Chapter 11. An Invitation.

Warning: Language

The next morning a letter was placed just on the inside of the girls' doorway, as if it was slid under the door. It had the same sticker on the back as the one left on her bed the first day of school, so she figured it must have been from headmaster Faust. Setting it down on the counter, she decided to wait on reading it and instead made breakfast first. She ate in silence, staring at the cream envelope as if it contained the worst news imaginable – especially after the events that had happened with Faust, and then the demon wolf. She wondered if the letter would have orders for her to pack her belongings and vacate the University.

She stared out the window, prolonging finishing her meal as long as she could, brooding on the worst possible outcome.

After cleaning the dishes and loading them into the small dishwasher, she finally had gathered up enough courage to read the letter. She picked it up and sluggishly went to the comfy chair in the corner of the room, and sat. She waited for a bit, tapping the envelope onto her knee, before peeling the fold open and reluctantly pulling the piece of parchment out. Scanning the letter, she soon realized that it wasn't a notice to leave the premises, but instead, and invitation to a 'celebration of each pages' newfound talents.'

A bit astounded, she wasn't quite sure what to think. Thoughts flashed through her mind of the last time she had seen the headmaster; usually he made an appearance somewhere about every other day, but she had yet to see him for what seemed like weeks. She had already deliberated whether she had upset him by denying him, but now he was inviting her out to some sort of party? She was in disbelief, unsure of what to expect, or how to even act.

Speculating the legitimacy of the invitation, and Faust's intentions, she pulled her cell phone from her pocket and dialed Rin.

"Yo?" he answered casually.

"Rin, it's me."

"Oh, hey! What's up?" He sounded rather ecstatic.

She toyed with the note in her hand. "I was just wondering – did you guys get an invitation from Faust this morning? It looks like someone slipped it under my door."

"Hold on just a sec, lemme look—" There was some commotion over the line that sounded as if Win tripped and crashed into something. "Yukio!" he called, talking far away from the speaker. "Did Mephisto give us an invitation to something? He did?" There came some rattling, and then he was back. "Yeah, it's right here! I guess he's invited us all out or something, huh?"

"I guess," she spoke softly, replaying what Rin had said while speaking to his brother. Mephisto.

"Are you going to go?"

She hesitated.

"Come on," Rin prodded. "It will be fun, all of us hanging out and getting our mind off of school!"

"I'm just not sure – I'm not feeling super well," she stammered. "Yeah, we'll see. I'll text you, okay? Bye."

"Well I mean, I could come cook you up something to eat if you'd—" she pressed the end call button before Rin could finish. It may have been harsh, but there were just too many things happening lately and her mind was completely out of sorts. She wasn't doing well in her classes, she probably needed to get a job in the city to earn some extra spending cash other than the allowance the University supplied in its scholarship, the headmaster had made a pass at her, she managed to summon a huge demon, she had actually seen the demon plain as day, said demon almost killed her whole class – she had almost just accepted that she was about to get kicked out of school. Processing everything was proving to be a daunting task for the girl, while she was still studying extra hard to stay current in all her university and cram school classes.

How the fuck am I supposed to handle going to a party right now? She asked internally, heading to the bathroom. She stopped and looked into her reflection. "How the fuck are you supposed to handle seeing him again, for Christ's sake?"

Desperate for some advice, the girl un-enthusiastically searched through her call log to find her mothers' name. Her thumb hovered above the call button, as if she were deciding which wire to cut on a bomb. Finally, she pushed it.

In the time that it took for the phone to ring and ring, the uncertainty in her belly had decided it would be satisfied if her mother didn't answer at all. Like she needed to talk to her about anything, she scoffed to herself; she was just being a little girl, running to her mommy for help.

Then, the ringing stopped.

"How's my beautiful daughter!" came her mothers' overly sticky sweet voice that she used for appearances.

"I'm fine mom," she sighed.

Her mother of course wanted to almost completely exhaust the topics of school – again – how the girls' grades were – again – how she liked it – again. Every once in a while her mother would go off on some tangent about what she had been up to that day, the 'crazy' story of what had happened to her at the super market on Wednesday, or was it Tuesday? No, it was Wednesday. And then she'd get right back to her daughters' school and social life. The girl couldn't help but pace her dorm room throughout the conversation, back and forth, fidgeting with things from her bathroom, the dishes, hanging clothes in her wardrobe, plopping onto her bed, getting up from the bed, picking up pens from her desk and doodling on a notepad, and so on.

"So, what are you calling me for?" her mother finally asked after over 20 minutes on the line. "I don't often get two calls from you so close together. Did something happen with that boy? What was his name?"

She almost burst at the seams. "Oh god mom, no; and he's not some boy. There's nothing going on between us either!"

"Well, clearly there is," she spoke in a way that allured she had her nose in the air. "I can hear it in your voice. I haven't been your mother this many years to not recognize when something's up," she chuckled.

And she was right.

"Well, we're not like, an item, or anything," the girl mocked.

"But you would like that?" She could hear the excited smile on the other end of the line as her mother spoke.

"I wouldn't say that at all," she chortled. "He's definitely very charming. And seems to have made his interests…apparent, I guess. I actually don't know how to feel about it all."

"Oooh. Well, is he handsome?" her mother pushed.

The girls mind instantly took her right back to the day in the woods, where they walked together, laughed, and bore just tiny fragments of their souls. The image of his green eyes that could look through to her very core was burned into her skull; lately, it seemed the picture of how his violet hair framed his sculpted face was never far from her thoughts. "Well, I mean, I guess you could say that," she stuttered, trying to hide her embarrassment as she imagined her headmaster in his pinstriped suit once again. There was no reply on the other line, and the girl could already see the look on her mothers' face when she knew there was more to be said. "Okay, yeah, he's pretty handsome alright?" she groaned.

"I knew it!" she squealed loud enough to cause the girl to hold her phone away from her ear. "So, this boy likes you too then, right?"

Throwing herself onto her bed, she shoved her face into a pillow. "Moooom," she wined. "For the last time, he's not just some 'boy!' He owns the goddamn school!"

She gasped loudly. "So, he's rich then?!"

The girl felt like ripping her hair out. "I don't know, I guess," she said with a tinge of attitude. "He practically owns the whole town or something, I'm not sure, but I imagine he's got some money."

"So, he's handsome, he's rich, he said he chose your dorm specifically, he comes to see you all the time, he's flirted with you—"

"Maybe! I don't know!" the girl cut her mother off, doubting everything in the midst of such a stressful and embarrassing conversation.

"He likes you, trust me; men don't go out of their way for girls they don't like sweetie," she said in her matter-of-fact tone. The girl couldn't help but to roll her eyes at the words coming from someone who was never out in the real world besides for shopping. "What's the problem, then?"

Well…" she paused, glancing out to the note left on the dining table. "He kind of invited us all out. To a bar. Tonight." She gasped to hear the words come out of her own mouth. "I don't know what to do; what should I wear? Should I even go?"

There came another squeal. At this point in her life, the girl was pretty sure her mother was living through her vicariously. And it was about time, since she had kept her daughter cooped up for so many years. Being away from home, staying at the University in the dorms, was the first break the girl had ever received from her mothers' clutches. "Wear something hot, and snag him, honey!"

"And what if I don't want to 'snag' him, mom?" she retorted, a condescending sarcasm thick in her voice.

A sweet laugh came through from the other side, followed by a sigh; the girl envisioned her mother shaking her head at her. "Oh honey, you just go and have fun tonight. Put on a man-killer outfit, and don't worry about a thing. Do your mom a favor and snap a photo in secret for me!" she giggled, and then hung up.

A little mortified, the girls' mind raced faster than lightning. Have fun. Let loose. Not something she was completely accustomed too. She had only gone to small friend gatherings before in her hometown and neighboring towns, and it was only occasionally. To be honest with herself, she admitted that she was nervous, but then she talked herself up some. It wasn't a big deal; it was just another group of friends getting together over drinks. That wasn't so bad. A bar, well, that wasn't completely foreign. The head administrator would be there, but he was like a friend of sorts. What could go wrong? Nothing, she assured herself. It would be okay. She liked to think of herself as a rather strong independent woman who had little to fear.

Her mind flashed a series of awkwardly painful images of what could happen upon seeing Johann for the first time since their last walk, and her nerves got the best of her. She was nearly about to throw in the towel and decide not to go, when her phone vibrated.

It was a text notification. She eyed the contact from afar, only to see it was from Shiemi. Opening it, it read: 'Just got a text from Yuki. Tonight should be fun! I'm scared but I want to go. You're going right?'

Well damnit, she thought. If Shiemi wasn't such a nervous wreck all of the time, and wasn't so determined to break out of her shell, the girl figured she'd have less inclination to go. But since she did in fact care for the blonde girl, and she knew how big of a hurdle deciding to go was for her, the girl decided to put her own anxieties to rest just for the night so she could be there to support Moriyama. Maybe, she thought, she would get a kick out of trying to push Shiemi and Yukio closer to one another and watch Rin's reaction – that might give her mind something to do besides getting tense.

'Looks like it's on,' she texted Rin.