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Sins of the Past
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Chapter Eleven
Oh man am I lost.
I stayed up far too late yesterday, goofing around and whatnot at the party. Didn't get home until like 4 in the morning and got like 3 hours of sleep as a result. Now I'm really regretting my life choices, as I haphazardly shuffle through a modern rendition of the freaking minotaur's labyrinth itself while searching for my history tutorial class.
I had earlier stepped off the main hallway that interconnected all the lecture halls, and into one of its many side passageways in order to make my way into this awful maze. Much like how the main brick pathway had sidewalks that could be likened to the branches from a tree trunk, these little hallways and classrooms were like leaves and their veins.
Except that there's a million leaves and they all have like fifty veins each. Whoever designed this place needs to be fired.
I've forgotten which one of these hundred thousand tiny identical classrooms is mine. What was the room number again? B9201? AQ5005? SSC7071? Hell if I remember.
I ventured up a flight of stairs, frustration seeping in.
By now I had managed to wander deep enough in such that I was now comfortably stranded far outside the reaches of the school's Wi-Fi zone, which of course made looking the room number up on my phone significantly harder. There wasn't much point in asking one of the few people stilling milling about for directions, because its not like they'd know where my tutorial class is.
Oh boy.
I don't even have the option of hoping that I stumble by my class through sheer dumb luck because every single one of these rooms is indistinguishable from one another when their doors are shut.
"I'm pretty screwed." I mutter under my breath.
"What seems to be the problem?" Calls out someone from above. I glance upwards to see Elsa floating down from the ceiling, presumably having been checking out the building's wiring and such while I floundered about.
I sighed, half to myself.
"I'm screwed because I have no idea where my next class is, and I can't afford to skip either because that'd basically guarantee that I fail the course."
"Hmm..." Elsa hummed. "That does seem to be a problem."
The ghost thought for some time, momentarily flipping back and forth between translucency and transparency as she did. How does she do that?
She asked, after about a minute. "What material does your course cover?"
"Huh? Well. History 101 is about the recent-ish history of Arendelle. Mostly looks at events that happened in the past few centuries or so."
I pulled the assigned textbook out of my backpack, and held it up for her to see.
"Is that so? How very interesting." Elsa leaned in and inspected the cover. "Very well. I will go see if I can locate such a class. Stay here, Anna. I will be back shortly."
And with that, Elsa turned and disappeared into a wall. I watched, slightly dumbfounded, as she left.
...Huh.
Well, it certainly was a unique way to finding a class. Guess that I shouldn't really have been all that surprised that befriending a ghost would come with special "benefits" such as these.
I twiddled my thumbs for a bit, admiring the trees outside. Though true to her word it didn't take long for Elsa to return.
"I believe I have located your tutorial class."
I jumped in surprise, and turned to see her emerge from the floor.
"Geez, already? That was quick."
"It... was not a wholly difficult task. Come this way."
Elsa then lead me down a winding flight of stairs, followed by such a dizzying amount of left and right turns I very quickly gave up trying to memorize the directions for future reference. Eventually she stopped in front of one of the million nondescript doors littered about the facility, and gestured for me to enter after physically sticking half her body clear through the door to confirm that this was the place.
I made my way into the class and could immediately see how Elsa had found it so quickly—the blackboard had the words HISTORY 101 written upon it in hilariously large block letters.
I mouthed a "thank you" to Elsa, who had already moved to read some random oblivious student's textbook over his shoulder. She shot me a thumbs up before returning her attention to the book.
I dropped myself into the nearest seat and prepared to listen to the TA, seeing how he was actually willing to do what we paid for them to do—teach us history.
"That certainly was an informative session." commented Elsa, as everyone began filing out of the room following the conclusion of today's tutorial. "I was not aware that the relationship between Corona and Arendelle had spanned so far back. I personally thought it to be a rather recent development."
"Apparently not." I replied, packing my bags. My phone buzzed in my pocket—a text from Rapunzel.
hey, got time for a coffee?
I tapped in a reply.
yeah, sure. nice timing lol, just finished my history tut.
Rapunzel's reply was almost instantaneous.
cool, meet you at that starbucks near the noodle shop then
I looked around, confirming that the room was empty before calling out. "Hey Elsa, I'm gonna go grab a coffee with Rapunzel. That alright with you?"
"Coffee?" Elsa repeated in surprise, before laughing. "I had thought that such a popular drink would not die so quietly. It would appear that my presumably long-deceased friend now owes me money."
"Huh?" I looked at her confusedly.
"Coffee was not easy to come by, back in the day." She explained. "The World War had done terrible things to international trade, as did the Great Depression. A skeptical friend of mine had believed that our coffee markets would never recover after their collapse. I disagreed, so I took her up on her wager by investing in the coffee industry during the 30s."
Oh, makes sense.
"Guess you'll never get that money now. Who would've thought that dying would be a good way to avoid paying your dues?" I laughed, before slinging my backpack over my shoulder, ready to leave.
"Let's get going now. Rapunzel's probably already waiting for us."
"Very well then." Elsa agreed. "Let us depart."
I waited for her to lead the way, though the ghost merely stared back at me for some time, unmoving.
I coughed into my fist and gestured to the door.
"Uh? I don't actually know the way out...?"
"Ah yes, silly me."
The ghost lightly slapped herself on the forehead, before making her way to the door, chuckling.
"Hold my hand now dearie, wouldn't want you to get lost, do we?" Her eye twinkled as she emphasized in that last part, rubbing it into my face.
I rolled my eyes.
"I think I'll be fine, grandma."
Rapunzel was indeed already waiting for us, sipping a mocha with her head buried in her phone when we arrived, though it took me like 5 minutes to find her first. Elsa apparently had already found her within seconds of entering the Starbucks, but decided to let me find her in the crowd myself instead being helpful by pointing her out to me or anything.
Stupid ghost.
I approached Rapunzel from behind, tapping her on the left shoulder before moving to sit by her right. I laughed as she whirled about in confusion.
"Hey Rapunzel, what's up?"
Her eyes narrowed when they finally met mine, and she gave me a swift flick in the forehead.
"You little jerk." She greeted, laughing as well. "How was tutorial?"
I leaned forward in my chair, resting my chin on my palm and my elbow on the table. "Not bad. I actually had a harder time trying to find the stupid room itself over keeping up with the discussion."
I left for a moment to grab myself a coffee, watching as Elsa explored the employee-only areas while I waited in line. Rapunzel was staring at me intently when I returned to my seat, drink in hand.
She spoke up as I sat down.
"Hey. So. Main reason why I called you over was because I wanted to ask you something. Did anything happen between you and Hans last night?"
I shrugged.
"Like what?" I asked. "I didn't get into his pants or anything if that's what you're worried about. 100% don't plan to either for that matter."
Rapunzel spluttered for a bit, evidently not expecting such a response.
"Uh. Oops. Too much information, maybe?" I laughed nervously.
"Well. Uh... That's okay." She shook her head. "Yeah, I don't really need to know about your sex life plans or anything, but it's good to know that you're gonna stay away from that creep."
She took a sip of her mocha.
"It's just that the slimeball went to an afterparty and apparently trashed the place in some drunken fit or something. Made a complete ass of himself. There's like a million photos and videos of him online flipping tables and throwing up everywhere and shit. You can probably find some if you Google his name."
"Oookay." I replied, taking a long draft from my coffee. "...and where do I come into this?"
Rapunzel sighed.
"The guy's muttering something in most of the videos. Usually the ones where he's wrecking shit up. It's hard to catch but it's clearly something about you, which is why I'm worried, you know?"
I cleared my throat, leaning forward in my chair as I rested my chin on my fist once again. I then told Rapunzel about how Hans had aggressively tried to get me to accept the drink he'd offered back during the party, and of my suspicions at the time of what such aggression entailed.
"Mmm." Hummed Rapunzel, thoughtfully. "The police did say that they found some sort of drugs both on and in him after they took him away. Maybe that's what he was trying to do? Make you go apeballs crazy instead?"
I shuddered to imagine what would've happened had I actually accepted his drink.
Though...
"I don't get why he'd want to do that to me, though. Or why he'd deliberately drug himself, after I said no. We hardly even know each other."
Rapunzel shrugged.
"I don't know either, but the guy clearly has it out for you for some reason and I figured that it was important enough for me to tell you face-to-face. Watch yourself, will you?"
"Yeah, I will." I reached over and slung an arm over her shoulder, giving her a quick squeeze. "Thanks for everything, y'know? Being my friend and keeping me in the loop, even though I literally just moved a few days ago? I appreciate it a lot."
Rapunzel chuckled, before flicking me in the forehead again so she could wriggle out of my grip.
"Yeah yeah, don't sweat it Anna, anytime." She rose out of her chair. "Anyway, I gotta class coming up soon. Catch ya later."
Rapunzel turned to leave, turning back around at the last second to quip.
"Hey, and get yourself a coat will ya? It's almost winter, and it gets brutally cold over here in Arendelle. What the heck are you doing, still walking around in a t-shirt and shorts?"
I believe that Frozen takes place in Europe, so I wrote Elsa such that she wasn't altogether too familiar with coffee since I think only USA came out strong in the coffee market after WW1.