[AUTHORSNOTS]Hey everyone! I'm so sorry for the lack of updates on everything – I've got no excuses, just that I've had a lot going on, what with a dead laptop, then a dead car. So yeah. Been lacking the motivation of late, but I'm trying to get back into it. In any case. I have a couple of chapters up for you all to enjoy. Let me know what you think of it, hey. I'd love to know how this one goes =)
~ Jozei
CHAPTER FOUR: September 1st
"Serah!" Came the suddenly energetic voice of the Meister behind as Serah let out a weary breath, placing her pen down on the open notebook in front of her. Stein was already cleaning away at his scalples, that post-disection grin he usually wore after a class like this was plastered across his face. Looking around at Maka after a moment, Serah cringed at the cramp that was causing hell in in the muscles of her left hand, however she didn't think much on it. "Coming with us for lunch? My treat today!" Serah blinked at the generosity, removing her glasses for a few moments with her right hand. Serah thought on that as she glanced at the front of the classroom.
The students in class began to file out of the room, some a little green – namely some of the girls, due to the class topic – there was a lot of blood at the desk in the front of class, for it seemed that Stein never brought in already dead animals – the poor snake was lying there all stitched back up with it's eyes wide open, thoroughly traumatised at what had just happened. At least Stein numbed it's body before he started disecting away. Serah at least hoped Stein would put it in a enclosure of peace and tranquility while it healed, and he would let it go – but the likelihood of it surviving the trauma of such an operation was very, very slim.
"Okay, but why?" Serah asked as she looked back at Maka, and she saw her smile – Soul stood up after a few moments, his arms crossed behind his head in that laid back pose he usually stood in – he really did have a kind of obsession for coolness, Serah noted. Supposibly there were others with other obsessions, Serah never noticed though – She only ever hung out with Maka, and through consequence, over the past week, she'd been getting to know Soul, too. He didn't seem as bad as she thought of before.
"In celebration for your starting as a Meister." Maka spoke immediately, and Serah smiled fractionally. "I thought it would be nice, since you can now go on missions, right?" Blinking, Serah tried to think on that – Missions usually required a weapon anda Meister, not just a weapon posing as a Meister.
"I don't think so. Maybe as an extra with another Weapon and Meister, but not on my own" Serah spoke honestly, and she glanced over at Stein again – he looked like he was settled to stay there for a while. Looking back at Maka, she smiled once again. "But that would be nice, thank you."
"Great, let's go!" Maka spoke, springing to her feet suddenly in glee, and she almost collected Soul. "-Oh, sorry Soul!"
"It's cool, don't worry." Soul spoke, and Serah smiled as she then began to gather her belongings once she had placed her glasses back where they usually sat on her face. Being shouted lunch? Now that made her day even better – litterally! She'd left her lunch money at home in her haste, and of course she was too fidgety to have made something before coming to class – nor did she have anything to cook with at home either.
"You coming, Serah?" Maka's voice came, catching Serah's attention immediately. She looked up, pushing her glasses up the bridge of her nose with a forefinger as she clipped her bag shut.
"Yeah, just give me a minute!" Serah spoke, lifting her bag to her shoulder before she picked up that box – if she dropped it, it would probably slice through her foot, and she'd have to get it sewn back on – she didn't like the idea of having her bones reattached and skin sewn back together. Stepping through the row of chairs, Serah looked up at Soul and Maka quickly. "Just gotta do something, won't be long!" She stepped ahead, jogging down the steps as she looked back at Stein, who was now packing away his scalple set, and the Anaconda looked like it was beginning to slowly recover. Whydid Stein have to move onto dangerous animals to disect now? Serah could picture a grown lion cowering in fear from Stein.
"Professor Stein!" Serah spoke, coming to a halt in front of the desk – the Anaconda shot her a pleading look, which made Serah feel a little sick – she couldn't do anything to help it, no matter how much she wanted to. Stein lifted his gaze to look at her, and he smiled slightly.
"What do you need, Serah?" Stein spoke, and Serah gripped the box a little tighter to her after a few seconds.
"Nothing, I just wanted to say, thank you." Serah spoke.
"That's fine. Have you had a chance to try the circlets out?" He asked, and Serah smiled sheepishly.
"No, I only had a look at it before I came into class."
"I see." Stein spoke, and he glanced to something behind her. "Well have a go with it, but I would suggest you head out to lunch. Maka doesn't look very patient." Serah blinked, and looked behind her, to see Maka walking past, a look of burning curiosity across her face.
"Oh." Serah spoke, and she looked back at Stein after a moment. "Lord Death told me to go home after lunch to get some practice in. So I wont be in class later today."
"That's fine." He spoke, clipping the scalple set closed and placing it in his pocket carefully. "I will see you in class tomorrow, then." He spoke, and with that he went back to his cleaning up. She hesitated, still smiling that little bit before a certain scythe weilding girl started calling her name from the doorway.
"Yes, have a good day, Sir." Serah spoke, and she turned on her heel and began to head towards the door. She couldn't see Soul anywhere, as Serah approached Maka, who was standing in the hallway outside. She took extra grip of the purple box, glancing to the right as the form of Soul was now visible standing against the wall just a small while down the corridor.
"Took long enough!" Maka commented, a smirk across her face as Serah cast her a slightly curious look. "So you're ready now?"
"Yep!" Serah spoke, grinning broadly as Soul stepped away from the wall after a moment.
"About time, I'm starving." Soul spoke, and Serah smiled a little more as Maka began to lead the way to the cafeteria.
"Yeah, sorry about that!" Serah spoke, keeping pace with Maka and Soul to her left. "I had to thank Stein for making this for me." Serah spoke, motioning to the large box as she walked.
"So Stein made that." Stein spoke, again, walking with his arms crossed behind his head in that 'cool' way he seemed to like emulating all the time. "That's pretty cool."
"Right, so what do you feel like?" Maka spoke, looking over as they turned down the hallway that lead to the cafeteria. "Anything on the board you want, what's it gonna be?"
"I don't know ..." Serah spoke, looking ahead after a moment as she tried to think. "Sushi sounds good."
"Sushi? Really?" Maka asked, and Serah nodded as she looked back at her friend.
"Yes. I quite like Sushi. And it means I'm not going to suddenly throw on weight again." Serah commented, glancing at Soul as he seemed to veer off in a different direction. It took a moment for her to notice that they'd actually arrived at the Cafeteria, and Serah looked at Maka as she tapped her on the shoulder.
"Go save us some seats, and I'll bring lunch over." Maka spoke, and Serah nodded hesitantly. She watched as Maka began to disappear off, wondering how many seats, and where. She usually just sat out on the front of the academy for lunch, where Maka usually found her after fifteen minutes or so. Looking around carefully, Serah spotted a few empty seats over in the far right corner. She hesitated momentarily, glancing over at the huge line Soul and Maka were in, before she began to walk towards the empty seats. She guessed she should really grab those seats before they were lost in the growing masses of students.
Stepping past table after table, Serah tried to keep both her box and her bag from collecting anyone, however it proved to be quite a time consuming, and difficult – she apologised to the odd person she knocked, and they said it was fine – one of them was someone she vaguely recognised from class, with glasses and two clumps of hair sticking out like they were glued in place. Her fingers were twitching with the desire to open the box and actually look at the weapon inside – now that she was left alone, she could feel the burning curiousity beginning to resurface – but she had to be patient, just a few more moments - when she grabbed the seats for the three of them, she could tear the box open and examine her new 'toy' to her heart's content.
Three steps … two steps … from one step away, Serah lifted her bag from her shoulder and placed it on the spare seat of the table of four chairs, feeling relief at actually reaching the table in time, before someone else got to it. Taking note of where the table was, Serah noticed that she was situated in the far corner of the cafeteria, not that it bothered her or anything. She placed her purple box on the table carefully, being more than a little careful, so she didn't jostle the circlets too much.
"So you'rethe one that's been stealing my spotlight." Came a voice from behind, causing Serah to blink after a few moments. She chose to ignore the voice – afterall, she didn't recognise it offhand, and she was pretty certain that they weren't talking to her in the first place – Really, the only two people that spoke with her, excluding the teachers and other people, was Maka, and just recently, Soul. She sat down at the table carefully, deciding to place her attention on the box again, when a hand suddenly slammed on the table with such force that she was scared half to death. "I was talkingto you." Came that voice again, and as Serah blinked slowly, she carefully looked around at the person that was there, who was most definitely talking to her.
A young man was standing just next to her, his hand still slammed against the table as he seemed to leer at her – or glare, she wasn't sure which one to go with. He wore a black sleeveless top with a white kind of strip around the neck of it, and a pair of white three quarter pants with black bottoms from the knees down. His hair was the strangest colour of aqua Serah had ever seen, and for some reason, she actually believed that it was a natural colour. His hair was messy, and unkempt, clearly one of those people that didn't care too much about that, but for some reason, he came across as an egotistical boy – if anything, he probably meant to have his hair like that every day. He was athletically built too – like he did a hundred crunches, sit ups and chin ups every single day.
"I'm sorry, I wasn't aware that you were speaking to me." Serah spoke cautiously, eyeing this young boy carefully – he seemed to have a mad look across his face, and for some reason, Serah had the feeling that he didn't really differenciate between picking on guys and picking on girls.
"You're going to have to do better than that." This 'boy' spoke, a nasty tone to his voice – What the hell was it with him and coming across like a total prick? She didn't do anything!
"Look … whoever you are. I don't even know what gave you the impression that I'm after some 'spotlight' that doesn't even exist." Serah spoke, crossing her arms as she eyed him, agitation creeping in on her. This was beginning to get old, and Serah was beginning to wonder what his problem with her actually was. "In fact, I've never seen you before in my life."
"What?" The boy shouted, horror crossing his face as he gaped at her. "Y-you've never heard of me? Black Star! The Big Man who'll surpass God?" Serah had to stop herself from scoffing at this – he'd probably get even more insulted. Although she did peg what kind of person he was – the kind that liked puffing up his own ego with every little thing he did; that much was obvious with how he went on about himself.
"Never seen you in my life." Serah commented, however, she vaguely remembered hearing a rant as such from somewhere.And his had heard his name before, but that was it.Her clarification of her point had him positively stunned to silence – in fact, he didn't even seem to be able to comprehend what had happened. Had she dealt such a low blow that he couldn't seem to function anymore? She was only putting her honesty very, very bluntly. Serah observed him for a few seconds, noticing that he didn't even seem to be breathing. Had she killedhim or something? How did she manage that? If anything, her remark should have just made him angry – although she was really, really glad he didn't react as such.
"Black Star!" Came the voice of a young woman, causing Serah to blink as she leant her head to the right to look at who had called the strange boy's name. A tall young woman came jogging over, somehow not managing to trip on anyone or knock anyone's lunch over as she moved. A long cream coloured dress covered her form, with a belt around her waist. A black scarf was wrapped around her neck, matching her black hair and armwarmers effectively. She stood at a rather tall height, towering over Serah, and the boy that was clearly called Black Star. However, unlike this Black Star that she'd never met before in her life, she had seen this young woman before – she sat next to Maka in class, and her name was Tsubaki. "I-I'm so sorry about this!" The young woman called Tsubaki spoke, pure embarrasment echoing in her voice as she grabbed Black Star by the shoulder, and proceeded to try and drag him away. "He's actually a nice guy – really!"
"He doesn't come across as one." Serah spoke before she could reign herself in, and a sheepish grin crept across Tsubaki's face as she continued to drag Black Star away – who was most certainly not fighting back; He hadn't snapped out of his freeze. For some reason, Serah hoped the strange 'boy' would snap out of it – she was beginning to feel guilty.
"Wow." Came Maka's voice from behind, causing Serah to blink in surprise, redirecting her gaze from the young woman dragging a 'fool' away, to the suddenly presence of Maka and Soul, who were both looking at Black Star. "What did you do to him?" Serah blinked in surprise, looking from Maka, to Soul, then back to Maka again, to see that they were both clearly wondering the same thing, for they both looked quite surprised themselves.
"What do you mean?" Serah asked, raising an eyebrow as Maka placed the two trays she had on the table that Serah had managed to save for them – and one of them had a large array of different sorts of Sushi rolls! Ooh, and some Fancy Tuna! She hadn't been aware that the Cafeteria actually sold Fancy Tuna.
"It looked like you'd just slapped him when I looked over, but he wouldn't have frozen like that." Maka said, glancing at Soul as he sat down on the chair in the corner.
"I told him I'd never heard of him." Serah spoke honestly, and she saw a look of shock creep across Maka's face as Soul suddenly burst out into laughter – Loud enough for several people here and there to look around in confusion. "What?"
"That's like telling Kid his socks don't match!" Soul continued to laugh as Maka let out a small giggle, before she sat down next to Soul. "I wish I was here to see the look on his face!"
"That's not funny!" Serah spoke bitterly, carefully pulling out the chair her bag wasn't upon – which, coincidentally was the one opposite Maka. "I thought he was going to attack me."
"He wouldn't of." Maka spoke, a slight smirk in her voice as Serah sat down on the chair carefully. "He would have just sat there preaching to you about stealing his spotlight, and thenhe would have started going on about his plans to surpass God."
"That's exactly what he did do." Serah spoke wearily, resting her chin upon a hand as she looked down at what Maka had got for her – there was a bottle of Lemon Lime and Bitters, which brought her mood back up to at least a little more happy. "But seriously. Why did some idiot I've never seen in my life decide to come and yell at me? It's not like I attacked him or anything." Serah's rhetorical question earned her a look of confusion from both Soul and Maka, athough Soul placed his attention back on his lunch – Spaghetti it seemed.
"Are you serious?" Maka asked, and Serah nodded slightly as she reached out for the chopsticks on the tray next to the large clear box of Sushi Rolls. "You know he's in our class, right? He's Tsubaki's Meister."
"Mmm, that's that tall woman, isn't it?" Serah asked for clarification more than anything else, and Maka nodded in confirmation – which explained where she heard that rant about surpassing God from.
"You seriously didn't know?" Maka asked, and Serah shrugged slightly, neither agreeing or disagreeing with her – it was probably better to maintain the guise of a lack of knowledge at this point.
"Asside from when I talk with you, I have my music playing practically everywhere I go." Serah spoke, breaking apart the chopsticks carefully as she eyed off which sushi roll to start off with. "In class I have it just loud enough to drone out all of the complaining from class. I've done all the theory work before."
"I guess that explains why I have to throw something at you to get your attention." Maka spoke, and Serah scoffed slightly at that. She could always hear Stein's lectures over her music, so she could hear someone call her name. Letting out a breath through her nose, Serah looked at the pretty purple box holding her Circlets. Because of that confrontation with Black Star, she never got to so much as pick up the weapon, let alone have a proper look at it. She'd have to wait until after lunch – that's if Maka didn't complain about it. After all, Serah was the only one given permission to skip the afternoon classes.