Disclaimer: As much as I want to I do not own NCIS or any of its characters.
I know I promised last time to update faster but it took me 2 weeks again. So I'll probably stop promising to update faster since I can't do it. I'll try to update more but usually I probably will only update once every 2 weeks, so please be patient. And thank you so much for all the reviews. You guys really made my day. Now on to the story...
"Ziva?!"
"Huh?" Ziva almost jumped when Abby's voice drew her back into reality. Almost. But she was certainly startled.
"Haven't you been listening at all?" Abby asked her friend. When Ziva didn't answer she sighed and laid out her plan to throw Ducky a surprise party after the finals since he'd be leaving for Edinburgh soon. "So what do you think?"
"That is a great idea Abby. I am sure Ducky would love it." Ziva said as she sat down beside Abby when they reached their usual table in the cafeteria.
Abby smiled. When she spotted Michael entering the cafeteria, she waved at him. Ziva looked in amusement as Michael smiled and walked towards them. During the first few weeks after spring break, Michael generally kept his distance from Ziva, although whether he really wanted to or he was just afraid of what Ari would do if he got too close to her, she wasn't sure. But on the third week, they bumped into him when they were walking home after school and Abby started a conversation. It had taken Ziva three months to get Michael to even smile when they first met, but in less than few days Abby had gotten really close to Michael and he could not say no to her when she invited him to eat lunch with the group. Ziva was very surprised at how quick the two had became friends, but then again everybody loves Abby. And she got to admit Michael was fitting in quite nicely in the school so far.
"Shalom Abby, Ziva." He greeted when he arrived at the table.
"Hey Michael, how was your day?" Abby asked.
Michael opened his mouth to respond but Ziva did not hear rest of the conversation as her thought drifted back to what happened that morning. As she arrived for school, she caught something at the corner of her eyes. She really should not have turned to look but curiosity got the better of her and that was when she made her first mistake of the day. She found Tony and Jeanne 'making out' although she hardly understood how the action made out anything at the corner of the staircase. She did not mean to stare but it was too late as Jeanne narrowed her eyes at her. Ziva immediately turned and headed for class, which was her second wrong move of the day since Jeanne just so happened to be in her homeroom class. In middle of the class, she felt something hit her head, hard. The thing bounced off her head on to her desk. When she saw that it was a paper folded into a strip, she slowly unfolded it.
It read, Stay away from him and don't ever let me catch you doing it again, bitch. Ziva knew exactly who him referred to and what it was, and she certainly did not need to look and see who pelted the piece of paper at her head. But she turned anyway to see Jeanne smirking dangerously at her. She really does not know me does she, Ziva thought sourly because if it was any other circumstances, she would make Jeanne so afraid of her that she would be twitching every time Ziva even got within a hundred meter of her. But considering the fact that her friendship with Tony had just started to rebuild and she still did not explain everything to him, hurting his girlfriend hardly seemed like the best thing to do. Not to mention how it was less than a week since her father forgave her for the last fight that she was in which resulted in suspension. And he did not really forgave her, he just stopped locking her in her room. Of course the punishment was not that bad since he was not always home to make sure of that but still Ziva did not want to test his patience on the subject again. The best way to avoid punching a person is to get away from the as far as possible so that no matter how tempting it may seem, it is not possible to do so. With that in mind, Ziva asked to go to the bathroom when her teacher assigned independent work and did not go back to class until almost the end.
She was snapped back into reality for the second time in five minutes except this time instead of Abby's voice, it was a flying pencil case that brought her back. She rubbed her head where the pencil case landed.
"I'm so sorry... we were just fooling around... I did not mean to hit you Ziva." Janice Layton, a girl in Ziva's Spanish class apologized as she rushed to her when she realized that her pencil case made a landing on Ziva's head.
'It is alright. I am fine." Ziva said as she grabbed the pencil case and offered it to Janice.
"Sorry." She said again and she walked away.
"You okay?" Abby asked, but before Ziva could say 'I am fine' again, they were interrupted by Tony and Kate's arrival.
"Tony! Seriously what did you do with my phone?" Kate yelled.
"How many times do I have to tell you that I didn't take your phone!" Tony desperately answered.
"What happened?" Abby asked.
"This thing," Kate said as she pointed at Tony, "Took my phone and he won't give it back!"
"I did not!" Tony defended himself.
"Did too!"
"Did not!
"DID TOO!"
"DID-" Tony stopped mid-sentence when he felt someone slap his head. His head jerked forward in reflex and his forehead bumped into Kate's who had also been slapped on the back of her head. "What was that for?" They both asked in unison.
"For causing a scene!" Gibbs gritted through his teeth. Only then did the two realize that half of the cafeteria was staring at them. Then Gibbs slapped Tony again which caused him to glare at him incredulously with his mouth open as wide as a fish.
"Give her phone back, Tony."
"For the hundredth time, I don't have it!" Tony exclaimed again except this time he used physical gesture for emphasis. "I swear to God, I don't."
"Well I don't have it in my bag and I did when I was at my locker. You were the only one close enough to steal it."
"How do you know? You could have dropped it or maybe it's still in your bag!"
"Kate check your bag." Jenny suggested.
"I already did," Kate said but Jenny just looked at her, "Fine, I'll check again, but I'm telling you it's not-" She stopped her rumbling when she felt an object shaped like her phone inside her bag.
"Aha! It was in your bag!" Tony said in satisfaction.
Kate bit her lips before admitting, "Yeah, it was at the bottom and guess I missed it last time."
"And?" Tony looked at her expectantly.
"You were right," Kate unwillingly admitted, "I'm sorry for accusing you."
"Ah, it feels so good to be right," Tony smiled from ear to ear. "No wonder-"
Gibbs cut off his what was bound to be a long speech about some movie with a head slap and told him to sit down.
"So where's Ducky and McGoo?" Tony asked as he sat down.
"Ducky's sick today but I don't know where Timmy is. I saw him this morning and I can't find him and he's not returning my text." Abby answered.
"Eh don't worry. He's probably just talking with the Elf Lord Crew."
"Tony, it's called the gaming club not Elf Lord Crew. And stop calling Timmy Elf Lord!"
"Oh come on Abby! What kind of guy thinks that a level five sorceress is the perfect girl?" Tony laughed.
"You still haven't told Tim yet?" Ziva asked in shock.
"'Tell him what?" Everybody except for Gibbs and Michael asked.
"Nothing." Tony answered nervously.
"Tony! Tim still does not know that you are the level five sorceress?"
"Hey! I tried to make him give up but he won't"
"I can't believe you would do that!" Kate paused and added, "Well I actually can, but still-"
"Okay! Okay! I'll tell him. I didn't think he'll get so ...man he really need a real girlfriend."
"Don't be so mean to him!" Abby punched Tony in the arms.
"Ow! Abby! He's not even here!" Tony complained as he rubbed his arms.
Everybody chuckled as Abby shook her head. Michael leaned towards Ziva and whispered, "What exactly is a level five sorceress?"
Just as she was ready to whisper her answer back, Ari suddenly appeared and his foot went around and kicked the leg of Michael's chair from inside causing him to lose balance and fall.
"I am sorry, I do not know what I was looking at. Are you alright Michael?" Ari asked but his voice was emotionless. Nobody was surprised since Ari never really showed emotions, but Ziva was far from happy. She dragged him outside the cafeteria forcefully leaving a table of people plus Shmuel confused.
"What the hell was that?!" Ziva hissed in Hebrew in case somebody was listening. "I have told you before, I am fine with Michael, I do not see what your problem is."
Ari shook his head in disapproval. He did not say anything but Ziva knew that he was referring to how close Michael was to her when he whispered.
"He was asking a question. Stop being so paranoid." Her hiss was so low that if Ari was not sure that Ziva would never seriously hurt him, he would have backed away. But since Ari knew that Ziva would not try to hurt him, he stood his ground.
"I was just tying to protect you, Ziva."
"I do not need your protection! I can take care of myself!"
"You needed it the last time," It was out of Ari's mouth before he could stop it and before he realized, he was continuing, "If I did not arrive when I did last time you would not have walked away with just a black eye and a broken arm."
Ziva narrowed her eyes. She could not believe that Ari would use that against when he knew exactly how much it hurt. She shook her head and turned towards the cafeteria.
"Wait, Ziva! I'm s-" Ari started but she opened the door and shut it in Ari's face without saying another word.
When she went back in, everyone stopped their own conversations and looked at her. Ziva simply asked Michael if he is alright and when he said that he was fine, she sat down beside him again. At the corner of her eyes she caught Shmuel leave through the door that she just came in from. When everybody around the table still looked at her curiously, she changed the subject.
"Abby, did you tell them about your plan?"
"Oh right! Hey guys, I was thinking about throwing Ducky a surprise party since he'll be graduating this year after the finals. Ziva's in, so how about you guys?"
Everybody agreed and they started to plan out the party for rest of the lunch, but Ziva did not hear anything they said. It was not that she did not want to pay attention, but she just could not bring herself to, not after what Ari said. After all those time, she thought that she had forgotten about the incident, and she did. But Ari just took her barely healed heart and ripped it apart, reopening her old wound again. Rest of the day passed her like a breeze. She paid no attention what so ever to what any of her teachers was saying and during PE she just ran as fast as she could causing her to almost vomit when she was done. Everybody in the class were astonished, but Tony was just worried.
"Hey Ziva!" Tony said as he got out of the change room and saw Ziva already changed and waiting for the final bell. "So...um... how was your day?"
"I am fine Tony." She simply stated.
"That's not what I asked." Tony responded.
"No it was not, but you were going to." Ziva turned and faced him.
Tony opened his mouth several times trying to think of a convincing denial, but none came to his mind. "Are you sure you're fine because at lunch-"
"Do you have a brother Tony?" Ziva asked.
"No."
"Well then let me tell you that they are very annoying and you fight with them a lot. Yes I had an argument with Ari today, but it is not large deal." Ziva said, wondering to herself why she said so much. She could have just repeated 'I am fine' over and over until he gave up or threatened him with bodily harm. It usually worked but for whatever reasons that she did not know herself, she felt like saying that.
"Big deal. It's big deal not large deal. Large deal is when-" He cut himself off and went on, 'It doesn't matter. You sure?" And when Ziva nodded and when the bell rang he said bye and left.
Ziva walked upstairs to where her locker was. When she turned the corner, she found Shmuel standing against it. She wanted to turn away and leave but he already saw her. She sighed and walked towards him since there was no way that she was going to ran away from anyone, especially not Shmuel Rubinstein.
"Shalom Shmuel." She greeted as she opened her locker.
"Shalom Ziva." He greeted back but Ziva continued to take her books from her locker. "Ari wanted to apologize to you."
Ziva laughed in a way that to her satisfaction made Shmuel flinch. "Oh and you are the messenger?"
Shmuel drew in a deep breath and said, "Look I know what he said was uncalled for and he really regrets it. but as emotionless and coldblooded as he is, he really cares about you, Ziva and you know that. He was just trying to protect you."
Ziva slammed her locker shut, ignoring all the heads turning and locked it in anger. "He was being paranoid!"
"He had his reasons." Shmuel reasoned.
"Stop being his sidekick." It was out of her mouth before she could stop it, but she did not really regret it since it was the truth. Unlike Michael, Shmuel did not really fit into the school. He just stuck with Ari and kept a distance from the other students since he arrived. He had good friends in Israel, but even then he usually just followed them around and never stood up for himself. It was mean but Ziva felt that she had no choice but to say it if she wanted him to back down without hurting him.
"I am not," Shmuel stated calmly but his inside was far from calm. Are you crazy?, he asked himself but he pushed it away, determined to stick up for his friend. "I agree with him. Now unlike him, I do not think that Michael is a bad guy. He is my friend too and I know that he did not mean for it to happen. But Ari is right when he wants him to keep his distance away from you. I know from a personal experience how bad Michael can be when he is drunk, and he will drink again sooner or later. What if you were around him then? Would you still feel safe around him as you do now? If Michael lost it on you once when he was drunk, he may very well lose it the second time and your brother just does not want to risk that. I respect your decision if you still want to be friends with Michael, but that does not mean that you cannot understand Ari's worry. Today was not all his fault and you know that. He just wanted to protect you Ziva, think about it before you blame him."
Ziva could do nothing more than to stare wide eyed at Shmuel as he turned and walked away. Her mouth was wide open like an idiot but she could not bring herself to close it. She was not capable of thinking anything other than the question what has this world came to? She had fell for a boy that she met less than half a year ago. She has done nothing to let him know about how she feels. She was letting his girlfriend call her a bitch without a price. She had fought with her brother who had nothing but been supportive of her all her life. And now she was letting of all the people in the world Shmuel Rubinstein to lecture her. And the amazing thing was that she had nothing to say, to do, or to think after all that. She just stood dump founded in front of her locker as her world turned up side down around her. When she realized that the hallway was almost empty, she drew in a deep breath and grabbed her backpack. As she descended the stairs she checked her phone where she found ten unread text, and they were all from Abby. Only then did she realize that her friend was probably worried about why was not there yet. Abby was bound to ask her a lot of questions about why she stayed in the school for extra twenty minutes but she did not really care as she was more than ready to draw the curtain on the miserable day.
TBC and please review.
