A/N: Yay, another chapter! My laptop was actually having a display issue, and I had to send it in to be fixed, so I had to borrow someone else's computer to finish this, but I got there in the end.
Usually, at the weekly assemblies, Savannah would be up on stage running the meeting, as was her school captain duty, alongside Mason. However, that morning was one of the times that the vice-captains got to shine, and she watched as Rose and Lev led it for a change. Rose's expression was bright when she talked into the microphone, her little rabbit daemon adorable beside her. Lev, on the other hand, looked a little more embarrassed and unnatural up there, and Savannah attributed it to the fact that he preferred to work behind the scenes.
In any case, it was amusing to watch, and Savannah sat beside her boyfriend in the front row. It was all for show, but no one needed to know that. Indie sat at her feet, eyeing Mason's white tiger daemon, Emery, who lay on the ground, staring back. There was often a competitive vibe between them, likely influenced by Savannah's manner towards Mason, herself. They both wanted to top the class, liking no less than the best. Eyes were often on them however, and she wasn't bad at putting on a show. Resting a hand on Mason's leg, she reached over to kiss his cheek. He didn't flinch, although he did glance at her sidelong. She left her hand where it was when she drew back, feeling gazes on her.
"Did you hear they're picking the academic excellence prize winners soon?" she remarked, lowering her voice.
"Of course," Mason replied, shifting his gaze ahead again. "There's hardly a need to bring it up. Naturally we'll both be picked for one."
Savannah made a sound in agreement. Glancing back to scan the room, she saw a sea of familiar faces. Most of the senior students she knew, of course, although there were a couple of students who must have been new. One was a girl with long blonde hair in a braid, a deer daemon sitting at the end of the aisle near her. A couple of rows back sat a boy with shaggy hair a similar shade, although she couldn't see his daemon from where she was sitting.
She finally tuned back into what Rose was saying.
"And don't forget, in a few weeks we have our school dance!" Rose exclaimed, practically beaming in excitement at the thought. "The committee voted on a galaxy theme, so get ready for an experience that's out of this world! Tickets are on sale now."
"Cute," Savannah remarked, under her breath. "I assume we'll be making an appearance," she said to Mason. "I've already chosen my dress – I'll send you a picture of the colour so that you can match it."
Mason gave a brief nod, not looking particularly interested in the dress code. "Yes, I suppose we have to be there, considering our duties."
"Definitely," she replied, glancing at her nails. "You can pick me up at six," was the only other thing she remarked on the matter, before leaning back in her chair and drawing her hand back.
She'd always liked one particular saying, 'Keep your friends close, and your enemies closer.'
Sitting next to Tif in his history class, Kellan chatted with her during one of the group activities. She had been one of his friends since what felt like forever, and she was always fun to hang out with. She was the type who didn't have a specific 'group,' often flitting around to talk with different people. Her daemon, Maeve, was fittingly a colourful parakeet who loved to be the centre of attention.
That term they had been studying medieval times, which he found fascinating, and they were doing an activity that day where they all picked a medieval occupation out of a hat. Then they needed to talk over what their role would have been like. Their teacher had even hinted that those higher up could order students lower on the medieval hierarchy to carry their books to their next class. Her parakeet had grown bored in the wait, and she flew around the room with Lu, keeping out of the way of the other students.
"So," Tif continued as they waited for their turn to draw their occupations. "Have you told him how you feel yet?" she pressed, not one to shy away from such questions. She knew him too well, and he hadn't even needed to tell her how he felt – she'd picked it and pointed it out a long time ago.
"It's not that easy," Kellan said as an excuse, watching as some other students looked at the roles they'd just received. "I can't just tell him."
"Why not?" she replied, tilting her head to the side slightly.
Lu paused for a moment near them. "I asked the same thing," she said, giving a look at Kellan, before continuing in her flight.
"Because-… Because we're friends, and if he doesn't feel the same way, then it might make things awkward," he swallowed. "Or it might ruin our friendship, and I can't risk that."
"He seems like a pretty decent guy," she pointed out. "He's not going to be angry with you or something. I'm sure it would work itself out, even if he didn't feel the same."
"But-…"
She gave him a look. "If you don't risk it, then you'll never get a chance at it. You'll spend the rest of your time here pining. Like you already are."
Kellan shook his head with a hopeless laugh. "… Is it really that bad?"
"Yes. It is. It's miserable in fact," she replied, although it was lightly, and she laughed when Maeve landed on her head.
"I will tell him eventually," Kellan said, although he wondered whether he would ever get the nerve to. It wasn't like he'd seen any signs from Ethos that he felt the same way.
"Good," she replied approvingly. "You'd better get to it soon. Or I'll have to tell him myself," she threatened, and Kellan rolled his eyes.
"I'm sorry that I work at a slower pace than you."
"You should be," she grinned, watching him for a moment longer. "Are you going to ask him to the dance?"
"I kind of did," Kellan admitted, "And we were interrupted, but I don't think he seemed so keen. It's not his type of thing."
"Well…" Tif said, "If you want someone to go with, you could always go with me. It's not like anyone has asked me or anything."
Kellan gave a smile. "Thanks, I'll let you know if I'm definitely going. It would still be fun to go with you."
"Of course it would," she said, pausing to draw a piece of paper out of the hat when the student holding it stopped near them. Unfolding it, she wrinkled her nose, her parakeet landing beside her on the desk to read it and giving a displeased squawk. "Seriously?"
"What is it?" Kellan asked, trying to lean over to see, and she finally showed him. "Oh. A servant," he read, making a face in sympathy.
Tif gestured for him to pick. "Hopefully you get one as bad as mine."
"Gee, thanks," Kellan laughed, picking his own slip of paper. Unravelling it, he stared at it for a moment.
"What? Don't tell me you got something better," Tif said, trying to catch ahold of the paper to see.
He pulled it away in amusement, although her parakeet moved quickly, stealing it between her beak and bringing it back to Tif.
"Are you kidding me?" Tif complained. "A Prince?"
"I'm sorry!" Kellan said, holding up his hands. "I didn't ask for it."
Tif read out some of the description. "The Medieval Royal Bloodlines ruled their lands well and were highly intelligent, ambitious and ruthless and controlled the population within a class system that they controlled through a network of Nobility and Military. Oh, that totally sounds like you," she joked.
"Hardly," Kellan disagreed. "Really, I'd prefer to be a knight or a minstrel or something. A ruler is much too much responsibility and pressure. Besides, everyone wants to kill you."
"Oh, but you're good at being responsible," Tif pointed out. "Although I'm surprised you didn't go for vice-captain this year. I reckon you're a natural leader. Are you going to go for Captain next year?"
"I might do. I'm thinking about it," was all Kellan replied on the matter, not wanting to commit to it yet. Of course he had thought about it, but he had a responsibility to look after his family as well, so he had to see whether he'd be able to fit everything in.
"Good. I think you should," Tif stated, scrunching up her own piece of paper, and handing it to her parakeet daemon to dispose of in the bin.
Walking down the school hallways with Fang, Blake glanced at the clock on the wall with a sigh. "There's still over half an hour left," he complained, finding that some lunch times seemed to drag on, especially when he'd finished his lunch quickly.
"Maybe we can find an empty classroom to sit in," Fang suggested. "At least you won't have to deal with anyone then."
"Yeah. I guess," Blake agreed, although he paused at the sound of an additional set of claws clicking on the ground. Looking back, he was unsurprised to find it was Indie, Savannah's daemon.
Indie caught up to them, pouncing on Fang, and Fang playfully lunged for her in return. Pulling back, Indie moved teasingly just out of reach.
"What do you want?" Blake asked, knowing that Savannah wouldn't be far away from her daemon.
"This way," Indie replied, annoyingly not answering, although Blake couldn't say he was surprised. Moving into the lead, Indie continued down the hallway, before turning down another one. Blake and Fang exchanged a glance, before following.
"If Savannah thinks I'm at her beck and c-…" he started, before his words dropped off in surprise when a door opened and a hand grabbed his arm.
"Did you miss me?" Savannah remarked, pulling him into the room. He caught a glimpse of the sign on the door, realising it was the out of service toilets that had been shut for a while. They were meant to be getting redone, but they still hadn't been touched, even after some time. He snuck in there on occasion when he didn't feel like dealing with anyone and he supposed that she must have known that. Indie and Fang followed them inside, still playing with each other, and he could see Fang's tail flicking from side to side.
Savannah's blue eyes were bright with mischief and she had already unbuttoned the first couple of buttons of her blouse, leaving it open. Once they were all inside, she moved to flick the lock on the door, before turning to face him. Pulling the tie from her hair, she let it fall over her shoulders, and he swallowed, unable to look anywhere else. "What are you-…" he started, before he was silenced as she pushed him up against the wall, leaning in to kiss him. He was tempted to pull away, as if to prove a point, but he couldn't quite make himself, instead kissing her back. One of his hands raised to the back of her head, tangling his fingers in her hair, and she grasped at his shirt.
She smiled against his lips, before pulling back a little. "I had some time free, which is a rarity these days, and I felt like some fun."
"You have strange taste if I was your pick, then," he remarked dryly, watching her.
Leaning in closer, her lips brushed against his. "You're hard on yourself," she remarked disapprovingly, grabbing his hand with her free one. She then urged him to rest it against her bra, his fingers brushing her skin. He didn't resist, as if to show he wasn't some prude. Inhaling, he leaned forward to kiss her again, finding she smelled like soap and some kind of spice.
He noticed out of the corner of his eye that Fang and Indie tussled nearby, before jumping out of reach, and repeating the process. It was good for Fang, he supposed, since she didn't have heaps of other daemons to interact with.
Sometimes, he found it a little hard to understand her attraction to him. He was mostly a nobody at school, while she was undeniably the hottest and most popular girl in the class. She was easily way out of his league, and he never forgot that fact.
Her fingers slid down his chest, before stopping purposely at the zipper of his pants. He made a sound in the back of his throat, grabbing her hand. "What are you doing?" he said again in a protest, staring at her. "Here of all places? What if someone sees us?"
Savannah smiled slowly. "The door's locked, so no one will see us. As for if someone might hear us, well…" she continued, lowering her voice and placing her lips near his ear. "You'd better not be too loud," she said in a teasing fashion, and he felt his cheeks grow warm. Too far gone to stop her, he urged her to switch positions with him, so that her back was against the wall, and then he released her hand, allowing her to continue. He felt his heartbeat quicken as he kissed her again, keenly attuned to her movements.
Afterwards, he'd probably be embarrassed and wonder what the hell he'd been thinking. But for now, he couldn't quite resist her advances.
Naya had kept her promise and convinced Devi to come over to her house the next night to watch a show. They hadn't been able to find a decent movie, so it was easy to settle into a TV show that they both liked – up to the latest season of Atypical on Netflix. At the start of the show, there was an awkward, unnatural silence, at the unspoken topics that they avoided. Devi didn't want to ask about Jacob, and neither did Naya bring him up. However, they soon eased back into their normal ways, joking around as they watched the show on a couch in Naya's media room.
Naya adored Casey in the show – the main character's sister. He could see why she liked her, after all Casey was strong and funny and brutally honest and sarcastic. Mei stretched out on the couch beside them, while Khalid rested somewhere nearby as well, hard to spot in the dim lighting.
He was quietly relieved that she had still invited him over. He would have missed seeing her if she hadn't, and he likely would have stressed about it for days. While he knew that he hadn't reacted properly, it was too late to take it back now. In any case, he decided to just try and enjoy the show, glad that her parents were away on business and that he'd be sleeping over.
As another episode ended, Naya blinked slowly, and he was sure that she was already falling asleep. It was always amusing when she swore she'd stay up late and watch something, only to fall asleep before the end. And if he called her out on it, she'd deny it. Admittedly, her parents made her do like a thousand extracurricular activities, to give her the best chance for her future career options, so he couldn't blame her. She did way more work than he did. "Let's watch another," she murmured, curled up with a pillow in her arms.
"Are you sure?" he questioned, raising his eyebrows. "If you're tired, it's fine."
"No, keep going," she insisted, and he hit play on the next episode, hiding a smile. About ten minutes into the episode, Devi looked over at Naya again.
'I think she's asleep,' Mei observed, her gaze flicking over to her.
'Like usual,' he replied silently in amusement. Reaching over to grab the remote, he paused the show, knowing that they'd have to restart the episode the next time since she'd missed it. 'I wonder what time it is…'
Devi had no idea what had happened to his phone – likely it had either been swallowed up by the couch or he'd forgotten to bring it in the first place – and he picked up Naya's, wanting to check how late it was. He unlocked it by accident, finding it opened up to a message chain with someone called 'J' who he quickly assumed was Jacob. He was mortified to see a picture that she'd sent him, and he quickly threw the phone away, his cheeks burning in embarrassment. It was a picture of her posing and dressed in only her underwear, and since she was like a sister to him, it was something he wished he could unsee and scrub from his mind. Catching what had happened, Khalid fluttered over to hover over the phone, as if to hide the picture from view.
"… What?" Naya muttered sleepily, before she sat up, and he gathered that Khalid had already told her. She snapped out of her daze quickly, grabbing her phone and switching it off. "What are you doing?" she demanded, her own cheeks coloured with a blush.
"I… was just checking the time. I'm sorry, I didn't mean to see anything," Devi replied helplessly, utterly flustered, and he fidgeted with one of the pillows. "He-… he didn't make you send that or something, did he?" he asked, blurting out the words before he could stop them. He didn't trust Jacob after all, always getting the sense that he was some kind of player. "Like coercion or something?"
'Dev-…' Mei cautioned, but it was a little too late.
Naya stared at him for a long moment, and he could sense her anger building. "Of course not." Standing up, she folded her arms. "Is that the only reason you think someone would be interested in me? Because they want to coerce me?"
"N-no," he stammered, glancing at Mei for some help. "I didn't mean it like that."
"I wanted to send it. It was my choice. I'm not stupid, and I can make my own decisions, whether you like them or not," she said, her expression closing off. It was rare that it was something he couldn't read. Khalid moved to rest on her shoulder, looking agitated. "I think you should go. I'm tired."
"He didn't mean to offend you," Mei said, quickly, trying to smooth it over. "He just wanted to look out for you."
"That's not what he implied," Naya replied, annoyance still in her posture. "Like I said, I'm tired."
Devi stared at her in dismay for a moment, unsure of how to fix things. "Let's go, Dev," Mei said, jumping off the couch and urging him to follow. He did so reluctantly, knowing that he would worry about it probably for forever.
"Sorry," he mumbled, before he left quickly, not wanting to say anything else that was wrong.