The last day of the week had finally arrived and Annie was missing. Armin had been looking forward to seeing her that morning in homeroom, but she didn't show up. He felt disappointed, more disappointed than he knew he should have been. He wanted to tease her lightly by asking her if she had enjoyed the sandwich yesterday, he would have loved to have seen the look on her face. She was so pretty and he yearned to see her smile, or at the very least show any emotion other than the bored, blank expression she usually held, or anger when irritated. Thinking about it, if the opportunity had arose he doubted he would have had the guts to tease her. Nevertheless, he would have liked to at least ask her how she was doing, even if he did only expect a curt reply or even just a glare.
"You okay, Armin?" Eren asked as they walked to science class together. It was already third period and no sign of Annie. He doubted she was going to be coming into school today.
"Huh, oh yeah, I'm fine." Armin sounded unconvincing. His mind was elsewhere and he hadn't put much effort into pretending to sound like he was actually okay.
"Are you thinking about that new girl?" Eren teased.
Armin suddenly blushed, what the hell. "No…why would you think that?" Eren was right though. It was all because of Annie, or rather the lack of Annie. Eren had been Armin's best friend since he was five years old, he knew Armin pretty well, even if he wasn't the observant one of the two.
"Because she hasn't showed up today."
"R-really? I hadn't noticed…" Armin lied through his teeth.
"Don't bullshit me, Armin. To be honest, I think the girl is bad news and you're better off not even bothering with her. She looks like she's capable of beating the shit out of all of us, even though she's so short. Why don't you just try going for one of the cute girls, like Christa?"
Armin frowned, he felt offended by Eren's words. He knew that Eren was just trying to help, but he was accomplishing the exact opposite of that. Just yesterday he was encouraging him to go and talk to her and now this? And was he implying that Annie wasn't cute? "You don't even know her" Armin rebutted, he rarely got angry, especially with Eren, but this was an exception.
Eren scoffed, "Neither do you."
Armin turned to Eren who looked smug, Armin's eyes were wide in defeat. He wanted to dispute Eren and tell him he was wrong but he couldn't because what he said was true: he didn't know Annie.
"Why the sudden change in attitude? Yesterday you told me to go and talk to her at lunch!"
"I've heard things about her since then."
"What things?" Armin mimicked Eren's tone, becoming increasingly sceptical but at the same time curious.
"Well Mikasa mentioned that Annie didn't bother showing up to gym class all week, meaning she's a slacker. Also, this morning in math I heard Jean and the others talking about her."
"….And what did they say?" Armin had learnt a long time ago to pay little attention to what people in his school said. People could be jerks. However, he wondered what they had said about Annie.
"Well, just that apparently she kicked Reiner where it hurts."
"W-what? But why?" Armin was surprised. Though, he quickly reached the conclusion that she must have been provoked by Reiner. Annie did come across as defensive but she didn't seem the type to just attack someone out of nowhere, mostly because she liked to distance herself from others, or so it seemed. It was highly likely that she was provoked because Reiner could be an ass at times, what with his popularity with the girls and being a jock.
"I don't know the details exactly, I just heard that he was teasing and maybe flirting with her? Either way, she's a bad influence and not someone you would wanna mess with."
"He probably deserved it." Armin muttered, ignoring the rest of what Eren had said. Eren just shrugged in response.
Armin took a seat at the back of the class deviating from his normal position at the front. He had always thought that for learning, the front of the class was the best place to be. However, he changed his mind and sat away from the others. He didn't want to talk to Eren again for at least an hour. Although science wasn't exactly his favourite class (he preferred English and history), he still excelled in it like he did in every other subject. He really liked his teacher, too. On the first day she had asked everyone in class to drop the formality and just refer to her as Hanji or even by her first name Zoe. Although she was a little eccentric, she was without doubt a brilliant teacher.
Half way into the class, without the sound of a knock the door opened. "What time do you call this, young lady!?" Hanji exclaimed. Her tone wasn't angry and sounded more playful if anything, but at the same time she was irritated that her class had been interrupted. After all, she was passionate about science.
Armin's head shot up from his desk and his eyes immediately fell upon the girl he had been longing to see. He blinked in surprise, she turned up!
"Quick, go take a seat next to Armin at the back there" Hanji pointed at him. It was the second time that Annie had been directed towards him, and just like the last time, he felt his heart start to pound against his chest. As Annie approached him, he could see that she looked tired, despite that, she still looked pretty. She dumped her school bag harshly beside the seat and sat down.
Armin stared at her for a few moments before speaking, "H-hey, Annie…"
Annie turned to him slightly, "Hi." wait, why did I reply to him? Annie felt like utter crap and wasn't thinking straight. She had completely overslept, not that she cared what the teachers thought, but at the same time she didn't want them to start bitching and complaining at her. Or worse, they could contact him…
"How are you?" Armin asked, breaking her chain of thoughts.
Did he ever shut up? Why was he always pestering her? It wasn't only the constant effort to make conversation and bug her, it was also that he had kept looking and smiling stupidly at her over the past week. "Shit." why did I just answer him? "Not that it's any of your business. Just stop talking to me, understand?"
Armin bit his lip, he paused for a few moments, "D-did you…did you enjoy that sandwich at lunch yesterday?" he took in a breath, waiting for her reply.
For the first time, Annie turned to face him completely. She saw that he was smiling. That smile was similar to a smirk and revealed to her that he knew. He had seen her, even though she had made sure to start eating it as he was leaving the cafeteria. A very faint blush crept onto her cheeks. Damn him.
Armin noticed the blush and laughed softly, he was bubbling inside with joy, "I hope you liked it because I brought you another one today, that is, if you don't have your own food."
"I don't want it." Annie lied.
"So you have your own food today? That's great." Armin was testing her.
"No…" Annie knew what he was doing. But why was he doing this? She was starting to believe that he had brain damage or something. Why else would he continue to bug her after she was being so rude and blunt? "I just don't want anything from you." She said it harshly, trying to ward him off. It wasn't going to work though.
"Are you really on a diet Annie?" Armin's voice sounded concerned this time. He was slightly worried about her because she was already quite lean.
"No I'm not." Annie changed tactic and tried to focus on the class to ignore Armin. She wasn't obliged to tell him anything about herself, and she wouldn't. Why the fuck does he care so much anyway? Annie dipped into her school bag and pulled out a pen and paper, she rolled up the sleeves of her hoodie and began to copy the writing from the whiteboard.
Armin looked down and noticed she had a bruise on her forearm, he was extremely observant and rarely anything went amiss with him. It looked pretty bad and he wondered how she got it. He was going to ask but he decided against it. It was clear she didn't want to talk about herself and it really wasn't any of his business. He figured it was most likely caused by an accident, anyway. Unless Reiner had done it after she supposedly kicked him where it hurts. No, he may be a jerk sometimes but he wouldn't do that to a girl.
For the remaining ten minutes of the class, Armin decided to stay quiet and focus on the work. He'd approach her at lunch again though, and give her the sandwich whether she wanted it or not. He'd leave the option available to her like last time. He knew they both had gym right before lunch and he wondered if she would attend the class or not, after all, Mikasa had claimed she was slacking off. He guessed he just had to wait for lunch to find out.
