Sorry again for another delay. I had some personal stuff to take care of over the weekend that left less time to write... And I wound up covered in mosquito bites, but that's besides the point. It's time to get spooky! This chapter, we're taking a little break from missions and mold to relax with the family for Halloween. Not much else to say, so let's get into it.
Song Suggestion: Wolf in Sheep's Clothing by Set It Off ft. William Beckett
Disclaimer: I own nothing. Long live CapCom.
Waiting for the items she ordered from the catalog felt like it was going to take forever. While Rose spent a few hours of careful consideration while calculating costs, she made sure to get that order envelope to Chris the same day, so he could take it in to work. It had been almost week since then, and every day after school Rose would hurry off the bus, back home and find nothing.
Today was no different as Rose made her way to the empty porch that was free of packages. Rose grumbled as she took out her phone to check the time.
Friday October, 18th 3:42PM
"Maybe a porch pirate got it?" Rose asked under her breath as she went inside. She continued to poke at her phone to look up how long it takes for a package to arrive in the mail. As she made her way over to the shoe tree, she felt a gentle wet nudge against her hand, which caused her to grimace as she looked over.
"Duke that's gross," She chided as she rubbed her hand on her jeans before petting the nosey dog. Having provided the mandatory attention, Duke wandered off once more to find his favorite spot in the afternoon sun, while Rose made her way over to the dining room table.
The same stack of textbooks were pulled from her backpack, along with her assignment book that listed off several new pieces of homework. Her locker turned out to be useless since, Even if she wanted to use it. there simply was not enough time to go to the locker between classes. even if she did, there wasn't enough time at the end of the day to go to her locker and get the books she needed for her homework. Unlike the city buses, the school buses were strict about their departure times.
Rose looked over her list of things to do. 12 problems from her Algebra book. easy enough. A worksheet from Chemistry class. Easy again. The last task, A 2-page book report, would probably be the hardest. "Maybe mom will let me borrow her laptop." It was either that or she'd have to go to the Library during her lunch breaks and write it there.
For now, though, she focused on what she could do. An hour passed, then two, before the garage could be heard.
"I'm home," Emma's usual greeting could be heard as she made her way into the house with Piers, who wandered off to play. "How was school?" She asked as she took a moment to walk over and pet Duke.
"It was school," Rose said through a tired breath. "Can I borrow your computer? I have a book report I need to work on."
"Sure. I'll set that up for you on the coffee table." Emma put her bag down on the couch and dug out the laptop. "Can you move your books over here so, I can set the table and get started on dinner?"
"Fine, as long as Piers doesn't turn on the TV. It's too distracting," Not that she had much room to argue, she needed to write that report. All the same, Rose haphazardly packed her stuff so she could move it over. As she took a seat on the couch, she paused and raised an eyebrow when she noticed the sound of the garage door once more.
"I'm home,"
Emma seemed just as confused to see Chris walk around and join them. "Huh, You're early. Is everything okay?"
"Yeah. We took it easy with drills for the day. So we wound up leaving a few minutes early," Chris explained as he made his way over to the coat closet to hang up his jacket.
"Mhm," Emma hummed, less than convinced. She crossed her arms while an amused smile. "and it has nothing to do with the fact that it's a Friday, and you want to work on the bike?"
The question caused him to pause for a moment. "Well. I didn't say that," He admits as he made his walked over to join the others. "I think I've almost got it working."
"Busted," Rose teased as Chris plopped onto the couch next to her.
"Smart aleck," He jokingly grumbled as he messed up her hair.
"Ugh! knock it off. You're the worst," Rose complained as she batted his hand away.
Chris did stop as he watched Piers make his way over with a plush wolf that Hound Wolf Squad pitched in to get for his last birthday. "There you are, I was wondering where you wandered off to."
"Dowg!" Piers announced while trying to climb onto the couch to show the plush toy to Chris.
Chris helped Piers on the couch. "Close enough," Chris said, knowing wolf, and woof would probably confuse the toddler. All the same, he accepted the offered toy and put it on the child's head, as he expected Piers would just try and take it back in a few seconds anyway.
Emma watch this in a state of peaceful happiness. "I was going to wait until dinner but, I might as well bring it up before you guys get too distracted," It was rare to have everyone in the same room without a meal on the table.
"Hm?"
"Halloween is in a few weeks," Emma pointed out. "Did we want to do another group costume this year?"
"I don't see why not," Chris shrugged. "Maybe something a little simpler this year."
"Adams family?"
He bobbed his head. That still required more effort than he'd like after all the complaints he got last year. He wore spandex for heaven's sake. He wanted an easy year. "I was thinking like. Farmer theme." All he'd have to do is wear flannel and overalls. easy.
"Aww, Piers could be a pumpkin," Emma cooed.
Rose's expression dropped from dismay to mortified as she listened to them list various ideas that only seemed to get more embarrassing. She stood corrected, this was the worst. "Um. Do we have to?" She asked through a grimace. Last year was frankly kinda awful and if anyone at school found out about this she'd have a harder time than she already was. "Aren't you guys a bit, old, for Halloween?"
"Geh thanks," Chris said as he forced a neutral expression. "Trick or treating has an age limit, but Halloween? Nah."
"You're never too old to have a bit of fun and enjoy a holiday," Emma concurred.
"You guys do that then. I'd still like to pass," Rose remained firm all the same.
"If you don't want to dress up, that's fine," Emma said, though it was difficult to hide a sense of concern. If she ever saw the scientists that ruined Halloween for her baby, they'd be getting an earful at the least. "If you change your mind and decide you want a costume, let me know. Okay? You don't have to match if you have something else you'd rather dress up as."
"I think I'm good," Rose said as she moved to pick up Emma's laptop. She still had a report to write after all. "Thanks."
'*'*'*'*'
It had been almost two weeks since then. Another weekday meant another day at school. While it was better than the labs, the novelty of something new was wearing off and monotony was setting in, leaving her tired by the end of the day. It didn't help that she had to study twice as hard to catch up to where the other students were. All the workbooks in the world couldn't have prevented the gap thanks to her condition, but it didn't make it any less frustrating.
" NO + H20 = NH3 + O2" The teacher listed while writing down the equation on the board. "Who can balance the equation for me?"
4NO + 6H2O = 4NH3 +5O2. Growing up in a military lab was good for one thing at least. Chemistry class was a breeze. Rose reminded quiet despite knowing the answer. She learned well enough when pretending to be Summer that volunteering was frowned upon and that seemed to only compound in high school. From what she learned so far, the social rule was that everyone should remain quiet and wait for the teacher to pick a student at random, unless they're threatening extra homework.
Before the teacher could pick, the final bell rang as the clock hit 3:00 and the students all started to stuff their books into their bags as quickly as possible.
"You have homework!" The teacher shouts to try and make sure any fleeing students heard. "Check the board. You need to answer questions 5 through 14 on page 113 of your textbook. Show your work."
Rose grimaced, but paused long enough to write that down in her assignment book before packing up and following the crowd into the hall. Francis and his friends were being menaces as usual as they body checked each other into the lockers. Because apparently that's fun and a productive use of energy? Rose couldn't help but roll her eyes at this while trying to dodge past the rowdy bunch.
"Hey yo Juvie! You managing to stay out of trouble?" Francis shouted with a wide taunting grin.
"Seriously?" Rose grumbled under her breath. Of course. He was probably the one that started that. What was his damage? What did she do to piss him off enough for him to torment her?
These thoughts didn't last long as Rose caught a glimpse of Sasha as she made her way out of a different nearby classroom. "Sasha hey!" Maybe she'd finally be willing to talk and keep Francis from bothering her.
Sasha seemingly didn't notice as she failed to stop and wait, instead hurrying off.
"What's the matter Juvie? too good to talk to us?" Francis asks as he and the three friends he was with manage to stay alongside Rose.
"I mean, I have a pulse and more than one brain cell, so. Yeah," Rose replied, hoping that would be enough to get them to leave her alone. After all the crap she's been through, she wasn't sure why he scared her so bad before. Maybe it was because of first day nerves, but she's seen worse.
The Rowdy friends hooped and hollered, pushing each other around even more while taunting in return.
"Yoooo"
"Dude are you going to let her say that?"
"Juvie's got teeth"
"Well I have my license and I drive myself to school, so, I gotta have more brain cells than you, pipsqueak,"
"Good for you," Uggh she was so close to the bus. Almost home free.
"Whoa hey, what's the hurry Juvie?" He moved to stand in front of her in an attempt to block her path. "Since you're in a rush. If that one brain cell of yours isn't busy over the weekend, maybe I could drive over and pick you up? See a movie or something?"
Huh? Rose stared in horrified, stunned silence. This guy had the emotional complexity of a rock. In fact, getting hit by a rock might be a preferable alternative to his suggestion. "Ew, no. Seriously, leave me alone."
A brief glimpse of hurt could be seen as his expression fell, though it was quickly covered up with a forced laugh. "She thought I was being serious," He accused in an attempt to save face, which got the crew around him to laugh as well.
Rose pushed past the group to get on the bus and take her seat. One by one, the buses left the school ground in a parade like precession, giving Rose enough peace of mind to take out her phone and relax.
Wednesday, October 30th, 3:12pm
[Rose] Well this sucks. Sasha still won't talk to me.
[Summer] She's still mad? it's been, like, three weeks.
[Rose] Guess so.
[Summer] Ugh. Sorry. What a jerk though.
[Rose] Well unfortunately not everyone can be awesome like you.
[Summer] To be fair, I used to run around Uncle Chris's place all the time, so it's hard to think any of it is made up.
[Summer] lol even then, If she was like me, then she'd know you were telling the truth.
Rose looked up from her phone for a moment. Time had passed by between messages which gave the bus plenty of time to make it to her stop. She hurried off and jumped off the last step before taking her phone out again to pick up where she was while walking home.
[Rose] You have a point. Maybe that would help?
[Rose] If I have Chris show up at school and he talks to Sasha then she'll have to believe me.
Having sent that Rose put her phone away long enough to make it to the front door where, to her excitement, A decent size plastic shipping bag with her name in it was waiting.
"Yes!" Rose happily cheered as she picked up the bag and hurried in side "Hi Duke I'm home I'll give you pats later I promise!" She loudly proclaimed as she slammed the door shut behind her and rushed up to her room. Once inside, she put down her backpack and unceremoniously tore into the package to find the items she ordered from the catalog. A beanie and an oversize jacket. Both had the logo for Hound Wolf Squad's shield like crest embroidered on to it. The shield displayed the white profile silhouette of a wolf head bearing its teeth. The silhouette showed a red scar over the wolf's eye with 4 red scratch marks behind it.
The jacket hand the emblem proudly sewn on to the back, taking as much space as possible, while the beanie was a bit more subtle with a much smaller embroidery off to the side. Before she could do much else, Rose noticed her phone go off as she got another text from Summer.
[Summer] I donno. Maybe. How would she see him from the car though?
[Rose] He has that bike now. The thing is loud as anything too, so it will definitely catch attention and it's ease to see who's riding it.
[Summer] Fair. That still kinda relies on that she's A) be outside when you show up and B) suddenly care enough to walk over to talk to uncle Chris?
The foiling of her otherwise perfect plan caused her to contemplatively frown as she thought over how to fix this while putting on her new hat and jacket. Granted, she did only just think of that plan in the 30 seconds it took to type up her text, but it was a plan nonetheless.
[Rose] Well. that's why I got this. See undeniable proof.
[Summer] No waaay I want one too! where did you get that! That might actually work.
Rose's smile returned as she read the vote of confidence. While all of this was probably a waste of time in some regard. She didn't know Sasha for very long, but she was nice to talk to. If it didn't work, she'd just try and find someone else to talk to at school but, she at least wanted to try. She continued to goof off and play game while waiting for the others to get home. She technically had homework to do but, she did that every day. She could blow it off once.
Video game quests filled the hours of waiting for the rest of the family to get home and the usual routine to commence. Emma and Piers made it home first. Emma worked on dinner while Piers was distracted with toys, and Chris showed up right as the table was being set.
Dinner brought about a careful waiting game of mental chess. She just needed to wait until after dinner. If she had to convince both parents to agree to her idea, she had a much lower chance of success. She didn't want finish eating first since they'd likely figure out she wanted something because she'd have to circle around the area like a vulture waiting for them to finish eating too. If she ate too slow, they'd think she's upset and would ask a million questions while entering a more defensive mind set.
Her patience was rewarded successfully as Chris finish eating first and wandered off to the basement shortly after. Rose cleared off the last of her food as well before putting her plate in the sink and not so subtly went to the basement as well, and over to his office.
After a moment of hesitation, Rose knocked on the door before opening it anyway to peek inside to see Chris sitting at his desk already and shuffling through papers. "Hey Chris?"
"Hm?"
"Can I ride the bike to school tomorrow?" She asked, knowing well enough he'd say no. Ask for something big and barter down, to get the thing you actually want.
"Isn't your bike too small?" He asks confused.
"Yeah. which is why I want to borrow the motorcycle."
"Absolutely not," Chris replied with a serious and annoyed expression.
"Please," she pressed anyway.
"No. You don't have a license. End of discussion," Chris grumpily went back to shifting through papers to try and end the conversation.
"Can you take me to school on the bike?" Rose asked instead. "I mean, you did just get it to start working, so it's important to test it."
The insistence caused him to stop again in favor of rubbing his temple. "Why do you want to go to school on the motorcycle?" He asked unamused as it became more evident that there was more to this request than she was letting on. "Did you make a bet or something?" He should not have let her start bet with the rest of the squad.
"No," Rose cautiously walked in, so she could close the door behind her. "It's just a really nice bike, so."
"Mhm," He was not buying it. This request just miraculously manifested on the same day that the jacket with the giant Hound Wolf logo on it showed up? Yeah, he'd been raising this gremlin child of his for long enough to know that something was up. "Okay, what's the real answer?"
"So I made a friend in school cause this dumb guy Francis was picking on me, but now he wants to date me? Not the point. Made a friend, she's cool. She asked why I was gone, and I tried to tell her, but now she thinks I'm a liar, and I'm not." Rose explained at the pace and subtly of a bullet train.
Chris blinked rapidly while trying to process the onslaught of new information, as he felt a brand-new headache forming to replace the one he just had before. "I'm sorry, you what?" Where to even start? Who's Francis? "How does the bike play into this?"
"You play into it," Rose corrected. "I need you to take me to school. Visibly. So that way I can fix things up with Sasha. She thinks I'm a liar, so if you tell her I'm not, that will fix everything. And if she's not there, then I have the jacket to show as proof instead."
"Pro-" He cut himself short as the pieces fell into place and his hand fell to cover his eyes. "Rose, Please tell me you did not tell someone you work for the BSAA."
"I just told her that I'm a secret agent. That works for you, right?" Rose asked as she raised an eyebrow.
"That is what Jack told Summer because she saw me on the news," Chris grumbled. "It's the answer that works if my cover's already been blown."
"You were on the news?"
"You are not changing the subject," Chris warned. "Rose you can't share that so freely. It's dangerous. We are not in a Batman situation where we can tell everyone and anyone what we do without repercussions."
"So if I lie, that's a good thing, but telling the truth gets me treated like a liar? How does that work? That's not fair," Rose argued back in her frustration. "That's literally the opposite of everything you ever taught me. Be honest, tell the truth. Lying is bad. Suddenly, it's okay and the only option to not be treated like shit?"
Chris took a breath as he allowed his hand to fall away and the tension in his shoulders to ease. "First off. Language. You'll give Emma a heart attack," He quietly reprimands. Not that scolding or grounding ever seemed to work. "Second. Yeah. It's not fair and it's backwards. It sucks," he paused a moment to scratch at the stubble on his face and think of how else to reply. "Maybe I'm just old and used to it, but that's how it works. One day, you'll learn that this is for the better."
With that, Chris got up and abandoned the papers on his desk to stand in front of Rose. "And you're in trouble because I don't want you to have to learn that the hard way." He said as he put a hand on her shoulder to try and make sure she was paying attention. He needed to make sure this got through her mindset that she'd always survive anything bad that happens. "A smack on the hand scolding from me is much gentler than what will happen if the wrong people get to you. Throwing around information about the BSAA and missions you go on is a great way to end up getting not only yourself hurt, but the rest of the team. It is my job as your leader and protector to keep you from making mistakes like this."
As she listened, she averted her gaze to the floor, thanks to the ever lovely sense of guilt that managed to show up any time she talked to Chris. She just wanted a ride to school. "Secret agent stuff stays a secret. Got it."
"Good," With that he gave her shoulder a gentle pat and motioned for her to follow him as he opened the door. "That being said. If you still want a ride to school, I'm fine with taking you. However, you have to promise you'll stop telling people about the BSAA, and you need to accept the consequences of telling Sasha. Even if they it doesn't seem fair."
"Fine," She was still going to try and get her friend back either way but, she wouldn't tell anyone else.
He'd have to wake up early tomorrow but, such is life. With that squared away, the remaining factor of her story continued to nag at him. "By the way where does Francis fit in all this?" Chris asked with more notable concern returned to his tone as they walked out of his office.
"He's doesn't, and he's stupid, and I can handle it," Rose replied in a monotone grumble.
"Okay," As long as boys are still stupid, at least as far as this one goes, then all is well. "Just remember, aiming for the nose is life or death stuff because you can damage the brain. If you just need to slow them down."
"Aim for the throat or the solar plexus to knock the wind out of them," Rose finished for him.
"Atta girl," He gave her an approving pat on the back as they made it over to the stairs. Before heading up he gestured past her to the gym portion of the basement. "Since you're down here, try and get a few practice punches in with the punching bag. Work out some stress, then get started on your homework."
'*'*'*'*'
Halloween day arrived the next morning. True to his word, Chris woke up early and groggily made his way down the stairs dressed as a scarecrow to greet his farmer wife, their pumpkin son, and teenage daughter who was too cool to participate. To his chagrin, Rose was happily wearing her Hound Wolf branded jacket and hat.
He'd only been awake for 30 minutes, and he was already annoyed. Chris sat down with a bit more force than needed and wordlessly ate his breakfast. He did let her buy the stuff and HQ sold it so, he had little room to complain even if he just warned her about being careful. Looks like she preferred learning things the hard way. Who was he kidding, she was already an open target even without her running around bringing more attention to herself, and he knew it.
A plate of breakfast and cup of coffee helped the grumpiness subside. "Come on, let's get going, or you'll be late," Chris warned as he got up with his empty dishes, so he could put them in the sink.
" 'Kay, by mom! Bye Piers," Rose said as she quickly moved to gather her book bag and lunchbox.
Emma quickly finished the bite of food in her mouth so she could talk. "Have a good day Rosey. Piers can you say bye bye?"
"Buh-bye!" the child happily repeated while waving at Rose.
While this occurred, Chris made his way over to the coat closet to grab a jacket. He looked between his usual plain black jacket and his more decorative bomber jacket. While he wasn't thrilled about all of this, it wasn't completely lost on him how important appearance was during high school. This whole bike to school thing, was due to Rose trying to show off and look tough. So showing up to school with her dad dressed as a scarecrow would probably not go over well. He took out his decorative jacket, figuring she would be happier about biker dad than scarecrow dad. It took some effort, but after adjusting and zipping up the jacket just enough, he managed to make his overalls look more like normal jeans.
"Hurry up slowpoke!" Rose chided as she went out to the garage.
Chris continued to try and force the straw bits and pieces into his sleeve to hide them. "I'm moving," He said as he stopped by the shelves of shoes to put on his boots and once more shoved any bits of straw into the boot despite it being uncomfortable. "There should be two helmets on the shelf by the door try them on and see which one fits you better." Giving her something to do in the meantime would hopefully buy him a few extra seconds to shift things around and get more comfortable.
"Fine," Rose did as she was told and tried on both. they were both kinda loose, but she picked one and hurried over to the bike to impatiently wait.
Chris made it to the garage shortly after and dawned a helmet as well, making a note to keep the visor down to hide his face paint. The garage door creaked open with the press of a button and shortly after the two zoomed off on the back of the bike.
It was almost odd how quickly the managed to make it to the school compared to the bus. Rose was used to a 45-minute wait or so, but it only took 15 without all the meandering back roads and extra stops.
Once the motorcycle came to a complete stop in front of the school, Rose shuffled off and pulled off the helmet so she could look around. Her wide hopeful smile fell to disappointment. While the loud bike certainly got attention from the few students in the area, it wasn't really anyone who mattered to Rose.
"Helmet?" Chris asked while holding out an expecting hand.
Rose looked from the helmet back to the school. Part of her wanted to ask him to wait a bit longer but, at the same time, their deal rang in her ears. She had to accept the consequences of her choices, so she handed the helmet back.
"Have a good day at school," He said as he tied it down to the back with a bungee cord.
"Thanks," Rose continued to wait as he did this, but before long Chris drove off. Rose adjusted her book bag before turning to head inside and towards the school cafeteria. As always Gary was waiting just outside and stoically waited. Refusing to acknowledge any of the teens that walks by and tried to talk to him. At least she could count on the fact he'd stay outside the room she was supposed to be in, rather than follow her in and stay right behind her. It was a small consolation, but an appreciated one.
The Cafeteria was loud as always thanks to the roughly a hundred or so students that were all talking at the same time. As Rose made her way to her usual seat she noticed that some students actually were wearing costumes and that Francis' posse was up to no good. They'd mostly singled out a costumed student, similar to what they did the other day, and were pushing her around as Francis held a pair of glasses over his head.
"Knock it off! Give those back!"
"Nope," Francis replied with an uninterested tone. "Not until you apologize for making me look bad."
The targeted student's voice was quickly recognized by Rose. While the other students were content with ignoring this to avoid getting involved, same with the teachers, Rose was not. She'd fight monsters for heavens sake, a few bullies would be no problem. "She said knock it off," Rose stated in her gruffest tone possible to try and seem intimidating as she pushed her way in to stand between Francis and Sasha.
The forced deep tone of Rose's voice caused the older teen to laugh, "Make me."
She wished she could. While Chris's advice about going for the throat was very tempting, she also knew that was more likely to get her into trouble. Gary was waiting outside.
"Are you gonna do something or are you going to get out of my way?" He taunted once more while continuing to keep the glasses out of reach. The longer this went on, the more people started to watch to see what would happen.
Rose continued to glare back but said nothing. She wished she did dress up. She'd wear the scariest costume she could think of. She could dress up like that weird monster from before. the one with long hair, three sunken eyes and no mouth that managed to scream anyways. Maybe then he would have been so scared when he saw her, he'd drop the glasses as he tripped over himself trying to get away. The whole scene plays out vividly in her head.
Francis' face slowly went pale as his eyes widened as his eye began to play tricks on him. While no one else seemed to be reacting at all, he watched in horror as Rose's figure contorted and warped into a horrifying beast with long dark hair, three sunken eyes and no mouth.
His friends where were laughing before looked at him confused. "Hey you okay dude?"
His breathing labored as he refused to blink or take his eyes off the creature and their words when in one ear and out the other.
Even Rose seemed confused and concerned at this point. "Do you need to see the nurse?"
Francis only heard the monster screech as it lurched forward, causing him to drop Sasha's glasses as he fell back and stumbled over himself to try and get away.
"Stay away from me you freak!" He cried as he ran for the door, slamming it behind him and the room went quiet.
"What the hell?"
"Francis?"
"Hey wait up!"
The three others quickly hurried after to check on their friend.
Rose looked around to find that everyone was now staring at her, trying to figure out what caused the usually unaffected and numb bully to snap like that. She tried to ignore this as she stepped forward and picked up Sasha's glasses, so she could turn around and offer them to her. "Here."
"Thanks," She cautiously replied as she accepted her glasses back and put them on. "Um. behind you."
Rose grimaced. Gary in three. Two. One.
"Rosemary,"
There he is. "What?"
"I need you to come with me," Gary stated as he waited for Rose to turn and face him before leading the way out of the cafeteria and into an empty class.
"What happened?"
"Nothing,"
"I just intercepted a kid running out of the cafeteria screaming about a monster. Try again,"
"I don't know," Rose replied as the first bell cut her off. "That's the bell. I'm going to be late."
"You do realize I'm not the only person here, right?" Gary warned as he moved to block her path.
"What,"
"I work on a team like everyone else at the BSAA. I'm just the one that stays close. I had to call off a full swat response." He explained, as his own tone indicated a sense of concern that bordered panic. "What happened?"
"I don't know," Rose repeated. "He was picking on my friend, so I tried to get between them. I was just standing there and suddenly, he freaked out and ran off. I didn't do anything!"
Gary tapped his foot as he thought for a moment. "You're sure about that?"
"Positive. I didn't do anything, I swear," Rose pleaded.
"Look, I still have to report this to the higher ups back at HQ," He said as he crossed his arms though his shoulders started to relax. "But, there isnt much I can report if Neither of us understands what happened. That means they're likely going to want to do more tests until they can figure it out. You're sure you don't know anything?" He asked as he gave her one last out in case she was lying.
"I'll say it a thousand times. It wasn't me," Rose reaffirmed as she became more agitated.
"Fine," Not much else he could really do. "Fine, I need to send in this report. One of the others will be waiting for you outside your homeroom class. Don't get side tracked. I won't be able to call off the team a second time."
"Whatever," Rose grumbled under her breath and rigidly made her way out of the room to find Sasha waiting by the door.
"Hey," Sasha greeted.
"Hi," Rose hesitantly replied as she closed the door. "What are you doing here? you'll get in trouble if you're late."
"Figured you'd need someone to vouch for you that you got pulled aside by a teacher," Sasha replied while putting air quotes around teacher before leading the way.
"Oh..." Rose followed. "How long were you out here?"
"Long enough," She shrugged before pausing to think of how to say what was on her mind based on what she overheard. "Look. I don't completely get what's going on with you and all this." she gestured to Rose and back to the class where Gary was. "Secret agent stuff. You're weird... but, I'm grateful that you stepped in like that. You didn't have to. No one else was. It was pretty brave."
"It was nothing," Rose said as a smile started to form. Weird or not, she was happy to have her friend believe her and talking to her again. "My da- I mean, The captain usually says that bravery isn't the absence of fear. It's the result of it. Or something like that. Might have gotten the wording wrong." Rose shook her head. "Anyways. It's not that I wasn't scared. Francis is an ass, and he's built like one too."
Sasha laughed at this. "You know, I'm going to be having a sleepover party for my 16th birthday. It's a few months away still, but maybe you could come?" She happily offered. "It would be a good way to introduce you to the rest of my friends, since we don't have a lot of classes together. Who knows, maybe some of them will recognize you."
"Yeah. Yeah, that sounds great!" Rose adamantly agreed. Sure she'd have to bend over backwards to get that approved by the BSAA, but she'd fill out a hundred workbooks and do a thousand tests if she had to. "Count me in."
So did anyone else have to deal with someone like Francis in high school or was that just me? At least he'll leave her alone now. Rose and Sasha are back on talking terms too, with the promise of more friends on the horizon! Next chapter is going to be another combat chapter, and those tend to take a bit longer for me to write. The goal is to get it posted in my usual late Sunday early Monday time frame, but it might take an extra day or two.
Comment Responses:
Winter/Guest - Hi! Amg thank you so much for your kind comments I'm so glad you're enjoying the story ^v^ I'm not sure when or If you'll see this but know that your comments made my day and made me smile.
