Chapter 9: Skirt Boy

"Thanks, Miss. Donald."

Musa walked down the empty - except for a few seniors here and there - hallway, and headed to her first class, English. Room 120. Mr. Handers. She didn't even bother to knock, she just walked right in. The students who was quietly doing their work looked up when she entered.

"Ah, the new student. Welcome to Gardenia High, I'm Mr. Handers. What's your name?" Mr. Handers said in an overly annoyingly cheery voice.

Musa scanned the room and replied, "Musa."

"Welcome, Musa, you can seat over...there." he pointed to an empty seat beside a girl with dyed reddish brown hair who was busy chatting with her friend - who sat in front of her.

A few boys from the back of the classroom wolf-whistled and winked at her. Musa stared at them with a unfazed face and turned to the teacher.

"I'd rather not." she moved towards an empty seat beside Tecna, who smiled at her and plopped down.

"Er, right. You um, sit there can. Also. Yeah, so let's continue our work, shall we?" Mr. Handers chucked nervously.

"Mr. Hands?" Musa raised her hand.

"It's Mr. Handers."

"Whatever, I was wondering if you're qualified to teach English."

Musa walked into the music room, her last class for the day. This class was an elective so students from freshmen to seniors will be in this class. A few boys were goofing around. A small girl was quietly reading in the corner, hiding behind a curtain of her hair. A group of girls crowded around a teen magazine, gossiping and giggling loudly while a few love struck boys looked at them. Musa saw Riven sitting with his head on the desk, in a sleeping position, in the far corner. When she sat down, Riven sighed and lift up his head.

"What do you wa - Musa!" Riven cried in surprise. "Whew, I thought you were someone else."

"Who?" Musa asked, taking out her headphones.

"You wouldn't want to know." Riven shuddered at the thought of Veronica.

"Yeah, I'm pretty sure I won't." Musa didn't push any further like most girls would and just took out a pack of gum.

"Want one?"

"Sure." Riven took a stick of gum from the pack and chewed on it. "You do know that's it's against the rules to eat gum in class, right?"

"Don't care." Musa shrugged and popped a bubble with her gum. "And in case you haven't noticed, you're also eating gum in class."

Just before the bell rang, a girl walked in and went over to the corner where Riven was. She glared at Musa, who had her eyes closed and was humming to some tune from her headphone and cleared her throat. Musa completely ignored her after glancing at her and calmly laid her head on the table like Riven had minutes before.

"Excuse me."

"What do you want?" Musa snapped and looked up at the girl.

"You're in my seat." she replied curtly.

"So?"

"You need to move."

"Why?"

Veronica sighed and stomped her foot in frustration while Riven sat back in his seat to watch the show. Other people stopped what they were doing and watched the conversation between the 'new girl' and Veronica, the school's queen bee.

"Because this is my seat."

Musa made a big show of looking all over the table and chair. She even got up and looked under the table and chair.

"Was." Musa corrected. "This is my seat now. I didn't see your name anyway."

Veronica cursed under her breath and tried to keep her voice calm when she said through gritted teeth, "I'll repeat this nicely. Please. Get. Off my seat."

"Oh, don't worry, I'm not getting up. But if you want, I can help you find another seat." Musa smirked at her and yelled to someone else who sat at the front. "Hey, Rat Face! Yeah, you! You have an empty seat beside you, right? Well, I think this girl is half blind, so can you please kindly escort her? Thanks."

Musa grinned up at the girl who was glaring down at her.

"There you go," she waved her towards the boy. "a seat reserved just for you. And let me give you a piece of advice, next time print your name on the desk before someone else claim it."

The teacher walked in just in time to see the class roaring with laughter and Veronica shaking with rage walking towards the empty table beside the boy with a rat-like face.

"Class, class, let's calm down before we start our class."

"There's a new student joining us this year." Miss Clarice gestured towards the new girl, the girl who had just humiliated Veronica in front of the whole class. "Musa, please will you come up and introduce yourself?"

'Musa.' Veronica gasped at the familiar name. 'I thought she went to boarding school, what is she doing here?'

"No thanks, Miss."

"Er, very well then." the teacher blushed and awkwardly rubbed the back of her neck. "Let's start then."

"Just take off your shoes and put them on the shoe rack or wherever." Musa instructed her friends and turned to Sally.

The Winx and Specialists had came to Musa's house immediately after school. Musa crossed her arms and leaned against the doorway of the front - double - doors.

"Why do we need to take off our shoes anyway?"

"Stella, manners." Flora scolded Stella.

"That's because my mom's Chinese. Chinese people have a culture off taking off shoes before entering the house." Musa explained.

"Oh. Interesting culture." Timmy commented.

"Yes, but also a bit boring. Sometimes." Musa nodded and replied.

After arranging their shoes, she led the group upstairs to her room.

"By the way, nice house. Very big." Nabu commented.

"Yeah, but still smaller than mine." Stella noticed gleefully.

"You have a housekeeper." Brandon commented. "Are there any more? Like a cook?"

"Yeah, that's Sally, the housekeeper and my nanny when I was small. Also, there's Larry, the cook; Charlie, the driver and Hagen, the gardener. Well basically, they've been here when I was small. They're the live-in staff."

"What about the live-out staff?"

"What?"

"This is the one where Helia wore the dress that I absolutely hated. My mom bought for me on New Year's eve. And this is the one where I had to bribe him to wear the skirt to my party." Musa showed them the humiliating pictures of Helia wearing all sorts of girl clothes.

"What about this one?" Riven pointed to one of the pictures in the album he was holding. "It's like you two switched identities."

Musa leaned over Riven's shoulder to see the photo. The photo was a tall pig-tailed girl about six or seven and a short boy with short blue hair about seven or eight. The girl was wearing a boy's shorts and a t-shirt while the boy was wearing a pink frilly dress. The girl was making happy faces and looked like she was jumping around when the photo was shot. The boy had his arms crossed and was not looking at the camera - he was scowling at the girl.

"That was when she forced me to switched clothes for a week." Helia grumbled crossing his arms.

He was siting on the couch and looking not so happy. Musa was explaining the photos to them while trying to find a dress that would fit Helia.

"Why did you have to grow so tall?" Musa looked at him and pouted. "I can't find a dress that would fit you."

"That's a relief."

"And I was so hoping to have a photo of the older you in a dress."

"Not gonna happen."

Musa stuck her tongue out at him but leave the idea of looking for a dress nonetheless.

Aunt Alexis knocked on the closed doors of Musa's bedroom.

"Musa? Are you in there?"

Musa opened one side of the doors and beamed when she saw who it is.

"Hi, Aunt Alexis, when did you come? Did Sally let you in?" Musa hugged her. "And look who's here." she opened both of the doors so that Aunt Alexis have a full view of Helia.

"Skirt Boy!" Aunt Alexis ran into the room and hugged Helia tightly while he blushed. "How's my favorite nephew?"

"Hey, I'm your favorite. Remember?" Musa reminded her.

Aunt Alexis released Helia and turned towards Musa and smiled. "You're my favorite niece and he's my favorite nephew."

"Whoa, even your aunt calls you Skirt Boy?" Nabu looked at Helia.

"Apparently." Riven rubbed his hands in an evil like way. "Oh 'Skirt Boy', you're so not going to live this down."

"Riven." Timmy scolded Riven and pushed his glasses higher up his nose.

Helia glared at Riven but made no comment whatsoever.

"Aunt Alexis, let me introduce my friends. Sunshine, Fauna, Dragon, Layla, Computer, Whiskey, Blondie, Merlin, Glasses and Mr Old-Century." Musa pointed to each of the girls and boys when she said their name.

"Actually Aunt Alexis, they're Stella, Flora, Bloom, Layla, Tecna, Brandon, Sky, Nabu, Timmy and Riven." Helia corrected.

"How come you only got Layla's name right?" Riven demanded. "And why am I Mr Old-Century."

"Because I can't think of other names that could describe her. And as for why you're Mr Old-Century, you thought all girls were supposed to be 'prim and proper' when we first met."

"Not that again. When are you willing to let it go?"

"Never."

"How come I'm Merlin." Nabu wondered.

"Hmm, I don't really know." Musa tapped her chin, cocked her head and looked at Nabu. "Maybe you looked like him."

"Do I? Did you even watch the movie?"

"No." Musa admitted.

"Then how do you know I look like him?"

"I don't."

"I give up." he looked at Riven and said, "Now I know how you feel."

Riven smirked at him.

"Aw, don't be such a big baby, you two." Musa cooed and ruffled their hair.

"Hey! We're not." Nabu and Riven glared at the girl whom they can't win with and fixed their hair.

"Better not challenge her." Helia warned. "She'll force you to do the unthinkable. Even when she was just eight years old."

"Listen to him." Musa nodded her head towards Helia and grinned at the boys.

"I'll leave you all to entertain yourselves." Aunt Alexis moved towards the door with an amused face. "Helia, say hi to your mom for me."

"Sure will."

"Musa, I'm just gonna borrow your father's new guitar."

"I don't think he'll be very happy with you when he finds out."

"Oh, he won't, I'm sure." Aunt Alexis looked at Musa with a cheeky glint in her eyes.

"Oh boy." Helia muttered and the others looked at him confusingly.

"But, I'm always one step ahead of him."

"You sure are." Musa high five her aunt and winked.

Aunt Alexis went into the music room and Musa closed the doors.

"I have such a crazy family." Helia declared.

"But that's why you love us, right." Musa punched him playfully on the arm and slung an arm around him.

"Right." he muttered devastatingly.

The others laughed and went downstairs for some snack that Larry had made for them.

"Bye, guys." Musa waved to her friends when they were leaving.

"Bye, Musa."

"Where's Riven?" Timmy asked.

"Dunno." Musa shrugged. "Probably in his room."

"His room? Why? Since when does he have his own room in your house?"

"Since... Actually, I don't really know. When I came home, he had already moved in."

"He live in your house?" Stella exclaimed. "This is juicy news."

"I can hear you, you know." Riven appeared behind Musa.

He had changed out from the clothes he wore to school into a white shirt and maroon pants.

"Well, there he is." Musa gestured at Riven like she was presenting a model.

"Hey, Riven."

"Hmm?"

Riven was siting in front of the TV. Musa sat down beside him and crossed her leg. They had eaten dinner by themselves as Ho-Boe had told them that he will not be home until later and she had taken a shower after dinner. Her hair was let down and dripping water all over the sofa - and Riven.

"Shouldn't you dry your hair?" Riven pointed to her hair.

"Nah, it'll dry herself. Anyway, I wanted to know why you moved in."

"I thought you were not the nosy kind."

"Yeah well, Sky asked and it spiked my interest." Musa explained. "If you don't want to talk about it, it's okay. I don't pry because I hate it when other people wanted to know my feelings. Like the time after my mom died, my dad appointed me to a therapist. She said all those nonsense about talking about our feelings helps us reduce the pressure and how we need to share them so that we won't feel stress, blah, blah, blah. They're just nonsense. I hate talking about my feelings with someone and even if I do, well, maybe I just really trust them."

"Well, you're talking to me." Riven pointed out.

"Yeah, you should feel honored." Musa bumped her shoulder against Riven's "Not even my boarding school friends knew what I was thinking most of the time and I have known most of them for nearly a year, or like my last school, for nearly two. I just met you like two weeks ago, and I'm already telling you what I'm thinking."

"Oh, I feel honored, alright." Riven chuckled. "Your dad was my mom and dad's old friend. My mom abandoned me and my dad for some rich dude when I was very young. After my mom left, my dad committed to an alcoholic life. He would bring home nameless girls every night. Ever since I can remember, it's always like this. I would cook for myself and sometimes him. It's always me taking care of myself, I don't think he even remember he had a son. Until last year, he had a one night stand with Fiona, my supposed-to-be-future-stepmom and started dating her. She and I despise each other. She would do all sorts of deeds to make my dad impregnate her and leave me."

He paused and looked over to Musa. She had switched off the TV and turned so now she have her full attention on him. She was silently looking at him. Most girls would be 'awing' and talking comforting things by now, but not her. "Well, it seemed like this time, it worked. She was pregnant and had successfully convinced my dad to leave me. Actually, to be perfectly honest, I don't really care if he decided to leave or not. When he announced that he and Fiona will be 'taking a trip' to Paris," he put quotation marks when he said 'taking a trip'. "I guess I knew somewhere in my heart that he won't be coming back and I was right. He left me a letter saying that he and Fiona had moved to Paris or some place in the world. Said he won't be coming back and wrote me your address. He stated in the letter that he and your dad discussed this. Your dad will take me in and well, you know the rest."

When he finished the story, they was a silence. He took a peak at Musa. She was staring back at him, with an expression he can't quite read. Suddenly, she smiled.

"Well, do you miss your dad?"

"No, not really." Riven admitted. "Actually, I kind of like it here."

"That's good, because I like you in my house."

For some reason, when Musa said she liked having him in her house made his heart speed up.

"Why?"

"It gets lonely in the house sometimes. When I came home for holidays, I don't really have anywhere to go. I just stay at home and watch TV or sometimes I play my instruments." Musa confessed. "But even for someone who love music as much as I do, it'll get bored eventually. Plus, I don't really get along with people."

"You and me both."

Musa grinned at him. She got up and hugged him, and he could smell her strawberry shampoo. He could feel himself blush but luckily he was able to keep a composed face when Musa released him.

"I'm going to bed. Goodnight."

"Yeah, 'night."

After Musa went upstairs, Riven just sat there and smiled foolishly whenever he thought about Musa. After some time, he switched on the TV but can't manage to get the goofy smile off his face.

'Lucky none of the guys are here, or I'll be laughed at for life.'