The gossip about Tweek being another addition to the vampire students has yet to have faded away. The Principal told everyone over the intercom about the incident the following day after it had happened, leaving Kyle's name out of it. All but not most were shocked by the news, and everyone wondered who could've committed such a forbidden act. There were quite a few suspects and Craig was the first among them, Clyde and Butters were excluded since it was pretty much known that they had no interest in no one but each other and Craig.
Firkle, however, can care less about what happened to Tweek, his interest wasn't as high nor visible like the others. Moving the textbook they were assigned to read up a bit, he slumps forward and rests his elbow on the desk followed by his cheek on his palm. Firkle wishes he could control time like Mr. Thorn. He would use the ability almost every day just so he could get away from going to class, he would do nothing but just sleep and maybe read some books occasionally.
He lets out an unceremonious yawn. Mr. Thorn, who's sat at his desk doing what the students rarely assume is paperwork, turns around in his seat to glare at him for the unnecessary disruption in his quiet classroom. "I know reading is boring, but please refrain from yawning every time we do this." He faces away and resumes his writing. "These books contain helpful information so I'm having you all read them for a reason."
"For what, a test? What's the point of reading when you can freakin' teach this stuff to us?" Firkle thinks with the roll of his eyes, sitting back against his seat. He looks down at the opened textbook, but before he can seem like he's going to read whatever is on the page, he looks beside him upon hearing stifled laughter. Ike has his attention down at his book, he tries to discreetly glance at the vampire beside him and when they briefly lock eyes, he quickly looks away.
"You're so childish," Firkle whispers in a deadpan tone. He looks back down at his book, and pretends to read its contents.
"Says the guy who always tries to sleep whenever we read," Ike retorts in a low voice.
Before Firkle can say anything back, Mr. Thorn, who overheard their hushed conversation, says, "You two quit flirting and read."
Some students snicker. Ike blushes a little while Firkle flips the man off, his cheeks also colored a light red.
After what felt like hours of reading - Firkle still being on the same page - the second period bell rings. Firkle yawns again amidst the shrilling, he along with the rest of his classmates closing their textbooks then waiting on their teacher, although they know what they're going to do next. Once the sound of the bell comes to an end, Mr. Thorn stops writing, stretches, then gets up from his chair.
"Alright, let's go." His students start rising from their seats, making their way out of the classroom and to their self-proclaimed training ground.
"So, what are we gonna do today?" Asks a student with brown hair and black eyes.
Mr. Thorn hums thoughtfully before shrugging his shoulders, stuffing his hands into his pants pockets. "I'll think up something once we get there."
"You sure know how to plan your lessons," another student says sarcastically.
"The only things I plan for are to do with Christophe," Mr. Thorn says, then he sighs. "What I wouldn't do to be with him right now..." Groans of mock disgust prevent the start of the teacher's lovesick rambling, and he laughs. Firkle just shakes his head, only slightly amused.
The class reach the courtyard in a similarly short time frame as before, approaching and standing in the same spot behind the fountain. Six students are by the fountain, Firkle and Ike are standing on Mr. Thorn's left, and twelve Purebloods are standing on his right. The light grey clouds above are still showering the earth in a faint drizzle, and there is a calm breeze drifting in the already cool air.
Mr. Thorn crosses his arms. "Since Gregory and Cartman won't be back from their suspension until next week, we're going to continue what we've been doing these past couple days till they return."
The student who asked him what they were going to do a few minutes ago mutters, "Why didn't you just say that when I asked?" As Mr. Thorn and his group walk to the very back of the courtyard. He conjures up a barrier, thus commencing his lesson.
Firkle walks over to a flower bush and plucks out an Ashen Purple Rose, walking back over to Ike, who looks disappointed. "What's wrong?"
"Can we do something else?" Ike asks.
"Like what?"
"I don't know," Ike shrugs. "I already have like five of those things in my room, and..." He trails off bashfully, making Firkle curious about his next set of words.
But he shoves his curiosity aside. "Well, I don't have anything else planned."
Ike gives him a blank look. "So you were just gonna have me hold flowers all the time?"
"Yeah, pretty much," Firkle admits nonchalantly.
Ike shakes his head. "Seriously, dude?" He takes the beautiful rose from Firkle, and nearly drops it. He quickly prevents that from happening by keeping his grip firm on the stem. "D-damn, t-this is r-really h-heavy," he says through gritted teeth. He then tries to raise his arm up.
"And you're gonna hold it for five minutes this time," Firkle says crossing his arms as he watches his partner struggle to lift his arm, grumbling about the increased time limit as he does so. It reminds Firkle of when they first started doing this, although now it seems Ike has gotten used to holding abnormally overweight flowers. Doing so has led to some noticeable changes in his arms, proof that Firkle's training routine has been doing its job right. He's been having Ike alternate between carrying the rose, and lifting it like a barbell with each hand these past few days, even when the human wasn't accustomed to it yet. There's a small bulge in his arms whenever he holds the rose now.
"I wonder where he's been keeping the roses in his room," Firkle thinks, curious all over again.
"H-hey, wanna hang out later?" He hears Ike suddenly ask him. He stares at the boy in slight shock, the flower in his hand is held out as if he's going to give it to Firkle, though he's still struggling to keep his arm from dropping.
"Umm, why all of a sudden?" Firkle questions confusedly.
Ike appears flustered, avoiding eye contact. "Cuz well, you asked me last time, but we, umm, ya know..." Pressing his lips into a line, he looks back into Firkle's eye. "I actually wanted to apologize, I really did want to hang out with you that day. Sorry, if it didn't seem that way..."
Firkle doesn't say anything for several seconds, his expression blank. Right...he did ask the boy to hang out with him a few days ago, and had been a bit crudely turned down. Firkle had honestly forgotten that had happened, and he thought the same thing applied to Ike since the following day - after coming to class a little late due to getting his hand bandages removed - Ike hadn't said anything to him regarding the matter. In fact, he didn't even greet him, he only looked at Firkle when he thought the vampire was focused on something else.
"He must've thought that I was mad at him," Firkle thinks. Realizing this, he gives the ashamed noirette a small smile as he shoves his hands into his pants pockets. "It's alright. We didn't really know each other so it was pretty weird of me to suddenly ask to hang out." A flash of relief shows on Ike's face, glad that Firkle isn't upset at him and was also understanding, then he resumes trying to lift up his arm. "But do you have anything planned?" Firkle inquires, reiterating the question Ike had asked him that day.
"O-of course I do," Ike responds. "B-but I'll tell you i-in Mr. Akuma's class." If he has the chance to, that is.
"Why not tell me now? Or is it that you actually don't have anything planned?" Firkle deadpans.
Before Ike gives him an answer, he retracts his raised arm letting it rest by his side. "I do know, I just wanna wait until the day is almost over with. Also is five minutes up yet?"
Firkle rolls his eyes. "Whatever, and no it's not up yet...I think."
The two then chat about random things until the bell rings close to ten minutes later. "You all know what to do," says Mr. Thorn, his group walking past them and into the building. Firkle, Ike, and the other six students follow behind them.
Once they're inside the academy, Ike stops Firkle by handing him the wet rose. "Here."
Firkle raises a questioning eyebrow. "Why are you-"
"Well, I can't always take this back to my room otherwise..." Ike says before trailing off once again. "A-anyway, just take it."
Firkle awkwardly takes the flower, then they continue going to their next class.
Firkle and Ike walk to their last class of the day, Enhancement Training (ET for short), taught by Mr. Akuma. The only thing they need to bring there are themselves. It is the only class in this academy that has a limited number of students ranging from either ten through fifteen, apparently because the Asian man has a worse temper than Mr. DeLorne.
Both boys dread going to Mr. Akuma's class every day for similar yet different reasons. They both dislike how strict he is, if you even as so much as sneezed you'd be met with a death glare for 'interrupting his lesson'. The man likes for his classroom to be utterly silent. Firkle does too, however he can't relish it how he wants, which is by sleeping. He can sometimes get away with doing it in his other classes, but the one time he drifted off to sleep in Mr. Akuma's class, he was forced to do something Firkle wishes not to recall as punishment. Mr. Akuma said that was his first and final warning, he wasn't going to be lenient the next time he dared to take a nap in his class.
Firkle and Ike enter the classroom just seconds before the late bell rings, a few more students trailing in behind them. The black-haired boys walk to the back of the first row and sit in their seats, Ike sitting in front of Firkle.
"Hey Ike, Firkle," Gary greets them. He's sat next to Ike on the second row.
"Hey," Ike greets back. Firkle just nods his acknowledgement.
Mr. Akuma, who was already inside his classroom, gets up from his chair at the teachers desk to close the door. After he does that, he ambles over and stands behind the podium, reaching under it and pulling out a light green, leather textbook with the classes name written on it in bold dark green letters in the upper middle.
"Everyone, take out your textbooks and open to page 150," he orders whilst doing the same.
The twelve students hold back their urge to complain as they reach under their desk for the textbook, Firkle more thankful than disappointed unlike the others. He'd rather read than work in this class, it's rare that they read anything in here anyway. Firkle looks down at the page they had to turn to and arches an eyebrow.
"Who wants to volunteer to read?" Mr. Akuma looks at each of his students, and none of them raises their hand. Most shift their attention down at their textbook, 'trying' to appear like they're reading on their own. Mr. Akuma appears greatly displeased by this.
"I'll do it," someone declares in an impassive tone of voice. That student was Kyle, who's sat in the second seat of the middle row.
Mr. Akuma nods. "Thank you. Just read the first page, and I'll choose someone else to pick up from there."
As Kyle starts to read, Firkle is already on the next page. Usually when they read, it's about something they're going to be doing in or out of class, depending on the topic. But in this case, as far as Firkle has read, this is something that doesn't need to be taught hands-on. They can simply just read about it.
"Don't tell me we're gonna read until class is over," Firkle thinks, grimacing. He'll end up falling asleep if they do.
"Ike, you read next."
The call of his name has the young teen looking up from the book with a startled blink, but then he looks back down with a frown. "O-okay."
Mr. Akuma furrows his eyebrows at his nervous reply. "Do you know where Kyle left off? Or were you just pretending to follow along?"
Despite being behind Ike, Firkle senses that he is suppressing the anger on his face. "Yes, I do know where Kyle left off at," Ike says evenly.
"Hmph, begin."
Ike does as told. This man sure loves to pick on him whenever he gets the chance, Ike is pretty sure he didn't do anything to...-
"Why did you stop?"
Mr. Akuma's stern question brings Ike back to focus. "Sorry," he says, resuming where he unintentionally stopped at.
After he's done reading, Mr. Akuma says, "I hope you all are paying attention, because tomorrow you're going to have a quiz on this chapter." Most of his students don't bother containing their groans and grumbles of disappointment, but Mr. Akuma silences them instantly with a sharp glare. "Complain all you want, those that don't score at least a 60% or higher will have to retake the quiz until they do. Now someone else read the next page, we have three more left."
/
Class is finally over, and all of the students exit the classrooms. The ones in Mr. Akuma's class trudge out into the hallway.
Once they're all far enough away from the classroom, they release a chorus of annoyed swear words and groans. Then a conversation starts up afterwards, agreeing with one another and laughing at the names they come up with that perfectly describes their demon of a teacher.
Firkle drowns them out, and looks over at Ike. Gary is on Ike's right side.
"Ike?"
"..."
"Ike?" Firkle calls him again a bit louder over the surrounding vampires' chatter.
The boy's blank expression quickly morphs into shock once the second call of his name successfully reaches his ears.
Firkle almost laughs at his reaction. "I know Mr. Akuma pissed you off too."
"If anything, I think I'm the one who pissed him off," Ike huffs.
"He makes everyone think that," Firkle says dismissively.
"Yeah, like on the first day of class, I thought he didn't like my personality from the get-go," Gary chips in.
"That's the thing," Ike says as the three of them stop before an intersection of the hallway. "It's because after he introduced us to the class, I told him the correct way to pronounce my last name after he butchered it." Horribly, he might add.
While Gary chuckles at the reminder, Firkle smiles amusedly at the memory of their teacher looking miffed afterwards. Gary then separates from the two noirettes, bidding them a 'see you guys later' along the way.
They wave him goodbye. "Soo, meet up in the cafeteria in ten minutes?" Ike proposes.
"...Sure, I guess," Firkle answers after thinking about it.
He turns and walks down the hallway while Ike goes into the opposite corridor.
Upon reaching his shared bedroom a few minutes later, Firkle places a hand on the doorknob and opens it with a yawn. He doesn't see one of his roommates standing right in front of him, roughly bumping them aside as he walks into the room. Heading towards his isolated bed, he ignores the male calling him an asshole before walking out of the room, practically slamming the door closed.
Neatly folded up clothes are in the center of his bed: a black turtleneck sweater and similar colored sweatpants.
Firkle begins to undress, pausing from completely removing his blazer upon remembering that he put something in his pants pocket earlier. He digs into one of his pockets, pulling out a crinkled rose. He frowns at the state it's been reduced to, and tries to smooth it out the best he can on his nightstand. But has no such luck. He leaves it be, resuming taking off his uniform. Once he's down to only in his underwear and socks, he puts on his casual clothes, smoothing out his hair which the sweater ruffled up. He then scoots his dress shoes to the side, slipping on a pair of bedroom shoes that were by his bed.
He scoops up his uniform in his arms and dumps them into the dirty clothes basket in his bathroom. He goes back into the room, contemplating what to do next. He looks at the lamp in the middle of his roommates' beds, he yearns to turn it off so he can take a nap, but instantly shakes the thought from his head. He'd end up sleeping for more than ten minutes, it's not something he should risk doing. But he does wonder why they're meeting up in the cafeteria of all places. Could it be that they're going to hang out there?
Heaving a sigh at the possibility, he decides to just head to the cafeteria now. The annoying variety of commotion that always flood the place will keep him wide awake. He seriously hopes Ike doesn't plan for them to spend their time there though. Firkle walks out of the room, shutting the door behind him. Stuffing his hands into his pants pockets, he begins his leisure stroll to the cafeteria. There are a few vampires loitering this part of the halls, just chatting to each other. As always, Firkle ignores their existence, and it isn't long until he reaches the opened doors of the lunchroom.
Already the many incoherent conversations inside starts to grate his nerves, but he bares with it even as the voices' volume increases. Just until Ike gets here. But at least he's no longer sleepy. He looks at the dark clothed tables, glad to find one where there's enough space for him to sit at alone until Ike's arrival. He sits down and waits.
A few minutes later, a very bored Firkle becomes very annoyed when he hears a group approaching his way.
"Was it really okay to get two of the same thing?" He hears one of them ask his friends, sounding uncertain. Firkle doesn't recall ever hearing someone with a British accent in this academy before, but then again, he has a knack for not caring about people he's not acquainted with.
"Yeah, there's plenty to go around," one of them answers as they sit down a seat away from Firkle. He wishes they'd sat even further from him, or better yet, at another table. "No one will notice two bowls of salad going missing, also why'd you only get two salads anyway?"
"Well-"
Firkle doesn't care to hear his reply. These ten minutes need to hurry up, and thankfully it does because the sound of Ike's voice saves him from snapping at the people beside him. They talked so fucking much!
"Hey, Pip," Ike first greets, giving the blonde's friends a friendly wave. They return the gesture. Then he plops himself down next to Firkle, grinning. "Surprised to see you here before me, you must've really wanted to hang out, huh?" Firkle's visible eye twitches, and he can't contain the glare he directs at Ike. The boy's smile drops into a frown at his peeved off expression. "Relax, I was just joking."
"Is he a friend of yours?" Questions Pip.
"Ah yeah, he is," Ike responds forcing the smile back on his face. "His name's Firkle, we share all of our classes together."
"Oh wow," Pip gasps, genuinely surprised. He gives Firkle a warm smile that goes unnoticed by the teen. "Hello, Firkle-" Said noirette gets up and walks away without a word.
An awkward silence falls over the five males. Ike gives them a sheepish apology, then quickly goes after Firkle.
He catches sight of the black-haired vampire slowly walking down the hall. "Oi, Firkle!" Ike calls out to him once they're in the hallway. Firkle doesn't stop. Ike runs up to him, grabbing his wrist.
Firkle stops then. "Let me go."
"What's wrong? Why are you mad?" Ike asks as he walks in front of Firkle, not letting go as demanded.
Firkle stares into Ike's worried but also curious eyes, then heaves a sigh. "I'm...I'm not mad," he says almost quietly, breaking eye contact. "I just hate being in the cafeteria." Well, in loud and crowded places in general.
Oh, so that's why he never went with them there whenever it was lunchtime. He's never seen him there during dinner either. "Then why didn't you-"
"No." Firkle glares back at Ike. "Why did you want to hang out there of all places?"
"I didn't, well not for long." Firkle deepens his glare, showcasing his arising skepticism. Ike notices this and begins to clarify. "I wanted us to grab a snack first from the cafeteria, then head to the library so we can study for the quiz."
Firkle is silent for several seconds. "Oh..." He eventually mutters, embarrassed. "W-why didn't you just say that in the first place?"
"I was gonna tell you, but you left all of a sudden," Ike deadpans.
"I meant earlier, when we were leaving Mr. Akuma's class," Firkle states flatly.
"Because I was gonna tell you in the cafeteria since we weren't gonna stay long," Ike answers, then he frowns guilty. "I didn't know you hated being in there."
Firkle shrugs one arm. "It's okay, you didn't know." A short awkward pause follows. "You can let go now."
Ike looks down, a bright blush coloring his cheeks. "O-oh, sorry." He releases the other's thin wrist, using that same hand to rub the back of his neck. "L-let's just head to the library."
Firkle sighs out a "Fiiine", and they walk to the library. Their study session lasted for almost an hour, and the results are-
"We are so gonna fail," Ike says monotonously. They are now wandering a vacant hallway.
"That was a huge waste of time," Firkle scoffs.
"How was I supposed to know that there wasn't gonna be a single book about what we went over today in the library?!" Ike asks exasperatedly. He crosses his arms. "Tch, I bet this is why he's giving us a quiz tomorrow, cuz he knew we wouldn't have been able to find any information in there." Firkle responds with a yawn. Ike stops walking, lowering his arms as he stares down at the floor dejectedly. "Sorry."
Firkle stops too, looking at him in confusion. "For what?"
"We...didn't really hang out," Ike looks up at Firkle. "Did we?"
The disappointed gleam in the cinnamon brown irises sparks something in Firkle's chest, a strange feeling right in his heart. But he ignores it. "We did, we just didn't do anything...fun, I guess."
"What do you usually do after classes?" Ike asks, curious.
"Sleep or read, but mostly sleep." Saying sleep twice makes him yawn again, he would really like to do that right now.
"...I see," Ike says awkwardly. "Well...I'll see you tomorrow." He starts to walk away.
"Ike." The boy stops, glancing back at Firkle. He gives him a small smile. "Let's hang out again sometime."
Stunned for a brief moment, Ike returns the smile. "Sure." Then he continues on his way.
With another yawn, Firkle heads to his own shared broom. Once he's there, he wastes no time heading for his bed, but comes to a halt. Wait, the rose. He scans his nightstand. It's gone. Narrowing his eyes, he turns around scowling at his roommates, well the one that's awake, and in one of his hands is the crumbled flower.
Firkle walks over to him. "Give it." He opens a palm towards him.
The red and black-haired teenager ceases his bored inspection of the plant, looking up giving the irked vampire a lazy stare. "Ask nicely."
Firkle hardens his glare, really not in the mood to deal with this guy's childishness. "Give it to me, Pete. Now."
Before Pete can say or do anything, Firkle carelessly snatches the rose out from Pete's grasp. He only realizes his mistake after noticing he'd only gotten the top half of the flower.
"Good job, idiot," Pete mutters, throwing the stem offhandedly.
Restraining himself from attacking Pete, Firkle trudges back over to his bed, carefully setting the last remaining bit of the rose on his nightstand. He numbly gets into bed.
"Turn the light off already," a voice muffled by the bed sheets whines. But he gets ignored.
The guilt of having damaged one of his favorite flowers even more lessens a little bit after some minutes, prompting Firkle to finally drift off to sleep.