AN: Hey guys! Shh, I know I said I wouldn't be posting for a while, but I'm supposed to be doing homework right now and I couldn't help myself. So I hope you enjoy this (secret) chapter! (p.s. I feel like such a badass right now XD!)
Chapter 4: Secrets are Hard to Keep; Especially When They're Sticking Out of Your Head
"Why the hell do I have cat ears?!" I exclaim, my hands flying to my head. Stein chuckles. "I believe they're fox ears." He says, adjusting his glasses. My eyes widen frantically. "Is this supposed to happen?" I ask him. He shrugs. "Beats me. I think they're kind of cute." He says. I flatten my red-with-white-tips ears to my head and blush, an annoyed look on my face. "Coming from you, that's not exactly a good thing." I say. He chuckles again. Wait a second, you have no idea what's going on, do you? Alright, PAUSE!
Okay, let me explain a few things. So I went to school this morning and talked to Stein. Apparently his suspicions were correct and I have this weird ability to summon strength, energy, and knowledge from the people before me that had this same string of demon blood inside them. The way he put it, he made it sound like I was the Avatar or something. Of course, like any cliche movie this awesome power comes with a catch. If I don't learn to control this power, I will become a kishin like my dad. So Stein offered to give me extra lessons after school. During the lesson, he taught me how to "summon the ultimate power of the demon blood," and right when did I heard a strange popping noise and Stein doubled over in laughter. So now I'm sitting in his classroom on top of one of the desks, my legs folded in my lap and soft, fuzzy fox ears poking through my hair. I moan.
"Well, that's all I need from you today, we will continue this lesson tomorrow after school. Good bye." He says. I yawn and stand up, stretching and grabbing my skateboard from beside the door. I just now realized how exhausted I am. I roll down the empty hall, my hands in my pockets. When I get outside to the courtyard, I look around, see that no one's there, and put my beanie on, concealing my ears. I push off the ground and skate to the stairs, where I jump in the air and skid my way down the railing to the road. Forgetting to look both ways, I start to skate across the street when something whizzes past me, knocking me off my board. I recover and am about to yell some not-so-nice words at the crazy driver when he circles back around and slows to a stop in front of me. I moan again and slump a little.
"Oh, hey Ginger!" Soul yells over the loud rumbling of the engine on his motorcycle. He puts the kickstand down and places one foot on the ground to keep from toppling over. I wave half-heartedly. "Hey," I mutter. He twists a key and the engine turns off so I can hear him. "School ended a while ago. Why're you still here?" He asks. I stick my hands in my pockets. "Stein was giving me these extra lessons." I tell him, placing my foot on my skateboard, dragging it toward me and stepping on the end. I catch it in midair and lean it against my thigh. He nods. "Cool." He says. Not really, I think to myself. I can feel the ears poking into my beanie. I hope they're not too noticeable.
"What about you? I didn't know you had a motorcycle." I say, gesturing to the yellow and black motorized bike he's sitting on. He shrugs. "Yeah, I haven't ridden it in a while. Plus Maka's really pissed and she screams and throws stuff at me if I'm even in the same room with her. So out of boredom and concern for my own safety I decided to take it for a spin." He says. I laugh. "What's she so mad about?" I ask. He shrugs again. "How the hell am I supposed to know?" He says. I yawn again.
"Well I better get going, I have some... uh... things I need to do..." I say, kneeing my board so it flops on the ground. I'm about to skate away, but Soul reaches his hand out. "Wait! Do you want a ride?" He asks. I shake my head. "Nah, I'm good. Thanks anyway," I say. He hops off the motorcycle and lifts up the seat, revealing a large-ish compartment underneath. "Here, I can put your skateboard under the seat." He says, holding his hand out. I shut my eyes and sigh. "Fine. Just because I'm tired." I say, handing him my board. He smiles, taking it and placing it in the compartment, stopping for a split second to examine all the stickers on the bottom. I expect him to ask about them, but he doesn't.
He jumps up on the bike and pats the space behind him. "Come on!" He says. I stare at him. "Don't we need helmets or something?" I say, being cautious of the hat on my head that will most likely fly off the second we start moving. He laughs. "What, you scared or something?" he teases. I grin. "You wish, dude." I say, swinging myself up and over the seat. I pull the beanie farther down on my head and cross my fingers. I wrap my arms around his waist and he turns the key, starting the engine. He twists the handle twice, causing the engine to roar louder to show off. I elbow him softly. "Come on, man. Let's just go already." I tell him.
He laughs and puts the kickstand up. "Hold on tight, you'll fall off if you don't." He says. I roll my eyes. He starts moving and makes a u-turn, speeding back to the apartment building. I place my chin on his shoulder and close my eyes. He turns his head slightly to look at me, and then I feel him smile. The wind blows the hair sticking out of my hood in fifty different directions at once. So far, my beanie has stayed on. I smile and tighten my grip around his waist. I open my eyes and the scenery blurs past us. I've never actually been on a motorcycle before, and I've always wanted to. When I get home I can check this off my bucket list. Unfortunately for me, that won't be very soon.
We whizz past the colorful apartment building. I lift my head up. "Hey Soul! You missed it!" I shout into his ear. He nods. "I know!" He yells back. I turn toward him and my face is about half a centimeter away from his neck. Geez, I didn't realize I was that much shorter than him. "Where are we going?" I say. He doesn't respond. "Soul! Tell me!" I say, louder this time. He grins, his sharp teeth showing. "You'll see," He says, just loud enough where I can hear it. I smirk and lay my chin back on his shoulder. Figures he would try to take me somewhere else. I close my eyes again and feel the wind on my face.
After a while I feel us come to a stop. I open my eyes and Soul turns the engine off, yanking the key out and slipping it into his pocket. I lift my head up and untangle myself from him. I swing my leg over and slide off the motorcycle, bending over to stretch myself out. Soul hops off after me, putting down the kickstand with his foot. I look around. What I see is a small colorful shed-type building with a red and white striped overhang and a counter with windows. A few tables are spread out in front of it, all unoccupied. The sign on the building says "Rita's" on it. I look to Soul. "What's this?" I ask. He stares at me. "You've never been to Rita's?" He asks, shocked. I shake my head. "Nope. What is it?" I ask.
"Only the coolest icecream place ever." He says. I stare at him blankly. "Still not following." I say. What's so special about ice? Soul grins. "I'll just have to show you, then!" He says, grabbing my hand and leading me to the counter. A guy who looks about seventeen with pimples all over his face and a red and white uniform slides the window open. "How can I help you?" He asks us. I look to Soul. "You order for me, I don't know what's good," I tell him. He nods. The worker guy rests his elbows on the counter on the inside. "First time here?" He asks. I nod. He grins. "Welcome to Rita's, then! Here, take this gift card for five bucks," he says, handing me a card with a picture of what looks like snow cones. I slide it into my back pocket.
"Thanks," I say. Soul looks to the menu, which has various fruit names on it. There's also some other stuff, but I can't pronounce any of it. Soul looks back to the guy and gestures to the menu. "How about two medium Gelatis with blue raspberry ice and chocolate custard?" he says. The guy nods and walks back into the building, grabbing two cups on is way. I look at Soul, trying to decipher the foreign words. I give up after about five seconds.
The guy hands us two ice creams, each with chocolate soft-serve on top and blue snow cones underneath. Soul takes them and hands one to me, grabbing two spoons and some napkins. I stare at it, trying to decide whether it looks yummy or not. Soul waves his hand in front of my face. "You wanna sit down?" He asks. I look up at him and nod. He smiles and leads me to the nearest table I sit down and he sits down next to me. He hands me a spoon and I dip it first into the chocolate custard, as Soul called it. I get a little on my spoon and slowly place it in my mouth, closing my eyes. They shoot back open as I taste the creamy chocolatey goodness. "Mmmm! Thwith ith weally goowud!" I say through the spoon. He laughs, taking a scoop of his. I then dip my spoon into the blue ice. "Mmmm! Tho's thwiss!" I say again. He nods and smiles. "Didn't I tell you? Coolest icecream place ever." He says. I laugh and take another scoop of custard. After I'm finished with it, I start on the ice. When I'm done with that, I discover there's more custard underneath. I grin and eat it a little too quickly.
"KYAA! BRAIN FREEZE!" I shout, dropping my spoon in the cup and pressing my thumb to the roof of my mouth, blinking rapidly. Soul laughs. "Nice," He says. I let out a deep breath as my brain freeze dissolves. I wipe my thumb off on my jeans and stand up to throw my cup away. Soul's already finished with his. I sit back down. I shiver a bit, rubbing my hands up and down my arms. My shirt is long sleeved, but it's still really thin. Soul sits back down after throwing away his cup. "Cold?" he asks, looking at me. I nod, my teeth chattering. It's pretty cold outside, and the fact that I just ate a giant thing of ice doesn't help. Soul unzips his black leather jacket and hands it to me. I take it and wrap it around myself, sliding my arms into the sleeves. It's still warm from his body heat, and it's kind of big. It's really loose and the sleeves go down past my hands. But it's still warm.
"Aren't you going to freeze to death?" I ask. He shakes his head. "Nah. I have another shirt on under this one." He says, pulling up his blue shirt and revealing a brown one underneath. I nod and zip the jacket up. "So should we go now?" I ask him. he shakes his head. "Actually, I have something I need to give you..." he says, checking his pockets. "Can you see if there's anything in my jacket?" he asks after coming up empty handed. I nod, push the sleeves up, and look into the right pocket-empty-and then the left one, which has two slips of paper in them. I take them out and examine them. "It's an early Valentine's day present," he says. I read the papers and my eyes widen about five times their normal size. I gasp. "Omiglob, are these...?" I say. He grins and nods.
"Soul! You did not!" I exclaim, jumping up and giving him a hug. He laughs and nods into my shoulder. I squeeze my arms around his neck tightly, but not tight enough where he can't breath, and release him. "No way! I can't believe you got me Paramore tickets!" I say. He nods. "Yup. The concert's on Valentines day, so I figured I would give you the tickets ahead of time since it's in New York. Those are for the front row, they were really hard to get." He says. I can't help but squeal. "This is so cool!" I say, jumping up and down. I take Soul's head in my hands and press my lips to his. He wraps his arms around me. I pull back and smile. "I can't wait! Thank you soo much!" I say. He smiles. "Eh, no problem." He responds.
"So is it just you and me?" I ask, letting him go and following him back to his motorcycle. He nods. "Yup. Just us." He responds. I smile, but there are butterflies in my stomach. I've never gone anywhere with Soul alone except the piano shop, and even then Phil is always there with us. I hand the tickets back to Soul. "I think it'd be best if you held on to them. I tend to forget a lot of stuff," I say, letting the sleeves of the jacket fall back over my hands. He nods and sticks them in his back pocket. He then hops onto the motorcycle, putting up the kickstand. I jump up after him. He reaches into the jacket pocket and takes his keys out. He turns the motorcycle on, twists the handle, steps on the pedal and then we're on our way back to the dorms. At least I think we are. After our little 'detour' to Rita's, I can't be sure.
I pull my beanie down tighter as we pick up speed. I wrap my arms around his midsection and hug him tightly. I keep my eyes open this time and watch everything fly past us, or us fly past everything, rather. I listen to the engine, loudly growling. After about two minutes, we arrive back at the dorms and Soul leaves the bike running, resting the weight of it on his foot, which is on the ground. I slide off the seat after him and he takes my skateboard out of the seat compartment. I thank him for the Rita's and the tickets and walk up to the multi-colored building. I open the door to the complex and turn around. "You coming?" I ask him. He shakes his head. "Nah. Maka's probably still mad." He says. I nod and make my way up to my apartment. When I get there, I run to the window just in time to see Soul speed off on his motorcycle. I smile, turn around, and sink down to the floor. I can't believe in a few weeks I'll be sitting in the front row at a Paramore concert!
AN: Tada! I know that Valentines day isn't for a while, but who cares? This is mah story, bee-yatch!
Ginger: I CAN'T WAIT TO GO! HURRY UP AND WRITE THE CHAPTER! I wonder if I'll get to meet Hayley Wiliams...?
Mem: Aww, I wanna go...
Ginger: Ha-ha! I mean, sorry, but it is my Valentines day gift! Maybe Alex will get you something?
Alex: Whoa! Don't get her expectations up! I only have so much money! How did you even get those tickets, Soul?
Soul: When you're close friends with Shinigami's son, anything is possible.
Alex: Nice, dude.
Tommi: Geez, Ginger! You're soo lucky!
Ginger: Aww, I know! Soul, you're the best!
Soul: Correction: I'm the coolest.