"Oh, and Ms. Schaeffer, the principal would like to see you." Mrs Hertz said as she dismissed the class. Aelita looked at Jeremie, who nodded, reassuring her that it is fine, which neither of them knew for sure. Heck, they didn't even know what did he want.
"Yes, miss," Aelita replied, locking the clip on her bag, and putting it over her shoulder. She walked out of the classroom, Jeremie following her close behind.
"You go, and if anything happens, scream." Jeremie joked as Aelita walked away, heading up to the principal's office.
She was nervous since the only times when the principal calls a student into their office are when the parent wants to confront their child about marks, or when the student got in trouble. The first one was out of the question immediately, and she hoped the second one too since she tried to be quiet and nice as much as possible.
Knocking on the door, the secretary invited her inside her office, but she also opened the door to the principal's office.
"You wanted to see me, sir?" Aelita asked as she peeked her head into the office. There was no one except the principal himself, which made her rule out both of the possibilities she thought of.
"Ah yes, Miss Schaeffer." Mr Delmas said, waving his hand so Aelita would come closer and sit in front of him.
"Now, I'm not gonna stress you out today. Your marks are exceptional, and the best in the whole programme." Mr. Delmas continued.
Which programme? "And I talked to the board, and I was obligated to give this to you the day you enrolled, but it got returned back to them, so I asked them to send it again." Mr Delmas finished, passing Aelita an envelope.
"Thank you," Aelita said. "But which programme?"
"Oh, right. It's a programme, or rather foundation for children who aren't...materialistically supported by their parents enough to let their child enjoy their life while being in our school." Mr Delmas said and looked at his computer. "Speaking of parents, your father updated the records of your last name."
"Oh, um, yes. I asked him to do that." "But promise me, don't add a middle name, okay?" The principal joked as Aelita let out a slight chuckle.
"Okay, that was all Aelita, you may go." He said, as Aelita stood up, grabbed the envelope and walked out of the room and into the hallway.
Her curiosity got the best of her, and she carefully opened the envelope, curious what was inside. She saw a paper, and something surprising; paper money. She took out the paper and began reading.
Dear Aelita Schaeffer-Hopper,
As a student in Kadic Boarding School, you were included in our programme helping students that can't afford school and free time activities. In the envelope you received is 1400E for you to freely spend on school, free time, or anything.
This donation is recurring, which means the next time you receive this letter will be in the middle of March.
Best regards,
Boulogne-Billancourt Student Foundation
She put the paper back and took out the money. There was indeed 1400 euros in cash.
Oh my god. Aelita thought, putting it immediately back into the envelope, and stuck the paper into her bag. She knew that this was a lot of money.
It was still surprising that she got this much money and that she will be getting more in March. And also, who did apply her to the programme?
Walking outside of the administration building, she headed straight into the cafeteria, wanting to get answers. She wasn't mad, she just wanted to know if it was who she thinks (and hoped) it was.
The moment she stepped inside the cafeteria, she regretted it. There was food flying from every side of the cafeteria. Initially, she thought it was XANA, but then she spotted Odd throwing a tomato and hitting someone. It looked like there was a food fight.
Looking around, there was no way it would be possible to eat here at this time, and also, except Odd, and the knocked-out Ulrich next to him no one of their group was there.
Yep, going to town will be the better idea. Aelita thought, closing the door to the building. She turned around and began walking towards the main gate, where she hoped that no one collects passes because she didn't have one.
After a short walk to the city centre, she appeared in a mall. It was the only mall in town, and she vaguely remembers what was where, since she was here with Yumi, when she insisted they go and buy her some clothes.
As it was almost Christmas Eve, the decorations were mostly snowflakes, and snowmen, somewhere even Christmas trees. She passed a couple of stores with clothes, but nothing that would make her go and look at them closely.
As she was coming to the part where the restaurants were, she remembered something; Christmas is a time of love and presents. And she doesn't have a present for anyone, including Jeremie.
So a quick plan was formed; food, Jeremie's gift, gifts for others, and after she arrives at Belpois's family house, she will try to get them something too. It would be rude not to.
So, she made her way inside a fast-food restaurant, hoping it won't make her puke as the similar food items served in the school buffet. She quickly ordered a meal just enough to satisfy the need for a quick lunch and also not that big so she wouldn't waste any food.
The tray came rather quicker than she expected, but she was happy, since the sooner she finished, the more time she can spend looking for presents.
And that was the problem; she had some ideas on what to get Ulrich and Odd, and she knew exactly what to give Yumi, but to Jeremie? She had no idea.
Something with computers? It would look like she can't pick a good gift.
New clothes? He has a closet full of sweaters and shirts, that guy doesn't wear anything else.
A pet? He didn't like pets that much, but he adored Maya and kinda liked Kiwi.
Books? He is a nerd, but that wouldn't be a nice gift.
She really had no idea what to give him. And she couldn't pick anything, it had to be special. It would be her first Christmas in years, and she wanted to make it a nice one not just to her, but to the others as well.
After some minutes of hard thinking, she finished her food and put the tray on the shelf. She saw that many other students from her school had the same idea, as it was packed with them.
Okay Aelita, just pray that Jeremie isn't here. She thought, walking out of the sector, and began wandering through the mall. She continued excluding from her list.
A portable heater? That sounds stupid for a gift.
Money? She was sure he had more than any student in the school.
A tablet? He barely writes with his hands.
Coupons? He wouldn't use them.
It looked like she knew almost everything about Jeremie, and then nothing at the same time.
Aelita was lost in the list in her mind that she decided to give up on finding him a gift now and look for gifts for the others.
She quickly came inside a clothing store, walked to a specific aisle where she and Yumi were, and picked out the piece of clothing. It was a simple black dress, with yellow wings on the sleeves. She checked twice the size, making sure it was correct, and went with it to the cashier.
She was glad it was in the sale, and she ended up paying less than 50 euros, so the next store was a jewellery store. There, Yumi showed her a beautiful necklace which was always out of stock. So now Aelita tried her luck.
"Excuse me, is this necklace in the stock?" Aelita said, pointing at the picture of the necklace. The cashier looked into his computer and walked away.
And say nothing, great. Aelita thought, hoping he just didn't go for a lunch break. Soon he came back, with a small box.
"This is the last one we have, the new shipment will arrive in a month." He said, opening the box. In it was the necklace that Yumi wanted, except it had a purple gem inside, not a black one.
"I'll take it," Aelita said. She knew Yumi wasn't a fan of colours, but purple and red were the ones she could stand. She paid for it, surprised at how much it cost, and waddled towards the escalator that took her one floor up.
Now she needed to get a gift for Odd and Ulrich. They both had similar personalities, only Odd changed girls more often than his socks, and Ulrich was the total opposite; he couldn't even get together with Yumi.
Then, she saw a large store, which had everything in one place. It was like a mall in a mall. Stepping inside, she already began looking through the stuff. Random balls, squish mallows, remote controlled vehicles were everywhere. Then she found a remote-controlled plane big enough to look like it was quality and that it won't break after one bad landing, and small enough to be stored in a dorm room.
Paying for the "not-so-expensive" gift, she asked the cashier if she could wrap it in paper, to which she agreed. That gave Aelita some time to look for a gift for Ulrich...but for sure not in this place, so she went wandering again after grabbing the present for Odd.
She knew he liked almost everything, but even then it was hard to pick him a present...until she saw it. A really cool shoes made for running. Even the model in the picture behind the shoes was running, so she stepped into the store, immediately fascinated by the clothes that were everywhere.
Why are sports clothes prettier than normal clothes? She asked herself, walking over to the shoes. But also much more expensive.
Looking through the shelves, she found ones that had lime stripes with a white base. Also, the size she really hoped was right, since she couldn't just randomly ask Ulrich for his shoe size.
Grabbing the box down from the shelf, she noticed that they were in the sale, so it wouldn't be that much expensive. She walked over to the counter with the box, while also having two big bags hung on her.
"Excuse me, I'm buying this for my friend for Christmas, and I was wondering if he could come and return them for a bigger, or smaller size," Aelita asked the cashier as she scanned the box.
"Yeah, just have him bring a receipt with him." The cashier said, packing the shoes back inside the box after removing the security tags.
/-/-/-/
The pink-haired girl finally sat down on a bench in the park close to the mall. She had spent almost an hour more than she hoped she will spend just picking out a gift for Jeremie. And she finally found it, holding the box now in her hands. It was the only box that wasn't wrapped since she wants to give it to him right into his hands, not under a tree.
She didn't even dare to open it to check if it was okay from when the cashier packed it carefully into the box, because she was scared that she would break it.
Of course, it was time to go back to campus, but her legs seemed to think otherwise. She thought about it, and technically the Hermitage was closer than the campus, but she was scared to go there again, especially alone. Yes, Jeremie would never have been protected from any danger that would come, but he still was there for her, and that's what made her feel protected.
She liked being in the park, surrounded by the white trees from the little bit of snow, since almost never snowed for last week. But either way, she preferred the warmth that either her blanket, Jeremie, or sun provided.
"Ah, hello cutie!"
Aelita slightly jumped up from the sudden interruption of the silence. She looked around, only to see two boys, probably the same age as her, or older.
"Hi...?" She replied, being polite and all. The two boys sat beside her, one on each side. She didn't know who were they, but thought they were just either her classmates or random students from the school.
The gifts were thankfully in front of her on the ground, so they didn't sit on them. One of the boys shifted closer to Aelita, now looking at her.
"How are you doing, baby?" He asked, placing a hand on Aelita's thigh.
Now that she found it rather unpleasant. It didn't feel good, and that worried Aelita.
"I'm...fine?" She responded as she felt another hand, now from the other guy landing on her other leg.
"Shhh, we just want to offer you something." The first one said, leaning closer. "A one-time job for some money."
"No, I'm not really interested." "Oh really?" The second one said. Now Aelita felt that his hand was going higher and higher, coming closer to her pelvis. And that Aelita didn't like.
"Hey!" She slapped the hand which almost touched her sensitive part and looked at him. "Don't do that!"
"Aww, baby, no one has ever made love to you?" The first one began again, now putting his hands on Aelita's waist, making her now unable to escape.
"Can't you two just...leave me alone?" Aelita said, as the first one giggled, and began reaching with his other hand towards her chest. Aelita now finally understood what they really wanted, and she decided to end it right there.
"I have a boyfriend, you dorks!" Aelita snapped, as they both pulled away from her, stood up, and walked away, mumbling something to each other.
She lied, but she wasn't glad she lied. Not only god knows how far they would go, they were also annoying.
She didn't want to lie about having a boyfriend. She wanted one.
And she already had someone in mind for a long time.