8 September 2008

"Everyone, please welcome a new student to your junior class this year: Noelle Granot."

A brunette with bushy dark brown hair strode into the room and waved to the large class with a lopsided smile. "Hello tout le monde - euh, I mean everyone - I call myself Noelle. I'm excit-eed to meet you all. I come from de France and have very bad Japon-eese," she ended with a bashful smile. "I am sorry very much in advance pour mon Japon-eese."

The teacher beamed at the exotic-looking girl and then addressed the crowd. "Well, who expected our school to become so international, hm? Does anyone have any quick questions for Noelle before we get started?"

Pretty much half the students in the class shot their hands up and began talking at once. And here goes the testosterone-destroyed IQ level of the room, Zero sulked to himself.

"What's your number?"

"Are you single?"

"Can you teach me French?"

"What's your class schedule like?"

"Can I tutor you Japanese?"

"Do you like cats?"

"What the heck is your eye colour? It looks like a weird swirl!"

Noelle laughed and glanced shyly at the teacher who was now shooting the rambunctious class with poisonous looks. "Noelle, grab an empty seat wherever you want and try your best to avoid the some of the ridiculous kids. They'll probably attack you during recess."

Noelle walked swiftly towards an empty seat beside Yuuki ("I promise I'll save one for you since half our class is mental!") and settled in silently.

"Okay, class, those are all the announcements we have. Let's get started by reviewing your trigonometry from your sophomore year…"

"Mon Dieu, Yuuki, I'm eggs-haust-eeeeeeed," Noelle slumped into the couch in the living room mummy-like and face first. Her bushy hair was in all its glory for Yuuki to ponder at.

Yuuki giggled. "Ya! You have 364 more days of this before we can call you a senior student!"

Noelle groaned. "En France, vee 'ave lunch break for two and a 'alf 'ours. Two and an 'alf! I can't believe you only 'ave one!"

"You'll have to deal with it, poor Noelle. It's pretty different here! Although from the looks of how calm you were in class and the books I saw in your room, you probably don't even need to be in half our classes and still get crazy good grades." Yuuki sighed. "How are some people just born smart?"

Noelle chuckled. "I vosn't, Yuuki. My house has a lot of science and plant books that I've read since I vos five years old, zat's all."

Noelle tossed around to face the short-haired brunette. "Vat where you doing after zee class? I did not see you until I valked past the garden at five o'clock."

Yuuki looked down at her feet. "Oh, um… Zero and I… we are prefects at Cross Academy, which means we have a few jobs to do for the Chairman. One of them is to keep the crazy Day Class students like us out of the way of the Night Class because each student in the Night Class is…" Yuuki searched for the right word, "… coincidentally beautiful. They change classes in the afternoon." She giggled. "It sounds like a stupid job but you should come watch the exchange tomorrow. I swear I've seen the funniest things on this job!"

Yuuki smiled and giggled herself to the point of bad storytelling. "Ha ha… once… ha ha… there was a g-girl - ha ha - who reallllllly liked this blond guy from the Night Class. She wouldn't stop crying…. ha! … for a whole hour after the boy winked at her. She was so h-h-happy! Hah! I thought her dog died or something from the way her tears p-poured out like a fire hydrant …. HA HA!"

Noelle raised two eyebrows in alarm. "Zat… eez very…. veird."

"HA HA HA I KNOW!" Yuuki giggled until she had to use the couch as support. She got the last laughs out of her system before lighting up again.

"Ooohhh! There was a another time. Zero is a prefect too, you know? The way he deals with the screaming girls is really different from the way I deal with them; you'll see tomorrow. He's, um, pretty harsh sometimes."

Yuuki stood up straighter as she realized she no longer needed the couch for support.

"Once, this boy who had really big glasses lost them in the screaming crowd. He couldn't find them and bumped into Zero. His brain must not have been working or maybe I don't understand how blind he is, but he mistook Zero for … "

Yuuki had to collect herself again after falling on the back of the couch again for support.

"HA HA HA! Oh my god… he mistook Zero for this Night Class girl with pale hair named Seiren and tried to kiss Zero. OH MY GOD, you should have seen Zero's face!" Yuuki giggled until Noelle started hearing hiccups. "I've never seen the whites of his eyes like that before. Zero nearly broke the guy's neck! Haha…."

Noelle smiled at the giggly girl in front of her. These people are keepers.

"Zero, come here! I need to ask a favour!"

A very long minute passed before a grumpy young man trudged out from the door at the end of the hallway. He rubbed his eyes and looked like he was sobering up from a long, drunken night but Noelle knew that was far from the truth. Nonetheless, Noelle found him extremely good-looking. He looked lithe and strong like a fighter; perpetually emotionless or grumpy like the high-class "cool kids" from Noelle's previous school; and most of all, he had the most amazing facial features. She couldn't understand how silver hair was genetically possible, and even more amazing, his lavender eyes that darkened to violet when he was grumpy but brightened to a milky lilac under the sun. Maybe the only that was missing was an Italian suit and a light stubble to complete the look for Men's Vogue magazine.

Noelle put him in that "too eerily sexy and moody to be possibly good people" category of men. Well, she realized, she created a new bucket of men just for Zero. Old habits die hard, Noelle thought warily upon realizing how much of Zero's personality resembled her previous boyfriend.

"What did I do to earn your work this time?" he muttered at Yuuki. Noelle snapped out of scrutinizing Zero's features to the conversation the adoptive siblings were having.

"I have to visit the Moon Dorms to drop off something before we go on patrol, and since you two haven't talked much, can you show Noelle around our campus?" Yuuuki batted her eyelashes and clasped her hands tightly while scooting closer to Zero and looking up at his (now) dark purple eyes. "Preeeeeeetty pleaaaaaaaaasssseeeee?"

Noelle jumped up. "Yuuki, no, eet's okay, I just vill stroll around myself."

Zero seemed to notice Noelle for the first time. He looked back down at Yuuki and grunted, "See, even French girl knows how to be independent, unlike someone in this house." He spun on his heels and headed back to his room, but not quickly enough for a fuming Yuuki to dash forward and grab his wrist.

"ZERO KIRYUU CROSS. YOU RUDE HUMAN BEING. WE HAVE A GUEST FRESH FROM ANOTHER CONTINENT HERE AND YOU'RE TREATING HER AS RUDELY AS YOU DO TO ME? I DEMAND YOU TO FIND A BETTER REASON TO SKIP THIS FAVOUR OR ELSE… or else… I'LL BURN YOUR UNIFORM!" Yuuki was huffing by the time she finished.

Zero cringed at Yuuki's high-pitched and irate voice. "That… was the worst threat I've ever heard."

Yuuki shrieked and grabbed for the closest non-fragile object to throw, which happened to be Noelle's chemistry notebook in the standard black, 300-page paper pad. In the speed of light, she flung the heavy, coiled notebook like a boomerang at Zero with surprising force and accuracy. Noelle was hardly able to digest what was happening in front of her before she saw a quick swipe through the air and then what remained of her notebook now in the grip of Zero's large hands, albeit dozens of pages now on the floor or waiting for gravity to end their flutter around the three students.

Yuuki harrumphed, with seeming disappointment that her throw didn't injure the silver-haired man at all. "UGH, look what you did with my notebook…"

Noelle opened her mouth to begin the correction but figured it was smarter to just enjoy the interesting scene instead.

Zero's eyebrow raised again. "Are you done now?"

"You… are… so… annoying…" Yuuki seethed through her teeth. She looked back at Noelle, "Noelle I'm so sorry, but this is a very common thing in this building." Yuuki smiled nervously and tousled the back of her hair in frustration. "I really have to go to the other side of campus now, so if you want a tour with someone, I'll have to take you tomorrow, okay? I'll see you at night!"

With one last poisonous glare at the amused Zero, she rushed to out the door of the living room, leaving "Yuuki's" pile of notes scattered in the middle.

Noelle walked over to begin collecting and sorting her notes again, only to be joined immediately by Zero. His large hands passed over a few pages.

"Sorry you had to see that," he muttered without making strong eye contact. "Yuuki is really volatile sometimes." He paused and looked into Noelle's peculiar eyes.

"This is your notebook, isn't it?"

Noelle nodded. "It's okay, I can clean zis up," she offered with a quick smile.

It looked like Zero completely ignored her irrationally polite offer and continued to scuttle papers into tidy piles. He cleared his throat when his side of the room was clean. "I never said no to showing you around campus, actually."

He looked over at Noelle, who was very much confused with this young man. Is he mean or not? "Uhm, thank you?" She laughed softly. "I vant to phrase zees so you can say 'non'; do you 'ave time to show me zee campus before you go to vork avec Yuuki?

"Well, I have to spend a lot of time tonight plotting revenge for Yuuki's recent idiotic tantrum, but yes. I have lots of time," Zero offered a sideways smile. "There isn't much to see, to be honest, but it's a good idea to show you which buildings you'll be using this year so you don't get lost this month."

Noelle shuffled the last of her papers together and now smiled in appreciation. "Merci, Zero. Let us go in two minutes?"

Zero pointed over to the stables as they began reversing their steps. "We have a few horses on campus and lots of land for you to ride them, if you want."

The silver-haired young man didn't use many words explaining each feature across campus, but he answered Noelle's questions with patience. Noelle could tell that he didn't speak often in general and that he probably enjoyed solitude more than being around others, but that he had a soft spot for… either certain people or certain topics. There was no other explanation for his change of expression back in the living room - one of complete disdain and annoyance towards Yuuki - to a soft-spoken, awkward one now with Noelle.

Then again, this was probably the first long conversation they had with each other. It would be natural for both of them to be far more polite than their usual selves.

"Do you ride often?" Noelle inquired while gazing at the massive stables. The idea of having a horse on a school campus was completely foreign to her.

"I have a horse I use quite often - her name is White Lily. I'll show you." Hands in his pockets just as it was when the two students left the house, Zero changed their course towards the stables.

He opened the stable's main doors although not without a loud creak and motioned Noelle towards the animals. He stopped in front of the second stall - a large, regal horse that was alert enough to notice the entrance of two people breathed loudly in acknowledgement.

Zero reached out his hand and patted the horse gently. "Hey, Lily."

As though Zero was stretching Noelle's understanding of him further, his features softened even more. The evening sunlight that slit through the stable's crevices lingered on both Zero and the animals; for Zero, it highlighted is pale hair and brightened his eyes by many degrees. The yellowy light traced his sharp features and offered Noelle the best view of Zero's tender expression. The way the golden light behind them was ever so slightly refracted by each of Zero's long fingers made it look as though he was applying the Midas touch to the white horse.

If Noelle hadn't written in her diary "Thou shalt not believe in love at first sight" in rage after the violent end of her last relationship, she would've asked Zero to ride her off into the sunset.

So Noelle sighed softly, to appreciate the beautiful scene.

Zero turned to her, not realizing at all Noelle's mental photo and analysis. "Do you want to pet Lily?"

Noelle laughed nervously. "Uhm… I am a little scared of animals."

"She doesn't bite."

"Je sais, but…"

"Come here."

Zero reached out and grabbed Noelle's right hand gently. He pulled their hands closer to White Lily, who breathed loudly at their touch. It was Noelle's first time seeing a horse, let alone touching one, and she smiled radiantly at the experience.

"It's so… beautiful."

Zero let go of Noelle's hand to let her enjoy the experience independently. A few moments later, he murmured, "she is."

He looked towards the setting sun with a renewed stern expression and spoke quietly as if addressing no one. "Sometimes I wish I could just live in a stable and be isolated from anything that even looked like a human being."

Noelle chuckled. "Be careful vot you ask for, monsieur." She turned to see Zero's contemplative stare towards the West and offered to return home. "You need rest before valking around campus later. We should go back, no?"

Zero turned around promptly. "Yup. Let's go."

Noelle stopped Zero by the elbow as he walked by and stood on her tip-toes to thank him, the French way. A peck left, right, then left. "Merci bien, Zero. I enjoyed zee valk very much, and I know you are busy."

Without another word, she turned around and retraced their steps towards the rest of the world.