can we move on?" A life of performing enabled Floral to project fer voice, gaining everyone's attention. "Does it matter at this point? Zoey's hurt and Ania could've been injuried also."
"Just like you to cover for your best friend." Mara appluaded. "Even if Zoey deserves it."
Lyla stormed over to Mara. Lyla transferred into Ms. Caron. class the same day as Zoey. The warm grettings she recived were a stark contrast to the mutters Zoey got. She didn't know the firl well, despite her efforts. Her classmates included her in alot, which left little time to spend with Zoey. Evven so, she wasn't going to let Zoey get bullied.
"Look little miss sunshine." Lyla spoke in a stern voice. "No one desvers to be injuried, ever." Each word never betrayed her lack of conficdence. Moving around for most of her life, Lyla had a childhood one could only dream of. Exploring ancient ruins, finding lost treasure, dining with celebrates, dancing with royality; these were normal to Lyla. A girl who was friends with a prince and an upcoming actress, couldn't handle going to a regular school.
Confronting Mara was the stuff from novels and movies. New girl stands up to the class princess. Princess backs down and everyone cheers for the new girl. Yeah right. She'd be lucky to get away with a verbal lashing. Girls like Mara don't let things slide.
"Cut it Mara." Illya moved tin front of Mara. His old friend was making things worst. Mara's comments could be harsh, but they never resulted in a class dispute. "This has gone to far."
Tears slide down Mara's face. She turned to Illya with a hurt expression. "Why am I getting in trouble? Ania started his."
Ilyya's face softened, "You know that's not what I meant." He pulled her into a hug. "Everyone's aruging, we all need to calm down."
"Well that was fun." Calex clapped from his spot beside Zoey. He was knelt on the ground, removing glass from Zoey's leg. "Fousc people. Regardless of how it happened, Zoey needs to go to the infarmy."
Ms. Auclari let out a sigh. "Mara, Issac, Aero, and Mason you four will see me afterschool. We need to discuss you little outbrusts." She gave each of them a look that shut them up. "Calex and Alexei, please take Zoey to the infarmy. Everyone else clean up and go to your next class. Ania come with me."
"Detention for two weeks!" Ania kicked the dirt. "They didn't even listen to my side." She paced around the fountain angry. The vein in her temple throbbed, adding to her anger. By the time Princpal Damocles came back from a metting, last period was almost over. Normally he was understanding and reasonable, unless Chole was involved. Oh was she involved.smile.
"Who does Chole think she is?" Ania paushed in front of Floral. "Zoey's the mayor's niece and Chole's cousin. I don't why I'm surpised she used her connections to avoid getting in trouble." Ania felt her ears burying from her growing rage. "Just thinking about it makes me- AH!!!"
Floral offered a simptay. "Ms. Caron said she'd talk to the princpal." She held out an origame lily. "Zoey went to see Ms. Auclari. Maybe she's trying to help."
Ania smacked the lily out of Floral's hand. "It doesn't matter!" Floral is the oppoisite of Ania. The dancer is a sweet girl who prefered peace and harmony. She got along with everyone and rarely gets angery. It's these traits that fueled Ania's anger. She wanted someone to let her rant and listen, not try to put a postive spin on things. "My parents are going to take away my tablet. I won't be able to update my comic."
Floral glanced at lily. "Aren't you being a bit dramatic?"
"I've hit the top fifty. I can't afford to slow down or miss an update." Ania began pacing agian. Her frustation building, she failed to notice the butterfly land on her.
