Author's Note: Glad people are enjoying the story I appreciate it
Chapter 11: School Rumors
"You just heard that noise also, right?" Spirit questioned to Soul as he turned and looked in the general direction of where Maka was hiding.
"Yeah I heard it alright. Whoever you are you rather as well come out now before we come over to you." Soul sneered, angry that someone had been eavesdropping on their conversation this whole time.
'Oh crap crap crap! I'm completely screwed this time! There's nowhere for me to run too either! I'm going to have face not only Soul, but now Papa also! I need to think of something fast that will cause the two of them not to be so suspicious of me.' Maka thought hurriedly to herself.
An idea popped into Maka's head, but she frowned at the thought of having to do it. "I always promised myself I would never act all cutesy and flirtatious like Soul's fan-girls, but if that's what it takes to throw them off, I need to pull off the best acting skills I can do now.' Maka thought, internally cursing herself for how she was about to behave.
"So, are you going to come out of your hiding spot or are we going to have to force you out?" Soul asked becoming impatient with how quiet their intruder was being.
Maka stood up and looked over at both Spirit and Soul and quietly sighed.
"No, please don't attack me! I'm sorry I really didn't mean to interrupt your conversation! I got lost wandering around this big mansion." Maka cried out, putting on the cutesiest facial expression she could think of.
Spirit looked at her carefully in confusion. "Aren't you Emerald? The girl who was performing earlier with that other guy, what are you doing out here?" He asked.
"Yes I am her. The dance floor was getting a bit stuffy so I just wanted to come outside to get some fresh air and take a look around and explore the Manor, but I got a bit lost this place is so big after all like I was saying." Maka answered sweetly twirling her fingers in her hair with a silly grin.
"Oh! Well why didn't you speak up earlier! I can give you the grand tour of the mansion if you would like!" Spirit stated excitedly winking at Maka flirtatiously as he put a hand on her shoulder.
Maka forced herself to resist gagging and slapping her Father off the balcony by replying back to his advances shyly. 'Is he really coming on to me?! How old does he think I am?'
"Well, I don't want to be any trouble towards you! I can't believe a death scythe like you would want to help me out anyways!" Maka stated bashfully.
"It's no problem at all, right Soul?" Spirit asked turning his attention back to Soul.
Soul just scoffed and rolled his eyes. Was this honestly how Spirit picked up women all the time?
"I could care less what you two go do. I'm going to go find Maka before something bad happens to her." Soul grumbled before he headed back inside.
"Well, who needs him anyways so want to start the tour now Emerald?" Spirit asked only to find Emerald had disappeared also and he was now talking to nobody.
"What the? Where did she go? That stupid brat must have made her run off." Spirit huffed quietly to himself.
~X~
"Ugh I think I just threw up a bit in my mouth from having to do that performance!" Maka groaned to herself as she splashed water on her face to calm herself down.
'I'm just really lucky Papa looked away from me for those few seconds so I could run off and get changed again, I really am having too many close calls these days." Maka thought with a sigh as she finished wiping off her make-up and taking out the extensions in her hair. Hiro had told her to simply just leave all the items in the bathroom and he would pick them up before he left the party.
"The worst part is that my emerald dress is still ruined and I still have this injury." Maka stated quietly as she took off the bandage to check if it was still bleeding.
The bleeding had stopped for the most part, but dried blood still remained around the wound and from past experience Maka could tell a small bruise would probably form around the site soon also.
'Well time to find Soul and face probably another argument.' Maka thought unhappily, as she tried to pick Soul out amongst the guests.
"Oh there you are Maka. You know Soul has been wondering where you have been for the past few hours." Kid stated as he walked up to her.
"Ah yeah I know, actually it's a bit of a long story really do you know where he is?" Maka asked, already dreading his reaction.
Kid just stared at her for a second before pointing a finger right behind her causing Maka to freeze up.
"Please tell me you weren't just here this whole time talking to Kid." Soul questioned, keeping his anger in check for now.
"No, I swear I wasn't really actually I-"but before Maka could finish giving her explanation Soul dragged her by the hand into a more secluded area to talk.
Soul looked at her up and down. "What the hell happened to you? Ever since the blackout happened, nobody knew where you went and then all of a sudden you just appear again talking all happily with Kid as if nothing occurred." Soul inquired.
Maka frowned becoming just as furious. "First of all if you would just let me explain myself you would know I just came back into the party. And no, I was not just talking all 'happily' with Kid I was asking him where you were!" Maka explained, growing just as irritated as he was.
"Well then where were you then? What happened during the blackout that caused you to vanish all of a sudden?" Soul asked still scowling.
"When the blackout occurred I figured somebody might have been going after Kid or another one of the other death scythes and when I used my Soul perception I felt the presence of a strong soul I didn't recognize. I gave chase after them to stop them from doing something even worse." Maka explained.
"Okay and then what?" Soul asked calming down a bit at she cleared things over.
Maka sighed feeling a bit ashamed at having to tell the next part, but went on.
"Well I caught up to him and we fought a bit, but then he just decided to stop and I couldn't properly go after him because he injured me and I was exhausted." Maka finished deciding to leave out the part where Travis had asked her to become his meister and the fact that he actually had been going after her and nobody else.
Soul studied her face carefully to see if she was lying, but could tell Maka was telling the truth for the most part with her wavelength not as particularly jumpy as it had been in the past.
Soul sighed and just shook his head. "Why did you try and fight him weaponless? It's a good thing at least that you weren't hurt that badly." Soul stated as he glanced at the wound on Maka's shoulder.
"Stop trying to fight battles solo. You know even though I work with Kid now I still consider you to be my meister, right?" Soul stated as he pulled Maka into a hug.
Maka blushed at the sudden affection and nodded her head, but her thoughts still remained clouded by what Travis had told her. 'Well now that he's a death scythe, he really doesn't need you anymore. It could be why you're so weak right now. I want you to be my meister I'll give you a week to think about it before I really consider spreading that photo of you and Hiro.'
Maka sighed, hugging Soul back hesitantly. 'Maybe Travis is right. I haven't just gotten physically weaker. I've gotten emotionally weaker too.'
~X~
The rest of the night was calm and Maka simply wished to go home and sleep the rest of the weekend away until school started again on Monday, but to Maka's dismay the events that happened during the weekend made their way over to class as well.
"Did you hear about how Kid was able to get Masquerade to perform at his death scythe gala? I heard they were pretty good!" One student whispered to another.
"Yeah, I heard that there was some power outage thing, but that they still played as if nothing bad had happened!" Another student muttered back.
"Do you think they are going to add any other members to their group? I heard Emerald left as soon as they finished performing. They both are so mysterious; I've only heard them play a few times at the one fancy pub." One girl exclaimed dreamily.
"No, I doubt they will add another member. I've heard some rumors that Diamond and Emerald are a couple and they want to keep it as a duet without adding other members." Another girl answered.
Maka groaned trying to tune out what her classmates were saying. 'Where the hell did they get the idea that Hiro and I are a couple?! I didn't think we were popular enough to have the paparazzi or someone following after us .Somebody must be spreading that crap around all of the school." Maka thought in annoyance when Liz suddenly plopped down in the seat next to her.
"So Maka you never told us, but how was your date with Soul the other night?" Liz asked sneakily.
"What date? You don't mean to the Gala, right? I'm not sure I would consider that really a date." Maka whispered back trying not to be too loud since Soul was just sitting next to her sleeping in class as usual.
"Oh Maka, there's no need to be modest. Kid told me Soul dragged you off into a dark corner and when you two came out you were blushing." Liz stated grinning with she saw Maka flush.
Maka huffed. 'Did Kid also tell you the only reason Soul dragged me away in the first place was just to question me why I suddenly ran off for like 2 hours?' Maka thought, trying to ignore Liz's teasing.
"We really didn't do anything Liz and our relationship is pretty much the same, honest." Maka eventually said.
"Hmm well if you say so, but I'm watching you two just in case you have some secret affair going on I don't know about." Liz replied back before getting back up to head to her seat.
Maka just shook her head before she noticed Hiro out of the corner of her eye looking exhausted. It seemed like he just came from working out again in the gym.
'I told him not to overdo it at school or else more people are going to get suspicious. It's already odd enough that some girls want to date him now, but I'm pretty sure Black Star and Ox aren't sure how he got so much stronger in just a few months.'
Just to confirm Maka's thoughts, Maka noticed Black Star also looking in the direction of Hiro annoyed.
"What are you giving the stink eye to Hiro for?" Maka asked.
Black Star only scoffed. "That ass thinks he's so great just because he's all of a sudden gotten stronger over the past months. I'm sure he must be taking steroids or some type of drugs, at least that's what Ox says he's doing."
Maka laughed a bit. "Really, I bet Ox is only saying that because he doesn't like the fact that Kim has been paying attention to him and you probably don't like it just because you want everyone to focus on you all the time."
Black Star looked insulted at that. "People should focus on me I'm a God after all and anyways, I tried to ask him how he suddenly got so good, but he wouldn't tell me. He just said he did morning runs and drank protein shakes."
"That sounds believable to me." Maka mused. 'I'm glad that he left out the part of actually looking at your work out videos for advice.'
"Well, it doesn't to me. I may not be as smart as you or Kid, but I know when someone is lying and I think someone's been helping Hiro get better. The question is who would waste their time trying to help that loser?" Black Star said.
Maka felt a bit uneasy and chose not to answer him, turning back around to look over her notes. 'Hiro may not have the best personality to be around, but at least he's helped me get better at playing and understanding music.'
~X~
"Alright I'm going to start roll call now. Raise your hand when I call your name." Sid said aloud, as he got ready for the afternoon NOT class.
"Rachel Anderson." Sid called Rachel raised one hand while still gazing at her manicured nails.
"Tsugumi Harudori." Tsugumi raised her hand cheerfully.
"Anya Hepburn." Anya smiled and raised her hand.
"Travis Hutchinson." Sid looked up from the list of names and looked around when he saw that nobody was raising their hand.
"Okay, has anyone seen Travis? He's been coming to class late every day for this past few days." Sid asked annoyed.
"I think I saw him at the library earlier he looked like he was really into whatever he was reading." Tsugumi managed to speak up before the doors to the class opened and Travis sauntered in.
"Oh there you are Travis, how nice of you to finally join us. If you keep coming in late I'll have to deduct points from your final grade. No matter how good you are on the field, coming to class on time is just as important." Sid spoke, as he watched Travis take a seat.
"Yes, I know. I'm sorry I just lost track of time." He replied back as he took out his notebook. 'Though honestly I don't give a damn if you fail me or not. What was really important was that I was able to get those files on both Soul Eater and Maka Albarn before anybody noticed me.' Travis thought hiding a grin beneath the palm of his hand.
The rest of the class went by slowly and Travis had to resist the urge to just fall asleep or just doodle in his notebook when he suddenly heard whispering behind him.
'Well I only know one group of girls who like to chatter like that.' Travis mused to himself as he took a side glance behind him.
"So Rachel, we haven't really come up with any new plans in order to get Maka away from Soul and none of our taunting or teasing is doing much." Kate whispered amongst their group.
"You're right, I was thinking we should try and embarrass her or something to that effect while she is in class in front of everyone, but I'm pretty sure since it's the EAT class they would stop us before we could do anything." Nancy stated quietly.
"Girls, we can't just rush into any plan we come up with it. We need to wait for the right opportunity to truly hit Maka's weaknesses." Rachel responded to all of them.
"I'm getting tired of just sitting and waiting. The longer we wait it out the closer Soul and Maka may be getting towards becoming a couple!" Megan whispered loudly.
"You ladies really need to learn how to whisper properly." Travis stated, catching the attention of all four girls.
"What the hell do you want? I don't want you ruining our plans again just because you have some type of crush on that nerd." Rachel sneered.
"Oh well, I couldn't help but overhear you guys still needed help getting to Maka, but if you're going to be that way…" Travis ended with a sigh.
"Damn right we don't need your help! You already messed up our plans once come on girls let's go. Class is already over." Kate snapped with Megan and Nancy trailing after her.
Rachel stayed behind though and arched an eyebrow at Travis's statement.
"Give me one good reason why I should believe that you would actually be wiling help us?" Rachel asked testily.
"It's clear that you like Soul and I like Maka so wouldn't it be better that instead of fighting each other, we help each other out?" Travis asked.
Rachel thought this over for a minute before she smiled wickedly. "Okay, what did you have in mind?"
Travis grinned deviously. 'She is making this way too easy. When this is all done Maka is definitely going to agree to my terms.' "Come with me. Since your friends don't want to be a part of this plan guess you'll just have Soul all to yourself."
Rachel beamed at that. "Well that was my plan from the beginning anyways. It's not like I wanted to share Soul."
~X~
By the time it was Friday, Maka was exhausted from all the training she had done for school and as Emerald. After the all the events that had happened at Gala, Maka had become a little distracted during her usual practice with Hiro, but Hiro had managed to remind her to focus and try playing more advanced pieces with Maka also reminding Hiro not just to work on his upper body strength, but also work on building up his legs as well.
Hiro had even suggested to Maka that she stop just focusing on classical and jazz music for the saxophone and look at other genres such as Rock music and the Blues.
"A good musician can use their instrument to play all types of genres not just only one or two." Maka mumbled under her breathe repeating what Hiro had told her.
Maka yawned and stretched as she waited by her locker for Soul to come so they could walk home together. 'Geez where is he? I usually don't walk home with him on Fridays, but he was the one who made the suggestion and now he's late." Maka thought grouchily staring at her watch.
"Hey Maka did you have enough time to think about my proposal?" Travis asked, sneaking up on her with a snicker.
Maka huffed in frustration, angry that Soul was late and that she was now being bothered by Travis. "No I haven't Travis and you know the answer will still be no even if I gave it actual consideration."
Travis just smirked and pulled something out of his pocket. "Do you still want to say no even after this photo I just recently took of Soul with another girl?"
Maka rolled her eyes with glare, wanting to push his phone away from her face until his persistence finally made her take a clearer look at the photo.
Maka's eyes widened in shock as she felt her vision go blurry. The photo was indeed one that contained Soul with another girl, but what horrified Maka the most was that the girl in the photo looked exactly like her and her lips were locked with Soul's.
Author's Note: That's it for Chapter 11. Feedback is always welcomed and appreciated and as always thanks for reading!